Extended Evening Hours returns to Hollywood Studios ahead of Labor Day weekend at Walt Disney World, likely the start of switching away from Animal Kingdom for a few months Fall 2025. This post shares date(s), details, and strategy for taking advantage of the on-site perk for guests staying at higher-end hotels.
As basic background, Extended Evening Hours (ExEH) is nighttime counterpart to Early Theme Park Entry. There are several differences, most notably that guests staying at Value or Moderate Resorts are not eligible for Extended Evening Hours. But it’s not just the most expensive resorts–you can save money by renting DVC points or staying at the Swolphin and still be eligible if you want to hack ExEH.
Extended Evening Theme Park Hours has two types of resort eligibility, occurs two nights per week, is at two parks, and runs for two hours. It’s usually Monday at EPCOT and Wednesday at Magic Kingdom. (See our Strategy Guide Guide for Extended Evening Hours at Walt Disney World for more info & tips.) However, the big change starting next month is that Extended Evening Hours is moving away from Magic Kingdom, for most of the remainder of 2025.
For those who haven’t been following this saga, it began with Walt Disney World making several calendar changes to lay the groundwork for the potential debut date of Disney Starlight Night Parade.
That happened via shifting Happily Ever After later, blocking out Cast Members from Magic Kingdom, and moving ExEH over to Animal Kingdom. Even before that, the 3-Day, 3-Park Ticket Deal excluding Magic Kingdom is a good example of this forward-thinking crowd control effort. Ditto the new AP reservation rule.
As it turned out, Starlight missed its target date and all of the changes from July 6-19 were for nothing (presumably). Some of those operational changes could be undone, but not the moving of ExEH. In any case, Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away is officially debuting on July 20, 2025, with even more operational changes hitting on that date.
The most controversial of those changes was Animal Kingdom hosting Extended Evening Hours on the following 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
Extended Evening Hours are normally more popular during the summer months, regardless of lower crowds, due to higher temperatures. However, that’s also when guests get an extra two hours of late nights in Magic Kingdom or EPCOT. Animal Kingdom is presently scheduled to close at 6 pm throughout the summer, and there’s no reason to believe park hours will be extended. Meaning that these ‘extra hours’ will end before sunset.
Between this and Animal Kingdom not being nearly as popular as Magic Kingdom, the move to DAK has been controversial with guests. Our expectation is that Extended Evening Hours at Animal Kingdom will see low attendance numbers.
Likely recognizing this, Walt Disney World added one last Extended Evening Hours at Magic Kingdom to the calendar on Wednesday, August 13, 2025.
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party starts two days later, on Friday, August 15, 2025. Following that, there are three weekly MNSSHPs from the jump in August, which is precisely why Walt Disney World largely has avoided this type of scheduling during past Party Seasons. This is doubly true this year given the exaggerated effect that the opening of Starlight will have on attendance at Magic Kingdom during Party Season.
If you’re wondering why Walt Disney World added one ExEH at MK to the calendar in mid-August at “random,” that’s part of the explanation. The other half is that the DAK dates were added to the calendar before Starlight’s internal delay, whereas this was after. It all makes zero sense if you’re looking at all of these dates right now, but there’s an internal process and the night parade’s opening hasn’t gone as anticipated.
In any case, we would not expect the extra hours to return to Magic Kingdom again until the second week of January 2026. Maybe there’s another week in early November when they can squeeze in one last Extended Evening Hours at Magic Kingdom this year, but we doubt it.
This all brings us to the latest development, which is that Walt Disney World has added Extended Evening Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Friday, August 29, 2025.
This is an odd one. As you can see from the above, the ExEH dates we’ve been discussing are all Wednesdays, the normal Magic Kingdom night. But this is a Friday. That happens from time to time, especially ahead of holiday weekends. Last year, it occurred ahead of Columbus Day, which is normally an incredibly popular weekend due to Fall Break.
Labor Day is not nearly as busy, but there is a Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party scheduled that Friday, so perhaps Walt Disney World wanted counterprogramming to that. There’s also the first weekend of Food & Wine at EPCOT. Honestly, I don’t think that’s the primary explanation.
More likely is that Walt Disney World has received negative guest feedback about having Extended “Evening” Hours from 6-8 pm at Animal Kingdom, and recognizes this perk ending before sunset at the least-busy park isn’t exactly a huge selling point that’ll boost occupancy at Deluxe Resorts. This is likely why there’s the one-off return to Magic Kingdom in mid-August, which is otherwise a bit inexplicable.
