**Disney After Hours - Animal Kingdom** FAQ & Discussion Thread

[GADisneyDad14]

Crazy number of reports from 1/16's event, the most reported on DAH AK night yet. Post #10 links are updated.

Many thanks to

@Dentam
@sara_s
@Tinkerbellmom43
@Staren
@HatboxHaint
@Erzengel

For stopping by to share your experiences!

 

[jnsma]

I see that February doesn't have a DAH ROL posted yet. Are these posted anywhere on the Disney website or somewhere else? I am just trying to decide my game plan for DAH the first week of February.

I was assuming that the 8:15 shows in February were for both those with and without DAH tickets. I guess we will not know until they either update the hours or 2/5 comes around and we get some reports.

 

[Scoobie]

Something else we learned was that Disney allows people who get on the line even at 7:59 PM to Pandora to finish the ride so we were advised to do Avatar Flight of Passage at 9:30 PM.

Thank you for this tidbit, it explains why people keep reporting that they aren't going into Pandora until then. I suppose if your goal is to just enjoy the scenery and get some pics, then going in earlier makes sense - but not to ride FoP. More strategy to consider!

 

[Scoobie]

Does anyone know when Disney shows future dates for the after hours events? Or how far in advance? Wondering how early I should be looking for a Dec. trip to see how many parks this will be available in. Might also be interested in at least HS besides AK. Thanks!

 

[Tinkerbellmom43]

As far as I know, chip and dale are still out dancing in their costumes

They were on the 16th

 

[Haley R]

They were on the 16th

Dh probably won't care for it, but I'm dancing with Chip and Dale at least for a couple of minutes

 

[HatboxHaint]

Just did all 3 after hours this week. I have to say that the AK DAH was my least favorite. That’s not to say that I didn’t have fun, I did, but there are some things to keep in mind with this one. It’s a trek to get between attractions because the park is so spread out. Also because of that, the snack carts feel hard to find. Those points having been made, Pandora specifically is amazing after the first hour or so and has had time to clear a bit. FoP was never completely empty. Getting a bay to yourself is still going to be rare this year unlike what MK can sometimes be like, but it was still basically a walk on.

we got our own bay on the last ride of the night.

 

[HatboxHaint]

We just did the After hours in Animal Kingdom on Wednesday the 16th and loved it!! To a previous poster, we got wristbands and they were checked on every ride each time we went on. Our bands were checked upon admission to the park. I didn't personally witness them ask people to leave but it definitely was cleared out. We arrived at 8 and headed to Everest and rode that with a 5 minute wait 3 times in a row. Then to Dinosaur with no wait. After getting popcorn and beverages we went to FOP around 9/9:30. There was only a 15 minute wait time posted and walked right on each of the 3 times we rode it in a row. By 11 we were wiped as we were out earlier in the day. We definitely could have gotten a couple more rides in. The drummers were playing in Pandora and interacting with the crowd. The tree of life was beautiful lit up! It was a pretty cool feeling we had the park to ourselves. I would totally do this again. My 15 yr old daughter loved it and wants to do it on future trips.

somehow we missed the drummers even tho we were in pandora for the last two hours of the event....

 

[HatboxHaint]

We did FoP at 9:30 with posted wait of 15 mins. Start to finish I bet it was 25 mins total. Walked right through and into a pre-show room.

We started in Dinoland and made our way around to EE 2x, saw Rivers of Light at 9, then to Pandora. On bus heading back now (this was a work event for DH). Popcorn and Coke in front of EE were in tiny cups, but looked like regular sized stuff was in front of Pandora.

Pandora's cart was the good one as reported below. (insert picture of me dumping large boxes of popcorn into gallon ziploc).

What was the crowd like at Rivers of Light? I kinda wanted to go watch but DD gave me the stank eye when I suggested that over rides. We have not gotten our first FoP ride yet at that point.

 

[HatboxHaint]

Watched Rivers of Light then walked on Everest. Only event guests allowed on at five after eight. Dad and sister are doing it again. I know my limits though! Feeling it a bit. Lol

what was the wait time like just after the event started?

 

[HatboxHaint]

On bus heading back. Had a great night and impressed they had buses at almost every stop at midnight. We have our own personal bus back to AKL!

we drove and parked...but we were kinda far out. seems like they should just go ahead and put you in preferred parking for this event.

 

[sara_s]

What was the crowd like at Rivers of Light? I kinda wanted to go watch but DD gave me the stank eye when I suggested that over rides. We have not gotten our first FoP ride yet at that point.

The crowd really wasn't a crowd. We entered at the FP entrance and got down right in front of the middle section. Maybe that section was filled up but not crowded, you could spread out. I huddled with my husband because I was cold!

 

[HatboxHaint]

We did this last Wednesday, January 16.

We got to Animal Kingdom at 6 PM so we had to wait around for an hour prior to everyone being gathered.

Something else we learned was that Disney allows people who get on the line even at 7:59 PM to Pandora to finish the ride so we were advised to do Avatar Flight of Passage at 9:30 PM.

