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

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From my DAH experience, and a lot of reviews I’ve read, 20 minutes is typical on Mine Train even with DAH as WDW can’t control who goes on what. Even EMM which has far fewer people was a good 10 minute wait. Seems every other ride was a walk on? It feeling more crowded is one thing but it stopping you from riding rides is another and 12 rides in 3 hours isn’t bad. And you mentioned getting snacks throughout the night so doesn’t seem that was a huge deal.

Running out of drinks is silly as it seems like an easy fix but with people loading up it was bound to happen. Wonder if they’ll start limiting snacks/drinks soon.
When we did dah in March we only waited about 5-10 minutes for mine train. The line this time was all the way out to the entrance. I personally just didn’t think the atmosphere was as enjoyable and the March dah we attended was sold out. I noticed a lot more people this time around without lanyards. I think we got snacks two or three times, I can’t remember. We probably would’ve more often but we saw carts with 20 people deep and didn’t want to stop for those. I’m hoping they just find a way to restock drinks efficiently. Maybe I went into this one with too high of expectations but it’s not a cheap event.
 
When we did dah in March we only waited about 5-10 minutes for mine train. The line this time was all the way out to the entrance. I personally just didn’t think the atmosphere was as enjoyable and the March dah we attended was sold out. I noticed a lot more people this time around without lanyards. I think we got snacks two or three times, I can’t remember. We probably would’ve more often but we saw carts with 20 people deep and didn’t want to stop for those. I’m hoping they just find a way to restock drinks efficiently. Maybe I went into this one with too high of expectations but it’s not a cheap event.
Right it’s just that reading through the posts it seems you complained to Disney about things you didn’t actually experience like running out of drinks you wanted or seeing lanyards being shared. Again sorry if I’m misconstruing the situation but after such a positive review and so much accomplished it was odd to see it take such a left turn.

Hope the next one is better for all I guess!
 
Right it’s just that reading through the posts it seems you complained to Disney about things you didn’t actually experience like running out of drinks you wanted or seeing lanyards being shared. Again sorry if I’m misconstruing the situation but after such a positive review and so much accomplished it was odd to see it take such a left turn.

Hope the next one is better for all I guess!
We did experience them running out of drinks. Dh wasn’t able to get bottled water or Diet Coke at the snack carts.
 
I feel like I haven't seen very many people with character meet & greets in their reviews. Am I silly for planning on prioritizing this? I'd like to do Princess Fairytale Hall and Ariel, at a minimum. My family is only me, DH, and DS9. It's a tough sell for me to get them to stand in line to meet a princess, so I thought this would be a good opportunity if it wouldn't waste too much time in line. I assume the waits for these are minimal during DAH, but I haven't seen anyone mention actually doing these during the event. Can anyone give me their experiences here?
I took my 3year old granddaughter to the princesses during DAH on 9 and 14 July. It was awesome. We only waited a couple of minutes, we got tons of pictures and the interactions seemed longer and more intimate. We found it to be a great time saver (over doing the meets during the day) and very enjoyable. My thoughts are do what you enjoy. During the last hour of our 14 July DAH, the 3 year old and I rotated around the princesses meet, PP (4 times), Philharmagic (6 people in the theater) and SW (3 times). She LOVED it.

We met Arial right before DAH started with about a two minute wait. She (my granddaughter) forgot to hug Arial goodbye so we had to go back through the line to hug her. The second time it was about a ten minute wait.
 


Something seems off about that one night. It doesn't fit with any other review I've seen or the nights I've gone
Heck, check out this one from Josh for just a couple nights before, on July 14th
https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/review-magic-kingdom-disney-after-hours-summer-2018-edition/

The nights we've attended we were encouraged by the CM to take as many drinks away with us as we could carry. They actually placed them in our bags.

We are back on 8/30 so I'll see how it compares.
 
I took my 3year old granddaughter to the princesses during DAH on 9 and 14 July. It was awesome. We only waited a couple of minutes, we got tons of pictures and the interactions seemed longer and more intimate. We found it to be a great time saver (over doing the meets during the day) and very enjoyable. My thoughts are do what you enjoy. During the last hour of our 14 July DAH, the 3 year old and I rotated around the princesses meet, PP (4 times), Philharmagic (6 people in the theater) and SW (3 times). She LOVED it.

