Evening Extended Hours at Epcot Strategy & Report
Extended Evening Theme Park Hours is a perk for select on-site Walt Disney World resort guests, and arguably the best way to experience the parks. This Epcot photo report offers a step-by-step look at what I accomplished during the evening Extra Magic Hours replacement, strategy & tips, and how it worked out as an alternative to Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes.
As background, Extended Evening Theme Park Hours has a smaller pool of eligibility than its morning counterpart and also occurs less frequently. This benefit is exclusively for guests staying at Deluxe Resorts, Deluxe Villas (Disney Vacation Club units), or other select hotels. See our Guide to Extended Evening Hours at Walt Disney World for taking advantage of this perk, eligibility, and more.
Extended Evening Theme Park Hours occur two nights per week in total. Most Mondays at Epcot from 9:00 pm until 11 pm and most Wednesdays at Magic Kingdom. We previously shared a Extended Evening Hours at Magic Kingdom Photo Report, so thought we’d now turn our attention to Epcot…
For those who didn’t read it, that Magic Kingdom report is brimming with praise. Since that report, we’ve had the chance to do Magic Kingdom a couple more times, having an absolute blast each time. As before, we would highly recommend anyone find a way to do Extended Evening Hours at Magic Kingdom.
The 2-hour perk is hugely advantageous and enjoyable, well worth “splurge status.” In fact, for those who enjoy empty parks, low crowds, and/or nighttime ambiance, there are very few things that come to mind as better Walt Disney World splurges than Extended Evening Hours at Magic Kingdom. The question this post will answer is whether Epcot can live up to those lofty expectations…
Typically, Harmonious is shown at 9 pm nightly, which makes for a tricky start to Extended Evening Hours at Epcot. Attractions in the park are closed to day guests and open for the extra hours, but the new nighttime spectacular is also happening at the same time.
What’s the best approach?
That really depends on how much you want to see Harmonious from your preferred viewing location and watch through to the finale. If you consult our Harmonious Viewing Guide: Best & Worst Locations (and you really should so you don’t end up staking out some off-angle), that could put you anywhere from the front of World Showcase to the second-story of Japan.
If you’ve already seen Harmonious once, or are only concerned about the pyro, our recommendation would be to watch from within the France pavilion. Fireworks explode overhead, meaning that a front row spot is not necessary to see them. Moreover, many/most views of Harmonious are obstructed or compromised to some degree, so even the spots you’ll need to stake out for an hour can be imperfect.
That was our approach this particular evening. Wanting both an interesting foreground subject and being able to loosely “monitor” the inflow and outflow of guests to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, I set up shop my the character’s topiary that leads back to the Streets of France expansion area.
Throughout Harmonious, there were far more guests leaving the Streets of Paris than entering. I wasn’t focused on counting heads, but my guess would be that about four or five times as many people were leaving as were arriving. Unsurprisingly, the posted wait time dropped precipitously during the nighttime spectacular.
As soon as the final burst of the Harmonious finale exploded overhead, we made a beeline to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. At this point, there was hardly anyone back here.
There was a short line spilling outside the attraction entrance, but that was to check eligibility for Extended Evening Hours–not the actual attraction line.
Starting at 9 pm, there are Cast Members stationed outside each attraction entrance, scanning MagicBands, hotel room keys, etc. Unlike Early Entry, this happens at every single attraction in Epcot throughout the night–not just once upon arrival. (The difference is that other guests are already in the park, so that’s the only feasible way to determine eligibility.) This is exactly how evening Extra Magic Hours worked in the past; no significant changes here.
In the above photo, you can vaguely see the wave of people racing towards Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure behind the fountain. The line in front of us is moving quickly, none of the outdoor overflow queue was actually needed at this point; everyone is quickly moving through it.
Our total wait time for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure ended up being right around 10 minutes.
Above is the line when we exited the attraction. The posted wait time had jumped to 45 minutes at this point; it’s hard to say how accurate that would be. Even though the line is long, there’s no Individual Lightning Lane at this point, so all of the capacity is standby. (My guess is about 30 minutes.)
The next stop was Frozen Ever After.
However, recognizing that our experience with Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure was a little “too efficient” for the sake of strategy, I made my way over to Norway slowly, taking photos along the way.
World Showcase had already cleared out at this point, making for a delightful stroll around the lagoon.
As with Magic Kingdom, this is the most enjoyable aspect of Extended Evening Hours at Epcot. Sure, short waits are great–but having the park to yourself is something special. Soaking up the ambiance, noticing the details, and just slowing down and savoring the spaces. Priceless.
