December Park Hours- Tell me it will get better!

[sbrost13]

I know that park hours are subject to change up until the day of, but I was shocked to see 9:00am openings for MK every day we’re there (aside from one AM EMH). We’ll be there December 21-28, right in the thick of the holiday madness. This is our first trip during the holidays and I thought they would have earlier openings for at lease MK that week.

When I looked at last year’s hours, I thought I saw MK opening at 8:00am every day. I sincerely hope they open the parks earlier than what’s posted now! We are rope drop people, especially for the AM EMH park, and there are multiple days where there is only PM EMH, so bummed! I realize a lot of people don’t want to get up early, but that’s always been a great strategy for our family. Now I’m worried about how much we’ll get accomplished in the first few hours in the parks.

We’re used to summer at Disney World, so I know we’ll need to adjust our expectations with this trip! I do realize we won’t get everything accomplished, now I just need to figure out my park days to get ready to make dining reservations!

 

[gwb]

double checked my records for Dec MK for past few years( all recorded after Dec) and all were the same as current one

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Hours that far out are more or less “baseline” times. Expect changes, but they may not happen until a month(ish) out. I’d use hours from the same timeframe last year as a ‘general’ guide, with the caveat that with TSL you’ll more than likely see better hours at HS this year vs last year.

Don’t stress.

 

[Hope Soda]

Yes, last year the park opened at 8am during Christmas season. Party days went 8-6, other days went 8-10 (not counting EMH)

The year before, park hours were 9-7 on party days, and I'm not sure what they were like on non-party days.

This year, I think we might actually get stuck with those 9-6 hours on party days. Since there are Early Morning Magic days through November, I expect at least Sundays and Tuesdays will remain 9-6 during that time. The fact that December currently has no Early Morning Magic events scheduled leads me to believe it's still possible the hours will change to 8am openings beginning in December, so you can be hopeful about that. I'm going the last week of November, and I'd LOVE to see 8am openings on non-EMM days, but I'm not hopeful.

 

[Tksolomom]

I think it will probably be 8-6 on the party day this year, but we’ll have to wait and see. They changed the hours for the party days to close at 6 starting last Christmas because party guests were complaining about too many non-party guests being in the lines at park close. Now they have a 1 hour buffer between park close (6) and the official start to the party (7).

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Hours will be extended no doubt about it.
It will likely happen 3-6 weeks prior.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

FWIW, OPs dates are 12/21-12/28. 12/21 is the last MVMCP.

OP, I just went back to look at hours for your same equivalent week in 2017. Just looking at MK, for example... it had regular openings at 8AM and EMHs at 7AM every single day during that time. If I'm not mistaken, many/all of those AM EMHs were added at a much later point in the year.

Granted past performance isn't always indicative of future results when park hours are concerned, but I'd say there's a reasonable chance you'll see something similar this year.

 

[sbrost13]

FWIW, OPs dates are 12/21-12/28. 12/21 is the last MVMCP.

OP, I just went back to look at hours for your same equivalent week in 2017. Just looking at MK, for example... it had regular openings at 8AM and EMHs at 7AM every single day during that time. If I'm not mistaken, many/all of those AM EMHs were added at a much later point in the year.

Granted past performance isn't always indicative of future results when park hours are concerned, but I'd say there's a reasonable chance you'll see something similar this year.

That’s what I thought I saw too! Glad I’m not crazy! I appreciate all the responses and feedback.

 

[desl10]

I think it will probably be 8-6 on the party day this year, but we’ll have to wait and see. They changed the hours for the party days to close at 6 starting last Christmas because party guests were complaining about too many non-party guests being in the lines at park close. Now they have a 1 hour buffer between park close (6) and the official start to the party (7).

Due to the week we are going Magic Kingdom closes early 3 of the 5 days. SO currently I have planned our Magic Kingdom days on the days it closes at 6. Will this prove to be a bad idea to attend MK on days it closes at 6?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Due to the week we are going Magic Kingdom closes early 3 of the 5 days. SO currently I have planned our Magic Kingdom days on the days it closes at 6. Will this prove to be a bad idea to attend MK on days it closes at 6?

Personally, I love going to MK on a party day. The downside is that you don’t get any nighttime MK time or fireworks. But, if you’re OK giving that up, they are great days to go to MK, generally speaking. The shorter hours and no nightime fireworks are historically a filter for some folks, who opt to go to other parks.

Although, things do quickly pick up after 4pm (which is when party people are let in). I much prefer to rope drop and be long gone before then.

