"Official" 2018 Disney After Hours (DAH) Thread (Now Closed, see New 2019 Thread)

[erij11]

My dd19 and I are going this weekend...same idea. She knows though.
Last year I did the same before she left for college and didn’t tell her. She didn’t figure it out u til we were giving our suitcases to the lady at the counter and she noticed I had slipped on the dme tag. We had a great time!

This is great!!! I will probably have to tell my DD the day before because she will need time to prepare her "Disney" outfits and her ears lol. I wish I could tell her we were going elsewhere and surprise her on the drive down but she'd be a mess if she didn't have the right outfits, lol.

 

[Cloe Colton]

Thanks for the review Cloe! We will be there 8/11, I will make getting drinks a priority at the beginning, that stinks it was more crowded. The one Tim and Jen went to for free, Timtracker on YouTube was dead!! Very few people.
We are excited to do this event again, we did it in February of 2017.

We may have hit a bad night because it was the week right after the vloggers were all there ! But definitely get some drinks early on! Overall, we still had a great time!!

 

[lilpiglet97]

My DD and I attended the 7/28 DAH. What a fun evening it was. We got to do all the rides we wanted and more. If we weren't already doing the 8/5 passholder after hours event, we would do the 8/4 DAH again.

We started our night with a FP for Jungle Cruise at 8:00(our 4th FP), then rode POC, Splash Mountain, and BTMRR(during fireworks). We wanted to get the longer rides before DAH started.

Ride count pre DAH
Jungle Cruise (FP)
POC pre DAH
Splash Mountain pre DAH
BTMRR during fireworks

Rides during DAH
Haunted Mansion x1 (no wait)
Peter Pan's Flight x1 (no wait)
Journey of the Little Mermaid x1
7DMT x1 (5 min wait)
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh x1 (no wait)
Tomorrowland Speedway x1 (7 min wait)
Space Mountain x4 (no short cuts had to exit and re enter at beginning of ride)
Tomorrowland Transit Authority People Mover x1
Buzz Lightyear x4
Splash Mountain x3
BTMRR x2

Snack Carts...
10 drinks
5 Mickey ice creams
1 frozen banana
1 pop corn

1 Tangled PP

It was a great night well worth the $$$ especially with the AP discount. Even finding out after the fact that it sold out, it never really felt over crowded. The snack carts never ran out of items and there really wasn't many lines for them. We did everything we wanted to and several multiple times. We ended the night on Splash Mountain at 12:57 and headed out through an empty Liberty Square. No pics on Main Street due to LOTS of people hanging out. The shop doors were all closed so we headed to the buses. It took about 45 mins to get to the Boardwalk Inn (last of 5 stops).

 

[lilpiglet97]

[QUOTE="AngiTN, post: 59536143, member: 355902"

]We always head to Adventure Land and Frontier Land first[/QUOTE]

That's how we started our night, in Adventure Land and working clockwise til we hit all the rides and then worked our way back counterclockwise.

 

[jenjersnap]

My DD and I attended the 7/28 DAH. What a fun evening it was. We got to do all the rides we wanted and more. If we weren't already doing the 8/5 passholder after hours event, we would do the 8/4 DAH again.

We started our night with a FP for Jungle Cruise at 8:00(our 4th FP), then rode POC, Splash Mountain, and BTMRR(during fireworks). We wanted to get the longer rides before DAH started.

Ride count pre DAH
Jungle Cruise (FP)
POC pre DAH
Splash Mountain pre DAH
BTMRR during fireworks

Rides during DAH
Haunted Mansion x1 (no wait)
Peter Pan's Flight x1 (no wait)
Journey of the Little Mermaid x1
7DMT x1 (5 min wait)
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh x1 (no wait)
Tomorrowland Speedway x1 (7 min wait)
Space Mountain x4 (no short cuts had to exit and re enter at beginning of ride)
Tomorrowland Transit Authority People Mover x1
Buzz Lightyear x4
Splash Mountain x3
BTMRR x2

Snack Carts...
10 drinks
5 Mickey ice creams
1 frozen banana
1 pop corn

1 Tangled PP

It was a great night well worth the $$$ especially with the AP discount. Even finding out after the fact that it sold out, it never really felt over crowded. The snack carts never ran out of items and there really wasn't many lines for them. We did everything we wanted to and several multiple times. We ended the night on Splash Mountain at 12:57 and headed out through an empty Liberty Square. No pics on Main Street due to LOTS of people hanging out. The shop doors were all closed so we headed to the buses. It took about 45 mins to get to the Boardwalk Inn (last of 5 stops).

