Disneyland After Dark events offer guests the chance to attend a themed evening in Disneyland Park with special entertainment, characters, menu items, and merchandise. Reoccurring Disneyland After Dark themed evenings include – Sweethearts’ Nite, Disney Channel Nite, Star Wars Nite, and Pride Nite. These specially ticketed events are typically offered on two different nights per theme with exclusive Disneyland Park access from 9 PM to 1 AM. Ticket costs average around $175 per adult and include a commemorative keepsake and the ability to enter the park as early as 6 PM with just your Disneyland After Dark event ticket.
The concept of “Disneyland After Dark” originated in the 1962 episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, hosted by Walt to show all of the evening fun adults could have at Disneyland. Since then, Disneyland After Dark has become one of the best after hours events available at any Disney Park.
So, you can imagine how excited I was to attend my first Disneyland After Dark: 70 Years of Favorites…
Unfortunately, 70 Years of Favorites now has a reputation for being the worst-ever Disneyland After Dark event. There was so much potential – literally 70 years of Disneyland to pull from and yet the entire event felt like an after thought. Based on Ryno’s experience attending Pride Nite and what we experienced together at 70 Years of Favorites, here’s what went wrong and what had potential.
Low Wait Times
Low wait times are true of any Disney after hours event and an added bonus to the special entertainment and characters. Disneyland 70 Years of Favorites did have some low wait times but not everything was a “walk-on”. In fact, the attraction lines didn’t feel much different than any week night at Disneyland Park. This is likely due to the lack of entertainment and characters – more people were enjoying the attractions.
Special Character Meet and Greets
Disneyland 70 Years of Favorites did have some fun character sightings like Mother and Father from Disneyland’s retired Carousel of Progress, Merlin from The Sword in the Stone, Chip ‘n’ Dale in their Rescue Rangers outfits, and Flik and Princess Atta from A Bug’s Life. The problem was the characters were so random and were not completely unique to the event. It would have been great if all the characters were more specific to Disneyland’s history and added to the overall atmosphere. Mother and Father from Carousel of Progress are a great example of this but other characters like Davy Crockett in Frontierland and The Country Bears in Critter Country, would have made this event feel more special.
Photo Ops
The photo ops had some of the longest waits of the night. In fact, we heard multiple guest say they bought tickets just to get a photo with the two floats from The Main Street Electrical Parade. This event would have been a home run if they had just done a smaller cavalcade version of The Main Street Electrical Parade. Even though the event covered all 70 years of Disneyland, it felt like a lot of the early years were missing and more photo-ops with Disneyland’s past attractions and events would have added to the vintage feel.
Entertainment
The two entertainment highlights were definitely the Videopolis ’80’s dance party and swing dancing at the Royal Theatre, both of which were actual entertainment offerings of Disneyland past. At Videopolis, the legendary ’80’s KROQ DJ, Richard Blade, was DJ’ing both nights of the event but unfortunately, this wasn’t really promoted. Unlike other Disneyland After Dark nites, a cavalcade, projection show, or fireworks were still missing. This would have made 70 Years of Favorites feel more like an actual event. If the event opted for more live entertainment, there should have been at least one more offering, like bringing back a version of The Golden Horseshoe Revue in Frontierland.
Special Menu Items
The menu offerings were yet again so random and the novelty items were the same ones you could purchase with a regular theme park ticket. Adding retired novelties or even a special churro would have gone a long way. It was also a huge bummer that most of the restaurants closed early in the event. Since Jolly Holiday was one of the few that stayed open, we waited almost an hour to get our food. The lack of offerings made the event feel half-baked.
Misery loves company, so be sure to watch our full video experience of Disneyland After Dark: 70 Years of Favorites. In fairness, we still had fun and it’s great video of enjoying the atmosphere of nighttime at Disneyland. Other Disneyland After Dark events like Sweethearts’ Nite and Pride Nite continue to sell-out each year because they excel in all of these areas. So don’t let this one event discourage you from attending. In fact, we wish Walt Disney World themed their After Hours events in a similar way.
