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

[Haley R]

If you do 1900 PF breakfast the day before, that gives you the rest of the day to do what you want. Then on DAH night you could do early dinner at Ohana before (we did Chef Mickeys brunch latest time slot prior to MNSSHP and this worked out well-no back and forth).

I set an alert for ohana for before dah but I currently only have an ohana adr for the day before dah. I’m very excited about 1900 park fare!

 

[Haley R]

This is genius!!

I don’t know if I’ll remember to bring ziplock bags but that is so smart. I honestly don’t know how often we will stop for snacks. I would almost rather not but we will most likely do whatever our niece wants lol

 

[GADisneyDad14]

My husband and I did DAH on Friday. We are about an hour from Disney so we drove over after work arriving at magic kingdom around 7:15. We picked up our lanyard quickly and then decided to do some rides with a short wait and plan what we wanted to do during the party. We decided our focus would be on mine train, space mountain, thunder mountain, and ice cream. We decided not to bother with any ride that was slow and long (haunted mansion, small world, jungle cruise, pirates) or ones we can usually do without waits. Our night went like this:

8pm - rode dumbo to watch fireworks. Was able to ride 5 times without getting off until fireworks were over.

8:20ish - moved to space mountain stopping for ice cream and soda. The stand outside speedway had no line while the stand closer to space mtn had about 10 people. Rode space mountain twice with waits comparable to fast pass (no line until merge point and then only a few minutes). Saw about 5 groups try to get in line and were turned away for not having a lanyard. Actually saw a few groups running toward space and over heard them talking about getting in line before the park closed so it seemed like some people just didn’t pay attention to closing time.

Around 9pm - headed to thunder mountain. Treat stand by space still had about 10 people, no one in line at stand by castle (but about 5-10 people after we left it), about 5 people in line for stand by magic carpets, and a few people in line for stand by thunder. We stopped at most picking up various items but never waited more than 5 minutes even with lines. Photopass photographers in front of castle had a few people in line and we saw a couple get engaged. It looked like they were having a really good night. We were pretty much alone between the entrance of Adventureland until we reached thunder mountain. Once at thunder lines were short and moved quickly. We rode 5 times. The first time though we were seated in the back. The 2nd time we were seated in the front row and since they loaded back to front no one was waiting for our row when our train returned so we were allowed to stay on for our 3rd ride. Same thing happened and were able to stay on for 4th ride. Had to get off after that but was able to get back on very quickly for 5th ride. They were checking for lanyards before getting in line.

Around 10pm - headed to Fantasy land. Treat cart by thunder still has about 5 poeple in line. Waited for Peter Pan and was off ride in about 10-15 minutes with line. Moved to mine train and was told it was a 30 minute wait at about 10:20pm. We decided to head back to Space but as we walked past line for mine train we could see the end of the line was inside so we decided to take our chances and went back to get in line. It was a good thing we did because we were on the ride in 4 minutes. We then did the ride 3 more times, stopped for a final ice cream, and got back in line at 10:59. Each time the line was slightly different with one ride having only a few people when we reached the boarding area and our last ride having to wait by the barrels. Still our longest wait was only about 5 minutes. We did have to exit and walk the entire line each time (we just assumed they were helping us work off the Mickey bars).

Summary: had 18 rides on 5 diffent attractions, ate more ice cream then two people should eat, and were highly caffeinated by the end. We didn’t experience lines that were too long but overall spent about 30-40 minutes waiting. With 18 rides this wasn’t bad and is to be expected, though does cut into a 3 hour event. Eating ice cream and popcorn also cut in to some of our time but with my husbands love of Mickey bars it was well worth it. We also took ziplock bags to put popcorn in so we could more easily eat it while walking and were able to close it when we were on rides so we didn’t have to spend time finishing it before riding.

Thank you for the review! Your detail is amazing. Thanks so much for sharing.

 

[AntJulie]

I set an alert for ohana for before dah but I currently only have an ohana adr for the day before dah. I’m very excited about 1900 park fare!

We also have done breakfast at a resort (Ohana, 1900 PF) on our MNSSHP day. So we had time in between to do what we wanted. One time we went to water park after breakfast then to resort to get ready for MNSSHP.

 

[Haley R]

We also have done breakfast at a resort (Ohana, 1900 PF) on our MNSSHP day. So we had time in between to do what we wanted. One time we went to water park after breakfast then to resort to get ready for MNSSHP.

Oh wow that’s reassuring. I have 1900 pf for 8 or 10:35 so we could go really early and be done or we could sleep in and go a little later

 

[rosysubmarine]

Does anybody know if lockers will be available during DAH? Not being able to enter until around 7PM means I finally get an excuse to try Trader Sam's! The only thing is that I don't want to lug around a souvenir glass all night, so I think stashing it in a locker during the event would be the best idea.

 

[TheFloatingBear]

Does anybody know if lockers will be available during DAH? Not being able to enter until around 7PM means I finally get an excuse to try Trader Sam's! The only thing is that I don't want to lug around a souvenir glass all night, so I think stashing it in a locker during the event would be the best idea.

I was going to post the exact same question, lol! Do not want my tiki glass slowing me down!

 

[Haley R]

Does anyone know how early you can get in with a plastic DAH ticket? I remember someone posted they were able to get in with that instead of using their MBs.

 

[nancy155]

Man what a great idea to hit Trader Sam's first then head into the park!!! Tiki Glass here I come!

Does anybody know if lockers will be available during DAH? Not being able to enter until around 7PM means I finally get an excuse to try Trader Sam's! The only thing is that I don't want to lug around a souvenir glass all night, so I think stashing it in a locker during the event would be the best idea.[/QUOTE

 

[rosysubmarine]

Pre-DAH Tiki Party!

 

[mcurrence]

Does anyone know how early you can get in with a plastic DAH ticket? I remember someone posted they were able to get in with that instead of using their MBs.

We were able to get in with our plastic DAH tickets. Everyone has said we need to go back out to get lanyards at 7.

This? I don't think they ever wrote back but would also love to know too..

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Does anybody know if lockers will be available during DAH? Not being able to enter until around 7PM means I finally get an excuse to try Trader Sam's! The only thing is that I don't want to lug around a souvenir glass all night, so I think stashing it in a locker during the event would be the best idea.

I am going to “assume” that the MK lockers are available during DAH, but I don’t know that for sure.

FWIW, not sure what drink you plan on getting, but quick warning... some of them are quite large in their boxes. I got the Nautilus awhile back, which is probably the largest souvenir glass of any of the options. The box it came in was HUGE. Like massive, relative to the size of the glass itself. Had a heck of a time packing it for the trip home.

I ‘think’ the MK lockers should be big enough to accommodate it, but just something to keep in the back of your mind in case they aren’t.

Have fun!

 

[TheFloatingBear]

I am going to “assume” that the MK lockers are available during DAH, but I don’t know that for sure.

FWIW, not sure what drink you plan on getting, but quick warning... some of them are quite large in their boxes. I got the Nautilus awhile back, which is probably the largest souvenir glass of any of the options. The box it came in was HUGE. Like massive, relative to the size of the glass itself. Had a heck of a time packing it for the trip home.

I ‘think’ the MK lockers should be big enough to accommodate it, but just something to keep in the back of your mind in case they aren’t.

Have fun!

*note to self: order the more portable Shrunken Zombie Head...although to add, the Uh-oh! Is also quite large, I believe...it's kind of a chip and dip....

 

[GADisneyDad14]

*note to self: order the more portable Shrunken Zombie Head...although to add, the Uh-oh! Is also quite large, I believe...it's kind of a chip and dip....

Well the Shrunken Zombie Head is the best (although dangerous) drink there anyway (IMHO), so from me.

And yes, excellent point, the Uh-Oh is very big too!

 

[nancy155]

Pre-DAH Tiki Party!

What date are you going to DAH? I think this is a great idea!

 

[hereforthechurros]

Definitely taking the pre-DAH Trader Sam's approach now that we have extra time

 

[mollygirl13]

My husband and I went to the 1/19 DAH. We had gone to the 1/20/17 one last year. I agree with what others posted, it definitely was more crowded than last year. However, we didn't wait for anything really and did Pan and 7DMT at the end of the night with zero wait. Those did have bigger waits throughout the night so we opted to ride other things that had no wait and just came back later. We ate our fair share of treats and really enjoyed everything. The food/beverage/ice cream lines were much longer than last year but never really took more than 10 minutes to get what we wanted. Around 10:30PM or so, some things were out like water and soda at a few carts but I'm hoping Disney will correct this for the upcoming dates. The CM's were working really hard to get us what we wanted and were really so nice!

We arrived at the tapstiles around 6:30-6:40PM and got right in. We must've timed it just right because there was zero line getting in and we got our lanyards in seconds. I made Fastpasses for us from 6:30-8 pm so we did a few rides before DAH actually started.

We timed it perfectly that we rode Dumbo just as the Fireworks were going off and it was indeed magical. We then walked over to Beast's Castle and the Photopass gal took 17 photos (there was no-one around) of us during the Fireworks and captured the most amazing and gorgeous photos of my husband and I!

We were able to go on pretty much everything we wanted with zero wait and really enjoy the park with no large crowds. Yes, the crowds were larger than last year but it was still pretty empty. Not "I had Main Street all to myself empty" but very nice nonetheless. We are going again for my birthday in Feb and I can't wait to go again. We were lucky enough to not have encountered any of the glitches I read about from others' reports as we really did have a perfect evening. We really had a great night and felt very lucky to be able to attend!

 

[rosysubmarine]

I am going to “assume” that the MK lockers are available during DAH, but I don’t know that for sure.

FWIW, not sure what drink you plan on getting, but quick warning... some of them are quite large in their boxes. I got the Nautilus awhile back, which is probably the largest souvenir glass of any of the options. The box it came in was HUGE. Like massive, relative to the size of the glass itself. Had a heck of a time packing it for the trip home.

I ‘think’ the MK lockers should be big enough to accommodate it, but just something to keep in the back of your mind in case they aren’t.

Have fun!

I've been saying "no I shouldn't, but yes I should" to the Nautilus for like... two years now. I'm such a huge 20k Leagues fan, ehehe. But it's really good to know about the box. Maybe I should save my sanity and my dollars and get a smaller drink while just toasting to the sub, instead. Thank you so much for the info!

What date are you going to DAH? I think this is a great idea!

I'm going on March 30th. I think it'd be super-fun to have a pre-DAH party! We have a reservation for tea at the Grand Floridian, then we were going to head over.

 

[The_Big_Goof]

Hello everyone, first I would like to say thanks to everyone for reporting about their trips this past Friday -a lot of great info and very helpful for my trip in March. I had one question, I saw others posting information about signing up for fast passes the day of their trip (insinuating they were only going to the park for DAH). My question is can you sign up for fast passes with only a DAH ticket? We are there for a short trip, Tues-Friday with DAH on the Thursday of our trip. I have a 3 day park hopper and have already signed up for FP for Tuesday, Weds, and Friday. If I sign up for Thursday FP's (the day I plan on only attending DAH and not entering that park until the time it starts) does that negate any of my other fast passes for Friday?

Thanks again.

 

[Bwilson]

Hello everyone, first I would like to say thanks to everyone for reporting about their trips this past Friday -a lot of great info and very helpful for my trip in March. I had one question, I saw others posting information about signing up for fast passes the day of their trip (insinuating they were only going to the park for DAH). My question is can you sign up for fast passes with only a DAH ticket? We are there for a short trip, Tues-Friday with DAH on the Thursday of our trip. I have a 3 day park hopper and have already signed up for FP for Tuesday, Weds, and Friday. If I sign up for Thursday FP's (the day I plan on only attending DAH and not entering that park until the time it starts) does that negate any of my other fast passes for Friday?

Thanks again.

I was able to make FP with our DAH card tickets. We are going this Friday. Still seemed to be plenty of FP available for the evening. Still hoping to get in earlier than 6:30-7:00 though.