After Hours for Summer?

[TBrass84]

There are currently "After Hours" at MK HS and AK where you can pay $125 and be one of a "limited" number of guests for 3 hours after normal park closings. Are there any indications that when this is officially over in April that they will offer it during the summer months?

Also, are general park admission tickets required as well, or could you buy JUST the After Hours ticket and be able to get in at that time?

 

[Trackmaster]

Good questions:

• They've been doing this for several years. They'll announce the next season for them at some point. They might take the summers off, as there tends to be extended hours already at the park and more special events.
• The tickets generally get you into the park at 7:00 PM, where you are free to enjoy the park, and they shoo the non-After Hours guests out after the official park close.
  • I believe that you're also able to book FP+ for those 1-3 hours as well if you have an online MDE account and have linked the purchase to your account.
  • While the 7:00 PM is generally always the same, the official closing time is either 8:00 PM, 9:00 PM, or 10:00 PM based on the posted hours. Your three hours starts at park close, or a half hour later for Animal Kingdom.
  • No general ticket purchase required, but being an AP holder gets you the ticket for $95 instead of $125. Being an AP also gives you the benefit of being able to go the whole day and park for free. Even if your pass is blocked out that day, you can still park for free.

 

[LUVofDIS]

We did this for AK last December and I would do it again. We were able to Ride FoP, Na'vi, Dinosaur and EE to our hearts content. I would have to look but we rode FoP around a half dozen times. This was well worth it to us. Plus we got two bottles of coke, two Mickey sandwiches and some popcorn each.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

Fastpasses are NOT available for the After Hours....and you won't need them!

We love the MK and AK versions, are hitting the DHS After Hours for the 1st time next month

 

[Trackmaster]

Fastpasses are NOT available for the After Hours....and you won't need them!

We love the MK and AK versions, are hitting the DHS After Hours for the 1st time next month

Correct. But you are still entitled to a FP+for the 1-2 hours that you are allowed in before the event starts.... which you will receive a benefit for.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

Correct. But you are still entitled to a FP+for the 1-2 hours that you are allowed in before the event starts.... which you will receive a benefit for.

In your post pasted below I didn't realize you were referring to the hours you are allowed in BEFORE the Party Officially starts:

• I believe that you're also able to book FP+ for those 1-3 hours as well if you have an online MDE account and have linked the purchase to your account.

We have used the Fastpasses up until 8:00 (or 9:00 depending on Party Hours), and thus that would be after being allowed in at 7:00, but before the Party officially started.

Do want to point out our Fastpasses were reserved with our APs, not the Hard Ticket...so I don't know if the Hard Ticket would allow Fastpass ressies or not

 

[Trackmaster]

In your post pasted below I didn't realize you were referring to the hours you are allowed in BEFORE the Party Officially starts:

• I believe that you're also able to book FP+ for those 1-3 hours as well if you have an online MDE account and have linked the purchase to your account.

We have used the Fastpasses up until 8:00 (or 9:00 depending on Party Hours), and thus that would be after being allowed in at 7:00, but before the Party officially started.

Do want to point out our Fastpasses were reserved with our APs, not the Hard Ticket...so I don't know if the Hard Ticket would allow Fastpass ressies or not

So here's the scoop:

You have to have a Disney account, and you need to immediately link the ticket to your account. When I did the special event before, I never received a hard ticket. I purchased the ticket online (with my AP discount) and it went straight to my account. I believe that any guest is permitted to have a Disney account even if they're not AP holders, so if they did the same thing (sans the discount) -- they should be able to book as many FP+'s as they're allowed to. Probably only one if they get in at 7 PM and the park closes at 8 PM.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

So here's the scoop:

You have to have a Disney account, and you need to immediately link the ticket to your account. When I did the special event before, I never received a hard ticket. I purchased the ticket online (with my AP discount) and it went straight to my account. I believe that any guest is permitted to have a Disney account even if they're not AP holders, so if they did the same thing (sans the discount) -- they should be able to book as many FP+'s as they're allowed to. Probably only one if they get in at 7 PM and the park closes at 8 PM.

We went to the DHS After Hours this past Saturday and had a blast....both of us have APs so I couldn't tell you if a non-AP peep could book FPs or not....Our "hard Ticket" was linked to our bands (as you state above)

 

[Trackmaster]

We went to the DHS After Hours this past Saturday and had a blast....both of us have APs so I couldn't tell you if a non-AP peep could book FPs or not....Our "hard Ticket" was linked to our bands (as you state above)

I'm 98% sure you can get FP+'s if you get the hard ticket but no AP. But you have to do a little work for it. Just have to make sure that you have a Disney account beforehand, and that you do the work to bring the hard ticket into your account beforehand. Its possible, but might require a little work.

 

[MrTomHamilton]

I’m not an AP, and my hard ticket was automatically linked to my MDE account for an upcoming After Hours event, and I was able to schedule FPS for the few hours before the event starts.

 

[monothingie]

I’m not an AP, and my hard ticket was automatically linked to my MDE account for an upcoming After Hours event, and I was able to schedule FPS for the few hours before the event starts.

You can schedule FP+ for the time between 7PM and the event starting at the 30 day window regardless of if you have AP or regular tickets (so you don't have to use an entitlement). If you are staying on property and you have a valid AH tickets linked to MDE, you can make those reservations at the 60 day window or 90 day window if staying club level using signature services.

