Disney After Hours (2016-04-21 and 2016-05-19) *UPDATED WITH LAST NIGHT OF THIS EVENT*

[Accident]

2016-04-21 (see further down for 2016-05-19)

Tonight I decided to pay the $149 per person (plus a processing fee and tax and what not so it was ~$311 for 2 people). At first this event intrigued me but the wording on how many tickets might be sold didn't make it sound less than a normal fall/winter party. When the reports of the first sold out event came out, I realized this was my dream evening crowd.

About 11 years ago, I took my daughter to WDW for our first father/daughter trip and her second trip to disney. She was 10 at the time and it happened to be the same week katrina passed through the area and hit new orleans. I've always called it a crowd index of 0. Another way to look at it, for every 1 guest on property (not just parks) there was about 10 staff members. A crowd size that is near impossible to repeat... This event got really close....

The event ticket lets you enter at 7, or you can go in on another ticket and then get your lanyard at 7 for the rest of the night. We choose to go into the event near 7. The park itself was opened normal hours ending at 11pm. 2 Electric parades, 1 wishes and 2 celebrate the magic performances. The last parade started at 11 and most people cleared out but the hub had some things.. 4 hours of normal park to enjoy the evening entertainment and things that wouldn't be opened later. You really got the best of both worlds with 7 hours of park time.

We picked up a couple fast passes for some things we like and made an evening of it. We did haunted mansion, peter pan, people mover, grabbed some dinner (mac n cheeses from friar tucks). Took in the shows. It was a gorgeous no humidity light wind night and the fireworks looked better than ever. It was near 80F when we started and got down to about 65 by the time we left. It quickly dropped to low 70s as soon as it got darker..

This event uses a lanyard that is dated and on the back is a list of what is opened and available to you..



As you can see it's about 25 attractions opened. No additional charge Bottled beverages (normal soda and water) and all you can eat ice cream (packaged).

They brought out some extra ice cream stations and they were perfectly placed. The temporary stops were premium mickey bars (mickey on a stick) and Mickey ice cream sandwiches. The normal stands also had frozen chocolate covered bananas, frozen fruit/lemonade and the normal list they always have...

Normal rules applied for normal day visitors. If you got on the line by 11pm, you stayed until you rode. Most attractions were down to about 5 minutes by 11pm but there was a couple with 20 minutes and of course 7dmt with it's hour. I didn't stay to see how they handled the transition but the ride was using the fastpass entrance by the time I made it to 7dmt near midnight. it was about a 4 minute wait for a few trains to load at that time and closer to the end, the trains left with a fraction of what they can hold and no wait, pick your own line, stay on if you want to go again.



You could easily do every single opened attraction at least once in the 3 hours.. There was nobody there to be in the way.. Most of the time you had the ride to yourself... We watched some families with children and their kids LOVED it.. They were running around, jumping right on and had the time of their life! they are now going to be as ruined as we are from katrina and now this event..

We scoped out the scene before 11pm and it was easy to tell where the lanyards were gathering for their first no crowd lines.. 7dmt, space mountain, peter pan seemed to top the list as people came into the park. We noticed adventureland was going to be the lowest with frontier right behind it. at 11 we cut over and started our trip. We skipped the longer rides or ones we felt are better with others like Tiki room, jungle cruise and Aladdin. We grabbed our first ice cream on the way to pirates. normal crowd was still left but they couldn't get on anything. nobody was pushed out of the park, just not allowed on rides anymore and it thinned out quickly before 11 and even faster after 11. Pirates we road with a couple others. They really cranked up the ride and some of the scenes were the best I've seen them since it was remodeled.

We did get snagged near pecos bill waiting for the electric light parade to pass. It was fun watching it with the 6 other people who also didn't think this parade through. In hind sight, we should have back tracked and rode something or crossed the street closer to the liberty bell. We already saw the parade and have seen this parade with no crowd many times.

We continued our circle with splash(twice), btmr (3 times before we had to get off and get back in line), grabbed some more ice cream and soda and then haunted mansion again. It continued the whole night and within 90 minutes we were at buzz doing a full clockwise circle. We even hit some rides we don't do like barn stormer, tea cups, speedway and buzz. We skipped stitch. I think everyone skipped stitch and surprised it was open. it was a in the know crowd.

I did spot some of the dis crew: Craig, Kathy, steve, rhyno and some others before the party but this time we ran into craig alone.. Actually I should say we almost tripped over craig aka @Teleclashter



I lightened up the photo but it was dark and he wasn't in a light. He was doing his thing and I assume it was some time lapse stuff as he was there for awhile. We just said a quick hi and moved on...

