Something STRANGE happened in Disney World.
Main Street, U.S.A.
May 29th, 2023, marked the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, which can often bring BIG crowds to Disney World and other theme parks. While we did see some crowds and the Genie+ price increased to the highest it has been in weeks, the wait times in the parks were SURPRISING.
There were some fairly large crowds at the entrance to Magic Kingdom right when it opened.
Memorial Day MK crowds
But once inside the park, things weren’t all that bad. At least, people weren’t packed in like sardines, walking shoulder-to-shoulder to their next ride.
A look down Main Street, U.S.A.
At around 11:30AM on May 29th, we spotted a 65-minute wait for Haunted Mansion — fairly lengthy but only just over an hour, so not too bad. By 12:10PM, things were still looking pretty good. Is that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad we see with a 35-minute wait?!
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And Pirates of the Caribbean at just 25 minutes?!
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What about a trip on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh with a wait of just 20 minutes…
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…or a stop at the PeopleMover with just a 5-minute wait?! Sign us up!
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Things at EPCOT weren’t bad either, with Spaceship Earth at 30 minutes, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at under an hour, and only Test Track with a wait time of over an hour.
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We checked the wait times again around 4:45PM, and still, things weren’t all that terrible.
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Thunder Mountain was at a 15-minute wait(!!)…
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…Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run was at a 25-minute wait…
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…and even the reopened Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster AND Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance had a wait of less than 60 minutes.
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The longest wait times were 80 minutes at Slinky Dog Dash, 90 minutes at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and 115 minutes at Avatar Flight of Passage.
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That’s not to say there weren’t any crowds at all, but our reporters shared that the parks (especially Magic Kingdom) felt much emptier than they expected.
Disney did note that they anticipate some park results would be “unfavorable” in this back half of their fiscal year compared to last year since the 50th Anniversary celebration has ended. And it’s possible that Disney also more heavily limited Park Pass availability today, though none of the Park Passes filled up. It’s also possible that people were taking advantage of this day to fly home before work begins again on Tuesday.
Crowds
What do you think? Are the crowds bigger or smaller than you anticipated? Tell us in the comments.
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What surprised you the most about these wait times? Tell us in the comments.
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Haunted Mansion was only that long because the ride was down until 11am.
I think smaller crowds on a holiday should be a huge wake-up call for Disney. People are finding less expensive places to have fun. It may not be as magical as we thought. Cast members still employed are probably unhappy at having more work piled on them and the happy faces we used to see are not as abundant. Long waits in line can ruin your day. Since we stopped going to The Magic and gave our DVC points to a young family with kids, I don’t even recognize some of the things you reference. And my Disney stock is indicating major problems.However, I do like The Disney Food Blog and always read it. We still have Disney snowglobes, cookie jars, cookbooks, cells, clocks, rugs, and so much more. Thanks.
What was going on with Disney springs yesterday, we couldn’t get in. . It was around 1:00 and all the garages were full . The line before security was so bad it was backed up so far I have never seen it like that . They weren’t letting anyone in .
I haven’t been to WDW since 2010. We are finally going this mid-October for our first kid-free vacation there and to celebrate our honeymoon. We are once or twice in a lifetime visitors, so this is great news for us because it sounds like the parks will be less crowded than in previous years. Thanks for all the updates.