Late Park Hours..

[lyssaloo_luvsyoo]

so ive only ever been to disney world once so im not exactly sure how it all works yet.. (im a spring 12 hopeful)
but i thought the parks closed at like 12 or so.. or am i wrong..?
if not then why do i hear of CPs have these crazy hours and having to work till like 3 am?
are guests still there till then (riding rides, shopping, eating..)!?
or is it just having to stay after closing to prepare for the next day that is causing the late hours..?

 

[SydneyJoLynn]

It depends on the park. Animal Kingdom (DAK) is known for closing up to guests much earlier than the other parks. But I'm sure there are additional hours for animal care and custodial clean up.

Magic Kingdom is going to be the park where you see hours until 3am. And yes, guests are still in the park. Its for selective nights called 'Extra Magic Hours', for guests staying in Disney Hotels. Then there is normally an additional 30 or 45 minutes to close up the attractions/merchandise/food+bev locations.

CP's get a nickname for a reason - Closing People.

 

[ohsnapxitsamanda]

MK also does special events like Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party where guest (who have tickets for these events) get to stay until midnight or later. Plus there are nights where MK won't close until midnight for everyone, especially the closer to summer you get.

 

[KiSsMySaSs89]

Yeah, MK stays open later for EMH. It depends on where you work in MK, because not everything stays open during EMH. Toontown didn't stay open, and not all merch locations, food locations, or attractions stay open that late in the other parts of the park either. At toontown closers were scheduled 1:15 after it closed in order to get the store back in order. I'm not sure how other places work, but, we stayed there until the store was back in order. If it didn't take as long we got out early, but if it took longer we got extended. And you can't exactly kick guests out; you can start closing doors and try to convince them to wrap up their purchases or cut off lines, but other than that, there's nothing you can do.
I think the latest I saw the park open was 3 or 4 a.m. I think the only bad thing about the late hours (at least for me) would be the bus systems, because depending on where you live it can take almost an hour to get home, and that's if the bus is on time. I also heard that it can get kind of boring, especially in merch, because if guests are staying late they're 8/10 times riding rides, not shopping.

 

[Iris]

EMH will keep a park open late which will generate late shifts. Magic Kingdom stayed open until 3 am last night for EMH and my DD (a part-timer not a Cp)was scheduled 4 pm-3:30 am.
So some of those crazy late shifts are from those extra magic hours.

When I worked for the Disney stores we had some late shifts during holiday seasons usually to clean up the store and get it ready for the morning.

 

[MonorailPilotMulan]

Yes, the 3:00 AM EMH at the Magic Kingdom happens often in the spring and summer and early fall. If your here for fall, you would likely be working lots of Halloween and Christmas parties which do end around midnight. The latest shifts are the Grad Night shifts as the park does't close until 4:00 AM. It all depends on your department when it comes to figuring out when your shift would end on a closing shift. I know in monorails, we get off work three hours and fifteen minutes after the last park closes and 2 hours and 45 minutes after an EMH park closes. Most aren't as dramatic as Monorails, but I would plan on having a lot of closing shifts. I personally love my closing shifts