New article on AllEars dealing with early evening closures at Epcot

[Clamman73]

Seems like from an operations standpoint with all this work occurring that they want to clear the Park ASAP after closing, so closing out these ancillary parts a bit earlier helps with that.

 

[marni1971]

We have absolutely no facts that the two things are connected.

They are connected.

 

[alphac2005]

Nope, historically the park had Future World 9am to 7pm and world showcase 11am to 9pm. Its only recently (ie in the 2000s) since the addition of more popular thrilling future world rides (Test Track, Soarin etc) that they extended Future World Hours. Also the addition of character dining extended select world showcase areas into the morning.

That's not correct. Disney cut down the hours beginning in the early 00's to 7 PM for Future World. Future World and World Showcase would have hours of at least 9 and 10 pm closings throughout the 80's and attractions not closing hour(s) early to cut hours. Plenty of times during the 80's and 90's would also have 9:30 closes. No matter the spin, the hours have been reduced over the years.

 

[Jon81uk]

That's not correct. Disney cut down the hours beginning in the early 00's to 7 PM for Future World. Future World and World Showcase would have hours of at least 9 and 10 pm closings throughout the 80's and attractions not closing hour(s) early to cut hours. Plenty of times during the 80's and 90's would also have 9:30 closes. No matter the spin, the hours have been reduced over the years.

2000 is still 20 years ago, its not recent. and the future world hours have been increasing over that time due to the popularity of the newer attractions. So the hours may have been reduced 20 years ago, but then got longer again in the intermediate years.