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

[Lisa F]

The Diamond horseshoe thing

 

[mekay1012]

I'm curious about the merchandise as well...if we can "sneak" 15 min early? My son wants the Hades shirt and I don't want to spend time waiting in line. Curious if we grabbed on way out if they'd still have some.

Last year, we were able to purchase merchandise around 7:00. We just had to show our bands.

 

[cakebaker]

I finished the story and did end up with a refund but the guy was pretty snotty about it.

Sounds like the experience I had last year at an EMM event. Both SDMT and PPF were down when we entered. We waited around SDMT for a few minutes, then walked over to PPF and it was down as well. Back over to SDMT and the CMs said it was down for the entire event. By then we were maybe a half hour into the event. At that point I’d had it and headed straight to guest services. I’m always sure to be polite when I have a complaint but this woman was snotty from the get go.

She basically said the same thing- event was half over and we did get breakfast out of it. I told her no, actually we didn’t. We tried 1 ride, it was down, walked to another ride, it was down, back to 1st ride, still down, then walked to guest services. If that’s enjoying something, I’d hate to see what a bad time was.

They offered FP for SDMT when it did re-open but that did us no good since we were doing EMM then right back to the hotel to leave for the airport. At that point she begrudgingly issued us a refund but snapped
“You’re going to have to take those bands off before you leave here”. She cut them off for us like she was ripping crowns off our heads. lol

It sure left a bad taste in my mouth and was a really bad way to end the trip. I emailed them when I got home about it and of course got the apologetic phone call. Still, it swore me off ever doing another EMM.

There have been a few complaints about regular AH’s in the past week too. I’m hoping it’s not a trend. We have both AK and the MK next month. I expect them to deliver what they advertise and if not, I’ll be right back at guest services.

 

[Zaz936]

Can alcoholic drinks be taken out of the restaurant or do they have to be drank onsite?

 

[lisa cameron]

I wonder if a 9pm start time vs a 10pm start time had a significant effect on sales. Also, they would also explain why more regular park goers were still in line at 9pm.

 

[auteur55]

Oh no with these recent reports and all the madness at HS I’m starting to feel incredibly anxious about my upcoming trip in May. Already have Villains tickets but it looks like Disney is falsely advertising the event.

 

[Iowamomof4]

Oh no with these recent reports and all the madness at HS I’m starting to feel incredibly anxious about my upcoming trip in May. Already have Villains tickets but it looks like Disney is falsely advertising the event.

One thing to remember about last night is that it was miserably cold. When you are there in May, it should be pleasantly warm and you'll be so happy to tour the park after the sun is down! Make a plan, avoid the headliners for the first hour at least, and try to make the most of it. If you have a regular after hours option available during your week, you might be able to switch your tickets to that if you want. Whether they'll refund the difference or not is up to the cm.

 

[auteur55]

“On a busy day you should plan on 1-1.5 hours for wait times to drop and queues to clear of day”
This is astonishing and should be included in the advertising/description of the event so people know what they are (over)paying for. Shame on you Disney.

 

[alliecat523]

I’m sorry the other poster had such a bad experience. There are two sides to the coin though. Party goers are able to enter on a party ticket 2 hours before the event even starts. This also allows them to get FP they otherwise wouldn’t be entitled to. It’s also well known that you can enter any ride line just before closing and still ride. Both sides are trying to make the most out of their choice (party vs regular park day). I personally think the best answer would be to close an hour before the event to allow those guests to clear out and make for a better experience for those attending the parties.

In the end, there is no reason for GR to be snotty to anyone. I understand they deal with a lot but if you can’t handle it, don’t work in GR!

 

[cakebaker]

Party goers are able to enter on a party ticket 2 hours before the event even starts.

For those of us with AP's or hopper tickets, this is not an advantage. We can go anytime. I think they should build in the 1 hour buffer they do at AK, not sure why they don't. What has worked for us though, is to ride the things last minute riders won't rush to. Last lines of the night are usually for the headliners- Space and SDMT being the most popular I think. We ride the secondary rides and work our way up to the headliners. By then, the non party goers are long gone. That said, I don't do VAH's either. There's not enough extras to make up for the longer lines to me.

