NEWS: Disney After Hours Events Returning to Disney World

One of the more popular offerings at Walt Disney World is returning early next year. Disney After Hours events will return to Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in January 2023. We love these events because they are a fantastic way to get a lot done and really enjoy the parks with lower crowds. Learn more below.

Here are all the details from Disney Cast Member Sarah Domenech:

I have exciting news to share: Disney After Hours events will return to Walt Disney World Resort starting January 2023! These fan-favorite experiences are scheduled to kick off January 4 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and January 9 at Magic Kingdom Park. They offer an incredible way to experience even more Disney magic during the last months of “The World’s Most Magical Celebration” honoring the Walt Disney World 50^th Anniversary.

In case you aren’t familiar with Disney After Hours, these late-night, separately ticketed events let you enjoy a Walt Disney World theme park for three additional hours after regular park hours, with treats such as ice cream, popcorn and select beverages included. Best of all, the number of tickets for these events is limited, which means lower wait times for some of your favorite attractions.

At Magic Kingdom Park, this means you can enjoy more than 20 popular attractions such as Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

At Disney’s Hollywood Studios you can pilot the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, ride through a zany cartoon adventure in Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, shrink to the size of a toy in Toy Story Land and more.

With Disney After Hours tickets, you can enter the park where the event is taking place as early as 7 p.m. giving you the opportunity to get a jump on the fun! Disney After Hours admission is a separately priced ticket not included with regular daytime park admission. Event tickets for Magic Kingdom Park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios can be purchased by all guests starting October 7, 2022, with prices ranging from $129 to $159 (plus tax). Guests of select Walt Disney World Resort hotels can begin purchasing Disney After Hours tickets as early as October 4. The advance-purchase window is available to Guests of Disney Resort hotels, Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels as well as Shades of Green at Walt Disney World Resort.

Disney Vacation Club members and Walt Disney World Annual Passholders can also purchase specially priced tickets for select dates.

Disney After Hours events at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are scheduled for select nights, January 4 through April 19, 2023. Disney After Hours events at Magic Kingdom Park are scheduled for select nights, January 9 through March 27, 2023. For a full list of events, dates and times, and to purchase tickets, visit the Disney After Hours page of DisneyWorld.com. Entertainment, available attractions and experiences are subject to change.

Dates and Pricing

Below you’ll find the dates and pricing for the Magic Kingdom events:

Below you’ll find the dates and pricing for events at Disney’s Hollywood Studios:

Editor’s Note: The following article is our review of Disney After Hours at Magic Kingdom from 2019 (the last time the event was offered). We recognize that offerings and pricing may differ in 2023, but provide this as a way for our readers to see if this event is something they might be interested in.

RELATED ARTICLE: Disney After Hours at Magic Kingdom Park Review – What You Need to Know About this Special Event

While Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party get all the attention, another after-hours special event held regularly at the Magic Kingdom has gained popularity over the last few years. Disney After Hours is a special event that offers many of the perks of the holiday parties but promises much lower crowds. We have had the opportunity to experience Disney After Hours at Magic Kingdom several times, and we are more and more impressed with the event. Here’s what you need to know.

1 – Disney After Hours at Magic Kingdom Park

Disney After Hours is a separate ticket event that began in April 2016. Offered on select nights throughout the year, guests pay to have access to twenty-five attractions with little to no crowds in the Magic Kingdom Park. There are two different versions of this at Magic Kingdom: a regular Disney After Hours and Disney Villains After Hours at Magic Kingdom Park. Click here for our review and thoughts on Disney Villains After Hours. 

2 – Not a Holiday Party

Separately ticketed special events are nothing new at Disney World. For years Disney Parks have played host to events such as Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, and Star Wars: Galactic Nights. Held after the park’s normal operating hours, guests can enjoy several hours of special entertainment, parades, fireworks and more in addition to the standard Magic Kingdom offerings. The parties also include free trick or treating in the case of the Halloween parties, or cookies and cocoa in the case of the Christmas party. The parties are wildly popular with most nights selling out.

However, there are a few key differences between Disney After Hours and the Halloween or Christmas party. The first difference, of course, is the lack of a holiday or special theme. The biggest draws for the holiday parties are the decorations and costumes, the generally amazing holiday atmosphere, and the top-notch entertainment. The theme of Disney After Dark is more about “open late with next to no lines”. If you’ve ever been to a sold-out holiday party, you know that holiday parties are not about short lines. If anything, crowds are often heavier than during the day.

