After Hours - which one?

[elgerber]

If anyone wants to chime in on actual waits they've seen at HS during extra hours that would be great! We are considering doing it in Feb.

They have not started the after hours events yet, so no one can tell us yet.

 

[Maggie The Cat]

If anyone wants to chime in on actual waits they've seen at HS during extra hours that would be great! We are considering doing it in Feb.

Hi. I've been researching old reviews from 2019. So this is before Galaxy's Edge was open, but every ride there at the time was open for the AH including Slinky.

The waits for everything all night seems to have been between 5 and 15 minutes. Every review I've read so far highly recommends the DHS After Hours.

 

[RoseGold]

My young daughter just doesn't like the HS headliners, and isn't into Star Wars, so I'm not sure I would pick it. They are also temperamental, so if a couple are down, it will make the whole thing crazy crowded.

The rides we actually like in HS don't need special access, Muppets, Frozen, Aliens.

The character photos are sometimes, but not always, open for after hours. That seems to be all over the place. Sometimes they swap them for other people, or just don't have many. If your little girl has to meet princess, and they're not out late at WDW, not good. We don't know how they are going to do characters at these new after hours events. The current, deluxe hours have no characters at all.

No way any event in Disney is going to have 15 minute waits. It's just not going to happen.

 

[Maggie The Cat]

My young daughter just doesn't like the HS headliners, and isn't into Star Wars, so I'm not sure I would pick it. They are also temperamental, so if a couple are down, it will make the whole thing crazy crowded.

The rides we actually like in HS don't need special access, Muppets, Frozen, Aliens.

The character photos are sometimes, but not always, open for after hours. That seems to be all over the place. Sometimes they swap them for other people, or just don't have many. If your little girl has to meet princess, and they're not out late at WDW, not good. We don't know how they are going to do characters at these new after hours events. The current, deluxe hours have no characters at all.

No way any event in Disney is going to have 15 minute waits. It's just not going to happen.

What do you mean?

Many After Hour Events in 2018/2019 boasted even lower waits. AK was all walk ons and most of MK rides were too. It's extremely limited tickets.

 

[wilkydelts]

No way any event in Disney is going to have 15 minute waits. It's just not going to happen.

This is inaccurate. I did After Hours at MK in April 2019 and every ride in MK was walk on but 7D which was about 30 minutes but that was not worth it when everything was walk-on.

 

[Jacq7414]

No way any event in Disney is going to have 15 minute waits. It's just not going to happen.

We did the Deluxe nighttime extended hours in April and definitely waited 15 minutes for rides. Even mine train. Mine train did get more crowded eventually but it was a very quick wait. We walked right on Peter Pan.

 

[wilkydelts]

We did the Deluxe nighttime extended hours in April and definitely waited 15 minutes for rides. Even mine train. Mine train did get more crowded eventually but it was a very quick wait. We walked right on Peter Pan.

That is not even the same thing as After Hours, totally different events

 

[Jacq7414]

That is not even the same thing as After Hours, totally different events

Ok but the person was saying “no event” in Disney would have 15 minutes waits. That’s still an event

 

[soniam]

yea that’s my only hesitation. My friend did the animal kingdom one a while back (I think in 2019) and she said that it was awesome though

We did the AK one. I wouldn't do it again, but I didn't regret doing it. The attractions are just too spread apart, and there were not very many snack carts.

I thought about the DHS one for our March trip, but only MK is available. So, that's what we plan to do. It's a shorter trip this time. Otherwise, I think we would be hard pressed to get everything done. Plus, we will be doing the Galactic Starcruiser and will get priority access in Batuu.

 

[pirate33]

We did a HS after hours event before the pandemic and had a great time. We got there with only 60-90 minutes because I squeezed this in on our arrival day. Everything we did was a brief wait. I'm looking at going again and noticed that Tower of Terror and Rock'n Roller Coaster are not listed as assured attractions. I hope those are open!

