"We Live Here!", After Hours Events, BDay Celebrations, & Sampling All the Snacks (Girl's Trip, June 2019) Completed 8/10

[Raeven]

Loved this! Is the intro new, or am I just really tired? Either way, it's amazing!

Aw thank you! Yeah, I added it starting this one! I’ve been working on it for a bit, because I was trying to make some kind of intro, but didn’t want it to be too long. ​

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

First things first, I had to grab a free Mickey bar because I’d never had one before! I’m not a big ice cream person, and honestly don’t really see myself buying more of them in the future, but they are an iconic Disney snack and now I can say I’ve had one.

I had never had one before our After Hours event either. And I am with you. It's ok.

Our consensus was that Space Mt is still not for us, and we have no idea what they were going for with this overlay

Hmmm. Sounds like they keep trying with Space it just doesn't work.

 

[disneyAndi14]

My dd did the Space overlay at MNSSHP and she said it was a thumbs down for her also. Pitch black and really rough!

 

[Raeven]

Villains After Hours, Part 2
June 13th, Part 4

When we left off we were adventuring our way through Adventureland...and by adventuring I mean we were trying more weird snacks courtesy of Villains After Hours.
We made our way to Tortuga Tavern where we now have a regular table under the watchful eye of this (for some reason when I type “pirate” the emoji appears instead so I’ll just roll with it).



We got the:

Hades Nachos
Black bean nacho chips with “fiery” buffalo chicken and nacho cheese

& the Hades Mocktail
purple frozen mocktail “Cosmo” with lemonade, violet monin syrup, and a gummy worm
We'll start with the mocktail. Going off the description we had, the flavor was "purple", so we had no idea what flavor it was supposed to be.



We thought maybe grape, but it didn't taste a thing like grape. Googling the flavors in a cosmo pulls up lime and cranberry which is most certainly wasn't.

Seeing lemonade and violet monin (sugary syrup) in the description makes a little more sense, because it suffered from the problem another lemon drink we had on this trip did; it just tasted like bathroom cleaner smells. (You would think maybe with that description that it tastes like the Violet Lemonade at F&G, but it didn't). It was not a winner for us, although the gummy worm did have a little face which was cute.



Next we go to the nachos, (once we were actually able to scoop something up on them without them breaking into pieces which happened several times), we figured out the orange stuff was plastic cheese and the chicken tasted nothing like buffalo chicken. Since buffalo chicken also isn't red we were a little confused about what was actually on it, but after tasting it we came to the conclusion it might be a bunch of chili powder.



(Btw I don't like spicy things, and didn't think these were spicy at all). We thought the chips were black bean chips (since I remembered reading black bean something in the description), and google confirms that. They didn't taste any different than tortilla chips, but as I mentioned earlier broke every time we tried to pick them up. I would also say the toppings weren't distributed very evenly (the chicken was mainly in chunks), and overall we wouldn't recommend this. When looking up the description, I found that this was also at MNSSHP last year, and looked better then:



The site I found the description/picture on gave it a pretty good review at MNSSHP, calling the sauce "fiery" and the portion size "gigantic", which wasn't our experience at all. We did split it, but it was about the same size as a child's nacho portion at Peco Bill's. The fact that they served the exact same dish at last year's MNSSHP (I know a few other snacks they had were also similar to MNSSHP ones) seems lazy to me.

We experienced the Pirates overlay next. For the event Pirates had 2 live actors in the queue and one in the ride. Samantha's favorite and least favorite was the guy in the jail Or is it the brig as pirates say?
Anyway she thought it was funny because he was in jail, but when you looked behind him the whole space was open

On the ride itself you encounter an actor playing Barbossa up on the bridge. Our boat must have been chock full of Barbossa fans as the people behind us started (literally) screaming when they saw him. I LOVE YOU BARBOSSA!!! DID YOU KNOW HE'S REAL?! THAT'S A REAL GUY!!!!



It was interesting, but we didn't think it added too much to the ride experience. (Although the other people in our boat would probably seriously disagree). I thought the addition of Barbossa during the ride was the coolest, but we couldn't hear a word he said over the screaming people in our boat. (I also don't have our ride photo as it was the only PP picture we never got, but we were front row and trying to not get wet so I think we're better off not seeing that one).

