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

[Scooter2376]

Oh, one other thing I meant to add. There were people without lanyards getting in line for rides until at least 9:00. At BTMR, I finally saw a CM turning people without lanyards away around 9:15, but up until that point CMs didn’t seem to be stopping anyone from getting in line.

Edited to add: my previous post overstates it the issue. I saw one ride where CMs weren’t checking lanyards and one person get rejected at 9:15. I didn’t see tons of people without lanyards riding rides. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.

 

[ziravan]

Would you still say it’s worth it if you couldn’t get in until 7?

Don’t know. I have APs. I planned a day around it.

 

[ziravan]

DD talking with CM in empty IASW line.

 

[poodledogs55]

I can’t remember, what was the order of lands you went through? Did you start in Frontierland? I’m just curious

Also, we probably won’t do jungle cruise, people mover, haunted mansion or tiki room so that would leave us time for other things. It seems like you got pretty lucky with snack lines!

I zigzagged back and forth a lot, but I started at BTMR riding once right before 8pm, then looped counterclockwise to Fantasyland, then Tomorrowland, Adventureland, then around again, ending in Tomorrowland.

I did see some long snack lines, so I guess I did get lucky!

 

[Disney_Princess83]

So you were able to stay in the park 50 minutes after dah was over?

Yes. We walked out of MK at 11.55pm. They were herding us out at that point. All the shops closed at 11pm but Photopass was still out until 1140pm.

 

[Wackdawg]

Finally back from DAH. Well it was an okay event. I did this last year but felt we accomplished more last year then this year for obvious and other reasons. We rode the following rides:
BTMRR-1
Haunted mansion-1
POTC-1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Space mountain-1
Buzz-2
Astro orbiter-1
Plus we had ice cream and soda.

We experienced potc going down and was evacuated for a total of 40 minutes. It totally disrupted the flow of the night and made it difficult to rebound from. We were trapped and stranded right in front of Jacks treasure room for the whole time and was very frustrating not just from being feet from freedom, but because the cast member talking to us from the unloading area was horrible at telling jokes. On top of that the CM from control was almost shouting incoherently over the speakers continuously and laughing on the speaker system could be heard from that CM and others. When help finally arrived the geniuses were discussing and deliberating whether we could make a one foot step from boat to the stage of Jacks treasure room. This frustrated me even further to the point that my wife and I basically told them don’t worry about it and just got off. I got a great selfie of myself and Jack out of it. Later that night I went to guest services just to get some fp’s for tomorrow which they give generously and because I felt the time lost could be compensated that way fairly. However others of course were looking for refunds which I felt wasn’t necessarily needed and found out from other guests that others were losing their minds on the boats jumping up and down on them and screaming while the debacle was going on. Pure craziness on potc and not handled well by cm’s on duty.

Btw. If you can and want to avoid the bus mayhem like we did just go over to contemporary and take a taxi back to your resort. Less stressful and quicker.

 

[Haley R]

Yes. We walked out of MK at 11.55pm. They were herding us out at that point. All the shops closed at 11pm but Photopass was still out until 1140pm.

Oh okay cool. I’ve never seen the kiss goodnight so we will have to see it this trip.

 

[Haley R]

Oh, one other thing I meant to add. There were people without lanyards getting in line for rides until at least 9:00. At BTMR, I finally saw a CM turning people without lanyards away around 9:15, but up until that point CMs didn’t seem to be stopping anyone from getting in line.

That’s horrible! That’s so far into the dah time.

 

[PDXmouse]

Oh, one other thing I meant to add. There were people without lanyards getting in line for rides until at least 9:00. At BTMR, I finally saw a CM turning people without lanyards away around 9:15, but up until that point CMs didn’t seem to be stopping anyone from getting in line.

I really hope you and others express your frustration at Disney for this, so they do better next time. Paying $40 per hour per person for an event that others get (the first hour) for free makes me think twice about paying.

 

[roost0524]

We did dah last year around the same week- there were definitely a noticeably larger number of people this year. Last year we did not wait for anything (at all)- this year Sdmt was 20 minutes around 9:00, Pan had a line, and others were spotty. Still awesome, but not the incredible emptiness last year was. Most everything was no wait or less than 5, but there were just more people. I heard a 4K is sell out- saw a different number posted a few pages back, who knows...

We got in around 6:30, pretty hassle free. We had a 4 year old and two grandparents with us this year, so did not go commando and just enjoyed the time. Still got a lot done.

I would absolutely endorse the event and will do it every chance we get. While my guess is they are getting better responses, or upped the number of tickets- you still get to experience the park in a manner that’s not possible at any other time. If you really want to- it’s possible to get an insane amount of rides in. For the most part, everything is little to no wait.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Oh, one other thing I meant to add. There were people without lanyards getting in line for rides until at least 9:00. At BTMR, I finally saw a CM turning people without lanyards away around 9:15, but up until that point CMs didn’t seem to be stopping anyone from getting in line.

I saw them turning people away at 8:05. And again around 8:15.

