Animal Kingdom "late opening"

[robbrdbry]

So, i'm a little disappointed that when we arrive at the parks disney are closing the park at 6.00pm.
Now we are actually at disney from november 2nd onwards and it's been a few years since i've been at that time of year, what sort of time does it actually get dark?

We're wanting to do safari and everest at night and it's looking like it won't actually be possible which is massively frustrating due to Disney hyping the night openings and especially that rivers of light is looking like a no go too.

[Smithy78]

Park hours change all the time. Disney only announced on Friday extended opening hours for AK (8.30) for this October so hopefully towards the end of September they will update for November.

[Smithy78]

Also if you look at the dibbs park hours it will tell you the sunset time.

[Guest]

Yes they will almost definitely update the park hours nearer the time. All the September hours for AK were only updated mid August and that does tend to be the pattern for it.

[kingofhonour]

Hello, DW here, we just returned and yes, the closing time for AK was 11 pm whilst we were there then on the local news the plans to bring the closing time forward each subsequent month was reported, however this would be due to the earlier sunset times so the night time experience would still be enjoyed at the earlier times. Shame though as it would shorten the hours you can spend at the park in the dark so understand your disappointment. However I would imagine the sunset times in November (sorry, don't know what time this is) will still allow you to enhpjoyenjoy the park in the dark. the night Safari is BRILLIANT, the lions were moving around in clear view, other animals as well but your not allowed to use flash photography so no photos will come out. Jungle Book show, lovely but I wouldn't use a fast pass as its in a huge space with loads of seating, no bad view due to how it's been set up. Hope this helps

[Imagineer2802]

We hated Animal Kingdom in the dark. The park isn't designed for it and we felt the lighting was really bad, it felt very claustrophobic.
I don't really know what all the fuss is about with the night time safari - we heard/saw the lions roaring which was pretty cool, but most of the rest of the trip was staring into darkness. They don't do the whole day time route either, so it's a shorter ride. The hyena weren't out on ours either, which was really disappointing. We didn't do Jungle Book as had heard lots of terrible reviews, and the masses of people lined up ages before put us off even more!

The Tree of Life show was pretty cool... though very short.

Hopefully Rivers of Light will be worth the wait.

[Moorlandman]

We thought Animal Kingdom at night was great. If you like no or little queues for the big attractions then this is the ideal time to go. Everest was walk on, Safari 5 mins, Rapids 5 mins!

The night safari was excellent. The lions were active and we even had a group of Hippos blocking the way

Jungle Book was good but could have been better.

[Bobbins]

Originally Posted by robbrdbry

So, i'm a little disappointed that when we arrive at the parks disney are closing the park at 6.00pm.
Now we are actually at disney from november 2nd onwards and it's been a few years since i've been at that time of year, what sort of time does it actually get dark?

See more...

The hour change (clocks go back) first weekend you're there and it'll be getting dark around 5.30 to 6PM (an hour later for your first few days). It doesn't change much over a couple of weeks.

As others have said, they've just pushed the Oct hours from 7PM to 8.30.

The big night-time show still isn't running and I have to say in all the years we've been going to WDW I can't remember ever being in AK in the dark - it always seemed to close pretty early.


I'm much more miffed about MK closing at 7PM almost every day due to Halloween and Christmas parties. The nights it's open late to everyone are going to be rammed.

[jovial]

We loved it in the dark too ! Lit up by little lanterns it looked really pretty ! We did serengati Safari at dusk so could still see and 5 min waits for Everest at 9pm fab !

[DIBBadmin]

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