News 'Disney After Hours' ticketed event

[Hcalvert]

I've already bought my tickets for late-March during Spring Break. I wish it wasn't villain-themed as that does not add any value to the event for us. I already attended one in July and our main motivation to attend was for lower crowds. I would just like to attend one at MK without any themes. We're thinking about attending another night during our June trip too. As an non-Florida resident AP holder, it is a bummer that the prices went up, but I reminded myself that I will have used my pass for a total of 39 days during my membership and have taken advantage of the shopping & restaurant discounts (thus getting my money's worth). I will not be renewing and spending a few years away from Disney after these three upcoming trips.

Well, they added additional dates to the After Hours and they are not villains-themed. I am wondering if it is worth it to go in late January or just wait until June and book a villains-themed one during that time (if they do not extend the regular DAH at MK past May).

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Well, they added additional dates to the After Hours and they are not villains-themed. I am wondering if it is worth it to go in late January or just wait until June and book a villains-themed one during that time (if they do not extend the regular DAH at MK past May).

Simply put Villians After Hours is MNSSHP Lite...No Character Meet & Greets, No Parade, No Firework show, No Candy (Subsitutes Coke Products, Ice Cream & Popcorn). And the majority of rides with less of the wait...

 

[yensid67]

Can I just buy these tickets for any park instead of going the regular daytime hour? Or do you have to buy a regular park ticket AND the After Hours ticket? This could be a cost savings to those on a budget and can swing the late nighttime riding. There IS a difference from riding and outside attraction at night than there is during the day!

EDIT: What attractions are offered usually? The most popular?

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Can I just buy these tickets for any park instead of going the regular daytime hour?

Yes. Just like the Halloween and Christmas parties.

 

[thecouch]

Can I just buy these tickets for any park instead of going the regular daytime hour? Or do you have to buy a regular park ticket AND the After Hours ticket? This could be a cost savings to those on a budget and can swing the late nighttime riding. There IS a difference from riding and outside attraction at night than there is during the day!

EDIT: What attractions are offered usually? The most popular?

You can just buy the after hour tickets. You get the 3hr party time plus you can get in at 7pm. So when I'm looking its 10pm-1am so will get 6hrs in the park getting in at 7pm. You can also book fast pass between 7pm and start of party time.
MK almost all rides are open. It's just some shows and meet and greats that aren't open but you can try and do them between 7pm and party time.
Animal Kingdom is a bit different but as safari, rapids and primal whirl aren't open. You really just paying to be able to avatar rides with no wait time

 

[WDWTrojan]

You can just buy the after hour tickets. You get the 3hr party time plus you can get in at 7pm. So when I'm looking its 10pm-1am so will get 6hrs in the park getting in at 7pm. You can also book fast pass between 7pm and start of party time.
MK almost all rides are open. It's just some shows and meet and greats that aren't open but you can try and do them between 7pm and party time.
Animal Kingdom is a bit different but as safari, rapids and primal whirl aren't open. You really just paying to be able to avatar rides with no wait time

I found the MK parties to be significantly busier with real wait times. Yes there’s more rides but people gravitate to the same 4-5 of them. When you only have 3 hours but Mine Train and Space Mountain have 20-25 minute waits, that’s a big chunk of your evening.

By comparison, we did Everest three times as a walk on, Dinosaur twice without getting off, Na’vi twice without getting off and FOP twice. This was more worth the cost and felt much more “VIP.”

The big trick with the Studios and DAK events are to do the least popular attractions first, allowing the longest queues to clear out from day guests (Slinky and FOP) and the After Hours guests to do what they want. So, for example, start at Tower and Coaster, then head to Toy Story Land later in the evening.

My biggest gripe about these, besides the fact too many tickets are sold, it there should be a 30 minute window between when the park closes and the three hours starts. Clearing the queues from the day guests takes some time and it’s annoying to get in line at 10:01pm (or whenever it starts) and basically wait as long as a normal guest.

 

[matt9112]

I found the MK parties to be significantly busier with real wait times. Yes there’s more rides but people gravitate to the same 4-5 of them. When you only have 3 hours but Mine Train and Space Mountain have 20-25 minute waits, that’s a big chunk of your evening.

