Since my niece (
@Dreamfinder975) provided her thoughts on the After Hours, I figured I might as well add mine too:
- My thoughts below aren't an endorsement of modern Disney's double/triple selling park hours. They are simply my thoughts on dealing with the current state of operations and how to best get the most out of your time on property. Anyone who reads my previous posts knows my thoughts on the real problem with WDW (that being all of us that continue to support it by going along with whatever changes are forced down our throats).
- If you can afford it, I've always thought of the After Hours events as a great return for your time investment. I firmly believe that TIME on a vacation is the most valuable commodity, and most people easily overlook it. Whatever you can do to maximize your return "value" of the time you place into your vacation is well worth it. After Hours, unfortunately, provide ADDITIONAL time in the parks and this time is at the end of the day when the other parks are closed or in the process of closing. So, it already is a way to add time to your vacation value. They are also nighttime hours, which is when I most enjoy being in the parks anyway (for the ambiance, temperatures, and for photography purposes). While some may counter that the "free" Extra Magic Hours that used to be available to resort guests have now been monetized, the After Hours events aren't a 1:1 comparison. The fact that the After Hours are an additional charge does keep the ratio of guests to attractions at a minimum. Most of the After Hours events I've attended have been in the previously "slow" season of late January (which is no longer the case). Even when I've attended After Hours in the summer and they have "sold out" the lines have been minimal for attractions. You can get so much done the allotted time that it's very easy to knock-out more than a full day's worth of attractions without much trouble. This means you can spend your time during normal hours elsewhere and rely on the event to fill in any gaps in the attractions you want to experience. As such, if After Hours are on the schedule and we are coming to town, we will participate.
- DHS After Hours (1/24) got off to a rough start for us. So, Disney did things a bit different this year when tickets went on sale for the first block of events. In attempt to give guests with resort reservations first dibs at the tickets, they announced that tickets for the event would go on sale first to them; but, you HAD TO CALL to purchase. So, my wife called at 7am on the first day tickets went on sale. She waited in a queue and by 7:30 got a CM online and started making the purchases. In order to make the purchase, she had to provide our resort confirmation number and to get the annual pass discount on the tickets, also had to provide that information as well. So, when we arrived at the gate at Studios and the CMs couldn't find our tickets on our account, needless to say I was a bit miffed. I explained that to purchase the tickets, we HAD to call and only a Disney CM could issue the tickets and they had to have 2 pieces of unique identification for us to do so (resort confirmation and annual pass). Several awkward minutes later, the CMs at the front turnstiles still couldn't find it and said they ONLY thing we could do is find the email confirmation. Now, I don't know about you; but, trying to find 3 specific emails on your cell phone several weeks after is going to be a challenge. So, while my wife was frantically searching her phone and then having to jump to the online mailbox to locate them, I wanted to know why guest services couldn't simply look up the confirmation using the credit card information used to process the payment. I was told they could; but, here was the wrinkle. The CMs at front couldn't do this on their tablets. Only the full computer inside Guest Services could do that. So, I said fine, while my wife was looking - let me go in and have them pull it up. I was told they couldn't do this without the ticket. Then I said, ok, I'll go over to the outside window... only to be told it was closed and they couldn't open it. Fortunately, by this time (~25 mins after we arrived) my wife found the first of 3 emails. Once we found the DHS one, I had the CM at front scan mine in and went inside and went to guest services. While I won't share all the details, they agreed this was not handled very well at all. The credit card search would've resolved it in moments. Frustrating to say the least. So, for those that purchased the tickets in that early window via a call to a CM - make sure the tickets are actually linked to your account. None of our 3 events were until guest services added them.
- The actual event at DHS was great. As my niece mentioned, she easily knocked out all the meet-and-greets and still had time for a ride on Rise and breaks to grab treats even with losing 30 minutes of the event. I was able to ride Rise 4x, ToT 2x, MMRR and for the first time ever... the Alien Saucer ride in TSL with the very unfortunate (or is it?) acronym and still had time to take a ton of photos with my tripod. I lost even more time than my niece and wife as I went to Guest Services to clean up the ticket mess, so I only had about 2 hours.
- MK's After Hours events have always been great with short lines aplenty with guests spread across the only park with a non-anemic attraction roster. This year (2/1) was even more of the same with the addition of an extra E-ticket attraction (Tron) and an "exclusive" fireworks show for the event. The quotations around that one are because with only 1 hour between the start of the party's firework show and the official close of the park, I did see many guests still on Main Street without their wristbands. A 10pm close and 11pm start simply doesn't seem to be enough time to give security to clear the front of the park as usually they don't get going in earnest on Main St until 1hr after close anyway. That being said, as a 100% certified nut for Disney's Nighttime Spectaculars, it was a special opportunity to see Happily Ever After and Enchantment back-to-back and doing so only confirmed what I previously believed - Enchantment was not a worthy successor to its predecessor as HEA was to Wishes. While I still believe that Enchantment is a mess of a show (bad musical selections orchestrated poorly along with horrid projections), I was surprised by how much more enjoyable it was for me when I could watch it as not something that replaced a truly great show; but, simply an additional bonus show after already having the main course earlier in the night. With the 3 "side" launch sites in the northern launch zone, it really can put up some good pyro backdrops. Even with my dual load of fireworks photography cutting into my night, I was able to ride HM 3x and Tron 2x and still was able to take even more photos around the park. Wandering around the MK at night with a minimal number of guests reminds me of the days of truly late closes and attrition taking the best out of people and leaving only the hearty behind to explore the park on their own.