We found the main street vehicles out giving rides both at 7pm when we entered the park and about 11:30. They probably stayed out until midnight. We rode them the other night so we skipped it this time.

The second round we filled in everything and did 7dmt 3 more times, space mountain twice and then decided it was 1:30 (yes, only 2 1/2 hours into the event and we did more than we wanted to ride). I was hungry for real food and starbucks and casey was the only thing with real food (not included in price) so we stopped and ate really quick..



Finally the kiss good night happened and we made our way out extremely happy.



NOT ADVERTISED BUT OPENED

There was something opened that wasn't on the list.. Anna, Elsa, Cinderella and Rapunzel was in their meet and greet locations near the carousel. I'm not sure if they were their all night but they were definitely there at 1:30 when we passed by it. There was NO LINE OR WAIT to see any of them.... My daughter jumped on in to enjoy that opportunity...

Mickey was also in his normal spot near the train station but he was on the list...

The main street vehicles were out and about at various times of the night.

The cast members will in great form, they really added to it. There was even a photopass photographer laying on the ground taking pictures of others laying on the ground with the castle behind them..

What was missing?

I would have liked to see some disney land style characters running around here and there. It was empty enough to safely do that.. not enough to meet and greet but enough to say "hey look at that!!!".

A couple photopass photographers spread out around the back to take pictures of you with an empty magic kingdom as the backdrop would have been nice. Usually the walkways aren't the best background unless there is nobody there. one in each land would have been more than enough to get some quick "LOOK AT ME ALONE IN MK" pictures. There wasn't enough guests to ask someone to use your phone for you.

Not really missing but something that would have helped was an idea of what you could get done in 3 hours. Having no experience of this type of event from my past and no real reference, we probably would not have skipped some things we felt would waste a lot of time that we don't normally ride anyway. Now I know that I would circle the park twice and time it well. Hopefully anyone reading this knows you don't really need to skip anything unless you plan to ride some things many many times.

Conclusion:

All in all, we probably partook in about $70 worth of included food and drink if you go by disney normal prices.. Much of that being free water. Had 4 hours in the parks with all parades, entertainment, fireworks, marching bands, rides that would not be opened and assorted street acts... Did a couple rides that weren't going to be opened later as well as some fast passes we snagged and ate dinner. Once 11pm hit, we concentrated the next 3 hours on the attractions, low crowds and didn't run or race to get anything done... We actually found ourselves done before it ended and just strolled around to take it in.

All in all, I will be going back to one of the last couple nights and this was amazing!!!!!! Even for someone with an annual pass that lives 10 minutes away I did not feel ripped off, it didn't feel like anyone was getting the short straw for not going to the party and kudos to disney for this one. They heard we hate the crowds and found a great way to have a special meaningful experience with no crowds.

This also lined up perfectly with work for me. If I had more time I probably would have started the night earlier doing an ADR at a monorail resort first. If I was a traveling guest, it would have been a great day to be lazy and enjoy the resort(s) to save some money and rest up for this event.

If you plan your attack well starting with no line rides from the start, the long normal visitor rides went down to no wait by the time we made it to them. This really helped get more done instead of running to 7dmt and being in a delayed line. We found that to be donig the park counter clockwise. Many of those rides has under 10 minute waits before the 11pm part of the evening started so you could easily get a jump on a night aiming to be near splash before the parade blocks you at 11:20ish.

There is also some interesting things that are hard to see. For example, have you ever seen the ghosts at the end of haunted mansion when there is nobody in the doom buggy? They have animations for that too...


Oh and the weather was picture perfect.

 

[tstidm1]

From reading the reports on this, I would totally be on this because I would take a sleep in day to do this. I think it's overpriced at $150. If they had the price at $99-119 with Childrens pricing, this would be capping out every night without an issue. Great report.

 

[Accident]

I think it was sold out although I didn't ask. The first night was sold out and that's why i took the chance and went for it. If my family was larger it would probably be above my tolerance level. They could probably double the number of tickets and lower the price without spoiling the atmosphere. No ride had over a dozen people in line at any time.

 

[ophkw]

Great review, thanks for sharing! One question. You said you skipped stitch and TBH. What is TBH?

 

[Accident]

TBH-To be honest.. I was saying I think nobody went to stitch the entire night

 

[ophkw]

LOL! I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what ride would be abbreviated TBH. I agree that Stitch is not a good use of the After Hours time. Thanks again!

 

[swim mom 29]

It sounds like you had a great time! I wish we had $600 in our budget for this, but even if we did, not sure we would do it. In real (non-Disney) life we are 5am- 10pm people and the kids and I can't seem to turn off those internal clocks- even 11:00 or 12:00 EMH are a struggle (rope drop is the struggle for DH). Your write up was great, though, and definitely made me a bit interested in something I never even would have considered.

