Walt Disney World Park Hours Update

TheRealSkull

TheRealSkull

Well-Known Member
Man I miss the days where EPCOT closed at 9 and you could take the Monorail over to Magic Kingdom, arrive at 9:30, and close out the final 2 and a half hours over there, wrap it up with Main Street until 12:30, buy some treats, snack on them on the way back to your hotel room, and crash.

Let's hope 12am closings become a thing again soon.
 
ToTBellHop

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
TheRealSkull said:
Man I miss the days where EPCOT closed at 9 and you could take the Monorail over to Magic Kingdom, arrive at 9:30, and close out the final 2 and a half hours over there, wrap it up with Main Street until 12:30, buy some treats, snack on them on the way back to your hotel room, and crash.

Let's hope 12am closings become a thing again soon.
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Have you heard the good news about MNSSHP, MVMCP, and DAH?!?!
 
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DCBaker

Premium Member
Original Poster
Park hours have been extended at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom for the week of June 30, 2024.

Magic Kingdom
July 3: 9am-11pm (previously 9am-10pm)
July 4: 8am-11pm (previously 9am-10pm)

Disney’s Animal Kingdom
June 30: 8am-6pm (previously 9am-6pm)
July 1-6: 8am-6pm (previously 9am-6pm)
 
mattpeto

mattpeto

Well-Known Member
DCBaker said:
Park hours have been extended at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom for the week of June 30, 2024.

Magic Kingdom
July 3: 9am-11pm (previously 9am-10pm)
July 4: 8am-11pm (previously 9am-10pm)

Disney’s Animal Kingdom
June 30: 8am-6pm (previously 9am-6pm)
July 1-6: 8am-6pm (previously 9am-6pm)
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Interesting that Saturday, July 6th at MK held the 10 pm closing.
 
mattpeto

mattpeto

Well-Known Member
Vclguy90 said:
Besides the animal issue. Why does DAK close before sundown. When Pandora is a major expansion that is best views at night?
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Animal Kingdom, even on the busiest nights close at 8 pm throughout the year. 7 pm is probably the most typical.

Most days close at 6 pm or 7 pm, well before sunset. Even 8 pm closings wouldn't be good enough this time of year.

The early closing time is a product of limited things to do when it gets dark (animals, shows) and no nighttime spectacular.

If you want to see Pandora at night, you have to go to mid November to mid March.

Hopefully the upcoming investments at AK change the narrative.
 
TrainsOfDisney

TrainsOfDisney

Well-Known Member
mattpeto said:
The early closing time is a product of limited things to do when it gets dark (animals, shows) and no nighttime spectacular.
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It’s a really lovely park at night - the lighting throughout the park is very well designed.

I know they can’t run the existing shows at night without more casts but it would be cool if they could do something in the theaters - I’ve always dreamed of them doing a version of adventurers club over there at night!
 
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Vclguy90

Well-Known Member
mattpeto said:
Animal Kingdom, even on the busiest nights close at 8 pm throughout the year. 7 pm is probably the most typical.

Most days close at 6 pm or 7 pm, well before sunset. Even 8 pm closings wouldn't be good enough this time of year.

The early closing time is a product of limited things to do when it gets dark (animals, shows) and no nighttime spectacular.

If you want to see Pandora at night, you have to go to mid November to mid March.

Hopefully the upcoming investments at AK change the narrative.
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Yes and this is unfortunate. At least let Pandora stay open until 9 or something of that nature but I guess the land would be overcrowded if that were the case.

It would be cool if they could keep the whole park open and just left select restaurants and bars available alleviate Pandora overcrowding. But maybe I'm over estimating the popularity of it after dark.
 
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doctornick

Well-Known Member
Basically, they need a nighttime show to justify the park being open longer... but they can't really do longer hours until there is more attraction capacity due to things shutting down earlier... and they aren't going to do a new nighttime show until they have enough stuff to warrant the longer hours. It doesn't help that the nighttime safari didn't work well and no one wants to ride Kali at night.

So, at least to me, I think we are stuck with the shorter hours until Tropical Americas is built. Sigh. I still wish they do some sort of super quick land in the vein of It's a Bugs Land to just increase ride capacity and have more "stuff" and add a nighttime show as well but that's not in the cards.

But if they actually add IJ and Encanto plus a TLK ride, they should be good to go with longer hours and a new nighttime spectacular.

(Would also be cool if they added a show during the day on the river. Something better than Kitetales).
 
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Vclguy90

Well-Known Member
So is it proven that if they stay open late, DAK is a ghost town and thus they can't justify its operating costs during this time? I feel with the rides they have and the restaurants and drinking locations than it wouldn't be that bad?
 
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Disneydad1012

Active Member
Vclguy90 said:
So is it proven that if they stay open late, DAK is a ghost town and thus they can't justify its operating costs during this time? I feel with the rides they have and the restaurants and drinking locations than it wouldn't be that bad?
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Other than the safari there's no reason everything else can't be open. AK at night was great when they had it open years ago.
 
Andrew25

Andrew25

Well-Known Member
Vclguy90 said:
So is it proven that if they stay open late, DAK is a ghost town and thus they can't justify its operating costs during this time? I feel with the rides they have and the restaurants and drinking locations than it wouldn't be that bad?
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DAK pretty much empties out by 5PM on any given day. It's my favorite park, but there's just not enough to do.

Once we get Indiana Jones & Encanto, the park will be in a better shape to have more consistent 7-8PM closures, but I don't think that's enough yet.
 
mysto

mysto

Well-Known Member
Vclguy90 said:
So is it proven that if they stay open late, DAK is a ghost town and thus they can't justify its operating costs during this time? I feel with the rides they have and the restaurants and drinking locations than it wouldn't be that bad?
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I think it's for the animals, when the park first opened I'm pretty sure they closed early for the animals. I know most people just want fireworks and believe the "popular demand" and money are the only considerations. They could justify staying open and have at times, but IMO they hold back for other reasons.

Disneydad1012 said:
Other than the safari there's no reason everything else can't be open. AK at night was great when they had it open years ago.
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ROL was a delicate low-impact show that kept the park open for a few years, but it wasn't explosive enough for the wow whiz-bang crowd. Plus Pandora was new they were showcasing that. They were pushing it with respect to animal well-being during the ROL period and I think found a limit in there somewhere, plus the guests didn't really appreciate it so why bother.

I hope they don't stay open late for the new land.
 
Andrew25

Andrew25

Well-Known Member
It's not that complicated, DAK closes early because there isn't enough experiences to keep you there all day. Us fans on here can spend days looking at all the details, but the general public is only interested in rides & attractions... and DAK only offers ~11 decent options (1 of them being a flat ride, 1 water ride, and 1 not so great bird show). So really gives you only 8 options... 7 if you don't want to spend waiting 90 minutes for Flight of Passage.

The impact to the park's animals from nighttime operations is highly exaggerated. We all know it's just because Disney can't justify late hours from crowd levels.
 

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