One of the most beloved Disney World hotel perks is finally returning to one of Disney World’s parks soon!
Animal Kingdom During Extended Evening Hours
There are a lot of great reasons to stay at a Disney World hotel, like complimentary transportation to the parks and Disney Springs, early park admission every day, and bundling a Disney Dining Plan into your trip. And, when you can pair it with an awesome discount to help your budget stretch a little bit further, that’s always a plus! However, there’s been one perk that hasn’t been available to a popular park for a while but all that’s about to change soon!
If staying in Disney World’s parks past park closing sounds like your dream day, this is for you! Disney World is making another change to its Extended Evening Hours. This perk is available to those who are staying at select deluxe Disney World hotels and is offered on specific nights.
Tree of Life
On these nights, those who are eligible are invited to stay in the park past its public park hours for a little extra time to enjoy the park’s rides, attractions, and nightly atmosphere. This has been a popular offering paired with some of the deluxe Disney World hotels and other area hotels, and likely because of the early sunsets in winter, Disney’s Animal Kingdom has been missing from this perk for a little while!
Pandora in Disney’s Animal Kingdom
This new change will happen on May 5th, 2025, and will bump out one of the usual parks this perk is offered to, EPCOT. Historically, this perk is usually enjoyed at either EPCOT or Magic Kingdom depending on the day during the week. Extended Evening Hours at Disney’s Animal Kingdom will take place from 6-8 PM and we’re not sure why the change from its usual EPCOT designated night, but we’re happy either way!
This is as far as the Disney World calendar goes out right now, but we’ll be sure to check back and see if this will be a regular thing or if EPCOT will return to the Extended Evening Hours lineup on Monday nights. We saw a one-off night on February 3rd with this perk, so we’ll have to wait and see!
©Disney
Checking Disney World’s website, we spotted a few rides that will likely be open during the extended evening hours like Expedition Everest, Na’vi River Journey, Flight of Passage, It’s Tough To Be A Bug, and even DINOSAUR! Additionally, select merchandise and food and beverage locations will be available.
©Disney
This sounds like it could be an exciting evening for Animal Kingdom fans and a unique chance to see the park later than most!
We’re always keeping up with the latest Disney World updates and changes. Be sure you’re following along with us so you don’t miss a thing!
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I’m sorry but to me this is not a HUGE perk! Now if they added another night to the already existing 2 nights then that would be huge, but they still are only having 2 nigh and now they only have to staff until 8pm unlike Epcot which is much later.
This is not a perk, it is a reward for being wealthy enough to afford a deluxe resort. This perk used to be to all hotels. Does Disney consider we who can only stay at value or moderate resorts undeserving of this and other perks that were given in the past.allears.org
I thought I read previously that Animal Kingdom would have extended evening hours from March 23-29. I wrote it down when I read it. Am I wrong?