Hate Heat? Limited Mobility? Detest Lines? Dislike Planning? Check out Disney After Hours!

[sczarnecki]

First, what is Disney After Hours (DAH)? In a nutshell, DAH is a hard ticket event - meaning you pay extra for this ticket and it is not included in your general ticket - that gives a very limited number of people access to a particular park for 3 hours at night. All big ticket rides are open and many, but not all, other rides are open. Lines are short to non-existent so DAH ticket holders can walk on and off rides. Many people find that they can do a whole park day's worth of rides in 3 hours. Also, DAH ticket holders can enter the park 2-3 hours BEFORE DAH starts, so that gives them time to ride the rides or see shows that are not offered as part of DAH. DAH ticket holders can use Fastpasses during the regular park hour time also. So DAH ticket holders can actually be in the park for 6-7 hours (not just 3). Finally, unlimited water, sodas, Mickey Mouse ears, Mickey Mouse sandwiches, fruit bars and popcorn are included as part of the DAH ticket.
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I've read several postings about Disney After Hours (DAH). Mostly, they discuss whether it's worth it or not and come up with a lukewarm "well yeah it's great that it isn't crowded but it is expensive - maybe a good add on." I'd like to expand on that because you may be the person that DAH is just what you are looking for! It certainly is for my family. In fact, we are planning trips around those times when we can purchase DAH tickets. Are you like us? Well, you will LOVE DAH if you are:
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1) a person with limited mobility but not in a wheelchair or scooter. In other words, yes, you can walk around for a few hours. But your bad knee / tendonitis / sciatica / trick hip will not cooperate for you to walk and stand for 12 hours+ to get on a few rides. At DAH, you can either just walk on rides or stand in line for a very short time. You can enjoy most of the rides the park has to offer (those that are open) in a fraction of the time that you would during a busy day. I have chronic tendonitis in both Achilles tendons. After a couple of 12 hour days, I am basically hobbling about in pain. So DAH is an answer to prayer for me!
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2) traveling during a blistering hot week. Say it is 98 degrees outside with a heat index of 110+ like it was for my family traveling during the last week of May. Picture yourself relaxed at your resort pool, under an umbrella, sipping an ice cold drink, happily contemplating how you are NOT sweltering in the park enduring the heat. Instead, after a nice, relaxing dinner, you will make your way to the park by 7:00 p.m. (or perhaps earlier). You will then have 2 or 3 hours to enjoy everything the park has to offer on a normal day. THen you will have 3 hours with no crowds to ride all the rides that are open with little or no wait. In other words, you will have 6-7 hours at the park in the evening when temps are pleasant -- 3 of those hours with no crowds!
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3) a spontaneous person who hates planning. Ride every ride without having to plan fast passes in advance or use a touring plan. Just get on the rides as you walk up to them, as the mood strikes!
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4) a night owl who dislikes lines. Do you shudder when Disney starts posting about Extra Extra magic hours? You know, getting up at 5:00 a.m. to get to the park by rope drop at the ungodly hour of 6 something? But you don't want to wait 2 hours for the Rock and Roller Coaster so off you go? A DAH ticket will allow you to sleep in, relax all day, then go to the park when you are fully awake and ready to RIDE with no or little lines - until midnight or 1:00 a.m. depending on the date.
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5) only buying 2 to 3 days on a park ticket anyway. So DAH can REPLACE one day of your park ticket instead of being an add-on. Depending on the date, you might be paying the same price for either so it's a wash. Or you may pay a few extra dollars but NOT $125 extra. My family have happily and joyfully paid $20 extra per ticket to beat the heat late in August.
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6) mainly wanting to ride rides. The idea of riding Slinky Dog over and over, playing numerous games at Toy Story Mania, with no wait just thrills your socks off! I played Toy Story Mania so many times during the last hour of DAH that my shooting arm was sore! We loved it. However, some rides are not operating and most shows are not open. Yes, you can see Fantasia at HS; fireworks at MK; and RIvers of Light at AK because you do get in 2-3 hours BEFORE DAH starts. And you can see some shows at MK as the Enchanted Tiki Room, Mickey's Philharmagic, and the Country Bear Jamboree are all open. But you will miss out on others shows especially in HS and AK that are only performed in the afternoon.
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7) excited about meeting characters with no lines. At DAH HS, there was no wait for most characters - in fact, Minnie looked downright thrilled to see us! We got photos with Mickey, Minnie, and Olaf in just a few minutes. I then got my photo with Chewbacca without having to exasperate my family who are not Star Wars fans. We also had as much time to interact as we wanted! But do check to make sure that the character(s) that you want to meet are a part of that park's DAH. Also, FYI there were lines for the Toy Story characters up until the last hour.
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8) kinda enjoying the idea of everyone in your family getting unlimited (specific) snacks & drinks as part of their ticket. As I mentioned before, bottles of water, sodas, Mickey Mouse ears ice cream bars, Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwiches, frozen fruit bars and popcorn are all a part of your ticket. Warning: don't overdo it at the beginning. Spinny rides after numerous ice cream bars are not so good. But everyone in my party had multiple drinks, and at least one popcorn and 2 desserts during the night.
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I do realize that for some DAH may not be for you. If you have never been to Disney and want to see absolutely everything. If you are going during a less crowded and less hot time of year. If you don't want to be at the park when it is dark and perhaps cold (January?). If you have little ones who will not be happy campers after 10:00 p.m. However, for many of us, DAH is somewhere between a great option and an answer to prayer. Are any of you considering purchasing a DAH ticket instead of a park ticket? Has anyone else tried DAH out? I'd love to hear your experiences!

