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

[Syndrome]

Are they still giving the lanyards this year or just wristbands?

It was just wristbands on the 3/7 MK DAH event .

 

[Syndrome]

I know everybody is getting upset that Disney does not post these events far enough ahead , but thats exactly how Disney wants it to be. Disney intends these to be "up-sale" events , and not replacements for park days . They are trying to generate revenue, where it never existed before (at the expense of late park nights that used to be included with day park tickets in the past ......but that a whole other conversation ! ) . They are hoping you have all your plans and ticket purchases in place well before you decide to go to a DAH event . They have laid out the groundwork , that guests HAVE to plan this far ahead for fear of losing out to other guests who are doing the same thing . Restaurant reservations 180 days ahead , FP 60 days ahead (but only AFTER you purchase park tickets can you book FP . Clever huh ?) Anything Disney does nowadays is not aimed at making the guest experience "better" or "easier", its all about the bottom line .
We just returned from a 10 day trip to WDW (Yes, we went to the infamous 3/7 crowded sold out DAH event !) , and we only went to Epcot for 1 day, and MK for 1 DAH event . We have been to WDW so many times, we just don't even plan anything anymore and just usually play it by ear (crazy right !) This is NOT how Disney is hoping guests will be using these up sell events ! They are hoping/planing for most guests to already have their week long park hopper tickets purchased (cause they have to make FP 60 days in advance) , and that the DAH , and the parties are an ADDED expense that goes directly into Disneys pocket. .

I feel everybody's pain on the planning front, but this is exactly how Disney wants it .
I used to love planning Disney trips , pre FP+ days . Now I detest it , and actually just stopped doing it ! Maybe a week or two before our trips , I might book some FP , or Dinner reservations ..... whatever. You know what, we enjoy the WDW experience a whole lot more now !

Really from a business standpoint its pure genius (at the guests expense) . What other company has figured out a way to charge 2 separate admissions for the exact same park on the exact same day !?!?

 

[MinnieMSue]

I feel like it is going to continue because they had a recent media event where they invited a lot of youtubers and such to a couple of these. I don’t see why they would do that and stop the event in a month or so. But whether or not they have any during my trip - who knows. My night owl teen would love to go after park close until 1 am. Time will tell I guess.

 

[Disney_Ummi]

I know everybody is getting upset that Disney does not post these events far enough ahead , but thats exactly how Disney wants it to be. Disney intends these to be "up-sale" events , and not replacements for park days . They are trying to generate revenue, where it never existed before (at the expense of late park nights that used to be included with day park tickets in the past ......but that a whole other conversation ! ) . They are hoping you have all your plans and ticket purchases in place well before you decide to go to a DAH event . They have laid out the groundwork , that guests HAVE to plan this far ahead for fear of losing out to other guests who are doing the same thing . Restaurant reservations 180 days ahead , FP 60 days ahead (but only AFTER you purchase park tickets can you book FP . Clever huh ?) Anything Disney does nowadays is not aimed at making the guest experience "better" or "easier", its all about the bottom line .
We just returned from a 10 day trip to WDW (Yes, we went to the infamous 3/7 crowded sold out DAH event !) , and we only went to Epcot for 1 day, and MK for 1 DAH event . We have been to WDW so many times, we just don't even plan anything anymore and just usually play it by ear (crazy right !) This is NOT how Disney is hoping guests will be using these up sell events ! They are hoping/planing for most guests to already have their week long park hopper tickets purchased (cause they have to make FP 60 days in advance) , and that the DAH , and the parties are an ADDED expense that goes directly into Disneys pocket. .

I feel everybody's pain on the planning front, but this is exactly how Disney wants it .
I used to love planning Disney trips , pre FP+ days . Now I detest it , and actually just stopped doing it ! Maybe a week or two before our trips , I might book some FP , or Dinner reservations ..... whatever. You know what, we enjoy the WDW experience a whole lot more now !

Really from a business standpoint its pure genius (at the guests expense) . What other company has figured out a way to charge 2 separate admissions for the exact same park on the exact same day !?!?

Sadly, this makes sense.

 

[Ron Rico]

Are they still giving the lanyards this year or just wristbands?

I don't remember if it was in this forum or on Facebook, but I asked about that and was told only wristbands. I'll know for sure in 3 weeks!

 

[jackieleanne]

I don't remember if it was in this forum or on Facebook, but I asked about that and was told only wristbands. I'll know for sure in 3 weeks!

Went in January and just got a wristband.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

The lanyards were phased out fall 2018, it’s been all wristbands ever since.

