Disney After Hours

[nlenguyen]

I just saw on social media that Disney will be starting Disney After Hours.
They will be at Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. There is special pricing for DVC members. How many tickets can you typically buy per membership? Also would this be better than the extended evening hours? We have a trip planned for January and planned our days around the evening hours, but this announcement changed things if it is more worth it

 

[SL6827]

I know I read that it started as early as 7:00 some nights. That would be cutting into the regular park hours for day guest wouldn't it?

 

[kes601]

I know I read that it started as early as 7:00 some nights. That would be cutting into the regular park hours for day guest wouldn't it?

This is not correct. You can ENTER the park at 7:00 during regular park hours. They have not stated when the events will start. This is how it was with After Hours in the past as well. This is similar to being able to enter the park early for Halloween and Christmas parties.

From: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/e...kingdom-after-hours/#drawer-card-EventDetails

Event Highlights
During Disney After Hours at Magic Kingdom park, you can:

• Enjoy more than 20 beloved attractions—with lower wait times since the number of tickets for this event is limited
• Delight in tasty snacks, included in the cost of this ticketed event
• Get a head start on the fun by entering the park at 7:00 PM—a few hours before the event officially begins

--------------------
ETA: Looks like they've already put hours out for both parks It is from 9:30p - 12:30a at HS and 10p - 1a at MK. 7p entry is allowed.

 

[SL6827]

This is not correct. You can ENTER the park at 7:00 during regular park hours. They have not stated when the events will start. This is how it was with After Hours in the past as well. This is similar to being able to enter the park early for Halloween and Christmas parties.

From: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/e...kingdom-after-hours/#drawer-card-EventDetails

Event Highlights
During Disney After Hours at Magic Kingdom park, you can:

• Enjoy more than 20 beloved attractions—with lower wait times since the number of tickets for this event is limited
• Delight in tasty snacks, included in the cost of this ticketed event
• Get a head start on the fun by entering the park at 7:00 PM—a few hours before the event officially begins

Oh, ok. Gotcha.

 

[tjkraz]

There is special pricing for DVC members. How many tickets can you typically buy per membership?

No limit is stated on either the DAH website or DVC site. Most recently, it seems they don't limit the number of discounted tickets. You'll go thru the normal ticketing site and the discount will be reflected when logged in with DVC username. My assumption is it will let you buy as many tickets as you wish. (I think there was a functional limit of 20 at one point.)

Also would this be better than the extended evening hours? We have a trip planned for January and planned our days around the evening hours, but this announcement changed things if it is more worth it

Controlled attendance means smaller crowds. Extended Evening Hours can be a real magnet for those who are eligible. Also free snacks.

Value is in the eye of the beholder. It's functionally similar to MNSSHP and MVMCP which are priced similarly. It's certainly MORE worth it if you buy one less day of MYW tickets and find other things to keep busy before 7pm.

I know I read that it started as early as 7:00 some nights. That would be cutting into the regular park hours for day guest wouldn't it?

Event ticket holders can enter starting at 7pm. Operating hours for day guests do not end until 9:30 or 10:00pm. That begins the 3 hours of exclusive access.

 

[kes601]

We have a trip planned for January and planned our days around the evening hours, but this announcement changed things if it is more worth it

Pre-covid we loved doing After Hours events. MK is definitely the best because there are more rides and the park feels more empty. Now, we never did it at HS after Galaxy's Edge opened....not even sure that they even did an After Hours after it opened. I imagine with Smugglers and Rise in the mix it will be more enjoyable than before.

Both events in the past were definitely worth it (in my opinion )though.

 

[drusba]

It looks like it is just the same concept as extended evening hours, providing access to designated rides that are open, except:

(a) Extended evening hours are currently available only to guests staying at supposed "deluxe" Disney resorts, which includes all the DVC resorts, and the Swan and Dolphin, but not the moderate or value Disney resorts. The new Disney After Hours will not have that limitation and will include anyone who wants to come including off-site quests, while on-site quests (including the moderates and values) will be able to get tickets starting Oct 4, three days before off-sites can start buying tickets.

(b) The current extended evening hours are only two hours long. The Disney After Hours will be three hours.

