Walt Disney World Resort Guests will be forced to vacate Magic Kingdom Park tonight almost seven hours earlier than usual.

There’s always so much to do at Walt Disney World Resort. The Disney destination near Orlando, Central Florida is a hive of all things Disney magic, and nostalgia, with just a little — OK, maybe a lot — of chaos. Guests visit from all over the world, staying in one of the multiple Disney Resort Hotels to experience the four theme parks — Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the Disney water parks, and Disney Springs, among other experiences.

When the Parks reopened after the pandemic, The Walt Disney Company placed a theme park reservations system in place to track capacity and manage Guest flow in the wake of the COVID-19 virus. Since then, many, if not most, of the other health and safety measures have been removed from the Disney Park, but the notorious Park Pass system has remained, and along with it the 2 p.m. Park Hopper rule. This means that every Guest must book a Park Pass in addition to paying for admission to the Walt Disney World Resort.

While the 2 p.m. Park Hopping rule has been a contentious talking point for quite some time, it would seem today the feature will be getting a ton of use as Magic Kingdom Park — Disney World’s most popular theme park — is shutting down at 4:30 p.m., almost seven hours earlier than usual. This means less time for Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise…the list goes on.

There is currently no reason given as to why Disney World is shuttering the iconic theme park so early, but previously this has happened if the Resort is hosting a private event, a Park-wide buyout, or a Cast Member party. According to the Disney World website, the Park hours for Magic Kingdom today are 7 a.m. through 8 a.m. for Early Entry, and then 8 a.m. through 4:30 p.m.; due to the Park closing at 4:30 p.m. there will also be no showing of the Disney Enchantment nighttime spectacular which takes place nightly on Main Street, U.S.A. and Cinderella Castle.

In other Magic Kingdom news, last week saw the last day of the historic Splash Mountain attraction in the Disney Park’s Frontierland section. Splash Mountain is now closed as Walt Disney Imagineering makes way for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure — an all-new attraction based on the events of The Princess and the Frog (2009).