Frozen Ever After was down upon arrival and based upon the look of things, there was no intention of it reopening.
So much for doing a run-through of Extended Evening Hours at Epcot “for the sake of savvy strategy.”
The next stop was Test Track, which was posting a 30 minute wait time.
Not that it really mattered at this point, but I accidentally got into the Single Rider line here. Technically, the correct move for me since Sarah had already called it a night, but not particularly useful for measuring the actual v. posted wait or how much the average guest could expect to accomplish during Extended Evening Hours at Epcot.
My next stop was the Land pavilion and Soarin’ Around the World.
This was posting a 10 minute wait time, and ended up being a walk-on. As always, Soarin’ is really a luck of the draw situation when the posted time is this low, depending on when you hit it in the load cycle.
I still had nearly 30 minutes left on the clock with everything I set out to accomplish (minus Frozen Ever After) knocked out, so I just wandered around and took more photos.
While my step-by-step evening isn’t the most illuminating from a strategy perspective, here are the salient points and ideal order of attractions:
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure – Arriving before the post-Harmonious wave is essential–otherwise, do it last.
- Frozen Ever After – By the time you’re done with the Rat Ride, lines should be starting to fall here a bit. Plus, it’s closer than Test Track and its audience skews younger–people with earlier bed times.
- Test Track – Single Rider here is always ideal, but should not be necessary. Lines bottom out at the very end of the night, but it’s closer to Norway than Soarin’ is, and the overall cycle time of the latter means it’ll take nearly as long as Test Track from start to finish.
- Soarin’ Around the World – Should be a walk-on well before the end of the night; arguably not even a high priority attraction during Extended Evening Hours at Epcot if you’re visiting during the day and would rather do one of the top 3 multiple times.
In terms of strategy, those first three steps are all you really need to know. You should have time for an additional attraction or two if you time those right.
Beating the crowd to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is the most important component of this strategy, with the optimal times to line up being 1 minute after Harmonious ends or 1 minute before Extended Evening Hours at Epcot ends. Everything else is less important–so long as you’re not waiting a long time for the Rat Ride.
Assuming that Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind participates in Extended Evening Hours at Epcot, the best time to do it will almost certainly be 10:59 pm. That’ll more or less force you into the early slot for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure if you want to do all of Epcot’s headliners.
Ultimately, we had an enjoyable experience at Epcot during the Extended Evening Theme Park Hours, and would recommend those who are eligible take advantage of the perk. As with Extended Evening Hours at Magic Kingdom, is Deluxe Resort guest benefit is advantageous and incredibly enjoyable for anyone who likes nighttime ambiance.
However, the critical difference is that Epcot has far fewer popular attractions than Magic Kingdom. This means that your cumulative time-savings won’t be as high, but also that other guests will also be flocking to the exact same trio of headliners, elevating their wait times over what we’ve observed during Extended Evening Hours at Magic Kingdom (outside of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train). Accordingly, this perk at Epcot is not nearly as “valuable” as it is in Magic Kingdom.
We highly recommended finding a way to take advantage of Extended Evening Hours at Magic Kingdom, whether that mean splurging on a night at a Deluxe Resort, doing a split stay (see How to Do Split Stays at Walt Disney World Hotels), or booking Disney Vacation Club Point Rentals (it’s pretty much only confirmed reservations now).
The same is not true when it comes to Extended Evening Hours at Epcot. If you’re already eligible, definitely do it, but if not…you really aren’t missing much. The ambiance is still largely possible to enjoy by booking a late Advance Dining Reservation or simply strolling slowly out of the park after Harmonious on a normal night. From a purely strategic perspective, we actually prefer Early Entry at Epcot. So long as you’re staying on-site, you’re eligible for that.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on Extended Evening Theme Park Hours at Walt Disney World? Have you experienced this new 2-hour replacement for evening Extra Magic Hours at Epcot? What’s your preferred approach to late nights in the park? How would you have done things differently? Any other feedback on doing evenings at the Walt Disney World theme parks? Agree or disagree with our advice or approach? 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!
What is the identification used for extra evening hours? Scan magic band? Show hotel room key?
I read several posts on other boards that World Showcase is closed and blocked off between Norway and France during Extended Evening Hours. Is this true? And if so, approximately what time do they start blocking it off?
We’ll be staying at Saratoga Springs this coming Monday and it looks like Cosmic Rewind will have an extra virtual queue open at 6pm for deluxe resort guests. Here I was hoping to just go on it as many times as possible for the whole 2 hours of EEH – it’s my new favorite coaster!
