Why is the park closing at 7pm every night?

[Susie63]

Looking at the calendar they have DL closing at 7 pm every night other than the weekends in September. DCA is operating till 8,which is par for the course, for the off season. Is it even dark at 8 pm and does anyone have any idea why they would change from 8 to 7?

 

[larina]

There is another threads
(Or two) talking about this right now. There are several theories including extra time for Halloween set up or perhaps parties or events.

 

[ValpoCory]

DCA is operating till 8,which is par for the course, for the off season.

My biggest beef with DLR vs. WDW is with the "off season". With Cars Land, I wish DLR would keep at least one park open until at least 9pm (preferably 10pm) every day of the year. Having both parks close at 8pm on almost all weekdays in those "slow" months is a little early in my opinion. Rarely do all 4 parks at WDW close by 9pm, let alone 8pm.

And then the amount of ride closures at DLR during the off season is far greater than at WDW. I know there are more rides at DLR than WDW, but even percentage-wise, the off season ride closure rate is much worse at DLR.

These are minor annoyances, but things I wish they would improve.

 

[DLR29]

My biggest beef with DLR vs. WDW is with the "off season". With Cars Land, I wish DLR would keep at least one park open until at least 9pm (preferably 10pm) every day of the year. Having both parks close at 8pm on almost all weekdays in those "slow" months is a little early in my opinion. Rarely do all 4 parks at WDW close by 9pm, let alone 8pm.

And then the amount of ride closures at DLR during the off season is far greater than at WDW. I know there are more rides at DLR than WDW, but even percentage-wise, the off season ride closure rate is much worse at DLR.

These are minor annoyances, but things I wish they would improve.

What I would say to this is...go during a non-off season then! Summer is a wonderful time to visit the resort. Almost no ride closures and the parks are open late (10 for DCA, 12 at DL). I can always navigate around crowds. I can't change ride closures or park hours.

 

[ValpoCory]

What I would say to this is...go during a non-off season then! Summer is a wonderful time to visit the resort. Almost no ride closures and the parks are open late (10 for DCA, 12 at DL). I can always navigate around crowds. I can't change ride closures or park hours.

Whereas I can't see my family ever going on non-off season to WDW due to weather, crowds, and costs, we will definitely consider it for DLR because of these ride and park closure "idiosyncrasies".

Thanks.

 

[disneyworld1977]

Looking at the calendar they have DL closing at 7 pm every night other than the weekends in September. DCA is operating till 8,which is par for the course, for the off season. Is it even dark at 8 pm and does anyone have any idea why they would change from 8 to 7?

Like Larina said, I have seen other threads about this. I with me, we are visiting this time with the shortened hours. I don't mind it so much if the crowds are lighter, but going from 11 or 12am closing to 7 pm is a big hit. Wish it were 8pm at least, to get a little more dark at DL. But we are there at the end of our trip on a Friday so that will just have to be my only time to get more nighttime magic.

 

[HeatherRaye]

Where are you seeing park hours for Sept.? When I pull up the calendar on the official Disneyland website there isn't even an arrow to go to Sept??

 

[twinspirit]

Where are you seeing park hours for Sept.? When I pull up the calendar on the official Disneyland website there isn't even an arrow to go to Sept??

http://disneyland.disney.go.com/calendar/?month=201309&&lid=monthNavButton=View

 

[MarySue]

Where are you seeing park hours for Sept.? When I pull up the calendar on the official Disneyland website there isn't even an arrow to go to Sept??

It was there this morning and has been pulled since then-- it's still up on the accessible calendar, though. I'm trying to schedule out my visit days myself.

 

[disneyworld1977]

Where are you seeing park hours for Sept.? When I pull up the calendar on the official Disneyland website there isn't even an arrow to go to Sept??

Visit Accessible Version of Calendar

Its on the left side upper side of the page.

 

[disneyworld1977]

HEATHERRAYE....

I had that problem to about the hours, it will be there and then disappear (?)

