EPCOT After Dark: Your Ultimate Guide to After Hours Fun!

What could be better than riding Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind with little to no wait? Nothing, is the correct answer! This past February, Ian and I attended EPCOT After Hours while in Walt Disney World for our parent getaway weekend! We had an absolute blast and I think this is something everyone should add to their “must do at least once” list!

Disney’s After Hours Events happen on select nights throughout the year in select theme parks. Make sure to check the dates and parks before your arrival. You will also want to book the tickets in advance since these events can sell out quickly! The event officially begins one hour after park closing but we could get in beginning at 7pm. I highly recommend going somewhere for dinner beforehand so you can take full advantage of the night! We arrived around 7:30pm after having dinner at our favorite Disney Springs restaurant, The Boathouse. Following the signs for check in, we were given wrist bands to show at the attractions throughout the night so they knew we were with the event.

Arriving early gave us a chance to walk around the World Showcase, get some drinks, and watch the fireworks! As soon as the fireworks ended we bolted to our first attraction of the evening, Journey Into Imagination with Figment. We then decided to head over to Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind and it was only a 15 minute wait! This was the theme of the evening! Attraction wait times were low or nonexistent.

We didn’t really come in with a game plan and I regret that. We went from one side of the park to the other multiple times and I’ll be honest we didn’t get to ride every attraction! We were unable to get on about five rides but that’s ok! Some of them are definitely a skip for us (here’s looking at you Mission Space) but we were disappointed we didn’t get to ride Spaceship Earth and one of my personal favorites, Living with the Land. Riding Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind multiple times was a must. Normally this attraction is a virtual queue or you need to purchase an individual lightning lane but during this event it never went higher than a 15 minute wait. In reality that’s about how long it takes to go through both pre-shows so it was really a walk on! I am glad we rode it twice because our second song was September and it made a perfect ending to the night! I recommend going into this event with an attraction plan! We would have liked to ride everything but we just ran out of time! Come up with a list of your must do and skips! Also complete everything on one side of the park and don’t go back and forth, it wastes valuable time!

Besides the minimal wait for attractions, there are other perks to this event! Let’s chat about snacks! During the event you can get free popcorn, ice cream, bottles of water, and bottles of soda. Did I mention they are all unlimited?! If you are attending this event in the beginning of your trip, I would bring a backpack to put as much water and soda as it can carry! That way you won’t have to worry about it for the rest of your vacation. I wish we would have gotten more snacks throughout the evening although we did fill up on popcorn and ice cream. There are some other food options for an additional price available as well. Since you are in EPCOT you know there is a bar open somewhere! Rose and Crown Pub was open for drinks throughout the night. There was nothing better than free Disney popcorn and a pint of Guinness after riding Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure!

While the entire park is not open for the event, there is still a lot of ground to cover! We never even made it into the Moana section. Connections were open for some late-night shopping, and there was also a DJ in two different areas of the park. We saw the main mouse himself and multiple other characters meeting and greeting! Can I just say Chip and Dale can bust a serious move! It really felt like we had the park all to ourselves! Since this is a separate ticketed event, a limited number of tickets are sold. Everyone we saw was having a magical time!

Time for the big question: was this worth the extra cost? In my humble opinion, absolutely!! Disney After-Hour events are perfect for date nights, celebrations, and everything else in between. They are for the foodies, the attraction junkies, and the shopaholics! Ian and I had an incredible time and we would definitely do this again. I have to admit that with each visit, EPCOT is slowly becoming my favorite Walt Disney World theme park. Walking through the United Kingdom with little to no crowds singing “Party in the USA” at the top of my lungs is a core memory I’ll never forget!