After Hours Events - Ask Questions and Share Experiences Here

This comment always confuses me. For a paid event, whether or not it's a peak time at the parks, shouldn't it remain a good experience due to the limitations on tickets sold (within a reasonable variance)?
See all the comments from last nights event. You are correct in theory. But apparently it is not working out that way.

NVM. I realized some of those comments are yours.

I was so excited to do this next week, but now it's looking like it will not be such a great experince and that makes me sad.
 
Just making some notes for future reference.

Right now HS AH is released through the end of June. Park hours are only released through end of May. Disney advertises May - June AH as running from 10P - 1A. March - April is 9:30P - 12:30P.

May HS hours for AH days are all 8:30A - 9:00P so a full hour buffer built in.

All the remaining March and April AH have no buffer. I don’t know if they had it built in and then taken away or if there was never a buffer.

I would say if you’re going in March or April readjust your plans based on feedback here and don’t hesitate to take it to customer service during the event either.

I’m definitely going to be keeping an eye on the May hours.
when I bought my tickets there was a buffer... no second showing of a late fantasmic... that has now has all change... park close buffer removed, added another showing of Fantasmic that takes place during the after hours event... I am someone who has always been very generous in my defense of WDW, however I feel bait and switch is going on here... removing RnRc... removing the biuffer, adding day activities, does not make this feel exclusive anymore... changing AFTER folks buy is not cool

just wait, they will screw with May and June hours too... they only just adjusted the April hours last week
 
After attending last nights after hours at studios I would not recommend doing this event. If I could go back I certainly would not of spent the amount of money I did on tickets! I have attended other after hours events at magic kingdom and was always very happy with those. Maybe it’s just that studios can’t accommodate this type of event as well as magic kingdom, but I definitely will not return.
 
when I bought my tickets there was a buffer... no second showing of a late fantasmic... that has now has all change... park close buffer removed, added another showing of Fantasmic that takes place during the after hours event... I am someone who has always been very generous in my defense of WDW, however I feel bait and switch is going on here... removing RnRc... removing the biuffer, adding day activities, does not make this feel exclusive anymore... changing AFTER folks buy is not cool

just wait, they will screw with May and June hours too... they only just adjusted the April hours last week

Exactly. There was a 30-minute buffer and no second Fantasmic when I bought the tickets. Taking away the buffer and adding the second showing just really messed up the DAH event.
 


this is exactly what I’ve been afraid of ...no time for park to clear out before party begins! I’m going to keep an eye on this thread and if I continue to see negative reports about the AH I’m going to cancel our tickets😐

The tickets are nonrefundable..
 
If you read back someone did get a refund due to the issues during AH.

During the event. They went to guest services and complained and got a refund on site. You can't cancel them beforehand, however.
 


During the event. They went to guest services and complained and got a refund on site. You can't cancel them beforehand, however.
Yup, got a refund. Wonder if people will try and cancel due to the change. When I bought tickets park was open until 9pm, and no second fantastic. Now that all changed.

Also, thanks to everyone for all the feedback. I am sure no one wants to bash a place we truly love!
 
Last edited:
I was so hoping that Disney would get their act together after multiple frustrating reports. Thank you to everyone who shared feedback from last night. We are attending on 4/2 and I have gone from being incredibly excited about this to now wishing I never would have spend the money. In order to try and salvage as much as I can, how does this plan sounds? See Fantasmic at 8:30, then maybe Muppets or Star Tours, adn then at 9:30 head to Toy Story Mania (2x), then to MMRR, then grabbing a treat, and then trying Slinky and ending the event at ROTR?? Does that sound like a decent plan? Would love to fit in TOT, but not sure if that would be possible based on wait times.
 
I was so hoping that Disney would get their act together after multiple frustrating reports. Thank you to everyone who shared feedback from last night. We are attending on 4/2 and I have gone from being incredibly excited about this to now wishing I never would have spend the money. In order to try and salvage as much as I can, how does this plan sounds? See Fantasmic at 8:30, then maybe Muppets or Star Tours, adn then at 9:30 head to Toy Story Mania (2x), then to MMRR, then grabbing a treat, and then trying Slinky and ending the event at ROTR?? Does that sound like a decent plan? Would love to fit in TOT, but not sure if that would be possible based on wait times.

I'm hoping reading all these negative experiences will result in us having a better time than we expect to. :D

My only hope is we will be going to the last April party, which is out of the Spring Break zone (yes I know some schools in the Northeast have it then, but majority of country done with spring break) and less day crowds will translate to less after-hours crowding by day guests.
 
