Extended Evening Theme Park Hours is an on-site perk for Walt Disney World guests staying at a Deluxe Resorts, DVC Villas, and select other hotels this year and in 2025. This strategy guide covers everything you need to know: eligibility, ride rosters, how it works, and tips for best using the extra time. (Updated February 24, 2025.)
In terms of basics, Extended Evening Theme Park Hours (ExEH) is the indirect replacement for Evening Extra Magic Hours and is the current counterpart to Early Theme Park Entry. However, there are a lot of differences between the morning and evening extra time in the parks.
Extended Evening Theme Park Hours is usually offered after regular park closing on Monday nights at EPCOT and Wednesday nights at Magic Kingdom. That schedule does change from time to time, but is accurate the vast majority of the time. See Walt Disney World’s official calendar for specific times for each event night. Note that if regular hours are added causing park closing to occur later, which happens frequently, Extended Evening Hours shifts to after that.
The pool of eligibility for Extended Evening Hours is fairly small. This nighttime benefit is exclusively for guests staying at Walt Disney World Deluxe Resorts, Deluxe Villas (Disney Vacation Club units), and other select hotels (currently only the Swan & Dolphin and Shades of Green). Guests staying at Value or Moderate Resorts are not eligible for Extended Evening Hours.
While originally promoted as a special perk for the 50th Anniversary, Walt Disney World has confirmed that Extended Evening Hours will continue throughout all of 2025. There are other updates thanks to official announcements and omissions from Walt Disney World.
First, Walt Disney World has revealed its park hours calendar through the upcoming shoulder season, and in a rare twist, Animal Kingdom will host Extended Evening Hours on Monday, May 5, 2025. As noted above, this would normally be an EPCOT night.
The schedule beyond that is not yet known, but we do not expect Animal Kingdom to take over Extended Evening Hours from EPCOT this summer. More likely, there’s a corporate buyout of EPCOT that night, which happens from time to time when large conventions and other events are being hosted at Walt Disney World.
Normally, EPCOT hosts Extended Evening Hours throughout the year with only a few random exceptions (like this) that are usually one-offs. It’s Magic Kingdom that usually does not offer Extended Evening Hours on an extended basis, but that doesn’t happen until later in the year.
The park stops hosting ExEH when Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party kick into high gear. That typically starts in mid-to-late September and continues through early January. The normal cadence is for Disney’s Hollywood Studios to take over ExEH in September and October, and then Disney’s Animal Kingdom in November once the Jollywood Nights Christmas Parties start at DHS.
This may seem like a downgrade, but we’ve done Extended Evening Hours at Magic Kingdom a couple of times during the Party Season in the past, and it has been bonkers busy. Moving it over to DHS and Animal Kingdom during those busy stretches is the right move for everyone. Especially since Animal Kingdom is underrated in the evenings, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios has several headliners. (Due to the layout of the parks and distance between big rides, we prefer Extended Evening Hours at DHS to EPCOT.)
Next, some ride roster changes for 2025. The good news is that virtual queues are ending at Walt Disney World as of February 25, meaning that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind will no longer user them as of that date. (TRON Lightcycle Run’s virtual queue was retired last fall.)
Previously, there was a 6 p.m. virtual queue entry time for Extended Evening Hours for attractions using the boarding group system. Now, they’ll use standby lines just like any other ride.
Walt Disney World still has NOT added Tiana’s Bayou Adventure to the Extended Evening Hours ride roster. This is another reimagined ride–the replacement for Splash Mountain, which was an ExEH attraction.Tiana’s Bayou Adventure had been using a virtual queue during its initial opening period to deal with downtime issues and reliability woes.
It switching to standby suggests these problems may no longer exist, in which case, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure might join the Extended Evening Hours lineup soon. This would be a very welcome addition, especially with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad down until 2026, and rolling refurbishments taking other rides down for shorter timeframes.
Turning to a topic of confusion, Extended Evening Hours is distinct and different from After Hours at Magic Kingdom and After Hours at EPCOT. Those are hard ticket events to which anyone can purchase admission. After Hours also lasts longer and includes refreshments.
Although the schedule varies, Magic Kingdom typically hosts After Hours on select Monday and Thursday nights–but not Wednesdays. It’s also worth noting that After Hours prices range from $125 to $175.
By contrast, Extended Evening Hours are “free” for guests staying in the aforementioned hotel tiers, are shorter in duration, and do not include refreshments. After Hours and Extended Evening Hours are also held on different dates. If money is no object, After Hours is unquestionably better, but that’s a pretty big asterisk. We’ll take the “free” event any day of the week over having to pay extra–they’re not that much different.
Early Entry is also different from Extended Evening Hours. Obviously, one occurs in the morning and the other at night. Beyond that, Early Entry is offered at all 4 theme parks every single day, runs for 30 minutes, and every on-site resort guest is eligible, including the third party on-property hotels. For everything you need to know about that benefit, see our Strategy Guide for Early Theme Park Entry at Walt Disney World.
