Wednesday, March 27, 2024

EPCOT 2023 Park Hours, Early Entry & Prolonged Evenings: Information & Suggestions


EPCOT’s 2023 regular park hours are comparatively predictable, with a number of exceptions. This information covers not simply regular opening and shutting occasions, but in addition Early Entry, Prolonged Evenings, rope drop, completely different schedules, and extra. Plus, suggestions & methods for beating the crowds and avoiding occasions of day when attendance is highest.

The very first thing it’s good to know is that EPCOT park hours will likely be added to DisneyWorld.com’s 5-day calendar on a rolling foundation all through 2023, usually 60 days upfront. Walt Disney World additionally has a month-to-month calendar that isn’t as simple to search out, and this presently has hours launched a lot additional upfront.

Walt Disney World usually releases template or placeholder hours earlier than extending these based mostly on attendance and resort occupancy projections. For some time, the preliminary launch of park hours was nearly meaningless, as each single park and date would see extensions. That is less-pronounced of a follow now, and the hours which are launched are very often the ultimate hours. That is very true at EPCOT.

At current, there isn’t a single date on the 2023 calendars the place EPCOT’s park hours deviate. EPCOT is open from 9 am till 9 pm each day, which incorporates each the brand new neighborhoods on the entrance of the park that had been previously Future World and World Showcase. On some busy weekends and holidays, anticipate EPCOT to increase its closing time to 10 pm. Nevertheless, that has but to happen this 12 months.

Shifting ahead the opening time to eight or 8:30 am can be doable. That occurred throughout busy dates final Spring Break and through different peak durations. One factor not to anticipate is World Showcase to have a delayed opening time, because it did prior to now. Now that Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Journey are two of the most well-liked points of interest in EPCOT, it’s secure to imagine that World Showcase will proceed opening with the entrance of the park.

No matter whether or not hours are prolonged, it’s frequent for Harmonious or EPCOT Eternally to start at park closing time. Which means 9 pm on evenings when the park closes then. These two nighttime spectaculars every final about 20 minutes, after which there’s a mass exodus from EPCOT.

Whereas Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios even have enormous crowds leaving after the fireworks and Fantasmic, that is normally extra pronounced at EPCOT. There’s one nighttime spectacular and after it ends, the park is closed. (Magic Kingdom now normally has a niche between the tip of its fireworks and park closing time, however when it doesn’t, the identical downside is much more pronounced there.)

The excellent news is you could keep away from this crushing crowd just by lingering. One of many causes we advocate places deep in World Showcase in our EPCOT Fireworks Viewing Information isn’t just for seeing the present from the perfect angle, but in addition as a result of that places you in an incredible spot to do a sluggish stroll out.

Even should you take your time leaving, you’ll discover a continued regular stream of company. That is largely as a result of it’s extremely frequent for desk service eating places in World Showcase to supply Advance Eating Reservations proper up till park closing at EPCOT. This implies you will discover ADRs till about 8:50 pm on nights when the park closes at 9 pm. Every of those meals take about an hour, so company eating at these eating places are leaving over a full hour after parking closing.

In the event you’re fearful about transportation again to your resort, don’t. Formally, transportation to the theme parks begins roughly 2 hours previous to park opening time and runs till roughly 1 hour after the parks shut. That is the information you’ll discover on Walt Disney World’s web site, and what Solid Members will let you know.

It’s true that the Skyliner and boats open and shut in accordance with their posted schedules on the pertinent lodges and EPCOT. So the Skyliner truly does shut at no matter time indicated on the signage exterior the park. Nevertheless, that’s not true of all transportation.

Unofficially, transportation after park closing continues so long as persons are contained in the park. Typically it’s nearer to 2 hours after the parks shut when transportation ends. Solid Members are methodical about clearing the parks and radio to bus drivers to verify they stick round till the entire stragglers are accounted for.

EPCOT is normally the park that takes the longest to clear. This is because of its mixture of its sprawling dimension and longer meal providers, particularly when Monsieur Paul and Takumi-Tei are seating company later. There’s additionally the truth that EPCOT is the “consuming park” and it may well take inebriated company longer to make their means in the direction of the exit.

Now we have left Walt Disney World theme parks lengthy after park closing many, many occasions and have by no means had a difficulty. If something, delaying departure so long as doable is the perfect plan of action. You get to take pleasure in park closing serenity and usually tend to have a bus all to your self!

One caveat right here is for these staying within the Skyliner or Crescent Lake Resorts–should you linger too late on the entrance of the park, you won’t be able to exit out of Worldwide Gateway in World Showcase. As an alternative, you’ll be herded in the direction of the bus stops on the entrance, and must take a bus–even to the lodges inside strolling distance of World Showcase. (We’ve additionally had this occur to us quite a lot of occasions!)

Now let’s flip to the expanded EPCOT park hours for company of on-site lodges. These are Early Entry and Prolonged Night Hours, which have changed Further Magic Hours within the morning and at evening. In the event you’re unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the morning possibility, be taught extra in our Information to Early Entry at Walt Disney World.

Early Entry is fairly helpful at EPCOT, particularly should you’re coming from Crescent Lake or the Skyliner and thus getting into through Worldwide Gateway. In the event you in the direction of the entrance of the pack and transfer rapidly, this usually means that you can knock out Remy’s Ratatouille Journey and Frozen Ever After earlier than the EPCOT formally opens. We choose this over utilizing Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at EPCOT. (See Early Entry v. Genie+ at EPCOT for a full runthrough of how a lot you possibly can accomplish.)