(c) Extended evening hours do not have any separate entry fee. You just need to be staying at an applicable resort and have a park ticket applicable to the day you go. The new Disney After Hours will have its own separate ticket that needs to be purchased; you will be able to enter the park at 7 p.m. before after hours begin and, beginning at 7, get on rides the same way as regular entry guests. Disney has published applicable event dates for between Jan and April 2023 and the ticket prices for Studios and Jan to March for Magic Kingdom, see for Studios https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/e...ter-hours/#drawer-card-drawerDisneyAfterHours and for Magic Kingdom https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/e...c-kingdom-after-hours/#drawer-card-EventDates. There is also a page for Animal Kingdom but it says no dates or prices are available yet https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/animal-kingdom/animal-kingdom-after-hours/ There does not appear to be anything shown yet as to whether Epcot will even have it. The price will vary according to night of the event: (a) at Studios from $129 to $149 per person (with no child discount mentioned), except that DVC members and Annual Passholders will pay between $99 and $129; (b) at MK, $125 to $159 per person, except Annual Passholders and DVC members $105 and $129 per person. There will be some limit to number of tickets sold. How many one individual or one DVC Member can purchase is not stated but I am guessing there will be some kind of limit, particularly to prevent anyone from buying tickets and then selling them at a higher price when they are no longer available for a particular night.

(d) The Disney After Hours ticket, will, besides providing entry, allow you to get, without payment, some snacks such as popcorn and drinks at outdoors stands in the parks.

It thus appears that what this is is just another extended evening hours event but all those previously excluded can now get in, and everyone who goes has to pay a lot of money to get in. My major concern is whether this is the precursor to doing away with the free extended evening hours for those staying at resorts that currently can get it, with the result that DVC members will have to start paying a fee to get any extended evening hours by using the new Disney After Hours.

 

[kes601]

In the past they had both Evening Extra Magic Hours and After Hours (different days of course). I would hope they would continue w/extended evening at both MK and EP. I had wondered if the one date added to Dec for extended evening at HS was a precursor to After Hours.....

 

[SL6827]

It looks like it is just the same concept as extended evening hours, providing access to designated rides that are open, except:

(a) Extended evening hours are currently available only to guests staying at supposed "deluxe" Disney resorts, which includes all the DVC resorts, and the Swan and Dolphin, but not the moderate or value Disney resorts. The new Disney After Hours will not have that limitation and will include anyone who wants to come including off-site quests, while on-site quests (including the moderates and values) will be able to get tickets starting Oct 4, three days before off-sites can start buying tickets.

(b) The current extended evening hours are only two hours long. The Disney After Hours will be three hours.

(c) Extended evening hours do not have any separate entry fee. You just need to be staying at an applicable resort and have a park ticket applicable to the day you go. The new Disney After Hours will have its own separate ticket that needs to be purchased; you will be able to enter the park at 7 p.m. before after hours begin and, beginning at 7, get on rides the same way as regular entry guests. Disney has published applicable event dates for between Jan and April 2023 and the ticket prices for Studios and Jan to March for Magic Kingdom, see for Studios https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/e...ter-hours/#drawer-card-drawerDisneyAfterHours and for Magic Kingdom https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/e...c-kingdom-after-hours/#drawer-card-EventDates. There is also a page for Animal Kingdom but it says no dates or prices are available yet https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/animal-kingdom/animal-kingdom-after-hours/ There does not appear to anything shown yet as to whether Epcot will even have it.The price will vary according to night of the event (a) at studios from $129 to $149 per person (with no child discount mentioned), except that DVC members and Annual Passholders will pay between $99 and $129; (b) at MK, $125 to $159 per person, except Annual Passholders and DVC members $105 and $129 per person. There will be some limit to number of tickets sold.

(d) The Disney After Hours ticket, will, besides providing entry, allow you to get, without payment, some snacks such as popcorn and drinks at outdoors stands in the parks.

It thus appears that what this is is just another extended evening hours event but all those previously excluded can now get in, and everyone who goes has to pay a lot of money to get in. My major concern is whether this is the precursor to doing away with the free extended evening hours for those staying at resorts that currently can get it. In other words, has Disney just created another way to charge people lots of money to get into the park and will it it create a fee that DVC members will have to pay to be able to use any extended evening hours.

