Okay I’m on the bus back to AKL, I got to the bus stop and was the only one at 1:39AM, one group came behind me and we got picked up at 1:49 and the bus left right away.
Here’s a play by play, I got into the park just before Enchantment so it was pretty hectic getting a party wristband. They are in each land and I did not have any wait to get line, the CM told me the closest was by Stich’s Great Escape so that’s where I went. I had no plans other than I wasn’t going to do Small World lol
10:08 Into Pooh queue, listed 15, almost walk on as there were less than 20 in line
10:11 onto Pooh, no line when I got off
10:18 into Dumbo, listed 5, super long queue to walk through
10:21 up in air on Dumbo, walked right on just with a few kids, CMs said we could stay on after if we wanted to
10:24 into Barnstormer, listed 5, walked right onto front row just me, people were choosing front row (you could pick) so I’m sure you could stay on in any other row other than front
10:30 tea cups looked empty and speedway looked almost walk on as well
10:35 into Peter Pan listed 10, fair amount of people waiting in interactive rooms
10:43 onto Peter Pan
Saw at least a dozen people in line for lantern photo, never passed by again to see if it went down
10:49 into Haunted Mansion queue, standby 13, just got cutoff from going inside but basically the only wait is for the preshow
10:56 onto buggy
No snacks in the areas I passed through, finally saw first snack cart by Liberty Tree Tavern, no wait
Water, sprite, Diet Coke, and coke in the pretty bottles
Ice cream included Mickey bars and I think the strawberry bar and ice cream sandwich
Freshly popped popcorn
I sat and ate half a Mickey bar, a little popcorn, and some Diet Coke, lingering only a few minutes
Saw another snack cart by jungle cruise, no line, JC listed 5 but I skipped as I’d be too awkward if it was just me on the boat
11:15 into Pirates, listed 5
11:16 walked onto Pirates, boat was mostly full
Saw another snack cart by Big Thunder, had I known BTMR was going to be closed ahead of time I might not have gotten tickets as I would have liked to have ridden that a few times
11:28 into Splash, listed 5
11:30 walked onto Splash in any row of my choosing, you could have a private log and no one was in the log ahead of or behind me
After Splash I took a bathroom break at the Splash bathrooms
Peter Pan listed 30 wow glad I rode, 7DMT 25, Astro Orbiter 10, Meet Mickey/Princesses 10, Pooh 10, all else was listed as 5
Saw another snack cart by Pecos Bills
Saw maybe two people in the Magic Carpets
More snack carts in hub by Adventureland and Tomorrowland
Lines for photopass in hub were maybe 2-3 parties deep, plenty of opportunities to take your own photos in front of the castle with no one in them
Another snack cart by Space Mountain, this was the busiest one I saw with maybe a dozen in line, still only a minute wait
11:58 into space mountain, listed 5
12:01 walked onto space, both sides open (I think right side is a shorter walk?), most cars were full despite walking on
12:05 off ride
12:08 back outside, it’s a long walk
Another quick bathroom break by space mountain
7DMT listed 35, Astro Orbiter listed 10 with maybe 30 people on the ground in the queue so I skipped (I have yet to do this one)
12:12 into buzz, listed 5, walked right on
12:18 off buzz
Speedway listed as 0, not sure if I’ve seen a 0 wait listed before, 7DMT back down to 25
12:20 back into space mountain queue, listed 5
12:24 onto space
12:27 off space
12:30 back outside
I noticed lots of solo guests throughout the park, and a surprising amount of runners (I myself did Dopey)
Still a line at the cart by space, I waited a minute at 12:31, it moves fast and I got another popcorn and a regular coke for the pretty bottle
12:36 into 7DMT queue, listed 25, extended through entire covered portion where the gems are
12:55 onto 7DMT they thankfully gave me my own row
12:57 off 7DMT
12:58 into 7DMT queue, listed 20, line looked a bit shorter maybe by 5 minutes and moved faster
1:12 onto 7DMT, less than 20 people behind me probably for two more carts
Character water art on the ground on the way out before going through the castle
Two photographers left on Main Street, one for castle shot and one for Christmas tree shot, Castle shot had maybe 6 parties in line
1:23 they closed the photo lines, I was in the castle line with two parties after me around
One more bathroom stop by fire station
1:33 left MK
1:38 to AKL bus stop, no one else there, one other group did come after me
1:49 AKL bus arrived
2:03 dropped off at Jambo, driver asked and we all were going to Jambo
The tree takedown crew was leaving as I got there, the Christmas tree is finally gone! Wonder if it’ll get taken down in MK tonight or if not because it was open so late
Overall thoughts:
I did 12 rides, I do regret doing Dumbo and Barnstormer as I don’t really care to ride those, I just wanted something that would be walk on at the start. I knew things like Peter Pan or Space Mountain would probably have longer lines at the start due to regular guests jumping at last minute, and I was on that side of the park.
I wish snack carts were on the AH guide as I seemed to be in the one part of the park without snack carts in the beginning.
Overall I don’t think this is worth the cost if you’re someone like me. I come a few times a year either solo or with one other person, so I typically use
Genie+ in MK and am very good at using it. I can usually ride just about everything in one day, whereas there was nowhere near enough time to do everything during AH with the long queues to walk through and long walks between rides. I did have a slow start but even an extra half hour if I skipped Dumbo and Barnstormer would only have gotten me maybe two other rides, perhaps Jungle Cruise and another ride on something.
7DMT seemed to be longish all night, I doubt it was ever near walk on. Almost everything else was walk on because all the crowds were probably in line for 7DMT. I would NOT get in the queue until maybe 5 minutes before close so you can maximize your time doing other rides. If you want to ride multiple times or if you’d be heartbroken if it went down, certainly ride it earlier maybe halfway through AH to ensure regular guests are gone. But this was a big time suck for me (20 minutes for that first ride).
I can see AH being worth it if you hate Genie+ and staring at your phone, and want to be spontaneous. Or if you have a very short trip, I’d still do a day at MK and then finish it off with AH to repeat rides or hit what you couldn’t get to. It would also be good for groups where it’s harder to coordinate Genie+. If you have kids that want to ride the kid rides again and again, they would absolutely love this (as long as it’s not 7DMT).
I had no desire to eat more treats, so that wasn’t a huge value for me. This is definitely the type of event where it would be more fun with someone else as I was solo. The time absolutely flies and I probably spent more time walking through queues than on rides. I wish they’d shorten the queues up or let you shortcut to reride, perhaps if you asked they’d let you, I never saw anyone doing it on rides that were getting mostly filled.
An extra hour would help the value for this but it was already so late. Big thunder closing today for routine maintenance is a big bummer as it was definitely missed. I think deluxe evening hours are a much better option if you qualify, even though it’s shorter by an hour.
I walk at a decent speed and tried to do things in order based on location, to give a good idea of what you can get done. I didn’t really linger and still the time just flew by.
The park was quite empty even though this was sold out, the hub always had some people even when I left super late. You’d have to linger pretty long to be the last there, they don’t really push you out (before 1:30 at least) but they will stop you from backtracking.
Hope this is helpful! I hope this isn’t negative, I experienced no waits for most things, I just didn’t get through things as fast as I hoped and I don’t think the value is there for someone like me. But like I said above the value can definitely be there for certain people.
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