Visit Date: April 2, 2026

There’s something about being in theme parks after-dark — the lights, the ambiance, the lower crowds.  There’s a certain feeling of exclusivity that comes with being in a Disney park after it closes, and the park has made sure to capitalize on it.

After years of various in-park offerings once the normal operating day has ended, from holiday parties to exclusive events, Walt Disney World brought back its After-Hours Events in 2023, and has continued to offer these through the years that followed. The events allow guests to purchase a special ticket to either Epcot, Hollywood Studios, or Magic Kingdom on select dates (January through September for the first two parks and January through July for the latter).

Two tickets for this event cost us $381.28 total and included admission to Epcot starting at 7pm until 12:30am. Additionally, tickets included unlimited snacks — Mickey novelty ice creams, popcorn, Coke products, and bottled waters — at select food and beverage carts. While admission for this special event starts at 7pm, the official event technically begins at 9pm, which is when the park closes to all regular admission guests. To differentiate between late night guests and regular guests, we were given a special wristband. After 9pm, cast members checked wristbands at the ride queue entrance and turned away any regular guests.

Two tickets for this event cost us $381.28 total and included admission to Epcot starting at 7pm until 12:30am. Additionally, tickets included unlimited snacks — Mickey novelty ice creams, popcorn, Coke products, and bottled waters — at select food and beverage carts. While admission for this special event starts at 7pm, the official event technically begins at 9pm, which is when the park closes to all regular admission guests. To differentiate between late night guests and regular guests, we were given a special wristband. After 9pm, cast members checked wristbands at the ride queue entrances and turned away any regular guests.

Here’s what we accomplished:

6:38pm: Entered park (before the advertised 7pm entrance time)

** Ate around at Epcot’s Flower & Garden food booths **

8:33pm: Journey Into Imagination with Figment

8:54pm: Living with the Land

9pm — This is when the park officially closed and only guests who had paid for the event could enter attraction lines

9:14pm: Soarin’

10:05: Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure

Snack Break — Sodas, Popcorn, & Ice Cream

10:30pm: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

11:15pm: Test Track

Snack Break — Sodas & Ice Cream

11:59pm: Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana

12:10am: Spaceship Earth

There are a couple of important notes about this event specifically before buying tickets. The first, while applicable to all three parks, is that not every shop, food booth, or restaurant is open after park close. This didn’t impact our experience at Magic Kingdom, but at a park like Epcot where eating and drinking is a large draw, this could affect your experience at this event. And this is why we spent the first two hours of our time in the park eating instead of riding rides – we knew that the rides would be open later, but the food options closed as early as 8:30pm, with the remaining shutting down at 9. There are a few food options still open late (but not included in the ticket price), which were denoted on the event brochure. 

Another issue that we ran into is that there didn’t seem to be enough of the snack carts placed around the park. Epcot is a huge area (300 to 305 acres!), and the four advertised snack carts’ locations weren’t super convenient for us, so we ended up backtracking to find them or skipped a snack break altogether if one wasn’t located nearby. We were shocked that there weren’t more carts, and the ones that were there closed early or ran out of offerings.

So the big question is, was this worth it? For us, this experience was not worth the high price tag. We really enjoyed our Magic Kingdom after-hours event last year and found it to be of great value, agreeing that we would definitely do it again.  However, this event felt different (and luckily was slightly cheaper). We didn’t get as many rides done in the same timeframe, which was probably due to two factors. 

The first can be attributed to the layout of Epcot – everything is pretty spread out, and even just walking between rides can take 10-20 minutes. There’s a reason that the RunDisney 5k goes through this park! This was a main contributor to us not getting onto the Frozen ride in Norway – we didn’t have time to walk there when there were no other rides in that area. Another note about the layout is that the path connecting the country pavilions from France to Norway is closed. This meant that in order to get from France (Remy) to Norway (Frozen), you need to walk all the way around the front of World Showcase. This wasn’t worth it to us, which is why we only rode Remy and not Frozen.

Additionally, I think we picked a bad time of year to attend. The Thursday before Easter meant that the park was busier than normal during the day hours, and that busyness extended into the evenings too. We were especially excited at the idea of getting to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind multiple times. The line for Soarin’ was really the painpoint of our day – we ended up waiting close to, if not over, an hour for this attraction. We didn’t know this when we got into line, and if we had known, we definitely would not have waited. The crowds were significantly higher than we anticipated, but that may have just been the day we were there. While we watched YouTube videos before our trip of other people walking right onto rides, even the more popular ones, that wasn’t our experience. 

With all of this being said, it was still a fun event, and I don’t regret going. I think I should’ve just adjusted my expectations, especially with it being right before a holiday weekend. Epcot is a really beautiful park, especially at night, and I loved getting to experience it without the crowds. The Moana water experience is especially enjoyable when there are less (and in our case, no) people around. And, as I always say, any time spent at Disney is better than not going to Disney at all! 

While we didn’t find this event as productive as the last one, the most important thing to us was being able to share the Disney magic with my little sister, who’s currently a first-year veterinary student at the University of Florida. Because of her busy class schedule, this was the only time that we could take her to the parks. That’s one perk of the event – being able to visit the park during hours that may work better for you and your availability.

Overall, I would still definitely recommend an after-hours event if it’s in your budget, but I in no way feel it’s a must-do experience. If you’re on limited time or want to experience the parks with shorter wait times, this could be a good event for you! We still have to attend a Hollywood Studios after-hours event but hopefully we’ll have an opportunity to do so in the future!

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU:

Do you think this event was worth the cost? What are some of your favorite memories of Epcot? Do you have any Disney questions that we can answer?