We’ve achieved dozens of particular occasions at Walt Disney World and Disneyland during the last decade-plus. Halloween and Christmas events extra instances than I can depend, plus After Hours and After Darkish Nites, and a wide range of now-extinct choices.
Again once we began attending, tickets to Mickey’s Halloween and Christmas events had been ~$30. We’ve continued going as costs at the moment are 5 instances that, as these occasions are our favourite instances within the park. I don’t dare do the maths on how a lot we’ve spent over time on particular occasions–some silly quantity, absolutely.
And but, one in every of our favourite events is free. Properly, kind of. I’m referring to Moonlight Magic, the after hours social gathering for Disney Trip Membership Members. That is “free” within the sense that tickets don’t value cash and likewise for the reason that occasion shouldn’t be funded by our annual dues. However in fact, becoming a member of DVC is a colossal barrier to entry. So this is sort of a free with buy factor…however as a substitute of getting free fries once you purchase a Massive Mac, it’s a free occasion when you spend ~$15k or extra. Potato, potahto…am I proper?!
For many who are unfamiliar with Moonlight Magic, it’s considerably just like Disney After Hours or Disneyland After Darkish, the $100+ per evening exhausting ticket occasions at Walt Disney World or Disneyland. Should you’re not a DVC Member, you may think about the Disney After Hours occasion instead.
Each are low-crowd “after hours” occasions that provide alternatives to expertise points of interest with minimal waits and revel in limitless meals and refreshments. We’ve attended Moonlight Magic at each Walt Disney World park besides Blizzard Seashore (I don’t assume they’ve ever achieved the occasion there…however I may very well be incorrect) and often have a blast. Oddly sufficient, our two most typical parks for Moonlight Magic are Disney California Journey and Storm Lagoon, every of which we’ve achieved a number of instances.
For this put up, we need to do a quasi-party recap on Moonlight Magic we lately attended at DCA (Child Bricker’s first exhausting ticket occasion!), together with what makes this social gathering so particular and recommendation for profiting from it. It’s a little bit of a seize bag–principally journey report but in addition some ideas & methods…
Registration for Moonlight Magic at DCA was surprisingly easy, which I believe was largely as a result of DVC didn’t actually publicize it forward of time. If I recall appropriately, the web site wasn’t up to date with registration data till a couple of days earlier than the occasion. Previous to that, Sarah had known as and wasn’t capable of finding out when signup would go dwell.
The tip consequence was that Moonlight Magic’s digital queue for registration was speedy (it took me perhaps 10 minutes), and the occasion really didn’t replenish instantly. It was nonetheless absolutely booked same-day, however everybody who was within the digital queue proper when the occasion opened would’ve been capable of get in. That’s an enormous deal, as a result of it’s not all the time the case–particularly with the occasions at Walt Disney World!
Tickets and parking vouchers had been despatched through snail mail and arrived pretty promptly. I’m shocked DVC goes this route, as there’s gotta be a extra environment friendly digital possibility. No matter, although, it really works.
As for the evening of Moonlight Magic itself, there’s often a mix-in that begins a couple of hours previous to park closing. On this case, attendees may enter Disney California Journey as early as 6 p.m. with the occasion formally beginning at 9 p.m., which was additionally the time of park closing on this specific evening.
Having been across the block with Moonlight Magic and different Disneyland Resort particular occasions, we opted in opposition to exhibiting up for the beginning of mix-in. What we’ve realized over time is that, rising, attendees at these occasions at the moment are much less prone to have admission (as a result of rising value of Annual Passes and common park tickets), so that they’re incentivized to point out up proper in the beginning of mix-in to maximise time within the park.
This has been taking place with Halloween and different exhausting ticket occasions at Disneyland for some time, and the identical is beginning to happen at Walt Disney World. There are big crowds outdoors the turnstiles for the beginning of mix-in as a result of a smaller share of company in any other case have admission. They’re utilizing the events as an alternative to regular park days–a solution to get their Disney “repair.”
We’re Magic Key/Annual Passholders, so there was no incentive for us to reach at 6 o’clock on the dot. Images on social media vindicated this determination, as they confirmed a colossal crowd taking on half the Esplanade. Child Bricker (Megatron) can be a limiting issue, and we’ve discovered that she will be able to do day or evening within the parks, however not often each. Given all of that, we opted to roll up simply after 7 p.m., when there was completely no line in any way. We had been within the park and obtained our snack vouchers and occasion maps in underneath 90 seconds.
