Soarin’ Across America Open for EPCOT’s Extra Hours

Walt Disney World has revealed hours for Soarin’ Across America at EPCOT, including its status for Early Entry and Extended Evening Hours. This shares times & opening date details, closing of Soarin’ Around the World, why we strongly suspect a soft opening will happen, when the 250th Anniversary overlay will end, and more.

Soarin’ Across America is the marquee addition during “Disney Celebrates America,” which continues through the July 4th weekend in Summer 2026. The other big thing Walt Disney World has announced that the fan-fireworks show “Disney’s Celebrate America! — A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky,” will play across all three nights of the holiday weekend, July 3-5, 2026 at Magic Kingdom.

No word yet on whether the “Heartbeat of Freedom” fireworks tag at EPCOT gets similar treatment. We’re also expecting America250 merchandise and perhaps patriotic character costumes. Probably not a ton beyond that, though. Fireworks and Soarin’ Across America will be the highlights. If you’re visiting during this timeframe, which is one of our 10 favorite weeks at Walt Disney World, we’d also direct your attention to Extra Early EPCOT Closing Equals an Empty Park One Summer Day.

As for Soarin’ Across America, it’ll bring an all-new airborne adventure as part of the US Semiquincentennial. The new bi-coastal offering will showcase the United States—from sea to shining sea—highlighting some of the country’s natural beauty, like Grand Canyon National Park, and iconic cityscapes.

Soarin’ Across America will be brought to life with the iconic elements that make Soarin’ unforgettable – the flight, the sights and scents, along with the score–it’ll feature a new orchestration of the classic Soarin’ musical theme. Walt Disney Imagineering is hard at work capturing more than a dozen breathtaking locations for the new flight.

As previously announced, Soarin’ Across America opens on May 26, 2026 at EPCOT.

Walt Disney World has also announced that the final day to experience Soarin’ Around the World will be May 13, 2026.

Swapping the films can be an overnight process, with one version being shown one day and another the next. The longer timeframe between Soarin’ Around the World closing and Soarin’ Across America opening suggests the underlying attraction will get its first proper refurbishment in a decade. It is overdue. Even so, it probably won’t need a ~2 week closure.

Prior to announcing the official opening date, Walt Disney World had indicated that Soarin’ Across America would open “by” Memorial Day 2026 at Walt Disney World. In consulting a calendar, that would mean on or before May 25, 2026. Not one day later. And it’s usually the case that new attractions opening for Memorial Day actually debut on the Thursday or Friday beforehand, which is why we assumed the “by Memorial Day” verbiage was used.

Although it’s the officially announced date and the first one with hours on the park calendar for the attraction, I’m still not entirely convinced that Soarin’ Across America is opening on May 26, 2026. That’s the official kickoff of Cool Kids’ Summer, but Soarin’ Across America is part of “Disney Celebrates America” (as discussed above) and not Cool Kids’ Summer.

My expectation is nevertheless that Soarin’ Across America debuts on or around May 22, 2026 as a ‘surprise and delight’ treat for guests visiting over Memorial Day weekend. Obviously, that’s not official, but seems likely. It’s the type of thing Walt Disney World would do.

If that ends up being accurate, I would expect Walt Disney World to publicize the early opening of Soarin’ Across America with an official announcement or pop-up in the app (or posted wait time) as opposed to letting it be unpublicized.

There are operational upsides to having a soft opening as opposed to an earlier official debut. One is counter-programming to Smugglers Run, which debuts its new mission with Baby Yoda and Mandalorian on May 22nd. Another is keeping Soarin’ off Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and allocating all of that (needed) capacity to standby for the first few days.

Honestly, I’m expecting many/most of the new Summer 2026 offerings to soft open ahead of May 26, 2026. I wouldn’t be surprised if half (or more) end up soft opening May 22nd. And not having to mess with the Lightning Lane for the holiday weekend is a compelling justification for this approach (it worked really well with Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin).

Of course, all of this is purely speculative on my part. But it’s the type of ‘distinctly patriotic’ decision that Disney would make sense ahead of Memorial Day.

With that out of the way, let’s turn to the new news, which is that Soarin’ Across America will be open daily from park opening to park closing, as well as for all extra hours at EPCOT.

Soarin’ Across America will participate in Early Entry beginning with its opening day, May 26, 2026, opening to on-site hotel guests starting at 8:30 am. It will then be available to everyone else for regular rope drop at 9 am. Aside from that one day (and maybe even then), it’s expected that Cosmic Rewind and Test Track will remain the top priorities for Early Entry. You might want to make it over to Soarin’ earlier than normal, but it’s not going to be the #1 rope drop priority for summer.

Starting Monday, June 1, 2026, Soarin’ Across America will also be available during Extended Evening Hours (ExEH) from 9 pm to 11 pm. Note that ExEH is only available to guests of select on-site resorts, which excludes Values and Moderates but includes a couple of third party hotels, plus all Deluxes and DVC. June 1st is the first ExEH after Soarin’ Across America officially opens, so there’s no gap in the schedule here.

