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

[Tink1987]

Here is my review of our wonderful experience with AH.

Tapped MB at 7:00pm at front gate. It felt very crowded on main street to me. We did our prescheduled FP for 6:20-7:20, 7:30-8:30, and 8:30-9:30. We had dole whips (sat and ate them from Aloha) all before 3rd FP. We tapped our MB for our third FP at 8:20 and scheduled another FP for 9:25. In between our 3rd and 4th FP were the Fireworks, and were able to ride BTMRR 3x and see fireworks from the ride. Met Rapunzel, Tiana, Cinderella, Elana. All walk in. We did notice the 7DMT crowd was still strong at 9:50 when we walked by from day guests getting their last ride. Hit 4th FP after Fireworks right at 10pm.
Tapped MB at 7:00pm. It felt very crowded to me. We did our prescheduled FP for 6:20-7:20, 7:30-8:30, and 8:30-9:30. We had dole whips (sat and ate them from Aloha) before 3rd FP. We tapped our MB for our third FP at 8:20 and scheduled another FP for 9:25. In between our 3rd and 4th FP were the Fireworks, and were able to ride BTMRR 3x and see fireworks from the ride. Met Rapunzel, Tiana, Cinderella, Elana. All walk in. We did notice the 7DMT crowd was still strong at 9:50 when we walked by from day guests getting their last ride. Hit 4th FP after Fireworks right at 10pm.

Our AH schedule went as follows beginning at 10pm.
Barnstormer 3x
First Mickey Bar, drinks
Space Mountain 2x ( wife and two teenagers)
Buzz and Astro Orbiters (Me, 4 yr old)
Popcorn
7DMT 2x
Winnie Pooh (ride failed, had to be evacuated, 10 -15 minutes to evacuate.)
Second Mickey Bar
Peter Pan 2x
Rapunzel lantern Photo
Haunted Mansion (me and Teens while DW did lantern photo with 4 yr old)
Popcorn and Mickey Bar
Jungle Cruise
Magic Carpets 2x (lost most steam at this point and the 4yr old wanted another BTMRR but everyone else was exhausted)
Kiss Goodnight at castle
Photo at Castle
Photo of Main Street Christmas tree
Photo down Main Street at Castle
Shopped at Emporium for 4yr old (shameless bribery for passing up final BTMRR)
Exited park at 12:53am
Photo in front of Park

Monorail was not running. Not sure if that’s normal or not but we had to take Ferry to TTC.
I didn’t think the parking attendants did a good job being clear with the directions to ride the tram. Walked all the way back to car unnecessarily due to confusion.
Driving away at 1:43 am.

Overall, it was worth every penny. Walk on rides all night. Great CM’s that encouraged a second, of third or fourth ride by remaining seated. If doing rides is what you are after, you could save 3 days in MK by doing AH for one night, easily. We took a 4 year old and had her take a nap earlier that afternoon, but she loved it and was only asleep in the stroller as we walked through parking lot. We did wait a bit for popcorn and ice-cream most of the night (7-10min). There didn’t seem to be enough mobile kiosks for the snacks. So, there was a very short line at most we saw). Additionally I know they closed them down before 1am, I passed several on my way out, already closed. Would have grabbed a few more snacks on way out. That’s my only complaint. Loved it!

I love the fact that it was your 4 year old begging to ride BTM!

 

[sharona]

Yes last night’s MKAH was incredible! I’m sure our paths must have crossed fivefourdis. I’ve added some photos so people can get an idea of just how empty it was.

We entered at about 8:15 and cut up the left side of Nain St shops to get past the crowds. We wanted a ride on BTMRR during the fireworks- recreating one of our favorite memories from previous trips. Had to ride 3x in a row to make it happen. First time was with a FP then standby 2x. Crowds were already thinning and I noticed very few people with bands.

During fireworks Frontierland was pretty empty

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr


After BT we went to HM which was walk on. We’d done Splash and JC the day before So skipped those.

