Is the new Villains light up the night worth the cost?

Walt Disney World
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I have to be in Orlando the week of August 5th thru August 9th for work. My DW and DD12 will be coming with me. Since I was going to be in Orlando anyway I thought I would try the new Villains after hours event on Thursday August 8th. We will not be buying regular park tickets and my understanding is that Disney will let you in at around 7:00 pm. At 139.00 per person, I was wondering if it is world the cost and are crowds light enough to actually get a lot of the attractions done?

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Hereā€™s a review from easywdw.com (A great site!) That I found useful.

https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/review-magic-kingdom-disney-villains-after-hours/

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welcome @dsbrinkley! i canā€™t speak specifically to the villains after hours but the regular disney after hours at mk is fantastic. i would do it again without hesitation.

hereā€™s another review of the villains event from the disney tourist blog:

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/villains-after-hours-magic-kingdom-review/

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We went this past Thursday. Honestly, it was WAY more crowded than I anticipated. I was going to put a review of it on its own post, it Iā€™ll do that here as we are still at Disney World and time is limitedā€¦:blush:

This is what we were able to do:
-Buzz (no wait)
-People Mover (no wait)
-Magic shot photo in tomorrowland
-Snack Cart ice cream and soda by Speedway
-Tea Cups (no wait)
-7DMT (15 minute wait)
-Winnie the Pooh (no wait)
-Magic shot photo in Fantasyland
-Haunted Mansion (no wait)
-Photo after Haunted mansion
-Big Thunder Mt. (no wait)
-Pirates-25 minute wait at 12:30 am!!!
-Villains Unite the Night show at 1:00 and then Maleficent right after

I was shocked by the wait at Pirates. DS10 really wanted to do it, so we waited for it but missed the first few minutes of the show. I was shocked by how the park never felt empty at all-frankly there were a lot of people all over. Having a few family photos was important to me, so we could have done a couple of more rides had we not waited for the pics. I heard other people say they had to wait 40 minutes for 7DMT, so I guess it matters when you get in line. We got in line at 11:10.

3 Likes
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We are going for a few days before our cruise next June. I am considering this event so i love reading others opinions.
We were thinking of this event to help with the heat and help us visit 3 parks with only 2 day tickets.

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Wow. Thanks for all the great information and opinions. I canā€™t wait.

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Welcome, @dsbrinkley!

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I agree with the person who said it was more crowded than they thought. I will preface this with I bought tickets for myself, DS10 and niece20. DS, despite an easy day (pool, Disney Springs lunch and then Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party) was toast for the evening. And we made the mistake of going on the PeopleMover first where DS saw (or rather, saw nothing but heard!) the overlay on Space Mountain and was completely freaked out. When waiting in line for Space, he had a complete panic attack so we let my niece ride (it was probably a good 25-30 minute wait) and we waited for her outside. DS never pulled it back together and was crying, upset that he was ruining our evening and upset because he had a panic attack. So we left right around 11pm. My niece stayed until 1:15am. She said that she did Splash (which was almost a walk on) and Pirates (another ā€˜specialā€™ for the after hours with live actors and a 25 minute wait). She went back to do Space one more time (another 25 minute wait) and watched the final show. I think if she wanted to do more of the non-headliners, should would have gotten more in but she wasnā€™t interested in those. She texted me at 1:15am saying she was walking back (we stayed at BLT) and she happily sauntered into the room around 1:30am. She enjoyed it, but I was surprised at the wait times.

The good news is DS did wonderfully at the HS After Hours the next night - I really think it was the ā€˜Villainsā€™ that made the MK one so bad for him.

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I also agree that it was more crowded than I anticipated, but still ā€œworth itā€ to me. We still got a lot done, and could have done more if my daughter hadnā€™t wanted to ride 7DMT. :slight_smile: But weā€™re also fast walkers and didnā€™t stop for pictures or see the shows during the event time. We attended on Thursday, July 11 and did the following:

  1. Under the Sea (no wait)
  2. Dumbo (no waitā€“only one other elephant filled)
  3. Buzz (said 15 minutes outside but was a walk-on)
  4. Space Mountain (sign said 25, we waited 20 but it was really cool in the dark!)
  5. Splash Mountain (sign said 15 but it was a walk-on)
  6. Big Thunder (took about 8 minutes to walk through line due to some weird mishap)
  7. Big Thunder (walk-on)
  8. Popcorn break
  9. 7DMT (30 min posted, we waited 28)
  10. Space (15 minutes, got in line at 12:54)
  11. Made it out to castle to see Maleficient
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We were there on June 27 and I agree with the above posts that it was a little busier than I had hoped but we still had a great time and would do it again. The longest waits we had were Pirates and Space because of the overlays, and of course 7D. We were able to walk on Big Thunder, Splash, Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan and Haunted Mansion.