- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
I lost track of prior reports, was last night the first night of the snack cart in TSL? It was definitely nice to have right there.
**Disney After Hours-Hollywood Studios** FAQ & Discussion Thread
- Thread starter GADisneyDad14
- Start date
SaintsManiac
Wait for it.
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2014
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
Quick recap of Saturday's DAH event at DHS, 3/9/2019. Event hours were 8:30pm-11:30pm. The park closed at 8pm; F! was at 8pm, SW: A Galactic Spectacular was at 8:30pm. I have been to one other DHS DAH event, Saturday 12/15/18. It was me and DS8.
In full disclosure, we're not DHS commandos. DS is still too timid to do RnR and ToT is not a favorite. We do love Toy Story Land, but other than that I frankly did this more for research/observation purposes since we were in WDW anyway rather than ride maximization, if I'm being honest.
So here was our night. The times are based on time stamps of pics taken when meeting the character or boarding the ride.
8:50pm - Arrived / scanned our MagicBand with no issues.
8:54pm - On Hollywood Blvd heading in, while the large majority of park guests are exiting from the SW show.
9:04pm - Met Olaf, 5 minute wait (there was no one behind us, next wait would have been none.
Walked around that area over by Base Line taphouse, Muppets, where the Star Wars entrance will be. It was DEAD back here.
9:10pm - Met Minnie, no wait.
9:11pm - Met Mickey, no wait.
Headed to TSL (along with 90% of the rest of DAH guests).
9:19pm - Met Buzz, 1 family wait.
We got in line for SDD at 9:21pm with a posted wait of 25 minutes. Actual wait was 17 minutes, 7 seconds. I thought this was OK, but not great obviously. Someone smarter than me can hopefully explain how they load this ride but with 2 people we're always in the left line when they split, odd numbers usually go right and I swear that line moves way faster. People well behind me boarded 3-5 mins before us. We only rode 1 time (by our choosing) so not sure how conditions were later in the evening.
As mentioned, there was a beverage and ice cream station just before the bridge to SDD.
9:49pm - AS2, wait was just finishing for the prior ride cycle.
Here's what I was NOT expecting.... got in line for TSM at 9:58pm with a posted 25 minute wait (I thought this would be way high). Well, the line was backed up practically to where you enter the building. Strange. DS wanted to ride, so we stuck it out against my better judgement. Actual wait time was 22 minutes and 25 seconds and we were boarding the ride right around 10:20pm. To the best I could tell only one track was running (I am not totally sure about this, but it looked like it). I hate to be negative, but this was WAY TOO LONG for this type of paid event. I get SDD - it can only hold so many people, it's the hot hand in a park with very little else to spread people around, etc - Disney can't control the fact that everyone wants to ride that one ride. That I can deal with. But 22 minutes for TSM when they can add excess capacity had me all up in my feelings about the value equation here a bit. From other reports it sounds like I maybe had bad timing relative to the rest of the night, so at least that's good to hear.
10:37pm - Met BB8
10:49pm - Headed out (we left 40 mins of event time on the table, but that was OK with us, not a knock on the event). There was one PhotoPass photographer on Hollywood Blvd (who had no line) when we left.
Lines for drink/popcorn carts seemed quite low, never had any material wait. There were several places with fresh popcorn in that plaza in front of the Chinese Theater.
Walking around the park and just taking in the lights, sounds, music, etc is quite nice and a very enjoyable experience.
Again, we absolutely did not opt to maximize our experience with rides at our choosing, so my list of accomplishments above is pretty weak!
They made an announcement that Disney Movie Magic would play at 11pm.
Took a Minnie Van back to CR, waited 8 minutes for the driver to arrive. Had a bit of an issue finding the pick-up location as the app is confusing and the current location is not well marked (still a lot of work going on out front), but otherwise was fine.
Anyway, thanks for reading along - happy to answer any questions.
In full disclosure, we're not DHS commandos. DS is still too timid to do RnR and ToT is not a favorite. We do love Toy Story Land, but other than that I frankly did this more for research/observation purposes since we were in WDW anyway rather than ride maximization, if I'm being honest.
So here was our night. The times are based on time stamps of pics taken when meeting the character or boarding the ride.
8:50pm - Arrived / scanned our MagicBand with no issues.
8:54pm - On Hollywood Blvd heading in, while the large majority of park guests are exiting from the SW show.
