Holiday Hours Extensions at Disney World in December 2023
Walt Disney World has added more hours to the calendar through the week between Christmas and New Year’s, while also extending hours at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios & Animal Kingdom for the start of the holiday season. This post covers the changes plus zig when they zag strategy for the parks and everything else you should know. (Updated December 4, 2023.)
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 February 12, 2024. Here are the hours for most of the newly-added dates during the holiday season:
- Magic Kingdom: 9 am to 9 pm*
- EPCOT: 9 am to 9 pm*
- Hollywood Studios: 9 am to 9 pm*
- Animal Kingdom: 9 am to 7 pm
- Blizzard Beach: 10 am to 5 pm
- 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, presumably, in 2024.
There are a few exceptions to the park hours above. First, Magic Kingdom closes on several nights per week at 6 pm to day guests for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Those separately-ticketed events begin at 7 pm and runs until midnight and occur multiple nights per week.
Second, Magic Kingdom closes at midnight on December 30, 2023. This is par for the course, and it’s because Walt Disney World’s castle park does two nights of NYE festivities. As for New Year’s Eve, Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios all close at midnight on that night. See our Guide to New Year’s Eve at Walt Disney World for everything you need to know. (Specifics will change slightly for this year, but the general ideas are the same.)
Similar to Magic Kingdom on MVMCP nights, Hollywood Studios closes at 8 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.
Finally, EPCOT is scheduled to close at 9:30 pm during Festival of the Holidays. After that, it goes back to closing at 9 p.m. in early 2024.
Here’s hoping that EPCOT also gets later closing times during the heart of the Christmas season. Not just because of Candlelight Processional and Festival of the Holidays, but also due to Disney100, the filling-in of the Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit, and the debut of Luminous: The Symphony of Us. We strongly suspect that EPCOT is going to be getting a lot more popular starting December 5, 2023.
In addition to these newly added hours, Walt Disney World has also extended park hours throughout December 2023.
This is notable because these are not the same extensions that’ve been occurring since the start of the Party Season. (The difference is precisely why we’re doing a post about it!) In some cases, hours have been quietly cut back since the end of the summer season, and only fully extended during peak holiday weeks and weekends.
In the even more notable cases, we haven’t seen hours this long in a matter of years. Let’s dig into what’s been extended…
Magic Kingdom
- December 4, 2023: 9am to 11pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 6, 2023: 8am to 11pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 7, 2023: 8am to 6pm (previously 9am to 6pm)
- December 8, 2023: 8am to 6pm (previously 9am to 6pm)
- December 9, 2023: 8am to 11pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 10, 2023: 8am to 6pm (previously 9am to 6pm)
- December 11, 2023: 9am to 10pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 13, 2023: 9am to 10pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 15, 2023: 8am to 6pm (previously 9am to 6pm)
- December 16, 2023: 8am to 11pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 17, 2023: 8am to 6pm (previously 9am to 6pm)
- December 18, 2023: 8am to 11pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 19, 2023: 8am to 6pm (previously 9am to 6pm)
- December 20, 2023: 9am to 10pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 21, 2023: 8am to 6pm (previously 9am to 6pm)
- December 22, 2023: 8am to 6pm (previously 9am to 6pm)
- December 23, 2023: 9am to 11pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
As you can see, there are now extensions through the week before Christmas. You might be surprised or alarmed that Magic Kingdom still has 9am openings and 10/11pm closings in December, but don’t be. As we’ve mentioned repeatedly in our recent Walt Disney World crowd reports, the holiday season is a time of high-highs and low-lows.
The only mild surprise is that Magic Kingdom is only open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. on some of the mid-month Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party days instead of opening an hour earlier. That happened during September, too, but these December dates should be busier.
Keep in mind that Christmas week has not been extended yet. During the holiday weeks in November, there were several midnight closings. We’d expect a repeat of that in late December. (Honestly, we’re somewhat surprised December 23 wasn’t extended until midnight–but it’s not too late for that to still happen.)