How long was the Tangled Photopass line? What time did you do it?

 

[lilpiglet97]

How long was the Tangled Photopass line? What time did you do it?

The timestamp on the PP pic says 10:23pm. It was only a 5 -7 min wait.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

@lilpiglet97 thank you so much for the review. We are so excited to go.

 

[lilpiglet97]

@DisneyFanslnNYC it's such a fun evening. It's like having 3 hours of FP's!

 

[jillt2ph]

Love this thread! Had such a blast at DAH last March. Way far ahead, but I’m hoping they offer it in early May this year. We should be in WDW from May 5-11.

The first time I did was during that week in 2016. That was the last time they did it in May. I, too, am hoping they will start having a few May dates again. I have gone to the party in early March in 2017 and 2018, and it is still great. I just liked the later start in May.

 

[jenjersnap]

The timestamp on the PP pic says 10:23pm. It was only a 5 -7 min wait.

Awesome, thank you!

 

[firsttimemom]

Please add us to the 8/30 date! Because this one starts an hour earlier, it will be interesting to see if there are more 'non party' guests that remain hanging around.

 

[terri33inne]

Add us to the list for August 30th!!

Our last trip this past February I waited too long to order our tickets, and the event was sold out. My daughter was so disappointed... so glad we'll get to try it this next go round!

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

I attended the 7/28 DAH with my dh and our 23 and 18 yo dds. We agreed we'd pay the uncharge for another DAH in MK (or DHS) in the future. We did use the AP discount which made the cost more palatable.

We entered the park on our regular tickets around 7pm (no line at regular tapstyles) and picked up the lanyards at Stitch (only ones doing so).

Before DAH:
Space/Buzz with FP (party split)
SDMT with FP
Philharmagic
watched HEA from bridge near Gaston's/SDMT (great spot if you have already seen it with the projections)

Then we walked upstream against all the lanyard-wearing traffic to Jungle Cruise.

During DAH:
Jungle Cruise (longest wait of the evening as we entered the line before 10pm, maybe 15 min?)
Pirates (boats in front of and behind us were empty)
Splash (lots of empty logs)
BTMRR 2x (family favorite--total walk-on)
snack break--popcorn for most, ice cream for me lol; line of 10 people
Haunted Mansion (kinda creepy with so few people)
(skipped iasw bc it takes so long)
(PP line was listed at 20 min and looked it)
(SDMT was listed at 20 min and looked it)
Pooh
Dumbo
Barnstormer ("choose whichever row"--we were the only ones on the ride)
Space/Buzz (party split) 2x (no one on Buzz then; not sure about Space)
snack break (no line)
PP w no wait at all
SDMT at 12:50 with about a 10 min wait---so many people were ending with SDMT
a slow wander out of the park, taking lots of pictures

A bus was waiting for us at 1:40am

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

@GADisneyDad14 or if anyone else knows? Can you make Fastpasses for the time before DAH officially starts - from 7pm-10pm? We are traveling with some people that don't have annual passes and do not have park tickets for that day since it is their first day in DW.

Also what is the transportation like at the end? This part of the trip we will be at AKL and was wondering if it is better to take a MinnieVan at the end?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mcurrence]

Please add us to the 8/30 date! Because this one starts an hour earlier, it will be interesting to see if there are more 'non party' guests that remain hanging around.

We've always done the earlier time slot, 8-11 DAH in 2017 and this past January and it's never been an issue. I think in general most people leave within 30 of the event starting. Fingers crossed it stays the same

 

[mcurrence]

@GADisneyDad14 or if anyone else knows? Can you make Fastpasses for the time before DAH officially starts - from 7pm-10pm? We are traveling with some people that don't have annual passes and do not have park tickets for that day since it is their first day in DW.

Also what is the transportation like at the end? This part of the trip we will be at AKL and was wondering if it is better to take a MinnieVan at the end?

Thanks in advance.

You can make FP before the event...the only time it get's tricky has been if you have other fP's later in your trip..but I think most have been successful.

We've never seen Minnie vans available at MK after the event...maybe if you walk over to the Contemporary you can request one from the App?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

@GADisneyDad14 or if anyone else knows? Can you make Fastpasses for the time before DAH officially starts - from 7pm-10pm? We are traveling with some people that don't have annual passes and do not have park tickets for that day since it is their first day in DW.

