Visiting a park strategy before AH party

[mjb347]

Part of my strategy for my upcoming visit (last week in Feb) is to visit a park if it has a AH party that night. The thought is that it will be less crowded. Does anyone have any real-life experience with this and is it worth doing?

 

[SheSingsAlong]

Part of my strategy for my upcoming visit (last week in Feb) is to visit a park if it has a AH party that night. The thought is that it will be less crowded. Does anyone have any real-life experience with this and is it worth doing?

I don't have any specific experience with this, but just some observations about how an After Hours event affects the daily operations of the park:

An After Hours is not like a Mickey's [insert holiday] Party. The park does not close early to day guests and the event does not prevent nighttime fireworks/shows from happening. Those are the things that cause MK to have light crowds on party days.

On the other hand, After Hours ticket holders can access the park 2 hours (I think) before park close (which is when the event officially starts). Therefore, you may not be able to use the strategy of hoping for short lines at the end of the night while many people are busy with Fantasmic, because After Hours folks will already be coming in.

If I'm wrong in any of this, hopefully someone will come along to correct me.

Generally, I would not expect day crowds and operations to be affected by an After Hours other than the last 2 hours of the day. I doubt people will intentionally avoid the park the way they do MK on a Party night.

 

[focusondisney]

Part of my strategy for my upcoming visit (last week in Feb) is to visit a park if it has a AH party that night. The thought is that it will be less crowded. Does anyone have any real-life experience with this and is it worth doing?

DAH events have no effect on regular park crowds. The reason MK is less crowded on days with seasonal holiday parties is because the park closes earlier than other days without the parties & nightly fireworks don’t happen. The theory is people won’t go on a day with short hours & no fireworks, so MK would be less crowded on a party day. That theory doesn’t apply on DAH days because the conditions aren’t the same. Touring Plans tracks crowd levels & when you look at data from days with DAH, there is no difference from any other day.

 

[gharter]

Agree with the others that AH events have very little impact on regular park crowds as it generally doesn't change park closing hours, or fireworks, etc.