I am probably completely overplanning this but my question is are the park times being reported now completely set in stone? I had a specific order and day and reason for picking each park on the day I did. My initial intent was to go to Magic Kingdom on 8/14 because I anticipated that day to be the first Halloween party, I like those days because they are less crowded and with a 6 and 2 year old we don’t need the park to be open much later than 6. Our plan was to then take a day off on 8/15 then do EMM at MK on 8/16 and do the fireworks party at night. Now it was announced that the park will be open until 9 on 8/14 and close at 6 on 8/13, assuming that the first Halloween party will be on that Thursday. Its not possible for us to be at MK on 8/13 and my assumption is that 8/14 will go from being a 3 rated day to higher than that. I can move around our arrival/departure days to adjust the days we will be at MK for little cost, but my question is will these hours still be subject to movement or at this point it is what is? I don’t mind moving dates but would prefer not to if possible.
Disney has right to alter park hours at any given time. That being said they are fairly finalize i thought by 30/60 days out.
However, with DHS it may ebb/flow due to ROTR and runaway RR. Although, it does appear the are trying to NOT open 1 hour earlier like in Jan.
Times were changing even 2 weeks before our trip.
I can switch hotel at no cost and I could switch flights but it would cost me more miles and I would hate to switch so it lined up with current hours only to have them change later.
In general, opening and closing times change relatively often, almost always to extend hours. However, I would expect that as park hours are released for August though, that those with 6pm closes will be the party dates and are unlikely to change. Last year the party dates were announced 1/15, so I’m hoping the 2020 dates will be official soon.
I would wait until the party dates are released to make any final decisions. They have a 6pm closing time on sat the 15th as well. What is you did MK that day instead of taking the day off? You would still get the benefits of slightly lower crowds on a party date without changing flights? Not sure what the rest of stay looks like to know if it would be feasible.
This is accurate. The operations calendar is typically not “set in stone” until 12 days in advance. Even then in unique situations, like the popularity of RotR or a new ride opening, they can be amended up to 7 days in advance.
8/13/20 is the “unofficial”, but presumed date of the first MNSSHP for 2020. WDW should be making the official announcement anytime between now and before the end of March. In past years, they’ve announced it in February and March.
As others are saying, they can change hrs at any time. I go during Thanksgiving week and it’s a given that they will extend hrs long past what is listed at ADR time and often even FPP time. I was looking at typically about a 9 or 10 am opening for most parks and closures around 9 or 10 pm. MK ended up opening as early as 7, I think, maybe 8, and staying open until 1 am many of the days we were there. They extended hrs a lot a month out and then again a few days before.
Thank you for everyone’s input. Is it reasonable to think that on Thursday the crowd rating will go for a 5 to lower with the park closing at 6 and that on Friday the rating will go higher from a 3 with the park now open until 9?
This is most likely - since party days tend to be less busy as ppl think they aren’t getting their monies worth when a park closes early.
Be aware that these CLs are not definite until about 60 days out. (Really until about 45 - 30 days) Right now they are just using historical data for 2018 / 2019.
Also, sometimes that far in advance they are just using the historical data from that calendar date and not adjusted for the day of the week. This is even more true for Party / Event nights.
For example, if your trip starts on a Monday, that day was probably a Sat. or Sun. in 2019. So you might see a CL10 because this year that “date” was a weekend. When they update the calendar in 2020 they’ll adjust for that date being on Monday this time.
Basically, start making your plans and seeing what TP suggests is the best plan. However, know that your first draft of a “real” plan won’t be ready until after you get your FPP booked.