Sold-Out Christmas Party Nights Push Evening Crowds From Magic Kingdom to EPCOT

Guaranteed early closures are now creating a nightly crowd shift across the resort.

Overview

Magic Kingdom closes to non-party guests at 6:00 p.m. on Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party dates, and every date this season is sold out.
After the cutoff, displaced visitors pour into EPCOT, driving longer attraction waits, backed-up festival booths, and tightly packed World Showcase promenades.
The Magic Kingdom–EPCOT monorail forms a bottleneck, with lines spilling from stations and boarding waits commonly reported at 30–45 minutes.
Guests planning to hop are urged to move by roughly 5:00–5:30 p.m. to bypass the post-closure surge and transportation crunch.
Trip strategies highlighted include pairing Animal Kingdom with Disney Springs or scheduling EPCOT on non-party nights through December 21.