Hurricane Ian is on its way to Florida, and it’s very likely that the storm will have some impacts on Disney World.
©ABC News
A Hurricane Watch is in effect for both Orange County and Osceola County, which is where Disney World is located. This means that hurricane conditions are possible within the next 48 hours. A Tropical Storm Warning remains in effect as well. Disney World has already announced some closures due to the storm, and Orlando airports are closing as well. So, with the Hurricane expected to make landfall in Florida soon, are people still at Disney World? Let’s take a look.
We’ve seen that Disney World hotels are showing no availability this week, so that either means the hotels are completely booked up or Disney has removed availability in order to limit the amount of guests on the property. We were curious to see if people would still be trying to take advantage of the parks before the storm, so we went to check things out today, Tuesday, September 27th.
First, we headed into EPCOT. Before we got into the park, things didn’t seem too crowded.
Outside EPCOT
There were a decent amount of people at the front of World Showcase going toward Mexico…
Pretty chill
…but this area in front of the pavilion which usually acts as a bottleneck that gets very crowded wasn’t busy at all.
This area can get pretty packed
However, once we got to Norway, we saw that the wait to meet Anna and Elsa was 55 minutes…
Oof!
…and the wait time for Frozen Ever After was a whopping 150 minutes! So it seems like there are definitely a lot of people here.
YIKES!
The walkways themselves didn’t seem very crowded though.
Kind of strange compared to the wait times
Next, we moved on to Animal Kingdom, and even though the entrance wasn’t busy…
Entrance to Animal Kingdom
…we saw a lot of people moving toward the Tree of Life once we got inside.
Oh?
The walkways were a mix of not very crowded…
Not bad
…to significantly crowded.
Interesting
And, inside Starbucks, there was a very long line. But, note that construction is also going on in the middle of the store, which gives people less room than usual.
It’s gonna be a while for that coffee
Things seemed pretty moderate for crowds…
Medium crowds
…except in certain areas, like in Africa, where we found a LOT of people.
WHOA!
But, other than that, things were totally manageable.
Other parts of the park are chill
DinoLand U.S.A. was also very quiet.
Not super surprising for DinoLand
Over in Magic Kingdom, there were a decent amount of people lined up at the front of Main Street, U.S.A. for the Festival of Fantasy Parade, but it wasn’t overwhelming, or even what we’d normally see for a busy day.
A good amount of people
Everyone was able to get a pretty good view!
Alice and the Mad Hatter
BREAKING NEWS: Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld, and more local theme parks have announced multi-day closures ahead of Hurricane Ian. Airports in the Orlando area are closing as well. Disney World will close its theme parks and water parks on Wednesday, September 28th, and Thursday, September 29th. Disney Springs will be closed on Wednesday, September 28th. They expect Disney Springs will also be closed on Thursday, September 29th, but more updates on that will be coming soon.
Get all the details on the Disney World closure HERE!
We’ll let you know if we see any other significant crowds throughout the day. And, we’ll be keeping you updated with more info on the Hurricane and Disney World as it comes.
For more on Hurricane Ian, check out the following posts:
- Orlando Airports CLOSING in Preparation for Hurricane Ian
- Hurricane Watch in Effect for Disney World as Hurricane Ian Approaches Florida
- Disney Cruise Line Comments on Potential Impacts of Hurricane Ian
- Hurricane Ian Prompts CHANGE in Dining Cancelation Policy for Disney World
- NEWS: Disney World Closing Select Hotels and Experiences Ahead of Hurricane Ian
Stay tuned to DFB for more Disney World news and updates.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Hurricane Cancelation Policies and Refunds in Disney World
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I was at Epcot the day they’re reporting on, and the wait time to meet Elsa has nothing to do with anything:
There was nobody in the park, and there were like no wait times for ANYTHING! I mean, 5 minutes for SOARIN’!?
After two dozen visits here, this was absolutely…by far…the best, most relaxing time of all. And to top it off?
Heavy overcast all day, so nice and cool. And only a slight drizzle starting around 8pm.
We were in the park that day. The wait for the Frozen ride was 30 minutes until all the lightning lanes appeared and it shot up to 90 minutes. By the time we left it was 150 minutes. For every standby group they let in 30 LL