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

[Thomasfouraker]

We went a little early, around 6:30. No issues getting lanyards at the turnstyles and no problems with us getting my mothers ticket at the TTC. I was a little worried since we purchased it through my wifes account and it gave us the AP discount on every ticket we purchased. When I read the email, it stated that the passholder had to present their passholder ID to obtain the ticket at the discounted rate. Since it was purchased under my wifes name, we went to the TTC, they confirmed my wifes ID, handed my mom a media card and she was able to do all the FP we had scheduled on the app. It was as easy as it could have possibly been.

HEA is very packed. Thats good and bad. It stinks that it is essentially "shoulder to shoulder" but the good part is it will bring in prospective how empty the park is during DAH in comparison to what it is during normal operating hours.

I think your husband will be pleasantly surprised. I am not a crowd person myself. We plan our trips around the slowest days always during mid week to avoid crowds as lofty as a goal that might be.

There are areas that you literally don't see anyone in front or behind you. Around Gastons and between Pirates and Frontierland totally deserted each time we passed through.

When you have a double stroller, a four year old and a one year old, you don't take that for granted!

 

[igrsod]

My quick little report of my trip with my daughter. Our flight was delayed by soooo much 03/01.. it was frustrating and sad. These things happen I guess. We were supposed to do afternoon tea and then casually go to MK for 6. We were still in Toronto when our tea time was scheduled. Needless to say, we cancelled tea and when we arrived at CSR, we checked our luggage at bell services and took a lyft over to MK in time to see the end of HEA from the monorail. We then had to wait at Guest Services to activate our annual pass and Canadian tickets. We got through the gates just after 8pm, a little bummed, but mostly excited to be there.


We went to tomorrow land. We went to Buzz through the regular line, as FP line wasn't open to DAH guests. It took all of 5 minutes to go through the line.
Then we rode People Mover because we love it and wanted to live dangerously. When we got off People Mover, the party had officially started.
We went straight over to the food cart in front of Space Mountain (we were starving as we hadn't eaten since lunch at the airport... who says ice cream and popcorn aren't a meal), we each got a frozen treat, popcorn and a drink.

We then rode SM, no wait at all...
We then got another frozen treat same cart, and made our way across the park to HM.
Rode HM, very fun.
Got another treat at a cart nearby and walked to Splash
Walked on that no wait at all.
Then rode BTMRR... 5 min wait.
Got some popcorn and walked to Fantasyland.
Bathroom break at Rapunzel... the lantern Photos were being done. The line for that was the longest we saw all night. We opted not to do it, and made our own at the Little Mermaid.
Rode IASM, no wait... many empty boats
Rode Winnie the Pooh... they asked if we wanted to go again, we declined as time was running out and we still had things to do.
Rode Little Mermaid... same as IASM
Watched Philharmagic, we did not move to the end of our row. lol
By this time it was close to Midnight... so we decided after a long travel day, we would call it a night. We made decisions not to do certain rides, as we had another day at MK later in our stay with FPs.
The bus back to the resort was waiting for us and left before the crowds emptied out, we were so grateful.
We LOVED our experience. It was very easy to get used to getting whatever you wanted from the carts with no cash or MB transaction. We would do this event in a heart beat. Even though it was a sold out event. It never felt crowded and we did anything that we wanted, never felt like any line was too long.

 

[ScottKC]

Hi!, Been lurking on this thread for a long time, but finally signed up because I'm excited to be going to the 3/8/2018 party. It's been fun reading about everyone's experiences. Can't wait for Thursday...we will be kicking off our oldest son's birthday month with a Disney World trip built around the After Hours Party.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Here is what I took away from my 3/1 DAH event as compared to my 1/30 DAH event.

Disney has got their act together in getting non event goers out of the park quickly after park official close. This did not happen on 1/30. They had MULTIPLE cast members that typically help navigate people for fireworks not letting people back into the land areas from the castle area after the fireworks were over. Anyone without a lanyard was told to go to the front. I seen this first hand as they had no fewer than 2 castmembers on each pathway back into the ride areas sending people towards the front. Although this event was sold out and the 1/30 event was not, this one felt less crowded earlier on. On 1/30 I seen them turning people away at rides but nothing else.

Like others reported, everything was walk on/stay on aside from 7DMT and Peter Pan. Cart services were quick. Lantern photos were available as late as 11:45 from when we left the area.


I did notice that the park in general seemed less crowded than the end of Jan. event prior to park closing. BTMRR was basically walk on around 7:45 as was Splash. I think my crew did BTMRR 2x and Splash 2X in a period of 30 minutes or so.