We are not staying at a Disney Hotel but are planning on being in EPCOT on a night they have Extra Magic Hours. Are we going to be able to stay in the park and stroll around and maybe grab a drink or snack or will we be asked to leave?
What if I have a split hotel reservation? We are staying at a value resort for the first 4 nights, and then Animal Kingdom lodge the last 3. Since the deluxe accommodations are tied to my reservation will I be able to do the extended hours if I’m still at the moderate resort that night?
Totally agree with your extra hours strategy. In the time of extra hours we’re able to do Remy, Frozen, TT ( single rider), Soarin, spaceship earth and mission space. All were walk in except Frozen and Remy 10-15min at most.
Only thing is since Epcot is so big we did lots of running to save time. No fear crowds were low and can be easily done. Only criticism is there are very few places at that time to get food or drinks ( we did find beer in Norway which made the experience of running around in the dark lots of fun)
Epcot and Animal Kingdom are total rip offs since there is a minuscule amount of attractions. Disney makes a big deal of adding new shops and restaurants, but who cares – we are there for rides. Hollywood Studios is not much better. They should take the lead from Six Flags parks and load up on attractions, and dress them up with Disney flair. It is so much better than dealing with the endless lines and handful of attractions, which is today’s “Disney Experience” at these overpriced and disappointing parks. I am a Vacation Club member and all the Disney executives that are making a fortune, should be fired and replaced with people who actually care.
Went 15 Oct and 5 Dec for a week trip each time. Did the extended evening hours in Epcot. Was disappointed. Tried to get on Frozen both times a few minutes after closing when Harmonious started and was an hour wait both times. I’m guessing guests not eligible for extended hours were getting in line right before closing. Remys was not included in the extended hours at that time. All shops were closed, as well as kiosks. Couldn’t find anyplace to get a drink or snack. Going again in Oct. hopefully it will be a better experience.
Also Friendship boats were operating at the end of Extended hours.
Thanks for the report Tom and for comments from you folks who have done this. I would have thought Remy’s would really have longer wait times right at 9 because of folks who were already in line before the park closed (for those not staying for extended hours).
I’m really curious to see where Remy’s popularity stands in a couple of years. On the one hand, it’s one of the few overtly family friendly attractions in a park with a reputation for not appealing to young children. On the other, I found it to be a letdown and don’t think I’m alone in that feeling. Having done it once I certainly don’t see myself jumping through any kinds of hoops to ride again or waiting more than 30 minutes. I’d rather do Frozen twice (and that line is excruciatingly slow!).
I don’t think it’ll be long before Frozen Ever After surpasses it, for all of the reasons you’ve stated. The characters and franchise featured in FEA also have more staying power. Regardless, it’s one of only a handful of family-friendly rides in Epcot, so it’ll always be popular to some degree.
Just jumping off of Jared’s comment and Tom’s reply, it struck me as kind of funny how it feels like what is defined as “family friendly” may have shifted over time. EPCOT was a family favorite, from my younger childhood recollection. I guess in the ’80s/early 90’s EPCOT had a lot more rides suitable for me (young, non-daredevil kid who was happy enough with edutainment and non-thrill rides – the “thrill” of the old Norway ride backing to the outside daylight and one little dip was great for me) – World of Motion, World of Energy, Horizons etc. (apologies if those aren’t the technical names). It’s something that has been said many ways, by many people – though by no means the majority – but I wish that those rides, if they needed to be replaced rather than updated could have been replaced by something as family-friendly for all ages. In certain ways, I feel like they had SO much more cross-generational appeal than, say, the current Frozen ride. I totally understand the appeal for young fans of those films (though wish it were in Magic Kingdom), but I found it pretty awful. I feel like the new attractions now are either full-on thrill rides or fully “dumb” rides (personal interest only and no criticism meant for humans of all ages who love the Frozen ride) and it feels less likely that I’ll ever get the kind of experience (nostalgia and all) that makes me yearn to visit Disney World again sometime (and pay all the big $$$, that doesn’t even appear to be truly alleviating the significant “friction” of the experience these days)! Very much enjoy your blog, however, and thanks Tom and Sarah for giving us a window and insight into the parks and beyond!
P.S. Forgot to take the opportunity to shout out what was very much my favorite thing back then: Imagination 1.0 and the awesome play area after! Oh and jumping fountains 🙂 Figment was really such brilliant, charming, and original IP. I know he’s there in some capacity now, but just can’t let go of the whole original attraction experience from back then!
