Editor’s note: Disney provided the writer with a complimentary ticket to Disney After Hours. All opinions are the writer’s own and were not subject to review by Disney.
I’ve been going to Disney World since I was a kid, and I’ve grown accustomed to the necessary forward planning that it takes to get on the most rides that I possibly can during my visits. I know to get to the parks before the gates open and beeline to popular attractions like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or Peter Pan’s Flight the second the rope drops. I have also mastered strategies for using Disney’s Lightning Lane system to get on rides like Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. I have lots of tricks up my sleeve.
Related: Are Disney World’s after-hours parties worth it?
So when I discovered a way to get on practically every ride at Disney without getting up early or waiting in long lines, I knew I had to try it out and determine if it was worth adding to my arsenal of Disney tricks. Here is my experience at a Disney After Hours event.
What is Disney After Hours?
Disney After Hours is a separately ticketed event that takes place in the evening after the park closes to daytime guests. These events include access to attractions, character meet-and-greets and complimentary snacks and beverages.
Each Disney After Hours event lasts three hours, though the exact start and end times can depend on which park you visit. Your Disney After Hours ticket gets you into the park at 7 p.m., so you can start the fun early. This gives you up to six hours inside the park to enjoy the event.
Disney keeps crowds small by limiting the number of tickets to these events. I attended Disney After Hours at the Magic Kingdom on a Monday evening earlier this year. By the time daytime guests had cleared the park, it felt like I had the place to myself. The walkways were wide open, I could snap photos of Cinderella Castle without thousands of strangers in the background and most rides had no wait at all.
FOR NO-COST ASSISTANCE WITH PLANNING AND BOOKING YOUR NEXT DISNEY VACATION, CHECK OUT TPG’S DISNEY BOOKING PARTNER, MOUSE COUNSELORS.
You can purchase tickets on Disney’s website or through an authorized Disney vacation planner.
Disney After Hours dates and prices
Disney After Hours events are held at the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Guests staying at select Disney Resort hotels can purchase tickets beginning Sept. 4. All other guests can purchase their tickets starting Sept. 10.
The pricing, times and dates vary by park, so let’s take a look at each one:
Event times at Magic Kingdom and Epcot are from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Over at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, event times are from 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
Magic Kingdom
- Price: $175 to $185 per person plus tax
- Time: 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
- Dates: Jan. 6, Jan. 13, Jan. 20, Jan. 27, Feb. 3, Feb. 10, Feb. 17, Feb. 24, March 3, March 17, March 24, March 31, April 7, April 28, May 5, May 12, May 19
Epcot
- Price: $155 to $175 per person plus tax
- Time: 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
- Dates: Feb. 27, May 8, May 29, June 19, June 26, July 10, July 24, July 31, Aug. 7, Aug. 14, Aug. 21, Aug. 28, Sept. 11, Sept. 25
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Price: $155 to $185 per person plus tax
- Time: 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. (10 p.m. to 1 a.m. on March 26 and April 1)
- Dates: Jan. 22, Jan. 29, Feb. 12, Feb. 19, March 5, March 26, April 1, April 30, May 14, May 28, June 4, June 11, June 25, July 2, July 9, July 16, July 23, July 30, Aug. 6, Aug. 20, Aug. 27, Sept. 3
Annual pass holders and Disney Vacation Club members receive a $30 ticket discount for events at Epcot and Hollywood Studios.
What is included with Disney After Hours?
The Disney After Hours offerings at each park differ slightly, but they generally provide access to most attractions — including popular rides that typically have long waits during the day — plus exclusive entertainment or character meet-and-greets and complimentary snacks and drinks. After the park closes, Disney cast members wheel out carts with freshly made popcorn, Mickey ice cream bars, Mickey ice cream sandwiches, fruit-flavored frozen pops, bottled sodas and bottled water.
I chose the Magic Kingdom for my Disney After Hours experience for several reasons.
First, Disney brought back Enchantment, the fireworks show it debuted for the park’s 50th anniversary that the cast now exclusively performs during Disney After Hours. This is in addition to the regular nighttime fireworks showing of Happily Ever After, which occurs during the mix-in portion of the night before the event officially begins. Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios don’t offer special entertainment during Disney After Hours, but they do have rare character meet-and-greets with Chip and Dale, Stitch and Jiminy Cricket, among other characters.
I was also hopeful that the smaller crowds would allow me to enjoy rides — such as Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Tron Lightcycle / Run — that usually have long lines or difficult-to-grab virtual queue spots.
Finally, I wanted to see if I could squeeze the same number of rides of a typical Disney day into the six or so hours of Disney After Hours.
How many rides can you get on during Disney After Hours events?
Odds are this is the top question on your mind. Luckily, I kept a detailed list of the average wait times for rides at the Magic Kingdom as well as my actual wait time for each ride I went on. Keep in mind that many of the rides listed a five-minute wait time, but that usually means there is no wait; it just accounts for the time it takes to walk through the queue.
What you see in the chart below is my actual wait, which was sometimes less than the posted wait. I used a site called Thrill Data to pull average wait times at the Magic Kingdom during the previous month.
| Attraction | Average wait | My wait |
| Seven Dwarfs Mine Train | 84 minutes | 10 minutes |
| Princess Fairytale Hall | 41 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Tron Lightcycle / Run | Virtual queue or Lightning Lane | 30 minutes |
| Peter Pan’s Flight | 66 minutes | 5 minutes |
| The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh | 43 minutes | 10 minutes |
| Space Mountain | 60 minutes | 15 minutes |
| Pirates of the Caribbean | 38 minutes | 10 minutes |
| Under the Sea — Journey of The Little Mermaid | 28 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Dumbo the Flying Elephant | 27 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin | 39 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Haunted Mansion | 48 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room | 15 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Total | 489 minutes | 110 minutes |
As you can see, even though I was at the park for about half the time I’d be there on a normal day, I knocked out 12 attractions and spent about a quarter of the time in line that the average daytime guest does. I’ve waited in some long lines at Disney World, so walking right onto most rides with no wait at all felt like a dream come true.
