EPCOT after hours planning

[Jonfw2]

Hi! I haven't been to the parks since they introduced the deluxe-only after hours. So I have a couple of questions if anyone would mind indulging me:

1. Aside from Guardians, how long typically are the lines? Like, are things like Frozen, TT, Soarin' noticeably shorter than during the day?

2. And as it gets closer to midnight, do they tend to diminish further?

3. And finally, regarding Guardians, I've heard it's pretty hard to get the special VQ. I suppose this is because there's only a 3 hour window for it. Anyone have any luck here?


Thanks as always!

 

[2Lunds]

I was there at the end of May. Guardians was doing DVC previews (it is AMAZING by the way). but was not open for general guests, so I can't answer that part of your Q.

Soarin was already a walk-on when we arrived.
TT was at 45-60 mins for most of the night.
Frozen was at 80 mins when we gave up and left around 10:30.
(In both cases we specifically asked a CM "are these the real wait times, even with no LL slowing us down?" The answer was YES.
Remy was down most of the night, came back up just as we were leaving, and given that the line extended all the way into the older section of France - I'd say it was likely 2hrs minimum.

So all in all - not a great result from our perspective. Also, just about everything other than headliners is closed - we struggled to even find a drink/snack.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Anytime 1 ride is down it throws EVERYTHING off.
It will skew the results for a night when nothing is down since obviously it sends folks that would otherwise be on that ride to all the other rides. And there aren't that many rides at Epcot to feed people too. So it's hard to judge by that 1 night.

Food and Extra hours has always been a bad mix for whatever reason. Do not go to one wanting to eat! I learned this ages ago. They need to leave popcorn/drinks open

CM will never say No to the question "is that the real wait time" LOL

Some do get the Guardians VQ. Clearly, because there are folks who ride it then.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I agree with the notion that 1 ride being down messes everything else up. I did extended evening hours mid May when Guardians was not open to the general public and Test Track was down the entire time. That bumped up the waits to Frozen and Remy to be 70+ minutes each. My group did Mission Space and Spaceship Earth with absolutely no wait and then we left as we didn't want to wait 70+ minutes for either ride.

We ended up being happy that we left early as the line for the AKL bus was so long that it extended outside of the bus stop area.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

CM will never say No to the question "is that the real wait time" LOL

Right....I'm sure they dread when guests get in line at park close, I know I would however, I'm also a guilty party since that's our usual end of night strategy. I'm all for ppl having a magical vacay and all but I'm sure the CM want to get home too and not divulge info that will keep them in the parks later.

For OP, I would also look at the Touring Plans lines app as they will usually have a better real world estimate of waits, even when it's not close to closing, TP lines app is more accurate.

 

[Jonfw2]

Oof...thanks for the feedback, all!

 

[Shellyred8]

We were there at the beginning of May. Soarin was about a 10 minute wait. Test Track was about 30 minutes. Boat ride in Mexico was walk on. We almost had a boat to ourselves. We were wiped out after that, so we didn't try for the other rides.

 

[SqrlMnkey]

How are the lines at the Magic Kingdom deluxe after hours?

 

[Leigh L]

We were there for extra hours Monday after Father's Day. DD got the VQ at 6 pm (in park already, strong signal with cell) and we were called back around 9ish.

Side note, but in case anyone wondering about morning experiences....We were also able to get a VQ Friday morning. I somehow got group 2 from resort with poor cellular service there. Callback was estimated 8:45 and our group was called at 8:10 am, EE was starting at 8:30(!)

 

[focusondisney]

How are the lines at the Magic Kingdom deluxe after hours?

We were there April 27, the hours were 11 pm - 1 am. The park was still relatively busy just before 11. The rides cleared out pretty fast IMO. We don’t do space or splash & left mine train til about 12:40 at which time it was a walk on. Pretty much everything was a walk on actually. I’m not sure if the event hours make a difference. Like would it be more crowded if it was 10pm - 12am. That was our first deluxe after hours. But it compared favorably to the first paid after hours even we attended in probably 2016. It was much less crowded than the Halloween after hours event we paid to attend last September.

 

[Leigh L]

We were there April 27, the hours were 11 pm - 1 am. The park was still relatively busy just before 11. The rides cleared out pretty fast IMO. We don’t do space or splash & left mine train til about 12:40 at which time it was a walk on. Pretty much everything was a walk on actually. I’m not sure if the event hours make a difference. Like would it be more crowded if it was 10pm - 12am. That was our first deluxe after hours. But it compared favorably to the first paid after hours even we attended in probably 2016. It was much less crowded than the Halloween after hours event we paid to attend last September.

We had a similar experience with the 11 to 1 am hours 2 weeks ago. We skipped EE for DHS in favor of the late night. 100% would do that again

 

[polynor]

We did this in early June. Got the VQ and the call back shortly after 9. Then did mission space with no wait (green) and 5 min wait (orange), then test track with virtually no wait. we didn’t bother to see what the other lines were like.

 

[Upatnoon]

Hi! I haven't been to the parks since they introduced the deluxe-only after hours. So I have a couple of questions if anyone would mind indulging me:

1. Aside from Guardians, how long typically are the lines? Like, are things like Frozen, TT, Soarin' noticeably shorter than during the day?

2. And as it gets closer to midnight, do they tend to diminish further?

3. And finally, regarding Guardians, I've heard it's pretty hard to get the special VQ. I suppose this is because there's only a 3 hour window for it. Anyone have any luck here?


Thanks as always!

In June we waited about 2 hours total for Frozen and Remi. That wiped out the deluxe time.

The lines seemed rather normal to me for late in the evening at Epcot. The lines moved along OK, but there were guests still using the lighting lanes at both attractions well into the deluxe time.

There is a special 6 p.m. drop for deluxe guests for Guardians. Those were gone in a second. Much easier to get the 1 p.m. drop.

Epcot is large, so just walking around can eat into a lot of the bonus time.

I thought we could do Remi, Frozen and Test Track during the extra time, but that didn't happen.

Many deluxe guests likely had the same idea as us, so it wouldn't surprise me if the attractions at the front of park had shorter waits.

We didn't do he MK deluxe time, but I can imagine that being much better with so many more attractions in a smaller area.