Disney After Hours: a full priced review!

[nilla]

This. It's like those online travel reviews that gush about a resort or attraction, then at the end, state that the trip was paid for by said resort or attraction, "but all opinions are nevertheless strictly my own". Sure they are. My opinion is that it's great to get something for free or half price. But once you have to pay full cost, you become more conscious of what you're getting and not getting for your money, and see things more realistically, the way other vacationers would.

Also similar to my opinion of Le Cellier when it cost only one DDP credit vs. now that it costs two DDP credits. LC was my favorite restaurant in WDW at one point. Now, it's nowhere near the top.

 

[Stacy's a freak]

Thanks for this review! I was hoping someone who honestly review this after paying full price. I wonder if the price point is just a test right now. I bet they will adjust the price to balance out the demand. If I were there for just a day or two, I would definitely pay $125 for this instead of the usual day price. But the $159 price is just a bit too high to justify for the shorter lines and few freebies. I'm sure they'll find the price that matches the "guest demand" - lol.

 

[snayak]

We were considering the Backstage Magic Tour which is 7 hours with lunch at Wilderness Lodge for the same price point. I think that was a better value. We were looking for things that did not include a park pass. DAH is a good thing, just don't see the value given the cost. I could have purchased a 1 day pass. I joked that I needed to eat $40 worth of ice cream to make it "worth it".

Sort of...what's it worth to walk on to most/all rides in MK?

I value my time at $1/minute, so lets say an add on day from 5 day PH to 6 days is $23...can I save 120 minute (2 hours) of waiting, which would justify paying $150 for a DAH ticket. Based on the trip reports, I think I could easily save 2 hours of waiting on just 7DMT, PP, and HM alone, compared to going during the day and waiting standby. Then I can buy a shorter park hopper ticket, chill at the resort all day (sleep in!), or maybe even 1 day less of hotel (which is a couple hundred bucks right there).

I can see how the math doesn't work out for families of 3-4+, but for the 2 of us it certainly does, which is why its not a bad deal for us at $150, and quickly becomes a great deal at $75/ticket.

 

[MYD714]

If the price were cheaper, I might do it. I was such a fan of e-ride nights, and hoped they would return. I've always avoided EMHs because they're too crowded. Sadly, this price is just too high, even for just the two of us. I don't think I could ever convince DH to do it, even if I really wanted to do it.

$50-75 would be a possibility, but the current price irritates me.

I was also a victim of Villains Night, and I'm always afraid that they'll start to overcrowd the event.

 

[jdmn2010]

We were lucky enough to be given 4 free tickets to the event and we had an amazing time. I was concerned that my kids couldn't stay up but my 8 year old made it until midnight (park closed at 10) and we ended the night with a midnight meet and greet with Mickey before heading out. It was an experience I don't think he'll forget. We went on Thunder Mountain 10 times in a row (they let you stay on if nobody lines up for your row) and had no lines on any ride. However, even with one of the best nights of our trip, I don't think I'd pay full price for the tickets. I would definitely consider paying $75 if they are still offering a DVC discount next time we go. I think that giving away some tickets is excellent marketing because I would never have considered buying them at all if we hadn't been given this opportunity to try it out. The other fun thing is that you can ask the Disney photographers to come with you to any part of the park and take pictures anywhere you want. Our photographer told us she could follow us around if we wanted.

 

[DisneyFive]

Thanks for the unbiased review!

Our family hates the idea of these events. We have been September people, but now that my wife is going back to work full-time teaching and my oldest daughter is entering high school we will won't be able to pull them out of school.

The ONE thing we were looking forward to in the summer, versus September, was longer hours. Now it seems they may be taking that away as well unless you want to pay extra, a LOT extra.

Dan

 

[Disneyliscious]

I would pay $75 for this but I wouldn't pay $159 unless it included a meal and stayed open an hour longer. If they added in a meal with this (at that price point) I think a lot more people would do it.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Never gonna happen for me.

If this becomes popular then they are going to close every night at 10 and make everyone pay more to stay, even with their already high prices.

I'm not playing that game.

MK is closing @8:00 or 9:00 each night of our trip, during F&W, other than party nights (7:00). I'm am NOT happy about this. It's the first trip for two DGK, otherwise I'd cancel. We are not planning anymore trips in the foreseeable future. We are seriously considering selling our DVC. Disney has become a source of stress and aggravation...not fun or relaxing.

 

[mlnbabies]

I just bought tickets for the May 19th party. We are driving from TX to FL, stay at ASMo, doing the party and leaving on Fri. I'm sure people think we are crazy but the appeal of being at MK at night with low crowds is a bonus for us. We are excited and can't wait. Hopefully we can get in around the 5-6pm time frame.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

We were there on May 5th and really enjoyed it. If they continue to offer it, I would plan to attend again and would plan my trip around it. Our kids are getting a little older and want to do Universal next time, and this would get some of my dollars back to Disney on that trip if it was offered. I won't go to Disney for one day during regular hours given the new state of affairs, but I would do this.

