Summer 2016 hours less than 2015?

[JungleCruiseFan]

We are booked in July this summer and we started planning which days we would go to which park and I noticed all of summer 2016 the Magic Kingdom is only open until 10pm?!? Last summer we were there in August for 2 weeks and the first week the park was open until midnight most if not all days and till 11 the second week. Also Epcot seems to have had their hours slashed. Has anyone else noticed this? Any word on why? I searched this board and Google and didn't see anyone mentioning it. We have been going every summer for awhile now and I can't recall the Magic Kingdom ever closing at 10pm. We are big late night park goers so this will really cut into our park time. Our favorite days were when we played at the pool and had lunch at the resort, then went into the parks at dinner and still had tons of time.

 

[gzmtlock]

I'd guess this is very difficult to predict right now. Past patterns have been to extend hours at 2-6 weeks out; that might be changing. For example, we just returned from a Spring Break trip that did not follow previous years' patterns of extending hours. There was a thread where folks expressed dissatisfaction and frustration that they had booked for Spring Break, counting on WDW to extend EMHs at MK like they had for several years prior to 2016. When that didn't happen, some were quiite unhappy. So past patterns seem to be much less predictive in the current climate of change at WDW.

You might want to base your plans on the 10 pm closings, and if they do happen to be extended, count that as a bonus.

 

[pmaurer74]

it could be the summer times are not finalized but likely it is because of the after hour events now going on.

 

[Parker Clan]

We went last August as well and noticed the hours were until 10 PM when we were first checking six months out. They did end up changing to 11PM closer to. We can only hope the same for this year!! Fingers crossed

 

[mom2rtk]

I think a lot of people are more nervous this year about whether hours will indeed be added to the schedule last minute like in years past. Many were quite sure they would add the early EMH every day the week after Easter (one of the busiest weeks of the year) and they never did. It was rather unprecedented. Will they add the extra hours in the summer? I sure hope so for the sake of everyone going. But nobody can say for sure since they started cutting stuff recently.

 

[TTFNTigger]

You might want to base your plans on the 10 pm closings, and if they do happen to be extended, count that as a bonus.

Best advice and that's what my group is doing! A shorter day at WDW is always much better than a long day at work!!!

 

[gzmtlock]

A shorter day at WDW is always much better than a long day at work!!!

Totally agree with this! On our just-completed trip, DGS13 got sick and missed two park days. But did get to go to the pool and eat some nice meals those days. So when he started to complain about being sick, I asked him if he would have rather been at home sick over his break, or at Disney World sick. That reset his whole attitude!

 

[mom2rtk]

Best advice and that's what my group is doing! A shorter day at WDW is always much better than a long day at work!!!

I guess that depends on how much you get paid to be at work, and how much it costs you to be at Disney.