"Official" 2018 Disney After Hours (DAH) Thread (Now Closed, see New 2019 Thread)

[sara_s]

@GADisneyDad14 - this makes me so pumped to go in September! I love the pics of the "empty" park. The castle shots from the Hub in particular are great! And loved your "last look." It's going to be fun to play around with photo ops!

Would you say the CM's are having a little bit of fun with this event, or do they just look tired?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Would you say the CM's are having a little bit of fun with this event, or do they just look tired?

I would say more fun than tired. I tend to think these sorts of events, including things like MNSSHP and MVMCP bring out a "fun" vibe in the park. Guests are usually happy. CMs happy.

I asked the ride CM on splash if I could have my own log. She looked at me dead in the face serious and said "no, you can't, we are way too busy for that." As I looked around the loading area with only a handful of guests in sight...at first I was like "really?" - then she bust out laughing because I had taken her seriously. Just a fun random moment.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

That's sweet that he's excited! My husband (Grumpy) stays back in the room and won't go to MK He'll go to Epcot and loves the Disney cruises but doesn't see/feel the magic at MK We're originally from FL so we would go a bunch of times a year before moving to GA..oh well I have my little stinkers to share the magic with!

Yep that’s my DH. He hates crowds. Definitely prefers there cruise. After the last trip I told him he can come and golf or just stay home. Don’t come and ruin my time.

 

[whiporee]

Just a question for everyone -- have you seen people getting angry right at 10 or there abouts? We saw it a couple of times on the 28th -- people insisting the park was open to 11, asking what's the harm of letting her kid ride Aladdin, stuff like that. I was wondering if that's common, or if there are so many hard ticket events at WDW now people are just used to it.

 

[poodledogs55]

Just a question for everyone -- have you seen people getting angry right at 10 or there abouts? We saw it a couple of times on the 28th -- people insisting the park was open to 11, asking what's the harm of letting her kid ride Aladdin, stuff like that. I was wondering if that's common, or if there are so many hard ticket events at WDW now people are just used to it.

In January, I did see a family arguing with a CM about getting on Peter Pan, insisting they had magic hours. The main issue was it held me up from getting in line (not the CM’s fault).
This time around, I just saw a couple who went to check in, thinking it was for EMH, but no arguing. Otherwise, I didn’t see anyone else getting angry.

 

[Haley R]

Just a question for everyone -- have you seen people getting angry right at 10 or there abouts? We saw it a couple of times on the 28th -- people insisting the park was open to 11, asking what's the harm of letting her kid ride Aladdin, stuff like that. I was wondering if that's common, or if there are so many hard ticket events at WDW now people are just used to it.

When we went on March 1 I saw a group of teenage girls that looked pretty ticked off about not being able to get on space. Disney posts their hours...it’s not their fault people don’t look at them.

 

[Ashley Marie]

Just a question for everyone -- have you seen people getting angry right at 10 or there abouts? We saw it a couple of times on the 28th -- people insisting the park was open to 11, asking what's the harm of letting her kid ride Aladdin, stuff like that. I was wondering if that's common, or if there are so many hard ticket events at WDW now people are just used to it.

I saw an angry couple at one of the popcorn lines in Tomorrowland while I was waiting for my husband to get back from the bathroom. The line looked like it was ~20 people deep before the event even started. It looked like the CMs were closing the register/getting ready for serving stuff for free starting at 10. It turned out that maybe the fourth or fifth party in line were just regular guests -- no one had announced the line was just for DAH, so they were obviously confused and angry when it was their turn and the CM refused to serve them. I thought they were trying to buy food (and the cash register was closed), but they actually just wanted their popcorn bucket refilled. Another CM jumped in and just filled the thing. The whole scenario definitely slowed things down for everyone else in line.

 

[Ashley Marie]

@GADisneyDad14 - this makes me so pumped to go in September! I love the pics of the "empty" park. The castle shots from the Hub in particular are great! And loved your "last look." It's going to be fun to play around with photo ops!

Would you say the CM's are having a little bit of fun with this event, or do they just look tired?

I actually found the CMs to be chatty with each other during DAH. It did seem a little off (for Disney) when a CM would be too busy chatting with a co-worker to greet us at an attraction, but it didn't bother me. We were there to go on rides, not chat it up with operations CMs. I did the College Program years ago and worked many late nights on Main Street at MK, so I get it... it's a long night. This was 2005, but when I worked there, I'd sometimes be scheduled until an hour after closing and then back on as early in the morning as they could put me without having to pay OT.

The Jungle Cruise CMs definitely had fun with the nearly empty boats. We came very close both nights to the boat taking off with just us in it, but more people showed up at the last second.

 

[Haley R]

I saw an angry couple at one of the popcorn lines in Tomorrowland while I was waiting for my husband to get back from the bathroom. The line looked like it was ~20 people deep before the event even started. It looked like the CMs were closing the register/getting ready for serving stuff for free starting at 10. It turned out that maybe the fourth or fifth party in line were just regular guests -- no one had announced the line was just for DAH, so they were obviously confused and angry when it was their turn and the CM refused to serve them. I thought they were trying to buy food (and the cash register was closed), but they actually just wanted their popcorn bucket refilled. Another CM jumped in and just filled the thing. The whole scenario definitely slowed things down for everyone else in line.

When we did dah in March we just skipped any snack lines that had more than 5-10 people. There are so many carts that you can usually find one with less people.

 

[whiporee]

Would you say the CM's are having a little bit of fun with this event, or do they just look tired?

