The landscape of Disney World is changing and we’re kinda here for it!
Magic Kingdom
On August 7th, the Walt Disney Company an earnings report revealed lower demand for the company’s domestic theme parks, including Disney World. Calling it “flat” theme park attendance, Disney Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston suggested that the theme park business is in a healthy spot, but slowing down at a tolerable rate. With massive expansions involving several beloved IPs on the horizon, this bump in the road is not expected to be permanent, so for those looking to take advantage of lower Disney World attendance, now’s the time.
Going to Disney World when it’s empty or experiencing favorably low attendance is not particularly common. Now, it’s possible to find those kinds of days where you breathe a little easier, wait a little less, and have ample room to move your arms and legs. If you plan on taking advantage of those lower crowds in Disney World, there are nine NEW rules you should keep in mind during your visit.
Forgo Rope Drop
We’ve already suggested skipping rope drop in the past, as it’s not for everyone. Rope-dropping a theme park is simply showing up before the park opens so you can beeline it to popular attractions and beat the afternoon crowds. However, rope-dropping requires guests to wake up early and compete against other rope droppers, so it’s not without its pitfalls.
Everyone tends to head for the BIG rides at rope drop.
Still, rope-dropping can be necessary at times, especially when you want to jam a full itinerary into one busy day. If wait times are going to be miserable all day and you can’t leave Disney World without riding every attraction possible, then you’re sort of backed into a corner when it comes to rope drop.
Crowds can be pretty hefty at rope drop!
Life is so much simpler when the crowds are lower. Rope drop becomes less of a necessity and you might actually be able to sleep in a little without missing a beat!
Ride Attractions Multiple Times
When it comes to the Disney Parks and must-ride attractions, more often than not you’ll be lucky if you traveled across the country and got to ride an E-ticket attraction ONCE. The reality is that you’ll wait somewhere close to an hour, experience an attraction for a few minutes, and then that’ll be it until your next visit.
Wait times can be LONG in Disney World
Even when you prioritize one park and visit it multiple times during a trip, you will experience limitations. Disney World wait times can get seriously long, and you can find yourself having only experienced a couple attractions in the span of four hours. With hours of operations, bathroom breaks, shopping excursions, dining reservations, and wait times impeding how much of your time you actually spend on rides, it’s very difficult to ride something more than once.
The lines can get REALLY long!
Of course, with lower attendance naturally comes lower wait times, allowing you more opportunities to ride your favorite rides more than once. Sometimes you’ll be even lucky enough to hop right on several rides without much of a wait at all! Life gets even better if you utilize Lightning Lanes to secure quick entry before you hop back into a short standby queue for your next ride-through!
Don’t Give Up on Dining Reservations
Doing Disney World without Advanced Dining Reservations is incredibly challenging. Dining reservations fill up fast, especially during the busiest parts of the year. Trying to find something last minute is a stressful endeavor that typically doesn’t yield huge amounts of success.
©Disney
With less competition for dining windows, getting reservations, in theory, should be easier when the attendance is lower.
Homecomin’
The old Disney World rule still applies — make your Advanced Dining Reservations when eligible. However, when park attendance is down, don’t be discouraged if you’re looking for a last-minute reservation. Keep checking the My Disney Experience app and don’t give up — your odds have never been better!
Shop Longer
Disney World can be so crowded at times that shopping becomes a real chore. Between bumping bodies in tight store spaces and being pressed for time as people line up behind you to scope the shelves, it’s not always easy shopping at the Disney Parks.
Crowded store
When attendance lowers, stores all of a sudden have more breathing room, negating tons of anxiety while providing a more relaxed shopping environment. You don’t have to worry about bumping elbows as much as you can take your time before you decide to spend a pretty penny.
The Emporium at Magic Kingdom
If shopping at the Disney World parks is an absolute MUST for you, circling less-crowded days on your calendar would be a wise move.
Find a Last-Minute Spot for Entertainment
Nothing brings a crowd together like a parade or show. Often, you’ll find folks camping out hours in advance for a parade or fireworks. If you don’t set aside a ton of time for these events, you may miss out or be relegated to not-so-good views.
Magic Kingdom
Having to stake your claim to a spot early obviously negates time to do literally anything else. In short, it’s often a waste of time unless you and your family prioritize the parades and entertainment. However, there are times when you can have your cake and eat it too. When attendance is lower, you’re more likely to be able to get decent viewing spots without having to wait hours in advance.
Fireworks
There’s nothing quite like hopping off a ride and then hearing the music for a parade start and being able to find a last-minute opening to view the parade. When it’s all coming together like that, park days are simply bliss.
Ride Attractions You Often Skip to Make Time
When visiting Disney World, we often recommend making a list of must-ride attractions. It’s impossible to do everything during a single visit to Disney World, and therefore prioritizing certain experiences is the way to go.
