Disney After Hours Event Coming to Magic Kingdom

46 thoughts on “Disney After Hours Event Coming to Magic Kingdom”

• I think they are trying this out in spring, so they can have it up & running properly for summer (where it makes more sense to use). Tickets are $124 a day anyway, so paying $150 for the 2nd shift seems like a better option in the hot crowded summer months.

• Testing the water with resort fees and paid entry for EMH (come on, that’s really what this is), Disney Springs turning into Rodeo Drive…I can’t say I’m too thrilled with what’s happening to my beloved Disney World. But capitalism is a reality and it must be fed. As long as attendance does not take a hit it is all justified.

• I know that this is at a different time of year – but surely it would a be lot better to buy a MNSSHP ticket or a MVMCP ticket – its cheaper, there are lots more attractions open and more places to eat (and free snacks and drinks) the numbers are limited for these events too! Or are the numbers for the Spring events more limited than these other events? Having said that, if money were no object, I expect I would jump at the chance and I am absolutely sure there will be enough people visiting WDW that this applies to – to make this event viable. As long as they don’t close the parks early or open them late to accommodate these events good luck to them – I won’t be going to any of these events – unless ……. just going out to buy a lottery ticket!

• “Many are wondering if this event will impact Extra Magic Hours, and I can tell you that it will not. Extra Magic Hours will continue to run, as they have. Matter of fact, Extra Magic Hours will occur on completely different days than this event does.”

  There’s no way anyone can be sure of this. They’re testing monetizing the freaking front of the parking lot. Anything and everything is on the table as Disney does the equivalent of shaking out the sofa cushions to cover ESPN and Shanghai Disney cost overruns.

  • And this morning there are widespread rumors that Disney will be doing a similar event for early morning entry to Fantasyland.

    If it’s popular, how long do you think it will be before it starts eating into morning EMH dates, or ending EMH altogether?

    • THE SKY IS FALLING!!!! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

      Please. Don’t read into things more than they actually announced. It’s an expensive night out to avoid crowds. It will sell out, and it’s not on a EMH night for MK. End of story.

    • You’re right. There’s never any creep to Disney’s monetization efforts. Nothing to see here, move along.

• I am all for exclusive events, but this just seems like a waste of time. I don’t see anything special…looks like less than regular Extra Magic Hours. Too bad they didn’t bring back the After Hours Wind Down at EPCOT

• I’m not going and I ,hope no one else goes. Enough is enough!!

• I hope nobody pays for this. I know this is a vane hope, but this will cut into what was previously included for resort guests.

  • Don’t give them ideas: “Extra Magic Hours exclusively for Disney Resort guests! Only $150 per person per night!”

• My guess? They are floating this today, so that when they announce party tickets next week for $99 per person it seems like a “deal”.

  • Something like this is my worry as well. We are going in October, and planning to do the Halloween party, but if the price goes up too much, I don’t think I can stomach it.

• E-Ride Nights were $10 back in 1998. About $15 in 2016 Dollars.

  Even if you take into account ticket price increases (1-day tickets were $42 in 1998, and at worst $124 now, so about 3x more), this should only cost $30.

  Even *I* would have to work hard to eat $120 of Mickey ice cream bars!

• I’m afraid I just don’t get it. You can stay in the parks for extra magic hours the night before oil 1am, which is only an hour less than the “after hours party”, and it’s included in your regular day ticket. I know it has the potential to be busier than this ticketed event, but most people with little kids are gone by then. I can have a full day in the park those same days for $110, and get many more hours of fun than the limited time of this $150 extra ticket party! And given that not everything will be open, I would be very hesitant to drop $150 not knowing exactly what I’ll be getting access to. We are heading down for our first trip & will be there during some of those dates, and one in particular we plan to be in MK for. Hopefully this party won’t have a negative impact! Anyway, I don’t see the value at all. Even with a limited number of tickets offered, with fewer attractions open, the queues could still suck. But enjoy, to anyone who can afford to (and is willing to) give it a go.

  • Auto correct… until 1am. Not sure where the oil came from! I hate typos! 🙂

  • I think it all hinges on just how exclusive this event is. Will Disney have the discipline to really limit the amount of tickets sold? Because if I am paying the money to attend, I think I would be really angry if I’m waiting more than 5-10 minutes for any attraction.

• Between the bungalows at the Polynesian and Fort Wilderness, the Four Seasons and other new hotels, much of the focus of both Disney and third parties is the higher end tourists. This obviously is created for them. If it’s not for you, fine, but to blindly criticize fails to consider that there are many demographics that visit and should be catered to.

  • I actually have no problem with Disney offering tiered experiences for those guests willing to pay more. That makes complete sense.

    But I still don’t understand this experience at all. $150 for 3 exclusive hours and only a handful of characters and rides? If you have that much extra cash, get a plaid for a 6 hour day. For a family of 4 or 5, it’d only be 2-3x as expensive, twice as much time during normal daytime hours, and provide a much more personalized experience.

• It’s not hard to think of all the things one COULD do with this cash instead. For my husband and I, we could stay an extra two nights at Port Orleans, rack rate with change to spare even after adding FULL day tickets. We could have dinner at Victoria and Alberts (no wine paining, dang it). We could experience a 50 minute couple’s massage at Senses and have money for cocktails at Mizners. We could do the SEVEN HOUR Keys to the Kingdom Tour, which includes lunch, with cash left over. Three hours and ice cream doesn’t sound as good as any of these to me.

• Anyone think this will cause an influx of visitors to Magic Kingdom? Had been planning on doing MK that day, but now I may need to change our plans. UGH!!

  • I cannot imagine that it would at $150 a person.

