**Disney After Hours - Animal Kingdom** FAQ & Discussion Thread

[SaintsManiac]

I called and was able to buy a ticket for 1/31 with an AP discount, so I think the info above may have come from a CM with incorrect information.

Surprise, surprise

 

[rteetz]

I would trust Timtracker's video, they have a track record of saying exactly what they feel about any given event, even if they were given free admission and/or other compensation and they also disclose when they are given anything by the company involved.

I know and most do disclose that. I’m just making sure everyone knows that media there that night was invited and didn’t pay except for WDWNT and EasyWDW I believe since Disney doesn’t typically give them anything.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Josh's review is up:

https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/review-disney-after-hours-at-animal-kingdom/

 

[PolyRob]

I called and was able to buy a ticket for 1/31 with an AP discount, so I think the info above may have come from a CM with incorrect information.

Glad to hear that! Its really a shame about the incorrect information that is given out by phone CMs. Better to just not say anything.

I am wondering if when the OP called it was DVC Member Services since he was able to book the DVC discounted tickets and not AP discounted tickets. The CM may not have seen an AP option and said it was sold out? Just a thought.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Glad to hear that! Its really a shame about the incorrect information that is given out by phone CMs. Better to just not say anything.

I am wondering if when the OP called it was DVC Member Services since he was able to book the DVC discounted tickets and not AP discounted tickets. The CM may not have seen an AP option and said it was sold out? Just a thought.

Yeah, I’m not DVC so I don’t really know how that world works with Member Services, but sounds plausible.

 

[jsmla]

I think I'm going to call tomorrow. Hearing 1/31 might be sold out has made me want to go even more. Plus, I trust the easywdw reviews.

 

[TNickell27]

Josh's review sold it for me. Just called and bought tickets for Tues, Feb 12th! It's pricey, yes, but my trip is short and the opportunity to ride Everest and FoP multiple times is hard to pass up! Plus, doing these AH events allows me to sleep in a bit on my actual park day since i'll be riding my faves multiple times the night before.

 

[Cloudless Nights]

Josh is what did it for me too. Just bought tickets for next Wednesday, December 12th, with AP discount!

 

[Idoc]

I called and was able to buy a ticket for 1/31 with an AP discount, so I think the info above may have come from a CM with incorrect information.

Then I stand corrected. When I called they said there was a limit and and then transferred me to DVC member services to use their supposed allotment. I explained the situation to the DVC CM and they said there were only a handful of DVC discounts left for that date. So that’s two CMs who were wrong then.

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

Josh is what did it for me too. Just bought tickets for next Wednesday, December 12th!

Yay, can't wait for more reviews!

I had this one written off when announced, then followed Josh and wdwnt that night on Twitter, and could feel me swaying to the dark side.
Reading their reviews today, closed the deal.
Rearranged two days for March, and will be purchasing for us within the next week.
We wont get the trifecta, but hitting this and DHS DAH in March. Technically DS6 and I will get the trifecta in a 2 month period, doing MK DAH in Jan.
I don't need to ride FOP more than 2x, it's the park being so empty and being able to enjoy AK without mass humanity and heat.

 

[bigeyedfish]

Huh, I’m sort of glad that this event didn’t work for us date-wise. I’m not sure we could fill the 3 1/2 hours, but I’d be tempted to do it because of the lack of crowds.

 

[lisaviolet]

It hasn’t gotten back to 2016 levels quite yet. Historical pricing info is tracked here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...-faq-discussion-thread.3713652/#post-59898145

2016 was $149 with no AP or DVC discounts (although they gave away so many tickets many didn’t pay this)

I went to one of the early dates in 2016, late May, and there was a DVC discount. It happened when the first couple of dates didn't sell well. I believe it was 50%, as I remember paying around $75 (maybe even $60). This was after they were giving some away for the first nights - they later announced the discounts.

Part of me loved the event but I also felt like I missed the energy of more people around. I am aware, totally bizarre to miss people when you're literally walking on rides. But I did (EDIT: Just read Josh's review and he conveyed the same kind of feeling).

I love AK at night. So magical. Might give After Hours another try. But not if the DVC discounted tickets sell out. And I think it is kind of crappy to limit the discounted tickets, given how they worded it.

 

[Cirlonde]

Part of me loved the event but I also felt like I missed the energy of more people around. I am aware, totally bizarre to miss people when you're literally walking on rides. But I did (EDIT: Just read Josh's review and he conveyed the same kind of feeling).

We felt some of this too when we went in April 2016. On the one hand, it was really awesome and stress-free to enjoy the parks with almost no other people in sight. But on the other hand...it was hard to get used to there being no other people around and it definitely creates an entirely different dynamic / environment. Plus being an introvert, it felt a little awkward to be the sole focus of the CMs operating the rides, haha!

