2024 After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: Dates, Details, Tips, Rides & Review
After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is a hard ticket event with limited attendance and short wait times for Walt Disney World’s most popular attractions. This post shares our experience, info about the event, 2024 dates & details, tips & tricks, and whether it’s worth the money. (Updated March 11, 2024.)
After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios takes place select nights now until August 29, 2024. This event takes place from 9:30 PM to 12:30 AM. In addition to that, After Hours attendees can get a head start on the fun by entering the park at 7:00 PM—a couple of hours before the event officially begins!
Walt Disney World is now a couple of months into the 2024 After Hours ‘season’ at Hollywood Studios, and reports have been largely positive from attendees. Crowds have been sparse many nights and, aside from breakdowns, wait times have been low. Obviously, this is great news for those who attended the event–they got to ride rides with minimal waits, and next to no congestion in the parks.
The biggest change for the 2024 After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the presence of rare characters, including the following:
- Duffy the Disney Bear
- Pinocchio & Jiminy Cricket
- Mary Poppins & Penguin
- Pinocchio & Meeko
- Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers
- Glam Daisy & Donald Duck
- Glam Goofy
Other characters were also present, including but not limited to Minnie & Mickey Mouse (normal, non-glam), but those don’t qualify as rare. Regardless, all of these are additions as compared to last year and a nice ‘plussing’ of the After Hours event for 2024. These short waits for characters and rides are certainly not what you’d encounter during a normal day in the park.
After slow sales for most of the first two months of the year, After Hours has now sold out 3 different dates at DHS. The first of these has passed, but two more dates during Spring Break are now sold out: March 13 and 27, 2024. It should go without saying, but expect larger crowds on these dates than the ones earlier in the year when tickets did not sell out and attendance was sparse.
We’re not trying to rain on any parades–we happen to enjoy After Hours at DHS–just trying to properly set expectations. To be sure, it’s still a fundamentally low-crowds event and wait times are going to be low even on sold out nights–just not quite that low! This is not an attempt to discourage you from attending–After Hours is a fantastic splurge and most attendees rate it very highly.
With that in mind, here’s what you need to know about the 2024 After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Ticket prices vary based on date:
Event Date | Price (Excludes Tax) | Price for Passholders and Disney Vacation Club Members (Excludes Tax) |
---|---|---|
Wednesday, January 10, 2024 | $155 | $125 |
Wednesday, January 24, 2024 | $165 | $135 |
Wednesday, February 21, 2024 (SOLD OUT) | $175 | $145 |
Monday, February 26, 2024 | $175 | $145 |
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 (SOLD OUT) | $175 | $145 |
Wednesday, March 20, 2024 | $175 | $145 |
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 (SOLD OUT) | $175 | $145 |
Wednesday, April 3, 2024 | $175 | $145 |
Wednesday, April 10, 2024 | $175 | $145 |
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 | $175 | $145 |
Wednesday, May 29, 2024 | $175 | $145 |
Wednesday, June 12, 2024 | $165 | $135 |
Wednesday, June 19, 2024 | $165 | $135 |
Wednesday, June 26, 2024 | $165 | $135 |
Wednesday, July 10, 2024 | $165 | $135 |
Wednesday, July 17, 2024 | $165 | $135 |
Wednesday, July 24, 2024 | $155 | $125 |
Wednesday, July 31, 2024 | $155 | $125 |
Wednesday, August 7, 2024 | $155 | $125 |
Wednesday, August 14, 2024 | $145 | $115 |
Wednesday, August 21, 2024 | $145 | $115 |
Thursday, August 29, 2024 | $145 | $115 |
These are some pretty steep price increases as compared to the previous year, with After Hours ticket costs up by around $30 to $36, depending upon the date. This was already an expensive event before, and now it’s even pricier.
Whether the event is “worth it” is obviously subjective. We’ve been saying for years that we view this as a quasi-VIP experience and think it’s one of the few upcharge offerings at Walt Disney World that is worth the money. However, at these new higher price points, it’s a really tough sell. (We’ll be voting with our wallets, and not doing it.)
With all of that said, every single date of After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios sold out last year, so it’s easy to see how they justified such massive price increases. We may not agree with value proposition anymore, but clearly, plenty of other guests do.
One of the hallmarks of the After Hours events at Walt Disney World is the unlimited ice cream novelties, popcorn, and bottled beverages. These are all included in the cost of this ticketed event–you simply walk up to outdoor vending carts stationed throughout DHS and grab a Premium Mickey Bar, Coca-Cola, or whatever else.
