Disney has been offering these After Hours events at different parks and it’s a good way to get to ride attractions with little-to-no-wait. Disney’s Animal Kingdom currently has dates for an After Hours event.
This After Hours event started in December, but has a lot of dates for the beginning of 2019 and tickets are still available. Guests who purchase tickets for this event can enter the park as early as 7 p.m., which means you don’t have to purchase a separate theme park ticket. The event officially runs from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Disney After Hours events are nice, because tickets are very limited. By limiting the tickets, the guests who attend the event are able to enjoy the park with extremely low crowds and the low crowds are really helpful with riding the popular rides, like Flight of Passage. I attended an After Hours event at Magic Kingdom and was able to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train twice in less than half an hour. Most of the time was spent walking through the empty queue!
In addition to being able to ride the rides with little-to-no-wait, there are also complimentary snacks and drinks included. The snacks are ice cream novelties and popcorn and the select beverages are usually sodas and bottles of water. There are other locations in the park where guests can purchase other snacks.
Rides that will be open include:
- Avatar Flight of Passage
- Na’vi River Journey
- Pandora Drummers – Swotu Waya
- Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
- DINOSAUR
- Rivers of Light
- Tree of Life Awakenings
- It’s Tough to be a Bug!
- TriceraTop Spin
- And more!
After Hours Event 2019 Dates for Animal Kingdom
- January: 8, 16, 22, 31
- February: 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 26
- March: 5, 20, 27
- April 3
Cost
- Advance Tickets: $125 per adult and child (plus tax)
- Day of Tickets: $129 per adult and child (plus tax)
- Annual Passholders: $95 per adult and child (plus tax)
- Disney Vacation Club Members: $95 per adult and child (plus tax)
The biggest draw for this After Hours event is the fact that you wouldn’t have to wait in a long line for Avatar Flight of Passage. The free snacks and drinks are a bonus too. It’s definitely not inexpensive though, especially if you are buying tickets for an entire family. If you are worried about the cost, but want to experience the event, then I would treat this as your Animal Kingdom day and not buy another ticket for Animal Kingdom. Even though the event is only 3 hours, you can get a lot done due to the low crowds.
You can purchase tickets online, by calling 405-939-7795, by visiting any Walt Disney World ticket window, or by contacting your travel agent.
Have you attended a Disney After Hours event? What did you think?
Thanks for reading!
*Liz*
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Liz
I love all things Disney, but my main love is for Disney World and I'm always planning for the next trip. Before becoming a Disney blogger, I was a radio DJ, so I guess I'm just continuing in the communication industry, just in a different form. I love talking Disney and I could talk about Disney all day. That's why I started blogging and created the Facebook group. The Disney community is full of friendly, helpful, and happy people...and I love being a part of it! If there is any Disney subject you would like to see covered just let me know! Need help planning your Disney vacation. Feel free to contact myself or Melissa at Never Stop Dreaming Travel Co. We love helping people plan their trips! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! Don't forget to check out our Countdown to Disney app! Feel free to email me with suggestions of things you would like to see in the app :-)
Hi Liz!
Do you know how many tickets are sold for this event? We’ve were in magic kingdom on Christmas Day 2017 and know what full capacity feels like lol…. we heard someone say that there were 100,000-120,000 people so I was very curious about how many people are at set evenings like these…
Hi Linda!
I’m not sure how many tickets they sell for the After Hours events, they don’t really publicize that, but it is extremely fewer people than when the parks are at full capacity. When I went last June, there were times when I was walking around and there were no other people in site. It felt pretty empty. I’m not sure if that night was sold out or not, but it was fantastic because everything was walk-on.
The event sounds awesome, but it’s just too expensive. With our group it would be an extra $750 on top of resort hotel, regular park tickets, food, souvenirs, and parking fee for a week. I know they want to restrict it, but could they not reduce the price by volume or offer package deals so bigger groups could afford it.
Hi Doug!
It’s definitely hard to justify spending that much money, when you’re already paying for the hotel and theme park tickets. I think it’s easier to justify when it’s just one person or if it’s a couple, but anymore than two people and it does get a little harder to justify. I had a great time when I went, but it was just me, and the reason I did it was to be able to talk about the experience on the website and to clients. However, if my whole family was there then we would have had to budget differently to add in the extra cost. It would be nice if the price when down a little the more event tickets you buy, kind of like regular theme park tickets. I’d be surprised if they did that though, unfortunately.
My husband and I are headed to Disney for our 9 year anniversary the last week of January, and we decided to splurge on the After Hour events at MK and AK that week. We’re so excited to go kid-free and get on some rides with hopefully little to no wait. We are AP holders, so that did help, but we definitely don’t feel the pressure to be locked in to set FP and I’m hoping to enjoy the week a little more.
Love your blog!
Hi Caroline!
Thank you for you kind words about the blog! I’m glad you enjoy it! 🙂
What a great way to celebrate your anniversary. Make sure to get your celebration buttons when you check in so everyone knows it’s your anniversary. I hope you guys enjoy the After Hours event as much as I did. There was definitely a certain energy among the After Hours event guests. Everyone I passed had a huge smile on their face.
Happy anniversary and I hope you have a magical time in Disney later this month!