At 7:00 PM, an hour before the park closed, we were let in and were advised to take advantage of some of smaller rides. (Rapids and Safari were closed). We did Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl & Tricerotop Spin.

Around 8:15ish we did It's Fun to be a Bug and made our way to Expedition Everest where we got our first Premium Ice Cream bar. Did Everest twice and by then it was about 9:00, we got our "cups of popcorn" and "small cups of soda". We refilled a few times and watched Rivers of Light.

After 9:15 pm, we made our way to Pandora and since we were newbies to both the Navi River Journey and Flight of Passage, we did the Navi ride first because we wanted to save the best for last. Avatar Flight of Passage IS AMAZING and that experience was worth the $125 ticket alone. We finished the night in Pandora, riding the Navi ride twice and the FOP three times.

By 11, we stopped at a different spot and got another Ice Cream bar and we both took bottles of soda and water and a box of popcorn each. (I would check multiple areas giving the complimentary items. As I said earlier, the place near Everest were giving away small cups, the place near Pandora were giving away bottles and boxes)

It's definitely worth it, just for the Avatar ride and the multiple ice cream bars. In the span of 4 hours, we did 6 rides (total of 10 times) and 2 shows. I personally wouldn't do this experience in Magic Kingdom or Epcot at the moment, but would definitely do this at Hollywood Studios when Star Wars opens.

Edit: As an aside, eat before you do this as they won't have any place unless you want to pay for hot dogs or the like prior. Although, I'm not sure if Yak & Yeti, Tiffins, etc. would be open, however, we didn't want to waste our time sitting down to eat at AK, nor did we want to "pay double" if we started the day in AK instead of another park. We ate in Hollywood Studios around 3:30 which made us eager to snack here.

I had to just grin and bear it when buying my DD a hotdog. We came strt from airport and did not make it before restaurants closed.

 

[Dentam]

what was the wait time like just after the event started?

It was a walk on five minutes after the event started.

 

[HatboxHaint]

It was a walk on five minutes after the event started.

dang...we got shooed away near the start of the event should have rode it

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Does anyone know when Disney shows future dates for the after hours events? Or how far in advance? Wondering how early I should be looking for a Dec. trip to see how many parks this will be available in. Might also be interested in at least HS besides AK. Thanks!

DHS and DAK Disney Afters Hours are new - the current series of dates was announced 11/5/2018 and tickets went on sale 11/15/2018. This is tracked on Post #3 if you need it for future reference: https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...-faq-discussion-thread.3715424/#post-59931745

So, we don't really have any history to go by for if and/or when new DAH dates might be announced for DHS and DAK.

There is more DAH history at MK, but it's been all over the place in terms of the schedule and release dates. Specifics are tracked here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...-faq-discussion-thread.3713652/#post-59898144

and here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...-faq-discussion-thread.3713652/#post-59898156

Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[Scoobie]

DHS and DAK Disney Afters Hours are new - the current series of dates was announced 11/5/2018 and tickets went on sale 11/15/2018. This is tracked on Post #3 if you need it for future reference: https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...-faq-discussion-thread.3715424/#post-59931745

So, we don't really have any history to go by for if and/or when new DAH dates might be announced for DHS and DAK.

There is more DAH history at MK, but it's been all over the place in terms of the schedule and release dates. Specifics are tracked here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...-faq-discussion-thread.3713652/#post-59898144

and here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...-faq-discussion-thread.3713652/#post-59898156

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Wow, that is a lot of info. Thank you for putting that together! I'll look into all of this and talk to my family to see which ones I really need to watch.

 

[TigerLilly's Mom]

Going to this event on 2/13 with hubby. We are doing a last minute trip that is shorter than usual and thought this would be a cool thing to try, while freeing up a day to relax or go to another park. I thought the AP rate was reasonable. Hubby always gets hot and cranky on our DAK days, the crowds really bother him in this park, so I am really looking forward to this event. I have read through this post and have not seen anyone post about photopass photographers out during the event. Anyone know? I love some of our previous nighttime shots in Pandora, and thought a night time shot in front of the Tree of Life would be so cool. Thanks for any info!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I have read through this post and have not seen anyone post about photopass photographers out during the event. Anyone know?

I may be wrong, but I do not think I've seen reports of Photopass photographers being out at DAK DAH. I know they weren't out at DHS DAH when we went in Dec. This is different than MK DAH which has historically had photographers out on Main Street (and the Tangled Lantern photo) out during the event.

 

[TigerLilly's Mom]

I may be wrong, but I do not think I've see reports of Photopass photographers being out at DAK DAH. I know they weren't out at DHS DAH when we went in Dec. This is different than MK DAH which has historically had photographers out on Main Street (and the Tangled Lantern photo) out during the event.

Thanks for the speedy response. I kinda figured since I had not seen anyone mention it. Also a bit surprised to not have even a few out for people to have memories of a very expensive night.