Early closure days for parties

[Anabelletoronto]

We all know Disney has rules that are followed differently depending on Castmember. But please delete my post if it is against terms of service. I am trying to find out the rule, not in order to break it, but just to optimize my day.
When the party starts at 7pm and they kick out the non party guests, can you still go to a restaurant? (If you had reservations) can you stay after 7pm and shop in the stores?
We are just hoping to maximize our time in the park and if we can shop “after hours” then we will.

 

[mom2rtk]

You can't be seated after a certain time at a restaurant without a party ticket (I think last non party seating time varies by restaurant). And they won't let you stay and shop either. And FYI, the new closing time for non party guests is 6 PM.

 

[yulilin3]

We all know Disney has rules that are followed differently depending on Castmember. But please delete my post if it is against terms of service. I am trying to find out the rule, not in order to break it, but just to optimize my day.
When the party starts at 7pm and they kick out the non party guests, can you still go to a restaurant? (If you had reservations) can you stay after 7pm and shop in the stores?
We are just hoping to maximize our time in the park and if we can shop “after hours” then we will.

Park closes to day guests at 6pm. You can get in line for any attraction as late as 5:59pm. From 6pm to 7pm you can shop, watch the Frozen Holiday Wish show and take your time leaving, you are not allowed to go in any attraction or meet and greet line from 6pm-7pm
At 7pm they start a hard sweep of the park, from back to front checking everyone's wristbands, if you don't have one you are asked to leave

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I believe cut off for non party ADR's is 6:10pm.
They will give non party guests a wristband showing they don't have a party ticket and after you leave the restuarant you wikll be encouraged to exit the park.
If you scored an ADR for like 7pm on a party night and you are not going to the party then you're out of luck and will have to cancel the ADR.

 

[tlmadden73]

I was there on a party day last week.

We exited the park at around 6:30-6:45 pm.

We were just making sure we were done with attractions by 6:00 PM thinking we would be kicked out by then. We weren't --

As we were walking out back through Adventureland and the Hub and saw the Frozen castle lighting show was going to start -- so we stopped and watched that from the back (but had a good spot). We got photos taken by the tree and was thinking of going to Tony's Town Square (at this time it was like 6:30) but were kindly directed away, saying we needed to be a party guest to go there.
So only when we got to Town Square were there Cast Members with signs and such sorta directing you to the exits (away from Tony's and away from the Theatre).

It "felt" like we probably could have eaten at Casey's or the Plaza though if we had wanted to before 7:00 pm. And it didn't feel like they were in any rush to kick us out of the Emporium (but again, we were "leaving" by 6:30). I'm not sure if other restaurants (like Skipper Canteen) would have turned us away if we wanted to eat there or not. We ended up just snacking heavily and going back to our resort to eat. (We debated on resort-hopping to a monorail resort for dinner, but felt that would take just as long as the bus ride back to All-Stars.

So .. I would just plan on being at the back of the park around 5:00 - 6:00 and get on as many rides in that last hour as you can. When we were there a lot of ride times were walk-ons. I would have planned my day a bit differently. At 6:00 .. just make your way to the front of the park to see the Castle Show at 6:15 . .and then shop your way through the Emporium until they kick you out.

HINT: Avoid the Jingle Cruise after 4:00 PM - that standby line doubled from its posted time at 4:00 PM (my guess is because a bunch of party people had 4:00-6:00 pm fast passes). We got in the line shortly after 4 with a posted time of 35 minutes and were there for an hour. It was a bit infuriating as that is not how I wanted to spend my last hour or so at MK. Luckily nearby attractions had walk-ons (Pirates and Aladdin's) .. so we were able to do a few more rides before we left. We almost walked on BTMRR a few minutes before 6:00 as its posted time was 10 minutes.