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

[Roxyfire]

We attended the event on 4/4, and had a ball...

Between 7 and 10pm:
- Haunted Mansion
- Mickey's Philharmagic
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Ate candied bacon and chicken skewers
- Big Thunder Mtn Railroad (during fireworks!)
- Watched the remaining fireworks from Frontierland
- Barnstormer

After 10pm
- Space Mtn x 2
- Popcorn and Ice Cream
- 7 Dwarfs Mine Train x 3
- Haunted Mansion x 2 (had the Mansion to ourselves once)
- Ice Cream
- Big Thunder Mtn Railroad x 4

My only real complaint is an increase in bodies. After Hours Space Mtn was a time guzzler! Our second ride had almost a half hour wait. We tried to go through the quick re-ride line, and were denied. That's fine, but I didn't think the wait should be 1/6 of the event time.

Even considering the inflated crowd (as opposed to my last MK After Hours in December), I would definitely recommend this event.

I've seen the Space Mountain quick re-ride referenced a couple times. How does that work? I've never heard of it and I'm trying to imagine where that would be.

 

[PolyRob]

I've seen the Space Mountain quick re-ride referenced a couple times. How does that work? I've never heard of it and I'm trying to imagine where that would be.

When you get out of the car past the photo wall there is a green or orange stripe on the wall. If you follow it up the ramp, you are spit out back at the loading area for the ride. YMMV if the CMs let you use it. I asked when I got off my first ride (green side) and the CM said sure, no problem, follow the green stripe.

 

[Mango7100]

I know I’ve brought up the kids question before, but I’m just thinking out loud here and wondering if anyone has any further input.

So we’re tentatively looking at 6/27 or 7/1 for the Villains event. I’m torn though - kids are young. My daughter (7) could handle it. My son (4), not so sure. We tried taking him to MNSSHP last Sept. and he fell asleep in the stroller through almost the whole thing. Money flying away...

I’m considering a few options.

1) just risking it and going as a family, accepting the fact that the night has a 50/50 chance of not going exactly so well. But if he DOES stay awake, what a fun memory for the kids (and our family as a whole)

2) making it a date night and getting a babysitter in our room for bedtime until the time we get back. It will probably cost less than the two tickets for them, and my husband and I would both be able to fully enjoy it instead of taking turns on rides, assuming our son falls asleep

3) since there are two events while we are there, taking turns bringing our daughter. I go with just her to one of the dates while my husband hangs out at the resort with our son, and vice versa. This is clearly the winning scenario for my daughter, who would get to go twice and have one-on-one time with each parent

What would you all do?

We took our 5 year old to the 10-1 am event March 21. I was nervous that she wouldn’t make it and we would waste our money (she normally is in bed at 730-8). She did great— we took a stroller as a back up and she crashed as we were walking out at 105 am. We didn’t leave our hotel until 3 pm that day, so I would definitely do a low key morning. It was well worth it!

 

[Roxyfire]

When you get out of the car past the photo wall there is a green or orange stripe on the wall. If you follow it up the ramp, you are spit out back at the loading area for the ride. YMMV if the CMs let you use it. I asked when I got off my first ride (green side) and the CM said sure, no problem, follow the green stripe.

Oh wow rock on, thanks. I think we might make Space Mountain a priority later in the evening as that one is a long walk around the regular queue.

 

[Jld71]

I’m sorry if this has already been discussed, but is there any speculation as to when dates will be announced for the end of August?

 

[22Tink]

I’m sorry if this has already been discussed, but is there any speculation as to when dates will be announced for the end of August?

Still waiting...

 

[PPFlight75]

I'm not usually a complainer, just roll with the punches, life's too short, etc. Sitting here looking at plans for a big extended family summer trip. DAH date falls perfectly in the week, so at least I have that going for me (and for that I am thankful). Some in our party have not been to MK in decades.

I'm sure this villains thing will be fine. But I'd be honest if I said I'm not bummed we won't have a 'normal' DAH night. I didn't really want any overlay - I just want regular ole' close-to-perfect MK!

Ok, nonsensical rant over. Sorry.

I feel the same. At first I was excited and even more so that we will be there on one of the dates. But I’m worries it won’t be as good. Our AH last month was perfect!