You can also purchase food and beverages at select dining locations, but this is typically a terrible use of the limited event time. Eat before you arrive or fill up on ice cream and other treats on-the-go during After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
During After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, attractions will include:
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster(closed for multi-month refurbishment in 2024)- Slinky Dog Dash
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Toy Story Mania!
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
The operative question about After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is how many rides can you accomplish? Narrowing that a bit further, we assume most people reading this are concerned with headliners like Slinky Dog Dash–and how much time can be saved by paying to attend After Hours versus a normal day at DHS.
During the last After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we did the following:
- Slinky Dog Dash (x3)
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (x3)
- Tower of Terror (x2)
- Alien Swirling Saucers (x1)
- Toy Story Mania (x1)
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (x1)
That’s a total of 11 attractions, and we could’ve easily done more if efficiency were our lone goal and we didn’t crisscross the park as much.
We also ate about a half dozen ice cream novelties and had a few Cokes, each of which are also unlimited/included in the cost of admission during the event. You can learn more about pricing and 2024 Disney After Hours dates on the official website.
As noted above, After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios does not require regular theme park admission and allows entry as early as 7 p.m. As with the Disney’s Hollywood Studios version of the event, the special event begins 30 minutes after official park closing–at 9:30 p.m., and runs for 3 hours until 12:30 a.m. This means you can see Fantasmic or knock out a few less-popular attractions during the mix-in that starts before After Hours officially kicks off.
The last time we attended, we did Slinky Dog Dash as soon as the event officially began. Surprisingly, the line had already nearly or totally cleared of day guests. Unfortunately, everyone else who had arrived for After Hours had this same idea, so the line was roughly 10 minutes long. Incredibly short by Slinky Dog Dash standards, but our longest line of the night.
We probably could’ve done a bit more variety and fewer rides on the roller coasters, but those are the things with the longest daytime waits, so they were our focus. Just with the top two items, we conservatively saved 10 hours of time in line (give or take).
Of course, not many people are going to choose to wait in line an hour-plus for Slinky Dog Dash twice in the same day, much less six times, so the amount of time “saved” here is slightly deceptive. I mean, we also had countless Mickey Premium Bars, bottled water, and Coke–the value of which would’ve exceeded $50 were we paying out of pocket, but I would never buy a bottle of water at Walt Disney World in the first place, much less 6 of them in a day.
Throughout the night, the only attraction with any line was Slinky Dog Dash, which was at its longest at the beginning of the night. Tower of Terror also had a wait in the boiler room, but that’s a result of how it loads and not a function of crowds.
Everything else was a near walk-on for the entirety of the night. On Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, we had our own train once, and most rides on that were less than one-third full. The good news with both RnRC and Tower of Terror is that the pre-shows were optional. We watched each once (because unlike Flight of Passage, they’re awesome) and then skipped both on subsequent rides.
Despite this, Disney’s Hollywood Studios felt slightly busier than the After Hours at EPCOT event. Part of this is a function of park size, DHS being far more compact. We’d also hazard a guess that there were more attendees at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios event.
Going forward, we’d anticipate that attendance will increase at the After Hours as positive word of mouth spreads. However, even if double the number of tickets are sold, we still wouldn’t expect the event to feel significantly different. Most ride vehicles (save for Slinky Dog Dash) were being dispatched partially empty, so there was plenty of capacity to spare in those ‘walk-on’ wait times.
It’s also worth noting that none of Disney’s Hollywood Studios major entertainment offerings run exclusively during After Hours. This almost necessitates a return visit to the park a different day, unless you’ve already ‘been there, done that’ with all of the shows.
During that different day, we’d also recommend doing any attractions that are really lengthy from start to finish (Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run) or that don’t offer tremendous time savings during After Hours (Star Tours).
In terms of tips, our advice would be to start at the Sunset Boulevard rides and end with Toy Story Land. The latter was definitely busiest right after fireworks, and by the time that crowd cycled through Slinky Dog Dash a couple of times, it pretty much dissipated.
Our advice would be to plan your arrival to Toy Story Land for the second half of the event. At this point, your average cycle time (wait time plus ride plus exiting) for Slinky Dog Dash or Toy Story Mania should be at or under 15 minutes, and at or under 5 minutes for Alien Swirling Saucers or the meet & greets.