 

[Txshadow]

Thanks for this report. Fantastic news to hear and see you really do get an empty park.

 

[Kimberly9701]

After so much negativity on these boards towards this event-- I am sooo happy to read this! Glad that your family had a wonderful time..it looks AMAZING!!!
I hope this sticks around!!

 

[dkrauss]

Great review............unfortunately for me I don't see a value since I'm not apt to do the Evening Xtra Magic Hours. I would think $70 of ice cream and soda wouldn't be something I do on a full day at the MK..........but that's me

The fact that most of the rides/attractions are open is a MAJOR plus............... It also looks as if Disney is attempting to keep this exclusive, although that really can't be verified However, on a night like the OP described the MK must be awesome............but it just looks lonely . For us the people make the MK sing....I didn't get that impression.......I would fear (for me) it would just feel empty after the initial rush of being in all alone....

For folks who are uber ride folks this may be the ticket! For me I just don't know if the math works for me............we live NJ........will have AP (on next visit).........don't know if an extra $311 makes sense........I can do Splash 2X back to back at RD................. Finally in my mind as long as this stays as an exclusive thing on a limited amount of nights and DOES NOT impact Evening XMH...........I see no issue.............but if this turns into what Evening (and they do it in the morning too) XMH becomes.............that would be sad!

I'm glad the OP had such a great experience..........that's awesome.

Doug

 

[Accident]

but it just looks lonely . For us the people make the MK sing....I didn't get that impression.......I would fear (for me) it would just feel empty after the initial rush of being in all alone....

While it was really empty it wasn't only you. You would cross paths with a couple people often, rarely in line for a ride alone. A big plus with how empty is cast members have the time to be more engaging and it's a little more meaninful. Nobody is trying to get an extra fastpass or child ride.. They have the time to really be magical without handing out extras. Everyone else there is a fan of disney. I had more random conversations with others than any other time in a park. There was no pushy "I paid a lot to be here" attitudes.. No screaming families, nobody slowing you down.. It was the happiest place on earth for those couple hours..

will have AP (on next visit).........don't know if an extra $311 makes sense...

This is where I was very hesitant. We have APs, only recently moved here so we've been bouncing into the parks more often than we expected. We've been able to hit lower crowds and never unhappy with our day/afternoon/evening or whatever we did at any of the parks. Living here and able to go anytime I'm not working, for as little as the cost to get there and this is rather pricey. I'm not sure I would add a night like this to a travel vacation here. We do have a little emotional attachment to that trip 11 years ago and to a certain degree, compare every visit to that trip.. Since fall 2014 when we saw disney non-summer for the first time, we've been seeking out the different things to do and these types of special events. The morning version, we're not going to bother with because we're not morning people but we had to do this one at least once...

 

[Accident]

Just a follow up.. I lightly edited the first post just to put in more while awake info and clarify some things..

Also disney has sent me a survey since I bought tickets and attended. It was the basics about staff and then a brief couple questions about what I loved and disliked about the event....

 

[missangelalexis]

Really enjoyed your review! While it may be a little pricey, it does sound like it could be worth it!

Loved seeing all the pictures of a near empty park. Really must be so cool to have the park to yourself and stay on rides without having to get off. Glad it was such a good time for you!

 

[Accident]

and another update.. if your an annual passholder, it's 50% off!!! see: http://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-cuts-after-hours-event-price-for-passholders.3505493/

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Thank you for the report - I think the fact that you can get in at 7 to see the nighttime shows really adds to the value. Given all you got done you probably did more in those 7 hours than you could in 2 normal full days of the Magic Kingdom

it is still a bit pricey though, but for a special occasion or if you are doing a shorter trip it could still be worth it. I think having lower prices for kids, a few characters around, and maybe include a little "real food" (I mean, how hard would it be to have something like hot dog nuggets at Casey's to hand out?) would add to the value as well without costing Disney that much. Plus it seems like even if they upped the limit 25% or 50% it wouldn't negatively impact the experience

 

[Accident]

If anyone is heading to this on May 19th. I took advantage of the discount and plan to head to this again. would love to meet any disboarders in town..

 

[Accident]

2016-05-19

Tonight we went back for the final (if they don't extend it) after hours event. I mainly decided to go since there was a 50% off discount for Annual Passholders and we purchased the tickets right when they came out. It was a little close but this was the last chance to experience this again so i decided to just go for it..