Maybe this would get better attendance if it was advertised more and further in advance. It just luckily fit into our trip plans this time (Thursday was already my planned MK day and we had no park planned for the next day), but the at the announcement of the dates, a lot of people already had their plans made. And I would not have known about it but for the blogs I read because I'm a weird Disney fan!

 

[Mikie]

I just bought tickets for the May 19th party. We are driving from TX to FL, stay at ASMo, doing the party and leaving on Fri. I'm sure people think we are crazy but the appeal of being at MK at night with low crowds is a bonus for us. We are excited and can't wait. Hopefully we can get in around the 5-6pm time frame.

Do you mean you hope you arrive in Orlando in time, or hope they let you in at that time? Getting my threads mashed up, not sure whether it's been mentioned in this one that you can be admitted as early as 4:00. (If you just meant you're done driving in by then, apologies for my mistake)

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I wanted to review the DAH event from the view of someone that paid full price, $158.69 each! a bit of background: this was a quick, last minute trip for just DH and I, no kids (10 & 14). We had flights for $89 each way, stayed at All Star Sport for $95/nt and had a complimentary 1 day PH. Our plan was to do more "adult" things (Yeeha Bob, Jellyrolls, Trader Sams, Disney Springs) and just relax. When Disney first came out with DAH for $149, my initial reaction was amusement. Who would spend that? But the first few reviews sounded great and I noticed the dates were during our trip. I didn't really have a budget but figured that other things were pretty inexpensive so I could splurge. We waited to get the tickets at Guest Services when we arrived and planned to attend the May 8th DAH event. I booked 3 FP+ for rides that did not need it.

We had brunch that morning at CG (which was awesome) and then back to the hotel. We arrived at MK at 5:30 and they let us right in and gave us our lanyards. I got the impression would could have entered earlier, but we took a nap so we could make it to the 2 am closing. I am a RD girl (get up at 4:30 am for work) so the 2 am closing was intimidating to me.
My DH just wanted to tour relaxed, take in the details, do things we would not do, and do the attractions that would be closed during the event. So we rode the double decker bus up main street and watched Move it, Shake it parade from the top, things we would never stop to do while rushing to the next ride with my boys. We watched Philharmagic, Carousel of Progress and Monster Inc Laugh floor. I overheard a CM say the day was not busy at all like they predicted Mothers Day to be. We stopped to get something to eat and then watched Wishes from the front of the castle.

It was now 10:30 and we made our way to Adventureland. All the attractions in AL were walk on at this point. We skipped Tiki Hut and were in Frontierland at 11:00, Party Time! I was annoyed when the CM let a group on Splash that did not have lanyards but it was fine. On the way out a CM said "oh, now you can just relax and enjoy the park." I asked if he could relax too and he said yes, these events have been great for the CM's. We were able to watch MSEP from there and ride BTM. On the way to HM, we grabbed a Mickey Bar and Coke. The CM's at HM were totally in character and were really having fun. We were with the same group of people moving from ride to ride, but got separated when they went on Barnstormer and Dumbo and we skipped them. 7DMT was a 5 minute wait. The CM's let the clean up crew take a ride which was great to see bc those kids work hard and they were very grateful for the break. We did all of Fantasyland and stopped to take pics since I have not seen new FL at night. On to Tomorrowland, Astro Orbiter at night is so cool. We made it to the front and in to see Mickey since we heard there is always a line at the end of the night and we wanted to avoid that. We rushed back to 7DMT and got 2 more rides in before the CM shut the gate at exactly 2 am. We took our time leaving thru the castle, taking pic of the empty main street and not wanting to leave. People were sitting on the ground taking pictures of the empty street. I have a picture with the clock on MS that says 2:30 am!

I will admit it was magical and made me happy. We had a great time and it was fun. I will say it was never empty or creepy. The ride cars always had a few people, even Buzz Lightyear. I have been on Main Street, EPCOT and DHS pre-rope drop when it was empty and felt closed. DAH never felt that way, it felt magical and special without the heat, strollers, crowds and noise. What I did notice was how well I could hear the narration, music and voices on all the rides. What I was most annoyed and irritated with was the fact that I knew people received free tickets just to boost attendance. Would I do it again? Not for $159. Not knowing that the crowds were lower that day. Not if I had purchased a multi-day pass. It was a great once in a life time experience, but never again. I got what I paid for, but its not a good value for me.

I'm so glad you had a great time! It sounds very relaxed, too, my kind of evening. Unfortunately, with a party of 6 it was out of our budget. Maybe in September when just DH and I are going to be in Florida but that trip we're just planning to go to AK and maybe EP.

