Living the Magic at our Disney World After Hours Event!
Have you every wanted to explore a Walt Disney World park without being elbow-to-elbow in a sea of people? Take an Instagram-worthy castle picture with absolutely no one behind you? Enjoy multiple rides on your favorite attractions with little to no wait? Indulge in as many Mickey bars as your stomach can handle? If you answered yes to one of more of these questions, a Disney After Hours event may be a must do for your next magical stay.
Disney After Hours is a separate-ticketed event that primarily takes place in the late evening hours after the park has closed to regular admission guests. Depending on the day and park, official event hours could be something like 9:00PM to 12:00AM or 10:00PM to 1:00AM. Tickets are not cheap, and despite the limited hours, are typically more expensive than day admission. However, your After Hours ticket grants you access to the park typically starting around 7:00PM, so you can take advantage of a few extra hours to get started on rides, have dinner, or even watch the nighttime spectacular.
During our Spring 2023 trip to Orlando, we took part in Magic Kingdom After Hours. Now, this is far from our first After Hours experience - and we have made some mistakes in the past - but we think it is safe to say that this time, we crushed it! We started our day checking-in at the front entrance of Magic Kingdom at 7:00PM and after receiving our even wristbands, we headed for Fantasyland to see if we could get on any rides. It is important to note that not all attractions operate during After Hours events, so you might miss out on attractions like the Walt Disney World Railroad and the Carousel of Progress. After a quick trip “under the sea” with Ariel, we noticed that the wait for Seven Dwarves Mine Train was very low, thanks to crowds gathering in the hub for fireworks. We took two back-to-back rides on the swinging mine train (back row is best row) and even got to see the fireworks from our mine car, which is an experience we highly recommend!
Soon after fireworks, our official event began, and we noticed more wait times dropping to walk-on status. We cleaned up Fantasyland with rides on Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel, Peter Pan’s Flight, and the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. By this time we were ready for a snack break and found one of the many kiosks handing out bottled drinks, popcorn and sweet treats. Oh yeah, did we mention all this is complimentary with your ticket? Our next destination was Tomorrowland with rides on Space Mountain and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover, again with little to no wait! Our night was not over yet, but if you want to see what else we accomplished in the limited hour event, you’ll have to check out the vlog below. Overall, we had a fantastic experience and can highly recommend an After Hours event for those who want to get a lot done in a little time.
