Animal Kingdom extended hours 09/2016

[KT0191]

Just saw on the Disney site that they extended hours for AK. From 9/6-9/16..it has it closing at 8p and then after, it closes at 7:30p. I was hoping for it to be open at least until 10p but I'll take it. Maybe they're not going to extend Jungle Book and just wait until ROL is ready?

 

[ArielSRL]

They will probably extend them again mid August.

 

[Delirium]

With that closing time, it's going to be hard (impossible?) to do both a sunset safari and catch whatever nighttime show is playing.

 

[Stefy]

I think it's just Disney doing their usual of taking forever to update. Its showing September 5th as closing at 11pm. It doesn't make sense to close the park that early because Jungle Book or RoL have showings after 9pm, so...

 

[TeresaWen]

Tried to move my Tiffin's ADR to a later time but past 5:00 not available yet.

 

[RinRin]

My guess is that the reason AK is open til 11 on 9/5 is its Labor Day. So maybe after Labor Day they are either shutting down JB for short time prepping for RoL or maybe they will have after a single after Park close showing of RoL/JB. With low crowds this fall and early 7:30ish sunsets?? Or most likely it could just be that they are planning on extending hours again later this summer. Who knows, but it really makes ADR's difficult!

 

[KT0191]

My guess is that the reason AK is open til 11 on 9/5 is its Labor Day. So maybe after Labor Day they are either shutting down JB for short time prepping for RoL or maybe they will have after a single after Park close showing of RoL/JB. With low crowds this fall and early 7:30ish sunsets?? Or most likely it could just be that they are planning on extending hours again later this summer. Who knows, but it really makes ADR's difficult!

I think that too. I can definitely see them not extending JB and them just waiting until ROL is ready to open back up the later hours.

 

[maxiesmom]

I'm happy they extended the hours to 7:30. The extra 2 1/2 is great!

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Tried to move my Tiffin's ADR to a later time but past 5:00 not available yet.

Me too. Mine's at 445.

 

[tink9702]

Thank you for posting! I'm glad to at least get a couple extra hours at AK.

 

[kristie73]

When I view Oct 15 it's until 7:00 pm. I tried to change my Yak an Yeti reservation from 4:15 and there's nothing else available. Yak and Yeti still show dinner until 5pm. I called and they told me to call back at the end of Sept. They said the park hours are subject to change. They sure don't want you to plan ahead or do they?

 

[RinRin]

When I view Oct 15 it's until 7:00 pm. I tried to change my Yak an Yeti reservation from 4:15 and there's nothing else available. Yak and Yeti still show dinner until 5pm. I called and they told me to call back at the end of Sept. They said the park hours are subject to change. They sure don't want you to plan ahead or do they?

I would check back in a few days/week not wait til Sept. I read a while ago that the restaurants are sometimes a week or more behind. Unless they don't plan on updating times til then but I wouldn't risk waiting that long...

 

[KT0191]

I'm happy they extended the hours to 7:30. The extra 2 1/2 is great!

Same! We get an extra 3 hours since our AK day is 9/7 and they extended it until 8. I am pretty excited.

 

[Mrs. Belle]

Where are y'all seeing the extended hours? I'm looking at the Sept calendar on the Disney website and hours end at 5pm?

 

[KT0191]

Where are y'all seeing the extended hours? I'm looking at the Sept calendar on the Disney website and hours end at 5pm?

This is just the link to my AK day but you can look from there.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/calendars/2016-09-07/

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

That's funny because I looked on the travel agent calendar and it says that AK is open until 5pm from 9/6 through 9/30.

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/staticfiles/parkhours/wdwtravelagent_september.pdf

I was under the impression that the travel agent calendar was more accurate than the one on the website, but I could be wrong. I hope I am! I want it to be open later. We were so looking forward to the new Tree of Life show and riding EE in the dark! Sunset is around 7:30ish when we're there so maybe the last EE ride of the night. Or we can add another day and go to AK when it's open until 11pm. Decisions, decisions! And my FP+ opening day is in a week and a half!

 

[KT0191]

That's funny because I looked on the travel agent calendar and it says that AK is open until 5pm from 9/6 through 9/30.

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/staticfiles/parkhours/wdwtravelagent_september.pdf

I was under the impression that the travel agent calendar was more accurate than the one on the website, but I could be wrong. I hope I am! I want it to be open later. We were so looking forward to the new Tree of Life show and riding EE in the dark! Sunset is around 7:30ish when we're there so maybe the last EE ride of the night. Or we can add another day and go to AK when it's open until 11pm. Decisions, decisions! And my FP+ opening day is in a week and a half!

The TA calendar has always been more up to date for me except this year. They added MK nighttime entertainment to the Disney site before the TA calendar was updated and a few other things before the TA reflected the changes.

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

The TA calendar has always been more up to date for me except this year. They added MK nighttime entertainment to the Disney site before the TA calendar was updated and a few other things before the TA reflected the changes.

Thanks, KTO191, that's good to know. It's a bummer because the website is so cumbersome; it's so much easier to look at the full month in the TA calendar.

 

[scrappinginontario]

With the earlier sunsets and much lower crowds I would be surprised if AK hours are extended further. We're going in mid-September and the hours were updated until 7:30. I wouldn't be surprised to see that be it and if they show JB/RoL that it be at 8:00. If they're showing it twice on nights when crowd levels are 7-10/10, I can see them only showing it once when crowd levels in Sept average 2-3/10.

Going in September we find that Park Hoppers don't work for us as the parks we wish to 'hop' to close so early many nights, especially the MK on MNSSHP nights.

Having traveled to WDW in September for a few years now, I wouldn't count on nighttime hours being extended any later than they are currently offering. It would be a nice surprise but it's not common practice, at least from my experience.

 

[WEDWDW]

WAY too early for those hours to remotely be considered "final".