Moved on to PP. Waited about 10 minutes. Park was originally scheduled to close at 9 but had been extended to 10. It was almost 10 when we exited.

Grabbed snacks no line to speak of

Next rode 7D 3x. First time waited about 5-10 minutes, lots of people without bands still in line. 2nd time was almost a walk in and third was.

Headed over to Space but first our traditional family Buzz contest with winner getting restaurant choice for our next meal.

Tomorrow Land was very deserted:

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

And so was Space

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

After Space 2x for me then 2 more for the teens we got snacks and rode the People Mover. We needed a break in the action. We passed only one other car with people in it and saw only 2 cars on the road at Speedway.

We worked our way back to 7D via Carousel and Tea Cups and then 2 more times on 7D.

At that point we were toast. It was about 12:30 and I wanted some castle and Main St pics so we made our way slowly out of the nearly empty park.

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr


Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr


Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

Well worth the money. I highly recommend doing nothing earlier that day and planning to sleep in the next!

 

[KCanuck]

Thank you everyone for the reports! I am so excited to do this in March. I know the event rarely sells out but I think I going to buy my tickets now. I would rather put off paying for them but I am feeling paranoid lol. Those photos of the empty Main Street...

 

[SamFaniam]

Great pictures, @sharona!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Thank you everyone for the reports! I am so excited to do this in March. I know the event rarely sells out but I think I going to buy my tickets now. I would rather put off paying for them but I am feeling paranoid lol. Those photos of the empty Main Street...

Actually of any month, March DAHs have historically had more sell outs than other times of the year. Spring Break and such creates a lot of demand. But you're still not in danger of it selling out any time soon... and these days with competing DAK and Villains After Hours events, lots of things going on to spread around upcharge demand.

 

[sharona]

Yeah, that is a frequent comment / concern about MK DAH. In reality, generally speaking it has never proven to be a material "problem" that substantially interferes with the DAH guest experience for most folks. Can there be some carry-over guest traffic around or in lines? Sure. But I'd suggest it's a small nuance to the event - in my humble opinion.

100% agree. Just avoid 7D and PP until about 30 minutes in and you won’t even see them.

This was such a great even last night. Well worth the money. We only did everything once last night since we are going to the Christmas party tonight but even that was worth not waiting in line. If every park did these I would not even bother going during the day.

Same here

Thank you everyone for the reports! I am so excited to do this in March. I know the event rarely sells out but I think I going to buy my tickets now. I would rather put off paying for them but I am feeling paranoid lol. Those photos of the empty Main Street...

I don’t think last night sold out. I was curious and tried to do a dummy purchase at about 7pm and could have bought another ticket.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I don’t think last night sold out.

You are correct, it did not sell out.

 

[focusondisney]

Agree last night was great. We watched Happily Ever After from the hub right near the Frontierland bridge with an exceptional view. We have APs, it’s our 4th trip this year & already had a MK day this trip. So I wasn’t worried about starting early. So right from 10 pm:

HM. Walk on, only 12 people total in our stretching room.

PP. about. 2 minute wait for a teen in a wheelchair & cast to hobble on, poor thing

Mine train. Sign said 10 minutes, it was 7 from entering the line to getting in the seat.

Little Mermaid, total walk on & no one else in sight

Pooh, walk on

Speedway. Again about 5-10 minute wait. Only running about 10 cars in 2 lanes

Peoplemover, the on-ramp belt was not moving. Hard to walk up that incline when you’re older with knee problems.

Buzz x 2. Total walk ons. Maybe 10 other people near us on the 2nd ride

Jingle Cruise. Walked into a boat but waited at least 5 - 7 minutes for more guests to arrive

Pirates. Total walk on. No one else around as we got in line but one other couple came up behind us as we were walking the que. So only them & us on the boat

Small World. Ended the night with a classic. Our own boat, pick where we wanted to sit.

We were out right at 1. Weren’t hungry after that late burger at Cosmic Ray’s. So only got a few waters & popcorn once.

