After Hours events are returning as soon as once more beginning in January 2025 at three of the 4 Walt Disney World theme parks! This put up shares dates, pricing, and different particulars concerning the low-crowds particular occasions at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and Hollywood Studios, plus our suggestions about when to do and not do them, and a fast take a look at this 12 months’s exhausting ticket occasions to this point.
Let’s begin with the fundamentals. In case you aren’t acquainted with Disney After Hours, these late-night, individually ticketed occasions allow you to get pleasure from a Walt Disney World theme park for 3 further hours after common park hours. After Hours occasions embrace “free” treats corresponding to ice cream, popcorn and choose drinks (air quotes round free because you’re paying for a ticket and it’s presumably constructed into the fee).
Disney After Hours will begin on January 6, 2025 at Magic Kingdom; January 22, 2025 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios; and February 27, 2025 at EPCOT. The one park not taking part in After Hours is Animal Kingdom, which might be as a result of its preliminary experiment with the providing didn’t go so nicely. Folks did appear to get pleasure from Prolonged Night Hours at Animal Kingdom final Occasion Season, however that’s a “free” occasion for sure on-site company, so there’s a distinction in expectations between that and the expensive After Hours events.
The principle promoting level of Disney After Hours occasions is that the variety of tickets for these occasions is restricted, which implies decrease wait instances for a few of your favourite points of interest. In contrast to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Occasion, these After Hours evenings are marketed as low crowds occasions.
Occasion instances at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are from 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Occasion instances at Magic Kingdom and at EPCOT are from 10 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. You may get a head begin on points of interest by coming into the park starting at 7 p.m. to squeeze much more enjoyable out of your midnight merriment with household and associates.
Let’s check out points of interest, occasion date ranges, ticket costs, and different particulars for After Hours at Walt Disney World in 2025…
After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Throughout After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you possibly can play in Andy’s yard in Toy Story Land, be a part of the resistance with Chewbacca in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and embark on a whimsical journey aboard Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, amongst different favorites.
The 2025 After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios will happen on:
- January 22 and 29
- February 12 and 19
- March 5 and 26*
- April 1* and 30
- Might 14 and 28
- June 4,11 and 25
- July 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30
- August 6, 20 and 27
- September 3
*On March 26 and April 1, Disney After Hours will run from 10 p.m. till 1 a.m.
At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, points of interest embrace:
- Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Slinky Canine Sprint
- Toy Story Mania!
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
- Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster Starring Aerosmith
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
See our Information to After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for full dates and particular ticket costs, technique, and extra.
After Hours at Magic Kingdom
At Magic Kingdom, you possibly can journey a number of the most mesmerizing points of interest beneath the night time sky like TRON Lightcycle Run and Tiana’s Bayou Journey–each accessible through standby queue–in addition to Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare, Area Mountain, Peter Pan’s Flight, and lots of extra!
The 2025 After Hours at Magic Kingdom events will happen on:
- January 6, 13, 20 and 27
- February 3, 10, 17 and 24
- March 3, 17, 24 and 31
- April 7 and 28
- Might 5, 12 and 19
At Magic Kingdom, this implies you possibly can get pleasure from greater than 20 widespread points of interest with decrease wait instances, together with the next:
- TRON Lightcycle Run (standby line supplied)
- Tiana’s Bayou Journey (standby line supplied)
- Area Mountain
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare
- Buzz Lightyear’s Area Ranger Spin
- Haunted Mansion
- “it’s a small world”
- Jungle Cruise
- Peter Pan’s Flight
And plenty of extra!
See our Information to After Hours at Magic Kingdom for full dates and particular ticket costs, technique, and extra.
After Hours at EPCOT
Bask within the vibrant glow of Spaceship Earth as you expertise the magic of EPCOT after darkish. Get pleasure from your favourite points of interest like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Remy’s Ratatouille Journey, Frozen Ever After and Soarin’ Across the World.
The 2025 After Hours at EPCOT will happen on:
- February 27
- Might 8 and 29
- June 19 and 26
- July 10, 24 and 31
- August 7, 14, 21 and 28
- September 11 and 25
The next is an inventory of a number of the points of interest accessible throughout EPCOT After Hours:
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
- Remy’s Ratatouille Journey
- Frozen Ever After
- Soarin’ Across the World
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros
- Dwelling with the Land
- Mission: SPACE
- The Seas with Nemo & Pals
- Spaceship Earth
See our Information to After Hours at EPCOT for full dates and particular ticket costs, technique, and extra.
