Attending all 3 After Hours events

[DisneyDerek92]

During my birthday trip January 5th through 13th I’ll be attending all of the after hours events, Magic kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. I canceled all my early morning magic reservations seeing as though for about 50$ more I’d get more time in the parks and don’t have to worry about waking up early. I feel like I’m really going to be able to enjoy my park visits during the day not having to worry about not getting on the rides I wanted when I can practically walk on attractions during the events. After Hours has really opened up my day itineraries and I can actually slow down and enjoy the parks instead of rushing from ride to ride.

Anyone else going to be at these events? I’ll be sure to post a review after attending!

 

[PatMcDuck]

I have done the MK After Hours event twice. I would not expect to walk on ALL the rides, the whole night, of course. But at MK the small crowd spreads out so much that you can stay on some of the rides and ride twice. The rides like Mine Train and Space would have short lines until late in the evening, then perhaps a walk on. (I did mid January this year and June 30 this year).

I think it will be different at the smaller parks like AK and Studios. I was at the DVC party at Studios, and Toy Story land had small/medium crowds until near closing. Still WAY better than during the day but we waited 30 minutes for Slinky an hour or so before it ended, after Slinky). Walk on the ToT and RnR, we got over there near the end of the night though. But one HUGE difference was that the DVC party had multiple rare character meet and greets, and free food vouchers (not just snacks). So the food and the meet/greets ate up lots of the crowd, those character lines were medium/long. HOWEVER, I also think the DVC party may have been more guests than After Hours will be, based upon my experience at DVC at MK vs After Hours at MK though)

Sorry this is rambling. I worry that the AK party in particular will have most people staying in Pandora for most of the night. Because other than tree projections, Dinosaur, and Everest, there is not much else happening? I guess they may run the LK and Nemo shows. (It will be cold for Kali in January at night. And not sure the animals would be awake and certainly not that visible). Just realized I forgot about Rivers of Light, but that was a one and done for me. It will be interesting to see what happens! Overall, I LOVE the MK After Hours events, so fingers crossed for you!

 

[DisneyDerek92]

I’ve been told by a Cast Member (taking with a grain of salt) that these events only fill up to 3% capacity of the parks. That’s if they even sell out. In comparison the Halloween and Christmas parties can be as much as 20% capacity.

After Hours also gives me the freedom to sleep in and not have to rope drop parks to get on these top tier rides., and seeing the parks with practically no crowds will be surreal. The new Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom events haven’t even started yet so it’s hard to know what to expect. I’m pretty optimistic about wait times, will be doing Pandora and Toy Story Land the latter half of the event when day crowds have dispersed. We’ll see what happens, can’t wait for the reviews!

Did want to note that DVC events are usually bringing in larger crowds than these paid events from what I’ve been told / have read.

 

[Ds4angels]

For my family no, we now have to pay for something we used to get for free (PM EMH). If we did want to do them, I'd wait for some reviews to be posted before I bought tickets. In theory it's supposed to be a small number of people, but Disney is getting greedy, so it will be interesting to see how many tickets are really sold

 

[TheNameless]

I went to the September after hours event and waited 20 minutes for 7DMT, and I think I waited around 10-15 minutes for peter pan. Everything else was a walk on for us. We went to both 7DMT and Peter Pan about midway through the event. I don't think 7DMT especially was ever a walk on.

I worry about Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, because there are so few other ride options. I don't think crowds will disperse from Pandora and Toy Story Land. FOP especially has a pre-show that takes up time also. I'll be interested to see how the reviews are for AK and HS after hour events. I hope you have a great time.

 

[sanapp]

I am doing the MK and AK during my February trip. I am not overly interested in HS. I am really excited to read reviews on the AK event.