Villain's After Hours Trip Report!!!!!!!!!
I went to the VAH Party on Friday, February 14th, and was only concerned with doing the rides. I would have preferred to do the normal After Hours Event since it sounds like those lines are shorter, but I flew out on Monday night so I wasn't able to take advantage of that. I figured I would just pay the extra surcharge for the Villain's event since it fit in my schedule even if I wasn't going to do any Villain's events. Before my trip, I managed to get a FP for Meet Mickey Mouse at Town Square, Enchanted Tales with Belle, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
Magic Kingdom's hours were 9AM to 10PM and the VAH exclusive hours were 10PM to 1AM.
5:00PM: Flight lands in MCO, and I take an Uber to the TTC, and then take the express monorail to the Magic Kingdom.
The first time I came to Disney World, I stayed on property so I took the buses to MK, so this was my first time being at the TTC and taking the monorail, and going through the Contemporary was so cool! It was so neat to see Chef Mickeys and all the characters walking around.
6:44PM: Arrive at Magic Kingdom and check into the Villain's event. They had a few tapstiles specifically reserved for VAH attendees which was nice, and there was also no wait at this time.
6:55PM: Get in FP+ line for Mickey Mouse (standby was a posted 25 min)
I decided to get a FP for Mickey Mouse and Enchanted Tales with Belle because they don't have any character meet and greets during the event. I also have never met Mickey Mouse at Town Square so that was fun!
7:12PM: Exit Mickey Mouse Meet and Greet
7:16PM: Get a castle photo from a photopass photographer, and then wander around Main street and Tomorrowland to enjoy the ambiance while I waited for Happily Ever After.
7:30PM: As a single traveler, it was fairly easy to get a good spot in the hub for Happily Ever After. I had a FP for Belle from 7:30-8:30 so I positioned myself close to Fantasyland bridge so I wouldn't have to fight too hard after the show ended.
7:40PM: At this point, the rain started and I was cursing myself for leaving my raincoat in the hotel room!
8:00PM: First time watching Happily Ever After and it was amazing! One of my favorite shows, and the music is just so great. I enjoyed every minute of it, and it was worth getting drizzled on for a solid 20 minutes.
8:20PM: Show ends, walk to enchanted Tales with belle
8:28PM: I entered the FP+ line, but there was not a single person in the standby queue. If you're planning on doing this attraction at this hour, I would save your FP for something else. It was a fun show though, and the enchanted mirror was Awesome!
8:47PM: Exit show
At this point, it started getting pretty chilly and stayed that way for the rest of the night. So be sure to bring warm clothing and check the weather for your night!
8:50PM: Enter 7DMT FP+ line (standby was posted at 50 min wait). While in line for 7DMT, I snagged a small world FP+ which turned out to be useless. I actually felt that 7DMT was more fun than Big Thunder! The ride is so much more smooth, has a fun dark ride section, and feels pretty thrilling going down some of those drops!
9:02PM: Exit 7DMT (standby now a 90 min wait)
9:06PM: Enter Little Mermaid (walk on). This is one of my favorite rides, and I love the outdoor theming and rockwork compared to DCA
9:16PM: Exit little mermaid
9:24PM: Enter small world FP+ line (standby is walk on)
9:43PM: Exit small world
9:47PM: Get in line for Haunted Mansion (20 min posted standby wait)
10:00PM: Board ride. In hindsight, I should have gotten a Haunted Mansion FP instead of small world, because there was a solid 15 min wait.
10:07PM: Exit Haunted Mansion
10:08PM: At this point, I was starving so I went to one of the vendors outside HM to get some ice cream, and the line was super long. Fortunately, since no one had to pay, it went pretty quick. But I would recommend getting food a bit later, like 30-45 minutes into the party, because as soon as the party starts, everyone lines up to get free food.
10:17PM: Enter BTM (1 train wait)
10:27PM: Exit BTM
10:28PM: Enter BTM (8 min wait)
10:40PM: Exit BTM
10:45PM: Enter queue for pirates (11 min wait)
10:56PM: Board Pirates
11:04PM: Exit Pirates, get Mickey Premium Bar. Make sure your food is frozen! A lot of the CMs were leaving the boxes of ice cream bars outside to make it easier to hand them out to guests, but as soon as I picked up my mickey premium bar, the stick detached from the ice cream! It was almost half melted!
11:13PM At this point, I entered 7DMT with a 30 minute posted wait. I figured that since the stage show was at 11PM, this would be the shortest wait of the night, and I was right. The wait time went up to 35 min after this.
11:40PM: Board 7DMT(27 min wait)
11:45: Exit 7DMT (35 min posted wait)
11:48PM: Enter Peter Pan queue (15 min posted wait, 8 min actual wait)
12:00AM: Exit Peter Pan
12:03AM: Enter Pooh (walk on, 5 min posted wait)
12:08AM: Exit Pooh
12:12AM: Enter Space Mountain (20 min posted wait, 18 min actual wait)
12:34AM: Exit Space Mountain
12:38AM: Enter people mover (walk on)
12:49AM: Exit People Mover
1:01AM: Leave MK
1:20AM: Arrive at TTC via monorail
Overall, I had an enjoyable time at VAH, but if I could redo my trip, I probably would not have paid the $155 or so for the ticket for a few reasons.
1) First, although I accomplished basically all the rides I wanted to, I was disappointed by how long some of the lines were, especially since I had read trip reports from last year about much shorter wait times. I don't know if they were selling more tickets, or if it was because it was Valentine's Day + President's Day Weekend, but it seemed more crowded than I expected. For example, the line for Space Mountain was stretched past the entrance, and we shuffled slowly all the way through the entire queue until we boarded. This may have just been my expectations being too high though - so that's my fault.
2) Second, this is not really a VAH thing, but I just went to
Disneyland in December, so I guess I was disappointed by the rides at MK. I feel like Small World, Big Thunder, Pirates, Space Mountain, Buzz, and Peter Pan were all so much better at Disneyland. The wonderful facade and outdoor portion in small world. The fun exciting ending to Big Thunder. The extra scenes and blue bayou ambiance in pirates. The smoothness of Space Mountain. And the projections and effects on peter Pan. This isn't really relevant to VAH, but I guess it kind of contributed to my disappointment about the value I was receiving.
3) Third, I wasn't prepared for the cold weather and rain! This was totally my fault so I should have prepared better, but it made it a little more uncomfortable than I wanted
4) Finally, I got up at 6AM on Sat/Sun/Mon to go to Hollywood Studios for Rise of the Resistance, so I was exhausted by the end of my trip. Getting so little sleep is not fun, but again, my fault for scheduling it this way!
In hindsight, it probably made more sense for me to add a 4th day to my ticket for less than $155, and enjoy the fireworks, meet and greets, 7DMT, and a few other rides before heading back to the hotel for some extra hours of sleep. It was more of an oversight on my part, and I'll use it as a lessons learned when planning for future Disney World trips!
on my sons birthday. He is not really into villains, but he might have fun with all the snacks and walk on rides.
10pm start time for the event? I seem to have read that we would be allowed in at 7pm. Is that correct for the 10pm event start time?
