Disney World to extend evening park hours — but only for guests at its most expensive hotels

Extended evening hours will be offered to Disney World guests starting Oct. 1. However, in a change from the old “Evening Extra Magic Hours” system, the perk will be limited to those staying at the priciest Disney hotels. 

In a post on the official Disney Parks Blog, Disney communications manager Avery Maehrer wrote that “guests staying at one of our Disney Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resort hotels will also be able to enjoy extended evening hours on select nights in select theme parks.”

That means the extra evening hours will be restricted to guests staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Beach Club, Boardwalk, Contemporary, Grand Floridian, Polynesian, Wilderness Lodge, and Yacht Club, those resorts’ associated Disney Vacation Club wings, and three DVC resorts: Old Key West, Riviera Resort, and Saratoga Springs.

Guests will need to have either a reservation for the park offering extended hours — the exact parks available will be announced later — or if they have a Park Hopper ticket, to have entered their reserved park earlier on the date. 

Disney typically has not offered extra in-park perks to deluxe resort guests in the past, but it’s not uncommon at other parks. Universal Orlando, for example, includes a skip-the-line Express pass for guests at its three most expensive on-site resorts. 

All Disney hotel guests (and those staying at select off-site hotels) will be able to take advantage of new early entry benefits. Also starting on Oct. 1, those guests can enter every Disney World theme park early on every day, rather than the previous “Extra Magic Hours” perk which was limited to one park per day. 

Disney had announced earlier this year that the early entry would begin 30 minutes prior to the opening for other guests. 

In one final newsworthy note, Mahrer’s blog post did mention the Disney Dining Plan, the prepaid meal package that hotel guests could buy for their trips that has been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mahrer said Disney is “not ready to share an update on timing,” but is planning on bringing back the program at some point.