Disney World Extends Holiday Hours at Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studios

Walt Disney World has added new hours to the calendar through early January 2026 at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios & Animal Kingdom, and extended hours in November 2025. This post covers the changes plus zig when they zag strategy for Magic Kingdom at Christmas-time.

We’ll start with the latest release of new operating schedules. All four theme parks have had hours for another week added to DisneyWorld.com’s park hours, and the current calendar now runs through January 2, 2026. Here are the hours for the newly-added dates during the holiday season, from November 28, 2025 and beyond:

Magic Kingdom: 9 am to 10 pm*
EPCOT: 9 am to 9:30 pm
Hollywood Studios: 9 am to 9 pm*
Animal Kingdom: 8 am to 6 pm
Typhoon Lagoon: 10 am to 5 pm
Blizzard Beach: Closed
Disney Springs: 10 am to 11 pm (11:30 pm on Fridays & Saturdays)

As a reminder, Walt Disney World’s normal practice is to release boilerplate or placeholder hours before extending those based on attendance and hotel occupancy projections. This has been common practice for years, and will continue for the remainder of this year and probably in 2026, 2027, etc–until the rise of the machines.

One exception to the park hours above is that Magic Kingdom closes on several nights per week at 6 pm to day guests for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party over the course of the next couple months. This separately-ticketed event begins at 7 pm and runs until midnight, and occur multiple nights per week.

Similar to Magic Kingdom on MVMCP nights, Hollywood Studios closes at 7 pm on evenings when the Disney Jollywood Nights Christmas Party is held. That hard ticket event occurs with far less frequency than Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

EPCOT hours are extended for the 2025 EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays.

Starting on November 28th, EPCOT will be open until 9:30 p.m. rather than its current closing time of 9 p.m. The park will continue to open at 9 a.m., with Early Entry beginning before that at 8:30 a.m. EPCOT will also continue hosting Extended Evening Hours on (most) Monday nights, from 9:30 to 11:30 pm.

Our hope is that EPCOT gets even later closing times during the heart of the Christmas season. This is usually the busiest time of the year thanks to Candlelight Processional and Festival of the Holidays, along with nicer weather that draws out locals. I still don’t quite understand why EPCOT doesn’t close later. Surely the food & beverage sales alone would justify another 30 minutes?!

Every single visit we made to EPCOT last year after Black Friday, the park was absolutely slammed. This wasn’t always reflected in wait times at the front of the park, which does hollow out with the exception of Living with the Land – Glimmering Greenhouses, but World Showcase was packed. EPCOT could easily do 10 pm closing times and recoup the labor and operational expenses several times over.

In other calendar news, Walt Disney World Finally Added Starlight Night Parade Showtimes for the Holiday Season. These are not what we were expecting.

Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, November 2, 2025. This usually triggers showtime changes for the Magic Kingdom fireworks. Usually as in every single year. Last year, it meant Happily Ever After moving forward to 8:30 pm at first, and then forward to 8 pm. It stayed in that time slot until DST started again in March.

We expected something similar for Christmas 2025, with Starlight showtimes adjusted accordingly around the earlier sunset and fireworks times. Barring a last minute schedule change, we were wrong about that. As far as the calendar goes, there have been no adjustments to start times. It’s a bit odd.

In addition to these newly added hours, Walt Disney World has also extended park hours throughout the first few weeks of November 2025.

This is going to be happening more and more. We’re entering the home stretch of the year when crowds can spike due to long weekends, school breaks, holidays and other special events. As a result, you can expect a lot more extensions–on a weekly basis–from Walt Disney World going forward.