 

[Bjkandma]

It sounds great! Wish I could add it on to our vacation. Why I don 't? Disney used to offer extra magic hours (they still do, I know), but the hours were much longer (during summer as late as 2am). There were more days per week (August, 2013 and 2015 as an example) Magic Kingdom extra mAgic hours were on Monday and Wednesday evenings.

What Disney has done is figure out a way to "add" these hard event tickets to make a profit! They took away time from the regular admission and now charged more. Essentially staying open same number of hours per day as previous, but charging me an admission price (for day) and you for evening.

Yes, they sell a limited amount of tickets and serve you treats\snacks for free. Did you know that is how the Halloween pArty and Christmas party started? Now they still sell a limited number of tickets for those parties. However, the number of "limited" tickets have increased for each party and the dates of the party have also increased. Same amount of hours per day. Again making a profit! I pay for day admission and "you pay for special event". Also during these (Halloween and Christmas) parties Disney used to serve treats\snacks. Well, I was soo excited and we tried the Halloween party (Auguzt, 2017), we ate very lightly before party, expecting these special treats that were "free". Couldn't find where they were. Asked several (mzny) cast members, their response was "We didn't see any this year. I know it was available last year." So what did we do, we went back to the party in ( August, 2018). We found the party in our opinio, more crowded and no free snacks\treats but the truck or treating. So, I basically spent $300 more for special event tickets times two years (for 3 people) to have the same number of hours per day at Disney as in 2013 and 2015 and a bag of "Mars" brand Halloween candy. Oh, fireworks that were great - but could have seen them from the beaches of the deluxe resorts, or 4th floor observation deck at Contemporary for free. (Lines for special character meet and greets, won't even discuss how long they were. People were lined up around 4:30 for 7:00 meets).

Reading on these boards and other places, the Christmas party treats\snacks was limited to one cookie and one drink, and standing in line for same itdms. Now to be honest, you could probably wait in line again for more. But remember you spend money for a special event, because less people and little to no lines.

It is just my honest opinion, but I see Disney doing the same with DAH. They will run it, advertise it as something special. Charge extra for the "limited" tickets, free snacks, etc. Once it " take a off" they will slowly and definitely add to their amount of "limited"tickets they sell as well as decrease the amount of snacks, etc. available. Remember the parks are still only open the same number of hours as in 2013 and 2015. They charge me more for my tickets and food and I wait in lines for rides. You pay for your "special event" tickets, might get your free snacks and lower crowds for now---but its,all about the money and profits!!!! It will change.