 

[krybandt]

I feel like it is going to continue because they had a recent media event where they invited a lot of youtubers and such to a couple of these. I don’t see why they would do that and stop the event in a month or so. But whether or not they have any during my trip - who knows. My night owl teen would love to go after park close until 1 am. Time will tell I guess.

My teenager watched one of those and it's honestly why I was considering getting tickets. She said the youtubers at first pretended they weren't even supposed to be there, the park looked that deserted. Disney could have limited attendance even more for that night.

 

[Mish415]

So am i correct that the last ones were announced on November 5th for an event start of November 26th? so only 20 days advance notice?!?!?! Guess its still possible.....

 

[MinnieMSue]

My teenager watched one of those and it's honestly why I was considering getting tickets. She said the youtubers at first pretended they weren't even supposed to be there, the park looked that deserted. Disney could have limited attendance even more for that night.

Knowing Disney they probably did limit attendance to make it look better on their videos - who knows.

 

[BeckaB]

I just keep banking on, if it was discontinued, at this point they would be saying that. They would either be saying the event was discontinued or is on hold till later in the summer...I really don’t think they be telling everyone to keep checking for new dates if there are really going to be no dates in May...at least that’s what I keep telling myself (like I see some of you are too.). Because to me, it’s bad business to not just be upfront.

Sure, you don’t have to tell me right now what exact dates are going to be available...but if they know there are going to be ZERO dates and they keep telling people to keep checking, that’s just poor customer service and so unlike Disney in my experience.

So either there are dates and they don’t want to say for some reason (could be the profit theory stated above), or for some reason they just genuinely don’t know yet (which to me just seems highly unlikely, but I don’t know).

Still keeping my fingers crossed for everyone (myself included) that dates get added

 

[Iowamomof4]

Disney doesn't typically "announce" when parties or other events are discontinued. They simply stop offering them. Now, the one thing about that is that I would expect we might hear some rumblings from insiders about it being discontinued and we certainly have not so far. Phone cm's seem to often be kept in the dark about these types of things, so "keep checking the website" is often the best they can do because Disney hasn't TOLD them if the event will continue or not.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I know everybody is getting upset that Disney does not post these events far enough ahead , but thats exactly how Disney wants it to be. Disney intends these to be "up-sale" events , and not replacements for park days . They are trying to generate revenue, where it never existed before (at the expense of late park nights that used to be included with day park tickets in the past ......but that a whole other conversation ! ) . They are hoping you have all your plans and ticket purchases in place well before you decide to go to a DAH event . They have laid out the groundwork , that guests HAVE to plan this far ahead for fear of losing out to other guests who are doing the same thing . Restaurant reservations 180 days ahead , FP 60 days ahead (but only AFTER you purchase park tickets can you book FP . Clever huh ?) Anything Disney does nowadays is not aimed at making the guest experience "better" or "easier", its all about the bottom line .
We just returned from a 10 day trip to WDW (Yes, we went to the infamous 3/7 crowded sold out DAH event !) , and we only went to Epcot for 1 day, and MK for 1 DAH event . We have been to WDW so many times, we just don't even plan anything anymore and just usually play it by ear (crazy right !) This is NOT how Disney is hoping guests will be using these up sell events ! They are hoping/planing for most guests to already have their week long park hopper tickets purchased (cause they have to make FP 60 days in advance) , and that the DAH , and the parties are an ADDED expense that goes directly into Disneys pocket. .

I feel everybody's pain on the planning front, but this is exactly how Disney wants it .
I used to love planning Disney trips , pre FP+ days . Now I detest it , and actually just stopped doing it ! Maybe a week or two before our trips , I might book some FP , or Dinner reservations ..... whatever. You know what, we enjoy the WDW experience a whole lot more now !

Really from a business standpoint its pure genius (at the guests expense) . What other company has figured out a way to charge 2 separate admissions for the exact same park on the exact same day !?!?

I swear to everything I hold dear if you didn't just make me stop and go....darn! That is EXACTLY on point! WELL SAID! VERY well said. That separate admission for the same park on the same day.....that is going to stick with me for awhile now. That holds true definitely for EMM, because you're using your park admission to said park for that EMM morning. You've already paid, let's use me as a FL resident, I've paid $49 for my park entry that day to MK as a whole and now I'm going to give them another $79 for breakfast and Fantasyland rides with less crowds! I know....you look at my $49 a day park entry and go...what??!! But that's the privilege of being a resident. I'm thankful. Does that make it easier for me to drop that $79 in the AM...sure. Does it make it easier to drop the $125 in the evening....nope! That one is just harder for me to swallow. Would I do it...absolutely! I definitely could factor that into our budget on our next trip. I can hear my husband right now though. "Wait....we just paid this much money to get into that park for the day. And now you want to spend another $125 to visit that park....again??!! What are you smoking and pass some this way??!!" I could justify it and tell him we would be using that ticket on an evening visit that I don't have park tickets for. I'd use our tickets on days 1, 3, and 4. And use the DAH on the 2nd day. We'd still have our 5th day as our Disney Springs and travel home day.

