Sep 1st 2015 - Why the early close time for MK???

[mrincredible76]

Looking ahead at the Calendar for our late August/early September trip, Magic Kingdom hours for September 1st were 9am-7pm when i looked a few days ago and now are listed as "schedule unavailable" while there are hours listed for the other parks on this day.

Would there be a reason that the Magic Kingdom would close as early as 7:00pm?

We were hoping it was because of MNSSHP, however the dates for this have been announced and 9/15/15 is the first MNSSHP.

Now it seems strange that the schedule is not available. maybe they are updating the times?

 

[mrincredible76]

Looking ahead at the Calendar for our late August/early September trip, Magic Kingdom hours for September 1st were 9am-7pm when i looked a few days ago and now are listed as "schedule unavailable" while there are hours listed for the other parks on this day.

Would there be a reason that the Magic Kingdom would close as early as 7:00pm?

We were hoping it was because of MNSSHP, however the dates for this have been announced and 9/15/15 is the first MNSSHP.

Now it seems strange that the schedule is not available. maybe they are updating the times?

Now it's back showing as 9:00-7:00. Does this seem early?

 

[angierae]

Everyone's wondering the same thing. Maybe they're waiting to see how party ticket sales go, and maybe they're leaving space to add more parties?

 

[staceyeileen]

http://www.easywdw.com/news/the-problem-with-the-september-crowd-calendar/

 

[Shmily01]

Same thing on the 7th. They are closing MK at 7:00. I was really hoping they would have earlier MNSSHP so we could go!

 

[ZoZo]

Easywdw.com is showing that this will be a MNSSHP night. But it does have a bunch of question marks ("MNSSHP????") listed next to it. So it looks like WDW has not officially released the Halloween party dates yet, but some are speculating that this will be a party night because of the early closing time.

 

[Shmily01]

They've released the dates and the party dates don't start until the 15th.

 

[mrincredible76]

http://www.easywdw.com/news/the-problem-with-the-september-crowd-calendar/

Thanks for the link. Good info. Hopefully they will add some early September MNSSHP dates.

 

[Shmily01]

Thanks for the link. Good info. Hopefully they will add some early September MNSSHP dates.

We are hoping the same thing!!!

 

[ElsaColon]

Thanks for the link. Good info. Hopefully they will add some early September MNSSHP dates.

It started early last year. I went Sept 10th last year, so that would mean it started a week earlier last year than it is listing for this year.

 

[livingthedream]

And because Labor Day is later into September this year, they are probably trying to gauge what the crowd levels will be like that first week - so are waiting to see what their hotel bookings look like before making the final decision about adding Halloween parties that early.....just speculation on my part, though.

ETA: Guess I should have read Josh's article first about potential corporate "after parties"! - but if those fall through, I'm still thinking they are watching the hotel occupancy rate to decide on whether to go ahead with MNSSHPs the first few days of Sept...

 

[PacoDF]

They already updated the operating hours for MK on sept 1st, 4th and 7th. MK closes at 10pm and includes MSEP and Wishes.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/calendars/magic-kingdom/2015-09-01/#timeofday=allday


It seems that all of us hoping for extra MNSSHP will have to try again next year

 

[Karin1984]

I had hoped that it stayed 7PM so the crowd level would be low.

 

[GillianP1301]

They already updated the operating hours for MK on sept 1st, 4th and 7th. MK closes at 10pm and includes MSEP and Wishes.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/calendars/magic-kingdom/2015-09-01/#timeofday=allday


It seems that all of us hoping for extra MNSSHP will have to try again next year

Thanks for flagging this, I hadn't gone in today yet to check. Looks like they also changed the 2nd to 10pm (previously 9pm). Too bad about the party, but I'm also now kinda bummed that there is no 9pm closures because 10pm for wishes is just a bit too late for my little guy.

 

[mousefan73]

DAmn!!! I was hoping for MNSSSHP.... uuuuuuuugh ........
I have to check.. at least now I know 100% how to plan... damn damn damn... sorry but we looooeved this party last year and were looking forward to it...

 

[livingthedream]

Well, this sort of somewhat confirms my suspicion that the week before Labor Day is not going to be as slow as some crowd calendars are suggesting. Disney wouldn't extend the hours that late if they were anticipating lower crowds. I have had a sneaking suspicion for a while now that many people will take advantage of the fact that Labor Day is a full week into September, so even with many schools back in session, there are likely just as many that are not.

Not gonna be a slow time, I suspect!

 

[RJstanis]

Bummer but planned without party and planning for larger crowds than expected just to be on safe side. Late Sept had higher crowds than expected last year, and I hadn't planned for worst case scenario so didn't get to enjoy as much as I hoped. Still a great time no matter what but I learned my lesson for this year. Plan for the worst and enjoy anything less than that

 

[kcpinwdw]

I wonder why they havent extended BOG hours on those nights that were previously closing early.

 

[row]

Darn, I had already planned out the first week of Sept using Josh's calendar. I wonder if his picks for most recommended parks will change.

 

[Karin1984]

I wonder if you can conclude Disney extends the opening hours only because they expect larger crowds that week. I do agree that the late Labor day will have some influence, but I wonder if it is that much. Several people here already wrote they have postponed their trip dates due to the parties starting September 15th.

Now that apparently within Disney the decision is final (which can still change of course) there will be no parties in this first week, open to the public or sold to companies etc. The question is: what would be the 'regular' opening hours for MK at this time of year?

The historical data we have, will not be very accurate anymore as for the last few years the Halloween parties started early September (correct me if I'm wrong). Which resulted in MK being extra crowded on the non-party days as there were fewer days where MK had evening entertainment, for which no hard ticket was necessary. Now there will be evening entertainment every night, spreading the crowds more equally.

My reasoning on closing time:
7pm is too early for a park as popular as MK
8pm is also too early, as the sun sets between 8:00 - 8:30 this week.
9pm could be an option, but as it stays warm till late in the evening, people would like to stay. As soon as the sun has set the temperature can be considered more bearable, with more people wanting to stay in the parks longer instead of going back to the hotel.

I think 10 pm, like in August, can be considered as 'regular' in September, not necessarily because of the expected crowds.