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

[Haley R]

Does anyone know what time they will start giving out wristbands for those already in the park? We have an ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern for 6 pm, but I don't know if we will be able to get the wristbands before we eat or if we need to plan on doing it afterwards.

I say go ahead and try at 6 pm and see if they'll give you your wristbands. If not, there's no harm done. Although, that would make you late for your ADR then

 

[anonymousegirl]

I wish I had a choice between DAH and VAH, but we are going on August 1, with my teen-aged nephew, who is all about the rides. Now I am afraid he won't enjoy it quite as much. Funny, but I am slated to do DAH in September, so I will be able to compare the two. And I have MNNSHP the night after the DAH.

 

[heath92681]

What are y'all planning to do the day OF your After Hours? We're coming from out of town. I can't decide whether to do another park that day or if that will make it harder to enjoy the late hours.

We are sleeping in and going to the pool. We plan to grab some food on the monorail line before heading in!

 

[preemiemama]

Does anyone know what time they will start giving out wristbands for those already in the park? We have an ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern for 6 pm, but I don't know if we will be able to get the wristbands before we eat or if we need to plan on doing it afterwards.

I say go ahead and try at 6 pm and see if they'll give you your wristbands. If not, there's no harm done. Although, that would make you late for your ADR then

I don't see the harm in asking prior to dinner, but we just went after. The ticket office was close and there was only one person ahead of us dealing with an issue. It only took us about 5 minutes total to check our magicbands for tickets, show our IDs and then get the event wristbands.

 

[cindyfan]

Oh okay, I understand now. This is from Post #6 of this thread:
What if Already in the Park? In-Park Disney After Hours Credential Pick-Up Locations

• For guests who have already entered the park via a regular park ticket or AP admission prior to 7pm, various locations are available to pick-up your DAH credentials:
  • The area outside of the Laugh Floor / Buzz Lightyear entrances
  • Tortuga Tavern
  • Liberty Square ticket office
  • City Hall guest relations office
  • Note: These locations have changed/morphed over time: if you see other locations or find any of the above to not be available on your night, please let me know.

I'm not sure if this is still accurate, but I think it should be.

What and where is the "Liberty Square ticket office"?

 

[Haley R]

What and where is the "Liberty Square ticket office"?

 

[maui2k5]

With only a couple of events after tonight left, we are hopeful that the crowds are light. Still debating the nearly $600 cost for the 4 of us.

 

[preemiemama]

What and where is the "Liberty Square ticket office"?

View attachment 420073

It's pretty much across from Hall of Presidents and has a Passholder sign out front. It deals with ticket issues for passholders I believe, as well as hand out party credentials.

 

[focusondisney]

Hope everyone has a great time tonight!!

 

[kylenne]

Me too on the early mornings and late nights! It's been a few years since we've been in August, but I feel like mid-day breaks by the pool are the way to go! I just purchased our tickets for the 8/8 event - hoping the trend for low wait times continues! Although I think it's the last one scheduled so who knows? They extended the MK hours that week too, so I was able to score a FP for 7DMT for earlier in the week, which is good since there will be tough choices to be made for VAH! I think the Hub stuff will be a lot of fun! I will need to read back through some of the reviews here to figure out our gameplan...

I’ll be going to that one! I haven’t been in August since I was a kid, and this will be my first solo trip ever. If you see a tall lady Dr Facilier at the Hub, that’ll be me! Just putting the finishing touches on my costume. Thought it was fitting since I’m staying at French Quarter.

 

[maui2k5]

I read elsewhere that lines were longer than what was expected for an after hours event with the headliners all being true to their 20+ min posted wait. A bit concerning since we are still undecided for the last night we may attend on Aug 8.

 

[focusondisney]

So no reports from last night yet? I talked to someone who was there, said it was definitely more crowded than a regular DAH. Thought the crowd seemed like a “3”. Space was up to 55 minute wait at one point, Space, Pirates & 7 dwarfs never went under 30 minutes. Pirates line was to entrance all night. That’s way too long to wait for such a short event!!

 

[TheFloatingBear]

I’ll be going to that one! I haven’t been in August since I was a kid, and this will be my first solo trip ever. If you see a tall lady Dr Facilier at the Hub, that’ll be me! Just putting the finishing touches on my costume. Thought it was fitting since I’m staying at French Quarter.

That sounds perfect! We will look for you! This trip was a little last minute, so I didn't feel like I could put together good costumes, so my 12YO daughter planned our aesthetic, lol...we are a party of four, two adults and two young teens. We each have a white t-shirt with a fairly simple but bold black graphic related to a villain, so we coordinate but don't match. I'm Ursula, my son is Scar, my daughter has the silhouette of Ursula/Evil Queen/ Maleficent and the words "Not Sorry." My husband was kind of funny...my daughter and I weren't sure if he'd go for the shirt we picked for him - Gaston "Just admit it - you impressed!" but he was all over it!

Yes, it's been a while since we've done August but I remember the heat! We're hoping to conserve some energy and rest in the afternoon! Hoping we see some reports today on last night's event (at least I think there was one last night...).

 

[TheFloatingBear]

So no reports from last night yet? I talked to someone who was there, said it was definitely more crowded than a regular DAH. Thought the crowd seemed like a “3”. Space was up to 55 minute wait at one point, Space, Pirates & 7 dwarfs never went under 30 minutes. Pirates line was to entrance all night. That’s way too long to wait for such a short event!!

ugh... Hopefully we'll see some reports. Part of the tough thing about the short time frame of this event is that if you get stuck in a line like that or have some type of setback, there's not a lot of opportunity to make up lost time. And luck and timing can really impact things...

