Which "extra experience" most worthwhile?

[lp199]

We're doing our first family trip in June for eight days (not including travel days). I am trying to decide between a fireworks dessert party, EMM or After Hours at MK. Right now EMM and AH aren't available for our dates mid June but I am trying to look ahead. Any advice as to which of these are more worthwhile or better bang for our buck?

Some things to consider:

1) Our kids will be between 9-14 and I'm really trying make this as enjoyable as possible in terms of the heat and crowds.

2) Due to severe food restrictions, we will not be taking advantage of the food component of these experiences so I'm just looking at the experiences with the food taken out the equation.

3)bAlso, our park strategy will most likely be mornings and late afternoon/evenings with a break in the middle of the day due to rest, etc.

Thanks!

 

[JakeAZ]

After Hours hands down. Best bang for your buck, especially if you're not going to eat the desserts or breakfast that comes with the others.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

After hours is the most amazing thing ever..
No lines, no fast passes just fun...
The sun is down so the heat decreased.. felt like we had the park to ourselves.

 

[mamamelody2]

After hours for sure!! DH and I went last September. It was awesome! Hoping it's offered again this offered when we take the kids.

 

[Vickie1016]

We have done the the dessert party, regular MK After Hours & Villains After Hours.

We enjoyed the dessert party as we go in July & did not need to stake out a spot to stand. There was plenty of "elbow room". We did the regular MK after hours two summers ago & while there were some minor hiccups, we did enjoy it. No sun, lower heat index, shorter lines. The Villains was different, as they offered the stage show, different photo-pass opportunities & specialty food & drinks to purchase. We did enjoy this as well, for the same reasons - no sun & low heat!

Fingers crossed MK After hours is offered this summer during our trip as we will definitely book it! (BTW - we also did H2O Glow last summer& that was fantastic!)

 

[Daisy7425]

We've done an EMM and a fireworks dessert party. The EMM was by far the most fantastic part of our whole trip. We did the Toy Story EMM and walking around Toy Story land with almost zero crowds was so fun! We got the most awesome pictures. We rode rides multiple times without even getting off.

The dessert party was great, but we loved the food, which accounted for most of our fun.

If you have never been to Disney before, I would really look into the mid day break strategy. Some people here love it, but it didn't work well for us. From the middle of a park to your hotel room door can sometimes take close to an hour. So, that takes up two hours of your mid day in just moving around. Our strategy was to get there very early and stay until about 4 or 5. One or two days, we reversed it and got to the park later and stayed to fireworks.

 

[Greg P.]

Just did After Hours at MK last night. Hands down the best extra experience you can pay for. The park was so empty and every attraction was a walk on. We probably got on more attractions in the three hours of the event than we would have in a full day at MK. The free bottled drinks, popcorn, and ice cream snacks were a nice perk too.

 

[DisLiss]

As someone who won't be eating the food, the dessert party really loses some of it's "fun" factor. Lots of cool looking stuff no one can eat. Mind you, this is coming from someone who really isn't a huge fan of fireworks and who can't eat the desserts either.

But even if you could eat the desserts, I'd still go for after hours. It's just really fun to run around in a less crowded park, especially as others have noted, during a time when the sun has gone down.

As for the mid-day breaks--we do like them. Especially on a day you plan to stay extra late. If you're falling asleep on a bench then you're not getting any value from your after hours event.

If you want to cut down on the time involved in moving from the park to your resort and back again, there are a few things you can do. Pick a resort near to one of the parks. That way at least on some days you'll have less travel time. Plan your day's attraction route to bring you back to the entrance on time for your break...work from the back of the park to the front, for instance. If bus service is proving too slow for you, you can always get an Uber or Lyft.

All I know is that even back when it was just DH & I, going back to the room for a refresher before dinner was so nice and very helpful in making it through the rest of the day. And now with kids, we really love our breaks. Sometimes we don't even go back to our own resort---we just go to the closest resort to the park we'll be returning to and relax there, enjoying some of their amenities for awhile. Check out a new restaurant, see what quiet shady spots they offer, check out their activities and see if any seem both laid back and enjoyable for your group.

 

[lp199]

Thanks all! The truth is right now I can't book anything except for the fireworks even if I wanted to because EMM for my dates in June are not bookable at the moment and the only MK AH are the villains and we can't do the Friday night date (only day that is offered) because we have alternative plans that night. As much as I just want to preplan all that I can, I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see what happens! I really hope they have MK AH but they didn't last year in June so don't know what they'll do this year.

As for taking a midday break, I just don't see how we can do all day in the parks day after day in June. I knew going into this that AKL is somewhat remote from the other parks but I'm just kind of hoping for the best. I'm sure we'll probably end up taking uber/lyft for something but our last three nights will be at the GF which will be really nice for MK.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

The water parks make really good rest days in the middle of theme park days... you can just sit back relax in the river or by the pool. If you have not added them in your plans you should... my kids have diffrent opinions on the one they like best.
The 9 year old likes Typhoon lagoon and the 12 year old likes Blizzard beach... and my DH ( has to be different) likes Sea world's Aquatica and the all you can dine pass.

 

[kwdw]

Just to add more to your list - we loved the after hours event at AK. If you aren't going to eat the food due to food restrictions - I don't think the dessert parties or EMM events make sense. Unlike the after hours events - I think the dessert parties and EMM events have a significant part of their "value add" based on the food.
I'm hoping by the time we get to Disney as a whole family again - I'm hoping DHS has an after hours event!