After Hours Parties vs Dessert Parties

[Stinkerbell's Mommy]

We'll (DH, DD13 and me) be hitting up The World for the first time in a few years this spring and am in planning overdrive We've only done one after hours party and that was the Halloween Party at Disneyland a few years ago. We've done several dessert parties on both sides of the country.

I'm trying to decide for this upcoming trip where to spend our money, dessert parties at the various parks or after hours parties. We'll have six day base tickets and will be in Orlando for 8 days total. We plan to spend two of those days at Universal.

In my limited experience, I've enjoyed the dessert parties more than I enjoyed the after hours party mostly due to crowd control issues. I don't mind paying more to have dedicated space to watch a show from. I do mind paying more for an experience and ending up standing in the middle of crowds. From what I've heard about the after hours parties, they appear to be horribly oversold these days.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I think you are referring to the Halloween and Christmas parties being oversold lately, which you won't have issue with if you are going in the spring. I would check out the After Hours threads (aka DAH) to get a better sense of crowds at those parties. They have, reportedly, had much better crowds than the Halloween and Christmas parties. Personally, if it's in the budget, I would switch it up a bit and maybe do one or two dessert parties and one or two DAH or EMM (early morning magic) events if offered during your stay. There are some dessert parties that aren't worth the money, IMHO. For example, I, personally, wouldn't do an EP Forever party (you can get a good spot for the show without paying extra money) or the Rivers of Light party (because, well, then you have to watch Rivers of Light, which is mighty boring, IMHO). We really enjoy the Star Wars party (great food, character meets, great viewing area) and the MK HEA fireworks party (particularly the plaza garden viewing party - great view, no crush or crowds).

 

[Katie1174]

Hard one to decide. We do both and love both so if its in your budget, chose 1 dessert party and 1 After Hours perhaps. We love the HEA party and the Galactic Spectacular Dessert party. The Galactic one has way better food in our opinion but the HEA show is better with more fireworks. We found After Hours to be super enjoyable with low crowds and mostly walk on rides (regular After Hours; we havent been to a Villains After Hours yet, but we are next year)

 

[jackieleanne]

If you mean the After Hours events and not the special party nights they are worth every penny especially the Magic Kingdom one. We got to ride pretty much every ride in the Magic Kingdom and the one's we didn't was because we choose to do some rides multiple times. We got to ride Thunder Mountain 3 x at the end of the night without getting on, an one of the ride operators even got on to ride with those of us on it!

We also came home with 12 bottles of soda/water in addition to what we drank in the park, plus the popcorn and ice creams we got to have.

I haven't done a dessert party but the after hours in terms of crowds was amazing, I doubt more than 3000 in the whole of the Magic Kingdom and maybe even less.

 

[mtrib]

We absolutely loved the MK After Hours event we did this Spring.

All rides except 7D were walk on (that was 20-25 minutes all night). WALK ON. As in my kids rode Aladdin as the fireworks started then we walked to BTMRR and rode it during the finale. I think fireworks are 17 minutes long? So, two rides in under 17 minutes.

For Space we asked a cast member if we really had to walk all the way back out and all the way back in. Apparently the answer is no. DH and DS were treated to a ride all alone on another track. Cast member took them through a back door to bypass the queue and popped them in a car all by themselves. Said he still had that track up and running but no one on it.

Peter Pan had 15 minute wait. We actually got to see the new stand by queue without waiting an hour.

My kids ate so many Mickey bars and frozen bananas I think Disney lost money that night.

 

[CyndiLooWho]

I've never done a dessert party, but my sis and I did MK DAH in late August. It was so empty, it was a little creepy.

We rode more rides that night (got in at 6:40-ish, stayed until about 12:45) than my family of 4 did when we spent a whole day at the park in June 2018. Some rides, we were the only people on them (think 2 50ish ladies in Minnie ears alone on Dumbo). No wait for 7DMT, no wait for anything, really. We used FP for the 3 mountains (booked at 6:15, 7:20, 8:30, 30 days out bc we were offsite) and never waited more than 20 minutes for anything. We rode several rides more than once, just bc it was fun.

It was an amazing experience that I would pay for again and again, esp bc we were actually there to do Uni (4 days). Best add-on ever.


** added: my sister and I were there to ride rides and fun ourselves to exhaustion. YMMV if you have kids that want to meet and greet, you want to eat at every food cart, etc.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

If you are talking about DAH, not MVMCP or MNSSHP, then:

We have done both and After Hours wins hands down. They are definitely not oversold. The crowd is TINY compared to a Halloween or Christmas event. We rode everything we wanted, a lot of things multiple times. There were multiple points in both after hours events we did were we couldn't see another soul. We stayed on TM for 2 rounds once becuase NO ONE was waiting for the train when we got back. The free popcorn, ice cream, and soda was also nice.