Walt Disney World has prolonged hours at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios & Animal Kingdom for the post-Spring Break interval in late April 2024. This covers additions together with reductions to the leisure schedule and to the costs of the Genie+ service, plus zig once they zag technique for the parks and all the things else you must know.
We’ll begin with the newest launch of recent working schedules. All 4 theme parks have had hours added to DisneyWorld.com’s park hours, and the present calendar now runs by June 17, 2024. Listed below are the hours for many of the newly-added dates:
- Magic Kingdom: 9 am to 10 pm
- EPCOT: 9 am to 9 pm
- Hollywood Studios: 9 am to 9 pm
- Animal Kingdom: 9 am to six pm
As a reminder, Walt Disney World’s regular follow is to launch boilerplate or placeholder hours earlier than extending these based mostly on attendance and resort occupancy projections. This has been frequent follow for years, and can nearly proceed all through 2024.
Nevertheless, given the low to average crowd ranges anticipated throughout shoulder season and that Magic Kingdom has already moved to 10 p.m. closings for summer season, there’s really an opportunity the Might by mid-June 2024 hours will likely be fairly near the ultimate schedule.
It’s probably extensions will happen as soon as Tiana’s Bayou Journey opens, however our expectation is that will likely be shortly after June 17, 2024. Additionally, provided that Tiana’s Bayou Journey is a water journey, it is going to in all probability make extra sense to maneuver to eight a.m. openings relatively than 11 p.m. or midnight closings. Extra daytime will likely be higher for absorbing crowds on that reimagined journey.
In any case, let’s dig into what’s been prolonged for the second half of April 2024…
Magic Kingdom
- April 13, 2024: 8am to 11pm (beforehand 9am to 9pm)
- April 14-18, 2024: 9am to 10pm (beforehand 9am to 9pm)
- April 19-20, 2024: 8am to 11pm (beforehand 9am to 9pm)
- April 21, 2024: 9am to 11pm (beforehand 9am to 9pm)
- April 22-25, 2024: 9am to 10pm (beforehand 9am to 9pm)
- April 26-27, 2024: 8am to 11pm (beforehand 9am to 9pm)
Given that each one of those dates are after the height of Spring Break season, this isn’t too shabby. As famous above, 9am to 10pm is the “new regular” for Magic Kingdom park hours as soon as Might and June roll round, so many of those dates quantity to no extensions from the baseline.
That’s a giant sign that Spring Break season is actually over as soon as April 14 rolls round. Whereas our Spring Break crowd forecast has been spotty, we’ve predicted all alongside that Tax Day would mark the conclusion of the season, even when there are just a few straggler college districts nonetheless out that week. These hours extensions appear to substantiate that.
Nonetheless, opening at 8am and shutting at 11pm on the weekends is good to see. That in all probability has much less to do with colleges being out on break and extra to do with the combo of locals and vacationers, each of whom may have ticket offers to make the most of throughout this timeframe. (For many who have requested, we’ll be intently monitoring crowd tendencies in mild of the brand new ticket offers to see if Fridays, Saturdays and/or Sundays get markedly worse.)
Our expectation is that weekends will get busier, however to not the purpose that we’d suggest avoiding them–particularly when Magic Kingdom opens earlier and closes later.
As a reminder, we extremely suggest doing Magic Kingdom on an 8am opening day in case your journey straddles each 8am and 9am opening days. Between the additional hour within the morning and one other 2 at night time, technique turns into a lot simpler–and that’ll be doubly true if crowds are “solely” 7/10 or under.
I do know we repeat this advert nauseum, however the strategic significance of Magic Kingdom opening at 8am as an alternative of 9am can’t be overstated. Early Entry beginning an hour later is sort of ineffective, whereas it’s unbelievable at 7:30am. One hour makes a world of distinction. See our 7:30 am Early Entry at Magic Kingdom ‘Social gathering Season’ Technique.
One other main Magic Kingdom signaling the top of Spring Break season is the discount of parade performances, with Pageant of Fantasy switching from twice each day showtimes to at least one. As a replacement, extra calvacades performances have been added. Right here’s the brand new schedule:
- Pageant of Fantasy Parade: 3 p.m. (beforehand midday and 3pm)
- Disney Journey Mates Cavalcade: 10:30am and 11:45am (beforehand 5:10pm and 6:25pm)
This schedule runs at some point of the present leisure calendar, which is presently by Might 4, 2024. It’ll probably proceed past that all through shoulder season, with the potential of two Pageant of Fantasy parade performances returning between Memorial Day weekend and June 10, 2024.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- April 12-13, 2024: 9am to 9:30pm (beforehand 9am to 9pm)
- April 14-18, 2024: No extension
- April 19-21, 2024: 9am to 9:30pm (beforehand 9am to 9pm)
- April 22-24, 2024: No extension
- April 25-27, 2024: 9am to 10pm (beforehand 9am to 9pm)
Once more, not an enormous shock to see no extensions in any respect for a lot of of as of late. Even when they find yourself being barely busier as an entire (and there’s no assure of that), we nonetheless suggest doing DHS on the 9:30pm or 10pm closing days.
These 10pm closings are literally fairly the shock, as DHS didn’t lengthen to that even in the course of the peak of Spring Break. It’s additionally fascinating that the 10pm closing is happening with out an earlier opening (which did occur on numerous events in the course of the peak of Spring Break).
