Ugh....Disney After Dark & Crowds

[MrsRyan]

We are arriving late on May 11th and going to MK on the 12th. We picked that because all of the crowd calendars has this as a mid-level crowd day.

We havehad this planned for months, even getting the FP's that we wanted. Now I see that Disney After Dark is that night. Do you think this is going to seriously affect the crowds that day?

 

[CAS239]

I think it'll have minimal effect on the crowds

 

[minnie mum]

And I think just the opposite.

 

[Day-Day]

Disney has announced that the number of tickets available for the event are "limited" but I don't know this number. I suspect that the majority of Disney-After-Dark guests will go somewhere else during the day so it may reduce the number of day guests by a "limited" number.

The MK crowds are typically low during the days when there is a party that starts at 7pm and day guests have to leave at 7pm. There are several factors involved with those days; 1) shorter regular park hours, 2) days guests will visit MK on a different day so they can see fireworks and parade and 3) many party guests will not visit the MK during the day until they can enter with their party ticket. Disney-After-Dark does not close the parks early and still has fireworks and electrical parade so many day guests will still plan to visit the MK.

Since this is a hard schedule, Disney will not have the option to move the closing time to a later hour and they may on days surrounding the Disney-After-Dark days. If they extend hours on these other days and have EMH on these other days, then it would probably cause the day crowds to be lower on the Disney-After-Dark day. These are the usual things that affect the MK crowds and will probably come into play here.

I'm going to guess the day crowds will be slightly lower than they would have been and the MK will become noticeably more crowded at 7pm.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Depends on how many tickets they sell for it.

 

[RaginforDisneyRoy]

We booked for 4/28. I really thought it was a $-grab by Disney, but my wife and I are celebrating our anniversary and wanted to see what it was like to have the park (theoretically) uncrowded. I hope they don't oversell this and if we have to wait 30 minutes to ride 7DMT I'll be upset. We are spoiling ourselves on this trip so we are definitely looking forward to it, although I completely understand the anger. I also agree with people who think this is a precursor to eliminating EMH, which is a real shame. Resort fees, seasonal pricing and fewer resort perks may drive people away.

 

[Jing]

We booked for 4/28. I really thought it was a $-grab by Disney, but my wife and I are celebrating our anniversary and wanted to see what it was like to have the park (theoretically) uncrowded. I hope they don't oversell this and if we have to wait 30 minutes to ride 7DMT I'll be upset. We are spoiling ourselves on this trip so we are definitely looking forward to it, although I completely understand the anger. I also agree with people who think this is a precursor to eliminating EMH, which is a real shame. Resort fees, seasonal pricing and fewer resort perks may drive people away.

Looking forward to your review!

 

[ITALIANNYC]

We are arriving late on May 11th and going to MK on the 12th. We picked that because all of the crowd calendars has this as a mid-level crowd day.

We havehad this planned for months, even getting the FP's that we wanted. Now I see that Disney After Dark is that night. Do you think this is going to seriously affect the crowds that day?

Doubt it. I would assume most people who buy that are simply going to go at night and not during the day, cause imo that completely makes no sense for someone to spend ( and almost waste) money on a night pass AND day pass for that kinda money. I'm sure it will be fine.

 

[Mikie]

My semi-educated guess (based on going about 7 times over the years to MK on party days but not attending the actual party) is that your daytime hours would be about the same as they otherwise would have been. In party season, the day crowd is actually even lighter because they have fewer parades and no fireworks for day guests those days - not a comparable situation for this after hours event because day tickets will still get you viewing for parades and fireworks. The event hours where day guests and night event guests overlap (7-10 or 7-11) I'd expect to be more crowded than they otherwise would have been - no natural "tapering off" of crowds and less opportunity for getting shorter ride lines in the last hour of two of regular park operation. If this event is "oversold", as parties have become, you might see quite an INcrease in crowds from 7-close.

 

[RaginforDisneyRoy]

Overbooking definitely a concern I have. Disney claims this is a very limited event, but I'm a bit skeptical. I'll report on it after the 28th. According to the website, https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/magic-kingdom/disney-after-hours/ a few major attractions are listed, with "much, much more." We will see. For the holiday parties, they are very well-attended and I think that leads to bigger crowds as the regular hours come to a close. This, however, is billed as something different. I hope it is.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Without knowing the capacity of Disney After Dark, there's no way to anticipate that. It's reported to be a limited attendance event, but almost nobody here believes that.

