Disney World’s Slow Summer Winds Down
With the arrival of August, Walt Disney World’s surprisingly soft summer season is winding down–meaning that crowds should fall even further with the unofficial arrival of the “fall” off-season and Halloween 2024 on the horizon. This wait times report covers ride & daily data for last month at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.
To reiterate, Walt Disney World has not been busy for the last few months. It’s been a slow summer at Orlando’s theme parks, as we discuss at length in Summer (Still) Is NOT High Crowds Season at Walt Disney World. That offers our theories as to why summer has been slower, as well as why it’s not really all that surprising and is a trend first observed in 2016-2018.
Nevertheless, the summer slowdown has been more pronounced than even we anticipated. But two things are certain: that summer has not been particularly crowded at Walt Disney World, and that in a normal year, August and September would be even less busy than June and July. So it’s not that the low crowds are ending–it’s that they’re on the precipice of dropping to their lowest levels of the year.
Before delving into the data, we want to offer some background as there always seems to be pushback against claims of lower crowds on a couple of bases. The first is from those who visited Walt Disney World recently and had experiences that they were suggestive of the parks being busy. Perceptions and expectations are what they are, so there’s really no arguing with or refuting that.
What I will simply say is that there’s no universal standard for crowd levels–it’s all relative. Some fans claim Walt Disney World is “always busy” now and “there’s no off-season.” This is not the perspective of crowd calendars. Obviously not, otherwise they’d be useless. “It’s always bad” is not a very helpful way of advising you as to which dates to visit, even if it’s much more concise.
In reality, there is a pronounced difference that anyone could feel between 1/10 days and 10/10 days, or even 3/10 versus 7/10 crowd levels. With that said, the parks are not veritable ghost towns (for the most part) allowing you to do snow angels on the ground at even the lowest levels. You will see rides with hour-plus posted wait times. You will encounter areas of congestion. “Uncrowded” at Walt Disney World means something different than it does at Yellowstone National Park or some random dying mall on the outskirts of town.
Nevertheless, it’s entirely understandable that guests would have firsthand experiences that suggest to them Walt Disney World was anything but “slow.” Perhaps their frame of reference is 2020, 2016, or even 2008–all times when the parks were less busy than this summer. Maybe they’ve never visited at all and were overwhelmed by the expectations vs. reality. Maybe they got unlucky with ride breakdowns. All of this does happen, so this type of skepticism makes sense.
Less sensible are the comments, mostly on social media, with a subtext suggesting we have some sort of agenda in wanting Walt Disney World attendance to be high or low. When we share data that crowds are increasing, some folks who are actively cheering for Disney to fail decry the reports as lies. When crowds are down, others do the same.
Walt Disney World crowds have (sadly) become a component of the culture wars. It’s very stupid. Even aside from culture wars, there’s the sense among many disgruntled Disney fans that the company needs to “learn a lesson,” whether that be courtesy of Epic Universe, lower crowds, or who knows what else. In any case, there’s no agenda here. Walt Disney World attendance is what it is. No amount of us discussing the topic puts our “thumb on the scale” to change that.
We’re obviously not the arbiters of attendance statistics, either. When it’s down, we report that. When it’s up, we also report that. (And that’ll happen in like 2 months!) This has been the case for years, so unless our “agenda” is like Two-Face from Batman, that argument doesn’t really pass muster. (Sorry for venting, the responses to these crowd reports have just gotten so tedious and annoying that I’ve pulled back from doing them as much as a result.)
In this particular case, it’s difficult to argue that we have an agenda in spreading “misinformation” about low crowds unless you also think that Disney CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston have the same agenda. During the last Walt Disney Company quarterly earnings call, both warned of a looming attendance slowdown for theme parks. Not only that, but Walt Disney World has been underperforming for several consecutive quarters as compared to the other parks and Disney Cruise Line.
If all of that sounds familiar, it should. This also isn’t the first, second, or even third time the company has directly addressed it and indicated that pent-up demand has been exhausted at some of the parks. No, the parks are not dead or ghost towns or totally empty, but they’re down as compared to the height of pent-up demand. As we’ve said before, this is hardly a five-alarm fire, and there are levers that Disney has been pulling to buoy bookings.
That last earnings call was back in May, so it’s old news at this point. Disney’s next earnings call is in a week (August 7), and that should provide additional details about the most recent quarter. In the meantime, Comcast just held its quarteryl earnings call last week, where the company revealed that revenue at Universal’s theme parks was down 11%.