Prolonged Night Hours are usually held at EPCOT on Mondays. This 2-hour providing for choose on-site resort company is vastly advantageous, and is a pleasant option to do EPCOT. (See our Information to Prolonged Night Hours at Walt Disney World for extra about eligibility and technique.)

The decrease experience depend and extra apparent prime priorities means wait occasions for the EPCOT headliners don’t fall as dramatically as these at Magic Kingdom. On prime of that, if even one experience is down, it may well throw an actual monkey wrench into issues. See our Prolonged Night Hours at EPCOT Technique & Report for a have a look at what we achieved throughout considered one of these nights. In contrast to Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, EPCOT doesn’t supply the ‘After Hours’ upcharge occasion.

With the ‘particular hours’ out of the way in which, let’s flip again to a standard day at EPCOT. The very first thing it’s good to do is be up at 7 am (severely) for the perfect likelihood of experiencing Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, the most recent blockbuster attraction at Walt Disney World. This makes use of a digital queue, which will be entered at 7 am or 1 pm.

It’s not so simple as it would sound. See The best way to Journey Guardians of Galaxy Cosmic Rewind & Digital Queue Technique for suggestions & methods to enhance your odds of scoring a spot within the digital queue.

Arriving for normal rope drop (official park opening time) at EPCOT is just not the tip of the world. You’ll nonetheless have success and have the ability to save time at each attraction besides Remy’s Ratatouille Journey–so save that for both mid-morning or the tip of the evening. (See our Journey Information to Remy’s Ratatouille Journey for the perfect occasions to beat the lengthy traces there.)

Most company enter EPCOT by means of the entrance entrance and do that portion of the park first. As such, the entrance of EPCOT empties out within the night hours, as a result of company eat and drink across the World Showcase, and safe spots for the nighttime spectacular. Hitting front-of-park points of interest throughout the previous couple of hours of the day is usually a easy transfer, particularly because it’s not crucial that you just get a entrance row view for Harmonious.

It’s additionally price noting that not all points of interest begin working at park opening time. Probably the most notable examples are movies in World Showcase and meet & greets. Then there’s Impressions de France, which is way and away the perfect movie in EPCOT. This solely is proven from 6:30 pm to eight:45 pm–that is basically a ‘secret’ aimed toward subtle audiences within the night hours.

There are additionally World Showcase leisure acts that carry out in accordance with schedules, with the majority of performances occurring throughout the center of the day. These add great ambiance to EPCOT and are price watching. Relatively than actively looking for them out, we advocate stumbling upon this leisure whereas perusing World Showcase at your leisure.

One other quirk to the working hours at EPCOT is pageant season. This now encompasses many of the 12 months, save for a handful of weeks in between the tip of every occasion and begin of the following one. There are a variety of scheduling quirks for these festivals, however the huge factor to know is that the meals cubicles round World Showcase and elsewhere are open from 11 am till park closing.

As for the calendar of those occasions, the cycle begins with the EPCOT Worldwide Competition of the Arts, which normally runs from mid-January till late February. The EPCOT Flower & Backyard Competition follows, working from early March till early July. The flagship occasion, EPCOT’s Worldwide Meals & Wine Competition, goes from mid-July till the weekend earlier than Thanksgiving. Lastly, the EPCOT Competition of the Holidays begins a few week after that ends and continues by means of December 30.

In relation to the interaction of park technique & hours, an alternative choice is Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at EPCOT. This may be very helpful for doing Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Journey, Take a look at Monitor, and Soarin’ Across the World–particularly should you don’t have entry to Early Entry or Prolonged Night Hours. The large draw back to Genie+ at EPCOT is backtracking–it’s an enormous park and these 4 headliners are scattered across the park. You’ll possible find yourself strolling extra if utilizing Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.

To that time, for EPCOT technique & planning perception see the next posts:

Finally, that ought to cowl what it’s good to find out about park hours at EPCOT. Now it must also be clear why there’s loads to know past simply the fundamentals that EPCOT presently retains park hours of 9 am to 9 pm. Many regular company will see that, present up between 9 am and 10 am, do the park front-to-back, and encounter lengthy traces consequently.

EPCOT is the right park for going in opposition to the grain, zigging once they zag. In the event you’re in a position to benefit from Early Entry, that offers you an amazing benefit. Ditto should you begin in World Showcase or are prepared to bounce round to benefit from crowd move dynamics at EPCOT. That is Walt Disney World’s huge “native’s park” and will be extremely congested consequently, however you possibly can usually keep away from the crowds with a little bit of planning and environment friendly touring technique.

Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Find out about lodges on our Walt Disney World Accommodations Evaluations web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Evaluations. To save cash on tickets or decide which sort to purchase, learn our Suggestions for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets submit. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys submit takes a novel have a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Journey Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the perfect place to begin is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for every thing it’s good to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you consider regular park hours in 2023 at EPCOT? Desire to reach very first thing for Early Entry, later within the morning, afternoon, or night? How do you benefit from the group dynamics at EPCOT to keep away from lengthy traces? Do you agree or disagree with something in our information to park hours at EPCOT? Any questions we may help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!



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