Once we got off Pirates it was around 1 am, and the final show was starting so we ran back over to the hub, and caught it right around the beginning, and got a decent spot since the hub wasn't too crowded.
Spoiler alert: I'm going to tell you what happens in this show, I'm not 100% sure if I've got it all right, but here goes! In this show, Hades is trying to invoke a prophecy. Each villain that comes out thinks they are who the prophecy is referring to (and Hades disagrees), and then there is a side act (like people twirling fire etc). The villains they come across are Jafar, the Evil Queen, and Dr Facillier In between Meg asks for her freedom or randomly flirts with the guy villains or side acts (which I only note because it seemed a little weird and out of character) and then some dancers come out and dance around Hades feet or in the corners. Finally Maleficent comes out and tells Hades the prophecy isn't about one of them but needs all of them together. There's fireworks to show it worked, (the fireworks and castle projections were cool as always and our favorite part). At the end Hades finally frees Meg.
Google tells me this show is 23 minutes long which seems way too long for this kind of thing.
If you're at this event you'll probably want to catch the show, but I wasn't crazy about it. The story wasn't great, and I found it kind of boring. I have to be honest, I'm not typically one for stopping to watch those shows in the stage in the middle of the park (usually because it's super hot out and I'm doing other things and at these events it can be hard to get a good view), so I don't have many other shows to compare it to but I’ve seen better ones at other events. I also thought the dancers (the style of dance and the way they were dressed), and the side acts (like the fire twirlers) were an attempt to make the show edgier and appeal to a more adult audience that fell flat.


At 1:20 am(ish), Maleficent was coming around one last time. Supposedly she'd been out and about the whole night, but somehow we hadn't seen her at all. We had a front row seat right where we already were, and soon Maleficent was coming. Accompanied by her entourage that consisted of the members of Slipknot
(Just a little joke, if you've ever seen the band Slipknot, they all wear horror movie-esque masks).

These guys on stilts were weirdly aggressive and in your face, which wouldn't be out of place for a scare actor at HHN, but seemed weird at Disney.
I had heard from other reviews prior to this that these guys were "intense" which seemed a weird thing to say about what was basically a mini Disney parade, but seemed spot on once you were there.
They just kind of got up super close, bent over, and did this:




I do love this float. It's impressive, and I like that it breathes fire. I think the design of it is cool, and it's my favorite part of Festival of Fantasy. Because it's usually 500 degrees in the park during the day and gets like 200 degrees hotter when you stand waiting for the parade, I've only seen Festival of Fantasy once on my first trip; but this was easily my favorite float.
We did have to follow Maleficent down Main St a bit to see some fire breathing action, but it was on our way out anyway.



When we had reached as close to the exit as we could get while a parade float was going by, we stopped quickly to chat about something or other. Then…
One of the stilt guys saw 2 people who were standing completely out of the way, turned around chatting and decided to come up, stick his face in between ours, and twist around? I can't understate how weird (and alarming because we weren't expecting it) this was. But between our terrified screams I apparently took a series of pictures that I didn't find on my phone until later Which I dubbed “the last thing you see before you die”.
My favorite was the Big Bad Wolf since I feel like you so rarely get to see him, and I love the Three Little Pigs cartoons.
We were able to hop on a bus right away, and were back at our resort around 2 am.

To sum up my/our feelings on the Villains after hours

(I'm pretty sure Samantha shares the same feelings because we discussed it afterwards). We had a good time, but it was a one and done and I wouldn't recommend it to others. You're never going to have a horrible time at these events, and as a fan and someone who likes providing reviews I do like trying new events. But as someone who is providing a review, I want to be honest about what I felt was the worth of the event.

As I stated earlier I feel copying many aspects of last year's MNSSHP was lazy. I love Halloween, and I don't mind the parties starting earlier, but I see no point to a lesser version of the party running during the summer. The most puzzling aspect is the decision to have no characters at a themed event. Diving into their past forays into creating events around the villains, I know they haven't always gotten it right, but they did have a big hit on their hands with Club Villain so it can be done.
Rides like 7dmt and Space Mt had rather long waits the whole time (7dmt never dipped below 30 mins so we skipped it). The snacks weren't anything special, and the overlays didn't add much to the rides (or anything) theming-wise. The show was forgettable, and the float was an interesting addition but not worth theming an event around since that was the only thing truly different than last year's MNSSHP.

