Comparing the NEW Hotel Perks With Extra Magic Hours at Walt Disney World

For a long time, Disney World hotel guests have gotten perks like extra time in the parks, early access to dining reservations, and free Disney transportation.

Before Disney World shut down for the pandemic in 2020, the extra park time for hotel guests was called Extra Magic Hours. Now, Disney is going to use two different systems to replace this perk: Early Theme Park Entry and Extended Evening Hours.

So what exactly is the difference between the old program and the new ones? Let’s take a look.

We’ll break down each of the perks for extra park time, looking at what is included in each and who qualifies for the benefits. At the end, we’ll look at how this affects Disney World guests overall.

Extra Magic Hours

Extra Magic Hours was the old system where all Disney World Resort guests (and those at a select other hotels) could come early or stay late at a Disney World park.

The qualifying hotels included:

— Walt Disney World-owned resorts
— Walt Disney World Dolphin & Swan Resorts
— Shades of Green
— Disney Springs area hotels
— Four Seasons Resort Orlando

If you were staying at one of those hotels, you could either arrive early or stay late at a select Disney World park, depending on when the Extra Magic Hours were. There was a set schedule, and just one park would get extra time each day. Usually that park would have an extra hour (or sometimes two hours) either before the park opened or after it closed.

All four Disney World theme parks participated in Extra Magic Hours.

The following rides were open at each of the parks during the evening Extra Magic Hours, with a bit fewer being offered during the morning ones:

Magic Kingdom:

EPCOT:

Extended Evening Hours

Extended Evening Hours is the new system for the evening Extra Magic Hours. This perk is available for guests staying at a Disney World Deluxe hotels, Deluxe Villa hotels, or one of these other hotels:

• Walt Disney World Swan Hotel
• Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel
• Walt Disney World Swan Reserve
• Shades of Green

Disney World Deluxe and Deluxe Villa hotels include the following:

• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
• Disney’s Beach Club Resort
• Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
• Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
• Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
• Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Disney’s Yacht Club Resort

• Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
• Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo House
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
• Disney’s Beach Club Villas
• Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
• Disney’s Old Key West Resort
• Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
• Disney’s Riviera Resort
• Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
• The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

If you’re staying at one of these hotels, you can stay at a select Disney World theme park for an extra two hours after its closing time. We’ve got ALL the Extended Evening Hours listed here (and updated as Disney releases more dates and times).

So far the participating parks are just Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, and the extra hours take place on Mondays for EPCOT and Wednesdays for the Magic Kingdom. There are fewer days with the evening hours than there were with Extra Magic Hours (only two days a week), and two of the four parks are not participating so far.

Like the other two perks, Extended Evening Hours has select rides and attractions open during the extra time:

Magic Kingdom

• “it’s a small world”
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• Mad Tea Party
• Mickey’s PhilharMagic
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• The Barnstormer

• Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid
• Astro Orbiter
• Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
• Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
• Space Mountain
• Tomorrowland Speedway
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Country Bear Jamboree
• Haunted Mansion
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Swiss Family Treehouse
• The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
• Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room

EPCOT

• Beauty and The Beast Sing-Along
• Frozen Ever After
• Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros
• Mission: SPACE
• Soarin’ Around the World

• Spaceship Earth
• Test Track
• The Seas with Nemo & Friends

The Magic Kingdom attractions are the same for Extended Evening Hours and the evening Extra Magic Hours. But there are fewer EPCOT rides open for Extended Evening Hours than there were for the Extra Magic Hours. The new system is missing the Disney Pixar Short Film Festival, the American Heritage Gallery, the EPCOT Character Spot, Journey Into Imagination with Figment, Living With the Land, O Canada!, and Turtle Talk With Crush.

Some of those attractions haven’t yet returned (like the EPCOT Character Spot), but a couple of them are pretty popular rides that are currently open during normal hours (like Living With the Land).

How Does It Affect Us?

So how does the change from Extra Magic Hours to these two new systems affect us?

It’s Harder for Non-Resort Guests to Plan

With Extra Magic Hours, guests not staying at a qualifying resort could avoid whichever park had the extra hours to also avoid larger crowds. And even if you were staying at a qualifying resort, you could choose to give up the extra time in order to get lower crowds in the other theme parks.

Now, since Early Theme Park Entry applies to all four Disney park every day, there probably won’t be the concentration of crowds in one park each day.

However, with Extended Evening Hours, there may be larger crowds in Magic Kingdom or EPCOT on the days that those parks get extra time, and we may see more guests Park Hopping to those Parks in the afternoon so they enjoy an extended block of time through the evening and into the night. So you can still use that schedule to avoid those parks and the crowds if you’re not staying at a qualifying hotel.

Early Theme Park Entry Is Shorter

Extra Magic Hours gave guests a full hour before park opening, whereas Early Theme Park Entry only gives a half hour before park opening. That’s really not much time to enjoy the lower crowds inside the park.

With an extra half hour, there’s not enough time to do much except get inside and get in a line. You’ll be ahead of other guests, so you’ll get on at least one attraction a little earlier. But really Early Theme Park Entry just seems like a head start on getting in line for the popular attractions. It’s a good perk, but not really a lot of extra time to enjoy the parks.

Extended Evening Hours Is Exclusive

Only guests staying at Deluxe Disney hotels (and a couple of other hotels) get access to the exclusive Extended Evening Hours. So if you want to take advantage of two extra hours in some parks after closing time, you’ll have to pay quite a bit more than you usually would at a value or moderate hotel in Disney World. If you factor in the price difference, those extra hours are pretty darn expensive.

But on the other hand, the more exclusive hours means a lot fewer people will be there during the extra park time. So if it’s worth it to you and in the budget, you can pay extra for time in the parks with much lower crowds.

You Don’t Have to Know the Schedule as Much

With Extra Magic Hours, you had to keep track of which park was opening early or closing late on a given day. The schedules are much simpler for the new systems.

For Extended Evening Hours (so far), EPCOT gets two extra hours on Monday evenings, and Magic Kingdom gets two extra hours on Wednesday evenings. Early Theme Park Entry is even easier: every park gets and extra half hour before opening time every day. So there’s a little less planning involved in using the newer systems in Disney World.

There are both benefits and drawbacks to the new systems, and guests will need to decide what perks they want and how best to maximize them. Keep following AllEars, and we’ll let you know how these systems are working in the parks.

Click Here to See Which Disney World Hotel Perks STILL Haven’t Returned

Which extra hours perk do you prefer? Let us know in the comments!

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