 

[PolyRob]

Oh wow rock on, thanks. I think we might make Space Mountain a priority later in the evening as that one is a long walk around the regular queue.

Its so convenient and saves a lot of steps now that the moving walkway is gone

 

[mcurrence]

Wishing everyone a magical night!!! Enjoy!

 

[msmith1026]

We just got back from the 4/11 event. It was absolutely perfect. We attended an after hours event back in June and we said tonight we thought there were less people at tonight’s event. Crowds were very small— frontier land was desolate around 9:30 and the circus area at midnight was vacant.

We arrived at 6:45 and were able to enter the park. We picked up a BTMR fastpass when we got to the park and decided to hit Barnstormer and Under the Sea so we could skip them at the event. Both rides had minimal waits, so we did them, hit the Teacups and Peoplemover (lights were on in space!!), then made our way to Big Thunder.

We were done with that just as fireworks were starting so we watched those as we wandered over to the tangled lantern photo. There was one family in front of us so we did that quick, then did Small World on a boat by ourselves. By this point it was 9:40 and Peter Pan had a posted 15 minute wait so we hit that too. The wait time was actually longer so once we exited after hours had officially started.

We went back to BTMR and it was a walk on so we rode that 3x in a row. Grabbed some waters and Mickey bars and then took our chances on Mine Train. Posted wait time was 25 minutes, we were on in 11. We got off and did it again and waited 7 minutes. Did it a 3rd time and wait was back to 10. Hopped off of that and did the Pooh ride which was a total walk on. From there we hit Space Mountain (3x) Peoplemover, and Buzz.

We grabbed some more snacks and water in Tomorrowland then decided to head back to Barnstormer which we rode 2x without getting off. Then we headed to Dumbo, 2x as well and by this time it was 12:30 so we chanced one mire Mine Train ride. Wait still said 20 minutes and this time it was probably closer to 15. Once we were done with that we decided to grab some empty Main Street photos and head out.

I definitely didn’t expect to get as much done as we did. I don’t know if we hit the rides at the perfect time or if it was just a really low crowd night.

We did see multiple people get turned away at rides once the event started — one guy in the Peter Pan line was complaining about the event and said he was going to stay in the park because “Disney couldn’t tell him to leave.” I’m going to guess that he didn’t get to do much after he got off of Peter Pan because they were checking wristbands constantly.

Once again I would recommend this event. We had the absolute best kick off to our trip tonight. We are going to After Hours at DHS on the 13th so I will be curious to see how crowds are for that one.

 

[Ron Rico]

It’s 2:25 am and we just got back to the resort after Magic Kingdom After Hours! What an amazing night! Details and pictures after some sleep

 

[slduck]

Ditto to what everyone from tonight’s event said. It was amazing! We have so many pics of an almost empty Main Street. Almost every ride was walk on. 7DMT was 10 minutes tops, and the. Lantern pic may have been a 5 min wait. At times we were the only people on some rides. We rode Big Thunder Mountain twice without getting off. CMs were turning people without bands at 10:00pm on the dot. They started letting people in at exactly 6:30 tonight.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Kind of had a feeling last night was going to be one of those ‘good’ nights just given what wait times have looked like this week and last evening. Probably a great week between the March/first week of April spring breaks and the Easter spring breaks about to start.

Thanks for the reports!

 

[Iowamomof4]

Kind of had a feeling last night was going to be one of those ‘good’ nights just given what wait times have looked like this week and last evening. Probably a great week between the March/first week of April spring breaks and the Easter spring breaks about to start.

Thanks for the reports!

I've been watching crowds this week as well because I figure it's similar to what I might see during my trip in May. Touring Plans certainly has missed the mark big time. They forecasted 7's and 8's but it's been 2's and 3's.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

I've been watching crowds this week as well because I figure it's similar to what I might see during my trip in May. Touring Plans certainly has missed the mark big time. They forecasted 7's and 8's but it's been 2's and 3's.

TP was wrong?!?! I’m shocked
But at least they were wrong in a positive direction.

Nice to read about a low crowd night again!