Another big piece of advice for After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is to save Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance until near the end of the evening. This is going to be the reason that many or most people purchase tickets to After Hours at DHS, and a lot of them are going to prioritize it. The line will almost certainly be worst early-on, and significantly shorter in the last hour of the event.
Our expectation is that a lot of guests will go in with the expectation of doing “unlimited” rides on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, with grandiose ideas of riding it dozens of times during the event. That is, until reality sets in.
In all likelihood, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance will start out with wait times of at least 30 minutes when the event starts (if not longer). People will endure that once or maybe twice, before moving on to other attractions. Others will keep riding, but burnout will inevitably set-in for a couple of reasons.
First, as great as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is–and we think it’s the #1 attraction at Walt Disney World–it’s not incredibly re-rideable in the back-to-back-to-back (etc.) sense. It’s a great storytelling attraction, not one that delivers thrills or prompts a visceral reaction.
Second, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is long. It’s a multi-phase attraction, and it won’t be possible to skip all or perhaps any of the pre-shows during After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We’ve found that even with perfect timing, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance takes 18 minutes to experience from start-to-finish.
That’s the absolute best case scenario. More likely, those attendees who line up early are going to sink almost an hour into one ride on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Those who do two rides back to back at the start of the event are likely to eat up nearly 90 minutes of their After Hours time. Few will do 3 consecutive rides as a result.
Even if you did Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance from the moment you could enter DHS until the conclusion of After Hours, it’s likely you’d only manage about 10 rides on the Galaxy’s Edge headliner. So not exactly “unlimited” rides no matter how you slice it. (Honestly, that’s fine by us. We absolutely adore Rise of the Resistance, but I couldn’t do it 10 consecutive times. It would start to lose its luster and the magic would wear off. For me, twice during the evening is pretty much perfect.)
Accordingly, our strong recommendation is saving Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance until the very end. If you only want to do the attraction once, you can jump in line 1 minute before After Hours ends. This will effectively extend the event, as you’ll do your waiting in line and most of the lengthy attraction duration after the event has officially ended.
If you want to do Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance twice, consider doing it once around 90 minutes before the event concludes, then bounce over to Toy Story Land for a bit, and then return to Rise of the Resistance again 1 minute before After Hours ends. This is a better balanced approach, and also mitigates the risk of downtime (if you wait until the very end, there’s always a chance that Rise of the Resistance will be down and not come back up during the event–it still suffers from reliability and downtime woes).
We’d also recommend sticking to one area, doing that on repeat, and not returning. Even though Disney’s Hollywood Studios isn’t huge, the walk from Toy Story Land or Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to Sunset Boulevard is a time eater.
We didn’t follow our own advice here, instead doing each a couple of times, grabbing some of the included refreshments, and then slowly meandering back towards the other while eating our Mickey’s Premium Bars or what have you.
After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios bears similarities to the Animal Kingdom event. As is the case there, this is a headliner-heavy event. Whereas you can go for variety at Magic Kingdom, the lineup here is more limited. To get the most value from a time-savings perspective out of After Hours at DHS, you need to be interested in riding Slinky Dog Dash and/or Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster multiple times.
We think that’s really what the event comes down to. You certainly don’t need to ride them both a combined 10 times as we did, but you’ll want to do them more than a few times. If you’re a roller coaster junkie, this is a great event, and the fact that both of these headliners are near walk-ons (and that you can skip the RnRC pre-show) means you could do loops of both and get your ride counts into the double digits over the course of the night.
Conversely, if you’re only interested in experiencing everything once, arriving for Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios or even doing our Half-Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Itinerary with a strong Genie+ game should be sufficient.
Whether you should do After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios comes down to your personal attraction priorities (are you a roller coaster junkie who wants to loop the two major ones here?), budget, and averseness to crowds. If you hate crowds and are willing to splurge on ~$175 per person tickets, After Hours at DHS will be a good event for you.
For thrill junkies, doing Slinky Dog Dash or Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster on repeat is a great strategy–and one that will result in a high ride count, as both of these attractions are short duration and can be looped pretty easily. In particular, Slinky Dog Dash is a great attraction to do during After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as it has no pre-show and normally is a top 5 attraction in all of Walt Disney World in terms of the posted wait time! DHS is also the most difficult Genie+ Lightning Lane to book, so doing After Hours instead relieves that pressure.
