Extended Evening Hours at Walt Disney World
By Dave Shute
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.
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6 comments
Hi Dave! I am trying to figure what would be best for my family. We want to do MK one evening only going late August. The kids are older and we’ve been there before. The kids just want to do rides. Would it be best crowd wise (seems to be the same price) to do the Wednesday extra hours OR Halloween party on Tuesday night? That’s assuming Wednesday extra will still be offered late August. Again we are looking for low lines. I am not interested in anything halloweenish. I value your advice and input. Thanks! Jenny
Hi Jenny!
I’m not sure what you mean by “the same price.” Are you comparing just a one day ticket, or an extra ticket day added to a very short ticket, vs. the Halloween party? And are you committed to staying in a Extended Evening Hours hotel (the deluxes, dvcs, a few others) regardless?
Ignoring all that, these will be the first parties in a couple of years, so it is a little harder than usual to predict. The way they usually work is that while crowds in the outdoor areas are highs, waits for most (but not all) rides are low, especially the later the evening goes. You can enter the park at 4 (when everyone else will still be there), the party starts at 7p (when only party guests can get in ride lines) and goes til midnight.
For Extended Hours, on the one hand most lines will be even shorter than for the party, BUT you have only two hours.
So if price is equal, I think you can get more done from 4p to midnight at the party. You won’t have the same “rides per hour” rate, but that will be overwhelmed by the 8 hours vs 2 hours availability.
Hello Dave, yeah you answered what I needed. Correct we will be at deluxe and the plan for this trip is we are only doing Hollywood and water park with 2 resort days. I thought on one of my pool days we would do MK in evening. On HS day we are planning for early morning. Kids are not morning people which is why I thought an MK evening would be good, however, because evening/early morning I have to plan them a day apart for the obvious of being tired. A relax day in between. And now you have to get park pass and I have to purchase 1 day specific day I am having a hard time figuring which days to to what! But I think in my case we would get most bang for the buck on a Halloween night. This would make my HS day Thursday. If I did the Wednesday night I would have to do HS Monday. Make sense? Thanks always. I truly appreciate your advice articles and website. Always reference them! Take care Jenny
Got it, Jenny, makes sense. And thanks!!
Hi Dave
Thanks for all your great work. I am going to Disney Jan2-5 and want to take advantage of any e tended evening hours offered. Do you know when they will release those dates or if they already have? Where on the Disney site will I find it? I haven’t made my morning park reservations yet while waiting for this release so I can plan better what days I am going to what park. I do have park hopper so maybe I should book them now? All info appreciat3d thanks again!
Hi Pete, those days Evening hours follow the usual pattern–Monday 1/2 at Epcot and Weds 1/4 at Magic Kingdom.
The full schedule is here–page down to the bottom to see it: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/extended-evening/
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