Help me predict the future, and what time does it get dark in October?

[Farro]

I'm trying to decide what time to eat on one of our Animal Kingdom nights and need some help with planning our park day. We will have two full days/nights at Animal Kingdom.

We are staying at Polynesian and going end of October. My dilemma is we want to book O'hana a Friday night, one of our AK days. I make our dining reservations in a couple weeks and I know there is no way hours will be out.
I was thinking of making our reservations for 8:45 - that way we can stay in the park until at least 8 and just grab an Uber back to Poly.

At this point I'm just assuming it will be open until 8 - Do you think staying until 8 will give us some time to explore AK after dark?
I want to give us time just to see Pandora after dark, not worried about rides and not worried about Rivers of Light. Also want to catch The Tree of Life show and I'm not sure when it gets dark.

Also, we will be there a second night to stay later if possible, but with more people, this first night is just the two of us - it's our favorite park.

thanks in advance!

 

[Lesverts]

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/orlando

I found this website. And since I am a geography/weather nerd I thoroughly enjoyed it way too much.

I personally think that October AK hours will be closer to 9 or 10. That would give around 2 hours plus of dusk/darkness for Pandora. If I was in your position I'd rope drop AK until say 1. Hitch a ride back to the Polynesian. Freshen up and relax. Dinner at 'Ohana around 430/5* and head back to the park after dinner until close/you are too tired to want to stay anymore.

*Not everyone's favourite dinner time, but 'Ohana is notoriously bad at getting behind on ADRs so having an earlier one will limit the impact of not being seated on time.

 

[Robo]

You'll need to be there later than 8PM.

 

[Farro]

Thanks @Lesverts - but we want to eat later that night for O'hana. But we are doing something along those lines when the rest of our group arrives. AK, dinner at Sanaa, back to AK until close.

Looks like sun sets at about 6:45. That will give us at least an hour just wander around and soak it in...

 

[Farro]

You'll need to be there later than 8PM.

Assuming it's open later than 8 in October, we will be staying until close a different night.

I just wanted the two of us to get a taste of it after dark before going with everyone else. If sun sets at 6:45 I think we will have a decent amount of time, we can even catch an Uber at 8:15 to get back to Poly by 8:45 I bet. I realize it won't be nighttime dark, but it will be dark enough to see the lighting, etc.

thanks all!

 

[Polydweller]

Here's some actual times for Oct 2017.

Oct 1 Sunset 7:11pm Dusk end 7:35pm
Oct 15 Sunset 6:56pm Dusk end 7:20pm
Oct 31 Sunset 6:41pm Dusk end 7:05pm

 

[thelittlemermaid2]

we can even catch an Uber at 8:15 to get back to Poly by 8:45 I bet.

You may want to schedule a little more time than this, as transportation always seems to take longer than you think, no matter what type. If you are able to stay till park close another night then eating around 8:45 should work great, But I would start walking out of the park around 7:50. This may only give you about half an hour of actual darkness, as it takes around half an hour after the sun sets for it to truly get dark.

 

[Farro]

Thanks @Polydweller!

@thelittlemermaid2 Thanks. I will play with my Uber app and see how long it would take before we get there!
We were there in 2014 and I just looked up the calendar, Animal Kingdom was open until 8. I remember being on Everest in the dark and admiring how beautiful Animal Kingdom was at night so I think we are good to go! But our second day there we are staying until close, which will hopefully be later than 8!