When Does EPCOT Close? Disney World’s EPCOT Hours

When does EPCOT close? Our guide covers everything you need to know about EPCOT hours including the typical park opening and closing times, dining hours, attraction hours, and more.

EPCOT usually follows a pattern of opening later in the morning and staying open late at night due to the yearly rotation of food marketplace festivals in the World Showcase and the abundance of dining options offered.

EPCOT is a large Walt Disney World theme park which includes the new Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind rollercoaster and the sprawling World Showcase. It's a not miss on your trip! Keep reading for all the tips we have on EPCOT hours.

Walt Disney World Theme Park Hours

Click below for the analysis of the park hours for each of the four Walt Disney World theme parks:

• Animal Kingdom Hours
• Hollywood Studios Hours
• Magic Kingdom Hours
• Epcot Hours (You are here)

EPCOT Hours- When Does EPCOT Close?

The EPCOT operating hours vary depending if you're visiting on a weekday, weekend or during a “peak” time of year which often includes holiday weeks, select summer dates, and spring break.

EPCOT Hours

• Opening 9AM
• Early Entry for resort guests: 830AM
• Closing 8PM or 9PM

These are the average hours and will change depending on the time of year. The busier the parks, the longer park operating hours will be. Most guests always wonder: when does EPCOT close? As you can see above, EPCOT offers late operating hours which makes it a perfect choice for park hopping.

Walt Disney World is notorious for extending or changing theme park operating hours as the date draws near so I always recommend reviewing the Walt Disney World calendar so you have the most up to date information right before your trip.

What time does EPCOT open?

EPCOT usually opens at 9AM every day for all ticketed guests and at 8:30AM for guests staying at a Walt Disney World resort hotel for Early Entry. Not all restaurants will be open at this same time, especially in the World Showcase, so be sure to check the My Experience App for more information on specific opening times.

World Showcase has been opening at the same time as EPCOT's regular opening lately with all attractions and experiences available at opening. EPCOT World Showcase marketplace booths may not open until 11AM depending on the festival. Our visit during Christmas week to see the Festival of the Holidays, most of the world marketplace booths did not open until 10AM or 11AM especially with independent merchants having a bit more unpredictable hours.

Read more about EPCOT Festivals in our EPCOT Festival Yearly Calendar and Guide.

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When Does EPCOT Close?

EPCOT usually closes at 8PM during slower periods of the year (early Spring, Fall, etc.) and stays open until 9PM during peak times of the year (holidays, summer, Spring Break).

If you plan on staying in EPCOT to watch the nighttime spectacular over the World Showcase lagoon, you will end up in the theme park past the official closing time. Harmonious (replaced by EPCOT Forever on April 3rd) runs at 9PM nightly so this is a great way to build in nighttime entertainment into your park day while spending the hours EPCOT is open enjoying attractions.

Read more about nighttime shows in our Walt Disney World Nighttime Spectacular Entertainment guide.

EPCOT Closing Tips

Many guests usually wonder when does EPCOT close and aside from Magic Kingdom, it is one of the theme parks to offer the latest operating hours. EPCOT in the evening tends to be more busy in the World Showcase area while the other end of the park will start slowing down dramatically.

You can get in line for any attraction before park closing despite how long the wait is! As long as you are IN LINE before the official park closing time, you will be able to ride. My strategy is often to get in line for a popular ride about five minutes before park closing so we don't spend valuable park time waiting in that line for the ride. For EPCOT, I would recommend doing this for Frozen Ever After or Remy's Ratatouille Adventure.

Disney will often post inflated waiting times for attractions at the end of the night to discourage guests from getting in line right before park close. In my experience most ride wait times are going to be much shorter than their posted wait time at the end of the night. We had this experience with Soarin' many times. It would post a wait of anywhere between 20 minutes to 45 minutes but it was a walk on!

EPCOT Early Entry Hours

EPCOT offers Early Entry daily for guests staying at a Walt Disney World resort hotel. You can read more about this perk in our Early Entry Walt Disney World guide.

