UPDATE: Here’s a review and recap of opening night! Our preview article continues after the jump.
The 2024 season of After Hours events begins on January 10th with the Disney’s Hollywood Studios After Hours event, and we will be in attendance to bring you an on-the-ground report from opening night. Of course, this isn’t the first time that Disney’s Hollywood Studios has hosted an After Hours event, but we want to return to see how the event stacks up against our experience from last year and to see what’s new at the event. In this article, we’ll offer a preview of the event, and what our expectations are for the 2024 version of After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
What is Disney After Hours?
Disney After Hours is a special ticketed event that takes place on select nights and allows guests to explore Disney’s Hollywood Studios after regular park hours with lower wait times on some of the most popular attractions.
In addition to lower crowds, soda, snacks, and ice cream novelties are included in the price. Disney After Hours is a unique way to experience Disney’s Hollywood Studios in a more intimate and unique way thanks to lower crowds. Whether you want to run through as many attractions as possible or enjoy a more leisurely evening at Hollywood Studios, Disney After Hours has something for everyone.
Disney After Hours should not be confused with Extended Evening Theme Park Hours, which is a perk for guests staying at Deluxe Resorts. Disney After Hours is also not “Extra Magic Hours”, which is a discontinued perk for Disney World Resort guests.
Hollywood Studios 2024 After Hours Dates & Pricing
Disney After Hours will take place on nine nights between January 10th and April 10th. After Hours will mostly be on Wednesdays, with only one night scheduled for a Monday. Ticket prices for Disney After Hours at Hollywood Studios range from $155 to $175 for regularly priced tickets and $125 to $145 for Annual Passholders or Disney Vacation Club Members. There is no child pricing.
| Event Date | Price (Excludes Tax) / AP & DVC Price |
|---|---|
| Wednesday, January 10 | $155/$125 |
| Wednesday, January 24 | $165/$135 |
| Wednesday, February 21 | $175/$145 |
| Monday, Feburary 26 | $175/$145 |
| Wednesday, March 13 | $175/$145 |
| Wednesday, March 20 | $175/$145 |
| Wednesday, March 27 | $175/$145 |
| Wednesday, April 3 | $175/$145 |
| Wednesday, April 10 | $175/$145 |
The event is expensive, no doubt about it. It’s hard to recommend it on price alone. We’ll have more to say on pricing in our recap/review article after we’ve attended Disney After Hours, but suffice it to say that we think the event, as presented, is too expensive.
Purchase tickets: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/tickets/events/
Event Hours
The official hours for Disney After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are from 9:30pm to 12:30am, but guests with a Disney After Hours ticket can enter Hollywood Studios as early as 7pm to get a head start on the fun.
Guests with tickets to Disney After Hours do not need to make a Disney Park Pass reservation in order to enter the park after 7pm. If you wish to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios before 7pm, you may need to make a Disney Park Pass reservation and purchase a separate admission.
Check-in for the event will be at the main entrance to Disney’s Hollywood Studios beginning at 7pm.
Hollywood Studios 2024 After Hours Attractions
Last year, the After Hours event was quite novel in that it was the first After Hours event to be held since Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway had opened. Those attractions are on the official list of attractions on the Disney World website again this year. We’ll start with a list of attractions officially recognized by Disney World, followed by attractions that have posted operating hours during the event, followed by attractions not included in the event.
Officially Announced
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Toy Story Mania!
Hours Posted
- Star Tours
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Not Operating
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (refurbishment)
Not having Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster will be a problem for the event. It is a popular attraction that adds some balance to Sunset Boulevard. Now, we expect wait times at Tower of Terror to be higher-than-expected due to the fact that it’ll be the only thing for guests to do in that area of the park. We’d also imagine that this will have an impact on attractions in Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land, which will be bigger draws during the 3-hour event.
Entertainment and Characters
Officially, Disney World has announced zero exclusive entertainment and “beloved Disney characters”. Last year, Disney offered an 11:25pm showing of Disney Movie Magic and an 11:45pm showing of Wonderful World of Animation. Both are projection shows on the Chinese Theater and both are skippable during a 3-hour event where you’ll be running from attraction to attraction, only pausing for a Mickey Bar and soda occasionally.
That said, Fantasmic! is being marketed as a perk for After Hours guests given the fact that guests with After Hours tickets can get into Hollywood Studios as early as 7pm.
