Hi Brogan!
I absolutely love
Disney After Hours at Magic Kingdom. These are separately ticketed events that keep the parks open for another 3 hours and include lower wait times for rides, complimentary snacks, and the magic associated with a brightly lit theme park at night. At Magic Kingdom for my family, it means extra rides on some of our favorite attractions like
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and
Space Mountain that during the day we would only be able to manage riding once!
If you have the endurance for a long day at the theme parks, you can definitely buy a day ticket and spend the entire day at the theme park and then stay through the evening with a separate After Hours event ticket. There will be cast members located throughout the park handing out wristbands that make you party official when it gets close to time for the event to start. All you do is slap the wristband on and continue enjoying your marathon day in the park. My family has done this several times and we enjoy making a full day of the theme parks. There is not an option to combine these two tickets types into one but you can utilize them on the same day with ease.
If you plan to do this, I recommend grabbing a dinner reservation for that evening so you do get some time to sit down and relax before you jump into party mode for the After Hours event. My favorite dinner spot in Magic Kingdom is
Jungle Navigation Co. LTD Skipper Canteen. The food is to die for, the servers have the same jokes and charm as their pals over on the Jungle Cruise, and the drinks are delicious. My go-to meal there is the Mess Hall Fried Rice and the Jungle Greens Salad paired with a Sunset Margarita.
Happy Planning
Jenna