If your goal for the evening is to experience as many attractions as possible, then the Disney After Hours event might be exactly what you’re looking for. We were skeptical that the wait times would really be that low. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Disney delivered on that promise. More on that in a bit.

3 – Price & Time Comparisons

Editor’s Note: These prices are from 2019. The 2023 event prices will range from $129-$159 (plus tax).

When trying to determine if the party is right for you, the cost of the event needs to be compared to other special-ticketed events. The Halloween Party runs from $89-$109 for most nights and is $149 on Halloween Night. The Christmas Party runs from $99-109 and was $135 on its last night. Finally, the last Star Wars Galactic Nights party (when last offered) was $129. The cost for the Disney After Hours is $129 for tickets purchased in advance. Its price is in about the same range as the other events. Disney Annual Passholders and DVC members may purchase Disney After Hours tickets for $99, while for the seasonal parties they only receive a small discount.

All of these events offer early admission into the park before the actual party time. The Halloween and Christmas Parties, along with the Galactic Nights party runs from 7-12 pm and allow you to enter at 4:00 pm for a total of 8 hours. Disney After Dark allows you to enter the park three hours early, in our case, 7:00 pm, for a total of 6 hours in the park.

We’ve already noted how busy the holiday parties are. In fact, they are packed. We hear more and more complaints about how crazy crowded those parties are. Disney After Hours is not crowded at all. Sometimes, you’ll feel like you have the park to yourself. Frankly, it’s a bit weird. We strolled down Main Street USA around midnight and it was empty. Disney limits the number of guests that can enter during Disney After Hours, which is a plus.

4 – Ice Cream, Popcorn, and Select Beverages Included

The Halloween Party gives out candy, and the Christmas Party has complimentary cookies and hot chocolate. Disney After Hours includes complimentary treats during the party as well. We took advantage of this all night, and it was awesome. Available treats include ice cream novelties like the Mickey Bar and Mickey Ice Cream sandwich, popcorn, and bottled beverages such as Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, and Dasani water. These items normally range from $5 – $7 and are included in the cost of your ticket.

We certainly ate and drank more than we normally would if we had to pay for these items. This party feature is a great bonus to offset the ticket price. Between the two of us, we enjoyed 2 Mickey Bars, 3 Mickey sandwiches, four popcorns, four bottles of water, and two Cokes. Had we purchased these items, we would have paid over $70 in snacks and drinks, averaging about $35 per person. If you’re a Mickey Bars and popcorn fan, this is a significant added value for the event.

5 – Open Attractions

Like the other parties, there are a limited number of attractions available to enjoy during the evening. Here is the full list of attractions open during the Disney After Hours event. Note that open attractions are subject to change.

Main Street USA

• Meet Mickey Mouse and Tinker Bell at Town Square Theater
• Plenty of PhotoPass photographers on hand to take photos on Main Street and in front of Cinderella Castle with no crowds in the background!

Adventureland

• The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
• Jungle Cruise
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Swiss Family Treehouse
• Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room

Frontierland

• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Country Bear Jamboree
• Splash Mountain

Liberty Square

• Haunted Mansion

Fantasyland

• The Barnstormer
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant (both sides were open)
• “it’s a small world”
• Mad Tea Party
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Meet Ariel in Her Grotto
• Mickey’s PhilharMagic
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Princess Fairytale Hall
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid

Tomorrowland

• Astro Orbiter
• Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
• Space Mountain (both sides were open)
• Tomorrowland Speedway
• Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover

6 – Pre-Event Game Plan

As we noted before, you may enter Magic Kingdom three hours early. We really encourage you to do so. We recommend you use this time to enjoy the Magic Kingdom attractions and/or fireworks that will not be available during the event hours, particularly if this is the one time you’ll be visiting Magic Kingdom during your vacation. We used this time to ride attractions and enjoy the park.

Future Event Tip: When arriving at Magic Kingdom, there were special areas to enter with the event ticket. We received a special party wristband to wear throughout the evening. If you are already in Magic Kingdom that day, you do not need to exit the park to get your party wristband. Near the Hall of Presidents and in Tomorrowland, there was a check-in location where guests already in the park could scan their event tickets and get their wristbands.

