Walt Disney World's theme parks to operate under significantly reduced operating hours on reopening

May 28, 2020 in "Magic Kingdom"

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Posted: Thursday May 28, 2020 10:40am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney yesterday announced that its Walt Disney World theme parks will begin a phased reopening on July 11 2020 with social distancing, reduced capacity and mandatory use of masks.

Scenes like this at Disney's Hollywood are long gone post COVID-19 shutdown

Along with the new health and safety measures, the parks will also operate significantly reduced hours based on the latest calendar updates.

Opening hours have moved to staggered approach, with Animal Kingdom opening at 8am, Magic Kingdom at 9am, Studios at 10am and EPCOT at 11am.

Extra Magic Hours continue on the same dates and duration as before, but adjusted to fit the new park hours.

During July 2020

Disney's Hollywood Studios, originally 9am - 9pm, now 10am - 8pm.
Disney's Animal Kingdom, originally 9am - 8:30pm, now 8am - 6pm.
EPCOT, originally 9am - 9pm, now 11am - 9pm.
Magic Kingdom, originally 9am - 10pm, now 9am - 7pm.

During August 2020

Disney's Hollywood Studios, originally 9am - 9pm, now 10am - 8pm.
Disney's Animal Kingdom, originally 9am - 8:30pm, now 8am - 6pm.
EPCOT, originally 9am - 9pm, now 11am - 9pm. No late closings for Food and Wine Festival weekends.
Magic Kingdom, originally 9am - 10pm, now 9am - 7pm. Notably, the 6pm closes on Halloween party nights have been removed and continue with the 7pm close.

View the full Walt Disney World operating hours through to October 2020.

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HauntedMansionFLAJun 02, 2020

The looters and rioters are.......;)

marni1971Jun 02, 2020

Last October. Saturday night. Disneyland was open 830am to midnight. It also ran two electrical parades, two Fantasmics and Halloween Screams fireworks.

trainplane3Jun 02, 2020

DL is mainly locally driven. WDW is mainly out of state/international. If DL started closing at 9pm, most visitors would just say "I'll be back tomorrow since I'm only 45 mins away". Meanwhile WDW visitors are typically locked into their grand vacation 6+ months out and want more time out of it so they'll pay the $110 ticket price to get 4 hours with "no lines". I think I worded that right? I'll never forget the few times I was in MK till 3am. It was awesome.

GladToBeHearJun 02, 2020

Yup. The good ol' days.

disneygeek90Jun 02, 2020

The Disney signs are calling is "physical distancing" which I think makes more sense.

SaveDinosaurJun 02, 2020

Can anyone explain why Disneyland keeps getting long hours and MK doesn't? I think that they still go to 1 am or 12 am in the summer right?

Kevin_WJun 02, 2020

I'd be fine with just calling it "distancing", I'm not sure where the "social" part comes in in most contexts. We have signs at work reminding you to "social distance" in the restroom. The restroom is not a social place!

marni1971Jun 02, 2020

I can’t comment on how long the queue was, but I stood in it the same trip in 1990. Overflow down to the restrooms and back and back and back. And then inside. And again I’ve video that I shot showing it just kept moving forward. Lest we forget, legacy Fastpass was installed then removed from the Haunted Mansion since it was operationally inefficient.

SJN1279Jun 02, 2020

Anyone else over the term "social distancing". Hopefully the virus mutating into a less aggressive form is true, and we are back to the "regular normal" sooner than later.

trainplane3Jun 02, 2020

Similarly, aren't the pictures/videos of Imaginations (V1) line coming out of the building, zig-zagging in front and then continuing down towards CC only about a half hour wait then? I'd guess that'd be nearly 2 hours nowadays. The wonders of no FP on a omnimover type ride.

WDW ProJun 02, 2020

Things can change, but that was/is the plan.

marni1971Jun 02, 2020

I’ve a video I shot in the last week of June 1990. Peak season. EPCOT Center was open 9am-11pm. For everyone. And for a lot less money than today. But anyway, I shot some shots of underneath the building with the queue foreground. The regular switchbacks were in use plus roped versions down the side (no need for permanent switch backs down the side since an omnimover can handle crowds if they move steadily). The lines criss cross the screen - and they all keep on moving. No one is stood still despite the overflow having to be used.

Horizons '83Jun 02, 2020

Do you remember when SSE was in its prime? Unless there was a mechanical issue, that standby line ALWAYS moved. There were still large lines but moved. In today's FP+ world, its a cluster.