After Walt Disney World theme parks have closed for the day, a limited-capacity special event on select dates provides guests with low wait times for popular rides that can command hours-long lines during regular operating hours. These events, dubbed Disney After Hours, can be a smart purchase for guests who don’t want to wake up early to beat the crowds or learn how to use Lightning Lanes, Disney’s skip-the-line service.
We attended Disney After Hours at EPCOT and timestamped everything we accomplished during the 3-hour event and its pre-party period. In this story, we’ll share our report from the entire night, along with thoughts on whether it’s worth the price. See also our report from Disney After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including new Disney World food and the lineup of celebrity narrators for EPCOT’s Candlelight Processional.
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Disney After Hours Basics
Disney After Hours takes place for 3 hours after the parks finish their regular operating day. The event happens at select parks on select nights. At EPCOT, attendees who do not have daytime park admission can enter the park up to 2.5 hours before the official After Hours start time, giving them a total of 5.5 hours for their event ticket price. This pre-party period is known as the “mix-in.”
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The cost of Disney After Hours ranges based on park and date. This year’s After Hours events at EPCOT ranged from $155 to $179.
Not everything operates during Disney After Hours, but most of the park’s major attractions are available. At EPCOT, the following attractions are available during Disney After Hours:
- Spaceship Earth
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
- Mission: SPACE
- Test Track
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
- Frozen Ever After
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
- Living with the Land
- Soarin’ Across America
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends
Although it’s not part of the official attraction list, Journey Into Imagination with Figment was also open on the night I attended Disney After Hours.
Attendees receive unlimited snacks and beverages at carts throughout the park the entire night. These include Mickey ice cream bars, Mickey ice cream sandwiches, popcorn, bottled soda, and bottled water.
Note that Disney After Hours is completely different from Extended Evening Theme Park Hours, which is a free, 2-hour event offered only to guests staying at deluxe-tier Disney World hotels. Disney After Hours is not free, but anyone can purchase a ticket, regardless of where they’re staying overnight, and even if they’re not staying at a Disney resort at all.
On the night I attended Disney After Hours, EPCOT closed to the public at 9:00 PM, Luminous The Symphony of Us was scheduled for 9:00 PM, and Disney After Hours officially started at 9:30 PM and lasted until 12:30 AM. Guests could enter the park with just their party ticket starting at 7:00 PM.
Now let’s get into what all I was able to accomplish, with timestamps listed for everything.
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My Night at Disney After Hours at EPCOT
A common complaint of Disney After Hours at EPCOT is the amount of walking required, as many attractions are spaced far apart from each other. Additionally, World Showcase is inaccessible from China to Morocco during Disney After Hours. This means that anyone trying to walk from Frozen Ever After in Norway to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in France will need to take the long way around the lagoon. For these reasons, we previously recommended Magic Kingdom over EPCOT if deciding between the 2 parks for a night of Disney After Hours.
With this in mind, I planned my evening accordingly to avoid this issue and was pleasantly surprised by the number of rides I was able to accomplish, all without feeling like I was walking around all night endlessly.
I had a park hopper ticket on the day I attended Disney After Hours, so I could enter EPCOT before the 7:00 PM entry time that I would’ve had to wait for if I didn’t have daytime admission.
Coming from the Disney Skyliner station, I entered EPCOT through its back entrance at the International Gateway. I strategically chose to enter this way to give me quick access to France and Ratatouille. I’d get that done before After Hours began, so as to eliminate the need for trekking back here later.
6:38 PM – I entered the single rider line for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. The wait time was posted as 65 minutes for the regular standby line. I waited 12 minutes!
7:05 PM – All of World Showcase’s non-ride offerings are closed during Disney After Hours. For this reason, I spent the rest of EPCOT’s regular operating hours before the party began to enjoy some of my World Showcase favorites: Impressions de France, L’Arisan de Glaces, and DuckTales World Showcase Adventure.
9:00 PM – The park concluded its regular operating day with its nightly performance of Luminous The Symphony of Us. I watched near the United Kingdom Pavilion. Afterward, I picked up my Disney After Hours credentials at the International Gateway and bid farewell to this corner of the park.