 

[desl10]

Personally, I love going to MK on a party day. The downside is that you don’t get any nighttime MK time or fireworks. But, if you’re OK giving that up, they are great days to go to MK, generally speaking. The shorter hours and no nightime fireworks is historically a filter for some folks, who opt to go to other parks.

Although, things do quickly pick up after 4pm (which is when party people are let in). I much prefer to rope drop and be long gone before then.

Thanks so much for the advice. All the sights I saw said party days "tend" to be lower crowd days. Hence while I opted to do those days. But your right no nighttime fireworks. We have a park hopper option so hoping one night we can pop back over to MK to attend a fireworks viewing if possible!

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

It'll get better.

We go every year, so I've got the hours pretty much memorized by now...

- MK will have a morning EMH at 7am every morning, then open to the public at 8am.
- MK will stay open until midnight or so each night. I think I remember it closing earlier on Christmas Eve or Day (like 11pm)
- Epcot will stay open until 11pm most nights; Illuminations will go off at 10:30pm
- DHS and AK will usually stay open until 10pm. Wouldn't surprise me to see some added EMH in there for DHS.

On 12/30 MK will stay open until 1, with EMH from 1am-3am.

Disney will often add EMH as the date gets closer, but that's what we've seen.

 

[monorailrabbit]

I would be very surprised if they didn't change. I remember being a little miffed last time we went in December - we had booked a PPO breakfast at 8:30, then the hours changed to 8:00. This year, we only have one short day at each MK and Epcot. I didn't take my chance with an early breakfast just in case!

 

[desl10]

It'll get better.

We go every year, so I've got the hours pretty much memorized by now...

- MK will have a morning EMH at 7am every morning, then open to the public at 8am.
- MK will stay open until midnight or so each night. I think I remember it closing earlier on Christmas Eve or Day (like 11pm)
- Epcot will stay open until 11pm most nights; Illuminations will go off at 10:30pm
- DHS and AK will usually stay open until 10pm. Wouldn't surprise me to see some added EMH in there for DHS.

On 12/30 MK will stay open until 1, with EMH from 1am-3am.

Disney will often add EMH as the date gets closer, but that's what we've seen.

What about the week of Dec. 16th-22nd? Currently times are all 9am with 1 EMH8am. and the non party day closes at 9pm with EMH 9-11pm.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

What about the week of Dec. 16th-22nd? Currently times are all 9am with 1 EMH8am. and the non party day closes at 9pm with EMH 9-11pm.

FWIW, (and granted things can change year to year) non-party park hours that same week last year were:

Mon: 9AM-12AM
Wed: 9AM-11PM (11-1am EMHs)
Sat: 8AM-12AM (7am-8am EMHs)

The party days all had 8AM openings.

 

[desl10]

FWIW, (and granted things can change year to year) non-party park hours that same week last year were:

Mon: 9AM-12AM
Wed: 9AM-11PM (11-1am EMHs)
Sat: 8AM-12AM (7am-8am EMHs)

The party days all had 8AM openings.

Ty! I was hoping the Wednesday would have the EMH 11-1 but currently it is listed as 9-11pm. I like the later times bc the crowds seem less. SO when would they released these times?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Ty! I was hoping the Wednesday would have the EMH 11-1 but currently it is listed as 9-11pm. I like the later times bc the crowds seem less. SO when would they released these times?

It can be random, but Disney hasn’t really been changing hours until around a month out. For example, they just did a big July update on 6/15. You kind of have to keep paying attention, for better or worse.

 

[desl10]

It can be random, but Disney hasn’t really been changing hours until around a month out. For example, they just did a big July update on 6/15. You kind of have to keep paying attention, for better or worse.

I guess knowing there is hope that the only 2 non party days out of the 5 we are there may have extended MK hours!! Yay. Will keep a watch Thank you.

 

[AmyAnne]

We are going at pretty much the same time, and I am assuming the hours will be expanded about 4 - 6 weeks out.

Does anyone know how likely it is that Disney will add EMH hours (at parks other than MK)? We actually try to avoid the EMH hours, so I'm hoping that Disney is more likely to extend park hours than add EMH.

 

[jvz82]

We went mid-late December last year and MK opened at 7 am every day (for EMH anyway). The hours didn't change until really close to our trip. I even had to revise my entire morning at MK for one of the days because they added morning EMH to that day at the very last minute. So hours were changing quite a bit right up until my trip.