We were on the last ferry ride of the night around 12:45 after Meeting Mickey at 12:25 and there was still a photographer taking empty castle pictures at 12:35.

Both events were great but I can see the benefit of going in the later dates as it allows time to "work the kinks out" of how to operate the event smoothly. Regardless I feel it is worth the price of admission and a must do for anyone who finds themselves in the area while the event is going on.

If tickets were still available for Thursday, my family and I would probably make a third trip and we are AP that go typically once a month. This event is that good.....at least to us.

Love your Main Street Castle pic!

 

[mcurrence]

It looks like Thursday’s weather is going to be a little cooler — high of 66, low 43.

For those of you who did DAH on a chillier night, any suggestions about what to wear? How warmly did you have to dress?

We were there on 1/30 and I think the high was 62? My girls wore long sleeved shirts with puffy jackets and tights/yoga pants. They ended up wearing gloves that I brought for them We would try to alternate between outdoor and indoor rides if we got too cold but it was fine for us. Have fun!!

 

[Thomasfouraker]

Love your Main Street Castle pic!

Thanks! It was really empty. When we got back to the TTC, the security guard said "Wow, yall really shut that place down, nothing like being the last ones out!"

We seen two other cars in the entire parking lot. It was a neat experience!

Wish the tickets were still selling for the 8th.

 

[zillayen]

Does HEA run from 7:55 to about 8:13? Got a 7:30-8:30 BTMRR FP and want to time it right. Trying to figure out the best way to shoehorn Splash, BTM and Jungle Cruise into that last hour, hour and a half before DAH.

I'll be there Thursday, GaDisneyDad!

We were there on 3/1 and walked straight to BTMRR after HAE. We rode it 2x in a row standby with no wait and were on our way to 7DMT by 835.

 

[kiwi2013]

Sorry if this has been asked...so looking forward to march 8 but I have a couple of questions...during after hours are PhotoPass photographers out ( specifically the lanterns and the the new one in front of tea cups)and are characters other than princesses out....

 

[Thomasfouraker]

Sorry if this has been asked...so looking forward to march 8 but I have a couple of questions...during after hours are PhotoPass photographers out ( specifically the lanterns and the the new one in front of tea cups)and are characters other than princesses out....

Photopass photographers are out. Not quite like during the day but they are available. The lantern photos have been hit or miss from reports. I can say on 3/1 I seen them, on 1/30 I did not. Main street and by the castle were the other main locations I can remember seeing them.

Characters are your normal meet and greets. No characters are out and about. You have Mickey and TinkerBell at the Theatre. Ariel in the grotto, and Cinderella, Elena, Rapunzel and Tiana have been at Princess Fairytell hall. Aside from that, the circus area meet and greet with Minnie, Dasiy, Donald and Goofy is not available during the event.

 

[Haley R]

Sorry if this has been asked...so looking forward to march 8 but I have a couple of questions...during after hours are PhotoPass photographers out ( specifically the lanterns and the the new one in front of tea cups)and are characters other than princesses out....

I believe the only other characters besides the princesses are Mickey, tinker bell, and ariel. We only met the princesses so I don’t know for sure. There are photo pass photographers out during dah. Most of them are just on Main Street in front of the castle. Some people have reported getting to do the lanterns but not every event has had them available. We didn’t do them because we forgot.

 

[MermaidMommy]

We were there on 1/30 and I think the high was 62? My girls wore long sleeved shirts with puffy jackets and tights/yoga pants. They ended up wearing gloves that I brought for them We would try to alternate between outdoor and indoor rides if we got too cold but it was fine for us. Have fun!!

Thank you!

 

[Haley R]

I know it’s blurry but I finally found a way to upload the picture as a smaller file. This was just our first snack stop in Tomorrowland. It was really hard to go back to mk on Saturday and not be able to take what I wanted lol.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Maybe this is shallow of me but everyone who shared photos on this page looks great!

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Maybe this is shallow of me but everyone who shared photos on this page looks great!

How is it shallow? I think it's swett!

 

[Disney.Denise]

On the road for tomorrow's DAH! Boathouse reservation tonight with my 4 grands

Temps tomorrow night at 7pm 54 degrees

I'm wearing this tshirt tomorrow night, if you see me, say hello

 

[to be tink]

So I'm a bit late with my report from 3/1. Our flight home was canceled on 3/2 and we were "stuck" at WDW until late Sunday night. It was a bit weird being there without any plans but we had a chance to do Disney in a more relaxed fashion.