Early Entry

I've actually been nursing a migraine for about 6 days and while it was better I was still a little dazed from it. It was also a rainy afternoon and one of the first hot and humid days of the year so I wasn't in a rush to get into the park while the sun was out. After work I was just a little lazy, had a nice dinner and then headed over getting to the park about 8:30pm. I haven't done the monorail in awhile so we took that over from TTC and very uneventful although I learned that they stopped allowing people in the very front of the monorail. not really sure when that changed as I remember doing it in 2014. It was a breeze getting in, even though I was told I needed to do will call and have my passholder stuff to get my tickets we just linked them to MDE and used a magic band for entry.

The first electric light parade just started and main street was really packed, much more than I remember seeing it in recent visits (going back to 2014 before we moved here). The bypass was opened so we made our way through that but it didn't really help it took a little while with heavy crowd to get to tomorrowland. We just hung out a little on the path between space and barnstormer talking to some people enjoying their family getaway. We wanted to hit some of the longer rides which usually have no line so we cut through over to adventureland. This is when I got a good view of how packed it was around the hub for celebrate the magic and wishes. Mainstreet had no sidewalks, it was just a wall of people all the way down and looking across the hub, it was just as packed. There was a couple days of rain and I think everyone squished in for the night entertainment. I had to actually walk around the edge just to cross and it took awhile. I should also note that florida special olympics are taking place at espn wide world of sports so the increased crowds might have been all the friends and family at disney for it. Opening ceremony isn't until saturday but everyone would come in early..

The crowd seemed to be all in the hub and nobody was around adventureland. We casually started to do some rides like jungle cruise, tiki room, things we don't normally do and had no lines already. we took our time and it was already about 10:30 by the time we passed pecos bill. We just kind of lingered around that corner and at 11 they started to announce the second electric light parade was delayed and the ride lines shut down to day guests (which it would have anyway).

Starting the night slow

Since I was nursing a migraine and not 100% I wasn't planning to run around nuts. It was also our second time here so we more decided to take in the emptiness than ride everything we could. I hit Big Thunder and did well but could tell fast rides was going to be minimal with space in between them. I hung out enjoying some ice cream while my daughter did a couple splash mountain rides.




By this time the electric light parade was finally reaching frontier land, about 50 minutes late. We decided to take advantage of how empty it was in this corner to get some better pictures and videos of the parade. It didn't stay completely empty as more people came out of the 2 rides and watched near us but overall, it was a good really low crowd and nobody popped into the opposite side of the street near pecos bill.

Here is my didn't plan on doing video youtube of the parade from my really needs to get fixed mobile phone My daughter was in charge of the better cameras but it's a production before she uploads anything and they need to be edited so if I remember, I'll replace mine with her multi camera version if it ever gets posted online.

A crowd that kind of followed us around did form from everyone that stopped to watch the parade (or didnt know how to walk around the parade). This threw off the event emptiness a little. In no way was it crowded or annoying but there was a lot more people out and about. There was also a lot of familes that obviously paid full price and were going to get their money worth no matter what. That did change the feel a little as some did feel entitled and acted that way. Some kids were just being brats throwing fits when trying to get ice cream and they didn't have the exact one they wanted. There was multiple adults that were literally taking boxes of ice cream. It did detract from what we experienced the first trip but it was just minor here and there annoyances. We did eventually break away from these groups that formed by jumping as far from the parade route as we could and worked our way back to the hub and around again.

The ice cream carts changed a little since the last time. Some of the temporary locations weren't in use (and weren't needed, they were in dead spots). CMs weren't guarding the popcorn carts making it easier to tell which carts had ice cream. Many of the temporary carts with only a couple choices got upgraded to new semi-permanent offering the full range of packaged ice cream treats. They also had a better supply of frozen fruit bars which was welcomed as I didn't want just ice cream.

Because of how I was feeling all week, we went really slow paced, enjoying a lot of classic disney with tea cups, carousel, dumbo, things as 2 adults we wouldn't really do often but we relived the my daughter was once younger and riding them did spark some family memories we had both forgotten. We did the big 4 coasters as well.

Was it opened later than planned?

I don't actually know the answer to this but I heard some CMs talking and it sounded like they were expecting to be working until 3am at the ride. i'm not sure if this is because on a normal night those rides take an hour to get everyone out of line and on the ride or if they extended the night an extra hour from the delay that the electric light parade had. I also had work in the morning so I needed to get some sleep and we were finished and ready to leave.

We were on the ferry heading towards TTC by 1:50, enjoyed a mostly empty boat and entire upper deck for ourselves. We don't live too far so we made it home by 2:20. The ferry staff was nice enough to ask if anyone wanted to just head back because MK would be opened again in a couple hours and we would be first for rope drop if we stayed or early entry with breakfast if we got another ticket. It was don't in a sarcastic tone so don't read into it as disney was trying to upsell. It was a nice way to step off the ferry and call this night done.