Another perk of Disney After Hours at the Magic Kingdom is that Tron Lightcycle / Run uses a standby queue rather than requiring you to enter a virtual queue or purchase a Lightning Lane Single Pass. I have decent luck snagging a virtual queue spot, but hopping in line was so much easier. This is also true for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios.
When I got in line for Tron at about 11:30 p.m., the wait time was listed as 40 minutes, but I only waited about 30. It would have taken even less if I went later in the evening, but since I was already on that side of the park, I figured it was a good time to knock it out.
Because I arrived early, I used the time before the event officially started to experience a few attractions that already had short waits, such as Dumbo the Flying Elephant. What surprised me, though, was that I made time for attractions I sometimes skip because I knew that the wait times for the most popular rides would be shorter later in the evening.
I knew I would have plenty of time to ride my favorite roller coasters, so I took more time early in the evening to relax and enjoy attractions like Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. I am so happy that this event allowed me to ride the most popular rides and visit my favorite singing birds.
I thought my last ride of the evening would be the Haunted Mansion. The posted wait time was 13 minutes. (This actually meant there was no wait, but the ride chooses 13 instead of five minutes to keep with its spooky theme.) I hopped in line around 12:45 a.m.
Much to my surprise, though, when I walked off the ride, it was 12:57 p.m. You can get in line for attractions right up until the end of the event, so instead of ending my visit a few minutes early, I made a beeline for Princess Fairytale Hall to meet Cinderella and Ariel. I was the last person let in for the experience, and watching both characters wave and wish me goodnight was the perfect way to end such a fun evening.
Is Disney After Hours worth it?
I’m happy to report that the event exceeded my expectations on all fronts.
The price of Disney After Hours is comparable to a regular daytime ticket. In fact, on the date of my visit, it was only a dollar more than a one-day Magic Kingdom ticket. Considering everything included and how much you can get done, I felt like the event provided great value.
I rode at least as many attractions as I would on a regular day and in a fraction of the time. I also wasn’t battling the Florida sun or hordes of people as I bounced from ride to ride. I unashamedly ate multiple Mickey ice cream bars and snacked on popcorn while waiting in line for rides, and all those free Diet Cokes kept me awake until the wee hours. (Don’t worry, I stayed hydrated with the complimentary bottled water, too.)
Who should go to Disney After Hours?
While I’d love to keep Disney After Hours all to myself, there are some specific instances when I’d recommend others partake in the event.
If you want to ride every ride in the park in one day
If your main goal when you visit Disney World is to ride as many rides as possible and on multiple occasions, plan on combining a daytime ticket with a Disney After Hours ticket. During the event, you can reride your favorites again and again or hit the rides you skipped during the day because of the higher wait times.
If you don’t want to deal with Disney Lightning Lane passes
During Disney After Hours, all rides use a standby queue. If waking up early to vie for a virtual queue spot or spending time (and money) to schedule rides using Disney Lightning Lane passes is not your idea of a vacation, you’ll enjoy hopping in short standby queues on a whim during Disney After Hours.
If you are a night owl
If the thought of waking up at 6 a.m. and rushing to the parks to be first in line when they swing open the gates makes you want to throw the covers over your head and go back to sleep, Disney After Hours is the perfect alternative. You can purchase a Disney After Hours ticket instead of a regular daytime ticket and enjoy the same number of rides as you would during the day without getting up early.
Who shouldn’t go to Disney After Hours?
Despite my glowing review, there are a few instances where Disney After Hours may not be right for you.
If you are visiting with young children
While I saw a fair share of young kids being pushed around in strollers during my visit, I would not have brought my younger children to this event. My oldest is 11, and I think this event would be perfect for him. However, I wouldn’t want to spend that money to bring my 5- and 7-year-olds to Disney After Hours.
We wouldn’t get as much done (their little legs can’t move as fast as mine), and I don’t think they would have been able to stay awake until the end of the event. This may not be the case for all kids, but it’s something to consider before buying a ticket.
If it’s your first time visiting a park
Although the crowds are not as thick and select characters are out greeting guests, you won’t get the full Disney World experience during these events. I wouldn’t recommend attending Disney After Hours at a park you’ve never visited during daytime hours. You’ll miss out on some of the dining, entertainment and atmosphere that you can only experience with a regular daytime ticket.
If you are hoping for exclusive experiences
Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party are full of exclusive experiences like nighttime spectaculars, dance parties, parades, live entertainment and rare characters. Disney After Hours doesn’t have as much of this. While I loved seeing Enchantment, it wasn’t my sole reason for going to Disney After Hours.
The most obvious benefit of this event is how much you can get done in a short amount of time with smaller crowds. If exclusive experiences are your goal, I recommend one of the holiday-themed after-hours parties instead.
Bottom line
I had a blast at Disney After Hours, and I’ve already recommended it to my friends and family. Whether you’ve been to Disney World dozens of times and are looking to try something new, or you love squeezing in as many rides as possible during your Disney trips, Disney After Hours is a great way to see the parks in a different light — or, to be more accurate, in the dark.
Related reading:
