The Cast Member Celebration events that were postponed earlier have been rescheduled for MK on May 3rd and May 15th. These are for CMs with milestone service anniversaries in 2020 and 2021 respectively.
No closing times published yet but expected to be 4:30pm both days.
Thanks and yes that was my planned park that Sunday. Now I’ll just plan a nice dinner that night or hop to Epcot maybe. Thanks for the heads up!
Just moved one of my MK days to May 15th and hoping for lighter crowds 
This is probably an excellent move.
Yes lighter crowds then a nice dinner!
I’m in the process of switching up my plans for my trip 4/30 to 5/4 as well due to this event.
My original plan was MK on 4/30 and 5/4 but it seems that some of these surprise crowd level 10 Magic Kingdom days coincided with the days before and after the early closures for cast member appreciation which I get. People with limited time wouldn’t select that park knowing it closes early. However, do we think people may start catching on to how slow that day will be?
I know there are no slow times like years past but we targeted these days because they were after the spring break thinking we would catch a break. I was prepared for moderate crowds.
We only have 5 park days and were planning to use Genie + and ILL but without hoppers since we don’t take advantage of them near enough to make it worth it but now I feel that I need to which adds another $500 to our trip.
Updated itinerary
4/30 - MK
5/1 - Epcot
5/2 - AK hop to Hollywood Studios
5/3 - MK hop to Hollywood Studios
5/4 - Hollywood Studios - half party needs to leave park by 4 to get to airport.
I don’t mean to sound selfish because what Disney does with these special nights for cast members is great. I am pretty bummed though. Kept me up Friday night when I first read about it. I was hoping it was a rumor. As a planner I had a perfect itinerary laid out for our group and now we are facing crowd level 10’s and I was trying to avoid Hollywood Studios on May 4. It wasn’t open in 2019 so nothing really to compare it to and I’m concerned it might be very busy. We just booked all of our flights and solidified everything on Friday morning too.
I’d switch some things further but my parents are coming and their dog that isn’t well so they are splitting up their time so they both get some precious Disney time with their grandson. My dad is big into Star Wars and wants to ride ROTR since last time we were there in 2019 it wasn’t open and my mom doesn’t want to miss Epcot. My dad is flying in morning of AK and my mom flying out that afternoon so I can’t really move too much around.
There’s part of me that would want to push this trip out again but knowing what I know about everyone’s upcoming obligations we would be looking at pushing back another year and I don’t want to do that.
I’m sorry for the venting and hijacking of your post. It’s just frustrating how Disney trained us all to plan which they were successful out and now they have gone and flipped everything upside down.
*I will concede Covid has contributed to some of this upside down
Same! 
I have MK on 5/14, the day before the 5/15 event—seems like chances are good that it will be slammed? Considering the following factors for our trip, would you move MK to 5/15 even with closing at 4:30? We could also switch it to the day after (Monday 5/16) but will that also have the crowd bump?
I would keep it on the 15th, especially if you have a 2nd day there and don’t plan to close out the park anyway.
Similar question. Our original 3-day plan was:
Mon 5/2 - MK
Tues 5/3 - Hollywood (Early closing MK)
Wed 5/4 - MK (May the Fourth - AVOIDING Hollywood)
I could swap Mon and Tues if it would be a better combination of crowds. But right now, Touring Plans suggests that swapping would be worse:
Tuesday at Hollywood is listed as 4/10. Whereas Monday at Hollywood is listed as 7/10
Monday at MK is listed as 6/10. Whereas Tuesday at MK is listed as 7/10 despite early closing.
The early closing wouldn’t bother me as we would be done around 5:30 at the latest anyways, and still have an extra MK day on Wed. But I don’t want to change my reservation unless I know it would be an improvement as far as crowds are concerned.
Thoughts?
Wondering the same thing. Our schedule is the same as yours except Epcot on the 4th. Contemplating moving MK to the 3rd (we’d also wouldn’t stay later if it was not closing early). I’m not sure the crowd calendars have this factored in.
Does anyone have anecdotal feedback on previous early closure days?
Crowd calendars are now updated to reflect the early closing, and are matching everything I’ve seen anecdotally about very low crowds for MK early closings.
Updated Crowd Calendar for Magic Kingdom:
Monday: 10/10
Tuesday: 2/10
Wednesday: 10/10
Good news is I’d say we have our answer and can make a more informed decision. Bad news is I think this thwarts my plan of doing 2 days at MK.
Well, that explains why suddenly my quiet evening introducing MK to DD6 is now going to be a 10/10 mob.
Wow! The crowd calendar has spoken! Definitely solidifies the plan to switch. Glad this came out before I made my ADRs next week. This shakes up our plan big time. We were also going to
Try to do MK fireworks on the 3rd. Looks like we will start at HS on 5/2, MK 5/3 and Epcot 5/4. Will need to push MK fireworks back later in the week which will require a swap with our plan for Epcot fireworks on Friday or Sat. Back to the drawing board it is! Thank you for the updated info!
Yeah… shakes up our plan too. Was going to do two days at MK. Now I’ll probably be with you at HS 5/2 and MK 5/3, although prob. AK 5/4.
I guess the secret is out on early close days being low crowd. I just saw that 5/3 Magic Kingdom is now at capacity.
I’m curious if this makes it a 10 level day or if the reservation slots are lower due to the decrease in hours.
There are truly no slow times anymore.
I’m hoping this is just their way of diverting people to the other parks in order to keep the crowd down that day at MK. And if that’s the case, it’s anyone’s guess where they would draw that line, especially on an early closing day
That’s what I’m hoping but there are no other data points to confirm.
My day of 5/3 is now composed of 2 sold out parks. We were planning to go to MK for a low crowd day followed up by hopping to Hollywood Studios which is also sold out. We are also going to HS on 5/4 before flights home late afternoon as it is supposed to be a crowd level 4 but also no reservations available which I am assuming will make it a 10.