I also felt such a pressure (from myself) to rush from ride to ride in order to take as much advantage as possible of the low wait times. Not that there's anything wrong with this, but it just added a different kind of stress to what I often feel during a day in the parks. I'm hoping I will have a more relaxed experience when we go in February...we'd only been to WDW twice before we went to the April 2016 DAH, so we were still new! Now that we've been several more times, the pressure to "do it all" has lessened quite a bit.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Why oh why is there nothing offered for our Jan dates?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I went to one of the early dates in 2016, late May, and there was a DVC discount. It happened when the first couple of dates didn't sell well. I believe it was 50%, as I remember paying around $75 (maybe even $60). This was after they were giving some away for the first nights - they later announced the discounts.

Part of me loved the event but I also felt like I missed the energy of more people around. I am aware, totally bizarre to miss people when you're literally walking on rides. But I did (EDIT: Just read Josh's review and he conveyed the same kind of feeling).

I love AK at night. So magical. Might give After Hours another try. But not if the DVC discounted tickets sell out. And I think it is kind of crappy to limit the discounted tickets, given how they worded it.

Thanks, I should clarify what I meant by no discounts in 2016. As you mentioned discounts were not offered when the event was first announced, only later when it turned out to be a flop and they hastily tried everything they could... deep discounts, handing out tickets to guests leaving, etc. So from a year-over-year pricing perspective I sort of throw out what they ended up doing in 2016 because it was all quickly done mid-events, poorly advertised, and just a big mess overall.

As far as limited discounted tickets this time around, I'd keep an eye on the thread to see more reports if accurate... that might have just been bum info from a CM.

 

[TexanInTheMidwest]

She hasn't written a blog post yet, but Serena from "Living by Disney" was on the media list. She posted on her Instagram stories that while the short wait times were great for FOP, she didn't think that it was worth the cost for the average attendee VS the DAH at the MK due to the number of rides. Unless, your only goal is to ride the Pandora rides multiple times....

 

[SL6827]

I would consider doing this event for FOP only. Well I would ride the other rides as well, but my husband really wants to do the FOP. I would worry that if we were to throw down a nice chuck of change for this and then FOP went down for most the night, I would have not got my moneys worth. Anyone else feel that way? I honestly feel like it could be a gamble. We could do well and prepare for a rainy night, even though disappointing as it would be, we would know how to deal with that. But if the main attraction that you bought in for was down most of the night, I don't know how well that might go over.

Has anyone had to deal with such? Did you voice your concerns with Disney?

 

[aymiewilson]

I have a question about just the amount of people who actually attend these events/amount of tickets sold. Does anyone know how many people attend these, how significantly it affects crowd levels in the park for that day? Like if the event is 8-11 pm, then how early can someone with a ticket get into AK? Is Pandora going to become a zoo around 6 pm that evening when a ton of after hours guests swarm in?

Background: There's an after hours event at AK on Feb 5. That's the AK day for my upcoming quick trip with a couple gal pals. We have not bought tickets for it, and I honestly wouldn't want to, just because the cost of this trip is already so high. We have all our FP+ and dining reservations locked in for our three trip days, so we can't really change which parks we do which day. We DID get FP for FoP already on that day (10:45 am I think), and we plan to rope drop Navi River Journey. Our plan to get in a second ride on FOP without wasting hours in line was to hop in line for FOP shortly before park closing time (scheduled to close at 8 pm right now). I'm wondering if the after hours event is going to mess with that plan.

 

[DVCkidsMOM]

AFAIK there is no number of tickets sold that guests would know. We also haven't had enough parties to know how day guest crowds are affected.

I do know that the tickets say we can enter the park starting at 7 p.m., so there should be no affect to day guests prior to that time. For me, I wish they'd let me in bit earlier; but for you, my not being allowed in yet is probably your preference.

 

[Haley R]

I have a question about just the amount of people who actually attend these events/amount of tickets sold. Does anyone know how many people attend these, how significantly it affects crowd levels in the park for that day? Like if the event is 8-11 pm, then how early can someone with a ticket get into AK? Is Pandora going to become a zoo around 6 pm that evening when a ton of after hours guests swarm in?

Background: There's an after hours event at AK on Feb 5. That's the AK day for my upcoming quick trip with a couple gal pals. We have not bought tickets for it, and I honestly wouldn't want to, just because the cost of this trip is already so high. We have all our FP+ and dining reservations locked in for our three trip days, so we can't really change which parks we do which day. We DID get FP for FoP already on that day (10:45 am I think), and we plan to rope drop Navi River Journey. Our plan to get in a second ride on FOP without wasting hours in line was to hop in line for FOP shortly before park closing time (scheduled to close at 8 pm right now). I'm wondering if the after hours event is going to mess with that plan.

There hasn’t been any impact on day crowds so far from any dah event. I wouldn’t be worried

ETA: sorry I was busy earlier so I had a short answer. No one knows the exact number for how many people can attend dah. Although, 3,000 has been thrown out a couple of times. The dah crowd can get in officially at 7 pm and I doubt many of them will go straight to pandora since they can wait until dah actually starts and have little to no wait on rides.

My advice is to not stress about it and check wait times right before park close to decide if you want to ride fop again.