We’ve reached the in-between season in Disney World!
Holiday crowds in Magic Kingdom
What’s the “in-between season” you may ask? Well, it’s the short time between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break when the parks are decked out for the holidays but there isn’t the same heavy surge of visitors as you’d get during a holiday break. So what are the crowds actually like during this time? We’re sharing our experience!
Let’s start out in Hollywood Studios, where we noticed this morning that the park was BUSY. Hollywood Boulevard was hopping with business first thing.
Hollywood Boulevard morning crowds
By the time we made it down Sunset Boulevard, Tower of Terror was closed due to technical difficulties. That didn’t stop a large group of people from hanging out in the area, waiting for it to come back up though.
Crowds near Tower of Terror
However, the worst offender for crowds was Toy Story Land by FAR! This part of the park was shoulder-to-shoulder in some spots. We had to do some serious weaving to get through there.
Toy Story Land was PACKED!
In the afternoon, we stopped by Magic Kingdom, where the crowd was pretty thick for a performance of Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire, despite the glaring sun. (It’s still pretty warm here in Florida!)
People watching the stage show
We made our way back to Frontierland, only to discover that Big Thunder Mountain was closed…also due to technical difficulties. Rough day for Disney World rides!
Big Thunder is closed!
But don’t worry — Splash Mountain was getting plenty of business! This ride is set to close on January 21st to be transformed into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, so we expect it to be pretty popular in the coming weeks. It was a 95-minute wait in the afternoon.
Lots of people waiting!
And speaking of things with long waits, we noticed a couple of rides had queues that were spreading out into the walkway. That was the case with Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square…
Haunted Mansion queue
…as well as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. This one is usually a pretty short wait!
Line for the PeopleMover
And in Magic Kingdom, the worst crowds were located in Adventureland, where there’s a bit of a bottleneck near Jungle Cruise. YEESH!
Very packed over here!
The surprising thing is that even though the crowds were bad today…the wait times weren’t! Midday, there weren’t any rides in Disney World with waits over 2 hours and some of the heavy hitters were hovering around an hour-long wait instead.
Jingle Cruise had the highest wait in the middle of the afternoon! ©Disney
Despite the multiple ride closures, the wait times were definitely bearable. Interesting indeed!
We’ll continue to watch the crowds and wait times throughout the holiday season, so stay tuned to DFB for the latest updates. We’ll make sure to share all our best tips with you!
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Hi. We spent this past week at Disney with family. Lots of fun but Thursday was a killer in MK. Craziest day all week. Thank goodness we spent Sunday evening at the Very Merry Christmas Party. Lines werent long at all if any. You have to pay the price though. Epcot on Tues wasn’t bad at all. But we didnt wait for rides. The times were crazy. 70 to 90 min on popular rides. Animal kingdom on Monday was very crowded we waited 80 min for the Safari ride because the time Genie plus offered was to close to dinner reservations. So. It’s gotten difficult to figure things out. The first week in Dec was usually pretty good but things have changed. We had a great time though
We went on Wednesday 12/7 to Hollywood Studios park and it was very busy, much more so than a week before when we went.
Both days we saw Fantasmic’s first show which drew a capacity crowd for the spectacular update! It’s indeed worth the climb and wait!
We plan to go again this coming Wednesday, 12/14, this time to the Magic Kingdom. I’m sure it will be a crowded day but I’m anxious with hope that the Disney Railroad will be either reopened or at least testing.
Along with the late Uncle Walt, I am a lover of all Disney Trains!