9:04pm - Met Olaf, 5 minute wait (there was no one behind us, next wait would have been none.
Walked around that area over by Base Line taphouse, Muppets, where the Star Wars entrance will be. It was DEAD back here.
9:10pm - Met Minnie, no wait.
9:11pm - Met Mickey, no wait.
Headed to TSL (along with 90% of the rest of DAH guests).
9:19pm - Met Buzz, 1 family wait.
We got in line for SDD at 9:21pm with a posted wait of 25 minutes. Actual wait was 17 minutes, 7 seconds. I thought this was OK, but not great obviously. Someone smarter than me can hopefully explain how they load this ride but with 2 people we're always in the left line when they split, odd numbers usually go right and I swear that line moves way faster. People well behind me boarded 3-5 mins before us. We only rode 1 time (by our choosing) so not sure how conditions were later in the evening.
As mentioned, there was a beverage and ice cream station just before the bridge to SDD.
9:49pm - AS2, wait was just finishing for the prior ride cycle.
Here's what I was NOT expecting.... got in line for TSM at 9:58pm with a posted 25 minute wait (I thought this would be way high). Well, the line was backed up practically to where you enter the building. Strange. DS wanted to ride, so we stuck it out against my better judgement. Actual wait time was 22 minutes and 25 seconds and we were boarding the ride right around 10:20pm. To the best I could tell only one track was running (I am not totally sure about this, but it looked like it). I hate to be negative, but this was WAY TOO LONG for this type of paid event. I get SDD - it can only hold so many people, it's the hot hand in a park with very little else to spread people around, etc - Disney can't control the fact that everyone wants to ride that one ride. That I can deal with. But 22 minutes for TSM when they can add excess capacity had me all up in my feelings about the value equation here a bit. From other reports it sounds like I maybe had bad timing relative to the rest of the night, so at least that's good to hear.
10:37pm - Met BB8
10:49pm - Headed out (we left 40 mins of event time on the table, but that was OK with us, not a knock on the event). There was one PhotoPass photographer on Hollywood Blvd (who had no line) when we left.
Lines for drink/popcorn carts seemed quite low, never had any material wait. There were several places with fresh popcorn in that plaza in front of the Chinese Theater.
Walking around the park and just taking in the lights, sounds, music, etc is quite nice and a very enjoyable experience.
Again, we absolutely did not opt to maximize our experience with rides at our choosing, so my list of accomplishments above is pretty weak!
They made an announcement that Disney Movie Magic would play at 11pm.
Took a Minnie Van back to CR, waited 8 minutes for the driver to arrive. Had a bit of an issue finding the pick-up location as the app is confusing and the current location is not well marked (still a lot of work going on out front), but otherwise was fine.
Anyway, thanks for reading along - happy to answer any questions.
Haley R
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2017
That really depends what you like to do at hs. We never do any of the shows so dah is perfect for us. We also love being able to ride tot and rnrc over and over. I personally would not do another hs day and would go to another park or have a rest day instead
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
The one problem is all the shows that you can't do at DAH. Indiana Jones, Beauty & the Beast, the Frozen sing-along, probably some other stuff I'm missing. Plus some pretty good food/beverage options in the park (if to your liking).
I'm not a total DHS fan so DAH is plenty (except we do enjoy the Frozen show), but only doing DAH leaves some good entertainment on the table.
KCSherri
Perpetual Kid Who Always Believes in the Magic
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2009
Here’s my report from Saturday, March 9th:
I had spent the morning at Epcot, enjoying some of the Flower & Garden show. I left Epcot around 12:30 pm - headed back to my room to get off my feet for awhile & rest up for the evening’s DAH at Hollywood Studios. I then took a bus from Caribbean Beach to HS, arriving around 4:30 pm. I used my AP to get in, and I had 3 FP’s booked - RnR, Star Tours, and Aliens (can’t abbreviate that one, for obvious reasons!).
At 5:30 pm, I walked by Ticket Central and saw a CM standing there with the DAH wristbands in his hand, so I popped over to get my wristband on.
When the event “officially” started, I was at RnR Coaster - which I rode 4-5 times in a row. Although the pre-show was running, the doors were open, and we could just walk right on through to get on the ride. There was really no wait at all for this, at least for the first half hour (8:30 pm - 9:00 pm) that I was there.
Not being a Tower of Terror fan, I skipped that, and walked over to Toy Story Land - picking up some popcorn and water along the way with no wait.
