Extended Evening Hours are a perk of staying at a Deluxe Disney hotel at Disney World. They debuted back in 2021, replacing—with significant changes—the evening component of the “Extra Magic Hours” offering that existed before the 2020 closure / reopening of the parks.
In this post, we discuss the basics of Extended Evening Hours, how they’ll fit into your trip, and whether we expect the hours to be worth staying at a Deluxe Disney hotel.
Related Posts
We have now visited Extended Evening Hours at Epcot and Magic Kingdom, and you can find the reports here:
Magic Kingdom Extended Evening Hours Report + Strategy (pre-TRON)
Epcot Extended Evening Hours Report + Strategy (pre-Guardians)
We have not yet had a chance to visit Extended Evening Hours at Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom.
Extended Evening Hours Basics
Let’s start with the basics…
What Are Extended Evening Hours?
Extended Evening Hours is a perk available to guests of Disney Deluxe Hotels and a very select group of partner hotels. It grants these guests access to a select park, on select nights, for extra time after the park has closed to other guests. Select attractions are available, and the perk typically lasts two hours.
Are Extended Evening Hours the Same As After Hours?
No. After Hours events are ticketed events at select parks on select nights. Anyone who purchases a ticket to an After Hours can visit the event. We’ve reviewed some of the After Hours events:
Extended Evening Hours, by contrast, is a free perk only for guests of Deluxe Disney hotels and DVC resorts. You can’t buy your way in with a special ticket, and the hours don’t offer any special theming—it’s simply an extension of regular park hours.
There are, moreover, also the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, which are ticketed holiday events held on select evenings at Magic Kingdom.
What Hotels Get Extended Evening Hours At Disney World?
Extended Evening Hours are available to guests of “Disney Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resort hotels.” The Disney Deluxe hotels are Contemporary, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, BoardWalk Inn, Yacht Club, Beach Club, Wilderness Lodge, and Animal Kingdom Lodge. The Deluxe Villa Resort hotels are all the Disney Vacation Club properties.
Additionally, guests of Walt Disney World Swan, Walt Disney World Dolphin, Walt Disney World Swan Reserve and Shades of Green have access to Extended Evening Hours. You should confirm this list is current on the Disney page.
How do Virtual Queues work at Extended Evening Hours?
As of this update, two rides at Walt Disney World—Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind at Epcot and TRON at Magic Kingdom—have virtual queues instead of traditional standby lines. Both of these rides are accessible during Extended Evening Hours by virtual queue as well.
The virtual queue for Extended Evening Hours opens at 6PM for guests with access to Extended Evening Hours. If you successfully join the virtual queue (something outside the scope of this post), you’ll be assigned a boarding group that will be called during Extended Evening Hours (subject to capacity, some groups might not be called if time runs out). Once your group is called, you have an hour to get to the ride.
While I’ve never heard of widespread problems with these virtual queues, I’ve had stays where the app tells me I don’t qualify even though I was staying at a deluxe resort. Because of that, I don’t like to count on these to be my only chance to ride these rides. I treat them as a bonus opportunity.
What Time Do Extended Evening Hours Begin?
Based on the currently posted schedule, Extended Evening Hours begin at park close, whatever time that is for the day.
How long are Extended Evening Hours at Disney World?
The Extended Evening Hours are usually two hours long.
What Parks Have Extended Evening Hours On What Dates?
Extended Evening Hours dates are usually posted here and on the calendar for upcoming dates. They typically occur 1-2 times a week. Historically, Magic Kingdom and Epcot were the most common hosts, but all four parks have now hosted Extended Evening Hours.
How Much Does Extended Evening Hours At Disney World Cost?
Extended Evening Hours will be available at no extra cost to guests of Deluxe Disney hotels and DVC resorts (along with select partner resorts).
What Happened To Extra Magic Hours?
It’s gone.
Are there extended morning hours available?
Yes, by a different name and with different rules. Early Theme Park Entry will be available to guests of all Disney hotels and select partner hotels.
Are Extended Evening Hours Worth It?
This is the ~$1000 question—if you weren’t planning on staying at a deluxe Disney resort, should you upgrade in order to get Extended Evening Hours?
The quick answer here is simple—no. First, I want to be clear that our experiences at the events themselves have been positive, and we’ve gotten a lot done. But we’ve had several deluxe resort stays since Extended Evening Hours debuted, and it’s just rare that we find the energy to go to Extended Evening Hours.
It’s common for Magic Kingdom to offer the perk from 10PM to 1AM. That’s useless to most families and not exactly pleasant for people without kids, either. It’s easy to say in advance—particularly if you’ve never been to Disney World—that you’ll be able to muster the energy. But after a day at the parks, staring down a 6:45AM wakeup to make Genie+ picks, it’s easy to decide just to plop into bed instead.
That quick answer aside, I’m happy to talk through some of the factors you might want to balance in making this decision…
Let’s start with two points on the cost front…
First, how much will it actually cost you? This will vary by what your alternative options are AND what hotels with Extended Evening Hours are available to you (including via renting DVC points or staying at the Swan and Dolphin). And upgrade from Gran Destino Tower to Wilderness Lodge or Animal Kingdom Lodge could cost $100 per night, while an upgrade from All Star Movies to Grand Floridian could cost over $500 per night.
Second, can you split stay? We love a good split stay—staying at two Disney hotels over the course of a trip. If you can book, say, two nights at a deluxe hotel you could get access to Extended Evening Hours for that portion of your stay without upgrading the entire stay. (Note: I’ve heard mixed reports on whether you’ll get Extended Evening Hours the night you move from a deluxe hotel to a lesser hotel. Ordinarily you can get Extended Evening Hours on checkout day, but having a moderate of value hotel in the system might mess this up.)
Now, let’s talk about how the perk will actually play into your trip…
First, how much time will it really save you? You won’t be able to do everything at Magic Kingdom during Extended Evening Hours. In any case, we’d recommend a full day at that park. You can probably cover most of the rides at Epcot. Theoretically this saves you a morning at Epcot, but you’d still want to come one afternoon to enjoy the World Showcase.
Second, how late will you stay? Evening hours will always start with the most popular rides having long lines. All guests can get in line for rides until the time the park closes, so it’s common for, say, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train to end the day with an hour wait. This means if you had Extended Evening Hours you could get on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, but it’ll be at least an hour after close. If you’ve had a long day of touring already, you might easily decide you just don’t want to stay in the park that late.
Third, will it impact your following morning? This is more a question of strategically planning your schedule, but you don’t want to wind up at Magic Kingdom until midnight, getting to sleep around 1AM, to wake up for the very important Early Entry at Hollywood Studios. Extended Evening Hours isn’t a timesaver if it keeps you in bed until noon the next day.
Conclusions
Ultimately, we’ve found Extended Evening Hours to be a great perk, but it’s got too much baggage to really justify an upgrade on its own. You don’t want to spend a ton to upgrade a multi-night stay only to realize at 8PM that staying up until midnight one the one night you’ll have evening access isn’t in the cards.
As of this update the perk is only offered at two parks, and only twice each week. If that expanded to all four parks (each one night a week), the added flexibility would definitely make me look a bit longer at deluxe prices. If it was a nightly perk I’d probably get to the point where a two-night / two-night split stay was my go-to recommendation. We’re a far cry from that right now, though, so I’m happy to take this perk when I can get it, but I’m not recommending anyone plan too much around it.