After Hours Events - Ask Questions and Share Experiences Here

[Betsyp]

Have attended various AH events, and the most recent were HS AH on 2/15 and MK on 2/16.
With both events, we were at different parks earlier in the day, and arrived right around 7ish. We also ate, watched some of the night shows, and shopped for a bit, before the start time of each actual event. I wanted to mention it because we could've accomplished even more rides.

2/15 Hollywood Studios starting at 9pm
- MMRRW x 1
- Rise of the Resistance x 3
(bathroom break and brief stop at Batuu market)
- Alien Swirling Saucers x 1
- SDD x 2
(ice cream and water)
- ToT x 2

Total 9 rides. We had a great time! Both Tower and Rise were down at first, so we were thrilled with how things worked out.

2/16 Magic Kingdom starting at 8:30:
-7DMT x 1
- Buzz Light-year x 1
- Space Mountain x 2
(furious panic walk back to Town Square lost and found to find missing driver's license. Driver's license retrieved!!!)
- Winnie the Pooh x 1
- Peter Pan x 1
- 7DMT x 2
(ice cream and water)
- Haunted Mansion x 1
- Magic Capets x 1
- PotC x 1
- BTMRR x 2
- Haunted Mansion x 2

Total 15 rides. Another great night minus the driver's licence fiasco.

Thank you for this ! Unless they extend MK into May, it looks like I’ll be doing HS AH. My current itinerary has me having dinner at Steakhouse 71 or Shula’s, but perhaps I’d be better off having dinner closer to HS...

I’m excited !

 

[georgina]

Typically there's nothing but buses running in terms of transportation on AH events. I attended a Villains one pre-covid the first year they had it and recall monorail resort guests being directed to buses (I was at POFQ that trip and just took a rideshare).

I will be driving, there must be a way to get people back to the TTC

 

[Leahc117]

We are at after hours- very busy. Nothing like the reports in Jan. Super disappointing!

 

[karmacats]

Does anyone know if the boats or monorail still run from MK to the resorts during/after the after hours events. We are going to MK after hours next week and staying at the Grand Floridian. We were planning to just walk back after, but I guess the walking path will be closed during our stay.

We did the MK after hours this past monday and had to take a bus back to Grand Floridian. No monorails or resort boats running. We had also planned to walk back but the path was closed so got stuck with the bus, which followed the monorail route (contemporary, poly, then GF). I think it only took about 15 minutes, though.

 

[pjderosa]

We are at after hours- very busy. Nothing like the reports in Jan. Super disappointing!

Agreed! Here and it’s nothing like reported in any writeup I saw! Waited about 40 mins for Smugglers and then 30 for SDD! ToT and Railway had no wait, but Rise is 50 mins! We were lucky to get each ride in once! Not horrible except that our expectations were much different. Don’t know what has happened here - possible that they’re selling a lot more tickets now? It seems much more comparable to just a day at the park with LLs except you can’t rest and you can’t see any of the other stuff. After doing the other 3 parks with Genie+ this week, these were the 3 longest lines we waited in during our stay. Very disappointed!

 

[UpstateMick]

Agreed! Here and it’s nothing like reported in any writeup I saw! Waited about 40 mins for Smugglers and then 30 for SDD! ToT and Railway had no wait, but Rise is 50 mins! We were lucky to get each ride in once! Not horrible except that our expectations were much different. Don’t know what has happened here - possible that they’re selling a lot more tickets now? It seems much more comparable to just a day at the park with LLs except you can’t rest and you can’t see any of the other stuff. After doing the other 3 parks with Genie+ this week, these were the 3 longest lines we waited in during our stay. Very disappointed!

