Walt Disney World has added more hours to the calendar through early January 2025 at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios & Animal Kingdom, and extended hours to start the 2024 Christmas season. This post covers the changes plus zig when they zag strategy for Magic Kingdom and DHS during these holiday dates.
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 January 3, 2025. Here are the hours for the newly-added dates during the holiday season:
- Magic Kingdom: 9 am to 9 pm*
- EPCOT: 9 am to 9:30 pm*
- Hollywood Studios: 9 am to 9 pm*
- Animal Kingdom: 8 am to 6 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 probably in 2025, 2026, etc–until the rise of the machines.
One exception to the park hours above is that Magic Kingdom closes on several nights per week at 6 pm to day guests for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party over the course of the next three months. Those separately-ticketed events begin at 7 pm and runs until midnight, and occur multiple nights per week.
Similar to Magic Kingdom on MVMCP nights, Hollywood Studios closes at 7 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.
In addition to these newly added hours, Walt Disney World has also extended park hours throughout November 2024.
This was to be expected, as we’re entering the home stretch of the year when crowds can spike due to long weekends, school breaks, holidays and other special events. As a result, you can expect a lot more extensions–on a weekly basis–from Walt Disney World going forward for Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve.
Anyway, on with the extensions for November 2024…
Magic Kingdom
- November 1, 2024: 9 am to 10 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
- November 2, 2024: 9 am to 10 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
- November 3, 2024: 9 am to 10 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
- November 4, 2024: 9 am to 10 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
- November 5, 2024: 9 am to 10 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
- November 6, 2024: 9 am to 10 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
- November 7, 2024: 9 am to 11 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
- November 8, 2024: 8 am to 6 pm (previously 9 am to 6 pm)
- November 9, 2024: 9 am to 12 am (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
- November 10, 2024: 9 am to 11 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
- November 11, 2024: 8 am to 6 pm (previously 9 am to 6 pm)
- November 12, 2024: 8 am to 6 pm (previously 9 am to 6 pm)
- November 13, 2024: 8 am to 11 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
- November 14, 2024: 8 am to 6 pm (previously 9 am to 6 pm)
- November 15, 2024: 8 am to 6 pm (previously 9 am to 6 pm)
- November 16, 2024: 8 am to 11 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
Walt Disney World has only updated hours through November 16, 2024. Any dates beyond that show boilerplate hours. There will be extensions for most, if not all, dates in November and December 2024 beyond that in future updates.
The first thing to which I want to call your attention is those midnight closing time on November 9, 2024. We expected this and were really hoping it would apply to November 10, as that was what happened last year. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
While we’re excited for the rare midnight closing, there are a few things worth pointing out. First and foremost, there will be filming for the ABC Christmas specials in Magic Kingdom over this weekend. If you haven’t already, we’d highly recommend reading How to See Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade for “Free” During Days at Magic Kingdom!
That covers my experience last year on this date, pros & cons of visiting during parade filming, and more. Specifically, my recommendation–and what I plan on doing–is to do Sunday as opposed to Saturday at Magic Kingdom. Even though I was anticipating a midnight closing then, too, that advice/plan remains unchanged. Just keep in mind that there’s a reason Disney extended until midnight on Saturday but not on Sunday.
Second, that’s Veterans Day weekend and there are several MVMCP dates in the week that follows. We always flag Veterans Day because it continues to catch fans by surprise–it’s one of the busiest holiday weekends of the entire year. There’s a reason these dates are on the ‘worst’ side of our list of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2024 & 2025.
Suffice to say, the odds are high of heavy crowds in Magic Kingdom on both Saturday and Sunday. So my ‘endorsement’ of Sunday isn’t even remotely the same as, say, a random weekday in late August. It will be some degree of busy–I still like Sunday, especially the night, because I’m optimistic that crowds will thin out at the end of the night. Just understand what you’re getting yourself into.
Finally, we want to reiterate once again that midnight closures should be standard operating procedure for Magic Kingdom during Party Season on dates when the park isn’t closing early. Disneyland closes at midnight regularly, and Magic Kingdom should follow suit. The crowds on non-party dates throughout November and December are more than sufficient to justify 8 am to 12 am hours every single day. Not doing so is a mix of cheapness on Walt Disney World’s part, mixed with wanting to push people towards Lightning Lanes.