2025 Disney After Hours Ticket Costs & Gross sales Dates
Disney After Hours ticket costs vary from $175 to $185 (plus tax) for Magic Kingdom, $155 to $175 (plus tax) for EPCOT and $155 to $185 (plus tax) for Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Annual Passholders and Disney Trip Membership members can get pleasure from the good thing about specifically priced tickets at EPCOT and Hollywood Studios.
Tickets go on sale for company staying at choose Walt Disney World Resort lodges, Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Lodges, and Shades of Inexperienced on September 4, 2024. For all different company, tickets will go on sale September 10, 2024. Dates gained’t begin promoting out (if in any respect) till December on the earliest, so there’s completely no sense of urgency to purchase immediately.
All it is advisable do is decide your night time, decide your park and revel in your after-hour exploration. To study extra about Disney After Hours occasions, go to the official web site: DisneyWorld.com/AfterHours.
Be aware that After Hours nonetheless doesn’t imply the tip of the free Prolonged Night Hours. Whereas initially promoted as a particular perk for the fiftieth Anniversary, Walt Disney World has confirmed that Prolonged Night Hours will proceed all through all of 2025 for company staying at a Disney Deluxe Resort, Disney Deluxe Villa Resort, or different choose lodges.
About the one factor that may change is the schedule, with modifications alongside the strains of what we’ve seen for Occasion Season. However even that’s uncertain, as After Hours doesn’t trigger Magic Kingdom to shut at 6 pm like MNSSHP or MVMCP.
Should you’re eligible for it, we extremely suggest Prolonged Night Hours. It’s inferior to After Hours, however it additionally doesn’t price further. On condition that, it’s tough for us to justify (or suggest to others) paying extra for After Hours. For more information on the free ‘model’ of this perk, see our Information to Prolonged Night Hours at Walt Disney World.
As you’re planning forward for 2025 Walt Disney World holidays, one factor to bear in mind is that ordinary park hours are usually not simply topic to vary, however completely will change. We’ve heard from a few dissatisfied readers who purchased After Hours tickets on the idea of shorter common hours, solely to have hours throughout their journey dates prolonged.
Don’t be stunned when common working hours are prolonged. This totally will occur. Walt Disney World all the time releases “boilerplate” hours which can be just about meaningless, with the three parks that do After Hours open from 9 am to 9 pm. These are nearly by no means the ultimate hours, which begs the query: why launch them within the first place?!
Actually, it is a double-edged sword. If Walt Disney World does prolong park hours by a big quantity (11 pm or midnight Magic Kingdom closing), it means they’re forecasting excessive attendance. If they don’t prolong park hours in any respect, it means they’re forecasting low attendance…and also you in all probability gained’t want After Hours within the first place.
Suffice to say, don’t use at present posted park hours as a foundation for making a choice to purchase (or not purchase) After Hours tickets. You’re greatest off buying tickets to the occasion since you need to attend for enjoyable, not since you want to attend resulting from hours or expectations about crowds. There are different methods to beat crowds. After Hours is greatest seen as a quasi-VIP splurge that makes for a neater and extra pleasurable park expertise.
We’ve performed each single After Hours occasion that Walt Disney World has held, from the themed ones (Villains, Halloween, Christmas) to those vanilla ones at Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios (again in 2018 by means of early 2020) and once more throughout the final 12 months, together with the newer After Hours at EPCOT.
For probably the most half, our experiences have been constructive, though coloured by a bit by annoyance that what was as soon as free now prices cash. At this level, that’s simply the story of Walt Disney World. Magic Kingdom used to shut at midnight on even reasonably crowded days, and on a lot of those self same nights, had Additional Magic Hours till 3 a.m. (Night Additional Magic Hours was once 3 hours lengthy).
This was even the case through the Nice Recession when attendance was decrease than it’s now, so daytime crowds have been comparatively gentle. Now, attendance is considerably greater (by a number of hundreds of thousands of company per 12 months), and common park hours have been lowered by a number of hours per day. Extra individuals crammed into fewer hours, which doesn’t compute.
Nonetheless, we’ve (begrudgingly) purchased the After Hours tickets up to now as a result of we’ve felt that the events are value it as quasi-VIP experiences for a extra approachable worth. As famous above, After Hours is similar to the Halloween and Christmas events, albeit with considerably decrease crowds and minus the seasonal leisure. Actually, we’ve been so happy with this occasion in earlier years that it made our Finest Worth Splurges at Walt Disney World Listing.
