I Will Use Up All My Meal Credits If It Kills Me Trip Report - May 2016 - Day 8 - After Hours Party

[leighlee]

Day 8 - Thursday 5th May Epcot and Disney After Hours at Magic Kingdom

This was our first EMH at Epcot. As usual we got there early and were at the front of the queue to get through the scanners. When we got through there we headed towards the rope in front of Spaceship Earth, but a cast member called us over to the right hand side, so we headed up there. She asked us if we had a dining reservation (we didn’t), but she told us we could stay to the right anyway which was a bit weird as everyone else was queuing up at rope drop other than the people who had reservations (and us!). We did wonder if we should stay in this queue as it seemed wrong, but that’s what we had been told to do, so we stayed there.

In the end they let the people with dining reservations (and us) into the park 10 minutes earlier than the rest. The people behind the rope weren’t too happy by the sounds of it. This resulted in us spending a good 10 minutes by the fountains taking loads of photos waiting for the main queue to start heading our way. This was a bit awkward, but we didn’t really have any other choice and nobody told us to move along. Once the main crowd started heading our way, we headed over to Test Track. We were still beaten to the front of the queue by a father and young son who insisted on running, even when cast members told them not to! (and breathe). We kept our dignity and just walked.

We were soon on our way to the Test Track Waiting area, where the cast members proceeded to make a mess of directing us on where to queue, because nobody realised that 2/3 people had to stand on each number, so we all stood separately. The cast members looked a bit pi***d off by this and moved everyone to the correct place (would have been useful for them to tell us to stand 2/3 per number before sending us to queue:angry: ). Also is it me, but are cast members a little grumpier than they used to be? At this point we were now at the back of our row, so it didn’t make any difference that we were near the front of the queue going in:angry:.

Once we got through to the area to build the car, we did that. It was quite interesting and I am sure the kids will love it, but I would have rather gone straight through to the ride at this point. As it was our row got released last into the final queue, so now we were even further back and waited a good 15 minutes to get on the ride as the last queue moved very slowly. After this we decided that we would use the single rider line, unless we had a fast pass as the queuing system was not great in the standby or fast pass queue. If Soaring had been open, I would have always got a fast pass for that and used the single rider queue for Test Track as in most cases we only had to wait 10 minutes in the single rider queue.

Anyway back to Test Track, we didn’t really like the new design of Test Track. I know it’s the same track, but the graphics and displays are not as easy to follow. It’s still a great ride though and I love the end bit when you speed around the building, it’s such a rush. In the end I think the car we designed came 3rd, although it won at least 2 of the tests so not sure what happened there. We scanned our magic bands to get the ride photo and then headed out.

After Test Track, we went to Spaceship Earth, then The Seas with Nemo & Friends. By now it was time for our Test Track Fast Pass, so we headed back there and that took only 10 minutes to get through the queue I think. We then went on Living with The Land which only had a small queue and I always find this pretty interesting, especially as there are always some hidden Mickeys to find. We had a quick snack of pastries at the food court in the Soaring building (2 snack credits which would have cost $8.08 OOP).

After that we had a fast pass for the Pixar Film Festival (we didn’t really need a fast pass for that, but there are not many options at Epcot). The festival is three 3D Short Films and they were really entertaining, much better than we were expecting. Far more interesting than the old Captain EO.

I should point out that Soaring was closed while we were there which was really disappointing as it’s one of our favourite rides in all the parks. Having said that when we were in Disneyland California in October 2015, we had ridden Soaring loads of times in the 4 days we were there.

We then had to queue about 10 minutes to ride Journey Into The Imagination (I don’t think I have ever had to queue for this ride before). I don’t love this ride, but it had to be checked off the list at some point. That was all the rides covered (I can’t ride Mission Space as I am too worried about motion sickness. Even on the easy option ride).

At this point we had decided not to bother with EMH at Epcot again on this holiday as there are not really enough rides to make it worthwhile and we can just get fast passes anytime throughout the day. We realised that Soaring is a big part of what makes us enjoy Epcot, so without it, it just wasn’t as interesting.

We then decided to head off into World Showcase as we had heard that the Flower & Garden Festival now included food. We were not disappointed and proceeded to eat our way around the world visiting all the food stands on the way (not eating at every one just browsing and checking out the options! ). We have always been sad that we don’t visit WDW during the food and wine festival, so this made up for missing out on that. I have a few photos of the food so will run through what I tried.

Urban Farm Eats
Seared Pork Tenderlion (1 snack credit – OOP would have been $6).

This was absolutely lovely, really tasty and moist.

Fleur De Lys - France
Cassoulet au Confit de Canard (1 snack credit – OOP would have been $5.75).

This tasted much better than it looked.

French Boulanger
Tarte Aux Chocolat (1 snack credit – OOP would have cost $4.80)
I lose my sweet tooth when I'm in Orlando must be the heat. I can't really remember this and I didn't take a photo.

Florida Fresh
Florida Larder Board & Watermelon Cucumber Slushy (2 snack credits – OOP would have been $9.75).

These were both delicious.

Japan
Beef Teriyaki Udon (1 snack credit – OOP would have been $5.95).

This was nice and tasty. Sorry I'm not great at describing the food but it was all nice there nothing I didn't like.

The Smokehouse
Beef Brisket Burnt Ends Hash, Pulled Pig Slider & Smoked Pork Ribs (1 DDP Meal Credit – OOP would have been $18.50). We found that whenever we asked to pay for 3 snacks with one meal credit in the World Showcase they were happy to do this. In hindsight we should have done it more, earlier on in the holiday as we ended up running out of snack credits before the end of the holiday.

