After Hours Events - Ask Questions and Share Experiences Here

[lah0808]

Sold out AH for tonight (sold out yesterday afternoon). Looking forward to possibly hearing some reports of how this evening’s event goes!

I went to HS after hours last night. It was still very crowded in the park from 9-10pm. Most rides were a walk on by 10:30 but Slinky stayed 30-40 minutes all night long and we didn't wait for it. The lines toward the front of the park for water, etc. were long right when the event started. I think because they were pouring sodas from a fountain machine instead of just bottled stuff. Back in Toy Story land they were setting things out so you could just grab them as you walked by.

 

[kittylady1972]

I went to HS after hours last night. It was still very crowded in the park from 9-10pm. Most rides were a walk on by 10:30 but Slinky stayed 30-40 minutes all night long and we didn't wait for it. The lines toward the front of the park for water, etc. were long right when the event started. I think because they were pouring sodas from a fountain machine instead of just bottled stuff. Back in Toy Story land they were setting things out so you could just grab them as you walked by.

Thanks for the update! Good to know as we plan accordingly. Sounds like maybe snacks are something we wait on for later. I definitely want to get in a ride on Slinky though, but we'll save that for the end. I suspect early on lines would be long as they are checking bands, but towards the end they realize that most of the "day" crowds are gone so we can grab stuff. I'm all about eating all I can in popcorn and ice cream bars!

We still can enter at 7pm I assume? This is our only Disney park day, so I want to maximize our time even if it means waiting for some things initially.

 

[joshua4]

I went to HS after hours last night. It was still very crowded in the park from 9-10pm. Most rides were a walk on by 10:30 but Slinky stayed 30-40 minutes all night long and we didn't wait for it. The lines toward the front of the park for water, etc. were long right when the event started. I think because they were pouring sodas from a fountain machine instead of just bottled stuff. Back in Toy Story land they were setting things out so you could just grab them as you walked by.

Thanks for the update. We will plan our snacking accordingly. Do you recall if MK was having its extended hours last night as well? We are doing AK at HS on June 21 and MK is doing extended hours on the same night so I am hoping that will draw some people away from HS -- but my theory may be wrong if last night was also an MK extended hour night.

 

[lah0808]

Thanks for the update. We will plan our snacking accordingly. Do you recall if MK was having its extended hours last night as well? We are doing AK at HS on June 21 and MK is doing extended hours on the same night so I am hoping that will draw some people away from HS -- but my theory may be wrong if last night was also an MK extended hour night.

Yes I think MK did also have their extended hours Wednesday night as well. We went to MK that morning and they listed the hours for the day on the ferry ride over.

 

[lah0808]

Thanks for the update! Good to know as we plan accordingly. Sounds like maybe snacks are something we wait on for later. I definitely want to get in a ride on Slinky though, but we'll save that for the end. I suspect early on lines would be long as they are checking bands, but towards the end they realize that most of the "day" crowds are gone so we can grab stuff. I'm all about eating all I can in popcorn and ice cream bars!

We still can enter at 7pm I assume? This is our only Disney park day, so I want to maximize our time even if it means waiting for some things initially.

Yes, at least as of our event on Wednesday we could have entered at 7pm. We had just ridden Slinky the day before and none of us wanted to wait that long for it. It was still a 40 minute wait at midnight and we left around 12:30 but it really was the only ride with any sort of wait that night.

 

[TexanInTheMidwest]

So what all is actually OPEN for AH at Hs? I LOVE Hollywood studios and have been to After Hours events at MK. But are there really enough attractions to justify the cost (and late hours)?

THANKS for your opinions ;-)

 

[scrappinginontario]

So what all is actually OPEN for AH at Hs? I LOVE Hollywood studios and have been to After Hours events at MK. But are there really enough attractions to justify the cost (and late hours)?

THANKS for your opinions ;-)

Please take the time to check out this thread. There are links in page 1 to tell you what should be open.

Also, this entire thread is created from people sharing their experiences at AH events over the past 3 months. The experiences you’re looking for have already been shared in this thread when experiences were fresh in people’s minds.

 

[jess2022]

We went to HS AH on this past week, May 17th. It was amazing. We didn't wait in any lines. Some showed wait times but by the time we walked through the queue, we were in the next loading group. We did not do Slinky during AH, since we did it between the 7pm - 10pm time.

This was our only park time during our visit, and just two adults, so we splurged a bit on an ILL and Genie+ to maximize the 7-10pm window. We were allowed to enter HS at 6:50pm, which let us go meet Darth Vader, since it closed at 7pm. We waited about 15 minutes there. After that we had Genie+ reservations stacked for the 3 hours, and we managed to ride every ride during this time.

Then we slowed down our pace during after hours, looked around, enjoyed snacks, and rode everything again, except Slinky. We even rode a few things twice during AH, including Rise.

It was a great experience, and really neat to experience the park after dark and with less people. The front still felt a little crowded walking around but Galaxy's Edge was empty. Overall, I highly recommend this!

 

[TexanInTheMidwest]

We went to HS AH on this past week, May 17th. It was amazing. We didn't wait in any lines. Some showed wait times but by the time we walked through the queue, we were in the next loading group. We did not do Slinky during AH, since we did it between the 7pm - 10pm time.

This was our only park time during our visit, and just two adults, so we splurged a bit on an ILL and Genie+ to maximize the 7-10pm window. We were allowed to enter HS at 6:50pm, which let us go meet Darth Vader, since it closed at 7pm. We waited about 15 minutes there. After that we had Genie+ reservations stacked for the 3 hours, and we managed to ride every ride during this time.

Then we slowed down our pace during after hours, looked around, enjoyed snacks, and rode everything again, except Slinky. We even rode a few things twice during AH, including Rise.

