You’ve probably heard us mention that your Disney World experience can vary wildly depending on what time of year you visit.
Magic Kingdom
Weekends and holidays tend to be the busiest, and we often see crowds start to dissipate come January and early September. But, it doesn’t look like that’s the case just yet. The crowds are still out in Disney World — and we think we might just know why!
The holiday season has been BUSY at the Disney World parks, and we’ve been keeping up with the crowds and wait times to help you prepare. Since New Year’s Day fell on Sunday, many folks still had today off from work — and it looks like they might be spending it in Disney World. We were faced with quite the crowd as we walked down Main Street, U.S.A.!
Magic Kingdom
And over in Adventureland, things were starting to get pretty congested throughout the morning and into the afternoon. But, in addition to it being an extended holiday weekend for many, there’s one MAJOR reason why we’re seeing increased wait times and more crowds.
Adventureland
Up until TODAY, most Disney World Annual Passes were blocked out for the holiday season — except for the Incredi-Pass. This means that now, all four Annual Pass tiers have access to the parks, provided they have valid theme park reservations. Since today is an observed holiday, it could be that APs are taking advantage of the day off and spending it in Disney World. We certainly can’t blame them!
Frontierland
We checked out the crowds over at EPCOT, and while we were waiting in line to scan in, we heard a few people behind us mention that they were APs and today was their first non-blackout day of the year. You can see that the lines to enter the park stretched all the way back past the ticket booths at one point!
Entrance to EPCOT
Spaceship Earth saw quite the queue as well, and reached a 60-minute wait early in the day…
Spaceship Earth
…while over at Test Track, the line was long and only getting longer. At one point, the ride had a two-hour long standby wait. It wasn’t just attractions with long waits either, as several Mobile Order locations had return windows that were an hour or more out.
Test Track
Several attractions boasted wait times of an hour or more throughout the parks — so if you’re in Disney World today, we hope you packed your patience!
©Disney
Of course, there’s always the option to spend the extra money for Disney Genie+, which allows guests to skip the standby lines for an additional fee. Plus, Individual Lightning Lanes grant access to popular rides on a pay-per-ride basis. If you’re heading to Disney World soon and want to avoid long wait times, consider getting to the parks at rope drop — right when they open — or getting in line during meal times or special events like parades and fireworks.
Genie+
We’ll continue to keep an eye on crowds and wait times throughout Disney World, so stay tuned to DFB for more!
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AJ, great job as always! Keep up the great work.
I just want to comment about our last trip to Disney World. We were there the week after Christmas. I came away thinking is it worth it? The magic is gone now, it has been repped away by a CEO button pushing disconnected board that has lost track of Walt’s vision. We paired extra for 30-40 minute lightening lanes for a few of our favorite rides. After the rides and a couple meals I walked away feeling like I never found the magic of Walt’s vision. The magic begins with the cast members that make contact with the guest second only to the ambiance. Pay the cast members, don’t over work them and take care of them like the valuable commodity they are.
I’m still that little boy laying in front of the tv watching Walt Disney and hoping some day to visit that magical place he talked about.
I hope those in charge can bring back the magic of Walt’s vision. When I was leaving the Magic Kingdom in the late 70s I saw a little boy ask his dad “Daddy is this real?”, that’s the magic we need back.
its not doable anymore, seaworld is so much easier and nicer, disney has created a monster with the genie mess and mobile order mess, reservation entry junk, its all being controlled by pencil pushers and your no longer allowed to enjoy anything. its time to take the money elsewhere for these reasons and many others. Disney doesn’t have the capacity for the mess they are implementing. nickel and dime right down to the penny . running it like they are going out of business is not the answer and a rotten way of doing business. wont even start on them being too cheap to run the trams.
P.S. without an active festival, there aren’t many food options and less to do other than rides!
I agree with both comments. Disney isn’t Walt Disney’s Magic any more. Just another money grabbing dirty amusement parks that cares more about their stockholders than the families who leave the parks exhausted, frustrated, (disappointed.)(Not sustainable) as the baby boomers who grew up with the Disney Magical Perfection will not be coming back with their grand babies who would prefer to go else where. Our Once Happy Place has become a place of horrific lines price gouging and so many rules on how to navigate through this nightmare you need to BUY a novel to figure it out. Disneys Management doesn’t seem to realize Disney is a vacation were we’d leave our stresses behind, not survived. ALL the people I know and talk to who have recently gone say they’ll never go again.You gave us steak+, replaced it with fatty burgers on stale buns, paying extra for condiments , topped with a heaping serving of frustration and anxiety for 3 + times the price. The wealthy, Disney seems to be catering to are going elsewhere also! I think you bit the hands that fed you and we don’t care to repeat the experience. In the long run it will prove to be a BIG BIG MISTAKE! Not only Disney’s loss but sadly our loss too!