Also what is the transportation like at the end? This part of the trip we will be at AKL and was wondering if it is better to take a MinnieVan at the end?

Thanks in advance.

Hey!

Yes, a DAH ticket acts as any other type of park ticket and will let you make FPs. But - like with what started with MNSSHP tickets and FPs last year - there are certain combinations of tickets/scenarios/situations where booking FPs with a DAH ticket may cause issues with other booked FP days.

What I mean by this is, say...

Person X has a 5 day ticket and books 5 days worth of FPs (in this case let’s say Days 2–6)

Person X also has a DAH ticket and books FPs that day (in this case, Day 1)

Disney’s system will let you do all of the above. BUT - for unknown reasons and circumstances SOME people later get an an e-mail warning as having too many FPs vs tickets and that the last days FPs will be deleted. This warning comes via e-mail and the FP deletion can happen sometime (like a day or so) afterwards.

Not everyone will get the warning and it is unclear what exactly flags/causes it to occur in the MDX world. Calls to Disney IT result in varied responses.

TLDR - it’ll let you do it, just keep an eye out for any warning e-mails, especially if the FPs on the last park. day are really important.

As for transportation - I ‘think’ Minnie Vans stop running at 12:30AM, so that’s probably not going to be an option if you stay until the end.

Buses run in non-traditional sharing routes, although I’m not sure how they handle AKL.

May want to consider walking over to CR and getting a taxi/Uber/Lyft if an option for you.

Hope that helps!

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

Hey!

Yes, a DAH ticket acts as any other type of park ticket and will let you make FPs. But - like with what started with MNSSHP tickets and FPs last year - there are certain combinations of tickets/scenarios/situations where booking FPs with a DAH ticket may cause issues with other booked FP days.

What I mean by this is, say...

Person X has a 5 day ticket and books 5 days worth of FPs (in this case let’s say Days 2–6)

Person X also has a DAH ticket and books FPs that day (in this case, Day 1)

Disney’s system will let you do all of the above. BUT - for unknown reasons and circumstances SOME people later get an an e-mail warning as having too many FPs vs tickets and that the last days FPs will be deleted. This warning comes via e-mail and the FP deletion can happen sometime (like a day or so) afterwards.

Not everyone will get the warning and it is unclear what exactly flags/causes it to occur in the MDX world. Calls to Disney IT result in varied responses.

TLDR - it’ll let you do it, just keep an eye out for any warning e-mails, especially if the FPs on the last park. day are really important.

As for transportation - I ‘think’ Minnie Vans stop running at 12:30AM, so that’s probably not going to be an option if you stay until the end.

Buses run in non-traditional sharing routes, although I’m not sure how they handle AKL.

May want to consider walking over to CR and getting a taxi/Uber/Lyft if an option for you.

Hope that helps!

Thank you so much for the info. That is what I was afraid of but I don't think the last days FPs are that important since they are at MK and we will have been there at least 4 other days. The problem is that I won't get the email since we have APs. I will make sure they keep an eye out.

The one problem with leaving MK after a late event and not staying at CR is the transportation. I think walking to CR and taking a taxi/Uber/Lyft will be the best bet.

Thanks again - I trust your knowledge!!

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

You can make FP before the event...the only time it get's tricky has been if you have other fP's later in your trip..but I think most have been successful.

We've never seen Minnie vans available at MK after the event...maybe if you walk over to the Contemporary you can request one from the App?

Thank you for the info. We do have FPs later on in the trip but not that important since it is for MK. We will walk to the CR and get a taxi or Lyft or Uber.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Thank you so much for the info. That is what I was afraid of but I don't think the last days FPs are that important since they are at MK and we will have been there at least 4 other days. The problem is that I won't get the email since we have APs. I will make sure they keep an eye out.

The one problem with leaving MK after a late event and not staying at CR is the transportation. I think walking to CR and taking a taxi/Uber/Lyft will be the best bet.

Thanks again - I trust your knowledge!!

Yeah, a long trip home late at night can kind of put a damper on things if you get unlucky with bus timing or sharing. I’m assuming AKL still has a dedicated bus, but I’m not sure - they may try to share with some other resorts out that way.

CR always seems to have those taxi vans around which you probably need with your large crew!