A Disney World park practically empty — how is that even possible?!? Two Words: After Hours.
EPCOT After Hours
Disney World’s After Hours Events are separately ticketed events that allow guests to enjoy beloved attractions with lower wait times for an extra three hours after the park closes to the public, plus enjoy included snacks and drinks. Guests can enter the park at 7 PM, giving them a few extra hours in the park before the event even begins! We recently attended an After Hours Event at EPCOT, and we couldn’t believe how different the park felt!
Before we get into some of our experiences, let’s have a quick rundown of what’s offered at the park during these events. Attractions generally scheduled to be available during EPCOT’s After Hours Events include:
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
- Frozen Ever After
- Soarin’ Across America
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros
- Living with the Land
- Mission: SPACE
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends
- Spaceship Earth
- Test Track
In addition, there are free snack offerings, as well as some open merchandise and food locations, unique entertainment offerings, and character appearances scattered throughout the park. Alright, with that out of the way, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of what it was like to be in the park during this event.
After Hours
It Felt “Empty”
The biggest thing we noticed was just how empty the park felt, even compared to Hollywood Studios during an After Hours Event. This was mainly due to EPCOT’s massive size and layout, which leads to a much more spread-out crowd. Plus, the back half of World Showcase (between France and China) was fully closed off, leading to an interesting crowd flow that required people to travel to the front of World Showcase to get between Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After.
Empty EPCOT
Maple Popcorn!
As mentioned above, one of the included perks with After Hours tickets is some snacks. These usually include bottled soft drinks, popcorn, and Mickey Ice Cream Bars. However, EPCOT’s Canada Pavilion offered a surprise treat, as the pavilion offered the delicious maple popcorn FREE to party guests!
Maple Popcorn
Drinking Around the World is Difficult
As mentioned above, all of World Showcase between France and China was closed during the event. Plus, there wasn’t much open in some of the open pavilions, including La Cava del Tequila being shuttered. In other words, it’s hard to engage in classic drinking around the world during the party.
La Cava del Tequila
Wait Times Were SHORT
A major part of the appeal of these After Hours Events is shorter wait times, and our experience at EPCOT lived up to that. All of the available rides were under an hour, and truthfully, outside of the big attractions like Cosmic Rewind, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Frozen Ever After, pretty much everything was close to a walk-on.
Walk on!
If a night at a vibe-filled empty EPCOT sounds appealing to you, the park’s remaining 2026 After Hours Events are scheduled for September 16th and 24th. Guests with After Hours Event tickets can enter the park at 7 PM, and the event lasts from 9:30 PM to 12:30 AM. Event tickets are $155 to $189 per ticket, plus tax, depending on the date. If you can’t make those dates, you’ll need to wait for the 2027 dates to be announced. Stay tuned to DFB for more on those dates as they’re announced!
I Tried After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and There Are Two Things I’d Do Differently Next Time
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Have you attended an After Hours Event? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below.
Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. We were invited by Disney World to attend EPCOT’s After Hours Event. Note that when we attend events as media, we are 1) not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ
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I hope there are after hours events offered on our next trip. We normally visit at a time of year when they’re aren’t being offered. Maybe we’ll be able to catch some extended evening hours.