Extra Magic Hours and Park Reservations 2021

[valval]

Hi, everyone! Like many of you, I had to cancel my 2020 WDW vacation and reschedule it for April 2021. I already have a resort reservation and park tickets. At this point, I'd focus on planning my day by day vacation, but I just realized that there's no mention of Extra Magic Hours availability on the WDW website. My idea was to have a look at EMHs and then quickly book the mandatory park reservations (guessing we will still need those in April next year) to be sure to get to the park I want each day. Do you guys know how early EMHs are going to be announced? And also, what's your strategy in booking park reservations? How early are you planning to do so? I see that there's a lot of availability for any date in 2021 but I'm afraid that with people booking their vacations from now on, this could change fast. Any thoughts about it?

 

[SamFaniam]

Hi, everyone! Like many of you, I had to cancel my 2020 WDW vacation and reschedule it for April 2021. I already have a resort reservation and park tickets. At this point, I'd focus on planning my day by day vacation, but I just realized that there's no mention of Extra Magic Hours availability on the WDW website. My idea was to have a look at EMHs and then quickly book the mandatory park reservations (guessing we will still need those in April next year) to be sure to get to the park I want each day. Do you guys know how early EMHs are going to be announced? And also, what's your strategy in booking park reservations? How early are you planning to do so? I see that there's a lot of availability for any date in 2021 but I'm afraid that with people booking their vacations from now on, this could change fast. Any thoughts about it?

There hasn’t been any announcement about the possible return of EMH. So probably your best guess is to take a look at earlier calendars to see the patterns then.

Since the parks didn’t open in April of this year, March is as close as you can get.

https://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours/march2020.cfm
April 2019

https://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours/april19.cfm

 

[valval]

There hasn’t been any announcement about the possible return of EMH. So probably your best guess is to take a look at earlier calendars to see the patterns then.

Thank you for this! Assuming they will keep the same schedule, this is SUPER useful!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Just be careful assuming anything about park hours in general and especially EMH for now. We’re in uncharted territory and we have no idea when and/or if EMHs will return. Best to stay super flexible and not to expect anything, then adjust if they do add them back, IMHO.

 

[sponica]

Hi, everyone! Like many of you, I had to cancel my 2020 WDW vacation and reschedule it for April 2021. I already have a resort reservation and park tickets. At this point, I'd focus on planning my day by day vacation, but I just realized that there's no mention of Extra Magic Hours availability on the WDW website. My idea was to have a look at EMHs and then quickly book the mandatory park reservations (guessing we will still need those in April next year) to be sure to get to the park I want each day. Do you guys know how early EMHs are going to be announced? And also, what's your strategy in booking park reservations? How early are you planning to do so? I see that there's a lot of availability for any date in 2021 but I'm afraid that with people booking their vacations from now on, this could change fast. Any thoughts about it?

I had no strategy for late April, I just picked whatever parks on whatever days because if park hopping isn't available or park hours don't expand, we're not going....

 

[lillyshula]

I am also a big planner and like to plan out our days months in advance. Our trip is in June next year and I decided to make two plans. One that includes EMH and park hopping (using data from past years) and one that does not. I figured I would be able to cover all my bases that way. We booked park reservations the day we booked our package.

 

[ShannyMcB]

My TA recommended picking any old days now to ensure we can get into a park and then updating them later. We are kind of a "go with the flow" travel crew so just making sure we get two days at MK in there somewhere. Will adjust more when EMH and dining is figured in. Hopefully park hopping will be back by the time we go, got the option on the tickets hoping for the best.

 

[valval]

My TA recommended picking any old days now to ensure we can get into a park and then updating them later.

Very interesting! You're talking about reserving the days yourself via the website, right? And you can confirm that there is the option to change later on?

EDIT: I just tried: it is possible to reserve a day and then cancel it from "my plans".