Disney After Hours Q&A and Experiences Thread

[juuuliebeth]

It's been a couple weeks now, but I attended the Magic Kingdom After Hours event on Monday, January 15th. I had a wonderful time. I got to the park around 7ish and ate at Columbia Harbour House. I got the hushpuppies and Boston cream pie. Both were A+. Highly recommend.

After that, I found a spot for Happily Ever After. (Side note, the phones are getting really obnoxious. I had a good view, and then the girl in front of me would hold her phone high over her head off and on for the entire show.)

After that, since I had about 90 minutes until the event actually began, I started in Adventureland and went clockwise to check things out.

• Jungle Cruise wait was too long for me, so I skipped it.
• Tiki Room
  • The audience was great. Only die-hards hit up the shows this late in the evening.
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Country Bears
  • Likewise with the audience. These two shows were the highlight of the evening, just because of how much the audiences loved them.
• Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion waits were still a bit too long, so I skipped for the time being.
• Small World
• Winnie the Pooh
• Peter Pan's Flight
• Snack Break
• Mine Train
  • A little bit of a wait, but not much
• Peoplemover
  • A whole vehicle to myself! Briefly got stopped while in the pitch black, which was fun.
• Tron
  • Used my DAS pass because I found out I could during the event. Decided not to do it again because I was the only one using the line and felt very on display with an invisible disability. Lots of people looking at me. Really self conscious and uncomfortable experience.
  • First time riding it, and I liked it, but not enough to wait 30 minutes. I was more interested in old favorites.
• Space Mountain
• Haunted Mansion
• Big Thunder Mountain (3x)
  • I wanted to go for five, but after the third, I was feeling a bit more dizzy than I thought I would. It was going down for refurb the next day, so I wanted to get my time in. Plus it's definitely my favorite in MK.
• Grabbed popcorn for my trek out of the park around 12:30am.

To illustrate how much I love After Hours, you should know that I am a Cast Member with a Main Gate Pass. This is the only extra ticket I'm willing to buy. Holiday parties don't hold much interest for me anymore, but this evening was so wonderful that I'm willing to pay for park entry. I don't think I'd do it at Epcot, but I would for Hollywood Studios once Rock N Roller Coaster is back. Without that, it wouldn't be worth it for me, personally. I did it back in 2019 and enjoyed it.

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

I'm wondering if they will add anymore dates prior to our trip or is the calendar done?

I'm hoping for it, as I'd really love to do a MK one. My guess is they won't add any more dates during the time frames that have already been announced.

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

It's been a couple weeks now, but I attended the Magic Kingdom After Hours event on Monday, January 15th. I had a wonderful time. I got to the park around 7ish and ate at Columbia Harbour House. I got the hushpuppies and Boston cream pie. Both were A+. Highly recommend.

After that, I found a spot for Happily Ever After. (Side note, the phones are getting really obnoxious. I had a good view, and then the girl in front of me would hold her phone high over her head off and on for the entire show.)

After that, since I had about 90 minutes until the event actually began, I started in Adventureland and went clockwise to check things out.

• Jungle Cruise wait was too long for me, so I skipped it.
• Tiki Room
  • The audience was great. Only die-hards hit up the shows this late in the evening.
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Country Bears
  • Likewise with the audience. These two shows were the highlight of the evening, just because of how much the audiences loved them.
• Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion waits were still a bit too long, so I skipped for the time being.
• Small World
• Winnie the Pooh
• Peter Pan's Flight
• Snack Break
• Mine Train
  • A little bit of a wait, but not much
• Peoplemover
  • A whole vehicle to myself! Briefly got stopped while in the pitch black, which was fun.
• Tron
  • Used my DAS pass because I found out I could during the event. Decided not to do it again because I was the only one using the line and felt very on display with an invisible disability. Lots of people looking at me. Really self conscious and uncomfortable experience.
  • First time riding it, and I liked it, but not enough to wait 30 minutes. I was more interested in old favorites.
• Space Mountain
• Haunted Mansion
• Big Thunder Mountain (3x)
  • I wanted to go for five, but after the third, I was feeling a bit more dizzy than I thought I would. It was going down for refurb the next day, so I wanted to get my time in. Plus it's definitely my favorite in MK.
• Grabbed popcorn for my trek out of the park around 12:30am.