 

[lisa cameron]

For those of us with AP's or hopper tickets, this is not an advantage. We can go anytime. I think they should build in the 1 hour buffer they do at AK, not sure why they don't. What has worked for us though, is to ride the things last minute riders won't rush to. Last lines of the night are usually for the headliners- Space and SDMT being the most popular I think. We ride the secondary rides and work our way up to the headliners. By then, the non party goers are long gone. That said, I don't do VAH's either. There's not enough extras to make up for the longer lines to me.

That is my strategy for our April 17th VAH!
We have FP for Space Mountain 6:10-7:10pm, Splash 7:10-8:10pm, 7DMT 8:15pm. From about 8:30-10:00pm between our 3rd FP and the event starting we hope to snag maybe a 4th or 5th FP for less popular rides like IASM, Under the Sea and Tea Cups and do JC as standby around 9:00pm during HEA when crowds are lower. This way too we are doing longer rides during regular hours so they don’t eat up too much of the party hours.
When the event starts, we plan to start with Buzz and Tomorrowland Speedway, Barnstormer, Pooh, Haunted Mansion before moving to Big Thunder (hopefully twice as I estimate it will be around 11:30pm at this point) and then Pirates. If lines are short enough will do PP at the end, but want to be out of the park around 12:30pm. We are skipping Space, 7DMT and Splash during the event since we have FP for them. Really want to see the Pirates overlay and don’t care as much about seeing the Space Mountain overlay. Does this sound reasonable? Trying to figure out the best time to do Pirates.

 

[Lisa F]

That is my strategy for our April 17th VAH!
We have FP for Space Mountain 6:10-7:10pm, Splash 7:10-8:10pm, 7DMT 8:15pm. From about 8:30-10:00pm between our 3rd FP and the event starting we hope to snag maybe a 4th or 5th FP for less popular rides like IASM, Under the Sea and Tea Cups and do JC as standby around 9:00pm during HEA when crowds are lower. This way too we are doing longer rides during regular hours so they don’t eat up too much of the party hours.
When the event starts, we plan to start with Buzz and Tomorrowland Speedway, Barnstormer, Pooh, Haunted Mansion before moving to Big Thunder (hopefully twice as I estimate it will be around 11:30pm at this point) and then Pirates. If lines are short enough will do PP at the end, but want to be out of the park around 12:30pm. We are skipping Space, 7DMT and Splash during the event since we have FP for them. Really want to see the Pirates overlay and don’t care as much about seeing the Space Mountain overlay. Does this sound reasonable? Trying to figure out the best time to do Pirates.

I'd fastpass BTMRR... this had a 30 minute wait at halfway in. We did this 3x in a row at the beginning of regular AH with at most 10 minute waits. Pirates had a 10 minute wait

 

[DrunkJam]

WOW @Lisa F Sorry for your bad time, and sorry to your DS too, I totally get the sensory thing.
I am getting a bit anxious for my trip in June, with so much construction, and stuff down and not ready etc, I was counting on fixing some of it by adding upcharge events, but...
At this point, I am starting to wonder whether this trip is a good idea, maybe the universe is trying to tell me something.

 

[lisa cameron]

I'd fastpass BTMRR... this had a 30 minute wait at halfway in. We did this 3x in a row at the beginning of regular AH with at most 10 minute waits. Pirates had a 10 minute wait

Good to know about pirates! I have been trying to watch the wait times on MDE and on Feb 14th the waits on BTMRR looked fairly short with Pirates being longer than most others. Maybe this was inflated. Did you actually wait 30 minutes for BTMRR or was that just the posted time?

 

[Lisa F]

WOW @Lisa F Sorry for your bad time, and sorry to your DS too, I totally get the sensory thing.
I am getting a bit anxious for my trip in June, with so much construction, and stuff down and not ready etc, I was counting on fixing some of it by adding upcharge events, but...
At this point, I am starting to wonder whether this trip is a good idea, maybe the universe is trying to tell me something.

