I already posted a detailed play-by-play of our DAH on 1/26 here, but I just had a few more thoughts to share I figured might be helpful:
Lanyards: I'm glad I asked at City Hall GS about the lanyards, even though reports were last week that everyone had to exit and come back in. If the line is short at GS it never hurts to ask. We asked at around 6:40 and go ours no problem from two CM who were set up to do just so right outside the main entrance to City Hall.
Start Early! I asked the CM at City Hall about using the lanyards as FPs between 7 and 8, and they said that was not the policy. But I didn't give up there. At every ride up until 8 pm, I said to the CM manning the FP lane "Hey we can use these as FPs until the event starts, right?" and I didn't get any guff from anyone. It sounds from other reports like CMs are starting to pick up on this in a good way. So get there as close to 7 as possible and maybe you'll get to fit in more rides! We were able to ride PotC, Aladdin and BTMRR right up until 8 pm using this method.
Have a plan. Now, I don't think you need to have a super strict plan and stick to it minute-by-minute, but when you're paying a premium for these three hours, you want to use your time wisely. As I said in an earlier post, we decided what rides we could do without, what rides we absolutely had to ride and which of those rides we want to do multiple times. You may even have some rides you want to end on. For us, no matter the wait time, we knew that we wanted 7DMT to be our last ride of the night. This will help you from zig-zagging all over the park.
Character meet-and-greets are long! Granted, we only did two M&G during DAH (Ariel and talking Mickey), but I was blown away by how much time they spent with us. You never get this kind of time during the day when there are lines. I mean, Mickey spent a solid 6 or 7 minutes with our group. He did a pretend car race with the kids, talked to them about their Mickey shirts and pins, made fun of Dad (of course) and told several jokes. It was amazing. Same with Ariel. In fact, I was getting a little antsy with Ariel because we were trying to fit in two rides on 7DMT after we visited her, and it was pushing 10:20 so at one point I was hoping she would shut up about sand dollars vs. human dollars!! I really get the impression the CMs are trained to give more 1:1 attention during DAH, so if you love character M&G this might be the time to take advantage!
Transportation can be a pain. My plan was to catch a Minnie Van after to avoid the hassle, but I couldn't get one hailed. We waited 20 minutes (not bad in the scheme of things, I know, but it was 11:30 pm and I had logged 25,000 steps!) for one that shared with another resort, so the whole process of getting to our hotel took almost an hour. Could have been worse, but still.
Take advantage of the "last hour." Just like with the park normally, things don't just shut down when the rides do. Go all out until the end of the actual event time, then take a half hour or an hour and make your way slowly through the hub and down Main Street. Several of the shops stayed open until after 11:15 in our case and at no point did we have CM trying to get us to leave the park. I have read reports of people being there until after midnight until the CMs finally start ushering. This is the emptiest you'll see the park ever, so take it all in!
Think about your next morning. Not only does the even go very late, but you're really hustling to get it all in, so you'll want to be mindful of your plans the next morning. We intentionally did this as our very last thing on our very last day, then we all slept in the next morning before checking out.
Don't expect the park to be "empty." Certainly it feels way less crowded than usual. And there were some times when we were only around a handful of people or none at all, but those moments didn't last very long. But with it starting to sell out more and more, you're just going to be around people the whole time. Adjust your expectations and you'll love how the park feels with way lower numbers.
Also, here are some photos I took of crowd levels throughout the night:
Here's the snack cart just outside BTMRR at 8:10 (we had already ridden twice during the fireworks). Healthy line forming.
Leaving Frontierland, looking back toward Splash Mountain at 8:31 pm:
The entrance to Tomorrowland at 9:08 pm
Here is the carousel in Fantasyland heading toward Pinnochio/Peter Pan's Flight/Small World at 10:01 pm
I love this shot of the empty queue at 7DMT at 11:08. We were literally the last people on the ride! How often do you get to say that??
Walking to the hub past the Cheshire Cat at 11:14 pm
Looking back at MTP at 11:15 pm
Looking down Main Street at 11:28 pm as we slowlyyyyyyyy make our way out of the park.
They couldn't find ours though. I tried several times. And now this trip it will be closed!