I just dont understand what that extra half hour does besides cause headaches for these AH parties ... does an extra 30 minutes really enhance the day guest at 9:30pm when it seems like it really messes with the AH parties? And how smart is it to trash these AH events while you still have 10 dates or more to try to sell tickets for?
 
I was so hoping that Disney would get their act together after multiple frustrating reports. Thank you to everyone who shared feedback from last night. We are attending on 4/2 and I have gone from being incredibly excited about this to now wishing I never would have spend the money. In order to try and salvage as much as I can, how does this plan sounds? See Fantasmic at 8:30, then maybe Muppets or Star Tours, adn then at 9:30 head to Toy Story Mania (2x), then to MMRR, then grabbing a treat, and then trying Slinky and ending the event at ROTR?? Does that sound like a decent plan? Would love to fit in TOT, but not sure if that would be possible based on wait times.

You should be able to fit in ToT without any issues. Watching the wait times last night, it consistently said 13 minutes. Which means it was a walk on.
 
This is a little concerning for me as I will be attending an AH Epcot event in August.

I'm traveling with my granddaughter who uses a DAS bc of some anxiety/sensory issues that I won't go into detail here, but can do a more than 30 min wait without it impacting her mentally. And it already going to be a long day, since this will be after our last park day, so she will be tired, and that will impact things also.

Long story short my niece is flying in the night before to join us, so I bought the after hours tickets to give us a chance to do more with her, my gd is excited about that. We have res for MK Tues/AK Wed/HS Thurs + AH EP. I was planning on hopping to Epcot to do things that weren't open for after hours earlier in the week. That was I wouldn't have to deal with more than 1 VQ stress, just ride Guardians during AH, but I bet that one will have long lines early.

Will they let us use the LL with her DAS if the standby lines are 30 minutes or longer? I think I saw that somewhere, but I can't find that searching right now.
YES you can continue to use the DAS pass throughout the entire after hours event in exactly the same way you do during regular park hours. Even with posted wait times of 10 minutes at Peter Pan I used mine. I also used it for guardians, just book the virtual que and then enter thru the lightening lane. Hope you have a great trip
 
Yup, got a refund. Wonder if people will try and cancel due to the change. When I bought tickets park was open until 9pm, and no second fantastic. Now that all changed.

Also, thanks to everyone for all the feedback. I am sure no one wants to bash a place we truly love!

Yep, as stated above, I was able to secure a refund about midway through the event last night. It took some doing, though. I was very polite and respectful to Guest Relations. The first team member initially offered me one-day park tickets as comp, but those have no real value to my DH and me since we renew our APs every year. She then directed me to call Disney Central during business hours today for help. But I was persistent (nice but firm) and ultimately spoke with a coordinator who issued the refund. The whole process took about 20 minutes.

Asking for a refund is not something I've ever done before (in 40+ years of coming to DW, including multiple DAH, MNSSHP, MVMCP, Pirates and Princess parties, etc.), but I just couldn't stomach paying for such a dismal experience. We would have been far better off to buy ILL for RotR, stack Genie+ LLs all day and then head to the park about 6 and ride with "minimal waits" (as DAH advertises) until close at 9:30.

Again, I love the DAH events. I think they're a great value at MK and even DAK. But something needs to change at HS to make the experience worth the $$$.
 
Last edited:
I was so hoping that Disney would get their act together after multiple frustrating reports. Thank you to everyone who shared feedback from last night. We are attending on 4/2 and I have gone from being incredibly excited about this to now wishing I never would have spend the money. In order to try and salvage as much as I can, how does this plan sounds? See Fantasmic at 8:30, then maybe Muppets or Star Tours, adn then at 9:30 head to Toy Story Mania (2x), then to MMRR, then grabbing a treat, and then trying Slinky and ending the event at ROTR?? Does that sound like a decent plan? Would love to fit in TOT, but not sure if that would be possible based on wait times.

Yes I think that is the way to do this event, less popular rides earlier in the event, and the most popular at the end. We went last night, 3/22, and had a pretty good time. However, I think our expectations were a bit different than others and we are locals, so it's not the end of the world if we missed something.
 
