Prolonged Night Hours returns to Hollywood Studios forward of Labor Day weekend at Walt Disney World, possible the beginning of switching away from Animal Kingdom for just a few months Fall 2025. This put up shares date(s), particulars, and technique for benefiting from the on-site perk for friends staying at higher-end inns.
As fundamental background, Prolonged Night Hours (ExEH) is nighttime counterpart to Early Theme Park Entry. There are a number of variations, most notably that friends staying at Worth or Reasonable Resorts should not eligible for Prolonged Night Hours. However it’s not simply the costliest resorts–you possibly can get monetary savings by renting DVC factors or staying on the Swolphin and nonetheless be eligible if you wish to hack ExEH.
Prolonged Night Theme Park Hours has two forms of resort eligibility, happens two nights per week, is at two parks, and runs for 2 hours. It’s normally Monday at EPCOT and Wednesday at Magic Kingdom. (See our Technique Information Information for Prolonged Night Hours at Walt Disney World for more information & ideas.) Nonetheless, the large change beginning subsequent month is that Prolonged Night Hours is shifting away from Magic Kingdom, for many of the the rest of 2025.
For individuals who haven’t been following this saga, it started with Walt Disney World making a number of calendar adjustments to put the groundwork for the potential debut date of Disney Starlight Night time Parade.
That occurred through shifting Fortunately Ever After later, blocking out Solid Members from Magic Kingdom, and shifting ExEH over to Animal Kingdom. Even earlier than that, the 3-Day, 3-Park Ticket Deal excluding Magic Kingdom is an effective instance of this forward-thinking crowd management effort. Ditto the new AP reservation rule.
Because it turned out, Starlight missed its goal date and all the adjustments from July 6-19 have been for nothing (presumably). A few of these operational adjustments could possibly be undone, however not the shifting of ExEH. In any case, Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away is formally debuting on July 20, 2025, with even extra operational adjustments hitting on that date.
Essentially the most controversial of these adjustments was Animal Kingdom internet hosting Prolonged Night Hours on the next dates:
- Wednesday, July 2, 2025
- Wednesday, July 9, 2025
- Wednesday, July 16, 2025
- Wednesday, July 23, 2025
- Wednesday, July 30, 2025
- Wednesday, August 6, 2025
- Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Prolonged Night Hours are usually extra widespread in the course of the summer season months, no matter decrease crowds, because of larger temperatures. Nonetheless, that’s additionally when friends get an additional two hours of late nights in Magic Kingdom or EPCOT. Animal Kingdom is presently scheduled to shut at 6 pm all through the summer season, and there’s no purpose to consider park hours can be prolonged. Which means that these ‘further hours’ will finish earlier than sundown.
Between this and Animal Kingdom not being practically as widespread as Magic Kingdom, the transfer to DAK has been controversial with friends. Our expectation is that Prolonged Night Hours at Animal Kingdom will see low attendance numbers.
Seemingly recognizing this, Walt Disney World added one final Prolonged Night Hours at Magic Kingdom to the calendar on Wednesday, August 13, 2025.
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion begins two days later, on Friday, August 15, 2025. Following that, there are three weekly MNSSHPs from the leap in August, which is exactly why Walt Disney World largely has averted such a scheduling throughout previous Occasion Seasons. That is doubly true this yr given the exaggerated impact that the opening of Starlight may have on attendance at Magic Kingdom throughout Occasion Season.
In case you’re questioning why Walt Disney World added one ExEH at MK to the calendar in mid-August at “random,” that’s a part of the reason. The opposite half is that the DAK dates have been added to the calendar earlier than Starlight’s inside delay, whereas this was after. All of it makes zero sense for those who’re all of those dates proper now, however there’s an inside course of and the evening parade’s opening hasn’t gone as anticipated.
In any case, we might not anticipate the additional hours to return to Magic Kingdom once more till the second week of January 2026. Possibly there’s one other week in early November once they can squeeze in a single final Prolonged Night Hours at Magic Kingdom this yr, however we doubt it.
This all brings us to the most recent improvement, which is that Walt Disney World has added Prolonged Night Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Friday, August 29, 2025.
That is an odd one. As you possibly can see from the above, the ExEH dates we’ve been discussing are all Wednesdays, the conventional Magic Kingdom evening. However it is a Friday. That occurs infrequently, particularly forward of vacation weekends. Final yr, it occurred forward of Columbus Day, which is generally an extremely widespread weekend because of Fall Break.
Labor Day is just not practically as busy, however there’s a Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion scheduled that Friday, so maybe Walt Disney World wished counterprogramming to that. There’s additionally the primary weekend of Meals & Wine at EPCOT. Truthfully, I don’t assume that’s the first clarification.
Extra possible is that Walt Disney World has acquired detrimental visitor suggestions about having Prolonged “Night” Hours from 6-8 pm at Animal Kingdom, and acknowledges this perk ending earlier than sundown on the least-busy park isn’t precisely an enormous promoting level that’ll enhance occupancy at Deluxe Resorts. That is possible why there’s the one-off return to Magic Kingdom in mid-August, which is in any other case a bit inexplicable.
