Looking for insights from the experts here! We will be in WDW the last week of July and I just discovered that there is an after hours event at HS on the day I was planning to be there. How do those events typically affect the crowd level in that park during regular hours? Should I look at switching my HS day, or will it not have a big effect? I don’t mind switching days, it would just push HS earlier in my trip. Thanks in advance!
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IIRC, After Hours does not have the same impact as a party because the park does not close earlier (it just stays open later for those attending the after hours). After Hours attendees generally can get in at 7pm IIRC (vs 4p for a party) and the number of tickets sold is less so you also shouldn’t see a crowd surge like you sometimes do on a party night when partygoers can enter.
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That’s good to know, thanks! The 7pm entry time is correct per the website. I guess I’m also curious if more people will go the park during regular hours (or park hop there in the afternoon) and then also pay and stay for the after hours event. The concern being that afternoon lighting lane times may go faster than usual. People who are showing up to the park for the first time at 7 don’t really concern me, but will some percentage of those people actually show up in the afternoon? Maybe I’m overthinking it! I see that there are extended evening hours at AK the same day, for whatever that’s worth.
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I was in HS last week on the day of the After Hours event. I did not notice any extra crowds.
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I’m doing Studios and Epcot AH next month.
Studios is on arrival day and I have no park tickets for that day - just arrive, late lunch at Disney Springs, relaxing at the hotel until time to get the bus to Studios to enter around 7. My plan is to pretty much head for Fantasmic since I haven’t seen it in forever - but if the wait time for say MMRR is not long, I may hit that first.
Epcot is on my Epcot day. I’m still working out how I’m doing that - I have Spece220 Lounge around 2 for a cooler mid-afternoon break. I haven’t seen their new fireworks show, so I plan to do that also. Not sure if I’ll take a resort break or just plan to do things in the a/c as much as possible.
Where are you staying?
Sports. So it would be a ride back. (And it’s August, so I avoided Pop or AoA due to the probability of storms in the afternoon rendering the Skyliner useless.)
I’ve also considered going to Beach/Yacht Club or Boardwalk and visiting the lobby for some a/c.
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Unless “earlier” means no earlier than the 5th’ish day of your on-site stay, switching HS to earlier in your trip will make it harder to get LL times earlier in the day for the most popular LLs like SDD, TSM and ToT. I think that would have more of an impact on your day than the After Hours Event.
Thank you all for your insights! Sounds like I should keep my plans as is based on the limited impact of AH to crowd level and the desire to keep my chances of desirable LL times for HA as high as possible.
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