Finally, Soarin’ Across America will be available for After Hours at EPCOT starting June 11, 2026. As with ExEH, this is the first After Hours following the debut of Soarin’ Across America, so there’s no delay in the new-look attraction joining the ride roster for this hard ticket event.

The makes Soarin’ Across America’s Lightning Lane status the only big unknown in terms of the attraction’s status. In all likelihood, it’ll replace Soarin’ Around the World in the second tier–that’s the logical and simple switch.

However, there is a compelling case for Soarin’ Across America to return to the top tier (assuming it’s good). Soarin’ is already one of the more competitive Multi-Pass attractions at Walt Disney World, and it’ll see a popularity boost with the new film. I nevertheless doubt it’ll rejoin the top tier, but maybe it should?

If Soarin’ Across America is in the second tier, it will become far and away the most popular second tier attraction at EPCOT, and probably in all of Walt Disney World. There will be a huge gap in demand (and usefulness) between this LLMP and everything else in the second tier.

By contrast, its popularity would be more on par with other top tier Lightning Lanes at EPCOT, making each of those slightly less competitive. Achieving this balance strikes me as the more guest-friendly move, although I’m sure LLMP power users will disagree. (And again, I’d assume maintaining the status quo is what’ll actually happen, since it’s easier.)

The other big unknown is when will Soarin’ Across America end?

Walt Disney World is indicating that Soarin’ Across America is a limited-time journey, but I wouldn’t read too much into that. They’re doing so because this is a pivotal part of the Disney Celebrates America campaign, and to incentivize guests to make trips this summer as opposed to waiting and (potentially) missing the overlay.

My gut is that it all comes down to how well-received Soarin’ Across America is by guests. Obviously, that hinges on its quality. If Soarin’ Across America is great and well-received, its limited-run will be longer, extended ‘by popular guest demand.’ If it seriously outperforms Soarin’ Around the World on guest satisfaction metrics, it’ll continue indefinitely.

With multiple theaters at their disposal, maybe Walt Disney World will finally show multiple versions of Soarin’ simultaneously, or uses a Disney Vault approach to drive guest interest, a la DCA. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, assuming that Soarin’ Across America will be significantly better than its predecessor.

Let’s instead assume they’re about the same in terms of guest satisfaction. The minimum run for Soarin’ Across America is likely similar to the return of Soarin’ Over California back during Disney100 at EPCOT. The OG Soarin’ debuted on September 22, 2023 with the start of that celebration, and was grounded on February 27, 2024.

Adjust that for Soarin’ Across America, and it’s realistic to expect this limited-time journey will last until at least January 4, 2027. My gut says that is the absolute minimum duration for this version, especially since it’s brand-new, whereas OG Soarin’ was a returning film.

I’d put the baseline at roughly a full year, giving guests until Memorial Day 2027 or perhaps even Independence Day 2027 to experience Soarin’ Across America. Disney isn’t spending a ton of money on filming this for just the America250 celebration, so unless guest satisfaction scores are anemic (and they won’t be–Soarin’ has a minimum floor by virtue of guests loving the ride system), you probably have a year or more to experience it.

Disneyland is a potentially different story because of their greater willingness to cycle through films. But in that case, Soarin’ Across America isn’t retired, it’s temporarily grounded and added to their seasonal rotation. My hope is that Walt Disney World adopts that kind of approach, again assuming that Soarin’ Across America is well-done.

My sincere hope is that Soarin’ Across America is superlative. That it ditches most of the cheesy CGI and bent architecture of Soarin’ Around the World that garners complaints, and features stunning footage from around the United States. That it’s so popular we get future updates, Star Tours style, to Soarin’ Across America with new scenes from around the country.

Longtime readers know that one of my great passions outside of theme parks is the U.S. National Parks. There was a time when I was visiting Yosemite National Park multiple times per month, and I already have a ton of stamps in my U.S. National Parks passport (see My Top 10 U.S. National Parks So Far.)

The whole reason we started TravelCaffeine.com, our non-Disney sister site to this one, was to document international travel and trips to U.S. National Parks. If you’re curious about the destinations we’re hoping are featured in Soarin’ Across America, check out our list of the Top 18 U.S. Flyover Places for Soarin’ Across America.

Okay, let’s review: version of Soarin’ that celebrates America, officially opens on May 26, 2026 at Walt Disney World, offers less distortion and more natural beauty, hopefully no CGI, helps unite Americans instead of divide us…anything else? Oh yeah, have a nice flight!

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Your Thoughts

Thoughts on Soarin’ Across America participating in extra hours ASAP at EPCOT? What do you think of Soarin’ Across America officially opening on May 26, 2026? What about potential soft openings? Do you hope this version sticks around indefinitely? Would you prefer to see Soarin’ Over California or Soarin’ Around the World…or all three versions in rotation? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? 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!