Disney After Hours Crowd Level

[Bete]

I know it's suppose be a limited amount of guests. Is it comparable to the crowd level of the parties like MVMCP? Is it less people allowed than the parties?

I thought I once heard it's like 25000 guests for the parties.

For those who have gone are you satisfied with the crowd levels? Did you get on all the rides?

Are the crowd levels less at one park vs. another from your experience?

 

[SaintsManiac]

There are dedicated threads for the DAH events. You'll find discussion and reviews there.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...-magic-kingdom-faq-discussion-thread.3713652/
https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-after-hours-animal-kingdom-faq-discussion-thread.3715424/
https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...lywood-studios-faq-discussion-thread.3715403/
@GADisneyDad14 has done an amazing job keeping them organized.

 

[mn51]

I know it's suppose be a limited amount of guests. Is it comparable to the crowd level of the parties like MVMCP? Is it less people allowed than the parties?

I thought I once heard it's like 25000 guests for the parties.

For those who have gone are you satisfied with the crowd levels? Did you get on all the rides?

Are the crowd levels less at one park vs. another from your experience?

We have attended two Disney After Hours at MK and there were no crowds really. There were many rides that we walked right on and rode a couple of additional times. A couple of rides had a very short wait. I have pictures of us on an empty Main Street. Now this is not to say that the no to very light crowds won't continue. We've been to MVMCP and that was crowded - very crowded. There is no comparison.

 

[Gehrig1B]

An After Hours event at MK in January. We were at the initial Villains After Hours and it was a bit more crowded. This is Frontierland heading toward Adventureland. Rode BTMRR 6 times in a row...

 

[skuttle]

We did DAH at both MK and AK earlier this month. Both were more crowded than we were expecting based on what we had read and pictures we saw from earlier DAH events. We never saw any empty walkways or areas in either park. It was still significantly less crowded than a normal day, and less crowded than MVMCP for sure.

At MK we were able to ride almost everything, except 7DMT. We didn't even try to do it because we had a FP for another day, and the wait was always about 30-40 min and that was too much time to wait when we could do so many things.

At AK, we were able to do FOP with about a 15 min wait. Everything else was walk-on.

 

[djc9699]

The crowds the last two weeks at all the after hours (did all 3 parks) were significantly higher than when went went just before Christmas last year. So much so that we won't pay for AK after hours again and I am sending a complaint about this past Friday's HS after hours. WAY too crowded. Waits at HS was 25-40 minutes for SDD, TSM, and TOT all three hours, 10-15 minute wait for RNRC which used to be walk on, pick your row. Not worth the extra money. We had just done this one the week before and it was great with only SDD having any wait and it topped out at 20 minutes. Easy to see, Disney is pushing up the number of tickets sold.

 

[Bete]

The crowds the last two weeks at all the after hours (did all 3 parks) were significantly higher than when went went just before Christmas last year. So much so that we won't pay for AK after hours again and I am sending a complaint about this past Friday's HS after hours. WAY too crowded. Waits at HS was 25-40 minutes for SDD, TSM, and TOT all three hours, 10-15 minute wait for RNRC which used to be walk on, pick your row. Not worth the extra money. We had just done this one the week before and it was great with only SDD having any wait and it topped out at 20 minutes. Easy to see, Disney is pushing up the number of tickets sold.

I have a feeling when After Hours was a new concept crowds were down. Now, the word is out and spreading; so, crowd levels are going up.

I think we will do a wait and see before committing to the extra cost. We will see how much we can accomplish during regular hours before making this decision. Also, we may be too tired to do more hours.

 

[Minsc]

Anecdotal, but these are from the May 16th event starting at around 10pm. FAR less guests than the parties. We've been to a couple more besides this one, and they were all pretty light. This was definitely the lightest one.

 

[Bete]

Thanks for sharing your pictures.

I noticed on the Disney website that you can get in a couple of hours early from the start time of the After Hours official time. I think this may be so you can see the MK fireworks, Fantasmic or River of Lights.

I'm now starting to think it might be a better use of the day to enjoy a non-Disney park in the day time and then go to a Disney After Hours event. Maybe, take an afternoon nap in between.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I noticed on the Disney website that you can get in a couple of hours early from the start time of the After Hours official time. I think this may be so you can see the MK fireworks, Fantasmic or River of Lights.

FYI, for the DAH events at MK, DHS, and DAK (the only three parks these are currently offered), you can enter the park with an event ticket officially at 7pm regardless of the actual DAH event hours later that evening.

 

[whiporee]

Keep in mind that DAH Classic and DAH Villains appear to be different. DAHClassic was nothing but access, rides and snacks. It appears to be much less attended than DAH Villains, which has a couple of shows, a dragon and "rare" interactions. If you're planning a DAH night, make sure you know which one you're attending, because reading the reports, DAHVillains seems to be much different from the DAHClassics I've been to.

 

[Bete]

FYI for the DAH events at MK, DHS, and DAK (the only three parks these are currently offered), you can enter the park with an event ticket officially at 7pm regardless of the actual DAH event hours later that evening

I can see the 7 pm time changing in the winter; we shall see. We are interested in November and December. It's just good to know you can get in early.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I can see the 7 pm time changing in the winter; we shall see. We are interested in November and December. It's just good to know you can get in early.

Disney After Hours events have been around since 2016. The 7pm entry time has been the consistent standard for all event dates throughout the year since DAH was introduced. It does not matter if DAH event hours are 8pm-11pm, 9pm-12am, or 10pm-1am - your ticket allows entry at 7pm.

 

[Bete]

Thanks for letting me know it's 7 pm entry all year long.

 

[Penmac]

For those of you who have been at the MK event starting at 7pm with general park admission people, did the park feel extra crowded between 7-10pm? I know MK is always crowded. We have been enough times to expect nothing short of human soup on most days. But, if there was a significantly noticeable uptick in crowds for those 3 hours, I would want to avoid it. We are planning MK on 8/22 and there is an event scheduled that night. We don’t have a lot of flexibility in our plans so changing the day is probably not an easy option but I would love the feedback either way.

 

[kymom99]

Thanks for sharing your pictures.

I noticed on the Disney website that you can get in a couple of hours early from the start time of the After Hours official time. I think this may be so you can see the MK fireworks, Fantasmic or River of Lights.

I'm now starting to think it might be a better use of the day to enjoy a non-Disney park in the day time and then go to a Disney After Hours event. Maybe, take an afternoon nap in between.

I’ve thought the same thing. Sounds like it’s worth considering

 

[Remy is Up]

I also think the crowds increase during peak times for AH events. We did one last November (MK), 2 in December (MK,AK), 2 in January (MK,AK), 1 in March (MK), 1 In June(MK Villains).
To me NONE of them were even close to regular day crowds and certainly not close to the party crowds. We avoided the Studios one on all trips because Studios doesnt have a ton of draw for us and with limited attractions we felt like it would be crowded regardless.
MK is consistently a solid AH value and AK can be depending on time of year. When they stop being a value, we will stop going similar to the Halloween parties. They have oversold those and we have not enjoyed the last two so we wont be doing that for a while.