    • Thanks! Someone above mentioned the tickets to this event were selling out. I’m on the fence about changing my plans. We were there in September on a ticketed event day, man did it become packed with people arriving for the event. :/

• So, if Magic Kingdom party tickets are $75-80, typically have 5 exclusive hours, have exclusive entertainment, special characters/characters in special costumes… how are they spinning this to make it worth $150? Any word on the number of tickets being sold? I mean, are we talking essentially no lines for any of these things once the exclusive time starts? (And how do they deal with the people still in line from right before closing impacting those lines? Like, at the parties people without party tickets can get into line for an attraction right before event start time, and thus the stand-by line for Seven Dwarfs could be an hour+ long at the start of the event. Having people with event tickets use the FastPASS+ entrance?) Also, yikes, those are late nights. I am sure for some folks, those hours would be their “top choice” hours, but for me, those are past peak hours. Like I would stay at the Magic Kingdom that late on a regular or party ticket, but I am not sure I would pay $50 per hour for midnight hours. (Yes, you also get in at 7pm, but those hours are valued at at most $10 an hour even at single day ticket rates, so maybe $40 per hour is more accurate…)

  I guess I am just saying, I am waiting to hear how these events go, if they somehow miraculously live up to the $50 per hour pricing. I don’t think I would bite unless something way more magical than what they are describing happens, but if there’s demand from someone else, so be it!

  OK, rant over! Are you guys gonna do a review???

  • I think you hit the nail on the head… Other party prices USED TO BE $75-$85. Who’s to say that MNSSHP and MVMHP won’t be raised to as similar price this year?

    • I had’t quite put that possible outcome together! I really hope this isn’t going to be the party pricing standard. While I love the parties, I don’t know if I could stomach $150… Maybe if they became way more exclusive by drastically cutting the number of tickets, which they won’t, since they are almost all sold out, and there just aren’t that many more nights they can squeeze into Halloween and Christmas season without cutting out “regular” evenings…

• Does anyone 10-15 years ago they offered e-ride nights at Magic Kingdom? Wasn’t that exactly the same as this, 3 extra hours of late night time at Magic Kingdom, except back then it cost around $10?

  • Yup. E-Ride Nights were $10 back in 1998. About $15 in 2016 Dollars.

    Even if you take into account ticket price increases (1-day tickets were $42 in 1998, and at worst $124 now, so about 3x more), this should only cost $30.

    Even *I* would have to work hard to eat $120 of Mickey ice cream bars!

  • Yup. “E-Ride Nights”, they were called. Initially it was $10, then went up to $12, and shortly before they were discontinued, the price went to (gasp!) $15.

    The parks were empty – you could often stay on and ride without even exiting. Characters would call out to get someone to meet.

    But then, there was no ice cream or bottled beverages, so that’s likely the price difference!

  • We did this 18 years ago and it was great. Of course, it was great for $10. You could just walk onto rides, but this was before FastPass. I can’t see any advantage of this just for some free ice cream.

  • Indeed, in the early 2000s, it was $10, then raised to $12, and shortly before being discontinued, it rose to (gasp!) $15. Quite common to be able to stay on rides without disembarking at all. And characters were so accessible they’d wave people over to have someone to interact with.

    Of course, there was no ice cream or bottled beverages. That may explain the price difference between 2002 and 2016.

    • OK, so *now* my earlier reply appears! The later reply works in the humor a bit more smoothly.

    • Nicholas- Your 1st response to a post here is immediately shown, while addition posts take some time to process. I think they screen those for spam, etc.

• This would great if it can be paired with a park hopper. You could use fastpasses at one park earlier in the day and visit MK in the evening and not have to worry about the lines. Nice option if there for a couple days.

  • Good point.

  • It kinda sounds like it would.. since it is a separate event all together and starts at a specific time and you don’t have to have a ticket to the park to begin with. So, if you plan it right, you could potentially use that as a park hopper for 1 day – start out during the day at a park (Epcot, Studios, Animal Kingdom) and then at 7pm go to Magic Kingdom. I don’t know if that would end up saving you money from getting the full park hopper option on all of your tickets – but it could be like a 1 day “park hopper-esque” situation!

  • Yeah, perfect. Hit Epcot in the morning with a $100 gate ticket then hop over to MK for a hand full of hours for another $150. What a perect $1,600 admission cost day for my family of 6!

    • Yeah, families of 6 are SOL, but it would probably be really great for a couple with more money than time.

    • $100 a day?…who goes to Disney World for only one day, or worse, buys their tickets one day at a time?

    • A three day ticket equates to $97 a day.

• Hardly seem worth it when looking at the rides opened and food and drink offered. Only really exclusive for maybe 3 hours…

• What? Seems like they will stop at nothing to add new elite ticketed events. Well, more power to them……

• It’s hard to figure out where the value is for this. Who’s the target demographic?

  • Agreed. Seems like the target audience for this is: Adults who don’t have young kids, and REALLY like meeting characters. These adults have PLENTY of disposable income, and will pay anything for elbow room.
    This may have been worth it to late-risers before FP+, but I don’t see how it is now.

  • Adult with no kids here. It’s not like the Epcot after hours where kids weren’t allowed, which I do think I was the target demographic for, so I don’t see the value either.

    The Magic Kingdom was open for extra magic hours until 2 a.m. one night on my trip last summer. It was awesome, and it didn’t cost any extra money.

  • I just recommended this to my friend who is bringing her family of 4 to Orlando for *gasp* the 4th of July week. They are staying at Universal, but want to do MK on one of the days. I told her to watch if they add summer hours for this.

    I’d rather spend $150, than spend $100 & have a bad time. Plus, the temperatures will be much cooler at night. A more enjoyable experience.

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