Think of the AH tickets as a standard ticket that are valid starting at 7PM.

 

[Trackmaster]

You can schedule FP+ for the time between 7PM and the event starting at the 30 day window regardless of if you have AP or regular tickets (so you don't have to use an entitlement). If you are staying on property and you have a valid AH tickets linked to MDE, you can make those reservations at the 60 day window or 90 day window if staying club level using signature services.

Think of the AH tickets as a standard ticket that are valid starting at 7PM.

And even if you can't get a good FP+ for that time period, its all a moot point really. Ordinarily, you might be fighting tooth or nail for the best FP+'s, but if you just wait a half hour, you can walk on everything in the park except for the star attraction, and the star attraction won't be more than 20 minutes. I've even heard that Flight of Passage can get down to a five minute wait for the After Hours.

 

[monothingie]

And even if you can't get a good FP+ for that time period, its all a moot point really. Ordinarily, you might be fighting tooth or nail for the best FP+'s, but if you just wait a half hour, you can walk on everything in the park except for the star attraction, and the star attraction won't be more than 20 minutes. I've even heard that Flight of Passage can get down to a five minute wait for the After Hours.

I did DAK AH on 2/6 FOP was a walk on every time. The biggest delay was listening to Dr Ogden.
I also did MK AH on 2/7. Everything was a walk on also, except for 7DMT which was closed a large part of the night, but it did manage to come back at about a couple of minutes prior to close. But the CM at 7DMT kept the ride open till about 11:20-25 even though the rest of the park was closed. So I rode it a couple of times back to back.

 

[Trackmaster]

I did DAK AH on 2/6 FOP was a walk on every time. The biggest delay was listening to Dr Ogden.
I also did MK AH on 2/7. Everything was a walk on also, except for 7DMT which was closed a large part of the night, but it did manage to come back at about a couple of minutes prior to close. But the CM at 7DMT kept the ride open till about 11:20-25 even though the rest of the park was closed. So I rode it a couple of times back to back.

Yeah, apparently they have some issues with the smoke from the fireworks messing with the 7 Dwarf ride system. I went about a month ago, and it was down for the first two hours of the event. This was also when Peter Pan was down too. I just went to guest services and asked for a refund... which they gave. They offered a refund or a comp ticket. I think its totally justifiable to ask for refund when you pay that much for an event and the star attraction is closed almost the whole time. You should have asked for one too. But I do appreciate that Disney is pretty spectacular when it comes to their customer service -- not every company would have been so obliging.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

We attended AH @ DHS last Saturday.....mild drizzle for a few minutes, otherwise walk on any ride after 9:30 or so....

Unbelievable!

 

[Trackmaster]

We attended AH @ DHS last Saturday.....mild drizzle for a few minutes, otherwise walk on any ride after 9:30 or so....

Unbelievable!

I'm a little confused by the usage of the word "otherwise." The walk-ons were created by the poor weather. If it was not drizzling, the crowds would have been normal.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I'm a little confused by the usage of the word "otherwise." The walk-ons were created by the poor weather. If it was not drizzling, the crowds would have been normal.

A mild drizzle of people waiting in line. Then, it was a walk-on.

At DAKAH, they close the park at 8:00p, but the event starts at 8:30p. That gives them half an hour with no one in FP line to empty out the standby queue. But, even then, by 8:30p, when they let the AH people on (through the FP line), there may yet still be standby's. However, they treat the AHers as FPers and they get preferential treatment over the standby-ers. Plus, there's a line-up of AHers all waiting outside the FP entrance ready to get on.

So... my advice is don't do FoP first. Ride NRJ twice, and by the time you're done, all the other AHers will have gone and it will be walk-on for the rest of the night.

BTW, "walk-on" for FoP still is a walk up three flights of ramps and two pre-shows and a walk down three flights of ramps. Our fastest turnaround was a FoP ride once every 17 minutes.

 

[slinkysmith]

which is better early morning magic for toy story land or after hours at DHS?

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

I'm a little confused by the usage of the word "otherwise." The walk-ons were created by the poor weather. If it was not drizzling, the crowds would have been normal.

I see that now as I merged two separate points.....

1) The weather was a mild drizzle at times during the AH

2) At around 9:30, the crowds had thinned to a point where all rides were walk-on.

At 8:30, when the AH began, many peeps at TSL were still in line from the "regular" park operation. By 8:45 all rides except Slinky Dog were walk-on....by 9;30 Slinky Dog was walk-on as well....

We hung out at ToT and RnR for the first 30 mins or so........that are of the Park was dead BEFORE 8:30

 

[Trackmaster]

I see that now as I merged two separate points.....

1) The weather was a mild drizzle at times during the AH

2) At around 9:30, the crowds had thinned to a point where all rides were walk-on.

At 8:30, when the AH began, many peeps at TSL were still in line from the "regular" park operation. By 8:45 all rides except Slinky Dog were walk-on....by 9;30 Slinky Dog was walk-on as well....

We hung out at ToT and RnR for the first 30 mins or so........that are of the Park was dead BEFORE 8:30

Just pointing out that it wasn't a coincidence that everything was a walk-on. I get giddy when I see rainy, crappy weather, because it means that the parks will be dead. I plan for crappy weather days. My best memories of parks are going when its crappy weather and a ghost time.