Attended this tonight and had a good time. Like others said, it was EMH for APs. We arrived a little before 7 and they were not set up to hand out wristbands, telling us we could go to Tortuga Tavern or Stitch. Overheard another CM saying they also had a station set up near the Circus but not sure it was accurate. I would say this event was much more crowded than an After Hours event but not as crowded as an average MNSSHP.
Started off by getting food from Columbia Harbor House and using some FP+s before the "event" started (Big Thunder Mt, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan). I'm sure one of the reasons they had this event was to get APs to spend some money, so they got me there. After riding Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion, we headed over towards Adventureland to get in line for wristbands. The line was back to the Tiki Room and they were checking people in across from Pirates. I had read someone on here saying that they thought this event might be practice for CMs who haven't had experience checking guests into the MNSSHP and that makes some sense, was a very similar procedure. The line was long but moved quickly enough, lots of day guests approached us asking what the line was for and how to sign up.
We then walked back through Frontierland and into Fantasyland to watch Happily Ever After. We don't get to see the projections from back there but there's no one throwing elbows and we can usually find a decent seat, much more relaxing experience in my opinion. We used our final FP+ at Peter Pan before the event started and then hopped onto the Carousel after it reopened from the fireworks show. Took my niece in to see Cinderella and Elena, posted wait time was 15 minutes, took about 20. The wait time to meet Rapunzel and Tiana was posted as 35 but the lines seemed to be just as long once we got into the building.
We walked by the Seven Dwarves Mine Train which was using the FP+ line but was backed up towards Be Our Guest. The posted wait was 60 minutes and it looked like it would take that long. From the FP+ line two weeks ago at the After Hours event, being about halfway from the touch points to the interior of the building was a 15-20 minute wait to ride. Seeing how long the lines were tonight, I have no doubt that 60 was probably close to accurate.
Not everything was open. The tea cups were closed as was the People Mover. We walked towards the circus area as they had an open popcorn/pretzel/ice cream cart open and only had to wait about 2 minutes to order. I didn't see another cart open after 10 PM but we didn't travel around the entire park. Went for a ride on Dumbo, it was posted as a 10 minute wait and it was pretty much on the nose. Barnstormer had a posted wait of 25 minutes. We headed off towards Tomorrowland, the Speedway had a 30 minute posted wait, likely due to not running all of the lanes of cars. Cosmic Rays was open and had a decent sized crowd. Buzz had a 15 minute wait, we got on in about 5 minutes.
At this point into the "event", we had ridden the Carousel, done a Meet and Greet, gone on Dumbo, got a pretzel, and gone on Buzz. It was about 11:25 by this point and my niece got tired. Main Street was very quiet on the way out and we checked to see if the Tinkerbell Meet and Greet was open, it was not. Unlike the After Hours event, monorails were still running in addition to the Ferryboat. We were back at our car just around midnight.
The biggest thing I took away from this event is that I really miss the Magic Kingdom at night in the summer. It used to be routine that the park would be open late, have a couple of night time parades along with fireworks and then some extra time to help clear out the park. Now the park closes most nights at 10 PM, sometimes 9. Sunset tonight was at 8:15. We've got one night this month, August 18, where the Magic Kingdom is open until midnight for regular guests. Three nights have 6 PM closings for Halloween Parties. September is even worse. September 1 the park is open until midnight but is not open past 9 PM any other night the entire month for regular guests. Some of the EMH nights have the park closing at 10. Only paid events will let you stay until midnight, either After Hours or MNSSHP.
The Magic Kingdom is wonderful at night. The lights, the atmosphere, the fact that the sun is down and things have a chance to cool off, etc. But that experience has mostly disappeared unless you pay for a special event or you manage to get lucky with a Disney special event like tonight. Hopefully once most of the big construction projects finish up, they will stop being cheap with these cutbacks and keep the parks open later, especially in the summer.