Ultimately, there is no “perfect” approach to efficiently approaching Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Genie+ works well, but not nearly to the degree that it does at Magic Kingdom–and it requires staying the whole day at DHS due to return windows getting pushed out. Early Entry is another excellent option, but will only help you hit ~3 headliners. Showing up late is another savvy strategy, but it also won’t allow you to get everything done, let alone multiple rides on headliners.
This leaves the After Hours event as the best way to efficiently “do” DHS in a frustration-free way. Obviously, this comes with a very high price, so After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios isn’t going to be “worth it” for most or even many Walt Disney World guests…but that’s kind of the point. A limited capacity event keeps things manageable, and results in a more pleasant experience for those who can afford it. We won’t be doing the 2024 After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but if you have a big budget and don’t mind splurging, this event is fun and a good minimize stress and headaches that often occur at DHS.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ After Hours event? Planning on doing the 2024 After Hours at DHS to see how many times you can ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in a single night? Is this something that interests you, or is the cost too high to justify? How many times would you want to do the two coasters in a single night? Do you agree or disagree with our review of the event? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Hi Tom. What do you think the chances are of them adding more after hour events to September and beyond? I am hoping they do as I did not get the chance to go to the HS event in February.
Also wondering about this – would love to attend for our Sep trip
We did HS After Hours Mid March 2023. The event was sold out and we were able to do everything we wanted for the most part but Millenium Falcon. Rock n Roller Coaster was closed then for refurb. It was fun and we are planning on doing it again but it feel like you need to plan it right to be able to ride everything. Before the event started we did Star Tours and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway which was a mistake because the line was soooo long.. We then jumped in line for Alien Saucer Spin at the start of the event which broke down but my younger ones wanted to wait it out. It set us back maybe 20 minutes. We walked onto Toy Story Mania. Then Slinky, which was our longest wait. That was probably a 30 minute wait. At that point it was almost 10:30, We skipped Millenium because it was showing a 35 minute wait and did Rise then trekked to Tower. By this time it was just about midnight and everyone was ready to be done. The “free” snacks were a plus to try to keep us going when we were getting tired.
I had a great time on the 10th – generally walking onto every ride. I did Star Tours 3 times, starting at just after 7pm since it had a 5 minute wait even with the day visitors still in the park, got a holiday special pop tart from Woody’s lunch box before it closed, then walked into Smuggler’s Run 4 times followed by Rise twice. Slinky Dog Dash was down for much of the evening, so I walked past it and had a 30 minute wait for Toy Story Mania, then a walk-on for Tower of Terror followed by Mickey & Minnie. SDD finally reopened as I was almost to RotR for my last ride of the evening, so I went past and got in a 30 minute line for it and then called it a night at just after midnight. For my free snacks I had ate a box of popcorn and a diet coke and brought home another one of each. I got what I expected from the evening and felt it was worth my time and money.
Can adults dress up in character/cosplay (Star Wars) for the After Hours events?
I thought that I saw pics of them doing it at Disneyland.
1) That was probably a *Star Wars* themed After Hours at DLR, not just a generic one.
2) I have to ask if you mean “Batuu bounding,” where you dress like you’re “in universe,” basically like an extra from a SW movie, or do tou mean a “hero cosplay,” where you where the costume of a specific, recognizable character like Leia, Rey, Kylo, Anakin, etc. Bounding is always fine. Technically, I believe hero cosplays are not ok for people over age 13 BUT I will say nobody cared at DHS when I visited on May the Fourth Be With You 2022, an unofficial holiday of sorts. Reys, Leias, Padmes, Anakin’s, Obi-Wans, Hans we’re all over, as well as people in orange Rebel flight suits.
3) In any case, masks and helmets are always Not Allowed for safety and security reasons. Anything that covers your face or obstructs your vision is a No Go. So, Ep 3 Anakin is fine, but Ep 4 Darth Vader with long cape and helmet is not.
I just wrote my commentary andreview — for the second time today — based on our experience at After Hours last night, and the page reloaded both times and blew it away. So I’m done writing all the details, here’s my quick impression: Overall good, Slinky Dog was down most of the event and did not open until close to the end of the night (so we did not get to ride), did get RoR twice, as well as M&MRRx2, Tower of Terror x1, Smugglers Run x1, Toy Story Mania x2. Point being, don’t splurge for the tickets with the assumption you’ll get to do everything as much as you want regardless of crowds (which I don’t think were “ghost town” levels by any means but I guess it’s all perspective). The fact is rides still go down (M&MRR was down for a while too) and there’s no guarantee you’ll get to do them. We still had a good time. Oh, also don’t buy tix thinking the “complimentary” (they love to use that word, even after the $155 ticket price) food is going to make it worth it either — it’s a mickey bar and a box of popcorn, and I guess some drinks although I had brought my own water as usual. In summary, it was “worth it” for our family to get to ride RoR twice with almost no wait, but we are still left having to figure out Slinky for another day — which we are lucky to have the chance to do since we are early in our trip. Just be flexible going in!