Having additionally been across the block with the meal vouchers, we made a direct beeline for Award Wieners. Now a few of you, let’s name this group the clueless haters, may surprise why we opted to eat at a circa-2001 sizzling canine stand. It’s as a result of, and I can not stress this sufficient, Award Wieners is definitely good! It has been since 2018!!!
Suffice to say, there’s a purpose Award Wieners makes our Record of the 24 Greatest Eating places at Disneyland. Proper now, it’s residence to the Pambazo Torta, which is a seasonal sizzling canine sandwich kinda factor that’s completely subsequent degree. I don’t assume this dish is for Lunar New 12 months, so it ought to be sticking round. It’s a high 5 counter service entree at DCA proper now.
Whereas a variety of different folks have a variety of different complaints about Moonlight Magic, my solely materials one is the snack vouchers. These are given out in paper kind and just one can be utilized per transaction, and solely throughout Moonlight Magic. The paper playing cards create a way of urgency and inefficiency, taking manner too lengthy to redeem and clogging up restaurant strains all through the evening. I’d hazard a guess that the ten longest strains in DCA throughout Moonlight Magic had been all eating places.
I don’t know why DVC nonetheless does it this manner, as the very same factor occurred final yr. Happily for us, we realized from our errors then, and ordered a variety of meals early, after which saved our remaining credit till in the course of the tail finish of the evening (strategically timed throughout World of Shade) once we acquired Raspberry Cheesecake Shakes from Smokejumpers Grill. That milkshake is wonderful, however I most likely wouldn’t suggest consuming two of them back-to-back.
Along with the snack vouchers, there are additionally free refreshments across the park throughout Moonlight Magic–similar to After Hours occasions. We didn’t even trouble with these this time as we acquired our fill at Award Wieners, however we’ve discovered that strains are all the time worst for these in the course of the first hour of the occasion. After that, there’s seldom a wait.
After being completely full, we used our remaining credit at Mortimer’s Market in the course of the closing hour of the occasion–however earlier than the mass exodus–to top off on the fundamentals, like bread and pickles.
Through the coronary heart of Moonlight Magic, we centered completely on uncommon characters. Right here’s a non-exhaustive checklist of who was out in the course of the 2024 Moonlight Magic at Disney California Journey:
- Bolt
- Roger Rabbit
- Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar
- Baloo, King Louie and Don Carnage from TailSpin
- Monterey Jack and Fats Cat from Rescue Rangers
- Buzz Lightyear and Jessie
- Flik and Atta; Tuck and Roll
- Nation Bears
- Chef Louie (Little Mermaid)
- Hyacinth Hippo and Madame Upanova (Fantasia)
- Very uncommon characters from Treasure Planet or Atlantis (?)
You too can get pleasure from a clumsy ‘meet and greet’ with DVC executives, who are sometimes out and about at Moonlight Magic. This can be a good contact to point out they care, however it additionally makes for a golden alternative to share your grievances about upkeep charges on the Fort Wilderness Cabins or, I dunno, why Angel from Lilo & Sew is criminally underutilized.
Who is aware of, may prevent from being compelled to make a visit to the annual shareholders assembly and urgent Bob Iger on an important query that everybody else is afraid to ask. (I child, however I can solely think about the conversations at these meet & greets are as a lot an unmitigated practice wreck as that Q&A, with DVC execs principally simply patiently smiling and nodding.)
We didn’t prioritize points of interest throughout Moonlight Magic, however the whole lot we noticed was a walk-on or near it–fairly corresponding to what you’d encounter at Disney After Hours. I’d hazard a guess that the points of interest in Avengers Campus and Radiator Springs Racers did have considerable wait instances, however actually, I didn’t concentrate once we handed these points of interest. Even these nonetheless would’ve been a fraction of the instances they’d be on a traditional evening. As is the case with the Christmas and Halloween Events, we don’t do points of interest throughout these particular occasions.
We’re irregular in that regard (and so many), however we’d favor to concentrate on the distinctive facets of those particular occasions, doing issues we are able to’t in a traditional day at DCA. We come at this from the angle of people that have achieved each trip extra instances than we are able to depend and actually don’t have any sense of urgency about points of interest anymore.
