For the most part, theme park hours are straightforward. There’s an open time—when guests are let in the park—and a closing time—when the last guests are allowed to line up for rides. But as with all things, Disney makes things a little more complicated, with changing hours and a variety of ways to get early and late access to the parks. In this post we discuss the typical hours at Magic Kingdom and how to access early and late hours at the park.
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Typical Hours at Magic Kingdom
There really aren’t typical hours at Magic Kingdom this time of year. 8AM or 9AM opens are common, and closes range from 6PM to 11PM. On New Year’s Eve, the park is open until midnight.
August through December is holiday party season (Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party). On days with those events the park will close to regular guests earlier than other days, with 6PM closes being standard for party dates.
Throughout the year, on nights where Magic Kingdom hosts an After Hours or Extended Evening Hours event, the park might close an hour or two earlier than usual to accommodate that event.
You can view the official Disney hours for Magic Kingdom by clicking this link.
Typically, Main Street USA and the area in front of Cinderella Castle will open to guests one hour before park opening time.
Additionally, guests of Disney hotels (and select partner hotels) have access to Early Theme Park Entry, which grants them access to the select attractions 30 minutes before other guests every day. We discuss this perk more below.
Finally, guests of deluxe Disney hotels (and a more select group of partner hotels) have access to Extended Evening Hours, which grants them a few extra hours in the park at night on select evenings. We discuss this perk more below.
Specific Ride Hours
Note that not all the attractions open and close with the park. For example, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor often opens late and closes early.
There’s no way to predict ride opening times in advance other than to look at the ride hours in the days before your visit and assume they’ll stay the same. You can either check the My Disney Experience app yourself (clicking into an attraction will tell you its hours for today), or you can visit Thrill-Data and see when the ride last posted a wait time for the day.
When popular rides open late, a good strategy is to plan to arrive at them about 5 to 10 minutes before they open so that you’ll have a short wait without having to use a Lightning Lane.
It is really important that you check the closing times of anything you’re thinking about visiting late. You can check the closing times in the My Disney Experience app. You don’t want to plan to visit a ride in the last hour of the day only to get there and find it closed two hours early.
What time does Magic Kingdom Open?
While the typical open for Magic Kingdom is 9AM, you won’t just want to show up at that time. We cover opening times and when to arrive at Magic Kingdom in our Magic Kingdom Rope Drop Strategy post.
Staying Late at Magic Kingdom
Like all of Disney’s parks (and most theme parks), just because Magic Kingdom closes at some time doesn’t mean you have to be out of the park by that time.
The closing time is the when guests will stop being allowed to line up for rides. In most cases, you will be able to get in line for a ride right up until closing time. Because there can be exceptions to this—due to capacity issues or ride breakdowns—we don’t recommend you rely heavily on this. Rather, this is a good time for a “bonus ride” you would otherwise skip or a re-ride on something big.
While the last people are allowed into line for the rides at closing time, some stores will remain open and anyone still in the queue for a ride will get to ride and then leave. The stores at the front of the park will be open latest.
Depending on the precise schedules for the day, the nighttime show Happily Ever After may begin or end right around park close.
At Magic Kingdom, most of the post-close activity will be on Main Street USA and in front of the castle. You can expect to see photographers setting up to get low or no-crowd photos.
In the past (I’ll never give up my hopes that it returns soon!), the “Kiss Goodnight” periodically played, thanking guests for visiting and politely telling them to wrap up and leave. While Disney buses will run until the last guest leaves the park, they’ll do so on a significantly more limited schedule as it gets later, and the later exits almost always have to share buses.
Extra Hours Access to Magic Kingdom
There are several options for getting early or late access to Magic Kingdom. Early Entry grants certain guests extra time in the morning. Extended Evening Hours grants a small set of guests extra hours in the evening. Finally, After Hours events (which now also include the holiday “parties”) are ticketed events with exclusive late-hour park access.
Early Theme Park Entry
Early Theme Park Entry is a perk offered to guests of Walt Disney World Resort hotels (and select partner hotels) that allows guests access to the park 30 minutes before its scheduled open, every day.
At Magic Kingdom, Early Entry includes select (most) rides in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. The other areas of the park are not a part of Early Entry. Marquee attractions Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, and Peter Pan’s Flight are all included in Early Theme Park Entry. Early Entry is covered in our Magic Kingdom Rope Drop Strategy post.
Extended Evening Hours
Magic Kingdom typically has Extended Evening Hours for guests of deluxe Disney hotels only once each week. (During the holiday season, when the park hosts ticketed parties, Extended Evening Hours may be unavailable or on a more limited schedule than usual.)
The perk usually grants these guests two hours after the park has closed. This is a good way to get short waits on a few rides, but an 11PM park close would mean Extended Evening Hours goes until 1AM, not ideal for early risers.
Magic Kingdom After Hours + Holiday Parties
Magic Kingdom After Hours Events are ticketed events that occur after regular park hours. Guests for After Hours events are typically allowed in the park a few hours before the event starts, and before the event starts they are given wristbands that allow them to stay in the park for the event.
After Hours events include complimentary bottled beverages, popcorn, and frozen treats (like Mickey bars). Generally during After Hours you’ll want to just focus on rides.
Then there are the holiday parties—Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (select August-October dates) and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (select November-December dates). At these events, you’ll probably focus more on the exclusive entertainment and snacks than rides, though you can plan to hit a few of the bigger names if you’re open to a busy (and late) night.
These events aren’t cheap, costing around $100-$200 per person.
What If I Don’t Have Extra Hours Access?
Okay—so what if you’re trying to plan your visit, you see there is some extra hours event that day, and you’re not part of it. Should you still visit? How can you plan around it? Here’s what we think.
Planning Around Early Entry
If you’re not a guest of a Disney resort, you won’t have Early Entry. The big challenge this poses is that Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Space Mountain will already have lines when you arrive. If you wait in them, lines for everything else will only increase, and so on.
The obvious “solution” is to pay. Multi Pass includes Peter Pan, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a Single Pass Lightning Lane. Of course, spending more money on an already expensive vacation isn’t going to fly with everyone.
If you don’t pay, you might start your day with one of these three rides, or you might simply hope to fit them in later in the day, instead saving time by starting your day out west (in Frontierland or Adventureland). Get through a good lineup of rides there quickly and the hurt of waiting in line for a few rides later in the day won’t be so bad. We discuss these options more in our Magic Kingdom Rope Drop Strategy post.
Planning Around After Hours, Holiday Parties, and Extended Evening Hours
You don’t specifically have to plan around After Hours or Extended Evening Hours because the park simply closes for guests who don’t have access to that event. The only thing to be aware of is that nights with these offerings might involve the park closing earlier than other nights. To maximize your time in the parks, try to avoid being caught at a park that is closing earlier than normal.
On holiday party dates in particular, there is a bit of a trade off. The park will usually have lower crowds during the day, but it will close early (usually 6PM).
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
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Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
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Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
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