- This brings us to EPCOT on 2/2. So, the other 2 events for us had the luxury of others having been the pioneers and documenting what was they state of things. For this event, as my niece mentioned, NOBODY knew what was going on until it was way to close to showtime. Like most of you, planning in the necessary evil of attending WDW these days (which is just one of the reasons why visiting Disneyland is so much more relaxing). We originally had AK on the docket before our 5pm dinner reservations at the California Grill. Since, we were getting a late start on the day (after the MK AH), we decided to stop into EPCOT in the hopes of getting our hands on the event guide. When we arrived shortly after noon, Guest Services still didn't have ANY information about the event besides the start and end times. On our way out to dinner, I stopped back by and they just within the last hour been given the guide. Taking a look at it and trying to anticipate my niece's questions, it only said something to the effect of "character interactions scattered throughout the park". I asked Guest Services for more information; but, they didn't know either. So, off to dinner and once back at the park around 7:30, they CM's at the front passing out the guides didn't have any additional information either. A couple of them told us, they were disappointed as well as they haven't been provided much of anything in advance. So, I headed off to the back of the park for Luminous and only after it completed and I had finished up my photos, did I stumble across an Event Services CM who was creating a barricade blocking deeper access to World Showcase from France. We chatted and he actually had some additional information as he stumbled across Mickey (appearing at the gazebo in France) and Pluto (near the new Dreamer statue). He said that most all the CMs were in the dark and were asking questions as well and weren't getting answers. So, the lack of information wasn't just to guests. It seemed to be across the board for this first night of EPCOT AHs.
- More is sometimes less. So, where DHS AHs had many attractions crammed into its small footprint and MK AHs had the most attractions spread throughout its larger footprint... the only park at the resort with a true blessing of size is cursed by it during this event. EPCOT is huge (something, something acronym about coming out tired) and having its lineup of attractions scattered throughout the park means you had to walk a lot to get things accomplished here (also not being able to go around World Showcase doesn't help if closed at Norway and France). During normal operations, this isn't necessarily a problem for EPCOT as there is plenty of immersion with the music and performers to offset this; but, for this event all of that is removed and replaced by...
- THE EVER PRESENT DJ BRINGING THE LATEST DANCE TRACKS DIRECTLY TO YOU... WHEREEVER YOU ARE!!! Look, I don't mind a bit of a party atmosphere. Halloween brings the spoopy tunes (not PSpoopy mind you, just spoopy) and Christmas brings the holiday songs. Even those events will have some dance areas with some stuff to tap your foot too; but, you aren't constantly soaking in it. You can walk away and get immersed back in the event. For EPCOT, a huge park of the experience is the immersion of the World Showcase with its cultural soundscapes and the various tracks of Future World (RIP Innoventions track). For this event, you never were in EPCOT. You were at Club 54 Nouveau. There is not enough Beverly from Club Cool to make that palatable. Also, if you thought walking the streets in EPCOT were bad with the dance party everywhere, just wait if you visit a restroom. The one I went in was ear piercingly loud. While I hoped it was just the one I visited (the newish one near World Showcase's entrance between Imagination and Canada), the family told me they went in others, and they were all that loud and I later overheard several other people mention the loudness as well. Hopefully, this can be adjusted for future events.
- If you attend the event, you should also be prepared that there isn't as much to pick from food choices wise after the event actually starts. The true counter service options listed on the guidebook actually CLOSE as the event starts (Connections at 10pm), so plan accordingly if you wanted to pickup food before going back to the hotel. I did appreciate the Canada pavilion offering the maple popcorn though. They couldn't make it fast enough to keep up with demand, so when you got it was fresh.
- Even with all the critiques, it still was a good time. I was able to ride Ratatouille 1x and Cosmic Rewind 1x; but, spent most of my time taking photos. Having 3 hours at night to shoot EPCOT is always a blessing. The event also has a "hidden" secret. It's advertised as being from 10pm - 1am; but, EPCOT closes at 9pm. That means AH's guests can take advantage of that additional hour to knock out some attractions.
- I would recommend the following to improve the EPCOT experience to bring it up to par with the other offerings: add some additional streetmosphere entertainment. My wife and niece ran into the mariachi band; but, that was it for the whole park from what we could tell. Add more characters for the non-ride crowd (like my niece). Consider opening the loop around World Showcase or at least tell guests where they will be blocked in advance as there will be a lot of backtracking for minimal reward for those wanting Frozen and Ratatouille. Those long walks could be made more palatable by adding more entertainment. Most importantly, don't broadcast the dance loop throughout the park. It totally breaks the immersion of EPCOT.
