After Hours at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom and General queries

[avishmirpuri]

Hi, Its our first time to visit Walt Disney World. We are family of 4 ( 2 boys ages 7 and 13). Will be coming from overseas and will arrive Orlando on June 30th and have the following in mind :
1. On July 1st, I am considering to go for the After Hours at Magic Kingdom, considering it will be very hot during the day. Do you think we will get the most of the park if come by 7pm. Will there be less wait times on that day.
2. July 2nd - Intend to do either the Animal Kingdom After hours or the normal day at Animal kingdom and Epcot
3. July 3rd - Either Animal kingdom or Epcot whichever I didn't do on July 2nd.

Could anyone suggest if they think After hours for Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom is a good idea as opposed to going on Normal park hours especially since we are first time visitor. Also I would really like to avoid huge crowds and long waits, would the after hours be better ?

Thanks

 

[eliza61nyc]

Yes, in general if you go to the after hours event the crowds are usually reduced. One caveat, you are going 4th of July long weekend. I swear that is truly a horse of a different color. It's one of the rare times I've ever been when they literally closed MK due to full capacity. that's the wild card, could be AH events will be crowded.

 

[avishmirpuri]

Thank you eliza61nyc

OK but with a ticket to the After Hours event, I am guaranteed an entry correct ?

Do you think I perhaps shall take a chance of the After hours instead of the regular hours ?

 

[Dave B]

Yes the after hours is limited, so if you purchase you are in

 

[Thndrmtnrdr]

My daughter and I did the After Hours in the Magic Kingdom earlier this year. Ours began at 9 and it was a good hour or so until the ride lines diminished so it only left 2 hours to ride with little wait time. The one thing I did not like about the event is there was no checks of wristbands other than rides. This allowed people to hang out in the park well after the event began which was kind of odd and sometimes made it a little difficult to get around. Bottom line you can still do more in 2 to 3 hours during the event than you can during the day but your wait times prior to the event will most likely be long.

 

[plutothedoggo]

To piggyback on what the others have said above, my wife and I plan our Disney World trips now around the After Hours dates. We've been to two Magic Kingdom AH events the last year and we have LOVED it. She is a teacher so we can only go the Feb or April weeks off or the summer. We did early August last year and it was fantastic. We hung out by the pool during the day and had a great dinner before around 4ish. We were allowed into MK around 6pm where they had a special line for AH guests specifically so you can get your lanyard or wrist band - whatever they do for the specific AH date.

Some of the best parts of the AH event is you know you'll have around 3 hours of riding almost every ride, and some of them multiple times with little or no lines, so we didn't have to rush around when we arrived to the park. We took our time to hang out down main street, get some snacks, and we did have a FP for Mine Train at like 7:30pm (side note, if you do ONLY get an AH ticket for the day, you can still make FP selections at that park 60 days out if you're staying on property, so don't forget that! FP selection for those days end at normal park closing, which this date was 9pm). After doing that, we found a great spot to hang out for Happily Ever After. After the show, I would say within 30 minutes or so, the park really empties out and you can start going around the lands and doing the rides you want.

We are doing the Villains After Hours on June 27th in a couple weeks, and then on the 28th the Hollywood Studios one for the first time. We are bummed we missed the Animal Kingdom one, but hopefully they keep them going for next time.

All in all, I highly recommend these events and if you choose to do them with your family, I think you'll love it! It's a great value because you can ride almost all the rides without waiting in lines, the snacks and drinks are included in the price, and depending when you arrive, you can still get around 7 hours in the park. Our AH event at MK ended at 12am, but we hung around until at least 1am as they don't really start "pushing" you out until 1.5 hours after the event ends, so if you're still alive after that, stick around for great pics that you won't even be able to get on a normal night!

 

[eliza61nyc]

Thank you eliza61nyc

OK but with a ticket to the After Hours event, I am guaranteed an entry correct ?

Do you think I perhaps shall take a chance of the After hours instead of the regular hours ?

I do know people who do this, decrease the number of days on their parks tickets and do an ah event