And finally a very important factor when it comes to these events is cost. The cost for this event was absurd. A ticket costs $144, and for what this event is that's way too much.
Now AP and DVC tickets are discounted at about $40 cheaper, and Samantha bought ours with her AP discount so we felt a little better about what we paid. But I wouldn't recommend it to someone paying full price. For this theming you pay an extra $20 onto the regular after hours price. MNSSHP itself isn't even that expensive, (my MNSSHP ticket for this year was around $80).

If you just want to try every different Disney after hours event I'd say go ahead, but if this is the only after hours event you're going to do I'd say skip it, and if you enjoy the theming and it's possible with your trip timing I'd do MNSSHP instead. (You could buy tickets to 2 MNSSHP's for a little bit more than the full price ticket to this after hours). Or if the theming isn’t important I’d just wait until the regular after hours event returns since from what I've heard that is worth it, but the villains theming just seems unnecessary.

Next up
We head to Cape May Cafe!



​

 

[Raeven]

Hmmm. Sounds like they keep trying with Space it just doesn't work.

Yeah, I'm not sure why they keep trying the same overlay. I remember people not really liking it at MNSSHP. I don't ride Space too often, but I know there's some overlays that are really popular for it (like DL's Hyperspace Mt).

My dd did the Space overlay at MNSSHP and she said it was a thumbs down for her also. Pitch black and really rough!

Yeah, it just felt like there were even more bumps in it
​

 

[lvcourtneyy]

n the bus my dad texted me asking if after hours meant we were going to “drop the honey and dance the night away with Pooh”. (I’ll leave that up to you to decode however you want)

honestly don’t really see myself buying more of them in the future, but they are an iconic Disney snack and now I can say I’ve had one.

That's how I feel about them too. I eat them at AHs events and that's about it lol. I feel like I make such a mess trying to eat it and I end up eating all the chocolate right away as it breaks and end up with a lot of vanilla ice cream on a stick lol.

They were also out of Tervis tumblers already (nothing else though)

Wow! I didn't realize they had sold out.

These guys on stilts were weirdly aggressive and in your face, which wouldn't be out of place for a scare actor at HHN, but seemed weird at Disney.

Agreed. It seemed like everyone was confused what the vibe of the night was supposed to be.

As I stated earlier I feel copying many aspects of last year's MNSSHP was lazy. I love Halloween, and I don't mind the parties starting earlier, but I see no point to a lesser version of the party running during the summer. The most puzzling aspect is the decision to have no characters at a themed event.

Again, agreed. I liked the concept of the event but the execution wasn't the best. And the no meet and greets makes no sense. Every time they have a villain meet, the lines are so long. Why not capitalize on that?!

 

[Cloe Colton]

Awe thats a shame that you guys didn't have a great time at the party! Dan and I actually really enjoyed it! But we honestly didn't go out of our way to try the snacks or anything and did more rides/saw Malificent's dragon and the fireworks from wherever we were. For a couple bucks more than a normal After Hours we enjoyed it but it definitely isn't cheap!

 

[Raeven]

That's how I feel about them too. I eat them at AHs events and that's about it lol. I feel like I make such a mess trying to eat it and I end up eating all the chocolate right away as it breaks and end up with a lot of vanilla ice cream on a stick lol.

Yes! Ice cream on a stick gets sooo messy

Wow! I didn't realize they had sold out.

I thought it was weird that out of all the merch it was the tumblers they sold out of. They mentioned maybe Storybook Circus still had some, but we had just come from that area and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get one (I just wanted to see it first) so we didn’t look there.

Agreed. It seemed like everyone was confused what the vibe of the night was supposed to be.

Yeah, the website mentions things like “gruesome” etc but it was just strange. It in no way felt like HHN, but almost felt like they were trying to copy the adult vibe of that (but in a more family friendly way), and just failed.

Again, agreed. I liked the concept of the event but the execution wasn't the best. And the no meet and greets makes no sense. Every time they have a villain meet, the lines are so long. Why not capitalize on that?!

Yeah villains themed stuff is great, and Disney knows how much people love them which makes it even more frustrating when they mess up villains events or just slap the word “villains” on something to draw people in. For the price it feels like the draw should’ve been meet and greets. I mean at the DVC parties they do rare meet and greets, and the DL themed after hours events are all about character meets.

Awe thats a shame that you guys didn't have a great time at the party! Dan and I actually really enjoyed it! But we honestly didn't go out of our way to try the snacks or anything and did more rides/saw Malificent's dragon and the fireworks from wherever we were. For a couple bucks more than a normal After Hours we enjoyed it but it definitely isn't cheap!

