yourfirstvisit.net

DISNEY WORLD’S NEW EXTENDED EVENING HOURS PROGRAM FOR GUESTS AT DELUXE, DVC, AND A FEW OTHER HOTELS

Disney World has separated its former Extra Magic Hours (EMH) program into two new programs.

One is Disney World’s new Early Theme Park Entry program, in which every park is open early every morning for guests at some 45 different hotels with ~37,000 rooms. Disney World’s Early Entry program is covered here.

The second new program is known as Disney World’s Extended Evening Theme Park hours, and is much more limited than Early Entry:

• In parks offered—typically just Magic Kingdom and Epcot, not all four;
• In frequency—two parks just one evening each per week, not daily;
• In total hours offered per week–four hours, compared to fourteen for Early Entry; and
• In eligible guests—permitted to use this perk will be ONLY guests at Disney World deluxe resorts, at Disney Vacation Club/deluxe villa resorts, at (new in  2024) The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness, and at four other on-property resorts—the Swan, Swan Reserve, Dolphin, and Shades of Green. These total about 13,000 rooms—about a third of the rooms eligible for Early Entry.

To participate in Extended Evening Theme Park hours, guests must have

–Proof that they are staying at an eligible resort hotel, and

–A valid park ticket for the day that can be used at that park

The way Extended Evening Hours works is that for the rides that remain open, only guests who can prove they are staying at an eligible resort will be able to enter lines.

The first guests to take advantage of Extended Evening Hours thus will be entering a line that already has people in it (i.e., those who entered lines before the Extended Evening Hours kicked off).

This is one of two reasons why the former evening EMH in the FastPass+ era was less valuable—access to rides that are popular enough to have already have long standby lines is not that time efficient.

The way to handle this is to save the most popular rides for late in the Extended Evening Hours time window. So at Magic Kingdom you’d delay Space Mountain and especially Seven Dwarfs Mine Train; see a couple of rides in the middle of the Extended Evening Hours window that are popular, but not with lines as long, like Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Haunted Mansion (these three in particular because they are not offered during Early Entry); and see a minor ride or two at the beginning of the in the middle of the Extended Evening Hours window.

The second reason the former evening EMH was less valuable in the FastPass+ era was that it was more popular than morning EMH. Except for families with small children, it is easier to stay in the parks later than to arrive early.

However, in the FastPass+ era almost three times as many hotel rooms were eligible for evening EMH than are now eligible for Extended Evening Hours (2.8x to be precise.) This suggests just on the simple room math that Extended Evening Hours will be only about a third as crowded as the former evening EMH.

THE VALUE OF DISNEY WORLD’S EXTENDED EVENING HOURS

Folks with a good plan will be able to see during Disney World’s Extended Evening Hours with little wait three to five high priority rides at Magic Kingdom, and two to three at Epcot (fewer at Epcot because there are far fewer rides to spread the crowds around, long walks between them, and not many high priority ones…)

The list of attractions planned to operate during Extended Evening Hours is here.  It includes pretty much everything most would want.

Access to Extended Evening Hours improves the value of staying at a deluxe resort, DVC resort, Fort Wilderness Cabins, or one of the other four hotels in the program, and diminishes the value of staying anywhere else, especially offsite but also at the values, moderates, Disney Springs Resort Area  hotels, and other hotels eligible for Early Entry but not for Extended Evening Hours.

All the Disney World-owned hotels are overpriced, and the deluxes are especially so. Adding Extended Evening Hours could improve guest satisfaction at eligible hotels.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!