After transferring over to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios for a lot of the summer time and all of Social gathering Season, Prolonged Night Hours is lastly returning to Magic Kingdom in 2026. Listed here are the main points, plus Walt Disney World crowds commentary, when & why ExEH may return to DHS and DAK sooner than regular, and extra.
Prolonged Night Theme Park Hours 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 most costly resorts–you possibly can lower your expenses by renting DVC factors or staying on the Swolphin–these are each nice methods to hack ExEH and benefit from the perk and a nicer resort for a lower cost.
Prolonged Night Theme Park Hours has two tiers of resort eligibility, happens two nights per week, is at two parks, and runs for 2 hours. It’s often Monday at EPCOT and Wednesday at Magic Kingdom. See our Technique Information Information for Prolonged Night Hours at Walt Disney World for extra ins and outs of the nighttime Deluxe profit.
As at all times, Magic Kingdom stops internet hosting Prolonged Night Hours when Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Social gathering and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Social gathering kick into excessive gear. That’s why there are not any ExEH dates at Magic Kingdom for the rest of 2025, and haven’t been for some time.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios has been internet hosting Prolonged Night Hours on Wednesdays by way of the top of October, with Animal Kingdom taking on beginning on November 5, 2025. That is as a result of Jollywood Nights Christmas Social gathering. From then till early 2026, Animal Kingdom will host the second Prolonged Night Hours of the week.
This has kind of 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. Though Prolonged Night Hours isn’t as fascinating at DAK, not less than it happens solely at evening in November and December as a result of earlier sundown time.
All the above is how the Prolonged Night Hours scheduling performs out in a standard yr. So in case you’re planning forward for Fall 2026, you possibly can anticipate Disney’s Hollywood Studios to once more take over Prolonged Night Hours internet hosting duties from Magic Kingdom once more then. The date just isn’t but sure, however our greatest guess is that it’ll occur on September 16, 2026.
This yr, that changeover occurred a lot earlier. 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 debut of Disney Starlight Night time Parade method again in July.
For the needs of this publish, probably the most notable of which was transferring ExEH over to Animal Kingdom beginning within the second half of summer time. There really may be a repeat of that in Summer time 2026; all of it is dependent upon Disney Starlight Night time Parade scheduling and whether or not Walt Disney World is snug with just one efficiency on Wednesdays. Our guess is that they are going to be–however we’re getting forward of ourselves.
Right this moment’s large information is that Prolonged Night Hours returns to Magic Kingdom beginning Wednesday, January 7, 2026 from 9 pm till 11 pm. (It’s doable park hours extensions push that again to 10 pm to midnight.) That is as far out because the calendar presently goes, so we don’t know whether or not this pattern continues on subsequent Wednesdays this winter.
It often does. It’s our expectation that Magic Kingdom continues to host Prolonged Night Hours each Wednesday by way of not less than early March, and most weeks by way of the primary half of 2026. Nevertheless, we do anticipate extra scheduling adjustments in 2026 than this yr resulting from Disney Starlight Night time Parade, particularly as soon as Daylight Saving Time begins. That occurs forward of Spring Break season, and it’ll be difficult to run the evening parade twice resulting from sundown occasions. On slower dates, that’s in all probability not a problem–however throughout the peak season, it is perhaps.
In consequence, don’t be stunned if Prolonged Night Hours strikes over to Animal Kingdom on Wednesdays for a wide range of peak season dates all through 2026. It in all probability gained’t transfer over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios as a result of that park hosts After Hours most Wednesdays by way of early September 2026.
Once more, nothing after January 7, 2026 is on the official calendar. The remaining is solely speculative on our half, so don’t plan round any of this till Walt Disney World formally provides it to the calendar.
It’s solely doable that Walt Disney World gained’t be too involved about two nightly performances of Starlight each single evening of the week in 2026. The parade gained’t be brand-new then, and even proper now when it is new, there are a number of days all through the subsequent three months when Starlight isn’t proven, interval.
We’re simply bringing this to your consideration early so that you don’t get caught off-guard if/when Walt Disney World switches issues up and provides Prolonged Night Hours to the Wednesday schedule. A whole lot of followers had been very upset about this surprising change over the summer time and early fall this yr. And understandably so–we left Animal Kingdom on the finish of Prolonged “Night” Hours in July…and it was nonetheless broad daylight out!
We’re enormous followers of Prolonged Night Hours, significantly at Magic Kingdom and particularly within the winter. When there’s chillier climate, the crowds are inclined to filter out, making ExEH much more advantageous. That is doubly true with winter getting busier with every passing yr. Prolonged Night Hours has been the one dependable method (knock on wooden) to knock out a ton of points of interest with comparatively quick waits.
Prolonged Night Hours is notably much less busy throughout the winter months than it’s throughout the summer time, regardless of decrease total crowd ranges in the summertime months. As with decrease demand in winter resulting from climate, the identical is true in summer time; excessive warmth and humidity leads to extra friends in search of out Prolonged Night Hours for extra nice circumstances. Simply one thing to bear in mind in case you’ve beforehand executed ExEH in the summertime, thought it was too crowded, and are considering of skipping the additional hours in winter.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Study accommodations on our Walt Disney World Lodges Opinions web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Opinions. To economize on tickets or decide which sort to purchase, learn our Suggestions for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets publish. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys publish takes a novel take a look at intelligent gadgets to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Journey Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, one of the best place to start out is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for every thing you might want to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Will you be benefiting from Prolonged Night Theme Park Hours at Magic Kingdom in 2026? Hope that MK continues to host ExEH in March 2026 and past? Or do you view this from the ‘better good’ perspective, not wanting a discount in Starlight showtimes? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we may help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!