News Disney After Hours at Walt Disney World (2024)

wedenterprises

Well-Known Member
I suppose this belongs in the trip report section, but I wanted to give my review of After Hours this week at DHS and EPCOT.

We knew the crowds would be extremely heavy due to Spring Break/Easter, and I was traveling with my youngest teenage sibling (decent age gap). We live out of state, and I visit WDW about once every 1.5 years, whereas he visits once every 3-4 years. We are not AP or DVC holders. Because of this, I wanted to maximize our time and was willing to spend a bit more than normal.

To keep it brief, I would absolutely purchase After Hours again. For both parks we arrived at the mix-in time of 7pm. We were able to ride everything at DHS (with Mania twice) with 30 minutes to spare, and essentially everything at EPCOT (skipping Figment, but Guardians three times). I was concerned they would be running the rides at reduced capacity, but that was not the case this time.

We simply would have had no way of doing all of that during the day time, even if we purchased ILL & Genie+. If rides are your main focus, I would certainly recommend.
Does Guardians move to a standby line for this event?
 

Scar Junior

Active Member
It's odd to me that they have so many of these scheduled for Mondays and Wednesdays when those are the deluxe resort EEH nights. My wife and I have a quick trip for late-April/early-May and we're going to book an After Hours, but the only one during our stay is MK on a Monday. We were going to book at BLT and walk back from MK after the After Hours event, but decided to try our 1st stay at Riviera and take the Skyliner to and from the Epcot EEH the same night instead. Had they made the After Hours at DHS or DAK or booked it at MK for the next night, we probably would have bought tickets. It shouldn't be too tough for them to coordinate the EEH and DAH nights to avoid cannibalizing their own sales. And they didn't get any extra money from us for the switch to Riviera, either, because we were going to book a Theme Park View 1-BR at BLT but switched to a standard view 1-BR at Riviera so the cost was comparable.
This is almost the exact same story for us! We're ending up at Riviera presumably that weekend too.
 

pdude81

Well-Known Member
I suppose this belongs in the trip report section, but I wanted to give my review of After Hours this week at DHS and EPCOT.

We knew the crowds would be extremely heavy due to Spring Break/Easter, and I was traveling with my youngest teenage sibling (decent age gap). We live out of state, and I visit WDW about once every 1.5 years, whereas he visits once every 3-4 years. We are not AP or DVC holders. Because of this, I wanted to maximize our time and was willing to spend a bit more than normal.

To keep it brief, I would absolutely purchase After Hours again. For both parks we arrived at the mix-in time of 7pm. We were able to ride everything at DHS (with Mania twice) with 30 minutes to spare, and essentially everything at EPCOT (skipping Figment, but Guardians three times). I was concerned they would be running the rides at reduced capacity, but that was not the case this time.

We simply would have had no way of doing all of that during the day time, even if we purchased ILL & Genie+. If rides are your main focus, I would certainly recommend.
Do you mean the deluxe after hours or the DAH events? On Wed the 4th at DHS DAH I'm pretty sure they were running TSM with only one track while Slinky was down most of the night and other rides were in and out of service. Slinky likely went down due to weather early on but didn't come back up until midnight. If you were at the same event then I'm curious to hear what your order of operations was. I chose poorly
 

co10064

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Do you mean the deluxe after hours or the DAH events? On Wed the 4th at DHS DAH I'm pretty sure they were running TSM with only one track while Slinky was down most of the night and other rides were in and out of service. Slinky likely went down due to weather early on but didn't come back up until midnight. If you were at the same event then I'm curious to hear what your order of operations was. I chose poorly
Yes we must have been at the same event as Slinky was down most of the night. Now that you mention it, I do believe they were only running the left size of Toy Story Mania, so that is my mistake.

We arrived at 7:15pm. We did:
• Star Tours (no wait)
• Falcon (20 min)
• Swirling Saucers (no wait)
(9pm park closing)
• Toy Story Mania (10 mins)
• Rise (no wait)
• Mickey & Minnie (no wait)
• Tower (no wait)
• Toy Story Mania again (10 mins)
• Slinky (10 mins) — admittedly we lucked out as it came online right we were exiting TSM

At EPCOT they were at least running all sides of Guardians, Remy, and Soarin'. That's where my mind was when I typed the post.
 

pdude81

Well-Known Member
Yes we must have been at the same event as Slinky was down most of the night. Now that you mention it, I do believe they were only running the left size of Toy Story Mania, so that is my mistake.

