After Hours Events - Ask Questions and Share Experiences Here

[Carsland]

So does everyone plan to eat dinner before going? I am debating on if I should just get a reservation at hollywood studios at like 7:15pm or eat at a resort at like 5 lol

Definitely eat beforehand. We did Be Our Guest at 4pm and then hopped over to Epcot for the AH event around 6:30pm via the monorail. Was able to explore the showcase and watch Luminous before the event actually started and it was nice not having to worry about eating when trying to maximize rides.

 

[iZon]

Went to Studios Feb 26. Got there 6:30. Let in 6.45. Did 15 rides, 6 before 9pm.

Rise 3, Railway 3 (new to me), Falcon 2, Star Tours 3 (one new one to me), Slinky 2, TZT 1, Midway 1. An ice cream bar and a bottle of water! The only real line was Slinky at about 20 minutes. Everything else was as fast as you want to walk.

Stayed until 1230 and immediately got bus back to CBR. I will definitely do it again. I’ve been going to the park since 1990 so I didn’t really care to spend the whole day there, just wanted to go on some of the rides.

 

[Jsharp13]

Went to Studios Feb 26. Got there 6:30. Let in 6.45. Did 15 rides, 6 before 9pm.

Rise 3, Railway 3 (new to me), Falcon 2, Star Tours 3 (one new one to me), Slinky 2, TZT 1, Midway 1. An ice cream bar and a bottle of water! The only real line was Slinky at about 20 minutes. Everything else was as fast as you want to walk.

Stayed until 1230 and immediately got bus back to CBR. I will definitely do it again. I’ve been going to the park since 1990 so I didn’t really care to spend the whole day there, just wanted to go on some of the rides.

Thanks for this great summary. We're also staying at CBR so I was glad to hear they had a bus right away for you since sadly they don't run the skyliner.
Very interesting that you got several rides in before 9 pm also!

 

[vinmar4]

Does anybody know if Mexico is open during Epcot after hours?

This is the first time doing any after hours event. We usually do Moonlight events, but we did not want to get the APs now since we are not going back until November for a longer time, but we still want to visit Epcot and do some rides.
TIA

 

[Lsdolphin]

During After Hours events the countries close at regular park closing. However I’m sure the Frozen and Remy rides are main open but I’m not sure about the ride inside Mexico..

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

Does anybody know if Mexico is open during Epcot after hours?

This is the first time doing any after hours event. We usually do Moonlight events, but we did not want to get the APs now since we are not going back until November for a longer time, but we still want to visit Epcot and do some rides.
TIA

Yes, Mexico is open! Or at least the ride is (we didn't spend much time there when we did AH).

 

[dez1978]

Do we have any idea when the next round of After Hours events and Christmas party dates might be announced? I'm trying to plan for our thanksgiving trip.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Do we have any idea when the next round of After Hours events and Christmas party dates might be announced? I'm trying to plan for our thanksgiving trip.

Christmas Party dates are normally announced around 'Half-way to Christmas' so late June.

 

[2vets]

MK After Hours tonight. The event was not sold out. It was kind of busy today anyways, but apparently wait times are on the decline from the height of Spring Break. So, first off, they are definitely selling more tix than they used to. The event I attended in January 2020 was empty, and I think it was sold out. Like, whole sections of the park a ghost town by 11 pm. It was slightly busier last (2023) January, but also seemed less crowded. Many, many little kids this year, like babies and toddlers. I can’t make any reasonable comments about that since some of those kiddos outlasted my old self! But it was skewing more kids. And the lines seemed pretty minimal still, if not total walkons, so still money well spent IMO. I am still dealing with a post-viral asthma and am coughing a bit, so I wanted to get some stuff done and get out before I ran myself into the ground (hence my 12:20 am departure), but I wanted to ride Tron at least once, so when Enchantment started, I hopped on the Peoplemover, then booked it over to Tron, which was posted 20 but maaaaybe 7-10. Ridden (each once, after 10 pm - did a peter pan genie+ and a tron $LL before Happily Ever After, then hid out with wine and cachapas at Skipper during that fw show): pirates, btmrr, hm, little mermaid, astroorbiter, peoplemover, tron (posted 20, 7-10 min wait), buzz, pooh, dwarves (posted 30, 12-15 min wait), out. I stopped for snacks once, but my appetite is still revving back up, and popcorn was not good with the coughing! I was trying to walk fast-ish, but I could have done several more rides very easily, even with more snacks!