You would possibly discover these assessments are up to now tense. Ticket costs are up fairly considerably for the After Hours events, by roughly $10 to $36 relying upon the date and park as in contrast to a few years in the past. For a lot of the ones we’d give you the chance or need to attend, the will increase are $20 to $30. That’s simply an excessive amount of for us to justify–however we’re additionally Annual Passholders who’ve been to the parks and performed each attraction lots of of instances (nicely, save for the latest ones).
Whereas we do anticipate future 2025 After Hours occasions to promote out, we will’t assist however marvel if no dates have but as a result of others like us have reached their breaking level. At the same time as we actually benefit from the occasion and have advisable it up to now, the costs are simply too excessive for us–we’re out. Perhaps we’re alone in that and different followers will fortunately pay the upper costs, however judging by crowds on the first few occasions this 12 months, it doesn’t appear to be it. Subsequent events throughout busier or hotter instances of 12 months have bought out, however not almost to the identical extent as in earlier years.
What we would pay to attend is themed After Hours occasions. Though not branded as such, that’s kind of what Disney Jollywood Nights Christmas Occasion is–a hybrid exhausting ticket occasion and After Hours occasion. Likewise, there was the aforementioned Villains After Hours at Magic Kingdom pre-closure, in addition to the one-off Christmas and Halloween occasions in Magic Kingdom.
All of these supplied distinctive hooks along with restricted capability and brief strains. As followers who’re repeat guests to Walt Disney World, that’s what we’d like so as to have the ability to justify doing these occasions at $150+ worth factors. In any other case, the worth simply isn’t there for us.
We now have been begging for a Disney Afternoon or 90s Nostalgia Nite at Walt Disney World or Disneyland. That’s the theme we all know would “communicate to” the notorious Childless Millennials–or Disney Adults of the parental or kid-free selection–with disposable earnings and sentimentality for his or her early life.
I’d additionally love a reprise of the Pirate & Princess Events, which may promote fairly nicely if given a second probability (they failed as a result of they launched through the Nice Recession and pre-social media–not resulting from high quality). Past that, it looks like there’s a whole lot of potential to faucet into the nostalgia of APs and DVC members by bringing again Needs and different extinct leisure on a restricted time foundation.
Should you’re a first-timer or rare Walt Disney World customer, your calculus in all probability differs from ours as Annual Passholders who’re within the parks repeatedly. Basically, the worth proposition of After Hours is whether or not 6 hours (3 with low crowds, 3 with low to reasonable crowds) is healthier than 10-12 hours within the parks through the day. Even in case you used an environment friendly itinerary for Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Hollywood Studios throughout these regular working hours, the reply to that was once sure.
With that stated, the equation has modified with Lightning Lanes, in addition to Early Entry and Prolonged Night Hours (at Magic Kingdom, at the very least). A minimum of two of these items are controversial, however might be extremely advantageous–particularly at Magic Kingdom. Then there’s Early Entry at DHS, which is much less divisive and presents an incredible head begin.
The opposite factor that it’s necessary to not overlook is the timing of After Hours. That is good or unhealthy, relying upon your perspective. For a lot of mother and father, it’s a complete nonstarter, because the prime time for the occasion is post-bedtime for a lot of children.
For others, it’s an enormous upside when contemplating the truth of Florida climate. Humidity might be oppressive and the noon solar might be draining. At night time, the solar is down and it feels higher. That’s one of many explanation why we love After Hours in the summertime months. The climate could be very totally different originally of the 12 months, however being within the parks at night time continues to be nicer.
In the end, that’s my foundation for reluctantly recommending After Hours at Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Hollywood Studios to first-timers or rare Walt Disney World guests with restricted trip time and more money for splurging. (We don’t suggest After Hours at EPCOT to anybody.)
The After Hours occasions are unquestionably costly, but additionally a great way to get lots performed at Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Hollywood Studios with out waking up on the daybreak for Early Entry or criss-crossing the park whereas utilizing Lightning Lanes. Most significantly, After Hours occasions are friction-less.
You don’t want some grand technique or plan-of-attack for experiencing a ton of points of interest throughout these exhausting ticket occasions. They provide a quasi-VIP expertise with out having to be accompanied by a tour information–better of each worlds! On prime of that, After Hours happens at night time. Clearly. Level being, you’re getting one of the best of climate, crowds, wait instances and (because of all three) simply basic pleasantness. You’re more likely to get pleasure from After Hours a terrific deal, particularly as in comparison with a standard day within the park.
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Your Ideas
Have you ever attended After Hours at Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or EPCOT? What did you consider the occasion? Will you be shopping for After Hours tickets for 2025? Would you attend, or is it too expensive? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we may also help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!