Once again, Extended Evening Theme Park Hours has two types of resort eligibility, occurs two nights per week, is at two parks, and runs for two hours (pretty much everything about the perk occurs in twos).
The other big difference is that you can accomplish a tremendous amount during Extended Evening Hours. We’ve done it at both Epcot and Magic Kingdom, and it’s been great in both parks–eerily uncrowded by the end, with most attractions being walk ons.
With that said, it’s definitely superior at Magic Kingdom, and that’s largely due to the more robust ride roster–and the fact that several headliners are located near one another. Magic Kingdom has as many popular attractions in Fantasyland as is the case in the entirety of Epcot. (Read about one such experience in our Evening Extended Hours at Magic Kingdom Photo Report.)
Speaking of which, a little more strategizing is required in order to knock out Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After, Test Track, Soarin’ Around the World, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind during a single Extended Evening Hours in Epcot.
Read about one of our recent attempts at this in Evening Extended Hours at EPCOT Strategy & Report, which offers play-by-play from one night that we did a couple months ago. Still, we had a fantastic time and highly recommend taking advantage of Extended Evening Hours in both parks, if you’re eligible.
Now that Cosmic Rewind has finally dropped its virtual queue, we’ll be field testing strategy again to see if it’s still possible to hit all of the headliners in a single evening.
Before singing its praises too much, we should probably address the elephant in the room: that “if eligible” asterisk. Many Walt Disney World fans have been critical about Extended Evening Hours for excluding Value and Moderate Resorts.
Their perspective is that it caters to the wealthy or creates two tiers of on-site hotel guests. Obviously, the point about lower tier resorts not being eligible is accurate. The other points are subjective, and the same claims could be made about off-site vs. on-site guests with the Early Entry benefit.
Obviously, no one likes losing access to a perk, but the reason Extended Evening Theme Park Hours are this enjoyable is because it’s limited to a small subset of guests. Evening Extra Magic Hours were crowded to the point of being practically useless and unenjoyable in their last couple of years.
Extended Evening Hours are way better than that, and also superior to the new early entry offering. That’s despite this only occurring two nights per week and thus “consolidating” crowds into that single evening. For the most part, there haven’t been a ton of guests taking advantage of this–and that has been true even during peak season. Extended Evening Hours have been glorious–for those who are eligible.
In any case, we’re not here to debate the fundamental fairness of Extended Evening Hours. Rather, the purpose of this guide is to provide info about the benefit and help you make the most of it.
To that end, potential options for taking advantage of Extended Evening Hours without breaking the bank include doing Disney Vacation Club Point Rentals or booking the Swan & Dolphin Resorts, which are usually roughly the cost of a Moderate Resort.
Another idea that we really like is doing a split stay, splurging on a night at a Deluxe Resort (see How to Do Split Stays at Walt Disney World Hotels) and then doing budget accommodations the rest of your vacation. You could also do a two night-stay, checking in on a Monday and out on a Wednesday, in order to take advantage of both Extended Evening Hours nights.
If you really wanted to go big, pair that with Club Level, taking advantage of the early/late hours and enjoying the club during the middle of the day. You could pretty accomplish every worthwhile attraction in Magic Kingdom or Epcot during the first few hours of the day plus the last few hours of the night.
Do breakfast in one of the Club Level lounges, while also enjoying a pool day and every other food and drink spread (save for desserts). That would be an awesome way to TREAT YO SELF, and could be made possible by cutting costs elsewhere from your Walt Disney World vacation budget.
Next, let’s take a look at the eligible hotels for Extended Evening Theme Park Hours…
Extended Evening Hours Eligible Disney Owned Hotels
Deluxe Resorts
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
- Disney’s Beach Club Resort
- Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
- Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
- Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
- Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Yacht Club Resort
Disney Vacation Club & Deluxe Villa Resorts
- Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Cabins at Fort Wilderness – Disney Vacation Club Resort
- Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo House
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
- Disney’s Beach Club Villas
- Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
- Disney’s Old Key West Resort
- Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
- Disney’s Riviera Resort
- Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
- Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
- Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Extended Evening Hours Eligible Third Party Hotels
- Walt Disney World Swan Hotel
- Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel
- Walt Disney World Swan Reserve
- Shades of Green
Next, the attractions lineup for Extended Evening Theme Park Hours…
Extended Evening Theme Park Hours Attractions – Magic Kingdom
- “it’s a small world”
- Astro Orbiter
- The Barnstormer
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (closed until 2026)
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Country Bear Jamboree
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Haunted Mansion
- Mad Tea Party
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Space Mountain
- Swiss Family Treehouse
- Tomorrowland Speedway
- TRON Lightcycle Run
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid
- Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room
Extended Evening Theme Park Hours Attractions – Epcot
- Frozen Ever After
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
- Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana
- Mission: SPACE
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
- Soarin’ Around the World
- Spaceship Earth
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends
- Test Track (closed for reimagining until Late Summer 2025)
Extended Evening Hours Attractions – Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Seasonal)
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
- Toy Story Mania!
