Any thoughts about mid March park hours?

[vikster1]

Following. We will be there after our cruise from the 16th to the 20th and I've been checking each day. The last update to the travel agent calendar was Jan 12th, so one should be coming any day now!

I just have a hard time believing a St Patrick's Day on a Friday wouldn't get more than a 9:00pm closing time!

Please keep us posted if you find changes. I will be there the 20th-26th.

I've been watching these dates since they became available to view and other random dates throughout the holidays. Not much has budged. I have the magic tickets so I have everything carefully planned out.

 

[Matty_Disfan]

They have changed the hours for AK during that stretch to 9pm closes, but only on the official webpage, not the app and not the Travel Agent sheets.

I have been following this, they have not opened early for the past year, not even during Christmas this year. Not likely.

They will be extending these hours, they already extended MK for the week ending March 3rd to 11 pm in some instances.

 

[tamuexpress]

They have changed the hours for AK during that stretch to 9pm closes, but only on the official webpage, not the app and not the Travel Agent sheets

That is due to ROL coming online - 8:45 showings.

 

[Suzanne74]

We will be there in the 20's of March and right now DHS moved from 7:30pm close to 9pm close and AK moved from 7pm closing to 9pm with ROL coming. My guess is the only thing left to change is to extend MK closing to maybe 11pm a few nights around the weekend and they won't change MK's times until 30 days so that non-resort guests have some FP to get. And I don't think Epcot ever changes from 9am to 9pm with a 2hr EMH night and a 1hr EMH morning, do they? .

We were there 2 years ago at the same time and MK was opened from 8am to midnight with AM EMH at 7am. We arrived for the Welcome Show and the walk down Main Street in the PITCH black with the castle still lit up. Was pretty cool but I know those days are gone. My guess is the cost to keep AK open until 9pm will mean that MK hours might be shorten some. I am curious to see how keeping all 4 parks open at night will affect crowds. MK was always insane at night because DHS and AK always closed so early and Epcot was always 9pm.

 

[Suzanne74]

I'm wondering the same thing about May..
If MK does get extended will Wishes be 10 instead of 9?

I don't think I have ever seen Wishes not be at 9pm, even when the park closes at midnight. They used to bookend MSEP at 8pm and 10pm around it. Without the parade they may have more flexibility but I think the notion is to always keep it at 9pm so younger kids can see it.

 

[abnihon]

I don't think I have ever seen Wishes not be at 9pm, even when the park closes at midnight. They used to bookend MSEP at 8pm and 10pm around it. Without the parade they may have more flexibility but I think the notion is to always keep it at 9pm so younger kids can see it.

Looks like it was 10pm last May!

 

[ArielSRL]

I don't think I have ever seen Wishes not be at 9pm, even when the park closes at midnight. They used to bookend MSEP at 8pm and 10pm around it. Without the parade they may have more flexibility but I think the notion is to always keep it at 9pm so younger kids can see it.

Looks like it was 10pm last May!

It was at 10pm for the summer months for sure last year. And the years before. If trends continue, they will extend May hours, mid-April.

 

[patink]

You can always look at last years to kind of get an idea.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours/march16.cfm

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours/march15.cfm

Not to say they will definitely replicate the schedule, but usually they come close.

Currently, MK in March of 17 has 369 regular hours scheduled.

MK in March of 16 had 449 regular hours

MK in March of 15 had 467 regular hours

I'd say March of 17 should come close to 16's hours. Not sure we will see anymore 8 am -1 am operating schedules anymore...

I'm wondering the same thing about May..
If MK does get extended will Wishes be 10 instead of 9?

All you can really do is watch the calendar, and hope. Wishes has been at 10pm frequently in the past. If you look at 2016 March hours in the link above...
After the first week the parade was at 9pm and 11pm with Wishes in between at 10pm for a couple of weeks. (3/5, 3/7, 3/8, 3/10, etc.) Even when the MK closed at 11pm the last parade was often scheduled at 11pm.

And depending when you are going in May Wishes will be the new show. Starting May 12th Wishes will be replaced.

 

[ArielSRL]

I have been following this, they have not opened early for the past year, not even during Christmas this year. Not likely..

Where did you get this info? They have had several 8am openings. They even had some in January. I'm fairly certain they had 7am openings at Christmas.

ETA: I was there first week of June (within the last year) and they had 3 or 4 8am openings that week alone.

 

[Suzanne74]

Looks like it was 10pm last May!

My bad.

I would LOVE for Wishes to be at 10pm at the end of March.

 

[4GoofyCrew]

My guess is the March hours--especially the first two weeks--will not be quite as extended this year as the past two years because Easter is 2-3 weeks later. The spring break crowds aren't all condensed into the last two weeks of March.

I was wondering that too - if it'll be spread out more because of Easter being so late.

Following...

 

[Dr Gunnie]

I just checked and hours have been added. I know MK on March 16, 17, and 18 were extended to 11:00.

 

[Masonmj84]

I just checked and hours have been added. I know MK on March 16, 17, and 18 were extended to 11:00.

Yep, it looks like from March 12 to the end of the month, the evening hours have been extended to 11 pm.

In addition, it looks like, for March 11 and 13-17, park opening has been moved up to 8 am (which I find somewhat odd, given that this is the first week on Daylight Savings Time - especially considering the last two weeks of March are still showing a 9 am opening, which makes me suspect that these two weeks may also have their opening time moved up to 8 am).

 

[dlavender]

So, since I'm trying to avoid doing any real work, I thought I'd look at hours this year compared to the last two years.

2017 total MK hours for January and February are 690 (370 Jan, 320 Feb)

2016 total MK hours for January and February were 781(374 Jan, 407 Feb)*adjusted to remove leap day hours

2015 total MK hours for January and February were 817(403 Jan, 414 Feb)

Can these February hours be for real? We are already a week deep, but man seems like they are really running a tight February. If they hold where they are, March could not see too much improvement.

Looks like they added 50 hours to February for this year, bringing the 2017 total MK hours for January and February to 740. A little better...

 

[Suzanne74]

YES!! MK is open until 11pm everyday we are there but Sunday which closes at 10pm. Wed night EMH 11pm-1am!!

What I am most surprised about is no evening EMH at DHS. Or am I missing it?

 

[PanamaMike]

We're going the 10th and 11th. I'm hoping those dates get extended as well. Since we only have 2 park days, we're trying to take advantage of as many hours as they'll give us!

Earlier this week, MK was showing 9-9 on March 11th.
Now it shows 8-midnight.

 

[FigmentSpark]

What does that do to the Wishes time? Is it later?

 

[PanamaMike]

What does that do to the Wishes time? Is it later?

Still scheduled for 9pm

 

[rcraw45425]

I just checked and hours have been added. I know MK on March 16, 17, and 18 were extended to 11:00.

Thank you for this, I had been looking all week (we arrive on 3/17) and saw the AK hours and ROL packages but hadn't seen the MK hours. This makes it much better as my daughter is insisting we do Work and Screen for Beauty and the Beast on the 17th. Good to know we might could make it over to MK afterwards!

 

[ArielSRL]

YES!! MK is open until 11pm everyday we are there but Sunday which closes at 10pm. Wed night EMH 11pm-1am!!

What I am most surprised about is no evening EMH at DHS. Or am I missing it?

No you aren't missing it. There is none scheduled after February. There has been recent speculation that it is going away, but no one knows for sure.