What are the current likelihoods that any of these attractions will break down? I almost want to suggest Test Track first because of that. If it’s working then, who knows if it will be available later in the evening.
Also, has anyone noticed how long the app takes to be updated? I’d hate to walk across the park and back because an attraction or two wasn’t operating.
Most importantly for my personal preferences in planning, does the crepes stand close at 9PM or stay open later with the park?
-In good weather, I’d say Test Track and FEA are about equally breakdown prone.
-App seems to update quickly, usually at the point when the line is cut–but that doesn’t happen immediately when there’s a stoppage, which sometimes turns into downtime.
-I don’t remember, but I don’t think it was open.
Just to clarify, if we’re watching Harmonious from front of house, is the best ride order Test Track, then Soarin’, then Frozen, then Remy?
I am staying the week of April 10-15. The extended evening hours that week are for Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Could you please offer an advice on how to tackle Hollywood Studios during extended evening hours?
Same here. Would love some tips for Hollywood Studios evening extra hours.
Hi Crystal,
Would love to hear your report on how your evening plan works. My family will be there in June and my wife is disabled. We are trying to come up with a plan to avoid back tracking and still getting as much in as possible.
THANKS
Any idea if they will add Art of Animation to the extended evening hours? We go in May.
Being local we have often enjoyed the late hours in Epcot – you can stay in the park till closing – but obviously can’t do the rides – we enjoy strolling around the uncrowded world showcase and stopping to enjoy a beer ( and often a free ptertzel in Germany if you time it right)
How many, if any food and beverage stands or dining locations are open? It would be nice to pop in and grab and grab a pastry for Les Halles or Kringla. Same question for MK too! Thank you!
Liz – when we were there in January there were basically zero food options available in Epcot or Magic Kingdom during Extended Evening Hours. That was a bit of a let down. I would have liked to grab a snack and stroll around the grounds. There were a few carts and stands open, but no counter service and all of the World Showcase shops and restaurants were closed. That may have changed since we were there, so I might be wrong!
The photos w/ the Remy statue and the fireworks in the background (especially the second one) are brilliant.
If you’re not eligible for evening hours, does it make sense to avoid that park that day because it draws more guests?
Or, alternately, on does it make the early entry hours less crowded since some people are choosing to come in the evening instead?
Or does it not make a noticible difference?
I have not noticed a difference, via either in person ‘feels like’ crowds or from the wait times data. Since it usually doesn’t impact park hours and is such a small pool of guests, my take is that it’s irrelevant for day-of-week planning purposes.
Besides the lower attraction count at EPCOT, the time spent walking between attractions also limits the number of them you can do in those two hours.
We did this in January but stayed for the whole Harmonious in a head on spot as it was our first and only opportunity to see it. Between that and staying at Boardwalk, so we’d be exiting at the International Gateway, we left Remy for last. It was a walk on in those last 15 minutes and we could have done it twice easily.
It was a really fun and exhilarating two hours but I’d agree that the MK hours are worth planning a trip around and at EPCOT it’s a fun bonus if it works out.
“Between that and staying at Boardwalk, so we’d be exiting at the International Gateway, we left Remy for last. It was a walk on in those last 15 minutes and we could have done it twice easily.”
Thanks for sharing–that’s good to know.
Makes the recommendation for doing the top 3 in reverse order of what I have here pretty much a no-brainer if you’re watching Harmonious from the ‘front of the house.’ That is, until Cosmic Rewind opens and totally blows up this plan…and Epcot strategy, as a whole. 🙂
We were there January 10th also stayed at Boardwalk. Remy and Frozen showed high wait times so we did Soarin which was a walk on. Waited about 35-40 minutes for Test Track. Started heading over to Frozen said it was unavailable, headed over to Remy everyone was walking out said it was down. Stores in Showcase close right before fireworks for those asking. We had a great time at Extra Magic hours at Magic Kingdom in December. It is hard with a preschool age child we didn’t go to Magic until about 5 pm and she lasted until about 10:30 and we headed out.
Fascinating! I would have guessed that the reverse of the Early open plan for Epcot (that is, the reverse of Tom’s Evening plan) would work well, and that’s similar what you tried and experienced. It seems that the Early plan *also* works in the evenings as Harmonious causes a “rope drop” like experience afterwards. Given the few attractions worth the focus and the walking distance between the 3 or 4 of them, I’d recommend sticking to Remy First or Remy Last (depending on whether you want to do all three or four, of course.)