Tom, I have a trip planned Feb 3-10. I was checking the park hours to see if anything had changed for the week and I noticed there is now a special ticketed event at DHS Sunday, Feb 4 from 9:00 pm to 1:00 am. There is no After Hours event scheduled for that day. Any idea what it could be?
I recently read something about the cheerleader event that weekend having a private party after hours on that date.
My family and I are planning to be at Hollywood studios on February 21st as regular day guests. Do you think the park might be less busy that day because people are avoiding it because of the after hours event later that day? Thanks.
Probably not.
After Hours typically does not have the same impact on daytime crowds as MNSSHP or MVMCP at Magic Kingdom.
Hey Tom. Considering going to the February Orlando Informer meetup in Universal and then doing Afterhours DHS Monday night. Do you think the lack of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster materially impacts the value of this event? The orlando informer meetups are awesome and I’m trying to figure out how to best use a short trip to orlando. Given that it’s half marathon weekend I’m hesitant to do a regular day or two at Disney.
Since RnR and ToT are not listed for this years attractions for HS after hours…. Do you think it’s not included ??
I don’t see dates the first week in March, disappointing!
We are considering doing the HS After Hours event this spring to take advantage of short lines… but wondered, do you think it is worth it to do it when Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster is down for refurbishment? That is definitely one of our favorites… but just wasn’t sure it was worth the price tag and limited hours with one of the “headliners” being down.
Do you have a similar review of 2023 After Hours at Disney’s Magic Kingdom? I couldn’t find it.
We are staying in a Deluxe resort and have the option to do MK Extended hours (if we get ticket/reserve MK) or purchase AH at HS. What would you recommend? This is also a night that MM is at Epcot. We have two kids 2/1 but can leave them behind with parents to enjoy one of these options.
Do you know why this is not offered the first two weeks of February? Is there something else going on?
Isn’t RNR going to be closed beginning late February 2023 for maintenance.
Did they have Character meet and greets during after hours? One of our group members would loves meet and greets especially want to see Star Wars= Darth Vador, Chewy
Thanks
They did previously, but keep in mind that it’s been 3 years and a LOT has changed since then. I wouldn’t count on characters until/unless they are announced.
Does anyone know if you can book a lightning lane plus for ROTR during the 7:00-9:00 window or does the extra hours ticket not count as a park reservation?
We just went to the Extended Evening hours at HS last Thursday for Deluxe guests and when we entered at park closing 9pm I checked the wait times. Based on that we started at Toy Story Mania and then did Smugglers run (both walk on) by the time we got to Star Wars it was a walk on just 30 min into the after hours. We should have done Mickey and Minnie (no wait) next but Tower of Terror was my priority and we only had 2 hours. Unfortunately this ended up being the longest line with only 1 tower in operation so we ended up waiting a while and then swinging back to Mickey and Minnie (couldn’t get to slinky dog by 11). So overall for 2 hours we did everything but Rock n Roller coaster which was down for a while anyway and Slinky Dog. So if the crowds are like they were this night then you should be able to enjoy a lot with minimal wait.
Thanks for that report. We are planning on going this Thursday and appreciated your data.
Great info! We love the after hour event and really want to try DHS this year. However, the included rides listed on Disney’s site DO NOT include RNR and Tower. Your list includes those 2 rides. Do you anticipate Disney adding them to the available attractions? list? If not, I’m not sure it is worth the money. Only 6 rides are included in the event as of right now. Thanks!! Always appreciate the info!
Just to clarify – this is for 2023 After Hours dates!!
I do think it’s likely that Walt Disney World will add After Hours dates for May 2023 and beyond–possibly with a themed summer event at Magic Kingdom.
I do NOT think it’s likely that more dates will be added within the current calendars. They likely skipped the peak of spring break due to the crowds those weeks, and the resulting “need” to operate DHS with the full slate of regular hours for those dates.