The complete list of after-hours, hard-ticket theme park events
These would be the special events that require an extra charge and are held outside normal park operating hours, so regular tickets and annual passes won't get you in.
I'm trying to put together a list of all the after-hours, hard-ticket events held at theme parks in the United States. These would be the special events that require an extra charge and are held outside normal park operating hours, so regular tickets and annual passes won't get you in.
Here's what I have off the top of my head:
Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom
Night of Joy, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom
Disney Princess Half Marathon, Walt Disney World
Walt Disney World Marathon, Walt Disney World
Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Studios Florida
Rock the Universe, Universal Studios Florida
Howl-O-Scream, Busch Gardens Tampa
Serengeti Night Safari, Busch Gardens Tampa
Mickey's Halloween Party, Disneyland
Halloween Haunt, Knott's Berry Farm
Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Studios Hollywood
Brick-or-Treat Party Nights, Legoland California
(FWIW, I'm not looking for VIP tours or special events that take place during normal park operating hours. Nor am I looking for private parties and events such as grad nights, where not anyone can buy a ticket.)
If you know of another one, that I've missed, please list it in the comments. Thanks.
I also think there is a Food and Wine Marathon (Eat and Run Marathon?) at Disney
I'm looking for ERT events such as West Coast Bash, or East Coast Bash.
Christmastown at Busch Gardens Williamsburg? That's not part of the park's normal operating season, so maybe it counts. Are annual passes honored at that event?
So Fright Fest would not count?
You can use Season Passes there, but its more expensive to buy a ticket than regular day.
I think that seasonal and annual passes need to be the test. If you can use them, then it's a normal operation event. If you can't, then it's a hard-ticket extra.
Fright Fest is not a hard-ticket event because you can use your season passes to get in. However, Knott's Halloween Haunt is a hard-ticket event.
Legoland's Brick or Treat Party Nights...not sure how hard they are to get but it's not listed.
Scarowinds at Carowinds (hey, that rhymes! :) cannot be entered with CF or park season passes, just as Sarah mentioned above with Knotts.
The question with Fright Fest is that it is more expensive to go there during Fright Fest than during the regular season.
But you can use your season pass so never mind anyway!
Anthony,
I'm surprised, because SF Great Adventure doesn't charge a higher admission for FF to the best of my knowledge. I guess it's not a blanket policy for the the whole chain.
Even using a season pass can be fuzzy. I'm a Busch Gardens Platinum passholder, and I can get into their halloween event free, but only on the first weekend. The rest of them, I would have to pay.
Carowinds and Kings dominion have done a christmas event that was paid admission in the past, but I don't know if they are still doing it. (Seems like I remember carowinds saying they weren't going to do it again because of low attendance, but it might have been still on at the other (then) paramount parks. I don't know if Cedar Fair has continued this event.
Thanks for that info on AP use in Williamsburg. I didn't know about that restriction for HOS.
I don't know about williamsburg. I was referring to tampa one. they send passholders an email about it and I think they called it the 'Freaky Friday preview' or something like that, but they sell tickets to the general public as howl o scream. I've never been to it because my wife hates scary stuff, so we go during the day during events like this and the park isn't crowded because most people won't pay admission to both the park and howl o scream, so they pick howl o scream.
Whoops. Sorry about that.
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