Villains After Hours

Written by our Kid Expert Marin Sinclair

On June 13, I had the pleasure of going to the new Villains After Hours Event in Magic Kingdom. This event costs $139 per person, but is definitely worth it. Almost every ride in the park is open, and along with the rides, there are complimentary snacks provided at snack carts around the park. With your ticket, you can get free popcorn, Mickey bars, Sprite, Coke, and water. If you are looking for a special treat, you can pay extra to get villain themed desserts including De Vil’s treat. Found in Casey’s Corner, this is a brownie topped with black and white icing. There are five other specialty food and beverages found throughout the park with themes like Dr Facilier and the Headless Horseman.

Villains After-Hours begins at ten, but you can get in starting at seven without a regular park ticket. We recommend if you are thinking about going to this event, hanging out at the water parks or at Disney Springs, take a nap, and then head into the park using your Villains admission. That way you can save money on a day’s ticket and are ready to stay up having fun.
My mom and I entered the park at around 9:45 and headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. When we got there we were asked since we had the wristbands, if we wanted to ride the ride normally or wait until ten for the villains’ twist. We decided to wait and at exactly ten we were allowed into the queue. Waiting for us were two pirates in the cells interacting with the guests as they passed by. My favorite was the guy in the cell yelling at us to beware and to not go any further. One more pirate was waiting on a bridge for us in the actual ride. The only other ride with a villains twist was Space Mountain which you ride in complete darkness, and for someone who has ridden that ride so many times, riding it in the dark added so much more exciting. We went through the queue and ride at Pirates of the Carribean, in 11 minutes.

After that, we headed over Seven Dwarfs Mine Train because it said it was only a twenty-minute wait. It took us 17 minutes to get through the queue, which on normal summer days could take an hour at best. Once we exited the ride, we rushed over to Liberty Square and was able to see Maleficent in her dragon form shoot fire out of her mouth. As a very big Maleficent fan, this was such a cool thing to be able to see. There is something amazing about seeing a giant dragon shooting fire down the dark streets of Magic Kingdom, and this definitely was one of my favorite parts of the night.

The next part of our night consisted of the Villains Unite the Night stage show by the castle. I am 15 and normally don’t watch the shows, but this one started off with an upbeat DJ playing popular songs and then around a 22-minute show starring Hades and Meg with guest stars of Dr Facilier, Jafar, the Evil Queen, and Maleficent. Along with these notorious villains, there were people who danced, twirled batons with fire, and did tricks with axes. Overall, this was definitely a show not to be missed.

After this, we went to go ride Space Mountain (along with many, many other people). We were worried about all of the people making the line super long, but even then, it only took us six minutes to board the ride. I ride this ride almost every time I go to Disney, but somehow in the dark, it makes it feel like a whole new ride. Like I mentioned earlier, this is definitely not one you want to miss.
We then headed over to Big Thunder and boarded the ride in three minutes. Just like many other rides we rode that night, we walked right onto the ride which is something not easy to do during the summer and was off the ride at about 12:05. Both of us were super exhausted already and had to leave early the next morning to head home, so we started to head out stopping, of course, for popcorn and to browse at the Villains After Hours merch in the Emporium. We ended up leaving around 12:30 and got to our hotel at about one, but we later found out, people were still at the park until 1:40 that morning.

This was definitely one of my favorite after-hour events I have been to because of the good food, the fun show, and of course the incredibly short ride queues. I would recommend this to anyone heading to Disney this summer because you will not be disappointed. Just try not to do what we did and drive back home early the next morning, because I can tell you from experience, it was super hard to get out of bed the next morning.