We don’t care about pictures so left right after that. Bus to the Epcot resorts was waiting & mostly filled when we got on. I got the last seat & DH & 1 other man stood. Considering we are in our 60’s, not park commandos, don’t do the thrill rides, I was still happy with what we got done.

Our first AH we got stuck on peoplemover for 25 minutes. Second one mine train was down for a good portion of the night. So this one was much better than those!

Edit to add: we watched the final projection show, the one that ended at 10 from the hub. I think I got the name wrong.

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

Any recent info on if monorail runs for GF or Poly at end of this event?

We usually stay CR, so we walk. I currently have us at GF CL, but may cancel if the path isn't done and no monorail at end of DAH.
( We have GV CR as an option as well, but we really like CL. CR doesn't have CL as an AP opt for our days. )

We'll have a double stroller with 2 sleeping grandboys, so trying to avoid any transportation that would have us taking them out of stroller at 12:30am.

 

[2vets]

GAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! COULD I BE MORE EXCITED ABOUT OUR MK DAH In JANUARY??? NOPE! thank you so much for posting those pictures! I'm so glad you had a great night!

 

[sharona]

Any recent info on if monorail runs for GF or Poly at end of this event?

We usually stay CR, so we walk. I currently have us at GF CL, but may cancel if the path isn't done and no monorail at end of DAH.
( We have GV CR as an option as well, but we really like CL. CR doesn't have CL as an AP opt for our days. )

We'll have a double stroller with 2 sleeping grandboys, so trying to avoid any transportation that would have us taking them out of stroller at 12:30am.

A guest in front of us on the way out asked about resort monorail and was directed to bus area.

We ubered to our offsite hotel from the TC and our driver was very excited about the late night business.

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

A guest in front of us on the way out asked about resort monorail and was directed to bus area.

We ubered to our offsite hotel from the TC and our driver was very excited about the late night business.

Yeah, I was afraid of that. I can't give up my CR to walk to/from. Darnit. GF may have to wait if that path isn't done by March...

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Any recent info on if monorail runs for GF or Poly at end of this event?

We usually stay CR, so we walk. I currently have us at GF CL, but may cancel if the path isn't done and no monorail at end of DAH.
( We have GV CR as an option as well, but we really like CL. CR doesn't have CL as an AP opt for our days. )

We'll have a double stroller with 2 sleeping grandboys, so trying to avoid any transportation that would have us taking them out of stroller at 12:30am.

Pretty sure you know this, but you can always take the Ferry to the TTC and walk through Poly over to GF. No stroller fold up required.

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

Pretty sure you know this, but you can always take the Ferry to the TTC and walk through Poly over to GF. No stroller fold up required.

Did not know Ferry was running that late, didn't even think about it!
We have taken the little boats from MK to Poly, without a stroller of course-Thanks for this idea! Poly is a closer walk if we did the ferry and they had CL available with Gift of Magic deals. Decisions decisions.. (Darn CL has spoiled us. Esp with kids )

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Did not know Ferry was running that late, didn't even think about it!
We have taken the little boats from MK to Poly, without a stroller of course-Thanks for this idea! Poly is a closer walk if we did the ferry and they had CL available with Gift of Magic deals. Decisions decisions.. (Darn CL has spoiled us. Esp with kids )

Well I’m a big Poly CL fan, so you won’t get any arguments otherwise from me.

Yeah, the Ferry is normally running. That’s how everyone who drove gets back to the TTC to get home.

In my experience they like to load it up pretty full before departing vs a continual back/forth like during the day, but it’s usually pretty easy.

 

[sharona]

Well I’m a big Poly CL fan, so you won’t get any arguments otherwise from me.

Yeah, the Ferry is normally running. That’s how everyone who drove gets back to the TTC to get home.

In my experience they like to load it up pretty full before departing vs a continual back/forth like during the day, but it’s usually pretty easy.