So it's not just wondering when does EPCOT close but also when EPCOT opens and if you can take advantage of these early hours.

Early entry allows hotel guests to enter the park 30 minutes prior to official opening time. For EPCOT, this will usually be 8:30AM. This 30 minute head start is a great thing to take advantage of! Make sure you plan your route carefully as EPCOT has two different entrances. If you arrive by Skyliner, you will be on the side of the World Showcase which makes Remy's Ratatouille Adventure a perfect choice for going to first. If you arrive by bus or other transportation, you will enter by Spaceship Earth. In this case I recommend going to Test Track. You only have thirty minutes to spend so picking the closest attraction to the entrance is often a wise move!

See our top rated hotels in our Walt Disney World hotel guide.

EPCOT Extended Evening Hours

EPCOT is one of the theme parks that is usually included in the Extended Evening Hours offering for guests staying at Deluxe Walt Disney World hotels. Extending Evening Hours at EPCOT typically take place from 9PM-11PM. These Extended Evening Hours may cause some confusion for guests wondering when does EPCOT close? Usually EPCOT will close at 9PM but for nights it offers Extended Evening Hours it will stay open until 11PM. Extended Evening Hours isn't offered daily but on a sporadic schedule set by Disney. These hours will be offered more frequently during peak travel times like holidays, summer, etc.

I had a great experience with Extended Evening Hours at EPCOT on our last visit. The park was nearly empty and there were very few people taking advantage of this perk. Some of this exclusivity comes from Extended Evening Hours only being available for deluxe resort guests but also at the end of the day many families are too tired to take advantage of this perk. Nearly all the attractions were walk ons and we were able to tackle some of the most popular attractions. To read more about Extended Evening hours and my strategy to make the most of your time, read my Extended Evening Hours guide and review. 

EPCOT Attraction Hours

Depending on the Walt Disney World theme park, some attractions might have different hours. Journey Into The Imagination with Figment has been known in the past to close early as crowds tapered off towards the end of the day. We haven't seen this happen in awhile though so it's likely a discontinued practice.

You can expect all attractions at EPCOT to remain open during regular EPCOT operating hours. For EPCOT Early Entry and Extended Evening hours, only these select attractions are available:

• Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along
• Frozen Ever After
• Mission: SPACE Green
• Mission: SPACE Orange
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• The Seas with Nemo & Friends
• Soarin' Around the World
• Spaceship Earth
• Test Track

The most popular of these attractions are easily Frozen Ever After, Test Track, and Remy's Ratatouille Adventure. These are the three rides I would prioritize during those special access EPCOT hours.

EPCOT Dining Hours

EPCOT's restaurants that offer breakfast will be open right when the park does which is usually 9AM most times of the year. For the restaurants that start the day with lunch, you can expect an opening time of 11AM-12PM depending on the individual restaurant.

Most table service restaurants stay open until at least 8PM with some remaining open until 9PM which is the usual EPCOT closing time. For quick service restaurants most close at 9PM giving you time to grab some food before EPCOT closes.

For World Showcase marketplace booths that are part of the seasonal EPCOT festivals, they typically begin opening at 11AM for all booths serving food and 12PM for some of the booths only serving alcohol. These booths will also stay open until the official EPCOT closing time.

You will be allowed to linger in the park even after EPCOT officially closes so if you grab a snack right before closing, you're welcome to grab a table and enjoy it.

EPCOT Shopping Hours

Most of the EPCOT shopping locations will close right when operating hours end for the night. The one exception to this is the Creations Shop which is the large store located near the entrance by Spaceship Earth. This store offers an abundance of EPCOT and Walt Disney World merchandise and is your best one to visit to find specific items you're looking for.

Creations Shop will stay open an hour past official EPCOT closing giving guests an additional hour to shop before the leave for the day. This is why I recommend saving your shopping for the end of the night rather than doing it during regular park hours. Plus you don't have to carry your purchases around with you and can walk right out when you're done.

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