Particular leisure, uncommon characters, and actually even differing ambiance are going to take precedence for us at any particular occasion. Your mileage might fluctuate relying upon how a lot you care about experiencing points of interest. This can be a large a part of what makes Moonlight Magic is a extra interesting occasion to us than Disney After Hours (even setting apart the plain value upside of $0 vs. $100+), as the previous has a ton of uncommon characters and different random stuff.
One more reason why we centered on uncommon characters throughout Moonlight Magic is as a result of the strains had been brief. The longest wait we had was for Bolt in the beginning of the occasion, and even that pup was underneath quarter-hour. Truthfully, I used to be shocked by the <10 minute wait instances for characters–a lot of whom haven’t met on the home parks in a very long time. And this was with hearty interactions with a variety of company, fairly than making an attempt to shortly churn by way of folks to maintain the road transferring.
We ended up doing a dozen meet & greets, which simply beat what we accomplish at Mickey’s Halloween or Christmas Celebration. Granted, these even have distinctive leisure–and that’s our focus at these–however judging by common wait instances on the respective occasions, this was higher for characters.
Character-wise, Moonlight Magic was additionally a lot better than the Disneyland Half Marathon simply a few weeks earlier. Sarah puzzled why far more effort was put right into a free social gathering than a paid race–my finest guesses are that it comes right down to totally different groups and totally different priorities. RunDisney races promote out immediately, so there’s not a lot incentive to enhance. The suggestions loop from the ‘market’ is that the races are already glorious.
Moonlight Magic serves a distinct demographic, and it exists to maintain member satisfaction excessive. But additionally, and maybe extra importantly, it’s a advertising car for Disney Trip Membership. Each time a photograph or video of a uncommon character on the occasion goes viral on social media, they most likely promote X contracts to Aulani.
Foolish because it may appear, there’s ROI in these occasions and fewer complacency consequently. They don’t all the time get it proper, however they fight their finest. And our experiences with Moonlight Magic in the previous couple of years bear this out. Minus the horrible snack voucher system, the events are fairly incredible.
Whereas we loved assembly uncommon characters earlier than and “gathering” images with them earlier than, it’s a lot extra enjoyable now with Megatron. They go wild for her in a manner that they simply seldom confirmed enthusiasm for us earlier than. It looks as if they need to spend extra time with us now, whereas earlier than we all the time felt a strain (most likely in our personal heads) to shortly work together, get a photograph, and transfer on.
And not less than for me, it’s a lot much less awkward to satisfy face characters now. It’s like we now have an excuse, for lack of a greater time period, to be mingling with them. To every their very own, and I’m not saying different Disney Adults with out children ought to really feel uncomfortable–that was simply how I felt. The above characters from Treasure Planet or Atlantis (or perhaps each films!) had been particularly incredible, advert libbing about exploring and happening adventures together with her.
In the event that they see Megatron–and typically they don’t as a result of she seems like a huge sack hooked up to the entrance of us when it’s chilly–the fur characters like to ham it up. Since they clearly can not discuss, that is achieved through pantomime. To not make myself sound like a complete moron, however I’m terrible at this. I can barely talk with precise people verbally, and now I’ve to be taught a brand new non-verbal language?!
As with most issues, Sarah is a lot better. She simply rolls with the punches, deciphering the cue after which saying no matter. It really works particularly effectively with the random characters which have looser integrity guidelines and extra latitude consequently.
Enter the Nation Bears, who had been again at Disneyland after a little bit of a hiatus (a few yr?). Their triumphant return additionally marked the debut of Romeo McGrowl (pictured above on the prowl, within the type of discovered footage from his upcoming survival horror movie).
The Nation Bears are the characters we now have all the time had persistently nice interactions with. It’s low stakes/low demand, we love the characters, they usually have freedom to be enjoyable. That held true on this specific night, and the change culminated with, out of nowhere, Sarah saying, “Wendell, you’re asking in the event you’re the daddy?! No, in fact not!” Hilarity and em-bear-assment ensued.
For her half, Megatron was…uh…current? Over the course of her younger life, she has already met a pair dozen totally different characters (together with Mickey & Associates a number of instances) and been awake for a grand whole of two of these experiences.
