Walt Disney World's Thanksgiving Week Hours Are Out, and Magic Kingdom Shuts at 6 p.m. on Three of the Seven Nights

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Operating hours are now posted for Walt Disney World's Thanksgiving week, November 22 to 28, 2026. Magic Kingdom runs 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day itself but closes at 6 p.m. on November 24, 25 and 27 for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, Hollywood Studios closes at 7 p.m. on two Jollywood Nights, and Animal Kingdom holds an 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. day every single day of the week.

Walt Disney World's Thanksgiving Week Hours Are Out, and Magic Kingdom Shuts at 6 p.m. on Three of the Seven Nights

Operating hours are now posted across all four Walt Disney World theme parks for Thanksgiving week, November 22 to 28, 2026, and the shape of the week is set by the Christmas calendar rather than by Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day falls on Thursday, November 26, and it is one of the longest days of the week at Magic Kingdom, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. The short days are the three nights on either side of it, when the park closes to regular guests at 6 p.m. for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

Magic Kingdom: 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving, 6 p.m. on three party nights

Magic Kingdom carries the most variation of the four parks, because three of the seven nights are given over to the hard-ticket Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. On those nights the park stops admitting day-ticket guests at 6 p.m. and the party runs 7 p.m. to midnight on a separate ticket.

Disney's own image from Magic Kingdom.
Disney's own image from Magic Kingdom.

Early entry for Disney Resort hotel guests begins at 8:30 a.m. every day of the week, the standard half hour ahead of the 9 a.m. opening.

EPCOT: a flat 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with one Extended Evening night

EPCOT is the simplest park to plan around this week. Every single day runs 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with early entry at 8:30 a.m. The one exception sits at the front of the week: on Monday, November 23, Extended Evening Hours keep the park open to 11 p.m. for guests of select Disney Resort hotels, the Deluxe and Deluxe Villa tier benefit that adds two hours after everyone else has been sent home.

Disney's own image from EPCOT.
Disney's own image from EPCOT.

That matters more than a flat schedule suggests, because Thanksgiving week lands squarely inside the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays, when World Showcase carries its Holiday Kitchens and the Candlelight Processional runs at the America Gardens Theatre. A 9 p.m. close is the walking-around window for all of it.

Hollywood Studios: two Jollywood Nights bookend the week

Disney's Hollywood Studios takes the same treatment as Magic Kingdom, just twice instead of three times. Disney Jollywood Nights, the park's separately ticketed after-hours holiday party, runs 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Monday, November 23 and Saturday, November 28, and the park closes at 7 p.m. to day guests on both of those dates.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror behind palm trees, with holiday star decorations standing in the foreground
Holiday star decorations and palm trees in front of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

Animal Kingdom: the same 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., all seven days

Disney's Animal Kingdom does not move at all this week. Every day runs 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with early entry at 7:30 a.m., the earliest gate of the four parks, and the only one opening before 9 a.m. There is one addition: Extended Evening Hours on Tuesday, November 24, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., for guests of select Disney Resort hotels.

Disney's own image from Animal Kingdom.
Disney's own image from Animal Kingdom.

A 6 p.m. close on the busiest travel week of the year is worth reading twice if this is a first visit. Animal Kingdom has kept an early-close pattern for most of its life, and it means the park is finished before Magic Kingdom's fireworks window even opens. Pairing an Animal Kingdom morning with a Magic Kingdom or EPCOT evening is the standard way around it, and Thanksgiving Day is the one night that week when Magic Kingdom is open late without a party ticket.

Key Details

Why these hours can still move

Treat this calendar as a floor rather than a final answer. Walt Disney World habitually adds time to holiday-week hours as the dates approach and the booking picture firms up, usually by pushing closing times later rather than opening earlier, and it has done so in past Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks. Nothing here is likely to shrink; the realistic change is a park staying open an hour or two longer than the listing currently says.

A festive wreath with a red bow decorates Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle, distinct from Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle.
A festive wreath with a red bow decorates Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle, distinct from Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. Photo: WDW News Today

What will not move is the party structure. Once Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and Disney Jollywood Nights dates are on sale, the 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. closes attached to them are fixed, because the park has to be cleared for ticket holders. If you want a long Magic Kingdom day without buying a party ticket, the week gives you four: November 22, 23, 26 and 28.

The Buzz

Thanksgiving week is one of the busiest stretches of the year at Walt Disney World, and it is the first of the truly crowded weeks where the Christmas overlay is already running at full strength. That combination is exactly why the hours listing gets read so closely: it is the difference between an abstract "we're going at Thanksgiving" and a schedule. It tells you which three nights Magic Kingdom becomes a half-day park, which night EPCOT stays open to 11, and that Animal Kingdom is done at 6 p.m. every day. Those are the details that usually surface after dining reservations and Lightning Lane plans are already locked in.

November 24, 25 and 27 are the short days to plan around

If you are building a park order for the week, start from the closes rather than the opens. Magic Kingdom is a six-hour day on November 24, 25 and 27. Hollywood Studios is a ten-hour day on November 23 and 28 instead of twelve. Animal Kingdom is a ten-hour day throughout. EPCOT is the only park that holds the same 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. shape all seven days, which makes it the natural anchor for the evenings when Magic Kingdom is closed to day guests.

Disney's own image from Hollywood Studios.
Disney's own image from Hollywood Studios.

Thanksgiving Day itself is the outlier in the best way: every park is open, Magic Kingdom runs to 10 p.m., and no party takes a night out of the calendar. Hours for the rest of the holiday season have not been posted in full yet, and the Thanksgiving listing is the one Disney is most likely to revisit before November.

Sources

Originally reported on . GenieGrove rewrote this story; the original reporting is theirs.