Disney World expands After Hours event to include Pandora

how do they remove regular guests from the parks to bring in the fresh ones?

Wow they are sure sucking the blood of the mental Disney fanatics here.

Is this really that much of an advantage? Unless they cut off the line to regular park guests an hour before their day ends, the standby line will not be cleared until almost 60-90 minutes after the after-hours event starts. So let's assume that the event runs from 9-midnight - on a typical day, FoP is still sporting a 90-120 minute line at 8:30-9:00, meaning that it will take well over an hour for regular guests to clear the line, but those with after-hours tickets will still be heading for the line, meaning that it will take almost 2 hours until the line is normalized for the smaller crowd. That then means you get maybe 1 hour of short-wait access to FoP, which probably equates to maybe 3 rides (along with 1 or 2 more if you get in the line when the event starts).

FoP is definitely the best attraction in all of WDW, but being able to get 5 rides over the course of 3 hours is still not worth a $125 price tag. I think guests are better off taking their chances on a normal park day, and trying to maximize the use of FP+, EMH, and early arrival/rope drop. We got 4 rides over the course of a day including touring the rest of DAK for a standard daily admission last year when crowds were slightly bigger than they are now.

And yet again Disney signals its fidelity to the 1%. Why not jump to the chase and just make one-day tickets $500 each? Then the world's wealthiest can enjoy shorter lines all day long, without having to be troubled with the commoners.

Indeed, why not make the tickets $1000 day, and require an extensive credit check before allowing anyone in? That would reduce lines even further, and make the experience even better for rich people, and rich people alone.

I'm happy to see Disney making these sorts of changes, because it will definitively price me and my family out of going, and then I can stop being angered by Disney's utter disdain for regular-income people like myself.

Unfortunately your wrong. Most of the crowds disperse rather quickly after the night time show with the ride lines being about 10-15 mins. We were able to ride several rides multiple times with at least two rides on all the rollercoasters. We've been doubling, if not tripling the number of rides in 4 hours compared to 10 hours.

In 1985 a new Corvette cost $25,000. In 2018 a new Corvette cost over $60,000. Companies aren't stupid they calculate out diminishing returns, they know that they can sell less tickets (or cars in this case) they can still make more money.

Trust me there are lots of people out there that would gladly pay an extra $300 to take their wife to Disney with no crowds. You think an engineer making $100k+ a year gives a crap about $300 on an experience like that? There are people out there who would spend $500 on a stupid purse lol.

Lets be serious here if any other company were in the same position with that kind of demand they'd do the same thing. You think Six Flags/Cedar Fair/Universal would turn down easy money? They sell front of line passes for big $$ and don't seem to have any shame.

"Most of the crowds disperse rather quickly after the night time show with the ride lines being about 10-15 mins."

That works at MK (and maybe at DHS until Galaxy's Edge opens), but at DAK, the crowds hang on into the night, and my comments were specifically regarding DAK/FoP. Most guests are very aware that Pandora is a must-see at night, and either skip ROL or make a bee line back to PtWoA shortly after the nighttime show is over. Lines for FoP have been steadily clocking in at 90+ minutes in the last half hour of regular park operation. It's been reported pretty widely that Disney deliberately overestimates the wait times in the last hour of the day to try to discourage guests from hopping in line right before park closing, but guests have still been seeing waits well over 60 minutes at park closing. With just 3 hours of extra time, and well over an hour of potential riding time being shared with regular park guests, the value simply is not there if you're looking solely at trying to get access to FoP - Honestly, what else are you going to do at DAK? I guess you could ride Everest, but with the coaster being on the opposite end of the park, you would be committing at least 15-20 minutes just to walk between PtWoA and Everest. Also, the nighttime safari is a waste, and I don't know who wants to ride Kali in the dark over the winter. The rest of the animal attractions close at dusk, so you're left with It's Tough to Be a Bug, Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, and Triceratops Spin as alternatives to the 2 rides in Pandora. Sorry, $125 for 1-2 hours of exclusive, short wait access to FoP (and NRJ if you really want to waste time on the lame boat ride), is a ripoff. The after hours events are great for MK, and might be good at DHS, but at DAK, guests would essentially be paying a full-day's admission to get 3 or 4 extra rides on FoP. If it's worth it to you, go right ahead, but for me, that's one of the biggest wastes of money I've ever seen in a theme park.

Also, I'm in no way critical of Disney offering this option to guests since I realize there are plentiful Drones out there that will pay for it. I'm merely pointing out how STUPID these people are, and how little value they are getting for their money in the case of an after-hours event at DAK. However, I do see Disney consistently catering to guests that don't care about the value that they receive, which is a concerning development for the average theme park fan. If MORONIC DRONES keep paying for stuff like this, the average blue-collar theme park guest will slowly get pinched out as Disney starts blacking out entire days for the 1% that are willing to pay hundreds of dollars per person to have the parks to themselves. I do see that as a problem, and something Disney needs to be called out for, and something that the DRONES need to be criticized for buying in to.