Thank you for the input @focusondisney, @Pyxie, and @kat_lh! And I agree that it is nice that they are at least non-expiring as it is some consolation, and it was my hasty decision that caused the issue. I think we might just use the credits in 2024. I just hope that there won’t be an issue then, even though we have been told by ticketing that they could apply for future dates, but I am afraid for Disney and IT to still be showing our credits two years from now. Hopefully it will all work out!
I had a credit on my account from 2018 that I used to buy tickets for this past January, fwiw. I wouldn’t worry about the credit disappearing, Disney is pretty good with this sort of thing.
 
I attended the 3/22 event and had a pretty good time. However, I think we did things a bit different and didn't have very high expectations. Which probably isn't the right attitude to have since we paid extra for the event, but that's how we felt.

We arrived around 7:30, got something to eat and went shopping in Batuu.

I don't have exact time stamps but the best I can remember and tell from picture time stamps:

The wait times were looking really high around 8:20, so we got in line for TSMM and waited about 15 minutes.

Walked onto Star Tours.

Got in line for MMRR around 9 and waited maybe 15 minutes.

Walked to TOT and just beat the end of the first Fantasmic, it was almost a walk on but we still had to wait out the pre-show. We were thinking to ride it again when we were done, but I think Fantasmic had let out and the line was really long right before 9:30. On our way back to Toy Story land we noticed that Donald and Daisy were meeting by the projection area inside the fence around 9:45. The park was still really crowded at this point. We saw the line for MMRR spilled outside the door. Which was a big nope for us. Must have been people jumping in line right before 9:30.

We did TSMM again and waited about 5 minutes. We were off around 10:30 and saw Bo Peep was meeting so we met her.

We then walked around Batuu. This was a surprising highlight of the night, Batuu was very empty and most of the shops were open. There were actually more CMs inside Dok's than guests. It was so nice to be able to actually see things inside the shops without being elbow to elbow. We also chatted with Vi Moradi, a character who was walking around outside.

It was around 11 and we did another TT which was a walk on.

11:30 we noticed Donald and Daisy were out of their fence and were walking around so we met them. We did notice they were running the projection show on the front of the Chinese theater building.

We did another MMRR and only waited about 5 minutes, we walked right into the pre-show room.

Around 11:50 we stopped to watch the green army men perform a drum show in Toy Story Land.

Walked onto TSMM again.

It was around 12:10 at this point. Slinky still looked to have about a 20 minute wait and we wanted to end with Rise so we headed there. The wait for Rise still ended up being a little over half an hour.

We got out of the event at 1:10.

We never did have to wait for drinks or snacks, we ended up getting one box of popcorn, multiple waters, probably 3 cokes and a sprite. We got one strawberry bar, two ice cream sandwiches and we put 4 mickey ice cream bars in a lunchbox with freezer packs (I don't want any judgment, I was getting my money's worth).

So in all we met 3 characters, saw part of the projection show, watched the Green Army Men's drum show. We rode TT x1, TSMM x2, Rise x1, MMRR x1

Before the event started we did TTMM x1, MMRR x1, TOT x1, ST x1

We probably could have easily rode Falcon but aren't huge fans, and we've run into a couple times where the wait is twice as long as stated and we just don't trust the wait time on that.

At the end of the day, I think my view was really clouded by how empty the park was in the last couple hours. We are local and the parks have been insanely crowded for just about forever, so it was wonderful to be able to walk without dodging people and to have an empty park. We also like Slinky, but aren't huge fans so missing that wasn't a big deal for us. But I can see how others would expect to be able to reasonably ride both Rise and Slinky and not spend half the event doing that.

Slinky and Rise waits were pretty long most of the night, those ones are easy to tell the waits because you can judge the line since you can see it. At one point early in the event the line for Rise was even still outside. TSMM, ST, Saucers and MMRR were short waits for the majority of the event. TOT joined the short wait club after the giant line around 9:30 due to the Fantasmic exiters cleared out.

I do think the late Fantasmic show and the extended half hour did affect the event in a negative fashion. I'm not really sure of the wisdom of giving day guests one measly extra half hour when it negatively impacts the special event that much. We saw the direct effect of that extra half hour with TOT and how the line exploded with people exiting the first Fantasmic and getting one more ride in.

For people attending in the future, the strategy I would definitely go with would be to ride the less popular rides first like TSMM, ST and MMRR. Save TOT for after the first Fantasmic crowd clears. Spend some time walking around Batuu if you enjoy that area at all. It was so pleasant. I would probably try to ride Slink around 45 minutes before event close, then just get in line for Rise a bit before event end.
 