You are most likely correct. Disney will monitize this for everyone in the future.

 

[HHISand]

I am also concerned they will eliminate the free extended hours at MK and Epcot. The new paid After Hours events are on the same days (Monday and Wednesday) as the current extended hours, just different parks. I can't imagine that they will staff two parks after hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. Haven't they had problems hiring enough cast members?

 

[nlenguyen]

Can you use gift cards to pay for these events?

 

[kes601]

Can you use gift cards to pay for these events?

We used a gift card to pay for our Christmas Party tickets this year, so I would imagine so.

 

[Aussie RJ]

Has anyone been to one of these events pre-covid? The issue I've found at Extended Evening Hours was some of the queues had a 60 minute plus line at park close, effectively cutting into Extended Hours. Does Disney cut the lines at attractions for day guests earlier for the paid events?

 

[SL6827]

Has anyone been to one of these events pre-covid? The issue I've found at Extended Evening Hours was some of the queues had a 60 minute plus line at park close, effectively cutting into Extended Hours. Does Disney cut the lines at attractions for day guests earlier for the paid events?

No. I have read they don't. Why would they?

 

[kes601]

Has anyone been to one of these events pre-covid? The issue I've found at Extended Evening Hours was some of the queues had a 60 minute plus line at park close, effectively cutting into Extended Hours. Does Disney cut the lines at attractions for day guests earlier for the paid events?

We went to the pre-covid events at HS, MK, and AK. The only park we rain into issues w/the lines between park close and event start was at AK -- specifically at Everest. They did send event guests through the fastpass side though once the event time started.

I don't recall any issues w/lines at MK or HS. Typically they buffer in 30-60 minutes between actual park close and the event start time. During that extra 30-60 minutes the After Hours guests can get in line / on rides whereas regular guests are told to leave.

 

[thptrek]

After Hours paid event at HS will be great. Access to Smuggler's Run and especially ROTR will be so cool with much lower crowds. Also, if you like to bound, taking pictures of a pretty empty Batuu is awesome.

 

[dez1978]

After Hours paid event at HS will be great. Access to Smuggler's Run and especially ROTR will be so cool with much lower crowds. Also, if you like to bound, taking pictures of a pretty empty Batuu is awesome.

Idk, we went to the MM event at HS. Lines were still 60 min for both of those and Slinky. Idk that I'd pay for that. Maybe after they've done a few and I've seen some reviews on the wait times

 

[RangerPooh]

I am also concerned they will eliminate the free extended hours at MK and Epcot. The new paid After Hours events are on the same days (Monday and Wednesday) as the current extended hours, just different parks. I can't imagine that they will staff two parks after hours on Mondays and Wednesdays. Haven't they had problems hiring enough cast members.

While I appreciate the perk of EMH being free, that hasn't always been the case. In the early 00s EMH were on select nights for resort guests only and cost a reasonable $25/guest. Of course there were no free snacks. Due to our family size I refuse to pay that much for after hours, (stopped attending the Halloween and Christmas parties a few years ago) but if it was a reasonable amount, for only resort guests I might consider it.

 

[kes601]

Idk, we went to the MM event at HS. Lines were still 60 min for both of those and Slinky. Idk that I'd pay for that. Maybe after they've done a few and I've seen some reviews on the wait times

Pre-covid, After Hours had a lower attendance than moonlight magic (at least from my memory of it vs the June MM at HS this year). One time when we went to an After Hours at HS RnR and ToT went down so there wasn't much to do (this was pre-Star Wars and before MMRNR). Slinky was 30-45. The times we went when RnR and ToT were running Slinky was about 20 minutes.

 

[nlenguyen]

After Hours paid event at HS will be great. Access to Smuggler's Run and especially ROTR will be so cool with much lower crowds. Also, if you like to bound, taking pictures of a pretty empty Batuu is awesome.

That is what I am hoping for. I hope ROTR does not break down, that will be a let down. Have not heard of it breaking down as much as I used to