We often tell you to check the Disney World park hours the week leading up to and even every single day of your trip.
EPCOT
Why? Well, because if you’ve booked your trip a year in advance, things may happen between the time you booked your trip and your actual travel dates. In fact, Disney is known to adjust its park hours all the time. Sometimes, it’s due to after-hours testing, or more often, a company may rent out a park for a special event (or the parks can close early for one of Disney’s special events like their Halloween and holiday parties or after-hours events). If you’re heading to EPCOT in October, it’s imperative you know that the park will be closing EARLY one day!
On October 22nd, EPCOT will be closing at 5PM, which is WILD since the park is typically open until around 9PM. We did a little digging and found that this early closure is because a company has bought out the park for the evening!
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
The Gartner Group has bought out EPCOT for the evening to have their IT SYMPOSIUM|Xpo from 8-11PM. This is a private event that the general public will not be able to attend. All attractions and restaurants in EPCOT will close for guests at 5PM (but of course, as usual, if you get in line for a ride one minute before 5PM, they’ll allow you to ride), giving the park time to empty out before the event members come in a few hours later.
©Gartner Group
So, what does this mean for your day? Well, we’ve got good news and bad news. Oftentimes, when a park closes early, a lot of guests prefer to visit other parks to have a full day there instead of having their day cut short and then having to park hop in the late afternoon. This means that crowds could be pretty low in EPCOT for the whole day! The bad news is that if you don’t have a Park Hopper ticket, you’re not really getting the full value of your park ticket. 5PM is EARLY, and you’re missing out on several hours of your park day.
Walt The Dreamer in EPCOT
We’ll be sure to keep you updated on all the latest Disney World news, so stay tuned to DFB!
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I saw this on FB, I am so curious to know how much the company is paying for this! I see it being advertised to their employees as a chance to enjoy the food & wine festival.
Thank you! That was one of the dates we were considering 🙃