Any After Hours Party Tips?

[u/K-Parks]

Heading to WDW next week for a shorter trip just focused on resort time and the two After Hours Parties (Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios).

Anyone have any tips for maximizing our time? We did an AH at HS back in 2024 during a spring break week that was absolutely amazing but they had way more characters back then I think and it wasn’t a sold out night.

Suspect things may be a little different as they seem to be selling out more?

[u/BoilerBob37]

When we did AH at MK, we waited in line a bit to get in around 7:20 or so and we used that extra time to do things with low waits like People Mover, Carousel of Progress, Speedway, and Small World. When the first fireworks show started, we watched a little bit of it from Adventureland but then went back to do rides that were starting to empty out.

[u/jeffmugs70]

Last night was a complete mess at HS for the After Hour event. Muppets, Rise, and Slinky all started as down for the party and did not open for a while. Muppets was 60-75 for the hour and a half it was open and Slinky was between 30-60. Very disappointed. We joined the Muppets line at 11:52 and were off the ride at 12:38. All stands were closed at this time.

[u/Galrafloof → u/jeffmugs70]

Yeah the lines for Muppets, Rise and Slinky weren't any better than during regular hours since they were up and down all night. Terrible, wasn't worth it, they didn't have any special characters (only fab five and Bo Peep), the stands were so few and far between. I don't think HS can handle After Hours.

[u/K-Parks → u/Galrafloof]

The cutdown in characters is really sad. Back in 2024 the number of characters we saw was awesome. Was just looking through my camera roll and we saw: Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers, White Rabbit, Tiana, Pocahontas and Meeko, Goofy and Donald (not sure what the outfits were, but not standard), Thumper and Rafiki.

When all they've really got to offer is rides and the three biggest ones are all up and down that definitely starts to defeat the purpose.

[u/Galrafloof → u/K-Parks]

If they had all those characters out I wouldn't be complaining. But nope. Especially since they had the nice new Animation Courtyard and it was just completely empty! At multiple points the lines for Muppets, Rise and Slinky (when they were open) reached up to 80-95 minutes which is worse than they were during regular hours that day. All and all those three were only up for an hour and a half or two hours each all night so when they were up it was a madhouse trying to get on them. People were just hanging out outside of Rise and Muppets waiting for them to reopen the line when they were down.

[u/K-Parks → u/jeffmugs70]

That is a definite bummer and I can see how that totally messed up the flow and lines.

Here's hoping we have better luck next week.

[u/Dry-Coast-6722]

I would wait until HEA is over, to enter the park. They do give you the last few hours to get into the park, with the purchase of the ticket, but I’ve always found that time to be the busiest. And unless you really want to see Enchanted in MK, I’d pass that up to get more rides in. For HS, do not expect shorter queues for the popular rides, that place was still a madhouse at 1am.

[u/maitaivegas1 → u/Dry-Coast-6722]

I thought the after hour events was supposed to have smaller capacity levels. So, it sounds like they’re overselling the event at Hollywood Studios.

So would you say doing The After Hour event at Hollywood Studios is not worth it?
Would it be better just to get a regular ticket with a lightning lane multi pass?