We met Arial right before DAH started with about a two minute wait. She (my granddaughter) forgot to hug Arial goodbye so we had to go back through the line to hug her. The second time it was about a ten minute wait.
Thanks so much for this review! We will be there in a week and a day! Can't wait for my princess pictures! princess:
 
Something seems off about that one night. It doesn't fit with any other review I've seen or the nights I've gone
Heck, check out this one from Josh for just a couple nights before, on July 14th
https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/review-magic-kingdom-disney-after-hours-summer-2018-edition/

The nights we've attended we were encouraged by the CM to take as many drinks away with us as we could carry. They actually placed them in our bags.

We are back on 8/30 so I'll see how it compares.
We're going on 8/30, too! Guess I'll see you there or over at the resort. Ha ha!
 


Something seems off about that one night. It doesn't fit with any other review I've seen or the nights I've gone
Heck, check out this one from Josh for just a couple nights before, on July 14th
https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/review-magic-kingdom-disney-after-hours-summer-2018-edition/

The nights we've attended we were encouraged by the CM to take as many drinks away with us as we could carry. They actually placed them in our bags.

We are back on 8/30 so I'll see how it compares.

I agree with you and wonder if the 21st was so crowded because of all the Reports from bloggers that were invited on the 14th. I saw more publicity, you tube reports and reviews of the DAH after that one night than I had since it started. All the reviews of “no crowds” may have caused crowds.
 
I agree with you and wonder if the 21st was so crowded because of all the Reports from bloggers that were invited on the 14th. I saw more publicity, you tube reports and reviews of the DAH after that one night than I had since it started. All the reviews of “no crowds” may have caused crowds.

Isn't the point of DAH is that tickets are limited so there would be no crowds? It is just interesting that winter sell outs appear to have had less people than 07/21 which wasn't a sellout. From reading the reviews I was more concerned with the shared lanyards than anything else. And if the shared lanyards aren't an issue, maybe Disney needs to know there is feedback for selling more tickets for this event.

I appreciate people commenting to Disney in hopes that they potentially use wrist-bands which are easier to enforce and/or sell less tickets for future DAH events.

September 20th will be my first DAH so excited about it no matter what. Even a 20 minute wait for 7 drawfs mine train is way better than any tiime during the day.
 
Isn't the point of DAH is that tickets are limited so there would be no crowds? It is just interesting that winter sell outs appear to have had less people than 07/21 which wasn't a sellout. From reading the reviews I was more concerned with the shared lanyards than anything else. And if the shared lanyards aren't an issue, maybe Disney needs to know there is feedback for selling more tickets for this event.

I appreciate people commenting to Disney in hopes that they potentially use wrist-bands which are easier to enforce and/or sell less tickets for future DAH events.

September 20th will be my first DAH so excited about it no matter what. Even a 20 minute wait for 7 drawfs mine train is way better than any tiime during the day.
No, they have never said NO crowds. Only very low crowds.
And even the reports on the 21st are strange because not everyone says it was crowded. Aside from the overlap at park closing where day guests were still in line.
It may have been something unusual from the park that day. Like were there weather issues? Was the park abnormally crowded for some reason? To cause more guests in the park at close? Something else was off and it wasn't just DAH related.
 
No, they have never said NO crowds. Only very low crowds.
And even the reports on the 21st are strange because not everyone says it was crowded. Aside from the overlap at park closing where day guests were still in line.
It may have been something unusual from the park that day. Like were there weather issues? Was the park abnormally crowded for some reason? To cause more guests in the park at close? Something else was off and it wasn't just DAH related.

Per Disney "For 11 select nights from June 2018 to September 2018, don’t miss your chance to skip the wait times". Skip the wait time does not sound like waiting in 20 minute lines that form at the FP entrance to the ride. Maybe they should phrase it as party like you have unlimited fp+.

I wouldn't think it would matter if the park was more crowded during daytime hours. The DAH is a hard ticketed event. Multiple people that went to this last event had said it was more crowded than previous events that had actually sold out, and this event had not sold out. So either Disney was selling more tickets for summer events or people were sharing lanyards. Either way, I believe there is cause for concern for future DAH events.

I'm excited about going, and even if my event is as crowded as the 07/21 event, I will be happy. But hopefully you are correct, that the 07/21 event was just a weird event.
 
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I've read 3 people in this thread talk about being there the 21st. 2 of them did everything they wanted to do and had a positive experience, while expressing it was more crowded then usual ( that doesn't mean CROWDED ) and the 3rd just said it seemed more crowded but didn't review on it.

So for anyone freaking out.. Relax.

I don't expect to sit on the same ride 3 times in a row. I just expect to hit everything I want at least once. That will be successful for me.

