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

[anomamatt]

I will write a full report later (Sunday or Monday) but I thought it was awesome. The only “issue” I had was a 30 min line for 7DMT. Everything else we did was empty. Started with BTMRR x5, then did Space x5... full report in a day or two.

 

[Minniemedic]

We had booked the dessert party for same night as DAH because it’s our only time in MK & it was a bucket list thing for me.

Though now I’m wondering if it’s a bad idea.

 

[Scooter2376]

Weird. We were at BTMRR at the beginning of the night. At 7:50, the CM let us go in the FP line. Promptly at 8 they closed the standby line and only let people with lanyards in from them on. I saw many people turned away starting right at 8. I guess people could have snuck past the CM but I didn’t see it.

Yeah, I shouldn’t have made it seem like there were throngs of people without lanyards riding rides. I saw someone being turned away at BTMR at 9:15, which made me wonder what they had been doing up until then and CMs weren’t actually checking lanyards at SM when we rode. There were still a lot of non-lanyard wearing people in the park (there were quite a few leaving at the same time as us at 10:30), but the lines we experienced at SDMT after 10:00 were not caused by unauthorized riders. Everyone in the line had a lanyard.

Despite my lukewarm review, I’m still happy we did it. It just wasn’t quite as empty as I was expecting.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Being evacuated off potc. Not pleased. I know things happen but not at $40 per hour. Time a wasting

How do they evacuate people from POTC?

 

[RDarling]

Solid plan to wait until the very end for 7DMT, IMHO.

We waited until 10 pm and it was. 30 minute wait.

 

[SteveH]

Also, we are at Disney for 9 nights and have 9 day park hoppers.

We're arriving the same day, later flight. Have you thought about DAH on the 30th? I am hoping since it's mid-week and not on a Friday that it will be a bit slower.

 

[anomamatt]

We waited until 10 pm and it was. 30 minute wait.

Same for us. 30 mins right around 10.

It sounds like the crowds left 7DMT closer to 11. I had bad timing with 7DMT, but everything else we did was well timed with zero waits.

If anyone is doing this mainly for 7DMT, I would suggest they do EMM instead. DAH just wasn’t good for 7DMT (of course ymmv, you can see the crowds shifted a lot throughout the night and were very hard to predict).

 

[rachdd]

We will be at Disney for a short time and our plan was to do DAH on 1/30 and then one other full park day. After reading the reviews I am wondering if we should just do 2 or 3 full park days for the same amount of money and skip DAH. I am thinking I can get most things done in a full park day at MK instead of going to DAH. We are veteran park goers but this one has me stumped! Any thoughts or opinions?

 

[subtchr]

Someone on a FB page is saying those who were stuck on Pirates got a full refund, can anyone confirm?

 

[hereforthechurros]

We will be at Disney for a short time and our plan was to do DAH on 1/30 and then one other full park day. After reading the reviews I am wondering if we should just do 2 or 3 full park days for the same amount of money and skip DAH. I am thinking I can get most things done in a full park day at MK instead of going to DAH. We are veteran park goers but this one has me stumped! Any thoughts or opinions?

Last night's event is the only one that has been listed sold out and being the first one it seems it was a little rough, but reviews are still pretty positive. Hopefully the CMs learn from this one and the next 7 are a bit smoother. We are going on 2/8 and still very excited. Just seems the best bet is to eat dinner before entering, try to get in as early as you can (6:30 pm perhaps based on last night's accounts), grab a FastPass or two before the event, skip fireworks or dessert parties, and get right to riding.

SDMT seems to be the wild card in that there could be a decent wait or no wait depending on your timing. That's a little frustrating but I think our plan is to save it for end of the night if the wait is more than 10-15 minutes.

 

[focusondisney]

Hmm, got to say I am a bit disappointed in the reviews so far. Seems like most people thought it was more crowded & had higher wait times than anticipated. Glad to see a few people really enjoyed it & thought it was worth the money. Will look forward to seeing reports from next week. Coz right now I am a bit bummed & thinking I might have made a mistake planning a trip around this event. Seems like Disney is doing what Disney does— take a good thing & oversell it to squeeze every penny even if if the guest experience is impacted.