That said, the removal of anything feels like a cutback. I’m sure there were at least a dozen people who watched those shows during After Hours last year, but I was too busy riding Rise of the Resistance back-to-back-to-back to notice.
On the character front, Disney World hasn’t announced specifics, and the Walt Disney World website offers no hints, so here’s the lineup from last year:
- Woody & Bo Peep in Toy Story Land
- Chip & Dale near Chinese Theater
- Star Wars characters in Star Wars Land
Free Snacks & Soda
As with any After Hours event, guests will have access to complimentary ice cream novelties, popcorn and select bottled beverages. In case you’re wondering, no, the in-story “thermal detonator” sodas in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge are not included. Here’s where Disney says you can find the complimentary snacks and soda:
- Grand Avenue
- Hollywood Boulevard
- Sunset Boulevard
- Toy Story Land
These complimentary goodies are a nice touch, and make the event feel like a treat. We usually can’t find enough time to enjoy the snacks properly, but we’d recommend grabbing anything that looks good every time you pass by a cart. Lines can look long at times, but they usually move pretty quickly given the fact that there is no “transaction”. Note that the treats will not start even a minute before After Hours officially begins.
2023 Event Recap
Before we talk about our expectations for 2024, we wanted to recap our event evening from 2023. Of course, the big draw for us during the event was Rise of the Resistance. This was the first Disney After Hours event since Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway had opened, and with Rise of the Resistance being the top attraction at Hollywood Studios, we wanted to see how many times we could ride.
As it turns out, Rise of the Resistance does quite well with limited crowds and no Lightning Lane. We rode it three times during the 2023 event, but it took us 74 minutes to do so. During a 3-hour event, spending more than 1/3rd of the event on a single attraction led to a bit of regret for us, but if that’s what you want to do, know that it’s an option!
To read the rest of our recap and find out what else we did at the 2023 event, check out our review below.
2024 Hollywood Studios After Hours Expectations
For the 2024 event, we’re going to try a more balanced approach and ride every attraction at least once instead of focusing just on Rise of the Resistance. We might even spend some more time tracking down characters. All of that should absolutely be possible given the fact that the event is starting a bit later in the month than the January 4th start date last year when holiday crowds were still around.
In terms of expected wait times, we don’t think anything will average more than a 30-minute wait, and just about everything should be a walk-on. Hollywood Studios is small enough that you probably could bounce around a bit to try and take advantage of lower posted waits during the event, but we think that clearing each land first will be a top priority. The only question mark is how much of an impact a closed Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster will have on crowds. In theory, everyone going to the event should be aware of the closure and plan ahead, but there might be a few hundred people throughout the event that walk right over to Tower of Terror after discovering that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is closed. Thankfully, Tower of Terror is operating all drop shafts, so there should be enough ride capacity to handle any surges in guests.
In terms of Rise of the Resistance, we think that the cat might be out of the bag on that one, and wait times will be above the 5-minute walk-on experience we had last year, but it shouldn’t be tough at all to fit it into our evening. In theory, if you save Rise of the Resistance for the last 40 minutes or so of the event, you should be able to ride it twice to end the night. We’ll see how our night plays out, but saving Rise for the end might be a smart idea.
In terms of other attractions, there will be a 30-minute bonus time from the official park close at 9pm and the event start at 9:30pm. Of course, After Hours attendees have full access to the park and attractions starting at 7pm, but there is a bit of a head start offered from 9pm to 9:30pm when After Hours attendees can continue to ride the attractions exclusively after regular guest cutoff at 9pm and event start at 9:30pm. Note that only the attractions are available during that 30 minutes and things like the complimentary snacks and soda start right at 9:30pm.
Finally, tonight’s event might even be a bit “pointless” in terms of crowds. Last year, the opening night of After Hours was January 4th – well before the holiday crowds had left. Now, we’re past the holiday surge in crowds and wait times are quite manageable. Of course, some poor weather the past two days has certainly kept some locals away from the parks, so with a better forecast today, there might be some elevated daytime crowds, but certainly not what we experienced last year. If Rise of the Resistance is a posted 30 minute wait during the final hour of park operations, do you really need to attend Disney After Hours? We’ll try to answer that question in the coming weeks, but first, we’re looking forward to the first night of Disney After Hours 2024 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios!
Do you have any questions about the event? Ask them in the comments below or on social media!
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!