By comparison, we did Everest three times as a walk on, Dinosaur twice without getting off, Na’vi twice without getting off and FOP twice. This was more worth the cost and felt much more “VIP.”

The big trick with the Studios and DAK events are to do the least popular attractions first, allowing the longest queues to clear out from day guests (Slinky and FOP) and the After Hours guests to do what they want. So, for example, start at Tower and Coaster, then head to Toy Story Land later in the evening.

My biggest gripe about these, besides the fact too many tickets are sold, it there should be a 30 minute window between when the park closes and the three hours starts. Clearing the queues from the day guests takes some time and it’s annoying to get in line at 10:01pm (or whenever it starts) and basically wait as long as a normal guest.

Unless FOP is some lind of must i would not waste money on an event at ak. I can get fp for Everest and dino day of almost every weekend. If not day of the day before. Towards park close both becoming tiny waits too.

 

[xdan0920]

I found the MK parties to be significantly busier with real wait times. Yes there’s more rides but people gravitate to the same 4-5 of them. When you only have 3 hours but Mine Train and Space Mountain have 20-25 minute waits, that’s a big chunk of your evening.

By comparison, we did Everest three times as a walk on, Dinosaur twice without getting off, Na’vi twice without getting off and FOP twice. This was more worth the cost and felt much more “VIP.”

The big trick with the Studios and DAK events are to do the least popular attractions first, allowing the longest queues to clear out from day guests (Slinky and FOP) and the After Hours guests to do what they want. So, for example, start at Tower and Coaster, then head to Toy Story Land later in the evening.

My biggest gripe about these, besides the fact too many tickets are sold, it there should be a 30 minute window between when the park closes and the three hours starts. Clearing the queues from the day guests takes some time and it’s annoying to get in line at 10:01pm (or whenever it starts) and basically wait as long as a normal guest.

This should go both ways. Party goers should not be allowed in the park before the party officially starts.

 

[Horizons '83]

I've had nothing but success with the After Hours parties. They are exactly has advertised in the 3 parties I have been with September being the most recent. Seven Dwarfs always has a line but our last visit was around a 10 minute wait. Again, I realize that this event really only caters to folks without young children but I highly recommend it if your schedule doesn't permit you to go for a Full day. We are always able to ride whatever we want and also a stroll in a near empty park to enjoy that as well.

 

[homerdance]

We did this at MK earlier this year and mostly it was ok. Having done both holiday parties before I wasn't a big fan of this "light" version of them. The wait times we experienced for everything except the Seven Dwarfs were manageable. But the mine train wait time never went under 40 minutes, and from what we could tell from the people who were leaving, 40 minutes was under reported. Seemed to me that the park without M&G, entertainment, fireworks, and parades aren't nearly as magical as a normal day. I wouldn't do it again for the price again, $20 bucks less i would consider it, but not for the current $100+. I would also say you can come very close to getting the same rides done with a well planned FP+/ride strategy.

Side note, it was amazing to see how many people where going around to each of the "free" food and beverage places to get all the free drinks they could. I saw on scooter that was full of water bottles. Crazy. She had to have spent a least an hour collecting these as there was a limit to the number of water bottles given at each station.

 

[RaveOnEd]

I found the MK parties to be significantly busier with real wait times. Yes there’s more rides but people gravitate to the same 4-5 of them. When you only have 3 hours but Mine Train and Space Mountain have 20-25 minute waits, that’s a big chunk of your evening.

By comparison, we did Everest three times as a walk on, Dinosaur twice without getting off, Na’vi twice without getting off and FOP twice. This was more worth the cost and felt much more “VIP.”

The big trick with the Studios and DAK events are to do the least popular attractions first, allowing the longest queues to clear out from day guests (Slinky and FOP) and the After Hours guests to do what they want. So, for example, start at Tower and Coaster, then head to Toy Story Land later in the evening.

My biggest gripe about these, besides the fact too many tickets are sold, it there should be a 30 minute window between when the park closes and the three hours starts. Clearing the queues from the day guests takes some time and it’s annoying to get in line at 10:01pm (or whenever it starts) and basically wait as long as a normal guest.

Thank you for this information! I may get the AK tickets for one of the dates we're there in May as a Christmas present for my wife (she loves AK, and loves the Avatar area - didn't have time to do FoP last year!) But this, as well as experiencing an After Hours event for the first time, would be really nice.

