Park Closing Hours???

[rochek1999]

My husband and I will be going to US the first week in May. It looks to me that US parks don't stay open anywhere near the time that Disney parks do. Am I wrong?

 

[sherlockmiles]

You are correct.
We find this extremely frustrating - especially given ticket prices!!

 

[macraven]

Some Friday special events have the studios close at 5

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

I do love Universal and I am a huge Disney fan, too. i try really hard not to compare the two places...but if universal wants to charge this much for park tickets, they are going to need to stay open later.........they close too early for my preference....

 

[sherlockmiles]

I do love Universal and I am a huge Disney fan, too. i try really hard not to compare the two places...but if universal wants to charge this much for park tickets, they are going to need to stay open later.........they close too early for my preference....

totally agree!!!!

 

[atricks]

IOA closes at 10PM most of the month, the short days seem to be the grad bash or gradventure days (Special events for middle/high school students)

 

[AuroraluvsPhillip]

I am surprised about this as well. We went the first week of May last year and US closed at 6 on the Grad night Friday, but was open later on most other nights. We loved going back to DA at night after dinner. Doesn't look like that will be possible this year with US closing early.

 

[brertoad]

I think they are only open late because of Spring Break (part of last month/this month/and Easter). Before we bought our passes I noticed their hours are extremely short most of the year in comparison to Disney. Most days they close at 6pm, which sucks, because often times we have to go to the parks after work, even if we cut out of work early by a couple hours, we still would only get 2 hours at Universal. They really should keep longer hours, especially due to their ticket prices.

 

[atricks]

I think they are only open late because of Spring Break (part of last month/this month/and Easter). Before we bought our passes I noticed their hours are extremely short most of the year in comparison to Disney. Most days they close at 6pm, which sucks, because often times we have to go to the parks after work, even if we cut out of work early by a couple hours, we still would only get 2 hours at Universal. They really should keep longer hours, especially due to their ticket prices.

I'm trying to follow this but I just don't see it, here's may, june, and september and it's mostly 10 or 9pm? 7 days with shorter hours in May corresponding to the special events. 1 in June (Travel agent event, I believe) and none in September. (HHN and rock the universe changes it on the studios side though) July is all 10pm closing and August is half 10pm and half 9pm. October it shortens a bit halfway through until 8pm. (HHN goes until 1 or 2 AM though) Magic Kingdom has actually more shorter hours starting late august and september.

 

[brertoad]

We got our passes in October, so we've never been during summer before. Looks like they really follow a scheduled based on when the kids are out of school?

 

[AdamEfimoff]

I want to know this as well

 

[Barbanellie]

I'm trying to follow this but I just don't see it, here's may, june, and september and it's mostly 10 or 9pm? 7 days with shorter hours in May corresponding to the special events. 1 in June (Travel agent event, I believe) and none in September. (HHN and rock the universe changes it on the studios side though) July is all 10pm closing and August is half 10pm and half 9pm. October it shortens a bit halfway through until 8pm. (HHN goes until 1 or 2 AM though) Magic Kingdom has actually more shorter hours starting late august and september.

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Looks to me like the times you are showing are for IOA. The parks have different opening hours, and this is what is currently on the Universal page for May at US:

 

[houseofthrees]

If I recall correctly, when we have gone in May in previous year studio side has stayed open later and IOA closed earlier. I would guess the loss of the cinematic spectacular & the addition of the castle light show have just flip which park stays open later. We are a bit disappointed because we do enjoy DA after dark, but we are gonna get to enjoy other things at night that have previously been closed. It should be a nice change.

 

[soniam]

UOR has limitations on their hours and nighttime shows due to their location. They are basically next door to a residential neighborhood. Granted, they could probably stay open later on some days than they do, but I suspect 10pm is probably the latest they can do most nights, except for Halloween Horror Nights.

 

[sherlockmiles]

We were there in December and they closed at 7. That is ridiculously early.

 

[psac]

I totally agree, 6-7pm for UO for every night the first week of May is inexcusable. (I would say the same for December as well!). But for May, when the sun goes down at 7:42 now (so a little later in three weeks), that means we’ll have no chance to see Diagon Alley at night for a whole week’s trip. That’s pretty poor.

 

[sherlockmiles]

Magic Kingdom has actually more shorter hours starting late august and september.

Most of these are the nights for MNSSHP. But there are 3 other parks to go to those nights.

 

[lilmickeygirl]

I was told by the rep I just spoke to that if you only have one day, do Universal in the morning then Islands of Adventure in the afternoons since Universal closes earlier for events.

 

[sandam1]

I'm going to disagree with the "Universal needs to be open later" brigade.

Personally, I think that Universal has a pretty good plan going. By leaving the parks by 6-7 p.m., I can go and have a nice sit-down dinner, head back to my hotel, go for a swim (or shop at City Walk or miniature golf or bowl or catch a movie or experience any of the other things that Universal has to offer) and get to bed at a reasonable hour. I can come from my vacation feeling like I had a vacation and not like I've been burning the candle at both ends, trying to do rope drop and the nighttime shows. Whenever someone talks about a Universal "resort day," I never understand why. The resorts are something that I explore after the parks close.

Also, the reduced hours can, some days, totally eliminate the mid-day break for me. If I get to the park at 8 a.m. (for early entry), I can make it to park close at Universal. And if I need a break, my hotel (Cabana Bay) is 15-20 minutes away tops, not an hour each way. It's a very different set-up than the Mouse and it's hard to compare what works for one park to the other.

Just my humble opinion...

 

[BigB0882]

That's great to get out of there in time for a dinner or not feeling the need to do a mid-day break but when the price for a ticket is far more than that of Disney, I want to have the option of staying in that park from 8am - 10pm at the very least. The cost of a ticket and an Express pass run you around $250 for the day. That is so absurd. However, it is working because next time we head to Orlando we are staying onsite at Universal and going to Disney with our AP. It is a shame how they keep Disney people from even trying their parks for 1 day because the price of that one day ticket and Express pass (which is essential if you only have one day) is running them off. We almost didn't go to Universal because of the price but once we did we were hooked. However, it was a very close call to not even going because it was hard to swallow spending that much money on a ticket.