Just got back to hotel room…same experience! They definitely oversold this event! We did the MK after hour event Monday and it was great. This one was a total waste of money. 45 minutes for ROTR, 20 minutes for Runaway Railway, 30 minutes for SDD and several rides and attractions were still running lightning lanes AFTER the park closed, as we saw people using lightning lanes for ROTR and Slinky Dog Dash well after park closing at 9:30! Not only that, but cast members were joyless and looked as if they just wanted to be done (except on TOT all cast members were GREAT)! Unfortunately, it topped off a week of disappointing experiences overall during our 5-day stay, but that’s a different story for another day.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Just got back to hotel room…same experience! They definitely oversold this event! We did the MK after hour event Monday and it was great. This one was a total waste of money. 45 minutes for ROTR, 20 minutes for Runaway Railway, 30 minutes for SDD and several rides and attractions were still running lightning lanes AFTER the park closed, as we saw people using lightning lanes for ROTR and Slinky Dog Dash well after park closing at 9:30! Not only that, but cast members were joyless and looked as if they just wanted to be done (except on TOT all cast members were GREAT)! Unfortunately, it topped off a week of disappointing experiences overall during our 5-day stay, but that’s a different story for another day.

DAS is still in use during AH events.

I believe RotR was also down part off the day today so AH guests with ILL$ might have been able to redeem them during the event?

Sorry the crowds were so high. That would be extremely disappointing after the earlier experiences shared.

 

[brockash]

Is anyone at the after hours at Hollywood Studios now? We have been in the Rise line for 20 minutes and barely moved. Was wondering if someone further up the line than me knew whether it was down.

We just left. This was our first after hrs event and if I'm being honest we weren't impressed and wouldn't do it again. ToT was great and a walk on both times we went. We waited half hr for Slinky and over an hr for Rise and that was at the very end of the night. We walked by after Smugglers (15 min. wait) but the line was out of the que so we passed and came back.

I can come back and report more details later but for us it's much better to just pay for fastpass and even ILL. - Less money and less waiting in line. I also think the event was too short especially with day guests still able to get in line at 929 and the event starting at 930. There's no way we could've done all rides in that time especially with the waits we had.

 

[brockash]

Agreed! Here and it’s nothing like reported in any writeup I saw! Waited about 40 mins for Smugglers and then 30 for SDD! ToT and Railway had no wait, but Rise is 50 mins! We were lucky to get each ride in once! Not horrible except that our expectations were much different. Don’t know what has happened here - possible that they’re selling a lot more tickets now? It seems much more comparable to just a day at the park with LLs except you can’t rest and you can’t see any of the other stuff. After doing the other 3 parks with Genie+ this week, these were the 3 longest lines we waited in during our stay. Very disappointed!

Totally agree. You get waaayyy more bang for your buck doing a regular day with fastpasses and your waits will be much less than this. We were disappointed. I think (what I was concerned about as it got closer) part of the issue is it's the first party without RnR and without the half hr buffer in between regular closing and event starting. - And they didn't factor that into their cap. It was definitely a bummer and we feel like we really just wasted a lot of money. Something else that just bugged me and I know it's not a huge deal was that they weren't even ready for the event to start at 930. We tried making the best out of no buffer and wanted to grab snacks in the beginning while there were still lots of day guests. We went and got in line at one of the main carts on the corner of sunset. blvd around 935, waited about 5 mins with no one moving and then they finally told. us the specific supply of ice cream for the party wasn't there yet. - They can't use the regular day supply so we waited an. additional 10 mins for that. Again, I know it sounds picky and it is, but I just expect for such a short event they should be ready on the dot. Another thing that just made me roll my eyes was that even though the carts all showed multiple ice cream options and drink options (powerade, lemonade, and the frozen lemonades) as options (again I get these are regular day carts) none of those were included. I'm sure it was written somewhere in the details, but again to me it just seemed a lil ridiculous especially considering how much this 3 hrs cost. - At the very least make some new signs for the specific event then to cover the regular day cart. options. My kids don't drink soda, so it was just water for the drinks and they unfortunately really like the frozen lemonades which was also a no go.

At the end of the day we just found this was not for us. I know others rave about them, but we didn't see any value in it other than in some parts of the park(not TSL) you had more space to walk than usual- not worth the extra money for us.