Disneyland closes at midnight regularly, and Magic Kingdom should absolutely be following suit. Especially during Party Season when crowd dynamics are disrupted! We nevertheless want to draw attention to it and give Disney positive reinforcement for doing the right thing. Now keep it up!
As we’ve discussed countless times (and intimated above), 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. Again, we’d strongly recommend visiting Magic Kingdom during the day on MVMCP nights. This is something we’ve covered at length, again and again. (See Least Crowded Late 2023 Days at Magic Kingdom for dates that we recommend doing MK.)
One interesting thing we’re starting to see at Magic Kingdom is party-shortened days that have crowd levels of 2/10 instead of 1/10. We warned you that this would happen, and it’ll only get worse closer to Christmas. Two things are already happening to change the equation. First, crowd levels as a whole are increasing–they’re higher across the board already for fall break, meaning on 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, if you want to call it that, is that even more people will attempt to do Magic Kingdom on those rare non-party days, especially Saturdays. This means that the gap in wait times between party and non-party days will actually grow. (If this doesn’t make complete sense, the moral of the story is: DO MAGIC KINGDOM ON A PARTY DAY! Seriously, we’re imploring you.)
Ideally, you’ll have Park Hopper tickets and will be able to bounce to another park at around 4 pm. Animal Kingdom will always be your best option for lower-crowd evenings during the fall.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- December 4, 2023: 8:30am to 8pm (previously 9am to 8pm)
- December 5, 2023: 8:30am to 9pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 6, 2023: 8:30am to 8pm (previously 9am to 8pm)
- December 7, 2023: 8:30am to 9pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 8, 2023: 8:30am to 9pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 9, 2023: 8:30am to 9pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 10, 2023: 8:30am to 7pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 16, 2023: 8:30am to 8pm (previously 9am to 8pm)
- December 17, 2023: 8:30am to 9pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
- December 18, 2023: 8:30am to 8pm (previously 9am to 8pm)
- December 19, 2023: 8:30am to 9pm (previously 9am to 9pm)
Early Entry will once again officially start at 8 am on these dates; unofficially, it’ll begin even earlier. This is a really big deal. 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, 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. Probably not.
Even though Jollywood Nights is brand-new and there isn’t precedent for it, there is for After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’ll almost certainly be the same idea here. With the park only closing one hour early on event nights (versus 3-4 hours for Magic Kingdom), not many guests are discouraged from doing DHS on those dates. Attendance might be a little lower, but not significantly so.
Conversely, there’s the event crowd that will arrive in the evening, and this will result in longer lines for headliner attractions at a time when they’d otherwise be really short. Not only that, but Fantasmic is only shown once (and at an earlier time) on Disney Jollywood Nights dates. By contrast, it has two performances–one of which is after park closing–on peak season dates.
So for me, the answer is obvious–I’m without a doubt doing and recommending Disney’s Hollywood Studios on dates when there are two performances of Fantasmic over days when Disney Jollywood Nights is happening after park closing.
The only exception to this would be if I were simply starting out at DHS and Park Hopping somewhere else. In that case, I’d begin at DHS on DJN dates in the hopes of ~10% smaller crowds. (With that said, I also would not adopt this strategy specifically for the sake of Park Hopping.)
Animal Kingdom
- December 4, 2023: 8am to 7pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 5, 2023: 8am to 7pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 6, 2023: 8am to 7pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 7, 2023: 8am to 7pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 8, 2023: 8am to 8pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 9, 2023: 8am to 8pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 16, 2023: 8am to 7pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 17, 2023: 8am to 8pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 18, 2023: 8am to 8pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 19, 2023: 8am to 8pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 20, 2023: 8am to 7pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 21, 2023: 8am to 7pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 22, 2023: 8am to 7pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
- December 23, 2023: 8am to 7pm (previously 9am to 7pm)
For the same reason as above, the 8am opening time is clutch at Animal Kingdom. This means Early Entry at 7:30am, which is pretty sparsely attended. 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 nightfall for all of these days! Between the later closing and earlier sunset, you can get a couple hours in DAK after dark for the first time in a while. I don’t see Tree of Life Awakenings back on the schedule just yet–but if they’re not being shown already, that should start really soon. 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 during the peak season–and the dates above will be busy–Genie+ is a waste of money at Animal Kingdom for at least the next month. Please don’t be fooled by the “bargain” pricing on Genie+ 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!)