Again....wonderful explanation!

 

[maryj11]

I know everybody is getting upset that Disney does not post these events far enough ahead , but thats exactly how Disney wants it to be. Disney intends these to be "up-sale" events , and not replacements for park days . They are trying to generate revenue, where it never existed before (at the expense of late park nights that used to be included with day park tickets in the past ......but that a whole other conversation ! ) . They are hoping you have all your plans and ticket purchases in place well before you decide to go to a DAH event . They have laid out the groundwork , that guests HAVE to plan this far ahead for fear of losing out to other guests who are doing the same thing . Restaurant reservations 180 days ahead , FP 60 days ahead (but only AFTER you purchase park tickets can you book FP . Clever huh ?) Anything Disney does nowadays is not aimed at making the guest experience "better" or "easier", its all about the bottom line .
We just returned from a 10 day trip to WDW (Yes, we went to the infamous 3/7 crowded sold out DAH event !) , and we only went to Epcot for 1 day, and MK for 1 DAH event . We have been to WDW so many times, we just don't even plan anything anymore and just usually play it by ear (crazy right !) This is NOT how Disney is hoping guests will be using these up sell events ! They are hoping/planing for most guests to already have their week long park hopper tickets purchased (cause they have to make FP 60 days in advance) , and that the DAH , and the parties are an ADDED expense that goes directly into Disneys pocket. .

I feel everybody's pain on the planning front, but this is exactly how Disney wants it .
I used to love planning Disney trips , pre FP+ days . Now I detest it , and actually just stopped doing it ! Maybe a week or two before our trips , I might book some FP , or Dinner reservations ..... whatever. You know what, we enjoy the WDW experience a whole lot more now !

Really from a business standpoint its pure genius (at the guests expense) . What other company has figured out a way to charge 2 separate admissions for the exact same park on the exact same day !?!?

I agree Disney wants to wait until everyone already has their park tickets bought so we all will buy an extra ticket or two for the events. Well ha ha Disney I'm waiting it out to see if our dates are add before buying park tickets .

 

[Mrjoshua]

Going in April... I was wondering if someone could explain the fast re-entry into Space Mountain to me. I was there in December, and didn't see it.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I agree Disney wants to wait until everyone already has their park tickets bought so we all will buy an extra ticket or two for the events. Well ha ha Disney I'm waiting it out to see if our dates are add before buying park tickets .

I'm having a bad day....nothing has gone my way today as far as Disney is concerned, so I needed this laugh....thank you!

 

[amalone1013]

I agree Disney wants to wait until everyone already has their park tickets bought so we all will buy an extra ticket or two for the events. Well ha ha Disney I'm waiting it out to see if our dates are add before buying park tickets .

I feel a bit like that, now that you say it. We don't know when we'll plan our trip with my in laws so if DAH dates do come out that will definitely influence the decision!

 

[Haley R]

Going in April... I was wondering if someone could explain the fast re-entry into Space Mountain to me. I was there in December, and didn't see it.

Right when you get off the ride you’ll see either a green or I think pink line on the wall. It’s a horizontal line that leads you off the ride. You can either go towards the exit or follow this colored line up a ramp back to the ride where the fp scans are. It basically takes you back to the point where they send you right or left on the ride

 

[WRLeGrand]

I know everybody is getting upset that Disney does not post these events far enough ahead , but thats exactly how Disney wants it to be. Disney intends these to be "up-sale" events , and not replacements for park days . They are trying to generate revenue, where it never existed before (at the expense of late park nights that used to be included with day park tickets in the past ......but that a whole other conversation ! ) . They are hoping you have all your plans and ticket purchases in place well before you decide to go to a DAH event . They have laid out the groundwork , that guests HAVE to plan this far ahead for fear of losing out to other guests who are doing the same thing . Restaurant reservations 180 days ahead , FP 60 days ahead (but only AFTER you purchase park tickets can you book FP . Clever huh ?) Anything Disney does nowadays is not aimed at making the guest experience "better" or "easier", its all about the bottom line .
We just returned from a 10 day trip to WDW (Yes, we went to the infamous 3/7 crowded sold out DAH event !) , and we only went to Epcot for 1 day, and MK for 1 DAH event . We have been to WDW so many times, we just don't even plan anything anymore and just usually play it by ear (crazy right !) This is NOT how Disney is hoping guests will be using these up sell events ! They are hoping/planing for most guests to already have their week long park hopper tickets purchased (cause they have to make FP 60 days in advance) , and that the DAH , and the parties are an ADDED expense that goes directly into Disneys pocket. .