 

[disneycat321]

We're doing all three DAH on our trip in 2 weeks, mostly for reason 2. We live in heat, but not humidity, so night time touring is much easier for us to handle. (I'm a teacher, so we're pretty limited to summers for our visits unless we want insane flight costs from CA and crazy crowds.) Reason 6 is also a factor - we love repeating rides, though we are also excited for the atmosphere at night and with less people! I absolutely love the parks at night in general. Reason 8 is another good one for us - popcorn is literally my favorite food, for one thing. 4 is kind of true for us - we are night owls, but we also live on the west coast, so 1am feels like 10pm to us in Florida. We are doing some rope drops, though. We both get up very early for work in our normal life, so the prospect of not doing that every single day is certainly appealing.

I'd also say #3 is a factor for us. I actually do like planning, but WDW has become...a bit...much. DAH enables us to tour a little more like what we can do at DLR, minus fastpasses. I appreciate that a lot. A few hours of spontaneity will go a long way for us.

I probably wouldn't want to pay for 3 of these in one trip if we had more than 2 people and/or if we came very often, but DLR is our home park and we only make it to WDW every few years, so I feel justified in pulling out all the stops while we're there.

And I know they're doing this to make a profit, but that's why Disney does anything they do. We still love going; we just make decisions about what experiences we are willing to pay for and what we aren't (because there are definitely Disney experiences we won't pay for!) and then move forward.

I also agree that these events will probably deteriorate in years to come - more crowds, less perks, etc - which is why we're doing them now.

 

[sczarnecki]

BJkandma, wow, I can understand your frustration if you were used to getting evening hours as part of your ticket. Then it seems like paying double for what used to be part of the general package.
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Our situation has been different. We went to WDW frequently w my husband on business trips when our DD was little and, as she didn't do evenings well, we never used evening EMH. We had some gap years. Then we started going to WDW a few years ago but since we homeschool, we could go any time of year we chose. So we mostly went in the fall or winter when it was uncrowded and the weather was pleasant so had no need of EMG. Now, we are stuck with a school schedule. It is hard for DD to make up work if we go in the fall so our choices seem to be broiling heat or insane crowds! DAH takes care of the heat, crowds, and even my unfortunate feet.
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Hate that you paid all that money for Halloween and Christmas parties and didn't enjoy them. We love them, but then they just seem to be tailored to our tastes.
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We went to our first Halloween party becasue my DD still wanted to trick or treat but people told her that she was too old. So we went to Disney where everyone gets to do it! I realize I can buy the candy but there is magic in trick or treating. We love to dress up as a family. We love seeing all the other families and couples dressed up. We love the festive atmosphere -- decor, costumes, events. We love the way cool parade. We love getting the special photos made at various points in the park (with the ghost being our fav). The lines are loooong for characters. What we do is usually pick one must-do character and either wait in line early or wait until the last hour when the lines thin. My fam doesn't care but I love the special treats and purchase one each year.

But I can see the downsides too. 1) If attendees are expecting low crowds or free food, yeah they would be disappointed. Plenty of people are at each event unless you attend one during an off-time (say August date for the Halloween Party). The only free food we've ever experienced at the Halloween Party is trick-or-treat candy. The Christmas Party has some fun free treats, but each location has something different. (for instance, Tortuga Tavern has the Snowman Soft Pretzel and the Sno-Cone). You would need to plan out which treat(s) you want, get to the location, and stand in line. You probably want to limit which free treats you get as it takes time from the party & also plan to get them when you are in the vicinity for something else. It's not like DAH at HS where you just pop over to a cart and get something quickly. 2) The Halloween and Christmas parties just generally require more planning that DAH to get everything from the experience. It really helps to figure out in advance what each family member must do and how to fit it all in. 3) Finally, scheduled party nights must be frustrating for those who buy a general ticket and find the park closes at 6:00.
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And I know they're doing this to make a profit, but that's why Disney does anything they do. We still love going; we just make decisions about what experiences we are willing to pay for and what we aren't (because there are definitely Disney experiences we won't pay for!) and then move forward.