To illustrate how much I love After Hours, you should know that I am a Cast Member with a Main Gate Pass. This is the only extra ticket I'm willing to buy. Holiday parties don't hold much interest for me anymore, but this evening was so wonderful that I'm willing to pay for park entry. I don't think I'd do it at Epcot, but I would for Hollywood Studios once Rock N Roller Coaster is back. Without that, it wouldn't be worth it for me, personally. I did it back in 2019 and enjoyed it.

This is such a great report, and similar to the experience we had when we did MK! Coming from a CM perspective too really adds icing to the cake!

 

[melissa70]

Probably already been asked and answered but what do you all think is the best park for two adults to do an after hours event? I only see one MK event during two weeks I am there, is it possible they will add more?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Probably already been asked and answered but what do you all think is the best park for two adults to do an after hours event? I only see one MK event during two weeks I am there, is it possible they will add more?

Tons of great information in this thread! Many experiences shared here.

 

[melissa70]

Well I just bought tickets to all three events. I hope they’re good

 

[TheSpooph]

You can read my previous post about this, but we didn't love it. Granted, our intention was to ride GOTG as many times as we could, which didn't happen for several reasons.

We've done MK and it was AWESOME! The park is set up well for it, and there are so many things to do .

Debating doing EEH at MK vs DHS AH on our next trip, as we really love the AH format. Also, we love a lot of the big rides at DHS, just not sure if the extra cost is worth it when there is so much to do at MK.

I’m in the same boat - funny that the EEH and AH are on the same nights… trying to decide if MK AH or EEH is better and then I’ll know if I’m doing EEH at Epcot or AH at DHS. I have the budget for the AH tickets - but just not sure the trade offs enough to know which to pick. Tough problems

 

[CDN Prince Charming]

Hi all. I believe I know the answer but thought I’d ask the experts.
DD and I will be attending After Hours at MK on Monday and are staying at BLT. We do not have any other park admission other than our AH tickets. We plan on entering MK at 19:00 as allowed.
So…on Monday morning can I purchase an ILL for TRON for after 19:00??
I’m guessing not but as we all know, the Mouse works in mysterious ways.
Thanks in advance,
CPC

​

 

[Lsdolphin]

Ok so “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

The Good: attended MK AH on Thursday, 2/1 and everything was good! Rides were pretty much a walk-on. CMs checked for bands at very ride but on,y once at a snack location. There were plenty of locations with drinks, popcorn, and ice cream. Event was not crowded at all and it was actually nice that they did the “Enchantment“ fireworks show at 11:00 pm.

Then we attended the EPCOT AH on Friday, 2/2
The Good: we were allowed to enter the park at 6:30 pm at the back entrance. It was crowded in the World Showcase area and most of the lines at the Festival food booths were long but still manageable, we were able to do 4 food booths and see the 8 pm Broadway at Disney show before finding a great spot In front of Japan Pavillion to watch the luminous fireworks show. By the time we worked our way to front of park the crowds were really thinning out as the hordes of guested headed out of park. We went to the Land Pavillion and it was pretty much deserted. lakes into the Land and Soaring. walked thru Moana Water experience but did the “dry side” since it had gotten colder out. It was amazing and almost deserted with only a few other guests In the area. We walked right onto Spaceship Earth and spent some time in the activity area at the end of the ride it was totally deserted. At that point it was 11:30 pm.

The Bad: We wandered around looking for a stand with the “free drinks and ice cream” and encounter several other guests also looking for the drinks. Although there was small event flyer handed out with your wristband it does not tell locations of the refreshment.

The Ugly: So finally after wandering around we ran into a few guests holding ice cream and they told us to go past and around the side of the Creations gift shop and there was a small stand that had boxes of popcorn set out on counter as well as ice cream items laid out on counter…so of course the ice cream was no longer frozen and messy to eat with the ice cream bars falling off the stick. THEN, I asked for 3 waters one for myself and 2 more for my brother and sister-in law who had walked away with the ice cream. the CM REFUSED to give me 3 waters and said they were “running low on waters” and I could just have one. I told him I paid for 3 tix and I wanted 3 waters and I saw his name tag and addressed him by name and told him I was going directly to Guest services. At that point another CM came over and handed me 2 more waters! We never saw another refreshment location and just decided we had done what we wanted and were ready to leave. It was just before 12 when got to bus area and we were only ones around and an empty bus was sitting there and left as soon as we got on.

probably will not do the EPCOT event again but would definitely do the MK After Hours again.
i do think it was ridiculous that they would be running low and limiting water halfway through event and to make it difficult to even find the “free“ refreshments.