7 – Short Wait Times?

For our event, the park closed at 10:00 pm. We noticed it took about 10-20 minutes for regular guests to be filtered out. So, at 10:00, the wait times were still a bit longer because the last of the day guests were still filtering through the lines. However, even with regular guests, we only waited five minutes to ride Seven Dwarf Mine Train when we got in line around 10:15 pm. For the rest of the evening, we enjoyed walking on to every single attraction we wanted. The only time we had to wait longer than a few seconds was again for Seven Dwarf Mine Train at 12:50 when a lot of guests were trying to get one more ride in before 1:00 am. Even with this, we waited only three minutes to ride!

When I heard about this event, I didn’t believe the “short” wait times. What does that mean, really? Is 15 minutes a short wait? Or 30 minutes when the wait for Mine Train is usually an hour? I’m very happy to report that for Disney After Hours because they limited the number of tickets sold, “short” wait times means that you literally walk onto the rides with a “waits” of less than a minute, if that. The longest wait times you’ll experience are at the snack carts–although even these lines are short!

8 – Getting So Much Done

What can you accomplish in three hours when you can walk onto every attraction? So much. In that time, we rode every attraction we wanted (some multiple times), met every single character, took multiple photos on Main Street USA, had plenty of snacks, and strolled while we did it. We did not rush and accomplished more than we could have during an entire day during normal operating hours.

Here is a comparison. Usually, the wait time for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is around 60 minutes. Even if you purchase Disney Genie+, you’ll usually wait about 10-15 minutes to ride. Both times we rode, we waited under 5 minutes. That’s a savings of 55 minutes with the standby line and about 10 minutes with the FastPass wait.

To be fair, we’ll compare only the standby waits. Let’s assume on a regular day, after riding Mine Train with a 60-minute plus wait, we head over to the Peter Pan’s Flight which is usually about a 70-90-minute wait. Then we head over to Space Mountain, which usually has over a 60-minute wait. The combined wait times for those three attractions on a normal day range from 3-3.5 hours. During the event, the combined wait time for those three attractions is only about 7 minutes (and we’re rounding up).

We hope you see the possibilities here. Even the time to walk to different areas of the park is reduced because you don’t have to fight the crowds. The value of this party is the ability to get dozens of attractions and multiple characters done in a dramatically less amount of time.

 8 – You Do Need to Be a Night Owl

A final consideration in whether or not this party is right for you and your family is the ability to stay up late! West Coasters definitely have an advantage here! This event is perfect for guests who enjoy staying up late and can sleep in the next day. While we still saw plenty of strollers and young children, it may be difficult for families that have younger children who are not used to staying up late.

The party ended for us at 1:00 am with the Kiss Goodnight. We were able to get a few more photos in before we arrived in line for the Ferryboat at 1:20 am. Do note that the Express Monorail, Resort Monorail, and Resort boats were not in service. The only way to get back to the Ticket and Transportation Center was on the Ferryboat. Guests staying on Monorail Resorts were able to take buses back to their resorts. We arrived back at the TTC at 1:40 and were in our car at 1:50 am! That’s crazy late! To fully take advantage of the event, you’ll want to plan to stay to the very end. Plan on a very late night.

Future Event Tip: Plan on a late start in the morning after the party. Try to sleep in. Have a late breakfast. Don’t have an 8:00 am breakfast reservation. Everyone in your party will thank you for it!

 9 – Final Thoughts

We hear lots of criticisms of Disney offering extra pay-to-play events. To be honest, when this event was first announced in 2016, we were among those who didn’t get the appeal. However, experiencing multiple events has completely changed our minds. Again, I cannot stress how much you can experience during this time. The 3 hours of the event are easily equal to 6-8 hours of normal park time or more depending on the time of year you visit, making this an excellent value.

We’d go so far as to say if you have to choose between a one-day ticket for Magic Kingdom and going to Disney After Hours, Disney After Hours wins hands down. You’ll be able to experience every attraction and character in that time and get free snacks and drinks!

Editor’s Note: The Disney Company provided us with complimentary Disney After Dark passes. However, the thoughts and opinions contained in this article are completely our own.