 

[VillainFavs]

During the day - no difference.

Overlap hours - huge difference. Those who have paid for the After Hours party can arrive at 7:00 and you better believe they're going to get there early to get their money's worth.

Day guests who have no idea about the after hours party are going to be there until regular closing time at 10:00 or 11:00 (whatever it is that day).

 

[VillainFavs]

Without knowing the capacity of Disney After Dark, there's no way to anticipate that. It's reported to be a limited attendance event, but almost nobody here believes that.

"Limited" could mean 10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000 or 40,000. No one has any idea. "Limited" just means less than capacity.

 

[dledger]

"Limited" could mean 10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000 or 40,000. No one has any idea. "Limited" just means less than capacity.

I agree with this! Limited just means at a certain point they will stop selling tickets. In no way does "limited" have to mean they're going to sell only 5,000 or even 10,000 tickets. Technically every day at the magic kingdom has "limited capacity"... Once they reach a certain number they have to stop letting in more people. With the Disney after Dark this just means they'll only sell a particular amount of tickets, which for now is undisclosed.

 

[Virtucomp]

During the day - no difference.

Overlap hours - huge difference. Those who have paid for the After Hours party can arrive at 7:00 and you better believe they're going to get there early to get their money's worth.

Day guests who have no idea about the after hours party are going to be there until regular closing time at 10:00 or 11:00 (whatever it is that day).

I'm assuming this will be just like the Halloween and Christmas parties. If you don't have a ticket you have to leave. I think the majority of people visiting will have no clue that the park is closing early and go about their normal plan. Then when they find out they have to leave they will scream about it. You can't have a hard ticket event but let people stay that didn't get a ticket. This new event is advertised on web sites but not in the news or on the TV ads. Most people don't spend as much time as we do researching the park.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

They said the "Villians" event a couple of summers ago at HS was "limited". What a cluster....

 

[VillainFavs]

They said the "Villians" event a couple of summers ago at HS was "limited". What a cluster....

I was there for that one. If that was limited, I'd hate to see unlimited!

 

[pcdesmond]

I'm assuming this will be just like the Halloween and Christmas parties. If you don't have a ticket you have to leave. I think the majority of people visiting will have no clue that the park is closing early and go about their normal plan. Then when they find out they have to leave they will scream about it. You can't have a hard ticket event but let people stay that didn't get a ticket. This new event is advertised on web sites but not in the news or on the TV ads. Most people don't spend as much time as we do researching the park.

I was under the impression that the park will be closing at normal time, either 10 or 11pm, and the ticket is just for an extra 3 hours. Those with a ticket are allowed to enter at 7pm, but I didn't think everyone else will have to leave at this time? Is that correct??

 

[MakiraMarlena]

Regular guests won't have to leave the park at 7. They'll have to leave at 10 or 11, whatever the regular closing time is. The park is not closing early the way it does during the Halloween and Christmas parties.

 

[Nancyg56]

I'm assuming this will be just like the Halloween and Christmas parties. If you don't have a ticket you have to leave. I think the majority of people visiting will have no clue that the park is closing early and go about their normal plan. Then when they find out they have to leave they will scream about it. You can't have a hard ticket event but let people stay that didn't get a ticket. This new event is advertised on web sites but not in the news or on the TV ads. Most people don't spend as much time as we do researching the park.

I am guessing that as well. I think that the park will be slightly less than normal crowds until about 7 when the after hours folks wil be allowed in. Then the number will increase for those hours til closing.

I was under the impression that the park will be closing at normal time, either 10 or 11pm, and the ticket is just for an extra 3 hours. Those with a ticket are allowed to enter at 7pm, but I didn't think everyone else will have to leave at this time? Is that correct??

I read that the ticket holders wil be allowed in at 7 and that when the park closes at normal times, they will have access to the attractions that are opened and whatever "extra's" are included. I also read that the pak will not have a hard close in the same way that Party night closing occur. People can still eat and shop and use the bathrooms. WE will see how the reality is.