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Extended Evening Hours Attractions – Disney’s Animal Kingdom (Seasonal)
- Avatar Flight of Passage
- DINOSAUR
- Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
- It’s Tough to be a Bug!
- Na’vi River Journey
As you can see, not all Walt Disney World attractions are available during Extended Evening Hours. With minor exceptions, these lists are identical to the old evening Extra Magic Hours with headliners being the emphasis.
Moreover, the Extended Evening Theme Park Hours schedule and available attractions are subject to change without notice. Applicable theme park, days and times of operation, attraction and service availability may vary and are subject to change without notice. Subject to capacity and cancellation. [Insert other boring boilerplate caveats.]
Valid theme park admission and MagicBand, Key to the World Card, or Disney MagicMobile pass is required. Guests without the Park Hopper Option or Park Hopper Plus Option must spend the day at the same park where they’d like to enjoy the Extended Evening Theme Park Hours benefit.
To validate eligibility, Cast Members are stationed outside each attraction entrance, scanning MagicBands, hotel room keys, etc. Unlike Early Entry, this happens at every single attraction throughout the night—not just once upon arrival. That’s because other guests are already in the parks–that’s the only feasible way to determine who can ride attractions since the parks are not actively cleared at the start of Extended Evening Hours.
Extended Evening Theme Park Hours Strategy
Strategy for Extended Evening Theme Park Hours is surprisingly simple. Start with less popular attractions and finish with more popular ones. Basically, do rides in reverse order of wait times, while still keeping in mind that 2 hours goes by quickly, meaning you don’t want to waste any of that time on attractions that will have minimal daytime waits (assuming you’re also visiting the same park during the day).
One key to this is coupling Extended Evening Theme Park Hours strategy with Lightning Lane usage, or lack thereof. (See our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World for everything you need to know.) In particular, guests who are eligible for ExEH probably do not need to buy Lightning Lane Single Pass, and should instead backload those attractions into the end of their evening.
Let’s quickly run through what this means for each park.
At Magic Kingdom, your last three attractions should be Space Mountain, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train–with that order making the most sense. Try to time it so you get into line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ~5 minutes before the end of Extended Evening Hours. Disregard the posted wait time, as it’ll almost certainly be significantly inflated to discourage you from doing it.
Then there’s TRON Lightcycle Run.
As noted above, TRON Lightcycle Run dropped its virtual queue, right as Extended Evening Hours ended at Magic Kingdom for the year. We haven’t had a chance to test strategy for TRON’s standby line during ExEH, but will very soon. Our expectation is that doing it at the very end of the evening is the best approach, but we’ll confirm and report back.
At Epcot, the strategy is a tad more difficult because there are only a handful of popular attractions, all of which command decently-long waits during Extended Evening Hours. Conversely, everything else is relatively unpopular and will be a walk-on, but that’s also true during most of the daytime operating hours. With that said, end your evening with Soarin’ Around the World, Test Track, Frozen Ever After, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
Ideally, you’ll jump into line for the Rat Ride about 5 minutes before the end of the night. The added benefit here is that you’ll be able to take a long, leisurely stroll out of World Showcase with no one else around. You might even be able to go the “long way” around to exit the park–assuming you’re not leaving through International Gateway.
Since Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind switched to standby, we haven’t had a chance to test ExEH strategy. Our expectation is that the optimal approach will be similar to After Hours at EPCOT, where doing it last will be best. This is in large part because the pre-shows are so long that Cosmic Rewind takes up a lot of time from start-to-finish. And demand is high, so pushing that wait until after ExEH has ended is ideal.
When DHS offers another Extended Evening Hours, our recommendation is starting with Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, followed by Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, and finishing with Slinky Dog Dash before jumping in line for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance right at the very end of the night.
Basically, the idea is starting with the lowest-demand attractions and finishing with highest. It remains to be seen whether Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance will participate in ExEH in Late 2025. It’s not on the official list, but it has been open on a hit or miss basis in the past. If it’s not participating, we’d recommend jumping in line for that shortly before official park closing.
Ultimately, that’s everything you need to know about Extended Evening Theme Park Hours at Walt Disney World. What you do earlier in the night doesn’t really matter, so long as you set aside sufficient time for the aforementioned headliners at the very end.
We will continue updating this strategy guide in the coming months as Extended Evening Hours continue to evolve, and as things “settle down” and find their groove. Stay tuned–we’ll continue to cover all of the important planning details and also share more Extended Evening Hours photo reports from our experiences with this new on-site hotel benefit!
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
Thoughts on Extended Evening Theme Park Hours at Walt Disney World? Excited to take advantage of the new on-site guest perk or think it’s too short to be useful? Disappointed about the eligibility rules or attraction lineups? 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!