Wish I would have been able to go last year.

 

[pitpat]

Kenny's final tally was 16 rides + met Ariel and had some Mickey ice cream and popcorn.

 

[rosysubmarine]

Sorry to hear about the mixed reviews, and I am DEFINITELY sorry about getting stuck on POTC for 40 minutes!!

 

[senadler]

Looking at other reviews, it seems like the mistake we made was doing the fireworks dessert party the same night. We spent a good bit of the DAH time watching the fireworks and then making our way out of the hub when we could have been riding rides.

We were planning on doing the dessert party as well. We are going on a night that DAH doesn't start until 9 PM, so I am thinking about keeping it. When did you go back out and get your lanyard? Before or after the party? That was the one thing I was concerned about. I didn't want to miss the whole dessert party going back out front, but I also didn't want to fight the fireworks crowds to do it either.

 

[rosysubmarine]

Does anyone know if you're able to get Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards with party tickets on DAH nights?

 

[Haley R]

We will be at Disney for a short time and our plan was to do DAH on 1/30 and then one other full park day. After reading the reviews I am wondering if we should just do 2 or 3 full park days for the same amount of money and skip DAH. I am thinking I can get most things done in a full park day at MK instead of going to DAH. We are veteran park goers but this one has me stumped! Any thoughts or opinions?

It’s kind of hard to tell right now since that was the first one and it was kind of rocky. We were going to do 3 day tickets but changed to 2 day tickets with dah. I honestly won’t know which is better until I get there and experience it.

 

[kmc8826]

We will be at Disney for a short time and our plan was to do DAH on 1/30 and then one other full park day. After reading the reviews I am wondering if we should just do 2 or 3 full park days for the same amount of money and skip DAH. I am thinking I can get most things done in a full park day at MK instead of going to DAH. We are veteran park goers but this one has me stumped! Any thoughts or opinions?

I think it depends on your party. Bigger party = more expensive DAH but also means that it is harder to navigate around during the day. If it is doing 2 or 3 park days versus DAH I would probably choose that honestly. (And I am an AP holder and have done DAH twice).

 

[kmc8826]

Yeah, I shouldn’t have made it seem like there were throngs of people without lanyards riding rides. I saw someone being turned away at BTMR at 9:15, which made me wonder what they had been doing up until then and CMs weren’t actually checking lanyards at SM when we rode. There were still a lot of non-lanyard wearing people in the park (there were quite a few leaving at the same time as us at 10:30), but the lines we experienced at SDMT after 10:00 were not caused by unauthorized riders. Everyone in the line had a lanyard.

Despite my lukewarm review, I’m still happy we did it. It just wasn’t quite as empty as I was expecting.

Disney needs to do what they have done with the parties and kick out people without lanyards. For those who have done it if you get a survey maybe suggest that. Part of the experience at DAH is an emptier park feeling. If others are allowed to remain and aren’t hustled out that definitely diminishes everyone who has the paid admissions overall experience.

 

[mcurrence]

We were planning on doing the dessert party as well. We are going on a night that DAH doesn't start until 9 PM, so I am thinking about keeping it. When did you go back out and get your lanyard? Before or after the party? That was the one thing I was concerned about. I didn't want to miss the whole dessert party going back out front, but I also didn't want to fight the fireworks crowds to do it either.

Would love to hear more about this...we also have the desert party for 1/30 but I'm considering cancelling It was one thing to just take time away from the desert part of the party but going back and forth to pick up the lanyard and not being allowed in until 7:00 seems too much time away from rides.

 

[mcurrence]

Would everyone say they started letting people in at 6:45? Trying to calculate because we have a FP for 7D from 6:30-7:30..we should be able to make it, no? Losing our FP for Peter Pan but grateful that I chose 7D for the last one