We arrived at 7:15pm. We did:
• Star Tours (no wait)
• Falcon (20 min)
• Swirling Saucers (no wait)
(9pm park closing)
• Toy Story Mania (10 mins)
• Rise (no wait)
• Mickey & Minnie (no wait)
• Tower (no wait)
• Toy Story Mania again (10 mins)
• Slinky (10 mins) — admittedly we lucked out as it came online right we were exiting TSM

At EPCOT they were at least running all sides of Guardians, Remy, and Soarin'. That's where my mind was when I typed the post.
Ah ok. You were counting from 7 when they let people in. My mistake as you said you're not an AP holder.

Forecast had storms til 9 so I went at 930 for the exclusive time. Then a quick surprise storm made things weird and I didn't have time to hit all the big rides. I understand shutting slinky at that point, but it not coming up for another hour and a half over lightning mixed out really messed up the rest of the event for me. This is only because I'm a pass holder and could do all of the rides at the party for the cost of G+ and an ILL for rise on any other day. If not for the weather I think it would have been a great event. I may try again next year if they are still ongoing.

Also I'm glad you had a good time. The Epcot event sounds amazing as well
 

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
As of May 8, 2024, a total of 7 After Hours Events have sold out, from a pool of 30 event dates thus far. That does include the event at DHS tomorrow evening (May 9) and the above-mentioned May 13 MK date. There are 20 more After Hours events scheduled for 2024.

Event Date Comparisons
2023 After Hours Events - 44 total events; 17 dates sold out
2024 After Hours Events - 50 total events

Pricing Comparison

(Note: Average prices do not include any discounts)

Average ticket price for MK AH events:
2023 - $153.33/ticket (12 dates)
2024 - $169/ticket (15 dates)

Average ticket price for DHS AH events:
2023 - $144.33/ticket (12 dates)
2024 - $164.55/ticket (22 dates)

Average ticket price for Epcot AH events:
2023 - $134/ticket (12 dates)
2024 - $155.67/ticket (12 dates)

Ticket prices increased across the board. Event pricing and number of dates per price:

MK 2023 - $135 (1); $145 (1); $149 (1); $155 (5); $159 (4)
MK 2024 - $155 (1); $165 (7); $175 (7)

DHS 2023 - $129 (1); $139 (2); $145 (4); $149 (5)
DHS 2024 - $145 (3); $155 (4); $165 (6); $175 (9)

Epcot 2023 - $129 (6); $139 (6)
Epcot 2024 - $149 (4); $159 (8)
 

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
How long do you think it will take to announce dates for September
I could be 100% wrong on this, but I've been under the impression that additional dates will not be announced for 2024. These AH events at DHS already run into MNSSHP season, and adding more dates during that time (or into November/December and MVMCP) would run the risk of cannibalizing sales of those tickets.
 

DisneyRoy

Well-Known Member
I could be 100% wrong on this, but I've been under the impression that additional dates will not be announced for 2024. These AH events at DHS already run into MNSSHP season, and adding more dates during that time (or into November/December and MVMCP) would run the risk of cannibalizing sales of those tickets.
Correct. This is about the same timeframe as when they cut them off last year.
 

DCBaker

Premium Member
According to the Walt Disney World website, the After Hours event at Magic Kingdom on June 13 has sold out.

One date remains available for Disney After Hours at Magic Kingdom in 2024: June 27.
 

Peedee

New Member
Does anyone know if they ever have day of tickets available? We have family joining us that didn’t purchase and now find the June 13th event sold out :(
 

Brian

Well-Known Member
Does anyone know if they ever have day of tickets available? We have family joining us that didn’t purchase and now find the June 13th event sold out :(
Generally no, but it doesn't hurt to ask at Guest Relations (not the ticket windows) day-of.
 

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