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
This not only applies to smaller, less popular rides but to rides that have consistently ridiculous wait times, as well. Time management at Disney World is everything and often we must choose to wait in line versus riding other rides or ride other rides versus waiting in line for an E-ticket attraction. Either way, time management forces sacrifice.
Slinky Dog Dash
The decision becomes easier when the parks aren’t as hectic. Instead of doing one or the other, less attendance allows you to ride more rides. Less wait times, shorter lines, and overall less demand open up more possibilities and you’ll find yourself having to sacrifice less. Go ahead and mix things up!
Meet Characters
Just like rides and shows, character meet-and-greets garner long lines during busy times. If you or your family aren’t Disney character-obsessed, these lines can be so off-putting that you avoid them altogether.
Meet-and-greet queue
Of course, demand obviously drops when attendance lowers a bit, but characters still make the rounds. When the parks are experiencing a lull in attendance, it can feel like you can meet your favorite characters quite easily!
Hi, Merida!
Another perk of meeting characters on less busy days is that you don’t have to pick and choose which characters you have time for. Simply hop in line to meet a character with a low wait and be sure to collect those autographs!
Visit More Food Booths
EPCOT is home to several amazing festivals every year that naturally attract tons of guests. Featuring fantastic flavors from all around the world, these booths are huge hits and often collect long lines.
2024 India Booth
While these lines can ease up as the festivals progress, nothing’s ever certain. That said, lower attendance days might give you the opportunity to try some of the more popular food booths without a long wait.
Shorter food booth lines in 2024
When you see something you want to try and the booth line is short, go for it! And be sure to check back here at DFB for our recommendation of the best eats for each festival to get some inspiration and ideas!
Use More Popular Bathrooms
Disney World is essentially made up of lines for everything — including bathrooms! Believe it or not, several Disney World bathrooms get extra busy.
Some of our favorite EPCOT bathrooms are in the UK Pavilion.
We keep tabs on the busiest Disney World bathrooms and typically avoid those, but on days where crowds aren’t a problem, breaking the norm and heading in is OK.
Tangled Bathrooms
The Tangled bathrooms in Magic Kingdom can get pretty busy, for example, but it’s ok to pay them a visit when crowds aren’t a factor!
You Have To Take a Secret Train To the BEST Bathrooms in Disney World
And there you have it! Which rules did we miss? Which ones did we absolutely nail? Let us know in the comments and continue to follow us here at the Disney Food Blog for all the latest Disney World news, tips, reviews, and more!
Disney CEO Bob Iger Predicts Theme Park Attendance Will Go DOWN — Here’s Why
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Down?? Parks are packed lol
We are big fans of and big believers in table service and ADRs. However, there are many delightful quick service restaurants as well. By visiting at less busy times of the year, quick service is much more enjoyable. One of the other things that we love about less busy times of the year is Cast Members have much more time and energy to spend with guests, sharing stories, information, and general Disney magic. We have had so many wonderful interactions with Cast Members because we were the only ones in a shop or a restaurant for a long while. Even at some of the less popular attractions, or even the popular ones when it’s late or there’s been a downpour, Cast Members have the time and liberty to make it special for the few (or only) guests who are there.
I’ve been to WDW 3 times in the past 2 months and can tell you that the parks are as crowded as ever. Even early access lines are backed up. WDW has over 30,000 resort rooms and they are at capacity. I’m heading back again in a few weeks and expect huge crowds at all the parks. On September 21 Epcot was at full capacity and unless you had a reservation or a day pass bought you were shut out
I gave up on parades! Under 5’ tall, I need a front row spot which I used to claim as long as an hour before. But No! Some late-arriving pushy mom shoves her kids in front of me-every time. One time I was on the curb, so the cm’s told the kids who got in front of me out on the street to move off the street. So they sat on my feet. Mama suddenly did not speak or understand English when I yelled to get them off my feet.
I used to go up to the train station platform and hold onto the railing— they worked! Until WDW decided to turn that into a money-making party; no ticket- go back down to the street.😢
Well attendance is down everywhere yet from 2022 to 2023 every Disney park saw growth besides Epcot yet Universal and Islands saw saw attendance lower.
It’s surely easier to meet princesses on less crowded days, but I met [all] 9 princesses at Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day 2014, possibly the busiest day of the year. (Mulan, Pocahantas, and Snow White didn’t appear at MK.)
Lower your prices for senior citizens. I’ve been coming for 45 years with my children and grandchildren. My kids and grandchildren still come every few years because of the expenses. My husband and I are DVC OWNERS AND CAN’T AFFORD THE TICKETS. WE ARE COMING IN OCTOBER BUT CANNOT GO TO THE PARKS BECAUSE OF THE PRICE OF THE TICKETS YOU SHOULD OFFER SENIOR CITIZEN PRICES FOR OUT OF STATE.
No rule follower here. Years ago we did do rope drop. Never paid no will I ever pay for Lightening Lane! Money grabber! Won’t pay for Genie + either! Disney park tickets are expensive enough and should include fast passes as it used to!