After Hours- why?

[Pinnochio]

So, im assuming you have to buy a day ticket first, correct?

 

[Raya]

So, im assuming you have to buy a day ticket first, correct?

nope! it's a separate event.

 

[Captain UP]

nope! it's a separate event.

Honestly one of the best parts of this for me- I'm arriving on a Wednesday late afternoon and for the price of a regular park ticket, I get several hours with guaranteed low crowds.

 

[Pinnochio]

nope! it's a separate event.

wow, that surprised me in a good way!...thanx for the quick response!

 

[GAN]

If they were offered 3 or 4 times(at various Parks) during a stay, I would probably go each night. That frees up the day to relax -whether I'm by the pool, resort hopping, or in a Park. Obviously, for a family it's a big spend ...but my kids are grown now.

In off-season(whenever that is now!) I've been in Frontierland with literally no other people and walked on and off attractions with zero wait.

 

[GoingSince1990]

DAH at MK has been the only time my cheerleading daughter has ever been able to cartwheel along the walkways.

 

[jf256]

I'm doing AHs for MK on our last night. Mainly because there are only 2 of us - both adults so why not try and get a little extra time in the parks.

The only time AH for HS is available is the 8th March which just so happens to be one of only 2 extra evening hours that are available to us (doing a split stay). Kind of gutted because I would happily pay more but it is just super limited in the 16 days we are going. But there is no way that i am paying extra for time in a park when i can be in another park for free - that just seems silly.

Never Mind

 

[Captain UP]

The extremely limited schedule definitely feels like a test run at this point.

 

[cyndik1111]

We are going tonight. When I recover from our 10 days at WDW/ UO I'll post what it's like.

 

[leeniewdw]

Honestly one of the best parts of this for me- I'm arriving on a Wednesday late afternoon and for the price of a regular park ticket, I get several hours with guaranteed low crowds.

It's PERFECT for an arrival day. That hasn't lined up for us yet, but I always hope for it.

We did the monday MK AH and it was great. Not maneuvering around crowds is a gift even before you get to how easily it is to ride rides.

We arrived at MK at 8:20pm via boat from WL and stood in the town square to watch the fireworks. We did a little shopping in the Emporium (well, our adult kids did) and did the following over the course of the night:

Between 8:45-10pm (regular park close):
POTC (5-10 min wait)
(skipped Splash because it was cold and decided to do it as last ride)
Shooting gallery (kids wanted to do it since they did it as little kids), no wait lol
(skipped HM because it looked like a longer line than we wanted)
IASM (5 min wait)
PP (5 min wait)

Park Close

SDMT (10-15 min wait)
Barnstormer x2 (no wait and didn't get out of ride between)
Ice Cream/Soda/Popcorn stop
Space Mountain x3 no wait (DH and I only did it once, my spine thanked me, lol)
People Mover no wait (DH and I while waiting for the "kids")
Buzz no wait
Photo Pass pics in front of castle with no other people in the pic
Watched Space X launch across the sky (lol)
HM no wait
Splash no wait

Exited park around 12:30am

For us, this was a great way to get MK rides in w/o having to sacrifice time in the other parks that have the majority of the rides that our kids hadn't ridden before. In MK, only SDMT is new from their last visits many years ago. So it's sentimental to them, but I wouldn't have wanted to skip anything we did in our other touring to accomplish that.

 

[AngieInOH]

I think After Hours may be the route my family starts to take. We're doing Universal but added an After Hours for HS. We'll see how it goes. Not dealing with Genie+ is a HUGE positive, along with fewer people. Our family is to the point where we don't have to try and do everything. We just hit the things we like to do the most. I'll report back.

 

[kes601]

The extremely limited schedule definitely feels like a test run at this point.

When they've done it in the past it has been no more than once per week per park and they never announced more than a few months out.

I'm anxious to see if over the summer they turn the MK After Hours into a Villains event like they had pre-covid. It cost more, but it also had some entertainment only offered during After Hours.

We've done them at HS, MK, and AK. The only one we found not really worth it was AK, but that's just because of the few rides open.

 

[Pyxie]

Were you able to book genie plus with just the after hours ticket? Or did you already have daytime tickets?

Genie+ isn't available for After Hours events but you don't need it. Almost everything is walk on or a really short wait.

 

[Wilsonfamily4]

Were you able to book genie plus with just the after hours ticket? Or did you already have daytime tickets?

I’m not sure how we were able to except that I had bought genie+ back for the entire stay before they changed it to daily. So even though we did not have tickets to any park the day we went to the after hours I started booking genie+ at 7am for the two hours before the party officially started.

 

[Wilsonfamily4]

And Pxyie is correct, once the party officially starts there is absolutely no need for genie+. It’s walk on to rides.

 

[butterscotchcollins]

I loved the AH events we went to so much
more than the Halloween and Christmas parties - the lack of crowds/shorter waits are great but the free popcorn and ice cream is the real selling point for me

If you can swing it financially it is absolutely worth it. It blows a regular park day out of the water.

 

[KaSe]

We have tickets for our first AH event at Magic Kingdom later this month. It's just me & my adult daughter, and we're really excited about it! After everything I keep hearing, I'm thinking about maybe adding the other AH event for Hollywood Studios later that week. Haven't decided yet but I just keep thinking about how much fun it would be.

 

[focusondisney]

We have tickets for our first AH event at Magic Kingdom later this month. It's just me & my adult daughter, and we're really excited about it! After everything I keep hearing, I'm thinking about maybe adding the other AH event for Hollywood Studios later that week. Haven't decided yet but I just keep thinking about how much fun it would be.

The DAH at Hollywood Studios are sold out for the rest of January.

 

[KaSe]

The DAH at Hollywood Studios are sold out for the rest of January.

Well then. That decision was made for me. LOL!

 

[cyndik1111]

Went last night to after hours at HS (Wed Jan 11th- second one of 2023 and it was sold out)
Here is our experience (yours may vary)

Arrived at 7:30pm via rental car
BTW we didn't pay for parking- they waived us on at the booth and we parked in preferred right near the entrance
No line to get into the park and get wrist bands

Walked over to Fantasmic (got obstructed views because there were tons of people by then)
Did some shopping at the shops after the show

Posted wait times were still sort of high at around 8:30pm (MMRR 35, MFSR 20, RnRC 45, SDD 60, ST 5, RoTR 70, TSM 15, ToT 95) so we didn't rush knowing that they were gonna drop significantly
Headed over to Star Wars about 915pm

Park was so empty- AMAZING
Lots of Photographers to take your pictures at strategic spots
Most rides were walk on for anyone with a wrist band at that point (posted 5 min)
And they checked for wristbands frequently, all night, everywhere

ROTR had a 5 minute wait the rest of the night
Slinky dog had maybe 10 minutes max at 10pm (I don't think we waited that long though)
TOT was the only ride with a decent wait right up until about midnight (20-30 min)
Lots of ice cream bars, water, spite, coke and Diet Coke (note that there were no carts in Star Wars- had to walk to Toy Story)

Did not see any characters except Chewbacca
My son was able to walk in and make a droid and light saber without reservations. Almost no one in those shops- which he loved because he got lots of personalized attention

We could have went into Oga Cantina with no reservation if we wanted, but we spent so much time making driod and light saber that we needed to get to some rides

No traffic to leave the park at 1245am

We all agreed it was money well spent
If you are on the fence, and can swing the cost- DO IT!!!!!!

Oh and one more thing- lots of xmas decor is still up in the parks with xmas music. I know some people are thrilled, be we feel like it's kind of stale now