 

[pjderosa]

Agreed! Here and it’s nothing like reported in any writeup I saw! Waited about 40 mins for Smugglers and then 30 for SDD! ToT and Railway had no wait, but Rise is 50 mins! We were lucky to get each ride in once! Not horrible except that our expectations were much different. Don’t know what has happened here - possible that they’re selling a lot more tickets now? It seems much more comparable to just a day at the park with LLs except you can’t rest and you can’t see any of the other stuff. After doing the other 3 parks with Genie+ this week, these were the 3 longest lines we waited in during our stay. Very disappointed!

Wow - actually got even better! ROTR broke down before the end of our ride and after a long wait they had to escort us out through the backstage area. Of course it was well past 1am by then and the event was over. They offered a free LL for the following day, which didn’t do us any good as we were headed home. Back at the hotel around 2am.

Not that a backstage peek isn’t always kinda cool, but again I’d say the event did not match expectations and I’d probably advise waiting to see if this evening was a fluke before purchasing. Luckily for us (as first time ROTR riders) someone in our car had actually videoed the ride before and was able to play us all the ending so at least we know what happened!

At least we got most of the ride… I imagine since we got in line 1/2 hour before closing that there were a ton of people in line who just waited and then were told it closed for the night!

 

[Betsyp]

Wow, I’m sorry you guys all had bad experiences.....maybe it was just a one day glitch? The one on May 3 (which I’d do if no MK) starts at 10pm, which helps, but more reviews like this, and I might change my mind

 

[SkyGuy]

I will be driving, there must be a way to get people back to the TTC

A bus will take you to the TTC if the monorail and ferry have already stopped for the night.

 

[Boardwalk III]

A bus will take you to the TTC if the monorail and ferry have already stopped for the night.

Just curious, does the monorail now stop running before resort Extra Evening hours ends as well? I know I used the monorail sometime after midnight during EEH at MK in October. Will be attending that again next week, but am traveling with someone who is using a scooter, who does not like having to get the scooter on the bus etc.

 

[Jacq7414]

We had fun last night . We were with our 6 year old and she didn’t want to ride Rise. So we went on SDD multiple times instead. My husband also didn’t want to wait 50 minutes for Rise.

I do think they should have done a time buffer though. Moving park close to 930 pm when the party started at 930 pm definitely made some waits longer at the beginning of the night.

My daughter had fun though and the park at night is much better than the day. I just wish more characters were out in Star Wars land. She was looking around for them.

 

[Juventus]

Crappy. I was at the first event in January and walked on to just about everything twice (including Rise twice) with no wait, except for 20min for SDD.

Must have oversold.

 

[jimmymc]

After Hour parties don’t tend to affect daytime crowds too much in either a negative or positive way. They do make the park busier at 7PM when party guests are allowed to enter the park.

That's what I see as well. The time between when AH guests are allowed in and the park closes is like holiday crowds.

 

[kylenne]

I will be driving, there must be a way to get people back to the TTC

Buses run to/from the TTC and MK at times, I'm not sure about After Hours. But if monorails are running it's only the express line. I've never seen the any up during those events

 

[Little E]

Gah! Disfriends...no! This feedback is not what I want to hear! I have DAH booked for March 29th for DH, DS21, DS18, DS's buddy, and me. We are really looking forward to it, as we have never experienced an after hours event. Is there any chance Disney will see the error of their ways and create a buffer between park close and the after hours events going forward?

So sorry to everyone that experienced a bummer event.

 

[Chili327]

Question… When do they announce the dates (how early).
I’m wanting to plan for 2024, but not sure we’ll know the dates of the events before ill be able to plan the trip? Are the always in March?

 

[Betsyp]

That's what I see as well. The time between when AH guests are allowed in and the park closes is like holiday crowds.

So would it be better to go to AH DS closer to 9 or 9:30? Even 8? Because I will not be there at 7pm due to whatever ADR I’ll have