No extensions for EPCOT (yet) in early to mid-December, but again, we’re hoping that the combination of Disney100, Festival of the Holidays, World Celebration, and Luminous: The Symphony of Us will result in 10pm closings and maybe even 8 or 8:30am openings. It’s really odd that Walt Disney World didn’t extend EPCOT’s hours for the first week of December 2023. Disney, it’s not too late to fix that mistake!
On a positive note, EPCOT is now closing at 1:00 a.m. on New Year’s Eve. The park was originally scheduled to close at midnight, but now gets an extra hour. This is fantastic news, in our opinion, as the extra hour of “breathing room” makes it easier to leave EPCOT. Instead of enduring the mass exodus after the fireworks, hang out until park closing. (Trust us on this–we’re veterans of many NYEs at EPCOT!)
Since there are several instances of ‘recommend’ above, we want to make clear that all of the Christmas 2023 dates when hours have been extended are going to be busy. That’s precisely why they’re being extended in the first place! Our recommendations are for those who already have a trip planned, and are relative to other parks/dates within that time frame.
We do not actively recommend that anyone sitting at home book a trip for this particular window. Suffice to say, there’s a reason all of these dates make our ‘Worst’ list on the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2023 to 2025. (Conversely, the weeks immediately before and after make the ‘Best’ lists!)
As always, the earlier opening times at Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom on party days make it easier to beat crowds at those parks. There’s a huge advantage to early risers, and savvy strategy or knowledge of how to leverage Genie+ and Lightning Lanes can be a gamechanger.
To that end, check out our Genie+ v. Savvy Strategy at Walt Disney World, which is the result of extensive ‘testing’ to determine the best and worst ways to beat the crowds. You can also do pretty well in the evenings at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios–and that’s somehow still true even now that Fantasmic is back. (It’s been a year…but maybe word still hasn’t fully gotten out?!)
Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see how bad crowds end up being for the start of the holiday season. What we’re seeing here is a good start, but our hope is that Walt Disney World gets back to earlier openings and later closing times for the Christmas season.
We’re pleased to finally have the extensions. All in all, we’re optimistic about visiting Walt Disney World over the course of the next few months. Even though crowds are going to increase–and probably by a lot–Halloween and Christmas are our favorite times of the year in the parks and at the resorts!
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 for the rest of this month through late December 2023? Is this schedule is reasonable, or are more extensions needed to help absorb crowds? Do you think Magic Kingdom should be open from 8am until midnight on more days? What about earlier opening times at the other parks? 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!
Genie+ for Animal Kingdom is basically just a Lightning Lane for the Naavi River Journey, and with waits of over an hour on a slow day, I will pay for that pass every single time.
Hi Tom,
We want to buy tickets to an After Hours party at Epcot during the week of April 12-19th. Do you have any idea when they usually offer dates for the party mid-April? so far they have only released dates until first week of April. Any foresight would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Diane
Any ideas on why 12/5 doesn’t have an early morning extension at MK? It’s a party day, so I’m bummed that it’s not extended too!
Do you think December will get similar extensions?
Do you think December will get similar extensions?
What I love about this advice is it gives guests the best chance for success at the macro level. We can take a step back, look at the larger crowd trends, and sequence park days in a manner that minimizes pinch points. Just two things – picking the “best” day to visit certain parks and taking full advantage of early entry – make a huge difference. With just those two strategies in place, I feel we have a leg up from the get-go and can therefore not worry so much about every tiny decision throughout the day.
We are heading to WDW next week for 4 park days and will put many of the DTB strategies to the test. For the sake of research, of course.