Arriving at TSL, I saw that Slinky Dog Dash had a 30-minute wait posted. I got in the line, but it moved quickly - we were on the ride within 20 minutes. Got off, got back in line - saw that the posted wait was now at 25 minutes - and was actually back on the ride in 15 minutes. Got back in line for a 3rd ride; the wait was now “officially” at 20 minutes, but it was 10 minutes in actuality.
After three rides on SDD, I headed over to TSM - and got caught up in that ridiculous 25-30 minute wait. I’m not sure what happened here, because at some point during the wait, we were not moving. AT ALL. Now, I get that you won’t move in a standby line during the day, when they’re sending through a million FP riders - but we were ALL standby at this point, and there’s no reason for a complete 5-10 minute stoppage - unless the ride had broken down. That’s really my best guess on to what happened this evening, as we were frankly just stopped. Forever, it seemed. Finally, the line resumed moving again, and we were eventually on the ride.
After that debacle, I decided to go back over to SDD, where I was having better luck at the line moving. So, got in line with a 20-minute posted wait - by this time, the CM’s had “abbreviated” some of the queue, so you didn’t have to walk through ALL of the maze of lines. I was in the odd-numbered queue, where I could watch the boarding, when I noticed that this ride had now...stopped. Dead stopped. GAH. What was going on??!! Well, looking ahead, I could see that apparently we had a “Code V” on the ride - someone had apparently engaged in a little too much ice cream and soda pop, with some consequences. It took about 10 minutes to get the “clean-up on Row 3” taken care of, if you get my drift. This made me wonder if this is what happened on TSM - perhaps that spinning affected someone who had indulged just a bit too much in the free snacks??!!
Anyway, the ride was eventually opened back up, and I was able to ride it another 3-4 times in a row. It was now approaching 11:00 pm, so I decided to give TSM one more chance. Headed down to see a 5-minute wait posted, and it was truly a 5-minute wait - no one in line.
After that ride, I began making my way towards the front of the park...Woody & Jessie perhaps had about a 5-10 minute line at this point, and Buzz’s line was empty. He looked sad. (Not really - can Buzz REALLY look sad??)
I enjoyed taking in the ambiance of the park at night, and snapping some photos of a near-empty park.
I didn’t ride Star Tours during the DAH, as I had ridden it twice earlier in the afternoon - once using a FP, and once with a 15-minute standby wait. I decided to skip it for DAH since it was quite a bit of a walk over there.
I think this was a great event, and felt I got more bang for my buck here than I did at the MK event earlier in the week. I got to ride my two favorite rides (RnR & SDD) numerous times, over and over, with little waits. Except for the slight snafu on TSM with the ride just completely stopped, I had no issues. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
I had spent the morning at Epcot, enjoying some of the Flower & Garden show. I left Epcot around 12:30 pm - headed back to my room to get off my feet for awhile & rest up for the evening’s DAH at Hollywood Studios. I then took a bus from Caribbean Beach to HS, arriving around 4:30 pm. I used my AP to get in, and I had 3 FP’s booked - RnR, Star Tours, and Aliens (can’t abbreviate that one, for obvious reasons!).
At 5:30 pm, I walked by Ticket Central and saw a CM standing there with the DAH wristbands in his hand, so I popped over to get my wristband on.
When the event “officially” started, I was at RnR Coaster - which I rode 4-5 times in a row. Although the pre-show was running, the doors were open, and we could just walk right on through to get on the ride. There was really no wait at all for this, at least for the first half hour (8:30 pm - 9:00 pm) that I was there.
Not being a Tower of Terror fan, I skipped that, and walked over to Toy Story Land - picking up some popcorn and water along the way with no wait.
Arriving at TSL, I saw that Slinky Dog Dash had a 30-minute wait posted. I got in the line, but it moved quickly - we were on the ride within 20 minutes. Got off, got back in line - saw that the posted wait was now at 25 minutes - and was actually back on the ride in 15 minutes. Got back in line for a 3rd ride; the wait was now “officially” at 20 minutes, but it was 10 minutes in actuality.
After three rides on SDD, I headed over to TSM - and got caught up in that ridiculous 25-30 minute wait. I’m not sure what happened here, because at some point during the wait, we were not moving. AT ALL. Now, I get that you won’t move in a standby line during the day, when they’re sending through a million FP riders - but we were ALL standby at this point, and there’s no reason for a complete 5-10 minute stoppage - unless the ride had broken down. That’s really my best guess on to what happened this evening, as we were frankly just stopped. Forever, it seemed. Finally, the line resumed moving again, and we were eventually on the ride.
