The return of AFTER DARK! Sweethearts, Villains, and Star Wars

[got2travel]

We did that for the Merriest Nights party during the mix-in period but then we had to wait in an insanely long in-park check-in line for the party (at Launch Bay). In retrospect it would have been better to go out the front gate and come in again just using the party tickets (we had used our Magic Keys at the monorail entrance).

Hmm since you used your Magic Key for entrance I’m still not sure if I can use it with my party tix.

I figure with 3 hours of mix in time we can check back at the party check in if there are long lines.

I guess I’ll just play it by ear tomorrow.

 

[HairyChest]

Ive been hearing some really good things about this event online…

https://twitter.com/x/status/1488782364410974209

 

[Gypsybear]

Does anyone know if you can use the Downtown Disney Monorail entrance for the Sweethearts party? I know that the GC entrance can be used for the parties at DCA but haven’t seen anything about the DL parties.

Hmmm, I thought the monorail was down until further notice. Did I miss something?

 

[disneylover102]

Hmmm, I thought the monorail was down until further notice. Did I miss something?

The monorail is down from February 14th to March 6th. You can see that on the app

 

[Gypsybear]

The monorail is down from February 14th to March 6th. You can see that on the app

Thank you, I did miss that.

 

[Gypsybear]

So, did anyone do the Villains event and like it? I haven't seen much discussion about the Villains event. We did the SW event earlier this month. We're trying to see how the Villains event went, so we can try and plan for it (in case they do it again next year).

 

[Vala]

So, did anyone do the Villains event and like it? I haven't seen much discussion about the Villains event. We did the SW event earlier this month. We're trying to see how the Villains event went, so we can try and plan for it (in case they do it again next year).

I did. It was still distanced, so take whatever I am posting with a grain of salt.

I liked it, although I had a feeling it was tossed together on short notice and they really didn't know what they would be doing themselves.

Lines for food - which we had really been looking forward to - were ridiculously long, to the point where they actually used those "the end of the line is here" signs. I had 10 items on my "want to try" list any managed 1 because my priority were characters.

What I hated most is that they didn't announce the name of the characters, not even on the map. Not even remote hints like "Disney Afternoon" as they had done for Oogie Boogie Bash. The names eventually popped up on the app - which is the main reason for my "they didn't know" theory. I got lucky and caught the rare ones (for me) because I had decided to start out in the most remote location. Also some of the meets started only half an hour after official party start, which is a long delay considering the party was pretty short anyway.

Characters were alternating and sometimes the pairings were not the best choices. Like Jafar switching off with Live Action Maleficent, or Yzma with the Hag from Snow White. For some reason almost everyone was trying to let others go in front for Jafar, you'd never have guessed.

The "merchandise" was cheap and sold out anyway.

The athmosphere felt a bit like a light version of Oogie Boogie Bash, one that tried to be more grown up if that makes sense. The "grown up" goes both in postive and negative sense - quite a number of drunks. The "Club Bald Mountain" show was hysterical. Only caught a bit of the Hades stage thing because I don't deal with loud basses too well, but was lucky and got a pic with Ursula at the Karaoke.

Overall yes, I liked it. If you are into characters go for it, so many rare ones. If you've done Star Wars you get an idea about the lines, it was a little less bad I would say.

 

[Gypsybear]

I did. It was still distanced, so take whatever I am posting with a grain of salt.

I liked it, although I had a feeling it was tossed together on short notice and they really didn't know what they would be doing themselves.

Lines for food - which we had really been looking forward to - were ridiculously long, to the point where they actually used those "the end of the line is here" signs. I had 10 items on my "want to try" list any managed 1 because my priority were characters.

What I hated most is that they didn't announce the name of the characters, not even on the map. Not even remote hints like "Disney Afternoon" as they had done for Oogie Boogie Bash. The names eventually popped up on the app - which is the main reason for my "they didn't know" theory. I got lucky and caught the rare ones (for me) because I had decided to start out in the most remote location. Also some of the meets started only half an hour after official party start, which is a long delay considering the party was pretty short anyway.

Characters were alternating and sometimes the pairings were not the best choices. Like Jafar switching off with Live Action Maleficent, or Yzma with the Hag from Snow White. For some reason almost everyone was trying to let others go in front for Jafar, you'd never have guessed.

The "merchandise" was cheap and sold out anyway.

The athmosphere felt a bit like a light version of Oogie Boogie Bash, one that tried to be more grown up if that makes sense. The "grown up" goes both in postive and negative sense - quite a number of drunks. The "Club Bald Mountain" show was hysterical. Only caught a bit of the Hades stage thing because I don't deal with loud basses too well, but was lucky and got a pic with Ursula at the Karaoke.

Overall yes, I liked it. If you are into characters go for it, so many rare ones. If you've done Star Wars you get an idea about the lines, it was a little less bad I would say.