Universal blamed the revenue drop on a few factors, including unfavorable comparisons to the pent-up demand period and an increase in other travel options, such as cruises and international tourism, given the strength of the dollar. They also attributed the decrease to a lack of new attractions in Orlando. In fact, two-thirds of the drop was tied to lower attendance at the company’s parks in Florida and California. Executives further indicated that this downtrend was likely to continue until the opening of Epic Universe in 2025.
There’s no reason to believe Disney or Comcast executives are wrong or lying about any of this. It goes without saying that Universal will see a rebound from Epic Universe. The big unknown is whether Disney also will–as a result of more people visiting Orlando and spending time at both–or if the downtrend will continue at Walt Disney World throughout 2025. But that’s beyond the scope of this post.
With that out of the way, let’s dig into the data and look at Walt Disney World wait times. As always, all graphs and stats are courtesy of Thrill-Data.com:
We’ll start with the monthly numbers for Walt Disney World as a whole. This covers every single month from January 2019 (far left) to July 2024 (far right), so you can see just current crowds compare to past ones.
It’s difficult to discern, but here are July numbers:
- July 2019: 7/10 crowds; 41 minute average wait time
- July 2020: 0/10 crowds; 14 minute average wait time
- July 2021: 6/10 crowds; 40 minute average wait time
- July 2022: 7/10 crowds; 41 minute average wait time
- July 2023: 4/10 crowds; 36 minute average wait time
- July 2024: 2/10 crowds; 30 minute average wait time
July 2020 was the start of the phased reopening, with attendance capped to such a degree that this data–and pretty much all dates from that month through May 2021–should be thrown out.
It’s also worth pointing out that the drop from 7/10 crowds in July 2022 to 2/10 crowds in July 2024 is “only” a difference of 11 minutes. That may not seem like much, but that’s how sensitive crowd levels are to shifts in wait times. (Also, 11 minutes for every single attraction is a big difference and it really adds up over the course of the day.)
To me, what’s most interesting about this is seeing a decrease every single month since February. In a normal year, there would be a noticeable spike for spring break and Easter, followed by a shoulder season slowdown and then summer spike (or two). Even with summers being less busy in the last decade, this was the dynamic we were seeing.
Instead, this year has shown a slow and steady decrease. It’s especially rare for May to be busier than July, which is something that never happens–but did in 2024! All of this is a big reason why we argued that Walt Disney World Needs ‘Summer Nightastic’ in 2025. Without making a concerted effort to turn the summer slowdown around, it’s only going to get worse with each passing year.
With the week by week view, we can see that crowds have been pretty constant this summer. There was a slight spike at the tail end of June, but even that only got numbers back to May levels.
One thing I do want to note is that Walt Disney World has been laying the foundation for the rollout of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass since May 20. It’s my strong belief that this has resulted in a gradual reduction of standby wait times over the course of June and July. I don’t have any way of corroborating this with data–it’s simply a mixture of my anecdotal observations and a bit of background knowledge.
Accordingly, it’s highly likely that the decrease in wait times is proportionally larger than the decrease in attendance (or feels like crowds, for that matter). By how much, I have no clue. But this probably is a decently significant factor and one that the crowd data is “missing,” since it’s only a measure of standby wait times…and not an explanation for them. (Hence our color commentary!)
Looking at the daily data, it’s a bit easier to spot the spike at the end of June, followed by another lull for the Independence Day holiday weekend. I’m not going to rehash the “why” of that–see Low Fourth of July Wait Times at Walt Disney World.
What’s also just barely visible is a slowdown this week after Monday (usually the busiest day of any given week at Walt Disney World). As we’ve said previously, the last week of July is usually the “last hurrah” of summer–with tourists taking vacations that week before getting ready for school in the weeks that follow.
It’s always possible that August sees a brief spike to start the month, but that’s not something we’ve observed in recent years. To the contrary, the first week of August has been slower than the last week of July with a fair amount of consistency. It used to be that mid-August was the end of the summer season–now that’s moved forward to the beginning of the month, or even the last few days of July.
We haven’t done park by park analysis in a while, but are going to return to it for this crowd report since it’s the last update before Party Season really throws a monkey wrench into things.
Let’s start with Magic Kingdom. The highest bars each week are almost always Mondays and Tuesdays, and sometimes Wednesday. Lowest are typically Saturdays and Sundays. As a general rule, though, Magic Kingdom is quieter, crowd-wise, than it was last year.
See Best & Worst 2024 Crowd Days at Magic Kingdom for a fool-proof list of the least and most crowded dates at Magic Kingdom between now and December 2024. This includes a handful of red flag dates to avoid at all costs.