I was worried about that when we left about 15 minutes before 1 but it left with just a few of us on it - maybe 25 people if that. It docked as we walked up, loaded everyone who was waiting and left within 5 minutes of docking.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I was worried about that when we left about 15 minutes before 1 but it left with just a few of us on it - maybe 25 people if that. It docked as we walked up, loaded everyone who was waiting and left within 5 minutes of docking.

Nice! Good to hear! Like a private cruise... kind of.

 

[Thecouch]

Thanks for reports everyone. This has made up my mind to get tickets for my April trip

 

[CallieS]

My husband and I did the After Hours on 12/9/19. Our event hours were 10pm to 1am. We were let in very close to 7pm. There were at least 100 people lined up at that point. The staff first said they’d let us in at 6:45, then it changed to 6:55, then by the time they remembered to look at their clocks, it was about 7pm when we got in. The park was very crowded during normal hours.

From 7-10pm, during regular park hours we were able to ride:
Jungle Cruise with FP
Pirates with FP
Tiki Birds
Swiss Family Treehouse
Aladdin Magic Carpets with FP
Thunder Mountain x2 (this was around fireworks time, so short line)
Watched fireworks from BTMR exit area
Tomorrowland Speedway with FP
TTA

Then it was event time! From 10pm - 1am we did:
Space Mountain x2
Astro Orbiter x2 (we asked to re-ride without getting off)
Tea Party
7DMT x3
Peter Pan
Haunted Mansion
Thunder Mountain x lost count, at least 5. It’s my favorite ride!
Pirates

I feel like I’m missing something, but maybe not.

One thing that irritated me was the lack of consistency on BTMR with regards to re-rides. We saw one group of guests exit their seats, then re-enter a different row from the exit side of the platform. My husband and I walked all the way around to ride again. After our next ride, we exited, asked a CM if we could get back on, since we had just seen it happen, and he said ,”Eh, ask that “other guy”. The “other guy” was the conductor on the other side of the tracks. Never mind. We walked all the way around again. After that ride, we saw more guests exit, then turn right around and get back on in a different row. Huh? After yet another ride, a different guest asked the conductor guy if he could ride again and the conductor said, “she says no.” Who is “she”? I guess it depended on the guest, the CM’s mood? I don’t know, I never figured it out. We walked out and around every single time.

This event wasn’t as empty as I had thought it would be, but it was by no means crowded. We were never the only ones on any given ride. There was always a steady stream of guests. However we didn’t have to wait for more than one train/car/round, but like I said, no ride was empty. Well maybe Country Bears might have been. LOL. After our last ride on BTMR, around 12:45am, when we pulled back into the station, almost every single row had someone waiting to get on. There might have been three empty rows. That’s when we called it quits and did Pirates one last time at about 12:55am. Even then our Pirates boat was filled. I think everyone had heard that the last rides of the night were empty and rushed to experience that, thus causing “crowded” rides.

At 1am, we hung around and took pictures of the castle lights. Very pretty. We left probably by 1:30 and got on the ferry boat. Not much wait there. They had two ferries running. We stayed at Wyndham by Disney Springs and were back there at 2:30am.

I would definitely do this event again! Well worth the money. I’ve been going to Disney for 35 years, so I remember when it wasn’t crowded. This event was even more enjoyable than those days, but I wish it was longer than three hours. I was constantly looking at my watch and felt rushed. Time flies when you’re having fun.

 

[sharona]

I know what you mean about rerides - during AH or not, we’ve found re-rides to be very inconsistent over the years when no one is waiting to board.

On 12/9 at Space we asked to re-ride without walking that long queue (no one in line at all) and were directed down a corridor to arrive at a gate where we were then told to go back basically to where we had exited and were allowed to ride again. 7D we just exited and stepped over the rope right back into the end of the queue. Not during AH but in the past we’ve been allowed to go again without getting out on Splash, BTMRR and Kali river rapids when no one was waiting. My DD and I once went around 5 times on KRR.