After that debacle, I decided to go back over to SDD, where I was having better luck at the line moving. So, got in line with a 20-minute posted wait - by this time, the CM’s had “abbreviated” some of the queue, so you didn’t have to walk through ALL of the maze of lines. I was in the odd-numbered queue, where I could watch the boarding, when I noticed that this ride had now...stopped. Dead stopped. GAH. What was going on??!! Well, looking ahead, I could see that apparently we had a “Code V” on the ride - someone had apparently engaged in a little too much ice cream and soda pop, with some consequences. It took about 10 minutes to get the “clean-up on Row 3” taken care of, if you get my drift. This made me wonder if this is what happened on TSM - perhaps that spinning affected someone who had indulged just a bit too much in the free snacks??!!
Anyway, the ride was eventually opened back up, and I was able to ride it another 3-4 times in a row. It was now approaching 11:00 pm, so I decided to give TSM one more chance. Headed down to see a 5-minute wait posted, and it was truly a 5-minute wait - no one in line.
After that ride, I began making my way towards the front of the park...Woody & Jessie perhaps had about a 5-10 minute line at this point, and Buzz’s line was empty. He looked sad. (Not really - can Buzz REALLY look sad??)
I enjoyed taking in the ambiance of the park at night, and snapping some photos of a near-empty park.
I didn’t ride Star Tours during the DAH, as I had ridden it twice earlier in the afternoon - once using a FP, and once with a 15-minute standby wait. I decided to skip it for DAH since it was quite a bit of a walk over there.
I think this was a great event, and felt I got more bang for my buck here than I did at the MK event earlier in the week. I got to ride my two favorite rides (RnR & SDD) numerous times, over and over, with little waits. Except for the slight snafu on TSM with the ride just completely stopped, I had no issues. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Iowamomof4
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2015
I think with Galaxy's Edge opening at the end of August, I'd be shocked if we see DAH during that time. It would be much more likely for them to offer daily morning and evening EMH.
SquashBanana
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2018
I just submitted the survey I received about last Saturday's after hours. I was fair but honest about the crowds particularly at TSM and the fact they appeared to only be running one track. I basically said there was no excuse for not operating all rides at full capacity when people were paying a premium price for a 3-hour event that that advertised "little to no wait". I'm not expecting them to change anything, but it sure felt good to type it out.
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
Just looking through my trip pics. I love Mr. Potato Head and think this animatronic is pretty cool, but I was NOT happy with him during our 25 min TSM wait the other night! No one was laughing at any of his jokes. 
I'm glad others fared better on this ride at other points in the night!
I'm glad others fared better on this ride at other points in the night!
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
Also to confirm an earlier report about the Friendship Boats running late, this was taken at 10:55pm, it had just backed away from the DHS dock.
pangyal
#TeamSven
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2014
We were also there on the 9th and I believe we were on that exact boat in your photo heading back to Beach Club lol.
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
Lol, I wonder if you are in any of my Hollywood Blvd/leaving the park pics! Ha!
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
Lol at the survey questions...
The Park Felt Too Quiet.... strongly agree, strongly disagree, etc.
Who is going to answer Strongly Agree?!?!
The Park Felt Too Quiet.... strongly agree, strongly disagree, etc.
Who is going to answer Strongly Agree?!?!
KCSherri
Perpetual Kid Who Always Believes in the Magic
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2009
I don’t have photo confirmation, but I can add and say that I saw a Friendship Boat parked at the dock when I left the park right at midnight. In fact, I was so tempted to go hop on it, as I was dreading the walk to my bus stop!!! (Last trip, Hubby and I stayed at Beach Club - that boat was nice!!)
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
Good to know! Nice to see the boats running that late for the convenience of the Epcot resort folks.
pangyal
#TeamSven
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2014
Well, if you see a blonde and her kid double-fisting boxes of popcorn and frozen treats as they attempt to balance them and walk to the exit...then yes, that was us!
Sounds like you have a very similar touring style to us for this event (no ToT or RnR, leave about an hour before it ends). It’s nice to know that we are not the only ones who still see the value in those two and half hours. Mind you, we started with a TSMM fast pass at 7:55, so I’d say we actually got about two and a half hours of event time in total this time, so I think we still found it a good option.
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