Why this Disney World park is best enjoyed in the evening above all others
By Brian Miller
Disney World is an amazing adventure that can be rather congested and irritating as well. From large crowds to overpriced tickets and food, Disney is quickly becoming an attraction that most average families can't afford.
When families do pony up the big bucks to visit a Disney park, they have to have a good idea of how they want to spend their days and nights. Decisions on where to stay are as important as what attractions you don't want to miss. Throughout the year, each park has something to offer at different times, but which park is the best to visit in the evening? You know, after the sun goes down.
We can discount Animal Kingdom. The park rarely opens beyond 7:00 p.m., and at the latest, 8:00 p.m. still leaves a lot of time to do other things. The best time to visit A.K. is in the winter months because the animals are more active, and Pandora can be seen at night when the lights come on in full detail. During the summer months, the park closes before the sun goes down.
EPCOT is one of my favorite parks, in fact, it is my favorite but at night, something happens that makes me not want to stick around. It gets dark. Yes, I know, it gets dark when the sun goes down but at EPCOT the lighting is kept dim and traveling around World Showcase at night feels like I'm at department store 15 minutes before they close and start dimming the lights to remind you it's time to leave.
While it is pretty fun to walk around and get the great lights off Spaceship Earth and other parts of the park, there isn't a lot to do unless there is a festival going on so we tend to hit it during the day and spend our nights somewhere else.
Hollywood Studios is similar to EPCOT, but it is brighter. The closing spectacular, Fantasmic, is cool but often very crowded and unlike Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, there is only one way to watch it, and that is to go into the show grounds and get a seat.
Because of this, ride times typically won't change much, so if you are hoping to stick it out later and hit Hollywood Tower of Terror or Rise of the Resistance when the show starts, they don't drop in wait times considerably. H.S. is a good park to visit after the sun goes down, but it isn't as good as Magic Kingdom.
Clearly, Magic Kingdom is the best for late-night hopping. The park is well lit, and when fireworks start to get closer, wait times at the attractions drop considerably on most days. You can watch the fireworks from just about every place in the park. Unless you are in line indoors, you can still enjoy the show.
Magic Kingdom also keeps their food options open later as well. Some restaurants may close a little earlier but for the most part, there is plenty to eat up until about an hour before closing and another great thing about M.K. is that they often will stay open until 11:00 giving you a great opportunity to jump over later in the afternoon and get a full day's worth of the park.