Here goes...
We had done EMH the night before and actually got a lot done so we didn't feel the need to go crazy during DAH. We spent the morning at AK and then took a 3 hour break in the afternoon. We headed over to MK at 6:30pm and entered with our AP. We were hoping to spend a little while doing the Pirate Map thingy but it closed at 6pm. Which I found odd since a lot of the spots have cool light effects that aren't really enjoyable when it's light out.
7pm dinner at Pecos (blah! Quality was horrible.)
Before 9pm
BTMR, 15 minute wait
Splash, basically walk on
Shooting gallery
Went to Liberty Square to pick up our lanyards.
Haunted Mansion, basically walk on
Right around 9pm we headed out to the front of the castle for a picture. I was worried if we didn't do it then it wouldn't happen. I wish I had waited since there were still quite a few non DAH guests hanging around.
Snacks
Space MT. 2X, walk on
Buzz 4X, walk on
Decided to walk over to PP but the wait was posted at 25 min. and we skipped it.
Snacks
Dumbo 2X without getting off, walk on
Space MT. 4X, walk on They had both sides going and earlier we were sent to the FP side (right) where I asked about the short cut to re-ride. They told us we couldn't do that. But this time we went to the regular line (left) and those CM's showed us the short cut. My DS and I would have kept riding all night but DH was waiting this round out and I was starting to feel guilty.
Snacks
Pooh, walk on
PP, walk on I was so excited it was the regular line! I had only ever been through it once so I took my time.
Tangled Lantern Pic, maybe a 10 min wait
By then it was midnight, my DH isn't one to drag his feet leaving so we headed out. We were able to get on the 2nd ferry, about 15/20 min. wait. Once at TTC, we walked back to our room at Poly getting back around 1am.

The crowd level reminded me of EMHs years ago. It wasn't empty but you could get a lot done. It was nice to walk around without feeling like you are going to get run over. I would definitely do this again!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

@to be tink - that Tangled Lantern photo.... PRICELESS!

Thanks for the detailed report!

 

[to be tink]

@to be tink - that Tangled Lantern photo.... PRICELESS!

Thanks for the detailed report!

I think it's my favorite photo from the trip! The photographer was wonderful.

 

[Horizons-1]

So I'm a bit late with my report from 3/1. Our flight home was canceled on 3/2 and we were "stuck" at WDW until late Sunday night. It was a bit weird being there without any plans but we had a chance to do Disney in a more relaxed fashion.

Here goes...
We had done EMH the night before and actually got a lot done so we didn't feel the need to go crazy during DAH. We spent the morning at AK and then took a 3 hour break in the afternoon. We headed over to MK at 6:30pm and entered with our AP. We were hoping to spend a little while doing the Pirate Map thingy but it closed at 6pm. Which I found odd since a lot of the spots have cool light effects that aren't really enjoyable when it's light out.
7pm dinner at Pecos (blah! Quality was horrible.)
Before 9pm
BTMR, 15 minute wait
Splash, basically walk on
Shooting gallery
Went to Liberty Square to pick up our lanyards.
Haunted Mansion, basically walk on
Right around 9pm we headed out to the front of the castle for a picture. I was worried if we didn't do it then it wouldn't happen. I wish I had waited since there were still quite a few non DAH guests hanging around.
Snacks
Space MT. 2X, walk on
Buzz 4X, walk on
Decided to walk over to PP but the wait was posted at 25 min. and we skipped it.
Snacks
Dumbo 2X without getting off, walk on
Space MT. 4X, walk on They had both sides going and earlier we were sent to the FP side (right) where I asked about the short cut to re-ride. They told us we couldn't do that. But this time we went to the regular line (left) and those CM's showed us the short cut. My DS and I would have kept riding all night but DH was waiting this round out and I was starting to feel guilty.
Snacks
Pooh, walk on
PP, walk on I was so excited it was the regular line! I had only ever been through it once so I took my time.
Tangled Lantern Pic, maybe a 10 min wait
By then it was midnight, my DH isn't one to drag his feet leaving so we headed out. We were able to get on the 2nd ferry, about 15/20 min. wait. Once at TTC, we walked back to our room at Poly getting back around 1am.

The crowd level reminded me of EMHs years ago. It wasn't empty but you could get a lot done. It was nice to walk around without feeling like you are going to get run over. I would definitely do this again!

What is the shortcut you are referring to on Space Mountain? I know when they send you to the right, which is usually the FP line, you don't have to wrap behind the glassed in area.

 

[Haley R]

What is the shortcut you are referring to on Space Mountain? I know when they send you to the right, which is usually the FP line, you don't have to wrap behind the glassed in area.

When you get off of the ride look on the wall. You should see either a red or green horizontal line that leads you up a ramp back to the ride. The cm told us we couldn’t do it but we found it on our own and walked back up to the ride. It’s really easy to find!