In consequence, we now have lots of images with characters pretending to sleep (see above; that’s intentional–not Sarah blinking midphoto) or doing the “shhh” sign. Sometime I hope Megatron will look again at these uncommon character images fondly, present her pals and boast, “that’s me–the potato sack wanting factor on the entrance of my mother!” It is probably not nice, however not less than it exists–beats the (supposed) picture of me, Dreamfinder and Figment that my mother and father can’t discover.
After a incredible first go to for Christmas, Megatron’s days at Disneyland have been pretty uneventful. We all the time stroll from the parking construction, and by the point we arrive on the Downtown Disney safety checkpoint, she’s often asleep. Just about the whole thing of this social gathering was after her bedtime (however she’s asleep ~10 minutes after being worn, regardless, as long as movement is maintained), so sleep was the story of her evening.
There are a variety of characters on the above checklist that I haven’t seen earlier than at Walt Disney World or Disneyland, ever. Actually half the checklist! Particularly, assembly the characters from TailSpin and Rescue Rangers was a childhood dream come true.
There was a Forged Member behind us in line for Monterey Jack and Fats Cat, who stated that he ought to go residence as a result of he needed to work early however simply couldn’t as a result of this was a “as soon as in a lifetime alternative.” He was completely proper.
The extent of enthusiasm from our fellow millennials for lots of those characters was by way of the roof. I’ve begged for an After Hours/After Darkish Disney Afternoon Nite for years, they usually got here soclose this yr…with Disney Channel Nite. Sadly, that’s so shut however so distant–an entire technology away.
All of that stuff is aimed toward “children” (folks ~10 years youthful than me). I simply don’t get it. Millennials have households and, if not, a ton of disposable earnings. We’re in our peak incomes years and are desperate to waste it on the sort of factor. C’mon Disney, take our cash. However I digress.
As superior because the Disney Afternoon characters had been, the spotlight of Moonlight Magic was seeing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs gathered round outdoors Carthay Circle Restaurant. They had been enjoying, dancing and interacting with company. This was pure Disney magic, and a very sensible contact (the film premiered in 1937 at Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles).
To my information, this had by no means been achieved earlier than. Most likely as a result of that’s a variety of performers concentrated in a single spot, however maybe simply because nobody had ever considered it. Regardless, I actually acquired goosebumps as we noticed the characters within the distance and approached. Such a magical little factor, and an awesome nod to the previous. It very a lot made the park entrance space really feel like Walt Disney’s California journey.
I do know we’re typically essential of Disney Trip Membership and there have been a rocky few years for members, however there have additionally been huge strides. This whole occasion, and little magical moments like this specifically, remind me that the DVC staff really does “get” Disney. Enormous to kudos to all concerned in bringing this and different Moonlight Magic occasions to life.
In the end, Moonlight Magic at Disney California Journey was a ton of enjoyable. Apart from the Star View Station Lounge at Disneyland and Creativeness Lounge in EPCOT, that is undoubtedly our favourite Disney Trip Membership member perk. We schedule round these occasions yearly as a result of we love them a lot–I actually hope we’re capable of do the Disney’s Hollywood Studios occasion on the finish of summer season!
Whereas I wouldn’t suggest reserving a flight to Florida or California simply for one in every of these events, I’d pre-plan a visit throughout a sure time of yr to coincide with one of many Moonlight Magic occasions. They’re a ton of enjoyable, and a few of our favourite events of the yr for good purpose. (Solely “a few of” as a result of the Halloween and Christmas events most likely beat them more often than not for us.) If Disney After Hours or Disneyland After Darkish occasions are one thing you’d in any other case do, then Moonlight Magic is arguably higher.
Should you’re fascinated with becoming a member of DVC, be sure you learn our Final Information to Disney Trip Membership. This covers the professionals & cons, resale v. direct, how a lot cash you’ll save, and different necessary issues to know earlier than taking the plunge. Should you nonetheless can’t resolve whether or not membership is best for you, “attempt before you purchase” with the suggestions in Methods to Save BIG on Deluxe Disney Lodging Renting DVC Factors.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you ever attended one of many Moonlight Magic occasions at Disneyland or Walt Disney World? What did you consider the expertise? Did you handle to satisfy tons or uncommon characters? Would you suggest the occasion to others? Any questions or ideas about something on this social gathering report? Listening to your suggestions about your experiences is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas or questions beneath within the feedback!