 

[coasternut22]

I would pick HS only because I've done the MK one a couple of times and would want to try a new one. Personally I would love to do HS without the preshows for Tot and MFSR. Time is money here. I would also love to do several back to back Toy Story Mania rides to try to get good scores. I think the re-ridability at HS is much higher than MK. I'd love to go 5 times in a row on ToT. You can easily get all of MK done in 3 hours without riding Jungle, Splash, and Small World, but it's a ton of fast paced walking. It's pretty exhausting trying to get everything in in 3 hours. I have a feeling that walking would be a lot easier in HS.

 

[srdavidson]

We did a HS after hours event before the pandemic and had a great time. We got there with only 60-90 minutes because I squeezed this in on our arrival day. Everything we did was a brief wait. I'm looking at going again and noticed that Tower of Terror and Rock'n Roller Coaster are not listed as assured attractions. I hope those are open!

I noticed this also. It would sure make it more worth it to us if they were. If they were, we would pick it over the MK night. MK night seems to have a lot more rides.

 

[Belleandtinker]

We are considering Disney After Hours. Which park do you recommend? I feel like we could get more bang for our dollarS at MK. Thoughts.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We are considering Disney After Hours. Which park do you recommend? I feel like we could get more bang for our dollarS at MK. Thoughts.

Your question has been merged with a thread where many shared their thoughts on this question. Hopefully the information is helpful.

 

[gorkt]

For a kid that age, I would do MK, provided she can stay up that late.

 

[Jacq7414]

For a kid that age, I would do MK, provided she can stay up that late.

We ended up doing the HS one. We are going in July as well and staying at boardwalk so hoping to use the EEH then

 

[2vets]

I went to MK AH in January 2020. It’s not worth it comparing anything during the last few years, as the current events aren’t co-branded as a holiday effort. It’s impossible to know how these will compare, we’ll need to wait until early Janruary reports roll in, but the event I attended was worth every penny. Literally empty walkways. No line for anything except Dwarves. My personal opinion is that HS is more doable with G+, $LL, and resort EE rope drop. But I prefer no or minimal lines. I also have more of a nostalgic preference for MK, of course, but there are many more rides.

I’m attending the MK AH on Pres Day, and we’re coming in for a day specifically for it.

 

[pirate33]

I went to MK AH in January 2020. It’s not worth it comparing anything during the last few years, as the current events aren’t co-branded as a holiday effort. It’s impossible to know how these will compare, we’ll need to wait until early Janruary reports roll in, but the event I attended was worth every penny. Literally empty walkways. No line for anything except Dwarves. My personal opinion is that HS is more doable with G+, $LL, and resort EE rope drop. But I prefer no or minimal lines. I also have more of a nostalgic preference for MK, of course, but there are many more rides.

I’m attending the MK AH on Pres Day, and we’re coming in for a day specifically for it.

I attended the Hollywood Studios event last night, and it was terrific. Very few people and almost no wait for rides, except for Tower of Terror at the very end which was maybe 20 minutes. A special experience to be in the park at night with few people around, and all the holiday decorations were still up. (I was staying at Bay Lake Tower, and all the decorations including the huge Christmas tree outside the Contemporary came down Tuesday overnight.)

The advantage of HS over MK is HS has so many of the newer, more thrilling rides. I heard someone say he went on Rise of the Resistance three times in a row. MK has more of the nostalgia factor and is also wonderful to visit during an after hours event, not just to go on rides but to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere without the crowds.

 

[DLo]

I haven’t done one recently but did both pre pandemic. In MK , I tried to ride as many different rides as I could but in HS I tried to ride my favorites multiple times.

Just went back to look at some notes -
5 times RNR - 10 times slinky. I did RNR at beginning and Slinky at the end.

 

[TikiRob]

Great to hear the good reviews. We did AK in 2019 and it similarly didn't have many rides (we only did Navi, FoP, EE, Dinosaur). But we enjoyed the snacks and strolling the empty park. I think there is plenty more to do at HS.

This year we were going to buy HS tickets which would have been minimum $154, $20(Genie+) and $20 for RotR ILL$. With our DVC discount we paid $109/per person. That is a savings of $340 for our family of four. Yes, it is a shorter day and shows won't be available, but it made way more sense. Plus we could probably eat another $100 in snacks and drinks!