Here’s a look at the first waves of park hours extensions for November 2025:

Magic Kingdom Park Hours Extensions

November 1, 2025: 9 am to 11 pm (previously 9 am to 10 pm)
November 7, 2025: 8 am to 6 pm (previously 9 am to 6 pm)
November 8, 2025: 8 am to 11 pm (previously 9 am to 10 pm)
November 9, 2025: 9 am to 11 pm (previously 9 am to 10 pm)
November 10, 2025: 8 am to 6 pm (previously 9 am to 6 pm)
November 11, 2025: 8 am to 6 pm (previously 9 am to 6 pm)
November 14, 2025: 8 am to 6 pm (previously 9 am to 6 pm)
November 15, 2025: 8 am to 11 pm (previously 9 am to 10 pm)

Walt Disney World has only updated hours through November 15, 2025. Any dates beyond that show boilerplate hours. There will be extensions for most, if not all, dates in November and December 2025 beyond that in future updates, so don’t fret if you’re traveling later during the holiday season. This is how it always works.

The main reason for these extensions is Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

As we’ve discussed countless times, Party Season operating hours cause chaos with crowds, pushing attendance much higher on the dates it’s not occurring and lower on the dates it is occurring. On event nights, Magic Kingdom closes to day guests at 6 pm. It is also opens at 8 am on busier days, but there have been exceptions to that over the course of the last month.

The bad news is that these extensions are less aggressive than we had hoped, especially with later park closings. During Jersey Week and in the lead-up to Veterans Day, there are only a few 11 pm closing days. In previous years, all of these dates were extended and that weekend got midnight closings. Despite the addition of Starlight this year, hours are actually shorter.

We’re particularly disappointed by the normal 9 am to 10 pm hours on November 12, 2025.

That’s a red flag date to avoid, as November 10-11 and November 13-14 are Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party nights. It’s the lone weekday during that stretch with a “late” night closing time. Even though that’s not a peak week, that night is going to be crazy. Magic Kingdom should be open from 8 am until midnight on that date, not 9 am to 10 pm. Avoid that day at all costs.

The good news is that Magic Kingdom is opening at 8 am on most dates in the first half of November 2025. We expect this trend to continue in the second half of the month, although there will probably be a few days with 9 am openings during slower weeks. See our list of the Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025, 2026 & 2027 for a rundown of the good and bad dates next month and beyond.

These 8 am rope drops mean that Early Entry starts at 7:30 am, which is huge. Look no further than our new field testing: Magic Kingdom’s Extra Early Entry is a Must-Do for Low Waits at Disney World’s Biggest Rides!

That covers how I looped TRON Lightcycle Run (x3), and did Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure as walk-ons. Don’t expect to replicate those exact results on peak season dates, but the animating idea and strategy is the same.

Do not sleep on this! The strategic advantage offered is immense, especially on days that will be busier. Even if you can’t knock out as much as I did (and you probably won’t be able to), the daytime crowds that hit around 10 am on those dates will be worse than what I encountered. These 8 am rope drops and 7:30 am are you secret weapon to knocking out as much as possible without paying extra for Lightning Lanes!

Expect to see party-shortened days at Magic Kingdom have crowd levels of 2/10 in November and December instead of 1/10. First, because crowd levels as a whole are increasing, on both party and non-party days. Second, party dates are becoming more frequent, making them more difficult to avoid. That means more guests will have no choice but to do Magic Kingdom on party days.

The upside is that even more people will attempt to do Magic Kingdom on those rare non-party days. This means that the gap in wait times between party and non-party days will actually grow. Suffice to say, we strongly recommend visiting Magic Kingdom during the day on MVMCP nights.

This is something we’ve covered at length, again and again. See Best & Worst Days to Do Magic Kingdom in 2025 for a rundown of when crowds will be especially good or bad, including a handful of ‘red flag’ dates to avoid at all costs this month through December.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

November 2, 2025: 8:30 am to 9 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
November 8, 2025: 8:30 am to 7 pm (previously 9 am to 7 pm)
November 15, 2025: 8:30 am to 7 pm (previously 9 am to 7 pm)

Only a few dates adding hours for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and it’s “only” 30 minutes. This is a bigger deal than it might seem because Early Entry will once again officially start at 8 am on these dates. As we’ve mentioned countless times, the earlier that Early Entry starts, the better. There’s less “competition” and you can get way more done.

In fact, that’s how I Did Every Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Before 11am Via Standby Lines. Don’t count on replicating these results on November 8th, but the strategy is sound. We’d thus highly recommend doing DHS on one of these dates if at all possible.

