**Disney After Hours - Magic Kingdom** FAQ & Discussion Thread
- Thread starter GADisneyDad14
- Start date
PolyRob
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2016
My 3/30 tickets disappeared from MDE tonight. They were previously showing earlier today. Still waiting to see the funds hit my Disney GC. I still have it sitting in my online account labeled as DAH. I imagine it will take longer than usual considering how many refunds WDW must be issuing right now
acarsme123
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2015
We were at After Hours on Monday. I had never done this before but wanted to share my thoughts on the experience.
1. We were staying at Universal as that was our primary trip. On the advice of a coworker who has done these After Hours events he recommended I either make a dinner reservation at The Wave at Contemporary and park there and walk over, or pay to valet park there. He recommended this as he said it would save a ton of time at the end of the night.
I had no issues parking at The Contemporary. I informed the guard I wanted to valet park and they had no issues with this and let us through. This however backfired at the end of the night. First off, when you’re super tired after hustling all over the Magic Kingdom for three hours, walking to the Contemporary was not fun and was a much longer walk than anticipated, especially with very aching feet. A relaxing boat ride back to TTC honestly would have been more pleasurable.
Once we got to Contemporary valet stand it was around 1:20am. There was no one to be found at the valet stand. So we walked into the lobby and the lady at the counter had to call and get a valet attendant. So that took awhile. Then the valet retrieved our car...only, it wasn’t our car. He looked puzzled. Well he finally figured out our key had been put in the incorrect box. So it took and additional lengthy amount of time for him to put the wrong car back and get ours. The valet attendant was kind enough not to charge us for the parking because of the mix up, so that was a nice surprise. All-in-all, parking at the Contemporary did not save us time at the end of the night I felt. Just thought I’d mention this in case anyone else was considering it. Next time I’d probably just opt to park at TTC.
We got to Contemporary earlier than we thought we would. We had time to kill so we decided to ride the monorail around the loop to Magic Kingdom. We got to the gates a tad after 6pm. I didn’t think they would let us in until 7pm, however we were surprised to find they let us in right away! We were able to squeeze in riding Tomorrowland Speedway before the dessert party started because of this! When we did Animal Kingdom After Hours on Thursday they were pretty strict about not letting people in until closer to 7pm. I think they started letting us in around 6:50.
2. There were a lot more people there than I thought there would be. I watched a lot of review videos on this event when doing research and people made it sound like you’d practically feel like you had the place to yourself. Lots of videos I watched did make it look pretty empty. The longest waits we had though were for Peter Pan and Seven Dwarfs. Waited about 15 mins to get on Peter Pan. For the life of me I’m not sure why this ride is popular. It’s really not worth any kind of wait.
Seven Dwarfs was about 15 minutes too. Everything else was pretty much a walk on.
3. Splash Mountain broke down at the start of the event and didn’t come back up until halfway through. Our grand plan was to hit everything on that side of the park and to work our way to Tomorrowland to end the night. When we were by Peter Pan we saw on the app that Splash had come back up. Since that’s our favorite ride we decided to go ride it, but having to back track took up a lot of time. Splash also had a lot of unexpected pauses during our ride that took up precious time.
4. Three hours goes fast! It’s definitely not a relaxing event if your goal is to get every ride in. We really had to hustle and it was exhausting, especially since we had just arrived that day to Orlando after a second day of driving for 6 hours.
5. You do get some unique photo ops of the castle with hardly anyone around.
Would I do it again? Hmmm. I’d have to think about that one some more. I’m glad we got our Disney fix in, since our primary trip this year was Universal. But it was not relaxing. We also did the Animal Kingdom After Hours, and despite having less rides, I almost found that one more enjoyable. Probably due to having less rides. But at Animal Kingdom After Hours we were actually able to sit down and enjoy the ice cream and popcorn and just take in the environment. I really didn’t feel I had time to even stop for ice cream at the Magic Kingdom event if we wanted to hit everything.
Here’s everything we were able to get in three hours:
Big Thunder x2
Splash Mountain
Peter Pan
Haunted Mansion
Tea Cups
Seven Dwarfs
Buzz Lightyear
Pirates
Alladin’s Carpets
We also were able to book a fastpass for Jungle Cruise for the time between after the fireworks ended until the event began.
1. We were staying at Universal as that was our primary trip. On the advice of a coworker who has done these After Hours events he recommended I either make a dinner reservation at The Wave at Contemporary and park there and walk over, or pay to valet park there. He recommended this as he said it would save a ton of time at the end of the night.
I had no issues parking at The Contemporary. I informed the guard I wanted to valet park and they had no issues with this and let us through. This however backfired at the end of the night. First off, when you’re super tired after hustling all over the Magic Kingdom for three hours, walking to the Contemporary was not fun and was a much longer walk than anticipated, especially with very aching feet. A relaxing boat ride back to TTC honestly would have been more pleasurable.