I also agree that these events will probably deteriorate in years to come - more crowds, less perks, etc - which is why we're doing them now.

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I totally agree with you, disneycat321, in all your points above. During our trip in May, we chose to eat out one day, do the Void at Disney Springs, and participate in a few paid events at SSR, but we gave up park days to do this. Still, we loved our Disney trip & had fun! And if the events deteriorate in the future, well, we'll enjoy them now & revisit our priorities at that time.

 

[bocaj1431]

Thank you so much for posting this!!

I was unaware this event existed and it is perfect for us. I have a teen son who has autism and has difficulty with the overwhelming amount of people in MK but none of the other parks. Finally we can go back to MK.

Also, I am recovering from surgery on my ankle. Not sure if I am using my boot or a scooter but either way fewer people to maneuver around is a plus. I’ve tried the scooter in the grocery store and had a few close calls running into people.

And best of all avoiding 100* heat and glaring sun beating down on us , what’s not to love.

We also were only planning a few park days so we do not benefit from multiple days and lower cost tickets so would be paying close to that price anyways. It’s like this is event was made for us.

I just purchased the tickets for AUG. Thank you again for sharing this information!

 

[sczarnecki]

I copied this from another person's post. He stated that HS looked pretty empty but the lines were long. Evidently, with a heat index of a zillion, everyone is standing in lines for rides.

Note appx 2 hour wait times for Slinky Dog, Tower of Terror, Rock and Roller Coaster - ugh! If you have the option, easy peasy choice. Hang out at your hotel pool, sipping something cold all day; nap in the afternoon; head for Disney After Hours as the sun is setting...

 

[DLgal]

I loved my DAH experience at DHS in May. So much so, I think I will just do those from now on and spend off days at the resorts. Not even buy park tickets otherwise. I just hope they keep offering them!

 

[YesterDark]

I would do these but the costs for the whole family are just way too much. I would more likely buy a pass for the whole week if this was a more reoccurring event, or if I got a discount from buying a 7 ticket package for 6 people.

 

[disneyseniors]

OP, it all sounds so great. BUT, even with all the good points, it still rubs me the wrong way that we have to pay for what was available in our regular ticket for so many years. And I get irritated that the crowds are let in at 4pm instead of 7pm, and they make it miserable for those of us regular day people to enjoy those last few hours. How do I know this. My daughter and I were trapped, yes trapped, in those crowds while trying to get out of Tomorrowland. It was insane. You could not wait in the lines due to the extra long waits in standby. Everything was push and shove and rush, rush, rush. We were so happy to get out of there!

So, it bothers me that Disney has monetized something, again, that used to be for Everyone for free with your daily ticket. That's what bothers me most. They have made the parks so overcrowded that people are eager to spend even more money to go to these upcharge events.

And I agree with the poster that said that this has started just like the now crowded Halloween and Christmas parties. I hope they at least don't go the same way, but I wouldn't take any bets on this.

 

[MoeJ]

This is interesting to me. DD15 and I have been going to Universal because we're more into Harry Potter and thrill rides.

When DD was little, we had WDW APs for two years, but let them lapse in early 2009 because of her starting school and I haven't been back since, although DD has gone a few time with choir/band/8th grade trip, etc.

I'd really like to go back to Disney and see all of the changes to MK and have been debating MNSSHP for an evening this September. We pretty much have no interest in M&Gs or ToT, or more than a few minutes for the parade. Really, the rides and Disney "atmosphere" are more our thing. That, and a Dole Whip Float! I miss those!!

But I've been reading how crowded the MNSSHP and MVMCP have gotten! When we go to UO, we stay at an Express Pass hotel and have gotten really spoiled for shorter ride lines with no frantic planning for limited FPs.

Now I'm wondering if I should skip MNSSHP this fall and do DAH here and there on some of our UO trips next year (gifting DD and myself with UO APs for Christmas this year).

 

[sczarnecki]

This is interesting to me. DD15 and I have been going to Universal because we're more into Harry Potter and thrill rides.

When DD was little, we had WDW APs for two years, but let them lapse in early 2009 because of her starting school and I haven't been back since, although DD has gone a few time with choir/band/8th grade trip, etc.

I'd really like to go back to Disney and see all of the changes to MK and have been debating MNSSHP for an evening this September. We pretty much have no interest in M&Gs or ToT, or more than a few minutes for the parade. Really, the rides and Disney "atmosphere" are more our thing. That, and a Dole Whip Float! I miss those!!

But I've been reading how crowded the MNSSHP and MVMCP have gotten! When we go to UO, we stay at an Express Pass hotel and have gotten really spoiled for shorter ride lines with no frantic planning for limited FPs.

Now I'm wondering if I should skip MNSSHP this fall and do DAH here and there on some of our UO trips next year (gifting DD and myself with UO APs for Christmas this year).

Big HP fan here! Yes, we stay at Royal Pacific and get the express pass and LOVE it. No planning and makes traveling with a group so much easier. UO APs - I'm kinda jealous! (happy for you really)

DAH is great! But reading your post - that you guys really enjoy the Disney atmosphere -- DAH is not that heavy on atmosphere, especially compared to MNSSHP or MVMCP. At least, DAH at HP wasn't. I mean, I enjoyed the lights at Toy Story and just being there in the evening -- but the park seemed fairly deserted and rather dark except in Toy Story Land and inside the rides. DAH was amazing for riding rides, beating the heat, etc. but maybe not so hot for atmosphere? Just IMO. However, I will say that you get in the park between 2 and 3 hours BEFORE the park closes. So you can soak up some atmosphere then and maybe ride some rides that aren't open during DAH (although you may miss most shows, if you enjoy those).

Are y'all tired of MNSSHP? If not, maybe one day of MNSSHP and one day of DAH? For two different experiences? We're doing MNSSHP AND DAH the last week of August -- both in MK. So our focus during the Halloween party is atmosphere / fun stuff / characters / photo ops in our matching family costumes / dinner at Crystal Palace as we are dressing as Pooh characters / fun snacks... We will ride rides, sure esp. during the last hour, but we don't have to worry about that. Two days later we are going back for DAH and will just hop on and off rides. Two diff experiences!

Also I don't think MNSSHP is expected to be very crowded in September? I'd sure like to know your experience if you do go. I'm thinking MNSSHP on the last Tuesday in August will be ghost. But we'll see.

 

[MoeJ]

Big HP fan here! Yes, we stay at Royal Pacific and get the express pass and LOVE it. No planning and makes traveling with a group so much easier. UO APs - I'm kinda jealous! (happy for you really)

DAH is great! But reading your post - that you guys really enjoy the Disney atmosphere -- DAH is not that heavy on atmosphere, especially compared to MNSSHP or MVMCP. At least, DAH at HP wasn't. I mean, I enjoyed the lights at Toy Story and just being there in the evening -- but the park seemed fairly deserted and rather dark except in Toy Story Land and inside the rides. DAH was amazing for riding rides, beating the heat, etc. but maybe not so hot for atmosphere? Just IMO. However, I will say that you get in the park between 2 and 3 hours BEFORE the park closes. So you can soak up some atmosphere then and maybe ride some rides that aren't open during DAH (although you may miss most shows, if you enjoy those).

Are y'all tired of MNSSHP? If not, maybe one day of MNSSHP and one day of DAH? For two different experiences? We're doing MNSSHP AND DAH the last week of August -- both in MK. So our focus during the Halloween party is atmosphere / fun stuff / characters / photo ops in our matching family costumes / dinner at Crystal Palace as we are dressing as Pooh characters / fun snacks... We will ride rides, sure esp. during the last hour, but we don't have to worry about that. Two days later we are going back for DAH and will just hop on and off rides. Two diff experiences!

Also I don't think MNSSHP is expected to be very crowded in September? I'd sure like to know your experience if you do go. I'm thinking MNSSHP on the last Tuesday in August will be ghost. But we'll see.

We've never been to a MNSSHP. Honestly, I'm just looking at shortening ride waits!! Very unimaginative of us, but hey... Rides are our thing! :-D