Disney’s (Extra) Extra Magic Hours vs. After Hours

There are a lot of different types of hours at Disney World these days. And I’m not referring to the ones you spend waiting in lines. For the last several years, the company has offered Extra Magic Hours to Disney resort guests. More recently, Disney started promoting After Hours events. Coming soon, guests can also take advantage of Extra Extra Magic Hours. Today’s post takes a look at all three “hours” and how they could effect your trip to Disney World.

Let’s start with the classic.

Extra Magic Hours

Disney’s Extra Magic Hours are additional hours within the parks reserved for select guests of Disney World resorts. Morning Extra Magic Hours occur an hour before official park opening. Evening Extra Magic Hours take place (you guessed it!) one to three hours after park closing. Disney discerns who is permitted to enter early or stay late by looking at guests’ resort reservations via Magic Band (or card). The advantage, at least in theory, is that fewer people will be in the parks during Extra Magic Hours, so guests can enjoy more attractions with shorter wait times.

Although the Extra Magic Hours have traditionally been a great perk for Disney resort guests, their value has decreased recently. For starters, Disney now offers fewer hours per week. On previous trips we’ve had our pick of ten+ Extra Magic Hours throughout the parks in a typical week. More recently, those numbers have dipped closer to just five or six hours. They’ve also moved quite a bit from Evening Magic Hours to mostly Morning ones.

Another reason the value of the Extra Magic Hours has lessoned is the number of guests taking advantage of them. Last year Disney extended the benefit to guests staying at Disney Springs resorts or other non-Disney resorts (Four Seasons, Waldorf Astoria, Hilton Bonnet Creek) at least until the end of this year. Add in all of the extra hotel rooms currently under construction at Disney and the number of people using this “perk” increases even more.

So why did Disney change the number of hours?

That’s a great transition to our second type of hours.

After Hours

Disney After Hours is a new(ish) ticketed event available on select nights in Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. For a separate fee (typically around $125 per person) guests enjoy three additional hours in the theme parks after the gates officially close. The hours vary slightly by park, but tend to run from 10PM to 1AM each evening. Disney Vacation Club Members or Annual Pass holders get a slight discount ($95 per person).

Disney limits the number of tickets sold for each event, so the benefit of After Hours is the opportunity to explore the parks with significantly reduced crowds. Not all of the attractions are open, but popular ones like those within Pandora at Animal Kingdom or Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios are. Similar to Mickey’s-Not-So-Scary-Halloween-Party or Mickey’s-Very-Merry-Christmas-Party, guests with After Hours tickets enjoy light snacks and can enter the parks a few hours before the event officially begins. By arriving at 7PM, these guests extend the true number of hours available within the park from three to six.

Tickets for the next round of After Hours events at Disney World go on sale May 30. There are 23 events total in the three parks during the months of July, August and September. You can read more about them here.

On the plus side, After Hours are great for night owls that can’t or won’t tolerate larger crowds during the day. They are also helpful to guests with a limited amount of time to explore the parks. On the down side, it means Disney is now charging for late night events instead of including them in the traditional Evening Magic Hours referenced above. They’re also a bit pricey. If you want to stay all day at a park and then add the After Hours event too, you’re looking at $225+ per person ($100 for standard admission + $125 for After Hours event ticket).

This brings us to our final type of hours.

Extra Extra Magic Hours

Last month, Disney announced intentions to offer Extra Extra Magic Hours this fall. Extra Extra Magic Hours are similar to Extra Magic Hours, except you may need caffeine to use them.

From September 1 through November 2 this year, Disney will offer Extra Extra Magic Hours EVERY MORNING at Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. The Extra Extra Magic Hours take place from 7AM to 8AM at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom daily. The perk at Hollywood Studios runs from 6AM (!!!) to 9AM. Hollywood Studios gets more time because Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is scheduled to be open by this time frame.

So if you’re willing to get up at the crack of dawn (or earlier?!?) you can take advantage of additional hours within the parks. In some ways it counters the trend of reducing Extra Magic Hours overall, but it definitely favors the early birds.

Closing Thoughts 

So there you have it, three different types of hours at Disney World. Extra Magic Hours and Extra Extra Magic Hours refer to additional time within the parks for Disney resort guests. After Hours are late-night paid events that allow smaller groups of guests to enjoy attractions with less wait times.

After Hours, coincidentally, also refers to the time frame in which I’ll be writing future posts since today is the last day of school.

Back on topic, what does this mean for your future Disney World trip?

Well, it definitely represents a shift from the “free” Evening Extra Magic Hours to Morning ones. When Disney opened Pandora in May 2017 the company offered Evening Extra Magic Hours every day from 11PM to 1AM. This year, with the upcoming Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opening, Disney will offer morning hours instead.

The company has tested both Early Morning and Late Evening paid events over the last few years. Perhaps they found more people willing to pay extra for the evening ones?

The move also follows the trend of reducing evening hours at Magic Kingdom over the last several years. Including the new After Hours events to the existing Halloween parties already scheduled for Magic Kingdom this fall, there are now paid evening events on 23 of 46 days between August 16 and September 30. Even with my less than stellar math skills, I can figure out that is a staggering 50% of the time.

In other words, it’s getting harder to find a day on the calendar that you can spend an entire day at Magic Kingdom without needing two tickets (one general admission and one evening event). If that’s important to you, you really need to check and double-check the schedule before planning your trip to Magic Kingdom.

Still there are some positive notes to the changes. For one, it allows guests that really want to avoid crowds to have an option for doing so. Secondly, After Hours is also a great option if you only have a night or two to check out what’s new in the parks.

Finally, at least in terms of Hollywood Studios, the change gives resort guests better odds for experiencing Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge this fall. Disney has been very careful to state that Hollywood Studios may reach capacity once Star Wars opens. On days that that happens, new guests won’t be permitted to enter the park until other guests leave. By permitting Disney resort guests the option to enter Hollywood at 6AM it gives them a distinct advantage. On extremely busy days it’s conceivable that the park could hit capacity BEFORE it’s officially even open at 9AM.

Crazy, I know, but that’s true of so many Disney World planning details these days.

Overall, please note that none of these hours will make or break your trip to Disney World. My intention for the post was to explain how they work and help you understand how or if they should effect your trip. Whether or not you use them is totally up to you. You’ll have fun either way!

Add a little magic to your world!