PS (so if you’re wonder what I’m doing posting at 3:00am it’s probably due to the young ladies from the dance competition in the rooms on either side of me are still running back and forth talking loudly. I don’t believe they will do well in their competion tomorow… I will be changing my room first thing in the morning!

 

[disneydreamer781]

Not sure where you're staying so I don't know if EEH is available to you. If it is then no, I probably wouldn't do AH at EP. I had a blast at EP EEH last May so personally, I'd stick to that. I probably would say the same for MK though if there is EEH available. The only park I would consider is HS or AK since EEH is either rare or none at both parks. TBH, I don't care about "free" ice cream or popcorn and I wouldn't ride GOtG or Tron anyway so for me neither would be worth it. What really puts a crimp in an AH is having an E-ticket attraction down. That happened to us on our first AH at HS where SDD was down for over an hour and this was during our trip right after it opened. This, I hear, happens more than you would like.

 

[kelleybean]

Hi Everyone - we are considering a Magic Kingdom After Hours. Our priority is Tron because we haven't ridden it yet. I wanted to confirm that it's a standby line vs. having to register for the queue. Also wanted to ask what the wait times have been looking like for this in the After Hours events so far. Also any recommendations for the best time to get in line for Tron?

Thank you!

 

[jelona]

This might be a totally stupid question, but We are looking at attending the AH for HS in July.
Last time i did an AH event was BooBash in 2021. We had park reservations then, and we did our event on a day we didn't have a park scheduled.
I would like to do the same again this upcoming trip. We will have 2 rest days and i want to do the AH event on a rest day that i wouldn't be visiting the park. If i come at 7pm when they allow, is it possible they will use a park ticket since we don't have reservations anymore? I'm scared of things getting mixed up and didn't want to accidently waste a ticket when i have an AH ticket.

 

[focusondisney]

If i come at 7pm when they allow, is it possible they will use a park ticket since we don't have reservations anymore? I'm scared of things getting mixed up and didn't want to accidently waste a ticket when i have an AH ticket.

There will be a roped off, specially marked “Event Entrance”. Just look for that & enter thru those tap points only. At those points, the DAH ticket will be used. If you go early or thru a regular entrance tap point, a normal ticket will be used. There are always a lot of CMs there, at the tap points & right after you tap in giving the wrist bands.

 

[Juventus]

Just wanted to ask one last time before I head to Epcot AH this Thursday if anyone who went last Friday were able to or noticed it was possible to get wristbands inside the park (e.g., without having to leave the park and line back up to get in again).

Thanks!

 

[QueenofPrideRock]

Another EPCOT AH Q for those who attended ... is it like 2023 where World Showcase is blocked off in "the middle countries"?

 

[jenljeffers1989]

Just wanted to ask one last time before I head to Epcot AH this Thursday if anyone who went last Friday were able to or noticed it was possible to get wristbands inside the park (e.g., without having to leave the park and line back up to get in again).

Thanks

Yeah, you can go to the front of the park and get a wristband from a CM right inside the parks after the turnstiles.

 

[jenljeffers1989]

Another EPCOT AH Q for those who attended ... is it like 2023 where World Showcase is blocked off in "the middle countries"?

Yep. It was quite a long walk from Ratatouille to Frozen when the way from France to Norway is blocked! The upside is that there were barely any waits. The longest we waited was like 40 minutes for Guardians right at 9 PM. Pic of wait times during the event attached, and they pretty much stayed this way the whole night.

 

[QueenofPrideRock]

Yep. It was quite a long walk from Ratatouille to Frozen when the way from France to Norway is blocked! The upside is that there were barely any waits. The longest we waited was like 40 minutes for Guardians right at 9 PM. Pic of wait times during the event attached, and they pretty much stayed this way the whole night.

thank you so much!

 

[focusondisney]

Just wanted to ask one last time before I head to Epcot AH this Thursday if anyone who went last Friday were able to or noticed it was possible to get wristbands inside the park (e.g., without having to leave the park and line back up to get in again).

Thanks!

Depending where you are in the park, check International Gateway too if that’s closer. We entered there for AH last summer.

 

[focusondisney]

It was quite a long walk from Ratatouille to Frozen when the way from France to Norway is blocked!

Actually going past all the countries actually isn’t any quicker/ shorter than going the other way.