9:35 PM – The sound of a DJ beckoned me to World Celebration, where a dance party was already in full swing. Goofy was even there, roaming the crowd and encouraging guests to dance. I thought it was cool how the DJ’s audio played throughout the entire park during the event. It made the night feel more special and less like a typical evening.
9:45 PM – Snack break! I opted for a Mickey ice cream sandwich and a Coca-Cola. You can approach snack carts throughout the entire night and take as many treats as you’d like. I was surprised by how empty the park already felt, despite the fireworks only having ended 25 minutes prior. The park had cleared of daytime guests quickly.
9:54 PM – I entered the queue for Soarin’ Across America. It was a walk-on, and I was seeing the preshow by 9:59. This was my first time experiencing the new version of the ride, and I was surprised by how much I loved it. It might be my favorite version of the 3 Soarin’ films, so much so that I contemplated immediately getting back in line and seeing it again. I chose to move on, as I knew the night would move quickly and there was a lot to do.
10:16 PM – The Seas with Nemo & Friends was likewise a walk-on. There were hardly any other guests in the queue. By 10:18, I was boarding the ride.
Upon exiting the Nemo ride, I was surprised to find the aquarium spaces open. I double-checked with cast members there to make sure I could explore upstairs. They assured me that the viewing areas were open, so I roamed around and enjoyed a completely empty aquarium. It was very relaxing, especially with Thomas Newman’s Finding Nemo score playing.
Usually this space is bustling with guests and very loud. This ended up being one of my favorite moments of the evening.
10:42 PM – As I made my way from World Nature to World Discovery, I noticed Mickey was meeting guests by the “Walt the Dreamer” statue. This was an awesome photo-op, and I only waited 4 minutes!
At this point, I could have gone to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, but I decided to save that as my intended final attraction. That way, if there was time left over after riding, I could do it again just as the park closed.
10:53 PM – The Test Track standby line had a posted wait time of 60 minutes. I opted for the single rider line and was boarding the ride in 3 minutes!
If you so choose, yes, you can purchase a Corvette at Disney After Hours in the Test Track post-show area.
11:13 PM – I entered the queue for Frozen Ever After, which had a posted wait of 5 minutes. I boarded the ride at 11:20.
11:36 PM – Doubling back to Guardians, I entered the Cosmic Rewind queue, which posted a 40-minute wait. There is no single rider line for Cosmic Rewind. I was in the first preshow room in 19 minutes, and boarded the coaster 15 minutes after that, so the total wait ended up being 34 minutes, pretty close to the posted estimate.
12:16 AM – After riding Cosmic Rewind, I had 14 minutes left until the park closed. Remember, you can enter any ride’s line right up until the event ends. I could choose to ride Cosmic Rewind a second time, or head to Test Track again, Mission: SPACE, or potentially Spaceship Earth if I walked fast. I chose Spaceship Earth and made it there by 12:22 AM to find zero people in line. I walked right in and enjoyed my ride as a pleasant end to the evening.
Is Disney After Hours at EPCOT Worth It?
In general, Disney After Hours events are best for guests who want to avoid waiting in long lines, but don’t want to wake up early for rope drop or Early Theme Park Entry, and don’t want to learn the ins and outs of the Lightning Lane system. During the hot summer months, the event is also a nice alternative to being in the hot Florida sun.
At EPCOT in particular, yes, the walking can be cumbersome, and you probably need to go into the event with an idea of how you’ll navigate the park, especially with the access closed between China and Morocco.
That being said, I was surprised at how much I was able to accomplish, especially since I took a slower pace and only did World Showcase offerings during the mix-in hours.
When it was all said and done, I experienced 4 attractions during the mix-in and 6 during After Hours proper. It definitely helped that I used the single rider lines for Ratatouille and Test Track, and that I was intentional about starting with the back of the park during mix-in.
If you’re willing to pay the steep price, Disney After Hours is a pleasant add-on to an EPCOT day, but not a replacement for a park day. Arguably more than any other Disney World park, there’s a lot more to EPCOT than rides, and none of those non-ride experiences are open during After Hours. You’ll miss the full breadth of the park experience by limiting to only the headliners.
As an extra splurge to squeeze in some more rides, though, you can accomplish more than you might think. I waited in much shorter lines during EPCOT’s After Hours than the same event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and the EPCOT version felt more like a limited-capacity event vs. just an ordinary night in the park.
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