Are extended evening hours for deluxe guests worth it at MK?

[eticketplease]

You question the worth in your subject line. The value (or worth) will be subjective.
Crowds will be lower than a fully open park, but it is still a lot of people; there are a lot of deluxe rooms, after all.

The price difference between a value room and a deluxe room can range between $300 and $1200 a night. You will have to make your own determination if the money is worth the extra magic hours experience to you.

I feel like the paid After Hours Events hold a lot more value. Less people and less cost, than participating in deluxe extra magic hours.

Yes it is very subjective. I feel like the EMH would have less people than the paid After Hours Events.

You have people like us who stay deluxe every time but do not even make it to the normal park closing let alone the EMH.

I would agree with you though if budget is a concern it might be better to stay value and purchase the After Hours Events for the less amount of crowds.

We stay deluxe for the larger rooms and it is usually easier to get to and from the parks by walking, Skyliner or monorail than the bus.

 

[vinotinto]

The deluxe extra hour we attended was from 11pm - 1 am. There were very few people left by the end of the night, although our bus was full getting back to YC, BC & BWI. I think the later the extra hours are, the less crowded it will be. The late deluxe extra hours do make it hard if you plan to take advantage of early entry. We have APs & go a few times a year. We don’t spend all day in the parks anyway. So we’re ok sleeping in the next day.

That is a really good point! I'm sure that when it's the really late hours in summer and fall, there will be fewer people than when the parks close earlier in winter.

You question the worth in your subject line. The value (or worth) will be subjective.
Crowds will be lower than a fully open park, but it is still a lot of people; there are a lot of deluxe rooms, after all.

The price difference between a value room and a deluxe room can range between $300 and $1200 a night. You will have to make your own determination if the money is worth the extra magic hours experience to you.

I feel like the paid After Hours Events hold a lot more value. Less people and less cost, than participating in deluxe extra magic hours.

We are definitely staying deluxe because we are going to a conference with a conference rate (same price as a moderate). But, we're planning to fly in on Wednesday and fly out on Sunday, so is it worth trying to make it to MK on our arrival night? We can use that time to have a nice, late dinner or simply chillax if it's going to be still fairly crowded. Question of worth is not about cost, it's about is it worth my time.

 

[RoseGold]

The late hours now are even better than pre-Covid because they eliminated most of the people. All of the moderates, values. Even the Waldorf and the Ritz don't count. That leaves very, very few people.

They just let us sit on Soarin' or Dumbo or Little Mermaid. It's a totally different park experience.

The last people I planned for didn't even use it because they didn't want to "mess up the sleep schedules." Forget that! Take a nap and go at night!

Only downside I can think of is no food.

 

[focusondisney]

I feel like the paid After Hours Events hold a lot more value. Less people and less cost, than participating in deluxe extra magic hours.

We don’t know how many tickets they’ll sell to DAH yet. We attended one last year that was substituted for the Halloween party. There were considerably more people there than at the deluxe after hours we attended on our April/ May trip. It was more people than have been at any other DAH we’ve attended. And even in 2019, Disney was already increasing the amount of tickets sold to DAH events.

 

[RoseGold]

We attended one last year that was substituted for the Halloween party. There were considerably more people there than at the deluxe after hours we attended on our April/ May trip

I went to the Halloween party pre-Covid and it had A LOT more people than current late hours. My understanding is the current crowds aren't far off for the parties. I saw some videos and there were a whole lot more people than the deluxe after hours.

Of course, this probably varies by day and so on. No parades, no food, a slightly different product.

 

[HIRyeDVC]

Since APs are no more, this may be the best DVC perk going forward

 

[RoseGold]

Since APs are no more, this may be the best DVC perk going forward

Yes, it's a good one. Without it, I might have sold, honestly. All of my trips are planned around it.

 

[focusondisney]

I went to the Halloween party pre-Covid and it had A LOT more people than current late hours. My understanding is the current crowds aren't far off for the parties. I saw some videos and there were a whole lot more people than the deluxe after hours.

Of course, this probably varies by day and so on. No parades, no food, a slightly different product.

I was referring to a Disney After Hours event, not a Halloween party. The poster I was responding to said Disney After Hours will have less people than the Deluxe Extra Hours. I think you won’t be able to compare until we know how many tickets Disney will sell for the new DAH events. But yea, the Halloween & Christmas parties are way more crowded than either DAH or Deluxe After hours.

 

[Lilylogan]

We are hoping to do the Epcot one on 12/12

 

[HIRyeDVC]

All of my trips are planned around it.

Kind of hard to do when most DVCers plan 11 months out. Also need to clarify that this isn’t a DVC specific perk. Just happens to apply to us so I think there’s a good chance it will stay

 

[RoseGold]

Kind of hard to do when most DVCers plan 11 months out

It's not a challenging pattern. Monday Epcot, Weds MK. A few exceptions at peak times, but I don't travel then.

 

[HIRyeDVC]

It's not a challenging pattern. Monday Epcot, Weds MK. A few exceptions at peak times, but I don't travel then.

I saw that they finally opened it up to HS on 12/15 and 12/22. Hope this will become more frequent

 

[Genie+]

It’s definitely worth it if:

• You have a plan to get enough rest, like either taking a long nap that day or skipping Early Entry and rope drop the next day,
• You have a plan to knock out the rides you prefer. Try to map out an efficient route. We started at Pirates then hit Splash, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion, 7DMT and Meet Mickey on the way out. It was very pleasant and relaxed. It seemed like only 1/8th of the people compared to regular hours.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

It depends.

The first time we did it, we thought it was great. When we got to the park, most ride times were very much inflated, so we were initially annoyed. You only get 2 hours, so i did not want to spend the entire first hour in line. When we actually got in line though we saw the wait was lower than posted. So the first time we covered quite a few rides. that time also we only stay at a deluxe for 2 nights.


the second time we did it We stayed longer at the deluxe hotel, so I felt we paid more for all FOUR nights than we otherwise might have paid, and 2022 deluxe rates are rather inflated.

On the night it was extra hours, the weather was terrible. (Epcot)

We also somehow did not eat dinner in time. We were just going to get a quick bite, but NOTHING was open in Epcot that night as of 9pm, except we were able to buy some packaged snacks just to tide us over. We tried to eat at Connections but arrived just as they were closing. Ugh! On top of that, we were also more tired than we expected to be. Since the extra hours night fell towards the end of our visit, it was just the fatigue of touring the parks for multiple days.

On the plus, we managed to get one of the PM BG for Guardians! That was fun, but we didn't end up staying much past riding it. Test track was closed due to weather, so it didn't feel like there was much else to do. I like Rat okay, but we didn't feel up to walking all the way to the back of the park in the rain just to ride it and then walk back.

To sum up, I'd say it is fun if:

1.You actually feel up to doing it
2. The weather cooperates
3. you only pay the extra cost for 1-2nights
I DO NOT think it is worth the total added cost if you would otherwise spend less on your hotel. We stay at a great offsite hotel for under $270/night. I'm seeing Poly this weekend at $790/night. Might be worth paying $520 for ONE night with a family of four, but it is not worth paying that extra $520/night to stay at Poly all week. That works out to paying over $3,650 more for just 4 hours of park time.