 

[mydisneykids]

I read elsewhere that lines were longer than what was expected for an after hours event with the headliners all being true to their 20+ min posted wait. A bit concerning since we are still undecided for the last night we may attend on Aug 8.

I read the same thing on a Facebook page and the attacks on the poster were brutal.
This has me concerned as well.
We did the DAH last summer and it was amazing. We walked on everything and parts of the park we didn't see another person.
I am going in Sept and was planning on doing this again since my husband wasn't with us last time. But if the waits are this long I will opt for the Halloween party as I was torn anyway and the only thing swaying me towards this was the zero waits we had last year.

 

[preemiemama]

So no reports from last night yet? I talked to someone who was there, said it was definitely more crowded than a regular DAH. Thought the crowd seemed like a “3”. Space was up to 55 minute wait at one point, Space, Pirates & 7 dwarfs never went under 30 minutes. Pirates line was to entrance all night. That’s way too long to wait for such a short event!!

ugh... Hopefully we'll see some reports. Part of the tough thing about the short time frame of this event is that if you get stuck in a line like that or have some type of setback, there's not a lot of opportunity to make up lost time. And luck and timing can really impact things...

The bold is exactly my feeling, and unfortunately my experience on 7/11. It's also the reason I wrote to Disney with my feelings on the event and its cost.

We never saw 55 minutes on Space when we were there, but 7DMT was still a 45-50 minute wait at 10:45. We had a plan, and stuck to it for the most part, but Peter Pan, Pirates, BTMRR were all over 20 minute wait at the time we waiting/riding. Also, Space/7DMT took us about 30 minutes each (in spite of Space's posted 15 minute wait). As a result we got a total of 5 rides in during the party.

I know last week it was reportedly lighter crowds and lower waits, with many rides being walk-on. It might fluctuate depending on how "sold out" an event is? We enjoyed the event's theming, but it was not the "ride more wait less" event that they are advertising- at least not for our party.

 

[Mzpalmtree]

I read the same thing on a Facebook page and the attacks on the poster were brutal.
This has me concerned as well.
We did the DAH last summer and it was amazing. We walked on everything and parts of the park we didn't see another person.
I am going in Sept and was planning on doing this again since my husband wasn't with us last time. But if the waits are this long I will opt for the Halloween party as I was torn anyway and the only thing swaying me towards this was the zero waits we had last year.

We were there last night and we also attended a regular MK AH this past June. We did not ride a lot of the headliners last night but the ones we did try the wait times were shorter than posted ( not tremendously but 10 or 15 instead of 20 and 20 instead of 30). At the end we did walk on splash even though it said 20 mins. Wait times were highly unreliable but we never waited longer than posted. Pirates was a true 20 minute wait. It felt more crowded than when we were there in June (especially in the hub for the show at the end of the evening) but honestly we never had an empty park feeling when we were there in June—I was a little disappointed in the crowd level during our June regular AH date. I think because of that (and this thread) my expectations had been adjusted already. It was a good time and we don’t regret going but if you are going for empty parks I am thinking that may be a thing of the past for after hours in general, not just the VAH. The cat is out of the bag (lol) except for some exceptions—but that may just be my opinion.

 

[Lsdolphin]

The bold is exactly my feeling, and unfortunately my experience on 7/11. It's also the reason I wrote to Disney with my feelings on the event and its cost.

We never saw 55 minutes on Space when we were there, but 7DMT was still a 45-50 minute wait at 10:45. We had a plan, and stuck to it for the most part, but Peter Pan, Pirates, BTMRR were all over 20 minute wait at the time we waiting/riding. Also, Space/7DMT took us about 30 minutes each (in spite of Space's posted 15 minute wait). As a result we got a total of 5 rides in during the party.

I know last week it was reportedly lighter crowds and lower waits, with many rides being walk-on. It might fluctuate depending on how "sold out" an event is? We enjoyed the event's theming, but it was not the "ride more wait less" event that they are advertising- at least not for our party.

Out of curiosity did Disney respond to you?

 

[preemiemama]

Out of curiosity did Disney respond to you?

Yes, it was a pretty generic response saying that they "want everyone to have a magical experience" in the parks and they're sorry we didn't. They offered a couple fastpasses for our next trip. I replied thanking them but asserting that I was more concerned with the fact that this was an ongoing issue. I said I didn't feel that "day guests" were being cleared from the lines quickly enough and that was backing up the lines more than they needed to be at the beginning. (This was what the CM at 7DMT blamed for the backup there when guests were asking.) I said if they were marketing lower waits and more rides (directly from one of their ads), then they needed to have a system in place to clear regular day guests and provide that. My suggestions were to have a chunk of time between "official closing" and the start of the event, or the use of the FP line for event guests. They replied that they would pass that on to the appropriate people.

 

[provoaggie]

Out of curiosity did Disney respond to you?

I know I'm not the person you asked but I wrote Disney as well and got a generic we're sorry response back.

Thank you for your e-mail to the Walt Disney World® Resort. We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us.

We are sorry for the disappointments you mentioned in your e-mail. It is our goal to create magical memories and exceed the expectations of our Guests during each and every interaction that you have with us. Please be assured that we have shared your comments with our leadership team, along with the appropriate management, as feedback such as yours is taken very seriously.

Once again, thank you for contacting us. We sincerely hope that we will have an opportunity to entertain you soon