food IS a theme park
Disney Dreams That Soar is a new nighttime drone show that just premiered at Disney Springs!
©Disney
The show features Disney stories that celebrate “the joy of flight with state-of-the-art drones choreographed to create designs in the sky” all paired with a “soaring” musical score interspersed with movie quotes.” We caught the show the first night it premiered — and so did lots of other folks, which created a bit of a chaotic scene leaving after the show. But, how big are the crowds, really?
A week after things stayed stable at Walt Disney World, wait times across the resort trended downward over the past 7 days.
Frozen Ever After
Even some of the resort’s most in-demand rides fell slightly this week at 3 out of 4 Walt Disney World parks (we’re throwing a side-eye your way, Animal Kingdom). Also notably, Rise of the Resistance overtook Slinky Dog Dash for the highest average wait time at Hollywood Studios.
Things are about to get VERY busy in Disney World, but that’s not a BIG surprise.
The crowds are headed to Disney World
However, if you’ve never visited Disney World over a holiday weekend, you could be a little shocked by the crowds. Memorial Day brings in quite a few people, PLUS the Disney Memorial Day Soccer Tournament brings in even MORE people, so you need to be prepared before you step foot in the parks. You’ll also notice that the price of Genie+ will rise when Disney World expects crowds, and we’ve already seen Genie+ jump up in price as of today.
Although things have been relatively quiet in Disney World recently, at least since Spring Break, things are about to get a lot busier this weekend.
We expect to see a lot of people in Disney World this weekend
This weekend is Memorial Day weekend, which is pretty much the official start of summer. You know what that means, right? EVERYONE has plans to visit Disney World (well, maybe not EVERYONE, but a lot of folks). So we can safely expect that there will be big crowds at Disney World throughout the weekend.
After wait times EXPLODED last week, things got back to normal at Walt Disney World.
EPCOT
Wait times were pretty much what we expected this week, with one surprising exception: Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure overtook Frozen Ever After for the title of longest average wait time at EPCOT.
We still don’t have a lot of details about this year’s EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, but one thing we do know: We expect it to be VERY different this year.
2023 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival
For starters, Disney has moved the first date of the festival back to August 29th, which was around the time the festival started BEFORE 2020. However, we think this year’s festival is going to bring three BIG changes and we want to prepare you for those ahead of time because they will matter.
Let me tell you something. I like to sleep in. I like soft beds, dark rooms, and warm drinks. Do you know what I don’t like? Alarm clocks. Crowds. Rushing around. General chaos. ESPECIALLY on vacation. But when you’re spending all that money on Magic Kingdom park tickets, is it really right to snooze through valuable park time?
I’m not a morning person
If you hate chaotic mornings in Magic Kingdom but still want to make the most of your time in Disney World, you’re not alone. Sure, lots of people love to rope-drop the parks at the crack of dawn, but not everyone enjoys a busy morning. What can you do instead? Plenty! (And none of it requires a 6AM alarm!)
Waits increased pretty much across the board at Walt Disney World this week.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
The major attractions at the magic Kingdom and EPCOT both saw quantifiable increases in average wait times over the first full week of May. Not to be outdone, Animal Kingdom’s Flight of Passage – the ride with the highest average wait time in the whole resort – leapt up close to 100 minutes.
We have been seeing some unusual trends in Disney World parks crowds, and we noticed more strangeness going on today in Animal Kingdom.
Animal Kingdom
A few weeks ago, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios were sold out. It is rare to see Animal Kingdom sold out while reservations still remain for EPCOT and Magic Kingdom. Usually, Animal Kingdom is one of the last to sell out. But here we are again — seeing a similar trend at Animal Kingdom today!
Welcome to EPCOT. The park for people who love characters, rides (hello, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind), food (there’s a World Showcase FULL of great meals), and, of course, drinks. Yep, drinking around the world has become a pretty big thing in EPCOT, but there’s one special day in May that attracts even MORE people to this park. The crowds showed up at EPCOT on May 5th. Any guesses why?
EPCOT
May 5th is Cinco de Mayo, and while Disney didn’t announce any special Cinco de Mayo offerings, we spotted plenty of people in EPCOT ready to celebrate! Wait until you see what we mean.
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