I think this was our favourite food stand around World Showcase. The food was great. I could eat it again and again.

Refreshment Port
Croissant Donut (1 snack credit – OOP would have been $5.32).

This was nice although I preferred the one at BOG which came with maple syrup and cream.

When we got to The American Adventure, we decided to watch the show as it was due to start in 10 minutes and in all our visits we had never bothered to stop for this. The singers in the foyer were really good and kept everyone entertained until it was time to move up to the theatre. The show was of course very patriotic and over the top as expected, but interesting none the less. I was surprised that Lance Armstrong still features in the montage though. You would have thought they would have removed him by now. I guess it shows how old this film is.

We had a browse around the Japan shop, but found it a little expensive so didn’t bother buying anything. We did spend a bit of time watching people picking out their pearls which was fun.

Our belly’s were full by this time, so we headed back to POFQ after stopping by the Disney Gift shop and making a few purchases (which I can't find the receipt for so not sure what I bought). The reason we were going back to the resort was because we had tickets for the After Hours event which started at 10pm and finished at 1am, so we wanted to take a nap through the day so we could make the most of the event as is cost $150 each for the tickets.

After our nap we had tea at Sassagoula Food Court at POFQ. We had Chicken Parmesan Sandwich & Jambalaya with drinks and fruit cups. 2 DDP Meal credits (OOP $37.32).

We headed to Magic Kingdom at about 7.30pm as we had a fast pass for Buzz to use (we booked it after using up our 3 Epcot fast passes). When we got to MK we went through security as normal, then went to a separate scanner specifically for the After Hours Event. We scanned our Magic Bands as normal and were then given a pass to hang around our necks to show that we were part of the event. The pass also had a list of all the rides that would be available to us which was the majority of rides at MK. The only things that would not be open were Carousel of Progress, Transit Authority, Train & the Steam Boat. I think everything else was open including Meet & Greets with Anna & Elsa & Mickey.

Before the event started we decided to go on all the rides and shows that took up the most time, so as not to waste any time once the event started. We decided to go see Monsters Inc Laugh Floor Comedy Club which was very funny, although we spent the majority of the show praying that we wouldn’t be picked on to participate in the show (luckily we weren’t but it does make me a bit panicky). Then we went to Mickey's PhilharMagic. We used our fast pass for Buzz Lightyear then watched Wishes at 10pm. After that we just decided to ride as many rides as possible in the 3 hours of the event. We started at Peter Pan as that was the nearest ride after Wishes finished (as we were sitting around the back of the Castle for Wishes) and walked straight on as there was absolutely no queue.

We then went on Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Buzz (again), Space Mountain, Speedway (have you ever seen this ride with no queue? we walked straight on), 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, Under The Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid, back to 7 Dwarfs, Thunder and Splash Mountain. In between all this we stopped off for quite a few ice creams and drinks which were free during the event (I just can’t help myself if its free I have to take more then I need). At this point it was 12.55am and we were still wide awake, we could definitely have done with another couple of hours in the park to ride everything again. We decided to have one more ride which I would have liked to do Buzz again but there was just no chance to get back there in time so we went back on Thunder Mountain and called it a very happy night.

We tallied up that we rode 14 rides in 3 hours at Magic Kingdom. I’m sure that we could have rode more if we had just gone round and round the same ride as some people were doing, but we both suffer from motion sickness so can’t ride things like 7 Dwarfs, Space and Thunder Mountain numerous times without starting to feel dodgy. In the end we just ran out of time and quite frankly we were surprised that we had managed to stay up so late without flagging, but having a nap during the day really set us up to make the most of this night. There were absolutely no queues anywhere apart from 7 Dwarfs where we maybe had to wait a couple of minutes at most. We had a boat to ourselves on Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean.

It was an amazing night and definitely worth the money. We went there expecting at least a few thousand people, but it really only felt like there were a couple of hundred, which can’t be true, but we didn’t encounter queues anywhere. Most rides were totally walk right on. The free ice-creams and drinks were readily available in numerous places. Considering this is the most popular theme park in the world, it was a great experience having it almost to ourselves. In some places we were literally the only people walking around. We were sorry for the night to end at 1am as we both felt we could have kept going all night. All good things must come to an end though, so we took a slow walk down an almost deserted Main Street and the bus was waiting for us to take us back to POFQ.

I know many people were critical of this After Hours Event and the cost, but for us it was well worth it. No queues, no crowds, no complaints. If they had this event again during our stay I would definitely book it without hesitation. It was one of the best nights of our holiday.

QSDP – 3 meal credits used today/9 snack credits used (45 QSDPs left/11 snack credits left).

Value of QS meals/snacks to date $393.48

Day 9 - BOG, Epcot World Showcase & Fantasmic

Trip Report Index

Leigh

[prettymiarose]

Sounds great fun riding with no queues in the middle of the night! I can imagine it must be a totally different experience. All the foods have made me so hungry! Thanks for posting

[leighlee]

I loved The After Hours Party it was the best thing we did on the holiday, I would love to get the opportunity to do it all over again. The food was delicious.

[waiting4disney]

Sounds like a great evening 😄

I rode mission space green last year and felt ill after. I was fine on the HP rides at universal.

[leighlee]

Thanks for reading. You are braver then me I don't think I will ever have the guts to go on Mission Space.

Leigh Lee

[Excitedx4]

Great day! The party seemed great!

[Leia77]

You've really got me thinking now! I had dismissed the paid EMH, but that sounds like a wonderful way to experience MK. Hmmmm...

Another fab day