Walt Disney Global has added extra hours to the calendar via mid-December at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios & Animal Kingdom, and prolonged hours in Fall 2024. This submit covers the adjustments plus zig once they zag technique for Magic Kingdom all over the Halloween and Christmas seasons.
We’ll get started with the newest unlock of latest working schedules. All 4 theme parks have had hours for some other week added to DisneyWorld.com’s park hours, and the present calendar now runs via December 12, 2024. Listed here are the hours for the newly-added dates all over the vacation season in December 2024:
- Magic Kingdom: 9 am to 9 pm*
- EPCOT: 9 am to 9:30 pm*
- Hollywood Studios: 9 am to 9 pm*
- Animal Kingdom: 8 am to six pm
- Snowstorm Seaside: 10 am to five pm
- Disney Springs: 10 am to 11 pm (11:30 pm on Fridays & Saturdays)
As a reminder, Walt Disney Global’s customary observe is to unlock boilerplate or placeholder hours earlier than extending the ones in keeping with attendance and resort occupancy projections. This has been not unusual observe for years, and can proceed for the rest of this yr and most definitely in 2025, 2026, and many others–till the upward thrust of the machines.
One exception to the park hours above is that Magic Kingdom closes on a number of nights a week at 6 pm to day visitors for Mickey’s No longer So Frightening Halloween Birthday celebration and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Birthday celebration over the process the following 3 months. The ones separately-ticketed occasions start at 7 pm and runs till middle of the night, and happen a couple of nights a week.
Very similar to Magic Kingdom on MNSSHP or MVMCP nights, Hollywood Studios closes at 7 pm on evenings when the Disney Jollywood Nights Christmas Birthday celebration is held. That tough price tag tournament happens with some distance much less frequency than Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Birthday celebration.
Talking of early closings, EPCOT is scheduled to near at 5 pm on October 22, 2024 for a park buyout all over a colossal convention, the Gartner IT Symposium.
A number of readers have requested us how this may occasionally have an effect on crowds given how we speak about to demise how Birthday celebration Season throws a monkey wrench into Magic Kingdom attendance patterns. The secret’s that this may occasionally scale back attendance at EPCOT on October 22, and building up numbers all over else. Particularly Magic Kingdom and, to a lesser extent, Disney’s Hollywood Studios (the 2 different parks with midnight spectaculars).
Don’t be expecting anything else excessive, regardless that. The distinctions between this and Birthday celebration Season are that this can be a one-off and it’s now not at Magic Kingdom. I might be expecting it to lead to 1/10 crowd ranges at EPCOT, nevertheless it’s most definitely now not spiking ranges a lot past their baselines that week on the different parks.
Truthfully, the larger factor could be the Gartner IT Symposium and go back of conference ‘season’ as an entire. Whilst attendees themselves aren’t spending all day within the parks, they’ll find time for evenings at EPCOT and in other places. No longer handiest that, however many spouses and kids tag alongside and seek advice from the parks whilst the conventioneers sit down in Crescent Lake convention rooms. Conference ‘season’ is among the giant the explanation why October stopped being the low season over a decade in the past!
In different EPCOT information, Walt Disney Global has printed that EPCOT hours shall be prolonged once more for the 2024 EPCOT World Pageant of the Vacations.
Beginning on November 29, EPCOT shall be open till 9:30 p.m. quite than its prior to now scheduled ultimate time of 9 p.m. The park will proceed to open at 9 a.m., with Early Access starting earlier than that at 8:30 a.m. EPCOT may also proceed web hosting Prolonged Night Hours on Monday nights, from 9:30 to 11:30 pm.
Our hope is that EPCOT will get even later ultimate instances all over the guts of the Christmas season. That is typically the busiest time of the yr because of Candlelight Processional and Pageant of the Vacations, in conjunction with nicer climate that attracts out locals. I nonetheless don’t reasonably perceive why EPCOT doesn’t shut later. Unquestionably the meals & beverage gross sales by myself would justify some other half-hour?
Along with those newly added hours, Walt Disney Global has additionally prolonged park hours right through October 2024.
That is vital as a result of we haven’t truly been seeing a lot in the way in which of park hours extensions during the last a number of months. There were some extensions at Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom (in conjunction with a pair at DHS), nevertheless it’s been very sporadic. A part of it is because the boilerplate Magic Kingdom ultimate time over the summer time used to be 10 pm (and it’s now 9 pm); a part of it used to be on account of decrease crowd ranges since Easter.
Without reference to the rationale, we’re coming into the house stretch of the yr when crowds can spike because of lengthy weekends, college breaks, vacations and different particular occasions. Consequently, you’ll be expecting much more extensions–on a weekly foundation–from Walt Disney Global going ahead.
Anyway, on with the primary waves of extensions for October 2024…
Magic Kingdom
- October 4, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 5, 2024: 9 am to 11pm (prior to now 9 am to 9 pm)
- October 6, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 7, 2024: 9 am to 11 pm (prior to now 9 am to 9 pm)
- October 9, 2024: 9 am to 11 pm (prior to now 9 am to 9 pm)
- October 10, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 11, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 12, 2024: 8 am to 11 pm (prior to now 9 am to 9 pm)
- October 13, 2024: 9 am to 11 pm (prior to now 9 am to 9 pm)
- October 14, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 15, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 16, 2024: 8 am to 11 pm (prior to now 9 am to 9 pm)
- October 17, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 18, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 19, 2024: 8 am to 11 pm (prior to now 9 am to 9 pm)
- October 20, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 21, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 22, 2024: 9 am to ten pm (prior to now 9 am to 9 pm)
- October 23, 2024: 9 am to ten pm (prior to now 9 am to 9 pm)
- October 25, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 26, 2024: 8 am to 11 pm (prior to now 9 am to 9 pm)
The cause of those extensions is Mickey’s No longer So Frightening Halloween Birthday celebration.