Also, despite the reports that resort monorails are not running, I’m on one headed to GF now - last stop before it goes out of service, so let’s say 12:40 am. Boats are not running. It was cold tonight, v thankful not to walk!!!

(Eta: rides done)

 

[BrianL]

MK After Hours tonight. The event was not sold out. It was kind of busy today anyways, but apparently wait times are on the decline from the height of Spring Break. So, first off, they are definitely selling more tix than they used to. The event I attended in January 2020 was empty, and I think it was sold out. Like, whole sections of the park a ghost town by 11 pm. It was slightly busier last (2023) January, but also seemed less crowded. Many, many little kids this year, like babies and toddlers. I can’t make any reasonable comments about that since some of those kiddos outlasted my old self! But it was skewing more kids. And the lines seemed pretty minimal still, if not total walkons, so still money well spent IMO. I am still dealing with a post-viral asthma and am coughing a bit, so I wanted to get some stuff done and get out before I ran myself into the ground (hence my 12:20 am departure), but I wanted to ride Tron at least once, so when Wishes started, I hopped on the Peoplemover, then booked it over to Tron, which was posted 20 but maaaaybe 7-10. Ridden (each once, after 10 pm - did a peter pan genie+ and a tron $LL before Happily Ever After, then hid out with wine and cachapas at Skipper during that fw show): pirates, btmrr, hm, little mermaid, astroorbiter, peoplemover, tron (posted 20, 7-10 min wait), buzz, pooh, dwarves (posted 30, 12-15 min wait), out. I stopped for snacks once, but my appetite is still revving back up, and popcorn was not good with the coughing! I was trying to walk fast-ish, but I could have done several more rides very easily, even with more snacks!

Also, despite the reports that resort monorails are not running, I’m on one headed to GF now - last stop before it goes out of service, so let’s say 12:40 am. Boats are not running. It was cold tonight, v thankful not to walk!!!

(Eta: rides done)

I like that review - I am going next week on Monday night and it sounds like you had a good time! Was TRON really that easy to get on? You did that during Enchantment, yes? I was planning to do the same thing - buy an ILL for it (before I even get on the plane ) for like 7:30 PM and do that, but I would not be averse to a second ride if it doesn't eat up a lot of event time. I do want to watch Happily Ever After, but am on the fence with Enchantment. I did like that show, but it's no HEA!

 

[2vets]

I like that review - I am going next week on Monday night and it sounds like you had a good time! Was TRON really that easy to get on? You did that during Enchantment, yes? I was planning to do the same thing - buy an ILL for it (before I even get on the plane ) for like 7:30 PM and do that, but I would not be averse to a second ride if it doesn't eat up a lot of event time. I do want to watch Happily Ever After, but am on the fence with Enchantment. I did like that show, but it's no HEA!

I tried to wait it out until the actual finale, if that makes sense. I knew I couldn’t hang until 1 am, which is recommended, so instead I watched as the the wait time went down during the special fireworks showing at 11pm (you’re right, haha, “wishful” thinking just there on my part). It went from 30 to 25 to 20, and that was when I went for it. Don’t disagree on the show, but I had a renewed pleasure at the sentiment hearing the song again . Good luck!