Well we did have fun at the party (although we had a great time hanging out in general), but after seeing what the event offers I just wouldn’t recommend this event to others especially if they were paying full price, only wanted to do one after hours, or were going specifically for the theme. I like trying out all the events I can, but feel like with an event like that you’re paying for the extras, and nothing offered really justified the price. ​

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm sorry you didn't find the event to be all that worth it! But sounds like you guys still had fun together!!

 

[jhoannam]

What is up with the awful looking plate of nachos? Do you recall the price? They would have to include that in the complimentary snacks for me to even try it. And thanks for the honest review, it's always nice to hear honest review instead of the influencers raving about an event they didn't even pay for. We did the regular DAH MK and loved it, but we were in it for the short ride waits, totally worth it for the rides.

 

[Raeven]

I'm sorry you didn't find the event to be all that worth it! But sounds like you guys still had fun together!!

Yeah we did! I guess the events can’t all be winners, but it’s always interesting to try new ones.

What is up with the awful looking plate of nachos? Do you recall the price? They would have to include that in the complimentary snacks for me to even try it. And thanks for the honest review, it's always nice to hear honest review instead of the influencers raving about an event they didn't even pay for. We did the regular DAH MK and loved it, but we were in it for the short ride waits, totally worth it for the rides.

Right?

When I looked it up while writing this, the article said it was around 5.49 at MNSSHP so I believe this one was probably around that too. I was more than a little disappointed at the snack choices for this party considering out of everything I actually thought the nachos sounded best (prior to actually eating them).

I agree, it can be hard to gauge when a lot of the reviewers go to these events for free. I know reviews can be subjective, but for someone who has to make a choice between this event and others due to it’s cost, I wanted to provide a full review of the extras.

I’ve heard good things about the regular one! That’s actually what we wanted to do, but this one is running in it’s place over the summer. ​

 

[Tracy161]

It was delicious, but if you breathed at all while drinking the bubbles from the dry ice went up your nose (which you’ll get to see in the vlog)

Looking forward to it

Aw thank you! Yeah, I added it starting this one! I’ve been working on it for a bit, because I was trying to make some kind of intro, but didn’t want it to be too long.

It's SO cool! I was thinking to myself that there's no way that I missed this in the past, so I figured it had to be new. You did an amazing job!

Google tells me this show is 23 minutes long which seems way too long for this kind of thing. In the vlog I've condensed it to about 5 minutes of highlights.

Thank you in advance for condensing it The full 23 minutes seems like a lot given your description. I rarely, rarely watch these kinds of things anyway.

The story wasn't great, and I found it kind of boring. I have to be honest, I'm not typically one for stopping to watch those shows in the stage in the middle of the park

The story sounds a bit strange, like they threw something together at the last minute to have a "special" show.

Accompanied by her entourage that consisted of the members of Slipknot

YES!

 

[Lesley Wake]

I was so excited to arrive! Samantha was waiting for me in the lobby, and we ran to each other

I wish I could have seen that and I'm totally imagining it looks just like that gif!

One of the stilt guys saw 2 people who were standing completely out of the way, turned around chatting and decided to come up, stick his face in between ours, and twist around? I can't understate how weird (and alarming because we weren't expecting it) this was. But between our terrified screams I apparently took a series of pictures that I didn't find on my phone until later

Yeah, that's just weird! And hilarious about the photos!

 

[KarenMG]

What a cool trip! I'm going with friends in October and we're doing MNSSHP. Tickets for this fall though are up to ~$100 plus tax. I'm enjoying your trip report!

 

[xlsm]

I’m on my iPad and can’t figure out how to quote, but I will come back tomorrow to reply like a normal person

 

[Raeven]

It's SO cool! I was thinking to myself that there's no way that I missed this in the past, so I figured it had to be new. You did an amazing job!

Aw thank you!

Thank you in advance for condensing it The full 23 minutes seems like a lot given your description. I rarely, rarely watch these kinds of things anyway.

It seemed like a lot. I also usually don't bother with the stage shows, it just seems like a lot of event time to give up which is why we did the one that was at the very end.

The story sounds a bit strange, like they threw something together at the last minute to have a "special" show.

Yes! Exactly this!

I wish I could have seen that and I'm totally imagining it looks just like that gif!

yes! I tried to film it but it just looks like a blur.

