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

[AllThingsMickey4]

Thank you for posting, I was just looking for event magic shots! If you email the PhotoPass folks, they can add the “magic” to your castle photo - I’ve had to do this before and it just takes a few days.

Great, thanks! Oh and a PhotoPass CM told us there was a Maleficent dragon magic shot on the bridge near BOG, but we didn’t make it back that way to get it.

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

Thanks for posting the magic shots info!!
Excited about Scar for DS7, he just asked me if Scar was there since he is wearing a Scar shirt that night.
I think we are going to try to hit all the magic shots

@Cluelyss can't wait for your reports next week!

 

[disneycat321]

Thanks for all the reports! I’m now super excited for this! We’re not into villains really, but just wanted to do DAH at MK. However, all the lighting/music stuff looks fun, I’m a sucker for castle projections, and SM in total darkness sounds amazing! Having live actors on Pirates sounds cool, too! Can’t wait to attend this next month.

I’m also on the bus back to resort. They reran the Villain stage show at 1am (and the dragon at 1:20). That was perfect for us since we exited Space a couple minutes after 1. So we got to see it but didn’t waste ride time.

So many light effects everywhere and I ageee that the CMs seemed in a festive mood. As for the tweet about not hearing Ursula in Space, our first ride we went left and being in the dark was such a surprise I heard nothing but music. Our second ride, we went right and I definitely heard all of that without issue. Perhaps because I wasn’t so focused on the dark? YMMV

I’m glad the 1am stage show strategy works well - that’s what we’re planning on doing to avoid missing ride time.

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

I’m also on the bus back to resort. They reran the Villain stage show at 1am (and the dragon at 1:20). That was perfect for us since we exited Space a couple minutes after 1. So we got to see it but didn’t waste ride time.

So many light effects everywhere and I ageee that the CMs seemed in a festive mood. As for the tweet about not hearing Ursula in Space, our first ride we went left and being in the dark was such a surprise I heard nothing but music. Our second ride, we went right and I definitely heard all of that without issue. Perhaps because I wasn’t so focused on the dark? YMMV

How were the crowds at the last show?

 

[chabs]

I would not “trust” great reviews from the media. I was not happy to see crowds of media people being allowed into the fastpass lines last night, while the rest of us waited over 45 minutes for Mine Train, 30 for Space Mountain, 25 for Pirates, 15 for Peter Pan and Big Thunder. This is not one of the events that you can ride Mine Train (and other big headliner rides) over and over like EMM. I was very disappointed in the event. Thought it was overcrowded, oversold and certainly not worth the money. And Splash was down pretty much the entire night.

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

I would not “trust” great reviews from the media. I was not happy to see crowds of media people being allowed into the fast pass lines last night, while the rest of us waited over 45 minutes for Mine Train, 30 for Space Mountain, 25 for Pirates, 15 for Peter Pan and Big Thunder. This is not one of the events that you can ride Mine Train (it other big headliner rides) over and over like EMM. I was very disappointed in the event. Thought it was overcrowded, oversold and certainly not worth the money. And Splash was down pretty much the entire night.

I haven't seen a review from media yet.

 

[WDW1979]

I haven't seen a review from media yet.

Maybe chabs is predicting media reports will be influenced by reporters being allowed onto rides before others, giving a false impression of no lines, and predicting news reports will indicate that.

 

[rteetz]

 

[cel_disney]

That Maleficent dragon video is AMAZING!!!! I want to go SOOOO badly!!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

Any chance of this adding more dates??

 

[chabs]

Maybe chabs is predicting media reports will be influenced by reporters being allowed onto rides before others, giving a false impression of no lines, and predicting news reports will indicate that.

Exactly. Just giving my 2 cents on the event, take it or leave it.

 

[SaintsManiac]

The DIS team did pay to go, so they should be giving an honest review. I don't know about the others.

 

[vinotinto]

I would not “trust” great reviews from the media. I was not happy to see crowds of media people being allowed into the fastpass lines last night, while the rest of us waited over 45 minutes for Mine Train, 30 for Space Mountain, 25 for Pirates, 15 for Peter Pan and Big Thunder. This is not one of the events that you can ride Mine Train (and other big headliner rides) over and over like EMM. I was very disappointed in the event. Thought it was overcrowded, oversold and certainly not worth the money. And Splash was down pretty much the entire night.