As for being more crowded then a sold out event, its the summer, I expect they allow more people in then in March, and people assuming lanyards are shared, when they don't know the people

The running out of stuff at the food carts have always been as issue with these events. They do need to work on that
 
I've read 3 people in this thread talk about being there the 21st. 2 of them did everything they wanted to do and had a positive experience, while expressing it was more crowded then usual ( that doesn't mean CROWDED ) and the 3rd just said it seemed more crowded but didn't review on it.

So for anyone freaking out.. Relax.

I don't expect to sit on the same ride 3 times in a row. I just expect to hit everything I want at least once. That will be successful for me.

As for being more crowded then a sold out event, its the summer, I expect they allow more people in then in March, and people assuming lanyards are shared, when they don't know the people

The running out of stuff at the food carts have always been as issue with these events. They do need to work on that
I think if your goal is to ride everything once you will have a really nice time! We still had a lot of fun and were able to get everything we wanted done. I’m hoping they get the drink situation figured out.
 
I agree with you and wonder if the 21st was so crowded because of all the Reports from bloggers that were invited on the 14th. I saw more publicity, you tube reports and reviews of the DAH after that one night than I had since it started. All the reviews of “no crowds” may have caused crowds.
I too was there on the 21st.. I didn't experience the crowd issue like some others.. I think it was just a matter of which direction you started your night..A good friend of mine was there separately from me and complained about the crowds and she had started her night off in Tomorrowland.. So I think it was just a matter of luck? We waited for nothing... except 7 Dwarves, which we skipped due to the line. I did however experience the running out of snacks and drinks like others. I sent an email to Disney as well.. Only to express that I believe the issue came about due to lack of staffing. I noticed that most carts only had one cast member trying to do it all.. make popcorn, distribute snacks etc... so perhaps there was no-one to send to restock? It did not damper my night in any way.. as I thought the night was amazing.. and I made sure to say that in my email also. Just wanted to pass along an observation for future events. We are going again on 8/30.. and cannot wait! :)
 
If the only ride you had to wait for was 7DMT and it was 20mins I'd call that a good night. The rest of the rides are pretty much walk ons.

If Disney keeps pushing these events then they will become more popular each year. They may not get as crowded as a MNSSHP or MVMCP, but they may seem more "crowded".
 
I also was there the 21st and experienced none of the mentioned problems. We hit a snack cart in every land and none had run out of anything. 7DMT said 20 minute wait, but we waited only 5-10 minutes. Rode Space 5 times in a row, Splash with our own log 4 times in a row, BTMRR I rode 3 times without getting off.
 
Something seems off about that one night. It doesn't fit with any other review I've seen or the nights I've gone
Heck, check out this one from Josh for just a couple nights before, on July 14th
https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/review-magic-kingdom-disney-after-hours-summer-2018-edition/

The nights we've attended we were encouraged by the CM to take as many drinks away with us as we could carry. They actually placed them in our bags.

We are back on 8/30 so I'll see how it compares.
If my plane lands on time and if it is not a sell out, hoping to go on the 30th too. We land around 2:30 - 3:00. Didn't want to take the chance and buy tickets in advance.
 
My DAH experience from 7/21:
We arrived at MK around 7:15, shopped in the Emporium, ate dinner at Pecos Bill’s, watched Country Bears, and used FP+ for Pirates and Space. We also had FP+ for Splash but decided to cancel it and ride later in the night. We watched Happily Ever After from Tomorrowland to avoid the crowd.
During the party:
15 ice creams (between 5 of us)
13 bottled drinks
2 popcorns
Magic Carpets
Barnstormer
Dumbo x2 without getting off
Winnie the Pooh
Under the Sea
Met Rapunzel (who was rather rude) and Tiana -we were the only ones there at all!
Astro Orbiter
Buzz x2 without getting off
Peter Pan
Haunted Mansion
Big Thunder x2 had to get off
Splash

7DMT had a consistent wait of 15-20min every time we walked by, so we never rode. It was both surprising and disappointing based on previous reports from other DAH nights. We had a few lines at snack carts and one where they were restocking water less than an hour into the party. Also saw several people without lanyards hanging around in Tomorrowland after 11, which I felt was too late to still be allowed in the park.
Overall we had a great time and I wouldn’t hesitate to do DAH again!
 
I also was there the 21st and experienced none of the mentioned problems. We hit a snack cart in every land and none had run out of anything. 7DMT said 20 minute wait, but we waited only 5-10 minutes. Rode Space 5 times in a row, Splash with our own log 4 times in a row, BTMRR I rode 3 times without getting off.
Do you remember what time you rode BTMRR?
 
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