First week in September

[RainyDayPixie]

Our kids don’t start school until Sept 9th this year (since Labor Day is so late), so I thought maybe the first week of September might be our chance to see the 60th excitement!

• Does anyone know/have guesses if the hours of August 31-Sept 3 (Monday through Thursday) will be longer, summer hours?
• Will evening entertainment likely be offered? I’m most concerned about the fireworks and fantasmic.
• I want to avoid staying Friday evening as this spills into the holiday weekend and the run events (which I know start the 3rd/4th) and there seems to be greater hotel availability through Thursday night, but I don't want to miss out on weekend stuff if the autumn schedule is in effect.
• Any thoughts on how crowded it will be? Perhaps a bit less crowded than earlier in the summer? I’m hoping that with many kids already in school, we can enjoy slightly less crowded parks.
• Likely closures: Haunted Mansion. Space Mountain (I’m not sure when it goes down for the overlay)
• Any other thoughts on this week?

Thanks everyone! I’m hoping this trip works out!

(And how annoying that Disney doesn't post hours/entertainment schedule for months!)

 

[figment_jii]

I would guess that the parks will begin to transition from the full summer hours to the shorter non-summer hours sometime in mid-to-late August. By the time September rolls around, I would think they'll be on the not-quite-yet-short-hours, but no longer open from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm/midnight on weekdays.

Evening entertainment is harder to predict this year because Labor Day is late and there hasn't been a night time parade in quite a while. I would guess that fireworks will be presented nightly through Labor Day weekend, but F! usually goes to a weekend only schedule earlier (about when the hours start to transition). No one knows what PtN will be doing yet. WoC is typically presented nightly, even during the non-peak season.

Haunted Mansion should have closed already for the overlay installation, but Space Mtn usually closes the week before HalloweenTime starts. We don't yet know when that will be, but the best guess is somewhere between September 12 and 18. So Space probably won't close until after Labor Day. Big Thunder Carnival area will also likely be closed for installation of the Halloween Carnival. There may be other closures, but it's hard to say what they will be.