I'll add to this thread that I have tickets to the 5/24 HS event, and while I am hoping for lower waits, I will be ok if not because this is basically just our HS day instead of purchasing a day ticket for the day. I've been watching the wait times on the app and I did notice that ROTR never got under 40 min last night, but everything else seemed to have a manageable wait at least at some point. I can handle that.
 
I attended the 3/22 event and had a pretty good time. However, I think we did things a bit different and didn't have very high expectations. Which probably isn't the right attitude to have since we paid extra for the event, but that's how we felt.

We arrived around 7:30, got something to eat and went shopping in Batuu.

I don't have exact time stamps but the best I can remember and tell from picture time stamps:

The wait times were looking really high around 8:20, so we got in line for TSMM and waited about 15 minutes.

Walked onto Star Tours.

Got in line for MMRR around 9 and waited maybe 15 minutes.

Walked to TOT and just beat the end of the first Fantasmic, it was almost a walk on but we still had to wait out the pre-show. We were thinking to ride it again when we were done, but I think Fantasmic had let out and the line was really long right before 9:30. On our way back to Toy Story land we noticed that Donald and Daisy were meeting by the projection area inside the fence around 9:45. The park was still really crowded at this point. We saw the line for MMRR spilled outside the door. Which was a big nope for us. Must have been people jumping in line right before 9:30.

We did TSMM again and waited about 5 minutes. We were off around 10:30 and saw Bo Peep was meeting so we met her.

We then walked around Batuu. This was a surprising highlight of the night, Batuu was very empty and most of the shops were open. There were actually more CMs inside Dok's than guests. It was so nice to be able to actually see things inside the shops without being elbow to elbow. We also chatted with Vi Moradi, a character who was walking around outside.

It was around 11 and we did another TT which was a walk on.

11:30 we noticed Donald and Daisy were out of their fence and were walking around so we met them. We did notice they were running the projection show on the front of the Chinese theater building.

We did another MMRR and only waited about 5 minutes, we walked right into the pre-show room.

Around 11:50 we stopped to watch the green army men perform a drum show in Toy Story Land.

Walked onto TSMM again.

It was around 12:10 at this point. Slinky still looked to have about a 20 minute wait and we wanted to end with Rise so we headed there. The wait for Rise still ended up being a little over half an hour.

We got out of the event at 1:10.

We never did have to wait for drinks or snacks, we ended up getting one box of popcorn, multiple waters, probably 3 cokes and a sprite. We got one strawberry bar, two ice cream sandwiches and we put 4 mickey ice cream bars in a lunchbox with freezer packs (I don't want any judgment, I was getting my money's worth).

So in all we met 3 characters, saw part of the projection show, watched the Green Army Men's drum show. We rode TT x1, TSMM x2, Rise x1, MMRR x1

Before the event started we did TTMM x1, MMRR x1, TOT x1, ST x1

We probably could have easily rode Falcon but aren't huge fans, and we've run into a couple times where the wait is twice as long as stated and we just don't trust the wait time on that.

At the end of the day, I think my view was really clouded by how empty the park was in the last couple hours. We are local and the parks have been insanely crowded for just about forever, so it was wonderful to be able to walk without dodging people and to have an empty park. We also like Slinky, but aren't huge fans so missing that wasn't a big deal for us. But I can see how others would expect to be able to reasonably ride both Rise and Slinky and not spend half the event doing that.

Slinky and Rise waits were pretty long most of the night, those ones are easy to tell the waits because you can judge the line since you can see it. At one point early in the event the line for Rise was even still outside. TSMM, ST, Saucers and MMRR were short waits for the majority of the event. TOT joined the short wait club after the giant line around 9:30 due to the Fantasmic exiters cleared out.

I do think the late Fantasmic show and the extended half hour did affect the event in a negative fashion. I'm not really sure of the wisdom of giving day guests one measly extra half hour when it negatively impacts the special event that much. We saw the direct effect of that extra half hour with TOT and how the line exploded with people exiting the first Fantasmic and getting one more ride in.

For people attending in the future, the strategy I would definitely go with would be to ride the less popular rides first like TSMM, ST and MMRR. Save TOT for after the first Fantasmic crowd clears. Spend some time walking around Batuu if you enjoy that area at all. It was so pleasant. I would probably try to ride Slink around 45 minutes before event close, then just get in line for Rise a bit before event end.

To be honest, this sounds great to me. If our night is as good as yours, I will definitely call it a success and we aren't locals. Only change is we'd wait the 20 minutes for Slinky instead of going to Rise.

Thank you for posting, I feel better about our upcoming AH. :)
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top