Wow, thank you for that info. It sounds like if you want to do Mine Train, Space Mountain, Pirates, Peter Pan and Big Thunder, that will take most of your evening.

 

[AllThingsMickey4]

We walked up on the first stage show about half way through and it was really crowded up towards the front of the castle, but once you got back to the partners statue there wasn’t many people. Most of the people up front looked like bloggers.

 

[Dug720]

Wow, thank you for that info. It sounds like if you want to do Mine Train, Space Mountain, Pirates, Peter Pan and Big Thunder, that will take most of your evening.

The "hosted" bloggers/vloggers (and thankfully they have to disclose now - usually they use the hashtag "hosted" or "ad" or "sponsored" and/or will say "guests of Disney") are generally only hosted the first night. After that, they're on their own to pay and be one of the peons like the rest of us.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

How were the crowds at the last show?

We walked up to it at 1:08 and were near the Walt statue. (But closer to stage). Then I was in front row as the dragon passed by since almost everyone left.

For the person who asked about costumes, yes there were some there in costume. Lots of villains shirts and Maleficent ears.

I feel bad for the person who experienced such long waits because other than Space Mountain at 12:45, we didn’t have that at all. Even the CM told us that the Peter Pan sign was incorrect at 30 (it was 5) at 11:35

I’ll be curious about crowd reports from the next one when then blogger brigade isn’t in attendance. We went to EMH the night before and this was significantly less crowded so perhaps my perception was skewed.

 

[ShadeDK]

Interesting reviews - not sure whether it's more like "MNSSHP-lite" or "After Hours on steroids". I was curious if they'd do something completely different, but it does seem like a combination of the two events. So you get the party atmosphere, stage show, ride overlays, snacks and merch of MNSSHP - but not fireworks, parades, candy, or M&Gs. And you get the lower crowds, free drinks/ice cream, and rides of After Hours - only maybe with bigger crowds and wait times. I don't know if that hits a sweet spot for a lot of guests, or just makes them want to stick with one or the other (or both separately).

Going to this in a couple of weeks myself and will find out. I'll have to say that bringing back the Deep Space Mountain idea from MNSSHP is probably worth the price of admission alone for me. Also not terribly surprised at the wait times last night - while they shouldn't go up that high for an AH event, I've done a few AH at MK and the headliners always seem to build lines at some point. At past events, I've waited around 30 minutes for 7DMT and up to 15-20 for Space Mtn, Splash and BTMRR (although, in fairness, I've also had walk-ons for those last three - just depends on crowd movement and time of the evening). One positive I noted from the reports so far is everyone enjoyed it and had a great time - so that's promising.

 

[Raya]

How were the transportation options? It sounds that the ferry was waiting at the end of the night, how were the other buses?

Ferry and buses. We had about a 10 minute for a bus back to our resort. I was a little surprised to *not* find buses lines up at the end of the event.

Weird question, but I’m curious, was Space Mountain only pitch black or did they add anything else to it? Thanks!

There was a sound track. When we rode we couldn't hear it. We asked a cast member who thought it was Maleficent's voice. When we got stuck on the Peoplemover, we could hear that it was a mix of Villains.

I’ve seen a couple reports of people getting in prior to 7, do we know when the “official” entry time is?
Haven’t seen anything regarding special magic shots, did anyone see any? And if so, where were they located?

7 is the official time, we got in just after 6:30.

Were many folks in costume? My entire family is planning to dress up and just want to make sure we won’t be out of place!!

There was a good portion in costume, I'd estimate 25%. There was a vast number of people in Villain related t shirts, probably 50%. I wore a spiderweb print dress and *lots* of glitter. I got compliments all night long. I think costumes are a great idea!

 

[Cinderumbrella]

It was definitely crowd movement. We walked onto BTMRR twice (but reriding was not an option).

I think part of the Space lines was because it had been down from around 6 to 9:40. I suspect a ton of last minute regular park goers got it line. We didn’t attempt it until almost 11 to make sure they were out. Wait time then was about 10 minutes but half of that was walking through the big queue.

 

[AllThingsMickey4]

Did anyone else notice Mickey and Minnie at Town Square weren’t meeting last night? We left around 12 am and we were going to see how long their wait was on our way out, but the doors to the meet and greet were shut. They were meeting at the DAH we went to during the first week of May.