As we’ve mentioned numerous instances, Birthday celebration Season working hours purpose chaos with crowds, pushing attendance a lot upper at the dates it’s now not going on and decrease at the dates it is happening. On tournament nights, Magic Kingdom closes to day visitors at 6 pm. It is usually an increasing number of opening at 8 am (one thing that wasn’t true with regularity on August and September tournament dates). On account of this, Early Access begins at 7:30 am, which makes it extremely really useful.
Once more, we’d strongly counsel visiting Magic Kingdom all over the day on MNSSHP or MVMCP nights. That is one thing we’ve coated at period, time and again. See Perfect & Worst Days to Do Magic Kingdom in 2024 for a rundown of when crowds shall be particularly just right or unhealthy, together with a handful of ‘purple flag’ dates to steer clear of in any respect prices this month via December.
In the following couple of months, you’ll be expecting to look party-shortened days at Magic Kingdom have crowd ranges of two/10 as a substitute of one/10. This will likely occur as a result of crowd ranges as an entire are expanding–they’ll be upper around the board for fall wreck, that means on each get together and non-party days. 2d, get together dates are changing into extra common, making them tougher to steer clear of. That implies extra visitors will don’t have any selection however to do Magic Kingdom on get together days.
The upside, if you wish to name it that, is that much more other folks will try to do Magic Kingdom on the ones uncommon non-party days, particularly Saturdays. Which means that the space in wait instances between get together and non-party days will in fact develop. (If this doesn’t make whole sense, the ethical of the tale is: DO MAGIC KINGDOM ON A PARTY DAY! Significantly, we’re imploring you.)
Preferably, you’ll have Park Hopper tickets and can be capable to leap to some other park at round 4 pm. Animal Kingdom will all the time be your best choice for lower-crowd evenings all over the autumn.
Animal Kingdom
- October 4, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 5, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 6, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 7, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 8, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 9, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 10, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 11, 2024: 8 am to eight pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 12, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 13, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 14, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 15, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 16, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 17, 2024: 8 am to six pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 18, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 19, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 9 am to six pm)
- October 20, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 8 am to six pm)
- October 25, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 8 am to six pm)
- October 26, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (prior to now 8 am to six pm)
As with Magic Kingdom, the 8 am opening time is seize at Animal Kingdom, and that’s the ‘new customary’ going ahead for past due October via December. That’s truly just right information even a baseline standpoint, because it way extensions shall be ultimate at 7 pm or 8 pm–which additionally way midnight at DAK all over the vacation season!
Significantly, the brand new baseline 8 am opening additionally way Early Access at 7:30am, which is lovely carefully attended. See Animal Kingdom Park Opening & Early Access Experience Technique (or, “How I Did Each and every Experience at DAK Ahead of 10:30am.”)
It’s nice to look a normal go back of those 8 am openings, in addition to the 7 pm or 8 pm closures. Truthfully, it’s additionally a bit of unexpected. Many Walt Disney Global fanatics bitch in regards to the early ultimate time of Animal Kingdom, and I trust them in spirit. That means that we like Animal Kingdom at evening and are disillusioned that it’s now not open after darkish many of the summer time.
However we additionally get why. There’s as soon as once more an overly actual ‘afternoon exodus’ at Animal Kingdom, and the previous couple of hours of the day are useless. Truthfully, I don’t assume present crowds even justify the 6 pm closures and suspect the one reason why DAK is open that “past due” is as a result of hours sign price to visitors, and shorter hours would lead to fewer other folks attending. It could be a vicious cycle of shorter hours and decrease crowds, and Walt Disney Global doesn’t need to have that occur.
Our Animal Kingdom Afternoon Arrival Technique is as soon as once more the best means for this park. Even on busier dates like a few of the ones 7 pm or 8 pm ultimate days, Lightning Lane Multi Go is senseless with even a modicum of strategizing. Please don’t be fooled via the “cut price” pricing on LLMP at Animal Kingdom. Consider, one thing is just a deal when you in fact want it–differently, you’re only a hoarder. (Neatly, you’ll’t truly hoard Lightning Lanes in the similar sense…however you get the speculation!)
In the long run, it’ll be attention-grabbing to look how unhealthy crowds finally end up being in October, and what occurs with hours for the vacation season that begins in early November 2024. Whilst the park opening instances are fantastic (save for Magic Kingdom on 9 am days), our hope is that Walt Disney Global will get again to later ultimate instances for the Christmas season. In a super global, 11 pm closings at Magic Kingdom will be the norm on non-party nights, with middle of the night closings going on at least one time a week.
As for subsequent month, we’re happy to have the extensions. It could be great to have some other half-hour within the morning or night at DHS, and perhaps even a couple of middle of the night closings at Magic Kingdom (the times wedged between 3-4 MNSSHPs shall be brutal), however all in all, it’s now not too unhealthy. Particularly given the low crowds during the last a number of months. Despite the fact that attendance goes to extend–and most definitely via so much–Halloween and Christmas are our favourite instances of the yr within the parks and on the accommodations!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you call to mind Walt Disney Global’s working hours extensions for October 2024? Assume this agenda is cheap? Do you assume Magic Kingdom will have to be open previous and/or later? What has been your revel in with crowds and wait instances? Do you settle or disagree with our review? Any questions we will will let you solution? Listening to your comments–even whilst you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please percentage your ideas under within the feedback!