Thanks for that!! I was wondering how it went. The Star Wars event, for us, was a hit and a miss. Like you mentioned LONG lines for characters. Insanely long. We waited in one line for an hour and a half PAST her scheduled start time. When the park closed, she still hadn't shown up, and the CMs had no idea what was going on.

The merch, well, that to me was a bust. We had 500+ people ahead of us in the queue. By the time we got our message to show up, there was very little merch left. The irritating part was that the next day, it was on ShopDisney. So nothing special there, and again, they didn't really tell us anything. One CM was convinced that we'd love the tees. Um, no, we didn't.

The food was sooooo hard to get hold of. Tried ordering online from Ronto Roasters. At 8:30. The party "officially" starts at 9:00. They were sold out of everything before 8:30. Irritating.

At least they gave us maps that had the character meet locations. So they had that part down. Just seems like nothing else was understood by the CMs.

The fireworks were well executed. However, we had 2 different CMs arguing about where THEY put us for the fireworks viewing. One moved us to another location. The 2nd CM saw us a couple of mins later and told us we couldn't be there. We told him that we were moved there. He went and had an argument with the 1st CM. Then, they let people watch from the original spot we had acquired in the first place, while we got semi blocked viewing. Again, this added to the feeling that they didn't have it (the party) together.

Did we like it. We got some good photopass shots, and managed some barely passable food from Jolly Holiday Bakery. So we managed to salvage some of the night. But overall, there are definite things I would do differently, now that I know what to expect (it was our first After Hours event on the west coast).

 

[Vala]

Yeah, I fully agree about Star Wars. I went on 5/4. Got lucky, my flight voucher from the 2020 trip that never happened covered both flights.

I had done the merch run in the mornings after hearing nothing special was out for the parties in order to save some time. Two of my friends freaked out about the shirts, so they did have fans.

I'm sorry to hear you got hit in the Ahsoka drama. She was our main want as well. Again we got lucky and saw CMs putting up a backdrop, and when we asked security we were directly told she would not be showing up that day either.

Friends who cared about food grabbed the mobile order slots as soon as they became available. The Christmas parties had the same issue, so they rushed. I only grabbed that Hot Dog from Refreshment Corner towards the end of the night when my blood sugar suddenly took a nosedive. The only thing that had tickled my fancy was at Jolly Holiday, and those slots were gone too fast.

Didn't see the fireworks. Well saw like 4 rockets. When the Ahsoka priority collapsed we ended up in line at Tomorrowland Terrace for the Dark Side and seeing we just made the switch between Maul and Palpatine there was no chance in the universe I was giving up that spot.

The most ridiculous thing at that point were the lines for the backdrops, and the estimates CMs were giving. My friend really wanted Jabba's Palace. Okay, fine - CM estimated 20 minutes. Took us over an hour to get through that line. For a backdrop.

Got the Droids done and then headed for Town Square. By the time we had met Seventh Sister and saw the Saber March our other friend had finally conquered the Ewoks line, after over 2 hours and was in line at Small World for the Jawas because the Droid line was cut off already.

In the Ezra/Sabine line it was my turn to get yelled at then. Well yelled at again. It had happened before, in the Dark Side line. I think by the end of the event the CMs were starting to panic because the photo lines were still long. Don't get me wrong. I love seeing the costumes, especially groups. But if you tolerate the Skywalker family doing a group pic with Darth Vader and then going through every possible combination - Luke/Leia with Darth, Leia/Han with Darth, Leia/Ben Solo with Darth etc. - then it is completely out of line to yell at the photographer of a solo Jedi for "taking so much time" when said photographer asks for a quick solo shot of just the characters. I took 2 exactly, like the Photopass people, one horizontal and one vertical. One camera, no switches, all settings tried and tested. The CM at the Ezra/Sabine line even loudly complained afterwards that I "wasn't being fair" because "Photopass had already taken an extra picture of me." Yeah like I could tell he had taken 3 instead of the standard 2 with no flash going off. I consider myself very relaxed, but I did mention that explicitly in the survey I got.

In general Photopass was on the weird side. The Palpatine guy did not take any Photopass photos of me and my friend (with the pro camera), but did take pictures of our other friend (with just the phone). We had problems at the last After Dark Events. They never replied to my friend when her Christmas Carol photos from the Chritmas party never appeared, and same friend's King Leonidas photos never appeared after the Villains event either. For that one Photopass has been asking for the same info for 5 times now. So no more character lines without safety shots for us.

 

[Gypsybear]

I had done the merch run in the mornings after hearing nothing special was out for the parties in order to save some time. Two of my friends freaked out about the shirts, so they did have fans.

I'm glad someone got something special

I'm sorry to hear you got hit in the Ahsoka drama. She was our main want as well. Again we got lucky and saw CMs putting up a backdrop, and when we asked security we were directly told she would not be showing up that day either.

Funny how I didn't mention Ahsoka, and yet you nailed it. We were there 5/3 (the first night)....they kept alluding to her coming, over and over again....but no luck.

Friends who cared about food grabbed the mobile order slots as soon as they became available. The Christmas parties had the same issue, so they rushed. I only grabbed that Hot Dog from Refreshment Corner towards the end of the night when my blood sugar suddenly took a nosedive. The only thing that had tickled my fancy was at Jolly Holiday, and those slots were gone too fast.

I tried. It was crazy on the food.

Didn't see the fireworks. Well saw like 4 rockets. When the Ahsoka priority collapsed we ended up in line at Tomorrowland Terrace for the Dark Side and seeing we just made the switch between Maul and Palpatine there was no chance in the universe I was giving up that spot.

We got Palpatine and of course Vader....we missed Maul....we were in line so long, they switched a couple of times before it was our turn. We actually got LOTS of pics with these guys. With the Photopass photographer. Didn't use our phones, which was living dangerously, I know....lol

The most ridiculous thing at that point were the lines for the backdrops, and the estimates CMs were giving. My friend really wanted Jabba's Palace. Okay, fine - CM estimated 20 minutes. Took us over an hour to get through that line. For a backdrop.

Yes, these definitely were. We waited in line like 25 mins for this same one.

In the Ezra/Sabine line it was my turn to get yelled at then. Well yelled at again. It had happened before, in the Dark Side line. I think by the end of the event the CMs were starting to panic because the photo lines were still long. Don't get me wrong. I love seeing the costumes, especially groups. But if you tolerate the Skywalker family doing a group pic with Darth Vader and then going through every possible combination - Luke/Leia with Darth, Leia/Han with Darth, Leia/Ben Solo with Darth etc. - then it is completely out of line to yell at the photographer of a solo Jedi for "taking so much time" when said photographer asks for a quick solo shot of just the characters. I took 2 exactly, like the Photopass people, one horizontal and one vertical. One camera, no switches, all settings tried and tested. The CM at the Ezra/Sabine line even loudly complained afterwards that I "wasn't being fair" because "Photopass had already taken an extra picture of me." Yeah like I could tell he had taken 3 instead of the standard 2 with no flash going off. I consider myself very relaxed, but I did mention that explicitly in the survey I got.

UGH.....sorry you had that happen.

In general Photopass was on the weird side. The Palpatine guy did not take any Photopass photos of me and my friend (with the pro camera), but did take pictures of our other friend (with just the phone). We had problems at the last After Dark Events. They never replied to my friend when her Christmas Carol photos from the Chritmas party never appeared, and same friend's King Leonidas photos never appeared after the Villains event either. For that one Photopass has been asking for the same info for 5 times now. So no more character lines without safety shots for us.

We had about 9 shots with Vader....and about 12 shots with Palpatine, as I recall.

As I mentioned, I'd do it again, but with a different plan of attack, knowing what I know now. It was definitely a learning experience.

 

[Vala]

I'm glad someone got something special

I wasn't a big fan of the merchandise myself either. But the guys loved their shirts, and a friend home was over the moon with his Chewie Wishable.

Funny how I didn't mention Ahsoka, and yet you nailed it. We were there 5/3 (the first night)....they kept alluding to her coming, over and over again....but no luck.

There could only be one. lol That was the scandal of the night for sure. So many people upset. Could only be her.

We got Palpatine and of course Vader....we missed Maul....we were in line so long, they switched a couple of times before it was our turn. We actually got LOTS of pics with these guys. With the Photopass photographer. Didn't use our phones, which was living dangerously, I know....lol

I had luckily met Maul at Star Wars Weekends in WDW and my friend would have been okay seeing either of the two, so it worked out well for us. We had timed it perfectly and hit the first switch, three groups in front of us.

UGH.....sorry you had that happen.

Thank you. It was so out of the blue and totally unnecessary. I've seen attendees do private photo calls when asking this, but by the time she started nagging I was done, and she saw me taking the two photos I mentioned. Panic makes people do weird things.

We had about 9 shots with Vader....and about 12 shots with Palpatine, as I recall.

As I mentioned, I'd do it again, but with a different plan of attack, knowing what I know now. It was definitely a learning experience.

We have the 2/3 combination for all meets but Jabba's Palace. lol Jabba has 4 for me, 2 together and 3 for him for some reason.

Same thing for me, if I get the chance I would definitely consider doing it again.

 

[Punkrockbebop]

Just a question, do they let people in early at the after hours parties in DL like they have in the past in WDW? The Star Wars party tomorrow officially starts at 9, but when do they start letting people in? 7?

 

[sophy1996]

Just a question, do they let people in early at the after hours parties in DL like they have in the past in WDW? The Star Wars party tomorrow officially starts at 9, but when do they start letting people in? 7?

Yes, starting at 6.

 

[Gypsybear]

Yes, starting at 6.

Yes, this. Be aware that if you don't have a park ticket for the DAY, you're going to really need to jump on those dining options as soon as you arrive, or you'll be snacking on candy.

 

[Punkrockbebop]

Thank you, we jumped on a quick service order immediately when we arrived, just so we didn’t starve.