 

[krismom345]

Hi- I have an odd ticket question:
We have dated tickets that start May 21-May 27 but won’t begin using them until May 24.
We will be attending the After Hours event May 23rd at Epcot and have those as separate tickets.
My question is, can we buy a Lightning Lane for the night of the event even thought we won’t be using a regular park ticket?
I know we are eligible to enter the park at 7pm even though it doesn’t technically start til 10pm, so I was hoping to get LL for the first couple hours.
Thanks and I hope that makes sense

 

[SaintsManiac-vol.2]

Hi- I have an odd ticket question:
We have dated tickets that start May 21-May 27 but won’t begin using them until May 24.
We will be attending the After Hours event May 23rd at Epcot and have those as separate tickets.
My question is, can we buy a Lightning Lane for the night of the event even thought we won’t be using a regular park ticket?
I know we are eligible to enter the park at 7pm even though it doesn’t technically start til 10pm, so I was hoping to get LL for the first couple hours.
Thanks and I hope that makes sense

My understanding is no you can’t. I’ve looked everywhere and asked multiple places and that’s the short answer.

 

[krismom345]

My understanding is no you can’t. I’ve looked everywhere and asked multiple places and that’s the short answer.

Darn. That’s what I figured

 

[nighttowll]

My understanding is no you can’t. I’ve looked everywhere and asked multiple places and that’s the short answer.

Do you know if you can buy genie+ multipark if your ticket type is not hopper? I will have a ticket for AK during the day. Then, doing MK AH afterwards, would love to be able to use Genie+ for both (MK 7-10). I know people with hoppers can do it, but not sure if I only have the AK ticket if it will let me.

 

[SkyGuy]

Do you know if you can buy genie+ multipark if your ticket type is not hopper? I will have a ticket for AK during the day. Then, doing MK AH afterwards, would love to be able to use Genie+ for both (MK 7-10). I know people with hoppers can do it, but not sure if I only have the AK ticket if it will let me.

No. You must have the park-hopper option to book multipark.

 

[baggs32]

We went on 4/22 to the MK AH and it was fantastic. Our main goal was to see Enchantment and it didn't disappoint, espcecially because we were sitting on the wall around the partners statue and actually had room to move around without disturbing anyone else. It was colder that evening and we were walking on rides before the party started and basically rode everything twice. We are AP holders and entered around 5:30 to just take it all in until the lines went down due to folks gathering for Happily Ever After, which we did not watch that night.

Positives: very low crowds, you can actually hear the ambiance in the park, the included snackes are adequate, snack carts are everywhere, did I mention the very low crowds?

Negatives: Popcorn is pre-boxed and not fresh, some carts ran out of water later in the night, our only transportation back to GF was a bus so we walked the path. It has been said in this thread that the monorail and boats run after the party ends but that was not true for us and it appears for some others recently so plan accordingly if you are in a monorail resort.

 

[nighttowll]

Positives: very low crowds, you can actually hear the ambiance in the park, the included snackes are adequate, snack carts are everywhere, did I mention the very low crowds?

Negatives: Popcorn is pre-boxed and not fresh, some carts ran out of water later in the night, our only transportation back to GF was a bus so we walked the path. It has been said in this thread that the monorail and boats run after the party ends but that was not true for us and it appears for some others recently so plan accordingly if you are in a monorail resort.

We’ll be doing this in two weeks. What other snacks did they have?

 

[baggs32]

We’ll be doing this in two weeks. What other snacks did they have?

Mickey ice cream bars and sandwiches, frozen fruit bars, bottled soft drinks, and bottled water. Limited selection for sure, but all good nonetheless. Just make sure you eat dinner before the party or you will be limited to Casey’s or Starbucks for sustenance, neither are included.

 

[nighttowll]

Mickey ice cream bars and sandwiches, frozen fruit bars, bottled soft drinks, and bottled water. Limited selection for sure, but all good nonetheless. Just make sure you eat dinner before the party or you will be limited to Casey’s or Starbucks for sustenance, neither are included.

Thanks. We’ll save Mickey ice cream for the party then. We are doing AK before. I figure we’ll head to either the Wilderness Lodge or the contemporary for quick service before going to MK.

I’m taking a friend whose never been before and likely will never have a chance to go back, so I’m trying to squeeze in as many experiences as possible like riding the monorail or seeing the geyser and riding the boat over. Thought about booking Liberty Tavern as it’s a favorite, but I don’t want to eat up all our park time on a meal since this will be our only MK time.