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 pieces else it is best to know.
We’ll begin with the most recent 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. Here 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 virtually proceed all through 2024.
However, 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 time, there’s really an opportunity the May by mid-June 2024 hours can be fairly near the ultimate schedule.
It’s doubtless extensions will happen as soon as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens, however our expectation is that can be shortly after June 17, 2024. Also, on condition that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is a water journey, it is going to most likely make extra sense to maneuver to eight a.m. openings fairly than 11 p.m. or midnight closings. More daylight can 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 normal” for Magic Kingdom park hours as soon as May and June roll round, so many of those dates quantity to no extensions from the baseline.
That’s an enormous sign that Spring Break season is actually over as soon as April 14 rolls round. While 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 faculty districts nonetheless out that week. These hours extensions appear to substantiate that.
Still, opening at 8am and shutting at 11pm on the weekends is good to see. That most likely has much less to do with faculties being out on break and extra to do with the combination of locals and vacationers, each of whom can have ticket offers to benefit from throughout this timeframe. (For those that have requested, we’ll be intently monitoring crowd tendencies in gentle 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 advocate avoiding them–particularly when Magic Kingdom opens earlier and closes later.
As a reminder, we extremely advocate 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 evening, technique turns into a lot simpler–and that’ll be doubly true if crowds are “only” 7/10 or under.
I do know we repeat this advert nauseum, however the strategic significance of Magic Kingdom opening at 8am as a substitute of 9am can’t be overstated. Early Entry beginning an hour later is nearly 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 ‘Party Season’ Strategy.
Another main Magic Kingdom signaling the tip of Spring Break season is the discount of parade performances, with Festival of Fantasy switching from twice day by day showtimes to 1. In its place, extra calvacades performances have been added. Here’s the brand new schedule:
- Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3 p.m. (beforehand midday and 3pm)
- Disney Adventure Friends Cavalcade: 10:30am and 11:45am (beforehand 5:10pm and 6:25pm)
This schedule runs all through the present leisure calendar, which is presently by May 4, 2024. It’ll doubtless proceed past that all through shoulder season, with the potential for two Festival 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)
Again, not an enormous shock to see no extensions in any respect for a lot of of today. Even in the event that they find yourself being barely busier as a complete (and there’s no assure of that), we nonetheless advocate doing DHS on the 9:30pm or 10pm closing days.
Those 10pm closings are literally fairly the shock, as DHS didn’t prolong 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 Wide World of Sports on these dates will lead to quite a lot of members within the park late, however not early. That would make sense, and it might be a state of affairs the place DHS really does see a major spike in crowd ranges on account of these teams. That, or this might merely be a check for later hours at DHS and never motivated by inside attendance projections. Just a risk to concentrate on, as quite a lot of common visitors 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 advocate seeing the second displaying. It’ll successfully prolong 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 evening.
Equally as vital, 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 whole sections that went unfilled. I used to be capable of snag the third row of a fantastic 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 time limits. In truth, we can 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
- Today 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 means Early Entry at 7:30am, which is fairly sparsely attended. See Animal Kingdom Park Opening & Early Entry Ride Strategy (or, “How I Did Every Ride at DAK Before 10:30am.”)
Even if these find yourself being excessive crowd stage days in Animal Kingdom, you may just about run the desk on rides by making the most of Early Entry and being aggressive with rope drop and the primary few hours of the day. The overwhelming majority of visitors can’t/is not going to rise up that early. (Just look what number of complaints there are about digital queue begin instances being at 7am!)
At the other finish of the day, our Animal Kingdom Afternoon Arrival Strategy is as soon as once more the perfect strategy for this park within the again half of the day. You can accomplish rather a lot within the remaining few hours of the day.
But, in case your plan is to reach late and depart early, Genie+ could be a good choice. After experiencing 8/10 and above crowds there (and seeing the Lightning Lane really be invaluable for stage reveals!), we aren’t fairly so assertive about Genie+ being categorically “bad” at DAK. It actually relies upon.
As all the time, the schedule modifications make it simpler to beat crowds at these parks. There’s an enormous benefit to early risers or evening owls, and savvy technique or information of the right way to leverage Genie+ and Lightning Lanes could be 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 making the most of these Early Entry each time potential, particularly at DHS and DAK. I wouldn’t be doing any mornings at EPCOT, and would as a substitute 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, try our Genie+ v. Savvy Strategy at Walt Disney World, which is the results of intensive ‘testing’ to find out the perfect and worst methods to beat the crowds. You can even do fairly nicely 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 at present. 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)
Overnight, Walt Disney World dropped from all-time excessive pricing to extra average ranges. This remains to be excessive by historic (and even most of 2024) requirements, but it surely’s a dramatic drop to happen in a single day.
As Genie+ costs and park hours are often a superb proxy for crowd ranges, this needs to be an indication of 4/10 to six/10 crowds this week. Of course, Walt Disney World’s inside forecasts aren’t excellent, so wait instances may find yourself exceeding that. Easter falling sooner than regular this yr 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 backside line is that between the ticket offers and later breaks, it wouldn’t be shocking 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.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Learn about resorts on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To lower your expenses on tickets or decide which sort to purchase, learn our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets submit. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips submit takes a singular take a look at intelligent gadgets to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the perfect place to begin is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for all the pieces you’ll want to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider Walt Disney World’s working hours for the second half of April 2024? Pleased with the sooner openings or later closings? Confused in regards to the lack of extensions for sure dates, or EPCOT daily? What has been your expertise with crowds and wait instances? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we may help you reply? Hearing 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!