when parks close early

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

What do you do when parks close early...like when AK closes at 6pm. What do you do with the rest of your evening?

 

[InstImpres]

We generally go see a night time parade else where or pick our favorite rides and hit them while everyone else is watching the parade. You can also do the campfire at FW and catch the EWP.
Have fun

 

[dansyr]

Some of the things we do.....
go to Downtown Disney
Pleasure Island
Disneyquest
The boardwalk
take a late night swim at your resort pool if it is warm enough.
go to the arcade at your resort

Hope this helps

 

[The Sybah Shelstah]

Lots of ideas out there- but I can only share what *I* personally did on my last stay.

I would hop over to Epcot on some evenings since even when the AK closed at 6pm and MK/MGM closed at 7pm- Epcot was still open till 9pm.

I would go to Pleasure Island or Disneyquest or just Downtown Disney in general.

One night I saw LaNouba (Cirque DuSoleil at Downtown Disney).

Had a nicer sitdown meal at another resort (or DTD) since I wasn't "wasting park time" to go there.

And 2 nights I went to Ft Wilderness for the campfire/singalong & movie. Mmm, s'mores.

The boardwalk or taking a dip in the resort pool are also good ideas- just not ones I did on that solo trip. The pool will probably be actually used by us on the next trip since it will be the kids with us as well as during a much hotter month (it was mighty cold the majority of the time I went on my last trip! Heated water or not- no way you were going to get ME in those pools LOL)

Let me just say this... before my last trip and with only the one trip before it in my mind (which happened to be the busiest week of the year) -I really wasn't sure if I'd enjoy the parks closing so early because I'm not much of a morning person.I'm more of a night person and I thought it would severely limit my amount of enjoyment in the parks. I was wrong... everyone here that told me that I'd have just as much fun if not MORE, because when the parks are closed earlier it's during the value seasons and that means not as many people are in the parks- were right on. I was able to do SO MUCH more even though the parks were closed earlier than I did during that busy season with the parks open much much later.

So don't let the early park hours scare ya.

 

[HauntedMansionFan]

Usually grab a sandwich and some chips at the Gourmet Pantry, wander through the shops at Downtown Disney and then cap the evening with a margarita from Cap'n Jack's Margarita Shack and a churro. Yumm.....

 

[Tiffany]

Originally posted by iNTeNSeBLue98
What do you do when parks close early...like when AK closes at 6pm. What do you do with the rest of your evening?

Well, we just returned from our trip and the MK closed at 7pm each night, MGM closed at 7pm and one night closed at 5pm for a special function, AK closed at 5pm and EC was open till 9pm.

Usually when the parks close early the lines are no where to be found. We walked on everything without a wait. We would be in a park by 10am stay till 3pm or so go back to the resort and take a nap regroup and then head out to dinner between 5:30pm and 6:30pm. We did sitdown meals and then depending on where we were we went shopping at DTD or strolled the countries at the World Showcase or stolled around the lake of the BWI/YC/BC. There is also minigolf that is open till 10 or 11pm.

The only park that even appeared crowded was the MK but the ride lines only existed in Fantasyland. We walked on Splash, Thunder, Hunted Manison, Alien, Space and Pirates in that order without waiting in a line. For Alien we had to wait through a preshow but that was it.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

I've taken such a long break from planning that I've forgotten a lot of the ideas I'd had. The budget strings have been pulled very tight and we've had to put off a return trip for two-three years longer. We thought we'd be back in the world for 100Years of Magic, but haven't made it.

Thank you for the reminders about the campfire a FW and Cirque. I thought about DD, but DQ is the only other option at DQ as we will have our DD with us (She'll be 12 if we go when planned).

 

[campingcorgi]

Enjoy the resort!

We ride the bikes at FW, catch the sunset from the beach, enjoy the campfire with Chip and Dale, ride the bikes some more, take the dog for a long walk, ride the golfcart around and enjoy all the campers' decorations, head down to the beach and catch the Electrical Water Pagent, watch the happy people come out of the Hoop Dee Doo, grab a Mickey ice cream from the Meadows Trading Post, walk the dog again and enjoy the peace and quiet.

We go to WDW for Fort Wilderness--the parks are just gravy!

 

[sha_lyn]

my favorite thing to do is to have dinner at one of the Delux resort.
For example after AK closed we had PS's for Boma. We then went outside and looked at the animals and then looked aroudn the shop and the lobby.
One trip to US/IOA we had to go over the SoG on our arrival day to purchase tickets. We made a PS for 1900 PF. We ended up spending about 4 hours at the GF and didn't get back to The Clarion near Universal until near midnight.

We also like to go over to DD and walk around and spend a couple of hours at DQ (we get the stars and stripes pass which includes DQ).
Next trip I plan on heading over to the boardwalk instead od DD a couple of nights.
DS had really rather head back to the hotel and swim or play i nthe arcade, although he does like eating at the resorts and he loves DQ.