Where's the pictures?

Most of the pictures taken were staged to be empty park photos and do not represent the crowd size. But you could wait a few minutes and get a picture with nobody in it and that might help explain the size of or lack of people to be in the way. The one pic I added did represent what that corner of frontier land was like any time we passed through it.

Was this a failure for Disney?

I see lots of forum posts and reviews that this event failed. I have to say I think this event was a huge success and did exactly what disney set out to use it for.

Lately i've been seeing a lot of little touches like more random on the street character interactions, main street vehicles out all day and more and more CM magic spread around. I think someone literally pulled out everything disney once did or never did in certain parks and is trying to enhance the magic again as well as pump in some new ideas... My daughter is also job hunting at disney so i've seen some job postings for a lot of positions that basically describes what I said and they are trying to bring a little of that spark that once was back in new ways..

There once was a stay in the park later ticket you could buy but it was only $10 back then and they sold a lot more. The parks have been really crowded the last couple years and It appears disney is attempting to find ways to offer more no crowd moments. My main theory behind this is how they didn't adjust normal ticket times, or force normal tickets out once this event started.

I also think this event was used to figure out what they could get away with charging for other ticketed events. They went the high side of what they thought they could get, had to dial back to make sure it was profitable with AP discounts and in the middle released annoying expensive MNSSHP and MVMCP ticket with tiering. (someone needs to explain this one to me though. every party sells out, how can you say sept is less people than decemeber when every party is sold out by the time it happens?) Sure maybe the resort is more empty but the event is limited tickets and sells out.. I wonder if anyone is going to legally challenge that...

And last. Back to the trying things from the old days. It's no secret that anything with a ticket has someone getting the ticket for free at disney. Some people just get a little sprinkling of extra pixie dust and a hard ticketed event for free. This didnt' have many attending so they stood out like sore thumbs. Also back to my it appears someone pulled out a list of what disney used to do and trying it in new ways. I think to a degree this event was more about making people unhappy about the crowds happier by handing out tickets to it.. Anyone remember the golden fastpass? Anyone see or get any of the disneyland twitter "come find us right now for something special." specials? This was a good choice to sprinkle in something special to people that needed a this is too crowded lift.

Conclusion.

We had an amazing night doing this party in a more enjoy disney manor instead of lets break the most attractions in 3 hours record that we did the first visit. A really good father and daughter evening. My daughter was wired for awhile enjoying the free ice cream and soda a little too much. I'm actually not sure if she slept yet and it's already noon the day after..

It was more crowded and the people who were attending you can tell was a combination of we can afford anything and we're going to get everything disney has to offer and run around nuts no matter what time it was. They didn't dominate the event but they were noticed and a little flamboyant. I didn't hear any "do you know what this vacation is costing" arguments except when the day ticket crowd was still around the park so it wasn't the extreme of that dynamic. I need to really explain this, it was not crowded by a day crowd standard. Instead of passing by someone every other ride, there was a few people walking around every other ride. It was nowhere near what many would consider no crowd during the day and it was just more people than the last after hours event.

I did prefer the last time and coming in earlier, eating at the park, seeing the entertainment and then starting the attractions. Main Street and the hub is just too crowded and really sets a negative tone for the night trying to just get in the park and way from the hub. The expansion of the hub, where they do the desert parties it's just miserable even if using the bypass to get around the crowd when your not trying to join them for the shows and parade. We did hit MK as the first parade happened. I should have stayed left near town hall, waited for them to let people cross between floats and used emporium to sneak around the crowd. That side because it's not the buy a seat area is easier if you know to cut through the store and how to come out next to first aid.

i'm pretty much done with this event for now but the summer crowds are starting and i'm sure it won't take more than 1 really packed trip to MK to start to long for this event again but can't go since at the moment they didn't announce more dates.

 

[betrent75]

great review! i can relate to a lot of what you said. we went earlier in may at the 50% off rate and thought it was worth it. my husband hates crowds and is a total night owl. this was perfect for us. we got a sleep in day, enjoyed the resorts the day after, enjoyed the MK with zero lines and mickey bars; for us it was really worth it. i kinda hope they keep doing it off season (summer doesn't make sense b/c the MK is open till midnight/1 am). we did a VIP tour at DLC and thought the price/value was great. we had 7 family members at about the same price point for the same amount time for this event. the CM that i purchased the tickets from stated it was a VIP event so when you make that comparison, it makes sense to me. it's not personal or "private" but it's exclusive and enjoyable.