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Updates To Park Schedules In November and December

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Until recently our crowd calendar was working under the assumption that park hours and schedules for Thankgiving and Christmas 2010 were very likely to change. We used historical park hours to build our predictions while we waited for Disney to announce something that was more in line with what we would expect for those busy holiday seasons. Looks like it has arrived.

Perhaps in reaction to increased bookings for the holidays, many changes have been made to park schedules for November and December. Here is a synopsis.

November 2010

  • Hours extended and nighttime parade added on Saturdays at the Magic Kingdom (6th, 13th, 20th)
  • Hours extended for Thanksgiving week at the Magic Kingdom (21st-27th)
  • Hours extended at Disney’s Hollywood Studios throughout November (4th, 7th-20th)
  • Fantasmic! showings added at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (4th, 7th, 11th, 14th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, 26th, 29th)
  • Hours extended for Thanksgiving week at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (21st-28th)

December 2010

  • Hours extended and nighttime parade added at the Magic Kingdom (4th)
  • Fantasmic! showing add at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (2nd, 4th)
  • Hours extended for Christmas week at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (20th-31st)

Whenever park hours are extended it tells us that crowds are likely to be larger than expected. It is a sign that on-site bookings are on the rise since longer hours means more guests. There are still great opportunities to manage your itineraries by following the park recommendations and the per park crowd levels to plan your days wisely. As always, the best defense against large crowds is one of our field tested touring plans. They work! And they will make a 10 day feel like a 7!

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Fred Hazelton

Fred Hazelton maintains the crowd calendar, theme park wait time models and does hotel rate analysis for the Unofficial Guides. He's also done the models for the new mobile wait times product Lines. Fred Hazelton is a professional statistician living in Ontario, Canada. His email address is fred@touringplans.com. You can also follow him on Twitter: @DisneyStatsWhiz.

9 thoughts on “Updates To Park Schedules In November and December

  • With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright infringement? My site has a lot of completely unique content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced but it seems a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my permission. Do you know any methods to help prevent content from being ripped off? I’d certainly appreciate it.

    Reply
  • I notice on Nov 22 that EPCOT is a park to avoid due to “special event”. Can you tell me what this event is? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Nov 22nd is the first day of Holidays around the World at Epcot. When a long running seasonal event debuts we usually recommend to avoid that park.

      Reply
  • The “Lines” 10 day forecast lists 10/29 and 10/31 as days to avoid Magic Kingdom, with 10/30 being neutral. But the crowd estimator page suggests exactly the opposite, with 10/30 at 8.5 for MK, and less than 1.0 on the other days.

    Which should go by? (I was planning on Epcot-29th; HS-30th; MK-31st… until I saw the 10 day forecast.) Thanks!

    Reply
    • Hi Lisa,

      The per park crowd levels and the overall recommendations say two slightly different things. I think this other blog post might help explain it.

      Click Here

      Reply
  • Thanks for the update, I thought they might add hours to the week of Thanksgiving.
    Question about November 13th, EMH at HS (morning) and MK (night) sort of late hours compared to the rest of the month and the only double EMH day for a while, but it’s listed as a “1” day. Why? DD and myself might do a four-park day…all the major rides (6-9 rides), plus a show in each park! Crazy!

    Reply
    • Hmmm, interesting question. I don’t see a reason off hand. The Magic Kingdom is the only park with a significant crowd level (4) so this would be a great day to do all four parks. Good luck!

      Reply
  • Thank you for the update! I’m still hoping Disney will add a second Fantasmic! to more days throughout the month of December. Perhaps at this time next month, such a schedule will be released. I’ll keep my fingers crossed, anyway.

    Reply
    • You never know…

      It may depend on last minute bookings, if there are a lot then they will have no choice.

      Reply

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