The problem is that Disney’s Hollywood Studios cannot host Extended Evening Hours in July or August due to Disney After Hours, the paid event that’s similar to Extended Evening Hours. The last night of After Hours at DHS for the year is September 3, 2025. This means that, starting Wednesday, September 10, 2025, Disney’s Hollywood Studios can take over normal hosting duties of Extended Evening Hours. (Whether DHS hosts ExEH on Friday, September 5, 2025 is a toss-up; I could see it going either way.)
Disney’s Hollywood Studios can host Extended Evening Hours from September 10 through November 5, 2025, which is before the anticipated start of the Jollywood Nights Christmas Party. This has more or less been the cadence of previous years, with ExEH switching from MK to DHS once MNSSHP kicked into high gear, and then from DHS to DAK once Jollywood Nights started. Note that this is not on the official calendar and is purely speculative on our part based on past precedent. Just because DHS “can” host ExEH doesn’t mean that’s what will happen. Don’t plan around this until Walt Disney World officially adds it to the calendar.
Honestly, we wouldn’t be surprised if Disney’s Hollywood Studios continued hosting Extended Evening Hours throughout most of November and December 2025. It’s possible that they could switch around Jollywood Nights dates, although Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party complicates that.
It’s a lot for WDW’s schedulers to juggle, and we do not expect ExEH at DHS throughout the holiday season as the most likely scenario–just a plausible possibility. Disney’s Hollywood Studios alone doesn’t have any crowd issues due to Jollywood Nights–it’s more about counterprogramming to Magic Kingdom during Party Season, which has major issues that’ll certainly be exacerbated due to Starlight.
In any case, ExEH at DAK becomes more desirable during the holidays by virtue of the earlier sunset alone–not to mention Christmas decorations and entertainment. So I doubt the backlash would be as fierce as what we’ve seen to Animal Kingdom having hosting duties during the hotter and earlier-sunset summer months. That’s the biggest issue–that Extended Evening Hours at Animal Kingdom won’t actually be at night and will not offer a reprieve from the heat as a result.
Here’s the eligible attraction roster for Extended Evening Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios:
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
- Toy Story Mania!
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
The conspicuous omission from that list is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which was part of Extended Evening Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios a couple of years ago. It wasn’t last year, so we presume this to be accurate for 2025. (Especially since MuppetVision 3D has been removed from the list, indicating it was updated relatively recently.)
If you have the chance to attend Extended Evening Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we highly recommend it. I was able to attend one of those evenings two years ago, and it was great. We’d expect the same to hold true for Extended Evening Hours at DHS in Fall 2025, even without Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
In fact, I’m currently debating how to “handle” Extended Evening Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on August 29. My current plan is (was?) to attend a second Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party on that night for the sake of research. But not much is changing at this year’s MNSSHP, so that feels like overkill. Plus, that’ll cost money and this is “free.” Also, I haven’t written-up step-by-step strategy for ExEH at DHS in a while, so that feels more valuable, even if there’s a limited shelf life.
Tentatively, our recommendation for ExEH at DHS is starting with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance a few minutes before official park closing followed by Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. After that, head the other direction towards Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, followed by Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, before doubling back and finishing in Toy Story Land with Slinky Dog Dash right at the very end of the night. That’ll likely be the best strategy and the one I’ll test if I end up doing ExEH at DHS.
Ultimately, we’re big fans of Extended Evening Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and hope that it’s offered more from September to November and maybe even December 2025. Frankly, DHS is my second-favorite park for Extended Evening Hours after Magic Kingdom. It’s definitely better than Animal Kingdom, especially if it’s happening pre-sunset.
Then there’s EPCOT. Although few things are as pleasant as a serene stroll through World Showcase after park closing, the ‘country route’ is often closed off after a certain time and ride breakdowns can make EPCOT Extended Evening Hours much less productive. (I’ve had a couple of ExEHs “ruined” at EPCOT due to downtime.) With its more compact layout and top-heavy ride roster, we think that Disney’s Hollywood Studios is much better suited to host Extended Evening Hours.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Will you be taking advantage of Extended Evening Theme Park Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Fall 2025? Did you do this at DHS last year when it was offered? Hoping Extended Evening Hours stay at DHS from September through Christmas? Disappointed about the eligibility rules or attraction lineup excluding Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
