Are Disney World Extended Evening Hours worth paying for a Deluxe Resort stay? Here’s what it was like using this exclusive Disney hotel perk at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT.
Extending Evening Hours for Deluxe Resort Guests
Guests already enjoy Early Entry access by staying on Disney property, but on select nights at select parks, Extended Evening Hours are also available for guests staying at Deluxe Resorts.
Any guest who is staying at a Deluxe Resort will have access to this perk. However, the perk is only valid at certain parks on certain nights. Deluxe Resort Extended Evening Hours vary, so you’ll need to check the park hours during your stay.
Photo by CJ Ayd
Typically, the schedule indicating which parks have Deluxe Extended Hours will be available at the 60-day mark so that you can plan your dining and park experiences together. Still, you’ll want to make sure that if you want to take advantage of this perk, you plan the right day at each park.
For example, on my last trip, I stayed at a Deluxe Resort and took advantage of this perk. The two parks offering this during my trip were EPCOT and Magic Kingdom, so I made sure to schedule them in my itinerary for the days they were open with Extended Evening Hours. For Magic Kingdom, the perk was available from 11 PM to 1 AM; for EPCOT, it was available from 9 PM to 11 PM during the week I visited.
What Can You Do With Extended Evening Hours at Disney World?
It’s a very different experience from, let’s say, a ticketed evening event like Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, where you get a wristband. Your MagicBand is scanned at the entrance to every ride queue to confirm your resort reservation. It’s worth noting that only selected food and merchandise locations will be open, and some attractions might be closed as well. When my family was at Magic Kingdom, the Jungle Cruise was closed during Extended Evening Hours.
Photo by Cliff Wang
The timing of your visit and your intended activities will determine how you use the Extended Evening Hours. I took advantage of this perk during Spring Break and once during a September trip, so the crowd levels were vastly different both times.
During spring break, Lightning Lanes sold out quickly, making it challenging to secure additional Lightning Lanes. I took advantage of the extra hours at Magic Kingdom, enjoying rides I hadn’t experienced earlier in the day and much shorter wait times.
Photo by Cliff Wang
I also had to make a choice, since even with lighter crowds, many guests used the extended evening hours to take in the more popular attractions like TRON Lightcycle / Run and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which still had very long wait times during spring break. So my family decided to use the extra time to ride as many other rides as we could, rather than spend most of it waiting on one or two attractions. During our September trip, the Extended Evening Hours allowed us to ride Seven Dwarfs and TRON since the crowds were much lighter and wait times were drastically shorter.
Extended Evening Hours: Are There Any Downsides?
A disadvantage is how late you have to stay up to take advantage of these extra hours. It might not affect your family, but if you have younger children or have been going nonstop all day, it might be difficult to stay in the park until 1 AM. Also, depending on your itinerary, if you plan to visit another park the next day, you might want to make sure you have a resort day or have flexibility in what time you plan to arrive for your next day activities—it’s a difficult turnaround to have a late night and then an early morning, especially with younger kids.
However, any extra time at the Disney Parks adds value to your vacation. It’s worth planning to take advantage of this perk for your Disney World trip if a Deluxe Resort works with your budget, or you’re planning to rent DVC points.
