Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2021 in Disney World!
It’s still one of the busiest times of the year, with folks celebrating New Year’s and many on holiday breaks from work or school. So we’re taking a look at the average wait times in ALL FOUR PARKS! Let’s see how this week compared to last week, and which wait times were surprisingly low or high.
Magic Kingdom
After taking the top spot for highest wait time during Christmas week in Disney World, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train went up to an average of 77 minutes! This is two minutes higher than last week, however this is NOT the longest average wait this week!
Several other popular attractions at Magic Kingdom had lengthier waits, but not nearly as long as Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
Space Mountain averaged 53 minutes, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad averaged 48 minutes, Jungle Cruise averaged 49 minutes, Splash Mountain averaged 50 minutes, and Pirates of the Caribbean averaged 41 minutes.
Get the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad 40th Anniversary MagicBand online!
With average waits in the 30s, we have “it’s a small world” and Peter Pan’s Flight at 37 minutes, Astro Orbiter and Prince Charming Regal Carrousel at 34 minutes, and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin at 32 minutes.
Overall, almost every attraction’s averages have gone down by about a minute. They stayed basically the same from Christmas week, but we were still surprised at how low some of the times were!
Take a look at the “it’s a small world” makeover!
Under the Sea — Journey of the Little Mermaid (18 minutes), Haunted Mansion (18 minutes), Barnstormer (22 minutes), Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (23 minutes), and Mickey’s PhilharMagic (26 minutes), all had fairly short average wait times!
We also saw shorter wait times at Country Bear Jamboree with 4 minutes, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Dumbo the Flying Elephant and Mad Tea Party with 13, Carousel of Progress with 12 minutes, and Tomorrowland Speedway with 15 minutes.
And some attractions continued to have a 0-minute average wait including Swiss Family Treehouse, Enchanted Tiki Room, and Hall of Presidents.
Several Magic Kingdom attractions went up in wait times and several went down, but overall they stayed approximately the same. Magic Kingdom is a hotspot for the holidays, especially on days like New Year’s Eve, so it made sense that the times stayed about the same as during Christmas.
Click here to see the latest in Magic Kingdom
EPCOT
After Seven Dwarfs Mine Train took the top spot from Frozen Ever After last week, we are here to report that it is STILL not the longest wait time in Disney World, or even in EPCOT!
Test Track takes the TOP SPOT in Disney World this week with an 84-minute average! This average is significantly higher than last week, as it went up by 25 minutes! Looks like people wanted to race into the new year.
Take a look at the crowds on New Year’s Day in Disney World
Soarin’ at 55 minutes also went up by a LOT because the average increased by 22 minutes! Frozen Ever After at 43 minutes, and Mission: SPACE at 61 minutes had pretty lengthy wait times this week.
Attractions with fairly decent wait times in EPCOT included, Spaceship Earth at 29 minutes, Journey into Imagination with a 23-minute average, Gran Fiesta Tour had a 12-minute wait, Living with the Land had a 11–minute average, and The Seas with Nemo and Friends had a 14–minute average.
All of the films around EPCOT (Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival, Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along, Awesome Planet, Impressions de France, Reflections of China) and American Adventure averaged a 0-minute wait.
We were shocked at how low some of these average wait times were in EPCOT! Maybe people were enjoying the booths and entertainment for the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays instead of riding attractions? Frozen Ever After was the biggest shock of them all since it had the longest wait on property for three weeks in a row!
Click here to see the latest updates at EPCOT
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
This week, Slinky Dog Dash had a 63-minute average. Even though this average is higher than last week, it was beat by one-minute as the top spot for Hollywood Studios!
Reminder: Rise of the Resistance isn’t included since the virtual queue gets rid of traditional wait times.
See the latest The Rise of the Resistance boarding group change Disney World
Tower of Terror took the crown in this park for the week with 64 minutes. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run was not far behind with 61 minutes.
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, although it’s been down since New Year’s Day, came in at 46 minutes, and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway came in at 35 minutes, which are pretty standard times for these attractions.
Get more details on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster’s temporary closure!
The other attractions in Hollywood Studios had pretty average wait times.
Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy averaged 30 minutes, Star Tours — The Adventures Continue averaged 34 minutes, Toy Story Mania averaged 32 minutes, Alien Swirling Saucers averaged 27 minutes, Muppet*Vision 3D averaged 29 minutes.
We tend to see higher wait times across the board at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, since it is one of the more popular parks in Disney World. Between reservations filling up, and a limited number of attractions, we’re usually going to see pretty high wait times and not many low ones!
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 74-minute wait at Flight of Passage and a 61-minute wait at Na’vi River Journey.
Both Na’vi River Journey and Flight of Passage’s averages went up by 10 minutes this week!
Check out the new GOATS on Kilimanjaro Safaris!
Thrill rides at the park are still taking the next highest wait times! DINOSAUR had an average of 41 minutes, Expedition Everest had an average of 31 minutes, and Kilimanjaro Safaris had an average of 34 minutes.
The wait times above went up and were much higher than last week overall. Coming in with fairly average waits, It’s Tough to be a Bug averaged 23 minutes and Kali River Rapids averaged 20 minutes.
The lowest wait again was over in Dinoland U.S.A. at Triceratop Spin with a 6-minute average.
With these wait times, it’s totally possible to ride EVERYTHING in Animal Kingdom in one day! It is interesting how some times spiked during the week of New Year’s but went down during Christmas week, especially since this was not the case for a lot of attractions in other parks.
Here’s the latest news in Disney’s Animal Kingdom
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Have you been to Disney World on New Year’s Eve? Let us know in the comments!
Ann Judge Schenke says
looking at the wait times for the rides has convinced me to cross Disney world and Disney Land off my list of places to go with my children.
Mark says
I have a screen shot of the wait time for Avatar FOP on MDE from two years ago today (1/4/19)- 255 minutes!!
I couldn’t believe people were actually standing in line for 4 hours- that is like 1/3 of the day the park is open. It was insane.
It was right at the very start of South American tourist season and also the last Friday of Christmas break for most of the US. All of the parks were nuts until Monday.