 

[Ron Rico]

I've been watching crowds this week as well because I figure it's similar to what I might see during my trip in May. Touring Plans certainly has missed the mark big time. They forecasted 7's and 8's but it's been 2's and 3's.

I noticed that on their site, but when we got into the park at 6:30 it was a zoo! We’ve never been to MK, so I don’t have a reference, but if that was a 2 or 3, I don’t want to be there on an 8!

 

[Iowamomof4]

I noticed that on their site, but when we got into the park at 6:30 it was a zoo! We’ve never been to MK, so I don’t have a reference, but if that was a 2 or 3, I don’t want to be there on an 8!

Yeah, the parks are crowded every day of the week, 365 days/year pretty much (with a few rare exceptions). People do need to have realistic expectations that a "2" or "3" doesn't mean empty. But hopefully a 2 or a 3 day will mean getting from one place to another is somewhat easier than on an 8 or 9 day and scoring extra FP's should also be a little easier. I'm still looking forward to our DAH events even though I anticipate low to moderate crowds during our week because I know those events are still necessary if I want to be able to move about with ease and have most rides be walk-on or very low waits.

 

[Ron Rico]

OK... Now that I’ve slept and had coffee, here are more details

Based on the past two events where folks were getting in at 6, we arrived just before 6. There were maybe 40 people lined up at that point. The cast members kept looking at their watches and they let us in precisely at 6:30.

I had booked FPS for Splash Mountain and 7DMT before HEA, and Peter Pan after. We did Splash at about 6:50 (we had to go the long route because of some marching bands on Main Street) and the FP wait was about 10 minutes, and then 7DMT shortly after that, and then staked out a spot for HEA. We ended up on the right (facing the castle) at the pathway leading back to the entrance and had a fence and pillar at our back. It turned out to be an amazing spot! I ran and got us food at Cosmic Ray’s and brought it back.

HEA was absolutely amazing and I too way too many pictures After the crowd thinned a bit we went to PP and once we were off of that the event was started. This was our last park day so we were moving a little slower than most, but we were able to ride everything that we wanted except Space Mountain. We headed that way and rode people mover, not realizing how long it too, and when we were off the entrance to Space was roped off. Oh well . We had no wait at all for any of the rides, and the snack stands that we saw had no lines either. There were short lines for some of the photographers, but we never wait for more than two parties in front of us.

For us this was an amazing way to visit MK for the first time! I do wish that we had gotten on Space Mountain, but that gives us a reason to come back!

Thanks to all for the advice and info in this thread!

I uploaded some of the MK pics here...

https://postimg.cc/gallery/t20671wa/

 

[Aurora2017]

I would like to ask for opinions on something. We are planning to go Aug 3-10. It will be Me, my husband, 11 year old son and 8 year old daughter. This is our 3rd time to WDW. We are trying to decide between doing the Villians DAH at MK on Aug 8 or EMM at MK on Aug 4. We can't afford both. EMM would have al of the rides the kids love in Fantasyland and small crowds, plus a breakfast and is cheaper-$300 for all 4. However, my children were disappointed we missed the MNSSHP dates and the Villians DAH is kind of a compromise and it is 3 hours long. But it is $560 for the 4 of us and sooo late at night for them. I'm also worried the crowds will be longer. Any opinions on which we should plan to do? I just can't decide! Thanks in advance!

 

[Traveling on cc points]

I would like to ask for opinions on something. We are planning to go Aug 3-10. It will be Me, my husband, 11 year old son and 8 year old daughter. This is our 3rd time to WDW. We are trying to decide between doing the Villians DAH at MK on Aug 8 or EMM at MK on Aug 4. We can't afford both. EMM would have al of the rides the kids love in Fantasyland and small crowds, plus a breakfast and is cheaper-$300 for all 4. However, my children were disappointed we missed the MNSSHP dates and the Villians DAH is kind of a compromise and it is 3 hours long. But it is $560 for the 4 of us and sooo late at night for them. I'm also worried the crowds will be longer. Any opinions on which we should plan to do? I just can't decide! Thanks in advance!

Are you buying park hoppers or base tickets? If you are buying base tickets you have to use a regular admission ticket for the magic kingdom if you do EMM. If you are buying hoppers this doesn't make a difference.