Then there are the extensions on days of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, with Magic Kingdom now opening at 8 am on those dates. Another positive is that Magic Kingdom is opening at 8 am even on a lot of non-party days! This is how it should be during Party Season.
As we’ve discussed countless times, 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. It is also increasingly opening at 8 am. Because of this, Early Entry starts at 7:30 am, which makes it highly recommended.
Again, we’d strongly recommend visiting Magic Kingdom during the day on MNSSHP or MVMCP nights. This is something we’ve covered at length, again and again. See Best & Worst Days to Do Magic Kingdom in 2024 for a rundown of when crowds will be especially good or bad, including a handful of ‘red flag’ dates to avoid at all costs this month through December.
Throughout November and December, expect party-shortened days at Magic Kingdom have crowd levels of 2/10 to 4/10 instead of 1/10. This will happen because crowd levels as a whole are increasing–they’ll be higher across the board, on both 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.
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 holiday season.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- November 8, 2024: 8:30 am to 9 pm (previously 9 am to 9 pm)
- November 9, 2024: 8:30 am to 7 pm (previously 9 am to 7 pm)
- November 16, 2024: 8:30 am to 7 pm (previously 9 am to 7 pm)
Only a few dates adding hours for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and it’s “only” 30 minutes. This is a bigger deal than it might seem because Early Entry will once again officially start at 8 am on these dates. 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 on November 8-9, 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. Our answer, as discussed at length in Best & Worst 2024 Crowd Days at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, is probably not.
With the park only closing two hours early on event nights (versus 3-4 hours for Magic Kingdom), not nearly as many guests are discouraged from doing DHS on those dates. Even on normal nights, not nearly as many people stay late in Hollywood Studios as do so in Magic Kingdom. Attendance at DHS might be a little lower on event days, but not significantly so.
Conversely, there’s the Jollywood Nights attendees that will arrive during their mix-in time, and this will result in longer lines for headliner attractions at a time when they’d otherwise be really short. Fantasmic is only shown once (and at an earlier time) on Disney Jollywood Nights dates, too. By contrast, it has two performances–one of which is after park closing–on most holiday season dates.
So for me, the answer is obvious–I’m without a doubt doing and recommending Disney’s Hollywood Studios on November 8 over November 9. That’s one specific example, but it should hold true with other adjacent dates throughout the event.
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 November 9 or 16 in the hopes of ~10% smaller crowds. Just keep in mind, once again, that Walt Disney World extends hours for a reason–these 8:30 am openings are fantastic from a strategic perspective, but Disney is forecasting higher attendance on those dates. Prepare accordingly.
Animal Kingdom
- November 1, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
- November 2, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
- November 3, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
- November 8, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
- November 9, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
- November 10, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
- November 11, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
- November 15, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
- November 16, 2024: 8 am to 7 pm (previously 8 am to 6 pm)
As with Magic Kingdom, the 8 am opening time is clutch at Animal Kingdom, and that’s the ‘new normal’ going forward through December 2024. That’s really good news even a baseline perspective, as it means extensions will be closing at 7 pm or 8 pm–which also means nighttime at DAK during the holiday season!
Critically, the new baseline 8 am opening also 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 sunset for all of these days! Between the later closing and Daylight Saving Time, you can get a couple hours in DAK after dark for the first time in a while!
I don’t see Tree of Life Winter Awakenings back on the schedule just yet–but Walt Disney World already confirmed they’d be back (see our Guide to Christmas at Animal Kingdom for full details). 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 on busier dates, Lightning Lane Multi Pass is unnecessary with even a modicum of strategizing. Please don’t be fooled by the “bargain” pricing on LLMP 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!)
Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see how bad crowds end up being over the Veterans Day holiday weekend, and what happens with hours once Thanksgiving rolls around. While the park opening times are fine, our hope is that Walt Disney World gets back to later closing times for the Christmas season.
Magic Kingdom closing at 11 pm isn’t bad, but midnight would be a lot better–especially with the number of weekly MVMCPs and attendance both increasing as Walt Disney World enters the heart of the holiday season. All in all, it’s not too bad. Even with heavier crowds–and probably by a lot on some of these dates–November and December are among our favorite times of the year in the parks and at the resorts. Better weather and a festive atmosphere are tough to beat!
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 extensions for November 2024? Think this schedule is reasonable? Do you think Magic Kingdom should be open later? 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!
