Have you heard about the Disney After Hours Party but were hesitant about spending the money for one? I would love to give you my opinion on the After Hours Party at Animal Kingdom!
A year ago we decided to splurge and go and honestly it was so much fun! The four of us went with our best friends. Not sure what the After Hours Party is? Not to worry! It is a ticketed event at Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom currently that you get to experience numerous attractions and complimentary food and drinks. The party starts at park close and typically is three hours long. They sell a limited amount of tickets so they are rarely crowded. The best part is if your an Annual Pass or DVC Member you get discounts. Once more dates come available you can purchase them on the website or by calling Disney directly. Due to Covid-19 sadly all dates have been canceled right now. Hopefully they will release more once the Parks can safely reopen. We had four adults, two toddlers, and a baby at the time! I will first say going with younger children can be a little tough with bedtimes but we all made it work and by the end of the night they were all sleeping in their strollers! We did have one meltdown from Talia but she ended up sleeping right after that. Having numerous adults also helped with riding attractions with someone vs having to go alone! If they are young enough strollers are a lifesaver for letting them go to sleep! Also a pair of PJs and a possible blanket or anything to assist them at night! If you don't have a ticket/AP for that day you can start entering the park at 7 pm that night to enjoy the park before close. I also recommend if you want any photopass to take any photos before the event starting due to them not being out during the event. They were at Mickey and Minnie though still at the party. The complimentary food and drinks will not be available until the event begins as well. There will also be designated areas to get your wrist band if you've been in the park prior. It's similar to the Halloween and Christmas Parties, they will check for your wrist bands before anything. The best part about the evening was being able to WALK ONTO Flight of Passage, yes you heard me right. The typical attraction that has a 2 plus hour wait was walk on! That makes the party worth it right there! All the other rides were of course walk on as well. When the event began we did the Na'vi River Journey right away with the kids while they were still up. After that we went onto Flight of Passage! We had to split that up due to being with the kids which did take a lot of time which wasn't the greatest but still worth it! For those who haven't been on yet, they have two pre-shows and they are little longer than normal ones so it takes time. The entire section of Africa was closed at this time most likely for the Animals. So I highly recommend if you want to enjoy Kilimanjaro Safari to do that before the event! We did it before ourselves! We also walked onto Dinosaur and rode Expedition Everest like 4-5 times. We were one of the last parties to ride Everest for the night! My only complaint would honestly be about having the pre-shows, I know they are part of attractions but they take up so much time, and when you have to do rider swap type it takes a huge chunk of the party. That was my only complaint though! We still were able to do everything we wanted to do!
Now let's talk about the food and drinks!! No alcohol was not included but they did have certain places opened that sold alcoholic drinks for purchase. Your event park guide will have that info and when they close. The same goes for Quick service locations. The great thing was receiving complimentary bottles of coke products and water. They had fountain drinks of the same things as well. This was all you can drink. We brought home so many drinks. We put some under our stroller to have for later. The snacks were probably the best part! I love Disney snacks so unlimited was so dangerous! This included the favorite Mickey Premium Bars and the Mickey Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Sandwiches. Also all the popcorn! There were also special Pandora snacks available at Ace Mobile Treats! I had a Popsicle that tasted like the Pongu Pongu drink (best drink and was available for purchase!). This was called Fruits of Mo'ara Fruit Bar, they also have a strawberry and coconut available. Bags of chips were available as well. I mostly ate popcorn, because let's are real, Disney popcorn is the best. Also, I don't know how many ice cream sandwiches I had or I want to admit haha! I mean honestly just eating your way through the party can be worth the money depending on how much you eat and drink/take home. I mean Disney snacks range from like $4 - $7 depending on what and then beverages are around that range too. Yes my daughter loves popcorn so much she fell asleep eating it after a tantrum haha!
I know these parties have many mixed opinions on them, but for me it was worth it and I look forward to doing another. I wish Hollywood Studios would bring theirs back and include Rise of the Resistance because that would be AMAZING! I'd pay the price just to ride that! We hope to be able to do either the Villains Party or just the After Hours MK party next. I would do AK in a heartbeat again! I think the kids would enjoy it more now as well since they are older and eat more treats (Jace had a dairy allergy then so couldn't enjoy). Please be sure to subscribe for more content!
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