Once we got to Contemporary valet stand it was around 1:20am. There was no one to be found at the valet stand. So we walked into the lobby and the lady at the counter had to call and get a valet attendant. So that took awhile. Then the valet retrieved our car...only, it wasn’t our car. He looked puzzled. Well he finally figured out our key had been put in the incorrect box. So it took and additional lengthy amount of time for him to put the wrong car back and get ours. The valet attendant was kind enough not to charge us for the parking because of the mix up, so that was a nice surprise. All-in-all, parking at the Contemporary did not save us time at the end of the night I felt. Just thought I’d mention this in case anyone else was considering it. Next time I’d probably just opt to park at TTC.
We got to Contemporary earlier than we thought we would. We had time to kill so we decided to ride the monorail around the loop to Magic Kingdom. We got to the gates a tad after 6pm. I didn’t think they would let us in until 7pm, however we were surprised to find they let us in right away! We were able to squeeze in riding Tomorrowland Speedway before the dessert party started because of this! When we did Animal Kingdom After Hours on Thursday they were pretty strict about not letting people in until closer to 7pm. I think they started letting us in around 6:50.
2. There were a lot more people there than I thought there would be. I watched a lot of review videos on this event when doing research and people made it sound like you’d practically feel like you had the place to yourself. Lots of videos I watched did make it look pretty empty. The longest waits we had though were for Peter Pan and Seven Dwarfs. Waited about 15 mins to get on Peter Pan. For the life of me I’m not sure why this ride is popular. It’s really not worth any kind of wait.
Seven Dwarfs was about 15 minutes too. Everything else was pretty much a walk on.
3. Splash Mountain broke down at the start of the event and didn’t come back up until halfway through. Our grand plan was to hit everything on that side of the park and to work our way to Tomorrowland to end the night. When we were by Peter Pan we saw on the app that Splash had come back up. Since that’s our favorite ride we decided to go ride it, but having to back track took up a lot of time. Splash also had a lot of unexpected pauses during our ride that took up precious time.
4. Three hours goes fast! It’s definitely not a relaxing event if your goal is to get every ride in. We really had to hustle and it was exhausting, especially since we had just arrived that day to Orlando after a second day of driving for 6 hours.
5. You do get some unique photo ops of the castle with hardly anyone around.
Would I do it again? Hmmm. I’d have to think about that one some more. I’m glad we got our Disney fix in, since our primary trip this year was Universal. But it was not relaxing. We also did the Animal Kingdom After Hours, and despite having less rides, I almost found that one more enjoyable. Probably due to having less rides. But at Animal Kingdom After Hours we were actually able to sit down and enjoy the ice cream and popcorn and just take in the environment. I really didn’t feel I had time to even stop for ice cream at the Magic Kingdom event if we wanted to hit everything.
Here’s everything we were able to get in three hours:
Big Thunder x2
Splash Mountain
Peter Pan
Haunted Mansion
Tea Cups
Seven Dwarfs
Buzz Lightyear
Pirates
Alladin’s Carpets
We also were able to book a fastpass for Jungle Cruise for the time between after the fireworks ended until the event began.
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
Weird not having to check for sell outs, monitor the thread, etc.
Hope everyone is doing well out there.
Hope everyone is doing well out there.
p44nmun
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2012
Maybe this was already posted and I missed it, but just wanted to let everyone know that we had tickets to after hours MK for 3/30 and just received an email this afternoon for a refund in the form of a Disney gift card. A bit upset. $421. Would have preferred a real refund to my credit card.
Iowamomof4
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2015
Just curious, did you ever call about it before they sent you the gift card? Or did they send it before you had to do anything?
p44nmun
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2012
I didn’t call. It was in my to do list but I never got around to it. Wonder if I had called if I could have gotten a cc refund instead. Oh well. Everyone is getting Disney Christmas presents this year
p44nmun
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2012
Really? Interesting. Lucky! Wish they had done that with me.
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
Just making sure, for those with gift card refunds - those tickets were purchased with regular credit cards? Any AP or DVC discount? Online or via phone, through a third party?
The different refund methods seems odd on the surface, so would like to understand circumstances better to see if there is a pattern.
The different refund methods seems odd on the surface, so would like to understand circumstances better to see if there is a pattern.
I purchased two after hours for MK and AK online thru the Disney website and I received an AP discount. Both were purchased using the Disney Visa credit card. I am glad I got my money back although would have preferred it go on the credit card vs being sent two gift cards.
proud_canadian
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2009
Does anyone know what will happen if you purchased via Undercover Tourist and the event is cancelled? (We purchased for mid-April)
mjdis17
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2016
You'll get a refund. Their website says "Guests who have purchased tickets for Disney After Hours and Disney Villains After Hours from March 16 through March 31 will be automatically refunded."
I'm in the same boat and you and would assume (and hope) it would go back to cards we purchased with since I couldn't see UT issuing Disney GC nor do they make any mention of it.
BelleOftheBall16
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2017
I had tickets I purchased for the After Hours event on 3/23 from UT. They automatically refunded my credit card. I received an email 2 days after the closure was announced with the cancellation info.
They were digital. Received an email with both gift cards in them.
gatormom2tots
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2010
I paid with cc (passholder rate) and refunded yesterday via credit card.
persnickity2020
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2020
Same! I paid with a gift card, then the balance on cc - received the cc refund days ago but the gift card refund hasn't shown up. I'll keep checking for a couple days and then get in touch with them, I guess.
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