 

[PDXmouse]

So we arrive at MCO at 4 pm on 1/26. We’re coming from the west coast, so we’ll be three hours behind but we’ll have been up since 3 am (though we expect to sleep on the plane.)

Would this be worth it? Is it crazy to consider?

Also, we are at Disney for 9 nights and have 9 day park hoppers. If we do DAH will it also use one of our park pass days? It sounds like it’s standalone. Does that mean we can hit the parks a little on our 10th day (the day we leave Disney) if the “first” day uses the DAH instead of a PH ticket?

 

[Mopedmom1]

So we arrive at MCO at 4 pm on 1/26. We’re coming from the west coast, so we’ll be three hours behind but we’ll have been up since 3 am (though we expect to sleep on the plane.)

Would this be worth it? Is it crazy to consider?

Also, we are at Disney for 9 nights and have 9 day park hoppers. If we do DAH will it also use one of our park pass days? It sounds like it’s standalone. Does that mean we can hit the parks a little on our 10th day (the day we leave Disney) if the “first” day uses the DAH instead of a PH ticket?

We come from the West coast as well, getting up at 3 am and landing around 3 pm ET. We usually do something in the parks that night, but not a big event because we are old. Lol. But we also are AP holders so it's not a wasted ticket for us. If it were me.....I would do the DAH on 1/30. Make that day a resort day or go to DS until it's party time. It is a stand alone ticket, so if you don't enter until 7pm you won't waste a day of your 9 day ph.

 

[emtgirl4]

This is my first time doing this event. There was more people then I expected however we accomplished alot with no wait. here is what we did (with a 5 year old in tow and no stroller) in order.
big thunder mountain
pirates of the Caribbean
the magic carpets of Aladdinx2
popcorn and drinks
haunted mansion
peter pan
carousal
pictures on main street
talking mickey
tinker bell
buzz
astro orbiter
tomorrowland speedway
barnstormerx3
met the little mermaid
little mermaid ride.
more pics on main street
7dmt x4
more pics

We got a ton done. I wouldnt go expecting it to be empty or expecting empty castle pictures. I would do this again though. It was fun!!

 

[PDXmouse]

We come from the West coast as well, getting up at 3 am and landing around 3 pm ET. We usually do something in the parks that night, but not a big event because we are old. Lol. But we also are AP holders so it's not a wasted ticket for us. If it were me.....I would do the DAH on 1/30. Make that day a resort day or go to DS until it's party time. It is a stand alone ticket, so if you don't enter until 7pm you won't waste a day of your 9 day ph.

I considered 1/30, but we planned our ADRs and FP’s around rope dropping MK on 1/30 and rope dropping again AK on 1/31. I don’t think we can RD both days and do DAH on the 30th. I worked hard to get that FOP FP on the 31st at 9:25 am so I really don’t want to abandon it...

 

[Haley R]

So we arrive at MCO at 4 pm on 1/26. We’re coming from the west coast, so we’ll be three hours behind but we’ll have been up since 3 am (though we expect to sleep on the plane.)

Would this be worth it? Is it crazy to consider?

Also, we are at Disney for 9 nights and have 9 day park hoppers. If we do DAH will it also use one of our park pass days? It sounds like it’s standalone. Does that mean we can hit the parks a little on our 10th day (the day we leave Disney) if the “first” day uses the DAH instead of a PH ticket?

Honestly if you have 9 day park hoppers I wouldn’t spend the money to do dah. We only have two day tickets for our upcoming trip so that’s why we are doing dah. I don’t think we would pay the extra because we could get everything done with that many park days.

 

[Mopedmom1]

I considered 1/30, but we planned our ADRs and FP’s around rope dropping MK on 1/30 and rope dropping again AK on 1/31. I don’t think we can RD both days and do DAH on the 30th. I worked hard to get that FOP FP on the 31st at 9:25 am so I really don’t want to abandon it...

You most certainly DO NOT want to give up your FOP! Under these parameters I concur with Haley R that you should be able to get everything done in nine days. Spend the money on a fun character breakfast instead!

 

[HoneyHoneyPot]

This is my first time doing this event. There was more people then I expected however we accomplished alot with no wait. here is what we did (with a 5 year old in tow and no stroller) in order.
big thunder mountain
pirates of the Caribbean
the magic carpets of Aladdinx2
popcorn and drinks
haunted mansion
peter pan
carousal
pictures on main street
talking mickey
tinker bell
buzz
astro orbiter
tomorrowland speedway
barnstormerx3
met the little mermaid
little mermaid ride.
more pics on main street
7dmt x4
more pics

We got a ton done. I wouldnt go expecting it to be empty or expecting empty castle pictures. I would do this again though. It was fun!!

What time were you able to do 7dmt so many times?

 

[Scooter2376]

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.

 

[anomamatt]

Oh, one other thing I meant to add. There were people without lanyards getting in line for rides until at least 9:00. At BTMR, I finally saw a CM turning people without lanyards away around 9:15, but up until that point CMs didn’t seem to be stopping anyone from getting in line.

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.