For the most part, theme park hours are straightforward. There’s an open time—when guests are let in the park—and a closing time—when the last guests are allowed to line up for rides. But as with all things, Disney makes things a little more complicated, with changing hours and a variety of ways to get early and late access to the parks. In this post we discuss the typical hours at Epcot and how to access early and late hours at the park.
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Typical Hours at Epcot
The current typical hours at Epcot are 9AM to 9PM, with 9:30PM clsoes becoming the norm beginning Friday, November 29. Hours can and do vary beyond that. On New Year’s Eve the park is open until 1AM.
You can view the official Disney hours for Epcot by clicking this link.
Additionally, guests of Disney hotels (and select partner hotels) have access to Early Theme Park Entry, which grants them access to select attractions 30 minutes before official park opening every day. We discuss this perk more below.
Finally, guests of deluxe Disney hotels (and a more select group of partner hotels) have access to Extended Evening Hours, which grants them a few extra hours in the park at night on select evenings. We discuss this perk more below.
What time does the World Showcase open?
Recently, the bulk of the World Showcase has been opening at whatever time the park is scheduled to open. This is a departure from the past, when the World Showcase would mostly remain closed until 11AM regardless of what time the park opened. However, even if the World Showcase itself opens before 11AM, it’s common that restaurants or even shops remain closed until sometime later.
Generally, most of the activities included in the Epcot Festivals will begin around 11AM, regardless of whether they’re set in the World Showcase or Future World. Of course, exceptions (particularly in Future World) may happen, so you’ll always want to check the times guide when you arrive.
The late opening of World Showcase and late start of festival activities can make Epcot a good afternoon park, particularly if coming from nearby Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Specific Ride Hours
Note that not all the attractions open and close with the park. For example, Journey Into Imagination with Figment often closes early.
There’s no way to predict ride opening times in advance other than to look at the ride hours in the days before your visit and assume they’ll stay the same. You can either check the My Disney Experience app yourself (clicking into an attraction will tell you its hours for today), or you can visit Thrill Data and the wait time chart will reveal when the right started and ended operations on that day.
It is really important that you check the closing times of anything you’re thinking about visiting late. You can check the closing times in the My Disney Experience app. You don’t want to plan to visit a ride in the last hour of the day only to get there and find it closed two hours early.
When should I get to Epcot?
As we’ve said, you should confirm hours for specific days directly with Disney, but you shouldn’t just plan to arrive at the scheduled opening time. We cover when to arrive at Epcot in our Epcot Rope Drop Strategy post.
Because the arrival times are highly contingent on what rides you’re starting with, we recommend you read that post in full, but you’ll typically be fine arriving 30-60 minutes before you’ll be allowed in the park.
Staying Late at Epcot
Like all of Disney’s parks, just because Epcot closes at some time doesn’t mean you have to be out of the park by that time. The closing time is the when guests will stop being allowed to line up for rides. In most cases, you will be able to get in line for a ride right up until closing time.
Because there can be exceptions to this—due to capacity issues or ride breakdowns—we don’t recommend you rely heavily on this. Rather, this is a good time for a “bonus ride” you would otherwise skip or a re-ride on something big.
While the last people are allowed into line for the rides at closing time, some stores will remain open and anyone still in the queue for a ride will get to ride and then leave. The stores at the front of the park will be open latest.
The nighttime show is typically held right at park closing or perhaps 15 minutes before park closing. The World Showcase shuts down pretty quickly after that (stores and quick service restaurants will typically close when the show starts), and Epcot in general closes more quickly than the other parks.
While Disney buses will run until the last guest leaves the park, they’ll do so on a significantly more limited schedule as it gets later, and the later exits almost always have to share buses (a CM at the exit can direct you to the appropriate bus stop in this case).
Extra Hours Access to Epcot
There are three ways to gain access to Epcot outside the regular hours, Early Theme Park Entry, Extended Evening Hours, and After Hours.
Early Theme Park Entry
Early Theme Park Entry is a perk offered to guests of Walt Disney World Resort hotels (and select partner hotels) that allows guests access to the park 30 minutes before its scheduled open, every day.
Most rides at Epcot are included in Early Entry. The big exception as of this update is Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind, which is accessible during regular park hours only via virtual queue or Lightning Lane.
Extended Evening Hours
Guests of deluxe Disney resorts and select partner resorts have access to Extended Evening Hours. On select nights (currently about 1-2 nights a week), these guests have access to one of the four Disney World parks for extended hours at night—usually about two hours.
Because this perk occurs so late in the evening and is available to so few guests, it’s going to be a great time to visit the headline attractions, like Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. As of this update, there is also a virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind available for booking at 6PM for this event.
You can read about our experience at Epcot’s Extended Evening Hours here.
After Hours
Epcot After Hours is a ticketed event available on select dates. Buy tickets here. After Hours events offer an opportunity to experience rides with very short waits. Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind is a part of After Hours and uses a regular standby queue (i.e. not a virtual queue).
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
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Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Lightning Lane Guide and Strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, Epcot Lightning Lane Strategy, Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, and Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Strategy.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.