Walt Disney World Extended Evening Hours Review & Touring Strategy

Walt Disney World Extended Evening Hours are a big perk for guests staying at Deluxe Disney resort hotels. The parks will stay open for two hours after park closing for these guests on select nights allowing you to experience high wait rides with no wait.

The parks offering the Extended Evening Hours changes and is not offered nightly so some advance planning is required to take advantage of these special hours. They are a great perk for guests as most rides are walk ons during this time since guests staying at deluxe resort hotels are a small number compared to all hotel guests plus the late evening hours gives it another edge that not all guests will attend.

Our guide covers everything you need to know about Extended Evening Hours plus our best tips for strategies during these evenings. This guide has been verified and checked for accuracy for 2025.

Walt Disney World Extended Evening Hours

Walt Disney World Extended Evening Hours don't happen on a set schedule like Disney World Early Theme Park Entry so you have to check in advance to know when it is offered. It can be sporadic throughout the year but it will be offered more often during peak times.

Extended Evening Hours are essentially the direct replacement for the pre-pandemic Evening Extra Magic Hours. Initially, Extended Evening Hours were promoted as a way to celebrate Walt Disney World's 50th anniversary but now they have become a permanent deluxe resort hotel benefit.

Extended Evening Hours will usually consist of about two hours after the park's official closing time making it a great perk. The end of the night is already a great time to be in the parks as most guests will begin clearing out. Add in the exclusivity of the Extended Evening Hours being only for guests staying at deluxe hotels then these hours become a great perk to take advantage of. You can get so much done in two hours in the parks during this time so its absolutely worth staying up late for!

Keep reading for my Extended Evening Hours strategy, personal review plus all the information you need- like which deluxe hotels are included and what rides will be open!

Walt Disney World Extended Evening Hours Strategy

Another great benefit of Extended Evening Hours is that you don't need too much of a strategy like you might need for the Early Entry for all hotel guests since it's exclusive to only Deluxe hotel guests. I do recommend a few tips though to maximize your enjoyment!

• Prioritize attractions that have paid Single Pass Lightning Lane access. If you can utilize these two hours to ride those rides, you can save your self time (these lines get long later in the day) and money for this individual charge.
• Make sure to eat a big meal before they begin as not all restaurant options will be open and dining options will be a bit more limited.
• If you're worried about kids staying awake take an afternoon break and make sure everyone gets a nice, long nap.
• Save the most popular attractions for later in the night as you will still have some regular daytime guests in line for those when Extended Evening Hours begin so wait times will be longer!

Make sure to take note if Extended Evening Hours are taking place during your visit as it's one of the best ways to get plenty of things done during your trip. From all the most recent park reports, even during the busiest times of the year, Extended Evening Hours have been practically empty! This is due to that combination of both the exclusive nature (being limited to deluxe resort guests) and being a later in the day offering… not as many people participate! I cannot stress enough how you should make time to take advantage of these hours during your visit… you can end up accomplishing so much in such a short time.

Walt Disney World Extended Evening Hours Review

We experienced Extended Evening Hours during one of the busiest weeks of the year at Walt Disney World which was the day after Christmas on our visit. The entire day the parks were crowded with ride times easily reaching over two hours for some of the most popular rides. We took advantage of EPCOT's extended evening hours (available to me because I was staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge– read my review to see how I got this hotel for the price of a moderate!) from 9PM-11PM which began at park closing.

Using my strategy above, we prioritized EPCOT rides that were close by each other and did not still have long waits from the daytime guests. In our two hours at EPCOT we easily accomplished:

• Spaceship Earth
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
• Missing SPACE: Orange
• Test Track
• Frozen Ever After
• Remy's Ratoutille Adventure

Every single ride was a walk on, even the virtual queue line for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind! Since EPCOT so spread out, this took a bit of hustling on our part to get from Test Track to Frozen Ever After and then Remy's. We just barely made it in line in time for Remy's before the park officially closed so keep in mind this was a fast pace itinerary.

Some might ask, why did you ride Spaceship Earth? Well, I wanted to take a moment and thank the Phoenicians on our last day! (At the end of the ride, it reminds us to thank the Phoenicians for the alphabet so it's become a bit of a popular Disney phrase due to that line!) The other reason is that during our visit we saw Spaceship Earth hit longer than average wait times (nearing 45-60 minutes at times!) so we didn't have a chance to ride it yet! We also happened to be walking right past when Extended Evening Hours began so we hopped right on.

I didn't purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass for our day at EPCOT since I knew we would have Extended Evening Hours to help us cover all the ground we needed to at the end of the day. This worked out perfectly as we spent the day taking our time and enjoying lower wait times (Living With the Land, The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Journey Into The Imagination with Figment, etc.) and saved the most popular rides for Extended Evening Hours. It worked great, definitely worth staying up late for! Keep in mind that the shops will all close right when Extended Evening Hours end and do not stay open that extra hour like stores do after normal park closing hours.

Considering we got on all the most popular rides at EPCOT, I would say that YES Extended Evening Hours are worth it. Far more of a perk than Early Morning Entry since you get more time plus at the end of the day more people are likely to clear out of the parks- even those that also share the perk!