 

[mlnbabies]

Do you mean you hope you arrive in Orlando in time, or hope they let you in at that time? Getting my threads mashed up, not sure whether it's been mentioned in this one that you can be admitted as early as 4:00. (If you just meant you're done driving in by then, apologies for my mistake)

We will arrive in Orlando on Wednesday late afternoon. Hoping to get into the event party around 5pm or earlier if we can.

 

[Delphinidae]

Never gonna happen for me.

If this becomes popular then they are going to close every night at 10 and make everyone pay more to stay, even with their already high prices.

I'm not playing that game.

This is exactly what I'm afraid of. Still waiting to see the hours update for our August trip and if any of these will be scheduled then.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

We were there on May 5th and really enjoyed it. If they continue to offer it, I would plan to attend again and would plan my trip around it. Our kids are getting a little older and want to do Universal next time, and this would get some of my dollars back to Disney on that trip if it was offered. I won't go to Disney for one day during regular hours given the new state of affairs, but I would do this.

Maybe this would get better attendance if it was advertised more and further in advance. It just luckily fit into our trip plans this time (Thursday was already my planned MK day and we had no park planned for the next day), but the at the announcement of the dates, a lot of people already had their plans made. And I would not have known about it but for the blogs I read because I'm a weird Disney fan!

They would have to come down on price before I would consider it. Maybe if DH and I were solo but it's still pretty steep for a few hours. With no little ones I could live without a visit to MK. With little ones it wouldn't be worth it.

 

[jfk4]

I attended the May 12 After Hours event. My situation is atypical; my parents live in Celebration, so I often find myself in the area without any plans on visiting the theme parks. My mother has an annual pass, so we went early (we arrived around 4:30) and hit a few of the less popular rides before having dinner at the Skipper Canteen. I booked Fast Passes for after dinner (Jungle Cruise, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion), while led me to my first surprise: My Disney Experience will allow you to book FastPass+ reservations using your special event ticket, but you don't receive a RFID ticket when you check in (you jut get a lanyard). So if you want to use FastPass in conjunction with this event you need a Magic Band. I didn't have one, so I ended up buying a band at one of the stores and activating it through the website while I was in the park. Once that was done Fast Passes worked perfectly.

I watched the Electrical Parade at 9 and then went over to Tomorrowland to pick up some of the attractions that would be closed during the event: People Mover, Carousel of Progress, Stitch, Laugh Floor. By the time I was done the event had started.

During the rest of the evening I managed to cover 16 of the available attractions. I think 5-6 attractions per hour is about the most you can expect to cover. One unexpected benefit for me was that the average age of the attendees was (not surprisingly) considerably older than one would normally expect to find during the day. I felt free to experience attractions like the Astro Orbiter or the Tomorrowland Speedway without feeling vaguely creepy.

I paid full price for my ticket, and I think it was worth it. I got the equivalent of a full day at the park (about 10 hours from start to end), which for me would have cost $99 in itself. For me the opportunity to tour the parks during the cooler time of the day was a huge benefit. Without the sun it was relatively easy to spend 10 hours in the park without exhausting myself. The free beverages were a nice plus (Disney did a pretty good job of ensuring that these were widely available with minimal lines), and I suspect that I went through $20 to $25 dollars of ice cream, soda and water during the course of the evening. Granted, I would never have spent that much during a regular day, but I still appreciated the benefit. So in my opinion $30 - $50 dollars (depending on how you value the free beverages and/or ice cream) for a practically empty park experience was well worth it. I can't take advantage of EMH, so this is really the only way I could experience this level of crowding.

I probably wouldn't have spent the money if I had a multi-day pass, but I would strongly recommend it for anyone who can only spend a single day at the Magic Kingdom and isn't put off by the late hours. If you're in the area for a convention, this event is almost tailor-made for you.

 

[freediverdude]

I went to the May 12th one as well, with the DVC discount. It was a very fun night! It was nice getting to ride 7DMT and the speedway with no lines. And "free" snacks! It was just so pleasant I would probably do that again at that price. Especially during warm summer nights.

Oh, and pro tip- once you have your confirmation number you can add it to MDE and then enter with your magicband- no need to stop by guest relations or a ticket booth.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

I am just starting to prepare for my trip next year. Do you need a normal day ticket to have this? How many hours is it really open for? I have never heard of this event util today.

 

[mom2rtk]

I am just starting to prepare for my trip next year. Do you need a normal day ticket to have this? How many hours is it really open for? I have never heard of this event util today.

No day ticket needed.

But also no confirmation it will continue into next year. Sales have been very slow. And while a few of the events have been reported as "sold out", they gave away a bunch of tickets and then offered a 50% discount to AP and DVC members.

 

[cel_disney]

We would definitely consider this for a future trip if the setting was right (especially a trip when we are not doing too many park days). Thanks for the reviews!!