Yeah, that's just weird! And hilarious about the photos!

I was so confused when I found those pictures on my phone. I don't think I noticed them till the next morning

What a cool trip! I'm going with friends in October and we're doing MNSSHP. Tickets for this fall though are up to ~$100 plus tax. I'm enjoying your trip report!

That's true the price does vary a little for MNSSHP, but it's still a lower price/better value compared to this event imo. Thank you for following along!

I’m on my iPad and can’t figure out how to quote, but I will come back tomorrow to reply like a normal person

Quoting on anything but my computer is SO HARD. I just figured out how to save gifs to my phone yesterday ​

 

[Raeven]

*video is unavailable*
​

 

[xlsm]

I was brave and watched myself in the After Hours vlog!! I don't think I'll be having that done to my hair ever again

I've been thinking about the Villains event a lot, and I stand by what I said - I really felt pressured to do the "special event" stuff, since it had the Villains theme. A regular after hours would have just been riding rides and doing things, and I feel like even arriving late we'd have got to do a lot of stuff.
The Villains overlay was not worth the extra cost...because if you're not there to see the Villains part or do the special event things, why did you book the villains themed party? (although in this case I understand a little, since regular after hours weren't offered)

I know you got the survey afterward...I ended up getting one for the DHS version the following night - I saw it in my email when I got home.

 

[HomeSweetDisney]

Joining in! I always enjoy your TR's

It sounds like the Villains after hours event was really a let down. Definitely doesn't sound like it was worth the cost. None of that food looked good either!
I remember seeing this and thinking it looked so cool - how disappointing it must have been to spend the money and have it fall flat. I am glad ya'll didn't pay full price for it. That would have really annoyed me lol
I love Disney so much but sometimes they just create these extra events and don't put any effort into them but they have no problem charging extra money for it I mean, I get that they are a business but they could have tried a little harder lol

I do want to do an after hours event though and we'd get a DVC discount so I am hoping they are still offering them when we go back next summer! I'd love to do the MK or HS one.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[Raeven]

I was brave and watched myself in the After Hours vlog!! I don't think I'll be having that done to my hair ever again

Yay! It was a fun vlog But I feel weird watching myself too.

I've been thinking about the Villains event a lot, and I stand by what I said - I really felt pressured to do the "special event" stuff, since it had the Villains theme. A regular after hours would have just been riding rides and doing things, and I feel like even arriving late we'd have got to do a lot of stuff.
The Villains overlay was not worth the extra cost...because if you're not there to see the Villains part or do the special event things, why did you book the villains themed party? (although in this case I understand a little, since regular after hours weren't offered)

Agreed! I do think we would’ve gotten to do more rides or try a few more snacks if we were earlier, but I still think we would’ve prioritized the villains stuff because that’s what the event was about and those were the things that I didn’t feel ended up being worth the cost.

I know you got the survey afterward...I ended up getting one for the DHS version the following night - I saw it in my email when I got home.

Oh yes! That’s true I did tell them how I felt in that survey.

Joining in! I always enjoy your TR's

Thanks for following along!

It sounds like the Villains after hours event was really a let down. Definitely doesn't sound like it was worth the cost. None of that food looked good either!
I remember seeing this and thinking it looked so cool - how disappointing it must have been to spend the money and have it fall flat. I am glad ya'll didn't pay full price for it. That would have really annoyed me lol
I love Disney so much but sometimes they just create these extra events and don't put any effort into them but they have no problem charging extra money for it I mean, I get that they are a business but they could have tried a little harder lol

Yeah I would agree the cost and the event definitely didn’t measure up and I’m glad we didn’t pay full price. I wish they had cooler snacks too! (Or at least different ones from past events).

We still had a good time, but it’s definitely not worth the full price and people who do miss out on it should know they aren’t missing anything special.

Agreed! It just felt like they knew if they added “villains” to the title of the event and slapped in a few extras (that were basically just lazy versions of old mnsshp snacks and overylays) then people would pay extra for it. And I hate that because sometimes they do really amazing extra events, so we know they’re capable of better ones.

I do want to do an after hours event though and we'd get a DVC discount so I am hoping they are still offering them when we go back next summer! I'd love to do the MK or HS one.

Looking forward to reading more!

I would recommend the after hours events in general though! I just think this themed one fell flat. But the other one we attended (I’ll go into it more later) was good, and I’d still try the others if I had the opportunity. ​