I feel everybody's pain on the planning front, but this is exactly how Disney wants it .
I used to love planning Disney trips , pre FP+ days . Now I detest it , and actually just stopped doing it ! Maybe a week or two before our trips , I might book some FP , or Dinner reservations ..... whatever. You know what, we enjoy the WDW experience a whole lot more now !

Really from a business standpoint its pure genius (at the guests expense) . What other company has figured out a way to charge 2 separate admissions for the exact same park on the exact same day !?!?

I get your general premise, but I respectfully have to disagree with a lot of what you have said. Obviously Disney's entire principle and purpose is to make money, and a lot of it. However, if it were their full intention to capitalize DAH for intense monetary gain, they would NEVER announce the dates more than a few weeks or month in advance. But with this last run of DAH events they announced ALL dates from November 26 - April 11. Are we supposed to believe that everyone going to the event on April 11 had secured their park tickets already? Highly unlikely. Clearly the 60 FP+ window did not come in to play for most all of these dates at the time those announcements were made....

I would also argue that if their only motivation for holding back on releasing dates is to make more money, they would certainly not have released MNSSHP dates in the FIRST WEEK OF JANUARY this year. Although larger parties, you have to assume that most people entering come for just the party (and therefore do not spend a park tickets that day). This has never stopped them from being popular and enticing to Disney.

My point overall is that if they simply have bigger fish to fry lately (hello Galaxy's Edge and Skyliner) and have just let is continue to be a non-starter. I do not think this is fair to people who want to go, or at least want to know if it is going to take place. When you ask people to make their plans so far our and spend a lot of money, the least you can do is reciprocate and allow proper planning. I just still cannot imagine their revenues being dramatically lower if they released the DAH dates two weeks ago. Parks are still going to slammed during the day/early evening and the events will still be popular...

 

[BeckaB]

I get your general premise, but I respectfully have to disagree with a lot of what you have said. Obviously Disney's entire principle and purpose is to make money, and a lot of it. However, if it were their full intention to capitalize DAH for intense monetary gain, they would NEVER announce the dates more than a few weeks or month in advance. But with this last run of DAH events they announced ALL dates from November 26 - April 11. Are we supposed to believe that everyone going to the event on April 11 had secured their park tickets already? Highly unlikely. Clearly the 60 FP+ window did not come in to play for most all of these dates at the time those announcements were made....

I would also argue that if their only motivation for holding back on releasing dates is to make more money, they would certainly not have released MNSSHP dates in the FIRST WEEK OF JANUARY this year. Although larger parties, you have to assume that most people entering come for just the party (and therefore do not spend a park tickets that day). This has never stopped them from being popular and enticing to Disney.

My point overall is that if they simply have bigger fish to fry lately (hello Galaxy's Edge and Skyliner) and have just let is continue to be a non-starter. I do not think this is fair to people who want to go, or at least want to know if it is going to take place. When you ask people to make their plans so far our and spend a lot of money, the least you can do is reciprocate and allow proper planning. I just still cannot imagine their revenues being dramatically lower if they released the DAH dates two weeks ago. Parks are still going to slammed during the day/early evening and the events will still be popular...

That’s my whole thing too, they released them in a big chunk before, so it makes no sense to not release them in a big chunk now.

Also, for everyone talking about it affecting park ticket purchases, I don’t necessarily buy into that either. For our upcoming trip we have parkhoppers purchased for every day we are in Florida (except the first night we will get to our hotel at like 9pm), even the day we fly out and will have to leave the park at like 5, to back to the resort, grab our bags and get on the magical express.

When we came in last November we did the same exact thing (it was our first trip and we didn’t know about hard ticket events except the Christmas that started the night we left).

My point though is, we live in Ohio, and it’s just the two of us and if anything, we will be upgrading to annual passes so we can have a reason to come back again.

If there is an after hours night while we are there, we wouldn’t drop the number of days of our tickets or the number of days of our vacation. We just want it so we get more flexibility with riding everything we want.