Thurs, 11/9 – 7 AM virtual queue Tron. MK early entry. 2 rides in Tomorrowland instead of the SDMT shuffle. Be at rope drop for Adventureland and try to stay ahead of the wave on jungle cruise, pirates, thunder mtn, and haunted mansion. Park hop to Epcot when the MK event crowds arrive. Epcot Forever.
Fri 11/10 – Buy Genie+. Reserve Test Track. 7 AM Guardians virtual queue. Epcot early entry International Gateway. Crank out Ratatouille & Frozen as quickly as possible. Tap into Test Track and reserve Soarin’, Keep eye on 2:00 PM reservation times at the Studios and hop over there with hopefully an afternoon of stacked reservations. Fantasmic!
Sat 11/11 – Early entry Studios to test the “I Did Every Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Before 11am Via Standby Lines” strategy. Park hop to Magic Kingdom, which is now open until midnight. Happily Ever After. Maybe use Genie + this day if the early standby strategy isn’t coming together smoothly or we see MK lines get out of control.
Sun 11/12 – Early Entry Animal Kingdom. Hop to whatever park we want in the afternoon.
Fingers crossed! I don’t want my face stuck in the phone all day, so this is about all the strategizing I plan to do. Thanks for the information on trends.
What are the chances they extend hours at MK on Monday, December 4? MVMCP is on Dec 3 and Dec 5…
if parks open at 8am early entry would be 730am. so then what time do buses start.
Thanks for this, Tom. I’m going to be there December 21 – 27 and was hoping to get more hours in the parks, early and late (I’m one of those early risers). Last time I was there over Christmas (a few years ago) we did get extended hours. I’ve been a bit surprised at the current schedule. This looks promising.
I love your content but can’t see hardly a thing with all the adds and pop ups. Is there anything that can be done to make it more user friendly?
No. Tom needs the income; he has a baby now! 😀
We love the later hours. We are locals and rarely ever arrive at the parks before 3:00 or 4:00 p.m.
Meanwhile Disneyland is open until Midnight on a Tuesday in September – like always. WDW hours are pitiful.
Agree 100%. The demand is there at WDW. Why do they play these games with the hours?
I am also waiting and wondering if the hours will extend the following week starting Nov 13 (when we come) I guess if they don’t then that means they are expecting a slower week and maybe that’s ok too? I was hoping to at least get an earlier open time on the day we do MK on a party day to give us a little more time since we aren’t going to Party nor hopping. Anyways I will be waiting and watching.. almost time!
I was frustrated looking at the December calendar last night. I know that the schedule is always subject to change, but we purposely timed out December trip to cover the normally scheduled extended evening hours for deluxe guests. Right now, our planned week only has the EEH planned for Epcot. last year during the same week, we got lucky and had extra hours at DHS in addition to the regular MK and Epcot hours.
I hear ya! I’ll be there Dec. 2 – Dec. 6 and the only EEH is Dec. 4 at Animal Kingdom! Glad I’m paying a boatload for “Deluxe” Yacht Club. Totally hoping they extend hours at Epcot or MK on Tuesday. I might just have to do the Christmas party at MK.
I agree with the sentiments about Magic Kingdom. Good they did it but they should have done it earlier. I understand their are reasons Disneyland is open until 8 until Midnight with the locals wanting to be late and the out of towners arriving at earlier then 8 and Magic Kingdom doesnt quite have those dynamics. However not having it open until at least 10 even during the off peak times feel like disney is just turning down money especially as opening that extra hour would effectively get you another dinner service sitting in the most attended park in the World (take that pun as you like!) .
With Florida being what it is at other times of year I also cant help but feel earlier and later hours are going to get them higher favourability with people who can arrive earlier and stay later in the realtive cool and do more stuff. No one likes that midday grind! As a personal thing I really enjoy your photos so I am really excited for the dawn photos of Early Hours over the next few months as I suspect the parks look as spectaular at that time as they do in dusk.