As for which date, that really depends upon whether you’ll stay at DHS all day. We’ve had a lot of reader questions about whether it’s savvy strategy to replicate the zig when they zag approach to Magic Kingdom during Party Season. Our answer, as discussed at length in Best & Worst 2025 Crowd Days at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, is probably not.

With the park only closing two hours early on event nights (versus 4-5 hours for Magic Kingdom), not nearly as many guests are discouraged from doing DHS on those dates. Even on normal nights, not nearly as many people stay late in Hollywood Studios as do so in Magic Kingdom. Attendance at DHS might be a little lower on event days, but not significantly so.

Conversely, there’s the Jollywood Nights attendees that will arrive during their mix-in time, and this will result in longer lines for headliner attractions at a time when they’d otherwise be really short. Fantasmic is only shown once (and at an earlier time) on Disney Jollywood Nights dates, too. By contrast, it has two performances–one of which is after park closing–on most holiday season dates.

The only exception to this would be if I were simply starting out at DHS and Park Hopping somewhere else. Those 8:30 am openings are fantastic from a strategic perspective, and can be leveraged for a more productive Early Entry. It’s not quite as fantastic as Magic Kingdom’s 7:30 am Early Entry, but still very good.

Animal Kingdom Park Hours Extensions

November 1, 2025: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 2, 2025: 8 am to 8 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 3, 2025: 8 am to 8 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 5, 2025: 8 am to 8 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 6, 2025: 8 am to 8 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 7, 2025: 8 am to 8 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 8, 2025: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 9, 2025: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 11, 2025: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 12, 2025: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 13, 2025: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 14, 2025: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
November 15, 2025: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)

When it comes to Animal Kingdom, we favor taking the extra hours assuming you’re going to be there all day. Or even if you’re doing a midday break but will return to the same park. More time is better. However, if you plan on leaving early, the best practice is avoiding DAK when the closing is later. There’s a reason these dates get extended hours and others don’t, and it’s because WDW’s internal attendance projections are higher.

With all of that said, you really don’t need that much time at Animal Kingdom. If you arrive for Early Entry or even regular rope drop, you can easily run the table on all of the rides before lunch. That leaves stage shows and animal exhibits for the afternoon, which still won’t require you stay after 6 pm, unless you plan on doing like a dozen countdowns to extinction on DINOSAUR. See Animal Kingdom Park Opening & Early Entry Ride Strategy (or, “How I Did Every Ride at DAK Before 10:30am.”)

At the opposite end of the day, Animal Kingdom officially closes after sunset for all of these days! Between the later closing and end of Daylight Saving Time, you can get a couple hours in DAK after dark for the first time in a while!

I don’t see Tree of Life Winter Awakenings back on the schedule just yet–but Walt Disney World already confirmed they’d be back. We highly recommend staying for evenings in DAK to enjoy the Tree of Life Awakenings, plus Pandora and the rest of the park after dark.

Our Animal Kingdom Afternoon Arrival Strategy is once again the ideal approach for this park. Even on busier dates, Lightning Lane Multi Pass is unnecessary with even a modicum of strategizing. Please don’t be fooled by the “bargain” pricing on LLMP at Animal Kingdom. Remember, something is only a deal if you actually need it–otherwise, you’re just a hoarder. (Well, you can’t really hoard Lightning Lanes in the same sense…but you get the idea!)

Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see how bad crowds end up being in November 2025, and what happens with park hours extensions once the holiday season kicks into high gear around Thanksgiving. Our hope is that Walt Disney World gets back to later closing times for the Christmas season.

In an ideal world, 11 pm closings at Magic Kingdom would be the default on non-party nights, with midnight closings occurring at least once per week. There were only 2-3 midnight closings last year between Veterans Day and December 29th; it would be nice to see an increase from that, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas. But frankly, any day that’s between two or more MVMCP dates should be a midnight closing.

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think of Walt Disney World’s operating hours extensions for November 2025? Think this schedule is reasonable? Do you think Magic Kingdom should be open earlier and/or later? What has been your experience with crowds and wait times? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!