Hi Peter!
Welcome back to planDisney! As an obsessive planner, I am totally with you on this one. When we bring family and friends, they may roll their eyes a little bit at how I want to have everything booked and planned far in advance, but when our group has got the perfect dining reservation, they are always happy! I just got finished giving my oldest a lecture about choosing his college classes, “It’s just like Disney! Don’t wait, register for the classes you want right away before the class is full!”
Right now, Disney has not announced the extended park hours other than the four nights in early October. I know Mickey loves us, but perhaps he doesn’t quite understand our need to plan right
now? The best I can advise is that you should go ahead and book your
theme park reservations, and be prepared to change plans later if necessary.
If you hadn’t already considered it, having tickets or passes with the
park hopper option would add to your flexibility. If extended hours were announced at one park, but you had reservations at another, you could park hop after 2 PM and still get the benefits of the extended hours. For the moment, this is the plan I am going with.
One thing I did notice, is that for the four announced dates, the Epcot extended hours are both on Mondays, and the Magic Kingdom extended hours are both on Wednesdays. Now, a lot can change between October and February, so February’s hours may end up looking completely different, but if you wanted a starting point, you could make your initial reservations with that pattern in mind.
I would continue to check the
Extended Evening Theme Park Hours webpage regularly, as more dates are added, this is where they will be officially listed.
Happy Planning!
- Kate