The holidays are in full swing in Disney World, and we’re having a jolly good time!
Cinderella Castle
With the holidays comes holiday crowds, so we’re taking a look at the average wait times in ALL FOUR PARKS! Let’s dive in and see how the crowds at Disney World affected wait times!
Magic Kingdom
The longest wait in Magic Kingdom was for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train with an average wait of 65 minutes.
Interactive Elements
This is only a few minutes less than last week.
Want to see what it’s like to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in a reopened Disney World? Click here!
Several other popular attractions had lengthier waits, just not over an hour like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
Jungle Cruise sign in Magic Kingdom
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad averaged 47 minutes, Space Mountain averaged 37 minutes, Jungle Cruise averaged 40 minutes, and Pirates of the Caribbean averaged 41 minutes.
Click here to see how we celebrated Big Thunder Mountain Railroad’s birthday!
With average waits of around half an hour, we have Prince Charming Regal Carrousel at 36 and “it’s a small world” at 34 minutes, Astro Orbiter, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Splash Mountain at 31 minutes, and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin at 30 minutes.
Splash Mountain Wallpaper
Last week Splash Mountain was much higher, but it has gone down significantly!
To learn about the upcoming Splash Mountain retheme, click here!
Mickey’s PhilharMagic (23 minutes), Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (23 minutes), Haunted Mansion (23 minutes), Barnstormer (19 minutes), and Under the Sea — Journey of the Little Mermaid (22 minutes) all had relatively short average wait times!
Dumbo Sign
Similarly, we saw short wait times at Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Carousel of Progress, and Mad Tea Party with 12 minutes, Tomorrowland Speedway with 13 minutes, and Country Bear Jamboree with 21 minutes.
Carousel of Progress
And, believe it or not, some attractions actually had a 0-minute average wait including Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, Enchanted Tiki Room, and Hall of Presidents.
The Enchanted Tiki Room
Some wait times are spiking due to the crowds because of the peak in holiday travel, but Magic Kingdom is still much less crowded than it is in a usual year because of the capacity limitations. If you’re headed to the park right at opening soon, we recommend heading right to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, or Frontierland to knock out Big Thunder Mountain!
Click here to see the latest in Magic Kingdom
EPCOT
EPCOT still had two attractions with average waits at or above an hour, and we weren’t too surprised which ones they were.
Frozen Ever After Line
The LONGEST average wait in Disney World this week was 78 minutes for Frozen Ever After for the second week in a row. Test Track came in with a 60-minute average.
Click here to check out the health measures on Test Track!
Soarin’ at 38 minutes, Mission: SPACE at 28 minutes, and Spaceship Earth at 21 minutes all had fairly average wait times this week.
Spaceship Earth
On the shorter end of the spectrum in EPCOT, Journey into Imagination had a 16-minute average, Living with the Land had a 14-minute average, The Seas with Nemo and Friends had a 9-minute average, and Gran Fiesta Tour had an 10-minute wait.
Living with the Land
All of the films (Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival, Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along, Awesome Planet, Impressions de France, Reflections of China) and American Adventure all averaged a 0-minute wait.
The American Adventure
EPCOT does not have nearly as many attractions as some of the other theme parks, so the popular attractions tend to have pretty long waits.
Want to learn more about Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along? Take a look!
Plus, the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays is a big draw for the park, so there may be more crowds than usual for that. That also could be why we’re seeing the longest wait time in Disney World at Frozen Ever After.
Click here to see the latest updates at EPCOT
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Even though the time has gone down a good amount from last week, one of the longest waits in Disney World was over at Slinky Dog Dash with a 65-minute average.
Slinky Dog Dash
Reminder: Rise of the Resistance isn’t included since the virtual queue gets rid of traditional wait times.
To learn more about how to get a Rise of the Resistance Boarding Group, click here!
But Slinky Dog Dash is not the only attraction in this park with very long wait times.
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway Wallpaper
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway came in at 47 minutes, and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Tower of Terror came in at 51 minutes.
Want to learn more about Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway? Click here!
The other attractions in Hollywood Studios had waits surrounding 20 minutes.
Alien Swirling Saucers
Toy Story Mania, Alien Swirling Saucers, and Muppet*Vision 3D averaged 24 minutes, Star Tours — The Adventures Continue averaged 25 minutes, and Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy averaged 26 minutes.
Want to see the NEW Star Tours scenes? Click here!
Since Hollywood Studios is often one of the most popular parks in a reopened Disney World, reservations tend to fill up earlier than any of the other parks. This accounts for the slightly higher wait times on many of the attractions and the fact there are no low averages. Also, Hollywood Studios doesn’t have as many attractions as a park like Magic Kingdom, so rides tend to get congested.
Check out the latest news in Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
As usual, the Pandora — Land of Avatar attractions had the longest waits in Animal Kingdom with a 66-minute wait at Avatar Flight of Passage and a 55-minute wait at Na’vi River Journey.
Pandora
The latter’s average went up by 8 minutes since last week!
Click here to ride along with us on a reopened Flight of Passage in Disney World!
Thrill rides at the park take the next highest category! Expedition Everest had an average of 31 minutes, DINOSAUR had an average of 33 minutes, and Kilimanjaro Safaris had an average of 27 minutes.
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Coming in with fairly low waits, Kali River Rapids averaged 12 minutes, and It’s Tough to Be a Bug averaged 20 minutes.
Kali River Rapids
The lowest wait was over in Dinoland U.S.A. at Triceratop Spin with a 6-minute average.
Dinoland USA
Animal Kingdom does not have too many attractions and Flight of Passage is still one of the most wildly popular attractions in Disney World, so it makes sense that it came in at over an hour. Still, it’s totally possible to ride EVERYTHING in Animal Kingdom in one day with these averages!
Here’s the latest news in Disney’s Animal Kingdom
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Reminder to readers that this article references the AVERAGE wait times. End of the day short wait times bring the average down. I was at Disney last week and during the day, the wait times in reality are much longer…Frozen Ever After was a 95 minute wait even at night. Smugglers Run was a 90 -120 minute wait and even the carousel at times was a 45 minute wait. Our trip was planned pre covoid and I referenced many articles like this to determine if we should go and feel they don’t represent what it is really like. Wait times are marginally shorter than normal off season wait times. They are not as short as this article makes it seem. Also it is incredibly difficult to get food. A lot of restaurants and stands are closed so mobile ordering is the best option but often leads to large non social distanced crowds gather to pick up food around meantime’s. If your lucky enough to have gotten reservations that’s good, but if you didn’t get them beforehand, you aren’t going to be able get them there- I tried. Also the walk up wait list is literally full the second the parks open…in hindsight, I would have waited until things are more open and fast passes are back.
When we were at Epcot on Thursday afternoon, the wait for Living With the Land was 35 minutes (probably to see the lights in the display). Frozen was long every time we saw it on our last three trips (Oct, Nov and Dec). Jingle Cruise was really long and even Tiki Room was long. Monday in the MK last week had long lines.
I was there Thanksgiving. The wait times for some rides were long, but I enjoy my family and their ability to hold a conversation. We had so much fun. Mobile ordering is easy. I’d go again in a heartbeat at Christmas if it was in the budget!!