We are waiting to board the bus to the cruise now and then taking a break from Disney. There is a lot of upheaval, chaos and the crowding here is unreal. The feeling of paying for something and not getting your money's worth is not a great one. When things settle down in the parks I will reassess how the price hikes feel but right now I need a break. We had one day in the parks yesterday supposedly capped off by VAH but I think Disney has turned the screws on this event past the point where I feel it is worth it.

But this decision was made by before this trip. We had our last hurrah and kiddo knows we'll be taking a break. It was a great day and we did the HEA dessert party as well, it was a fabulous view and I love that show. The snacks were good too but I really did it for the view.

If you're a die hard Disney fan I recommend a break every so often. I have owned dvc for 20 years and have taken breaks in that time... Always come back, but also always say goodbye before I take it.

Expectations are everything. I thought I had mine properly set but the waits paired with the cold and how uncomfortable it was to wait just were too much for us!

 

[Lisa F]

“On a busy day you should plan on 1-1.5 hours for wait times to drop and queues to clear of day”
This is astonishing and should be included in the advertising/description of the event so people know what they are (over)paying for. Shame on you Disney.

Yes this is why I shared that here. When we got our bands the CMs were hyping to everyone how great it was going to be and how we'd forget the cold because waits would be so low but space queueing outside with 50 minutes and btmrr with an exposed to the elements queue for 30 did not appeal... The cold did not help matters.

I also mentioned that I typically use the DAS for my son but since we were there just one day and planned the event that night figured we could just be "normal" and he berated me for not getting the DAS. My son has a hard time waiting but there's especially no way he could have in the cold.

 

[DrunkJam]

We are waiting to board the bus to the cruise now and then taking a break from Disney. There is a lot of upheaval, chaos and the crowding here is unreal. The feeling of paying for something and not getting your money's worth is not a great one. When things settle down in the parks I will reassess how the price hikes feel but right now I need a break. We had one day in the parks yesterday supposedly capped off by VAH but I think Disney has turned the screws on this event past the point where I feel it is worth it.

But this decision was made by before this trip. We had our last hurrah and kiddo knows we'll be taking a break. It was a great day and we did the HEA dessert party as well, it was a fabulous view and I love that show. The snacks were good too but I really did it for the view.

If you're a die hard Disney fan I recommend a break every so often. I have owned dvc for 20 years and have taken breaks in that time... Always come back, but also always say goodbye before I take it.

Expectations are everything. I thought I had mine properly set but the waits paired with the cold and how uncomfortable it was to wait just were too much for us!

Yes. This is my last trip.
We've had a tough year or so, with DH having quit his failed chemo, and having to cancel all our tenth anniversary plans. This trip is meant to be a treat for me, so I can recharge, get some anniversary gifts for everyone and enjoy a last disney in our decade of disney. (we were meant to go to HK disney this year, so, lucky escape on that) I was hoping for something amazing, but, there is resort construction, there is castle construction, there is UBER Epcot construction and down-ages. At this point I am glad I am not taking the kids, because, it would be impossible to organise everything so all the needs could be met in the midst of all the issues.
I mean, it is what it is, but, I kind of hoped that, at least the up charge things would be, you know, special, and not any problem.

 

[cindianne320]

Why do they have the 9 pm closing/9 pm start now? I'm glad when I go in April, the park closes at 9, but party is at 10. Is it something to do with the time of HEA?

 

[DrunkJam]

Why do they have the 9 pm closing/9 pm start now? I'm glad when I go in April, the park closes at 9, but party is at 10. Is it something to do with the time of HEA?

By all accounts, park close is likely to move to 10pm if the party start time is 10pm.

 

[cakebaker]

Why do they have the 9 pm closing/9 pm start now? I'm glad when I go in April, the park closes at 9, but party is at 10. Is it something to do with the time of HEA?

I’d almost guarantee they’ll extend closing until 10. They don’t usually have an hour buffer at the MK. I’m not sure they’ve ever done it.