 

[Goofnut1980]

Simply put Villians After Hours is MNSSHP Lite...No Character Meet & Greets, No Parade, No Firework show, No Candy (Subsitutes Coke Products, Ice Cream & Popcorn). And the majority of rides with less of the wait...

However on those rides with less of a wait, they add an overlay, or just turn off the lights (I'm talkin' about you Space Mountain) and the line was over an hour and a half when I was there in June. That is literally half of the event. If you want it dark, just close your eyes on a regular day.. lol

 

[GhostHost1000]

remember when all these "extra" hours that are a separate ticketed "event" (I use that term loosely) was at one time free and available to anyone who stayed on property?

remember when anyone could get good seats at shows without paying extra for their dinner package?

remember when Disney was more about the guest experience and wasn't trying to make a $ off of anything they possibly can?

aw....those were the days

 

[Touchdown]

I remember waiting 2 hours for a good seat to Fantasmic, I would much rather show up 15 min before to a great seat and get a decent meal at Mama Melrose. Ditto for Rivers of Life.

 

[xdan0920]

I remember waiting 2 hours for a good seat to Fantasmic, I would much rather show up 15 min before to a great seat and get a decent meal at Mama Melrose. Ditto for Rivers of Life.

When they used to run Fantasmic 2x a night, you never had to wait 2 hours for a seat. That wasn’t efficient though. After all, sometimes the 2nd show was only 7/8ths full.

 

[pax_65]

remember when all these "extra" hours that are a separate ticketed "event" (I use that term loosely) was at one time free and available to anyone who stayed on property?

remember when anyone could get good seats at shows without paying extra for their dinner package?

remember when Disney was more about the guest experience and wasn't trying to make a $ off of anything they possibly can?

aw....those were the days

The truly ironic part is that Disney helped generate the demand for these events by "creating" longer standby lines (both through the impact of FP+ and with shorter park hours - especially fewer late nights at MK, and fewer evening EMHs). So when you spend so much of your day in lines, it's not surprising that a nighttime ticketed event promising to reduce lines would be popular.

I've never done one - on principle. If I ever do try it, it will be INSTEAD of buying a regular pass. So if I'm ever in town for a couple of days maybe I'll buy a night pass for MK instead of buying an all-day pass to the parks. (Gone are the days where I always have an Annual Pass .)

 

[thecouch]

I've never done one - on principle. If I ever do try it, it will be INSTEAD of buying a regular pass. So if I'm ever in town for a couple of days maybe I'll buy a night pass for MK instead of buying an all-day pass to the parks. (Gone are the days where I always have an Annual Pass .)

I'm thinking of same thing with just me and my 15yo son next year for a run weekend trip . I wasn't impressed with epcot early this year and would probably only enjoy it if it was just me and my wife so skipping it wouldn't bother me. I'm hopping for a after hour Hollywood studios. Then will just do the 3 after hour events and get a annual water park pass and spend days there after sleep ins

 

[AugieMorosco]

I've never done one - on principle. If I ever do try it, it will be INSTEAD of buying a regular pass. So if I'm ever in town for a couple of days maybe I'll buy a night pass for MK instead of buying an all-day pass to the parks. (Gone are the days where I always have an Annual Pass .)
[/QUOTE]

We took our first WDW trip this past summer and opted to do the Toy Story EMM. I felt it was worth the cost. Followed the strategy and waited to do SDD until the line died down, then were able to ride it I believe 6 straight times. Also got a head start to RNR, so that was like a bonus fastpass. We are going back in July and want to do an after hours, but would prefer DHS as the park for it. Not sure how that'll work or if it will be offered because of SWGE.

We considered just doing the after hours and not doing a park ticket for that day, but our trip will be 9 days. Knocking off a day from the park tickets is like next to nothing in savings.

 

[Texas84]

Just signed up for my second AK event in December. My only complaint was no 'free' stuff in Pandora. Had to leave to find anything.

 

[ncgator77]

Sorry if this was covered before, but thinking of doing an AK After Hours in January. The park closes at 8pm and the event starts at 9pm. I know you can arrive at 7, but are things open between 8-9? Also, given the limited number of attractions, do you really need to arrive much before 9? Thanks!