It was a great experience, and really neat to experience the park after dark and with less people. The front still felt a little crowded walking around but Galaxy's Edge was empty. Overall, I highly recommend this!

thank you so much! This is what I was hoping for when I asked a couple of days ago for your thoughts.

 

[Pyxie]

We went to HS AH on this past week, May 17th. It was amazing. We didn't wait in any lines. Some showed wait times but by the time we walked through the queue, we were in the next loading group. We did not do Slinky during AH, since we did it between the 7pm - 10pm time.

This was our only park time during our visit, and just two adults, so we splurged a bit on an ILL and Genie+ to maximize the 7-10pm window. We were allowed to enter HS at 6:50pm, which let us go meet Darth Vader, since it closed at 7pm. We waited about 15 minutes there. After that we had Genie+ reservations stacked for the 3 hours, and we managed to ride every ride during this time.

Then we slowed down our pace during after hours, looked around, enjoyed snacks, and rode everything again, except Slinky. We even rode a few things twice during AH, including Rise.

It was a great experience, and really neat to experience the park after dark and with less people. The front still felt a little crowded walking around but Galaxy's Edge was empty. Overall, I highly recommend this!

What time did you line up to be able to enter at 6:50? I really want to meet Darth Vader too and was pretty bummed that it would be closing at the time we are able to enter. If I can get in a few minutes early and head straight there then that's great.

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

We went to HS AH on this past week, May 17th. It was amazing. We didn't wait in any lines. Some showed wait times but by the time we walked through the queue, we were in the next loading group. We did not do Slinky during AH, since we did it between the 7pm - 10pm time.

This was our only park time during our visit, and just two adults, so we splurged a bit on an ILL and Genie+ to maximize the 7-10pm window. We were allowed to enter HS at 6:50pm, which let us go meet Darth Vader, since it closed at 7pm. We waited about 15 minutes there. After that we had Genie+ reservations stacked for the 3 hours, and we managed to ride every ride during this time.

Then we slowed down our pace during after hours, looked around, enjoyed snacks, and rode everything again, except Slinky. We even rode a few things twice during AH, including Rise.

It was a great experience, and really neat to experience the park after dark and with less people. The front still felt a little crowded walking around but Galaxy's Edge was empty. Overall, I highly recommend this!

Just to confirm, we can purchase Genie+ even if we only have DAH that day? We won’t be using a day pass, and am not sure if we’ll buy Genie+, but want to be prepared in case we have the option.

 

[musicguy856]

Just to confirm, we can purchase Genie+ even if we only have DAH that day? We won’t be using a day pass, and am not sure if we’ll buy Genie+, but want to be prepared in case we have the option.

Yes.

 

[jess2022]

What time did you line up to be able to enter at 6:50? I really want to meet Darth Vader too and was pretty bummed that it would be closing at the time we are able to enter. If I can get in a few minutes early and head straight there then that's great.

We meant to get there at 6:15 but I think it ended up being closer to 6:30. Everyone was in more of a crowd than a line. We probably had 4-5 people in our section of the crowd in front of us. We walked very quickly to Launch Bay and we’re told we had time to meet just one character.

 

[jess2022]

thank you so much! This is what I was hoping for when I asked a couple of days ago for your thoughts.

You’re welcome. If you have more questions, I’m happy to help.

 

[KCMA]

We just purchased our tickets for AH in July at Epcot.. can’t wait until they start up there and see how they are

 

[kittylady1972]

We have purchased our tickets for this week's DAH at HS event. Thanks to all who have provided recent reports. We are surprising two young adults with us with this event so hopefully it will be great. I'll try to remember to report back and share the love.

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

We have purchased our tickets for this week's DAH at HS event. Thanks to all who have provided recent reports. We are surprising two young adults with us with this event so hopefully it will be great. I'll try to remember to report back and share the love.

Looking forward to hearing about it. Our plan is next week barring any major weather events. This is my kids’ favorite memory at Disney!

 

[jessishante]

My family and I will be attending HS AH next week. For those of you who purchased Genie+ or LL before the event, would you say that it was worth it or can we easily ride several rides multiple times during the event?

My kids don’t really care for Fantasmic so I wanted to use that time to ride as much as possible with Star Wars and Toy Story while most people are on the other side of the park.

Would it be comparable to MNSSHP? We’ve never been to an AH event but we’ve gone to MNSSHP and we always use the parades and firework times to walk on as many rides as possible.

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

My family and I will be attending HS AH next week. For those of you who purchased Genie+ or LL before the event, would you say that it was worth it or can we easily ride several rides multiple times during the event?

My kids don’t really care for Fantasmic so I wanted to use that time to ride as much as possible with Star Wars and Toy Story while most people are on the other side of the park.

Would it be comparable to MNSSHP? We’ve never been to an AH event but we’ve gone to MNSSHP and we always use the parades and firework times to walk on as many rides as possible.

Throughout this thread there are several reports. There’s a post I made last week (I think) that summarized the main reports. On good nights, it seems like multiple re-rides. On bad nights, long waits.

We did a DAH pre-pandemic at MK and it was amazing. So much so that my kids still ask when we can do another one. Hoping to do one on our upcoming trip (weather-permitting). They don’t refund for weather, so that’s something to consider.

Haven’t done MNSSHP before, but everyone seems to say DAH are much less crowded.

Depending on how tomorrow’s event goes, we may consider at least ILL to knock out Rise, as the length of that ride is enough to want me to get it done before the AH event.

 

[The Iron Giant]

As far as crowds go... If we weren't planning on attending the DAH event is it better to avoid the park early in the day or might crowds be lower early in the day due to the event that evening? Thank you.