My finest guess is that the cheer and dance championships being hosted at ESPN Extensive World of Sports activities on these dates will lead to a variety of members within the park late, however not early. That may make sense, and it might be a state of affairs the place DHS really does see a big spike in crowd ranges as a result of these teams. That, or this might merely be a check for later hours at DHS and never motivated by inside attendance projections. Only a risk to concentrate on, as a variety of common friends hate being across the cheer and dance teams.
The upside right here is 2 showings of Fantasmic. Double-bonus: the second showtime is half-hour after park closing. We extremely suggest seeing the second displaying. It’ll successfully lengthen your day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios by half-hour to an hour, which is greater than you’ll get by leaping in line for a journey on the finish of the night time.
Equally as necessary, we’ve managed to see the second displaying of Fantasmic from spectacular seats with out arriving greater than 5 minutes upfront of showtime. This has been the case even on evenings when the primary efficiency was fairly busy and seats stuffed up half-hour earlier than showtime.
On those self same busier days, the late performances of Fantasmic had a number of total sections that went unfilled. I used to be capable of snag the third row of an important part at (actually) 2 minutes earlier than showtime, and that was on a busy day. That adopted doing Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance shortly earlier than park closing with an precise wait of underneath 20 minutes.
Even with the worry of cheer and dance teams, we’d nonetheless do Disney’s Hollywood Studios on these later deadlines. In truth, we will likely be doing precisely that. So if it seems to be a spectacularly terrible concept…we’ll be making the identical mistake, not merely recommending it to others!
Animal Kingdom
- Immediately by April 15, 2024: 8am to 7pm (beforehand 9am to 6pm)
- April 16-18, 2024: 8am to 6pm (beforehand 9am to 6pm)
- April 19-21, 2024: 8am to 7pm (beforehand 9am to 6pm)
- April 22-25, 2024: 8am to 6pm (beforehand 9am to 6pm)
- April 26-27, 2024: 8am to 7pm (beforehand 9am to 6pm)
The 8am opening time is clutch at Animal Kingdom. This implies Early Entry at 7:30am, which is fairly sparsely attended. See Animal Kingdom Park Opening & Early Entry Journey Technique (or, “How I Did Each Journey at DAK Earlier than 10:30am.”)
Even when these find yourself being excessive crowd degree days in Animal Kingdom, you may just about run the desk on rides by profiting from Early Entry and being aggressive with rope drop and the primary few hours of the day. The overwhelming majority of friends can’t/is not going to stand up that early. (Simply look what number of complaints there are about digital queue begin occasions being at 7am!)
On the reverse finish of the day, our Animal Kingdom Afternoon Arrival Technique is as soon as once more the perfect method for this park within the again half of the day. You possibly can accomplish so much within the remaining few hours of the day.
However, in case your plan is to reach late and go away early, Genie+ generally is a good possibility. After experiencing 8/10 and above crowds there (and seeing the Lightning Lane really be worthwhile for stage reveals!), we aren’t fairly so assertive about Genie+ being categorically “unhealthy” at DAK. It actually relies upon.
As at all times, the schedule modifications make it simpler to beat crowds at these parks. There’s an enormous benefit to early risers or night time owls, and savvy technique or data of easy methods to leverage Genie+ and Lightning Lanes generally is a gamechanger.
We’re enormous followers of leveraging Park Hopping and splitting most days into two half days. If your loved ones is stuffed with early risers and staying on-site, I’d be profiting from these Early Entry every time doable, particularly at DHS and DAK. I wouldn’t be doing any mornings at EPCOT, and would as an alternative begin the day doing Early Entry on the park that opens earliest and bounce round to leverage park hours and crowd dynamics.
To that finish, take a look at our Genie+ v. Savvy Technique at Walt Disney World, which is the results of in depth ‘testing’ to find out the most effective and worst methods to beat the crowds. You may also do fairly properly within the evenings at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios–and that’s one way or the other nonetheless true even now that Fantasmic is again. EPCOT is extra of a wildcard–the mud nonetheless hasn’t settled on Luminous or the opposite new stuff there.
One remaining signal that Walt Disney World is previous the height of Spring Break is plummeting costs on Genie+ beginning right now. Right here’s the earlier than/after per-person prices:
- Multi-Park: $29 (beforehand $39)
- Magic Kingdom: $29 (beforehand $39)
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $26 (was $35)
- EPCOT: $21 (beforehand $32)
- Animal Kingdom: $18 (beforehand $29)
In a single day, Walt Disney World dropped from all-time excessive pricing to extra average ranges. That is nonetheless excessive by historic (and even most of 2024) requirements, nevertheless it’s a dramatic drop to happen in a single day.
As Genie+ costs and park hours are often proxy for crowd ranges, this ought to be an indication of 4/10 to six/10 crowds this week. In fact, Walt Disney World’s inside forecasts aren’t good, so wait occasions may find yourself exceeding that. Easter falling sooner than regular this 12 months threw a little bit of a monkey wrench into these predictions, and extra districts than regular have delayed their recesses to keep away from Mid-Winter Break and Spring Break being too shut collectively.
The underside line is that between the ticket offers and later breaks, it wouldn’t be stunning to see crowds within the subsequent two weeks a bit on the elevated aspect. We’re nonetheless anticipating the second half of the month to be pretty quiet.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider Walt Disney World’s working hours for the second half of April 2024? Happy with the sooner openings or later closings? Confused concerning the lack of extensions for sure dates, or EPCOT day by day? What has been your expertise with crowds and wait occasions? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we might help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
