Recommend After Hours at MK?

Walt Disney World
1

Hello! First time posting here, hope I’m not missing any protocols or anything!

My fiance and I are doing a 10-day, 8-park trip to WDW Jan 27-Feb 7. We both haven’t been since we were kids, but we’re big theme park people and had a great trip to Disneyland last year. We don’t imagine we’ll come back to WDW for at least a good few years after this, so we wanted this trip to hopefully be a “fully satisfied for a while” kinda deal. We’re planning 2 days at each park (roughly), with 2 off-days scattered throughout.

The tricky thing is: we are very much not wanting to overly plan things, besides the dining reservations. We did Genie+ for 1 of the 3 days we had at Disneyland, and we really thought it put a damper on the day. I think it got us a few extra rides in, but we were looking at our phones so frequently that we just weren’t really in the moment as much, and the atmosphere was a bit tainted. We also prefer more of a ‘roam around and discover’ type mentality with theme parks, and not a ‘regimented, goal-oriented’ planning type day, so I’m also very hesitant to stick to a strict touring plan. Again, just puts a bit of a damper on our attitude and ability to relax.

We booked this time of year hoping the crowds would be low enough that we could do things in a more off-the-cuff and relaxed way, but still get on most of the attractions at least once, with hopefully a few repeats of our favorites. Based on what I’ve read, I feel decently confident in our ability to do this at all the parks except Magic Kingdom (although plz lemme know if I’m wrong here). Therefore, I was considering adding on the Feb 1 “After Hours” ticket at MK, to guarantee some extra low-crowd time. However, it is obviously super expensive, and we’d have to do a bit of schedule-shifting at this point, so I’m on the fence.

We are also thinking we may park hop 1 or 2 days, maybe end up doing more like 2.5 days at MK and 1.5 days at either DHS or AK. Just a thought.

Basically, I’m just curious if anyone has any opinions on our overall plan here, and if they’d recommend adding After Hours or not. Any general thoughts/recommendations about our whole trip are totally welcome!

Sorry if this is long, thanks y’all!

  • Evan
2

My husband and I did the after hours event at MK about 5 years ago and we LOVED it!! It was a stellar evening, low crowds and a great vibe. I would :100: do it again!

3

Our family did E-Ride Night, which was the predecessor to After Hours (see Mouseplanet - E-Ride Nights by Mike Scopa), and it is one of our favorite memories of being in the Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately what we paid for the entire family to attend E-Ride Night won’t begin to cover one adult at After Hours.

4

We’ve done several After Hours since they were first introduced and every single MK one has been spectacular! Even the first where our traveling companions wasted 45 mins at Starbucks :woozy_face:

We highly recommend and always do one if it’s offered when we’re there.

5

Same - we did it in 2017 - so much fun!!

1 Like
6

The price of the After Hours events have grown significantly. Back in 2020, we had originally booked an After Hours event for AK at $79/pp. The existing After Hours events now START at $149 (EP) or $155 (MK/HS)…so basically almost double the price in 3 years. We LOVE the idea of them…but the price point is now very much, “Ouch!”

7

If you have the money and want to focus on rides & atmosphere, go for it.