My experience was that the CMs seemed to be having a great time because there was absolutely no pressure on them. I went to the ice cream cart at 12:58 to get a last Sprite for my son and apologized for being so late, and she laughed and said there' still two minutes my her watch. All of the CMs i talked to -- at 51 I don't do a lot of rides, so I'm waiting for kids most of the time -- said they enjoyed the fact no one was angry or yelling at them or complaining.

Out of all the things I really dug about this event, I think that was my favorite one -- EVERYONE was having a good time. Guests weren't frustrated or rushing, CMs weren't having to deal with people being being angry or belligerent. No bumping into people or having to slalom through crowds -- everyone I talked to was tired but having a blast. You don't run into that at MK very often, which is sad in and of itself to say, but I'm glad there's at least an option like this available.

 

[Haley R]

My experience was that the CMs seemed to be having a great time because there was absolutely no pressure on them. I went to the ice cream cart at 12:58 to get a last Sprite for my son and apologized for being so late, and she laughed and said there' still two minutes my her watch. All of the CMs i talked to -- at 51 I don't do a lot of rides, so I'm waiting for kids most of the time -- said they enjoyed the fact no one was angry or yelling at them or complaining.

Out of all the things I really dug about this event, I think that was my favorite one -- EVERYONE was having a good time. Guests weren't frustrated or rushing, CMs weren't having to deal with people being being angry or belligerent. No bumping into people or having to slalom through crowds -- everyone I talked to was tired but having a blast. You don't run into that at MK very often, which is sad in and of itself to say, but I'm glad there's at least an option like this available.

It really is sad to think that the new normal is seeing tired families yelling at each other and no one looking happy to be at Disney.

 

[k&Jsmom]

I have a question about using fastpass before DAH starts. DAH will be my only ticket into the park. It starts at 10 p.m. I plan to arrive as early as possible will I be able to still use fast pass with a DAH ticket only? and if i can, what do I show the cast member at the attraction if I don't have a magic band to get in?

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[Chavaleh]

It really is sad to think that the new normal is seeing tired families yelling at each other and no one looking happy to be at Disney.

There have always been tired/yelling families at WDW. People push too hard trying to 'get their moneys worth' and end up with cranky kids and cranky parents. It's hot, expensive and over stimulating, always has been, that doesn't mean that's all you see, there are still many many families having a blast.

I didn't notice any tired CMs. Some of them seemed a little more 'casual' I guess but most of them appeared to be having fun.

 

[Haley R]

There have always been tired/yelling families at WDW. People push too hard trying to 'get their moneys worth' and end up with cranky kids and cranky parents. It's hot, expensive and over stimulating, always has been, that doesn't mean that's all you see, there are still many many families having a blast.

I didn't notice any tired CMs. Some of them seemed a little more 'casual' I guess but most of them appeared to be having fun.

I’m mainly speaking from first hand experience. We recently took our niece and her mom and I got to see what that tired/frustrated atmosphere is like. Dh and I don’t have kids so it was a new experience for us. It definitely made the trip have a different vibe. We were happy when we got an hour to ourselves one night at mk.

 

[Chavaleh]

I’m mainly speaking from first hand experience. We recently took our niece and her mom and I got to see what that tired/frustrated atmosphere is like. Dh and I don’t have kids so it was a new experience for us. It definitely made the trip have a different vibe. We were happy when we got an hour to ourselves one night at mk.

It's definitely a different experience without kids! My husband and I love going by ourselves, we get to enjoy other people's kids having a blast without having to deal with the downside. When we travel with our kid we've learned that it's important to take an afternoon break and to learn to recognize the signs of kids being "done" before they hit that wall.

We're bringing our 10 year old, my parents, my brother, sil and their three kids in Aug and talked about getting after hours tickets if it were running but decided it would probably be too much, too late for the littles.

 

[Rich M]

Is there any hope of them adding this event in October with all the Halloween Parties? I would really like to go to this.

 

[xiphoid76]

Just a question for everyone -- have you seen people getting angry right at 10 or there abouts? We saw it a couple of times on the 28th -- people insisting the park was open to 11, asking what's the harm of letting her kid ride Aladdin, stuff like that. I was wondering if that's common, or if there are so many hard ticket events at WDW now people are just used to it.

We saw a family mad at it’s a small world at 10:20 ish. They demanded to go on. The cast members were excellent saying no and that they needed a lanyard. The family was still arguing for a few minutes and asking for a supervisor while we walked by them and onto our private boat for the ride. This party was worth every cent!!!

 

[Haley R]

It's definitely a different experience without kids! My husband and I love going by ourselves, we get to enjoy other people's kids having a blast without having to deal with the downside. When we travel with our kid we've learned that it's important to take an afternoon break and to learn to recognize the signs of kids being "done" before they hit that wall.

We're bringing our 10 year old, my parents, my brother, sil and their three kids in Aug and talked about getting after hours tickets if it were running but decided it would probably be too much, too late for the littles.

If I’m being honest, it wasn’t our niece that had issues. She actually did much better than I thought. We had a lot of early mornings and stayed until park close and she was a trooper. Her mom on the other hand was not. Not very nice to her daughter and it carried over to the hotel room that we shared.

 

[Haley R]

Is there any hope of them adding this event in October with all the Halloween Parties? I would really like to go to this.

Sadly I think not. We are going in October also but I planned next weekend thinking they won’t add any in October.

 

[Cloe Colton]

Is there any benefit to which side of the park you start on? Are there longer lines in tomorrowland and SDMT at the start of the party because of those who jump in line right before the park closes?