I sent an email to Disney about some other thing and added that I wasn't thrilled about their hours so far as listed for Sept. Needs to be at least 8pm at DL!!

 

[SuperRob]

What I would say to this is...go during a non-off season then! Summer is a wonderful time to visit the resort. Almost no ride closures and the parks are open late (10 for DCA, 12 at DL). I can always navigate around crowds. I can't change ride closures or park hours.

Easier said than done. I booked the trip on DVC points seven months out, so there was no way to know what the hours would be other than their own projections. Also, we're going over our Anniversary, which is important to us. (We honeymooned at WDW, which is where we bought our DVC points.) It's just a bummer to find out after there isn't really anything we can do that several rides are down for refurbs or overlays, and the hours were cut back even further than usual.

 

[SuperRob]

For what it's worth, I went to SunriseSunset.com and built a calendar for Anaheim in September to see when sunset/twiight would be. Sure enough, sunset is just after 7PM the second week of September when we'll be there.

So it looks like it'll be dark enough in DCA at 8PM for World of Color, but really won't get dark at Disneyland at all on Weekdays. Poop. At least we get the one Sunday to see Disneyland in the dark.

 

[perlster]

Right now, the regular and accessible versions of the calendar have the same hours listed through Sept. 10, so one screenshot should suffice:

 

[Princess351]

I actually registered just to post this comment! (I have been a lurker for some time and really enjoy reading all of the threads here!) I was getting nervous myself (since we'll be visiting Disneyland in Sept) about the 7pm closing time and have been following this thread closely.
I went to the Disney website and sure enough, the Sept calendar *does* say that it is closing at 7pm... BUT, if you click on the "View Daily schedule" link on the calender, there are some discrepancies. For example, if you click on Thurs Sept 5th, while it says it's closing at 7pm on the calendar, the daily schedule shows Disneyland open until midnight!... Same with Sept 10th (Tues): it shows D-Land open until 7pm, but the daily schedule shows open until midnight.
Anyway, I just wanted to throw this out there that maybe they've messed up with this calendar, and it *Won't* actually be these hours that are posted.

...I will keep my finger crossed.

 

[califlorican]

I actually registered just to post this comment! (I have been a lurker for some time and really enjoy reading all of the threads here!) I was getting nervous myself (since we'll be visiting Disneyland in Sept) about the 7pm closing time and have been following this thread closely.
I went to the Disney website and sure enough, the Sept calendar *does* say that it is closing at 7pm... BUT, if you click on the "View Daily schedule" link on the calender, there are some discrepancies. For example, if you click on Thurs Sept 5th, while it says it's closing at 7pm on the calendar, the daily schedule shows Disneyland open until midnight!... Same with Sept 10th (Tues): it shows D-Land open until 7pm, but the daily schedule shows open until midnight.
Anyway, I just wanted to throw this out there that maybe they've messed up with this calendar, and it *Won't* actually be these hours that are posted.

...I will keep my finger crossed.

In the accessible calendar, on the dates September 9 or 10 (which SAY 10am-7pm for Disneyland)...if you click the daily schedule, it will say 8am-12am instead.
I agree with you in the thinking the calendar isn't completely right and HOPING it's not really until 7pm all weekdays, maybe just a few days for an event or something, and they messed up the rest of the days on the monthly calendar.

 

[perlster]

It seems that the daily hours on the both calendars are being updated with the 7 PM closing

 

[Susie63]

It seems really strange to me.....I hope it changes back to 8 for everybody who is going then

 

[califlorican]

It seems that the daily hours on the both calendars are being updated with the 7 PM closing

Bummer so far, the 9th and 10th still have the "8am-12am", but I expect that will soon be changed.
It only affects one day for my trip (thursday the 19th) but still, that stinks!

 

[sierranevada]

Well - I know this has come up in the past and it ended up being a computer glitch. Hope that is the case for you guys going in Sept especially since it seems to be gone from the DL website right now.