Sure, we love A LOT of things about Disney World Resort hotels — including the perks they have to offer. With that said, there’s always room for improvement.
Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort Lobby
What can Disney World do better? In which aspects can it improve? These are the kinds of questions Disney fans love to answer, so we polled our readers to see what they wish Disney World hotels should change, and 64% of you agreed that a popular hotel perk should cast a wider net!
Disney World hotels are like no other. I mean, where else can you start your day with a Mickey Waffle, chill by a themed pool, and catch a Disney movie under the stars? Disney hotels rule, and staying at one can be just as fun as going to the parks! But, we’re aware that perfect (as close to it as they try to be), they are not. And with that being said, here’s what our readers demanded Disney World Hotels should change: Extended Evening hours should be available for ALL hotel guests!
Cinderella Castle at night
Extended Evening hours allow select hotel guests to stay at the parks for a couple of hours after they officially close for the general public. It guarantees exclusive time for hotel guests to ride attractions with lower wait times than average, and this perk is offered only on select nights. However, as great a perk as this sounds, not every Disney World hotel guest can take advantage of it.
Art of Animation
Extended Evening hours are only given to guests staying at Disney’s Deluxe Resorts, Swan & Dolphin Resorts, and Shades of Green. That means guests staying at Moderate or Value resorts are not able to take advantage of this after-hours perk.
Disney’s Yacht Club Resort
The hotels that offer Extended Evening Hours include:
Disney Deluxe Resorts
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
- Disney’s Beach Club Resort
- Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
- Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
- Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
- Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Yacht Club Resort
Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts
- Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo House
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
- Disney’s Beach Club Villas
- Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
- Disney’s Old Key West Resort
- Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
- Disney’s Riviera Resort
- Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
- The Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort – A Disney Vacation Club Resort (The extended evening theme park hours benefit applies to Disney Vacation Club Cabins only.)
- The Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Other Select Hotels
- Walt Disney World Swan Hotel
- Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel
- Walt Disney World Swan Reserve
- Shades of Green
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Of note, Disney doesn’t own the Swan and Dolphin Hotels, so if you’re looking to get the Extended Evening Hours perk at an economical rate, this is the way to go, as you’ll probably be paying less for this perk than everyone else.
Walt Disney World Dolphin
Many readers agreed that it should be a perk given to ALL Disney hotel guests, and we can completely understand why. There is one perk given to every Disney hotel guest, though, no matter what type of resort they’re staying at, and that is Early Entry. With Early Entry, hotel guests are guaranteed 30 minutes in the park before it’s opened to the public.
Early Entry
While it’s uncertain if Extended Evening hours will ever include guests staying at Moderate and Value resorts, an exciting new perk is underway for all Disney hotel guests. Beginning in 2025, resort guests were able to get FREE tickets to one of Disney World’s water parks on the day of their hotel check-in, although we’ll see the dates this perk is valid on will be limited in 2026.
Typhoon Lagoon
Other hotel perks include free transportation — such as the bus system, water taxis, monorail, and Disney Skyliner — and free hotel and theme park parking.
Disney Skyliner
You also get early access to Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass seven days before your trip (everyone else can book three days ahead of time).
Slinky Dog Dash Lightning Lane
Things are constantly changing at Disney World, so stay tuned as we bring you all the latest must-know Disney resort updates here on DFB!
Every Disney World Hotel Perk Revealed for 2026
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What are your thoughts about Extended evening hours being available for all Disney resort guests? Let us know in the comments!
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If you let every hotel in, it’s not so special or empty any longer. Which defeats the entire purpose.
It is fine as is. No need to change anything. The stats show as they do because there are more Moderate and Value resorts then there are Deluxe.
We were just at WDW 2 weeks ago and were very unhappy that we counldn’t take advantage of the extended, something that had always been available to all Disney World hotel guests in the pat.
Late hours should apply to anyone staying at Disney resorts. Sometimes people have limited funds just to let kids and seniors have a little extra fun. Hope you can remember what it’s like to make decisions. Please think hard!!!
When we stayed at the Cabins at Fort Wilderness, we often paid more than people who stayed in many Deluxe resort rooms. This is the only upside to the Cabins going DVC. But there should be something, certain nights, etc. for Moderate or Value resorts. The extended evening hours are usually for only at one park at a time, so they could be at separate parks, or open the options up more for Deluxe resort guests, if they still want to differentiate. There’s too little difference in the Standard room prices (less than $200 in some cases), and as I noted, depending on what kind of room you’re in, you could have easily paid as much or more for your Value or Moderate room than someone in a Deluxe resort. Plus, at the rate they’re building Deluxe and DVC resorts, there’s going to be way more people on those nights soon anyway.
There’s no reason that Disney can’t extend their extended park hours to like 1am, and offer it to all resort guests.
Leave it alone. Disney is going to be giving the value and moderate guests free passes to the water parks, so they are not forgotten and will have a special perk too. Extended hours are a nice perk for the deluxe resort guests.
I feel it should definitely be offered to all guests. I do agree, however, that the crowds would be just as heavy during regular hours, but Disney could arrange for something like rotating the nights, alternating between deluxe and moderate/value.
Deluxe guests (of whom I will never be one) pay a lot of money. Why shouldn’t they get this perk?
Keep it as it is. You want extended, stay at a deluxe. It’s a premium perk that’s paid for at deluxe resorts.
I’ve read the reason for this change to only deluxe hotels was when all hotels were included that the parks were so busy there was no advantage to this perk
As much as it pains me to say it, no, this change should NOT be implemented. If everyone gets in, the crowds and wait times will stay exactly the same. And then, what’s even the point?
People staying at a deluxe hotel are paying massively more than the budget hotels… This helps them be able to stomach the extra price a little bit more!
Sorry. I stay at the Deluxe resorts for a reason so I should be able to have the extended hours not to mention I pay more!!!
I’m a DVC member and I only stay at DVC resorts. The current system is just fine.
For some reason I seem to remember that all on property guests got to stay late. Possibly in the late 80’s or early 90’s
Just another way for them to suck up to the high rollers- by including attractions such as theChristmas Parade at Magic Kingdom for the guests who pay extra for the party.but never for the guests who paid for admission tickets for park entry.
For years extra hours was for all Disney owned resort guests. It wasn’t that crowded. It really is annoying that Swan and Dolphin guests get those extra hours but guests at moderate resorts don’t and they pay as much.
Staying at a Deluxe resort does not guarantee an extended hours evening. We were planning a stay at a deluxe resort and during the week of our vacation there were no extended hours evenings at any of the parks. Once we were only given the option of one night of our vacation having extended hours in Epcot. To take advantage of this perk, guests have to be flexible with their dates and stay when they are having extended hours during your stay. Sometimes, you don’t know until 2 months out.
Yes adding more hotels just makes it more crowded, so not really an option. I am not a morning person so I do miss the many nights when MK stayed open to 1am for us. Now those are usually Pay-to-Play nights, sadly. I don’t know the ratio of how may people in a day are annual pass holders, but I think it’d be great if they gave extended hours to us!! Nice perk I’d really love!! (Sorry non-AP holders 😉
It’s a perk for staying at “Disney World Deluxe Properties” Should not be touched but……
If WDW wants to let the whole neighborhood in early then they should bring back “Package delivery to the Deluxe Resorts”! as a replacement.