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Disney Extends Operating Hours for Parks this Fall

Disney Extends Operating Hours for Parks this Fall


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Disney World is extending operating hours for select theme parks this fall. Are your vacation dates affected?

Extended Park Hours

When Disney World reopened in July, they drastically reduced park hours. With nighttime entertainment cut and trying to save money with the decrease in crowds, it made perfect sense.

This was pretty upsetting to Guests who enjoyed opening the park, taking a break in the afternoon, and coming back later in the evening to close the park.

However, more Guests are traveling back to see Mickey and Friends, and Disney has to accommodate that.

Recent Dates with Extended Hours

Disney has been adjusting park hours as of late. First, they cut them back in August because of the lack of crowds. However, they extended hours for Labor Day Weekend. That is a very popular time to visit – especially this year with Orlando being the third most-traveled destination this year. Read more about that HERE.

Just last week we shared that Disney extended park hours into October.

The changes are as follows:

October 2-4

  • Magic Kingdom: 9:00am until 7:00pm
  • EPCOT 11:00am until 9:00pm
  • Disney’s Hollywodood Studios: 10:00am until 8:00pm
  • Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 8:00am until 6:00pm

October 9-12 (Columbus Day weekend)

  • Magic Kingdom: 9:00am until 8:00pm
  • EPCOT 11:00am until 9:00pm
  • Disney’s Hollywodood Studios: 10:00am until 7:00pm
  • Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 8:00am until 6:00pm

New Set of Park Hours

Continuing into October, Disney is allowing Guests the opportunity to stay in the parks even longer. October is always a busy time with students on fall break throughout the country.

Here are the new changes, just released today:

October 16-18

  • Magic Kingdom: 9:00 am to 8:00 pm (previously closing at 6:00 pm)
  • EPCOT: 11:00 am until 9:00 pm (previously closing at 7:00 pm)
  • Disney’s Hollywood Studios: no change
  • Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 8:00 am to 6:00 pm (previously 9:00 am to 5:00 pm)

October 23-25

  • Magic Kingdom: 9:00 am to 8:00 pm (previously closing at 6:00 pm)
  • EPCOT: 11:00 am until 9:00 pm (previously closing at 7:00 pm)
  • Disney’s Hollywood Studios: no change
  • Disney’s Animal Kingdom: 8:00 am to 6:00 pm (previously 9:00 am to 5:00 pm)

Will you be visiting Disney World later in October? What do you plan to do with your time in the parks? Share your plans with us on Facebook!

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