Park Hour Updates for October 2011 and April 2012
Walt Disney World has updated its park hours for October 2011 and April 2012. All changes will be available on the TouringPlans.com site shortly, but here are the details in case you have a trip planned, are looking to plan, or are just a Disney geek like me (if a date isn’t listed, then it has not changed):
October 2011
- Monday, October 3 – now closing at 10pm
- Saturday, October 8 – now closing at 12am with Main Street Electrical Parades at 8pm and 10pm
- Sunday, October 9 – now closing at 11pm with Main Street Electrical Parades at 8pm and 10pm
- Wednesday, October 12 – now closing at 10pm
- Friday, October 14 – now closing at 11pm with Main Street Electrical Parades at 8pm and 10pm
- Saturday, October 15 – now closing at 12am with Main Street Electrical Parades at 8pm and 10pm
- Saturday, October 22 – now closing at 1am with Main Street Electrical Parades at 8pm and 10pm
- Monday, October 24 – now closing at 10pm
- Saturday, October 29 – now closing at 11pm with Main Street Electrical Parades at 8pm and 10pm
- Sunday, October 2 – now closing at 9pm with Fantasmic! at 8pm and 9:30pm
- Saturday, October 8 – now closing at 9pm with Fantasmic! at 8pm and 9:30pm
- Sunday, October 9 – now closing at 9pm with Fantasmic! at 8pm and 9:30pm
- Monday, October 10 – now closing at 9pm with Fantasmic! at 8pm and 9:30pm
- Saturday, October 15 – now closing at 9pm with Fantasmic! at 7:30pm and 9pm
- Thursday, October 20 – now closing at 9pm with Fantasmic! at 7:30pm and 9pm
- Saturday, October 22 – now closing at 9pm with Fantasmic! at 7:30pm and 9pm
- Sunday, October 23 – now closing at 9pm with Fantasmic! at 7:30pm and 9pm
- Saturday, October 29 – now closing at 9pm with Fantasmic! at 7:30pm and 9pm
- Now closing at 6pm on the following days: October 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 29
- Now closing at 7pm on the following days: October 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 16, and 28
April 2012
(These are not all the changes–just the highlights. Please keep in mind that these will change as we get closer to April.)
Magic Kingdom – Opens at 8am the first week of April and will have morning Extra Magic Hours every day for the first two weeks. It is also closing no earlier than 10pm all month, with Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes every night.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios – Closing no earlier than 10pm with two Fantasmic! shows each night druing the first week of April.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom – Closing no earlier than 8pm during the first week of April.
The Crowd Calendar will soon be updated with new crowd level estimates based on these changes. Please keep in mind that Disney extends its park hours on days when the resort expects increased crowds, so do not be alarmed if any of our crowd level estimates increase.
Please continue to check TouringPlans.com for all the latest on Walt Disney World touring. Thanks!
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We have planned on the last week of April 2012 because of lower crowds. I have made sure to schedule the lowest crowd park day whenever possible, and never a park to avoid on any of our days. But I’m disheartened to see the overall resort levels go up two points out of ten most days we’re there! Do extra magic hours really mean that THAT many people decide to travel that week?
EMHs for Magic Kingdom for EVERY day of Easter week! Any Touring Plans tips for people who can’t take advantage of these (staying off-property) and now aren’t able to avoid them? That is, should we start with Dumbo & Pan, etc. or do we skip ahead a few steps?
Don’t worry too much Karen. With the park opening at 8am, that means the EMH will start at 7am, which is pretty darn early. If you arrive at 8, you will still be ahead of a lot of people.
I would recommend starting with the plan, but use common sense too. If you walk up to Dumbo and the wait is long (say 30 minutes) you may want to skip to the next step and try Dumbo again in the evening or during a parade.
I got updated crowd levels for March 27-APril 2, and they increased by a lot. I do not see longer park hours on the web sight, and the hotels are still available. How can you judge the crowds to be near 10 for each day.
The reason that the crowd levels are higher for that period is because it encompasses the very end of Spring Break season and the start of the Easter period. Even though the crowd levels went up, they are still not 10s for that week (mostly 7 and 8), which is very good since they are 10s the week before and after.
Our crowd estimates are not based solely from park hours, but also from historical wait times as well as recent patterns. Hotel availability is never considered since we are not privy to that information.
Rest assured that getting to the park at opening and following a touring plan will keep you several steps ahead of everyone else.
However, where do these park hours for April come from as they are not yet on Disney’s own site? Are you basing these on past years or do you have definite information that Disney haven’t released yet. Also a few of the crowd levels look a bit bizarre for this period. eg Sunday 1st April EP suddenly drops to 3.6 despite the fact that it is nowhere near that figure on the surrounding days and according to your info it is EMH that morning. Confused as to how that wodl lead ot a lower crowd level?
I wanted to mention that the WDW website doesn’t reflect the hours you show for DHS or the addition of a second Fantasmic! How do we know the information you posted here is correct? Thanks!
These new times and Fantasmic show additions are still not updated on this site, or Disney’s site. We are arriving a month from today and I’ve been waiting to finalize some info based on these new times. Not sure which times to rely on.
Note also that the OPENING times for Magic Kingdom have backed up to 8am on Oct 21,22,23.
Looks like they’re expecting a busy weekend… alas, the weekend I’m arriving.
Whoops, I missed that. Thanks for keeping me on my toes 🙂
That’s the weekend we are arriving also. Less than thrilled that HS is a 7.2 the day we are there. Can’t do anything about it now unless I forgo a much wanted dining res. Ah well, it is what it is and we’re still going to Disney, which is better than being at home!
Thanks Brian. With all the shuffling around of EMH for October, I figured I would doublecheck the opening times, but the Disney calender (http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/calendars) still shows all the old info too. I dug up what I think is the PDF for travel agents, and that shows morning EMH also changing, right?
Oh, actually I guess I’m just confusing myself 🙂 It seems that the EMH days didn’t actually change from before. Your update above is just about the base closing times, not incorporating EMH, right? (It threw me off that MK was suddenly closing at 1am on Oct 22, which sounded like an EMH closing time, but I guess it’s actually regular park closing.)
You correctly answered your own question Keith, thanks!
oh boo, was so hoping for all of April! We’re going after the Spring Break/ Easter rush…