The issue is that Disney’s Hollywood Studios can not host Prolonged Night Hours in July or August because of Disney After Hours, the paid occasion that’s much like Prolonged Night Hours. The final evening of After Hours at DHS for the yr is September 3, 2025. Which means that, beginning Wednesday, September 10, 2025, Disney’s Hollywood Studios can take over regular internet hosting duties of Prolonged Night Hours. (Whether or not DHS hosts ExEH on Friday, September 5, 2025 is a toss-up; I may see it going both means.)
Disney’s Hollywood Studios can host Prolonged Night Hours from September 10 by way of November 5, 2025, which is earlier than the anticipated begin of the Jollywood Nights Christmas Occasion. This has roughly been the cadence of earlier years, with ExEH switching from MK to DHS as soon as MNSSHP kicked into excessive gear, after which from DHS to DAK as soon as Jollywood Nights began. Be aware that this isn’t on the official calendar and is only speculative on our half primarily based on previous precedent. Simply because DHS “can” host ExEH doesn’t imply that’s what is going to occur. Don’t plan round this till Walt Disney World formally provides it to the calendar.
Truthfully, we wouldn’t be shocked if Disney’s Hollywood Studios continued internet hosting Prolonged Night Hours all through most of November and December 2025. It’s doable that they may swap round Jollywood Nights dates, though Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Occasion complicates that.
It’s loads for WDW’s schedulers to juggle, and we don’t anticipate ExEH at DHS all through the vacation season because the more than likely situation–only a believable chance. Disney’s Hollywood Studios alone doesn’t have any crowd points because of Jollywood Nights–it’s extra about counterprogramming to Magic Kingdom throughout Occasion Season, which has main points that’ll actually be exacerbated because of Starlight.
In any case, ExEH at DAK turns into extra fascinating in the course of the holidays by advantage of the sooner sundown alone–to not point out Christmas decorations and leisure. So I doubt the backlash could be as fierce as what we’ve seen to Animal Kingdom having internet hosting duties in the course of the hotter and earlier-sunset summer season months. That’s the largest challenge–that Prolonged Night Hours at Animal Kingdom received’t truly be at evening and won’t provide a reprieve from the warmth because of this.
Right here’s the eligible attraction roster for Prolonged Night Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios:
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster Starring Aerosmith
- Slinky Canine Sprint
- Star Excursions – The Adventures Proceed
- Toy Story Mania!
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
The conspicuous omission from that checklist is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which was a part of Prolonged Night Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios a few years in the past. It wasn’t final yr, so we presume this to be correct for 2025. (Particularly since MuppetVision 3D has been faraway from the checklist, indicating it was up to date comparatively not too long ago.)
When you have the possibility to attend Prolonged Night Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we extremely advocate it. I used to be in a position to attend a type of evenings two years in the past, and it was nice. We’d anticipate the identical to carry true for Prolonged Night Hours at DHS in Fall 2025, even with out Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
Actually, I’m presently debating easy methods to “deal with” Prolonged Night Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on August 29. My present plan is (was?) to attend a second Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion on that evening for the sake of analysis. However not a lot is altering at this yr’s MNSSHP, in order that appears like overkill. Plus, that’ll price cash and that is “free.” Additionally, I haven’t written-up step-by-step technique for ExEH at DHS shortly, in order that feels extra useful, even when there’s a restricted shelf life.
Tentatively, our suggestion for ExEH at DHS is beginning with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance a couple of minutes earlier than official park closing adopted by Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. After that, head the opposite path in the direction of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, adopted by Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster and Tower of Terror, earlier than doubling again and ending in Toy Story Land with Slinky Canine Sprint proper on the very finish of the evening. That’ll possible be the perfect technique and the one I’ll check if I find yourself doing ExEH at DHS.
In the end, we’re huge followers of Prolonged Night Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and hope that it’s provided extra from September to November and perhaps even December 2025. Frankly, DHS is my second-favorite park for Prolonged Night Hours after Magic Kingdom. It’s undoubtedly higher than Animal Kingdom, particularly if it’s occurring pre-sunset.
Then there’s EPCOT. Though few issues are as nice as a serene stroll by way of World Showcase after park closing, the ‘nation route’ is commonly closed off after a sure time and experience breakdowns could make EPCOT Prolonged Night Hours a lot much less productive. (I’ve had a few ExEHs “ruined” at EPCOT because of downtime.) With its extra compact format and top-heavy experience roster, we expect that Disney’s Hollywood Studios is significantly better suited to host Prolonged Night Hours.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Will you be benefiting from Prolonged Night Theme Park Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Fall 2025? Did you do that at DHS final yr when it was provided? Hoping Prolonged Night Hours keep at DHS from September by way of Christmas? Dissatisfied concerning the eligibility guidelines or attraction lineup excluding Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we might help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