As for this summer at Magic Kingdom, there was a bit of a spike during previews and around the opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, but not much. The reimagined ride hasn’t really moved the needle much on wait times, which is partially to be expected since it uses a virtual queue.
However, it’s still interesting because the ride has been down a lot, and the guests who could be riding it are (presumably) instead doing other things. It also doesn’t appear to be giving Magic Kingdom much of an attendance boost–there’s not nearly the impact as, say, TRON Lightcycle Run. This is less surprising. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is not brand-new, and its opening date was announced too late for a near-term boost from summer tourists.
I’m more curious about the long tail of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Among casual guests, is the reception positive or negative? How do its guest satisfaction scores compare to Splash Mountain? Are the downtime and reliability woes ‘breaking containment’ from the fan community and reaching the general public? I don’t have the answers to any of these questions. Honestly, it’s really difficult to assess anything about this attraction from the perspective of the average guest–rather than the polarized fan community.
Animal Kingdom has higher wait times on average, but it also has far fewer rides than Magic Kingdom.
Except on the very worst days of the year, Animal Kingdom is far and away the park at Walt Disney World where the crowds are the most “beatable.” So long as you arrive early or late, you absolutely do not need to buy Lightning Lane Multi Pass here.
If you’re going all out and have an unlimited budget, you may disagree. To each their own, I suppose. On the plus side, most guests do agree with us, which is why there aren’t tiers at Animal Kingdom and why it’s the cheapest park for LLMP and why it has the best inventory. You might want to think about all of that–and the why of that–before buying.
EPCOT wait times are the most interesting.
We always point out that EPCOT is the locals’ park, and Floridians are more likely to visit for festivals and atmosphere than rides. (If they don’t do rides, they don’t impact crowd levels–even if they do increase congestion or lines for food booths!) Locals are also more likely than tourists to cancel park plans at the last minute if the weather is bad–and it has been a hot and rainy month.
As a result of all this, wait times often don’t tell the full story at EPCOT. This summer, they do. At least, in our experience. EPCOT has been dead since June. There have been a few exceptions to that (per the wait times), but we weren’t there on any of those days, so I cannot speak to that.
This really makes me wonder whether Walt Disney World regrets the decision to shorten Flower & Garden and Food & Wine–or to not introduce a new summer festival. The internal thinking was that there were diminishing returns on the longer festivals, with locals getting “festival fatigue” the last couple years.
Well, I think this is one of those lessons that things can always get worse. It absolutely was true that locals lost interest in the overly long festivals. It’s also true that no festival at all is even worse for EPCOT attendance and wait times. (Again, weather is also a factor–but it’s not like last summer was nice!) I really wonder how Walt Disney World will adapt next year. Clearly, “Diet EPCOT” for nearly 3 consecutive months is not the answer. Ouch.
Finally, there’s Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
As always, this is the park with the highest average wait times in all of Walt Disney World, owing to its disproportionate number of headliners coupled with stage shows that post no wait times at all (and thus do not drag down averages). Summer has been fairly unremarkable at DHS. Slower than last August or this winter, but not significantly so.
I’m actually somewhat surprised that Disney’s Hollywood Studios didn’t see more of a decrease in the lead-up to the launch of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. Or maybe it did, and this data is what that looks like. The summer wait time average at DHS was almost 10 minutes lower than last year. It’ll be interesting to see whether this trend reverses. As we’ve noted, DHS has emerged early-on as the best park for LLMP. (See What’s Up with Lightning Lane Multi Pass Availability at Disney World?)
Looking forward, weather is likely to play an outsized role (even more so than normal for summer) in dictating crowd levels for the next couple of weeks. Meteorologists are forecasting highs in the mid-90s and rain every single day for as far out as the extended forecast goes. In other words, an average August for Central Florida! But wait, there’s more.
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), there’s a disturbance tracking through the northern Caribbean islands could form into Tropical Storm Debby as it crawls near the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Florida this weekend into early next week. Obviously, a lot could change between now and then with the storm system’s tracking, but regardless of where it goes, Florida will likely see a significant increase in rainfall this weekend into early next week.
I don’t know about you, but for me, the perfect way to usher in the start of Halloween season is…checks notes…a 93° high and triple-digit “feels like” temperature plus a tropical storm scare. That’s pretty much the forecast for the first Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party of the year. On a totally unrelated programming note, I’ve made the “difficult” decision to attend the D23 Expo in Anaheim, where highs will be in the mid-80s with lows in the mid-60s and zero chance of rain. I’ll catch MNSSHP later in the season.
Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks with crowds at Walt Disney World. Southern school districts will start going back into session within the next week; several major ones including Atlanta and the Gulf Coast had their first days today–August 1! In Central Florida, both Osceola and Orange County schools go back into session on August 12, 2024.
It’s possible that this week sees a bit of a last-minute surge of Southerners, but it’s also possible that the weather keeps a lot of locals sitting on the sidelines. Regardless of how this week plays out, there should be a more pronounced drop-off around the middle of the month (unless the weather gets really bad, in which case, it’ll arrive earlier) and next week. The following week should see an even sharper drop, heralding the unofficial start of the fall off-season at Walt Disney World.
As a general matter, it’s safe to expect off-season crowd levels even lower than the low points of June and July by next week. Average wait times should be at or below the 30 minute mark as of next week. That’s good enough for around 1/10 to 2/10 on the crowd calendar, which is not too shabby!
We’ll see whether the degree to which those predictions end up being accurate, or if Walt Disney World crowds and wait times throw us another curveball. We’ll continue monitoring crowds and report back in late August or early September after the start of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on late summer crowds at Walt Disney World? Predictions for August 2024 or fall off-season? If you’ve visited within the last month or so, what did you think of crowds? What about posted vs. actual wait times? Any parks, days of the week, or times of day noticeably worse than others? Do you agree or disagree with anything in our report? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Great article! I look forward to the wait times posts.
I have lived in Orlando for 30 years. My spouse and I work in the tourism industry.
This has been a tough year for booking tours in Orlando. Our August projections are HALF of what they were last year.
For 3 years, I’ve been hearing from previously reliable return guests that they’re not coming back to (specifically) Orlando for one reason- Governor DeSantis.
This is from both sides. Conservatives agreeing that Disney is “out of control” and doesn’t care about families, and more liberal groups saying they don’t feel safe in FL or they don’t want to spend money here till he’s gone.
Whichever side- it’s bad for Orlando.
Most of these families book their trips 1-2 yrs out, so we’re right on target for the slowdown.
Yes, school calendars have changed. It’s hotter in Orlando than years past and a few degrees can make a huge difference here. But our governor’s politics and outbursts have cost my family alone, tens of thousands of dollars.
I am excited about the new Universal Park and my tours are too!
BUT… Has anyone considered the water reclamation plant next door to the new park?
How will they deal with the smell? It’s an issue all around the area.
Thanks for the great article!
Just stumbled upon your blog as part of research for an upcoming Disney trip and glad I did. Really great insights! Based on what you’re seeing as far as lower attendance this summer and/or what has happened in recent years do you think there’s any chance Disney extends the 4-Park Magic Ticket special beyond the current 9/22 deadline and into October? Would that be something Disney could announce on their earnings call? My trip is planned for around the 3rd week of October so just wondering if it’s worth holding off for a few weeks before buying.
I wouldn’t say there’s no chance whatsoever, but I’d put rather low odds on it.
There’s plenty of precedent for winter, spring and summer ticket discounts. There is not for similar deals in October through December.
If there were a ticket deal, I’d expect something new rather than an extension of the existing offer. It would probably come with a higher price, different parameters, and blockout dates for holiday weekends and weeks. Even then, I think such an offer is unlikely. October through December are generally strong months for Walt Disney World. Sorry!
Good Commentary and good use of facts available. But the bottom line is simply: Crowd level and wait time, it’s all subjective to the person who is there. Slow to me may be fast to others, and vice versa. If you want to go there, go! If you don’t feel it is a good time for you, don’t go.
Hi Tom
We just got back home after a trip to Universal and WDW . Despite the heat, we found the crowds very manageable with lower than anticipated wait time. I actually felt the wait times were worse at Universal than Disney. We purchased 4 days of multipass (out of 8 day park tickets)which combined with hopper passes and some early park entry or late stay ( based on your advice) allowed us to ride everything. Most wait times seemed accurate except late at night…25 minute wait for 7DMT (posted 45 minutes), 10 minute wait for Space mountain ( posted 30 minutes). We loved Tiana’s ride ( waited 6 hours for our virtual cue to be called due to a 4 hour delayed opening of the ride). We had an exciting although exhausting trip! Thanks !
Disney knew summer was slowing down when they unblocked annual passholders for the summer months.
Thanks Tom – always enjoy your articles.
Lately we are empty nesters (of 4 kids). We are coming last week of January 2025 per your calendar. Hoping to reminisce and finally see more adult stuff just the two of us.
I’m curious, you said Sat & Sun were best and M T W were worst days for MK. Do you have a post of which days of the week are best for visiting each park.
Thanks again
Steve
I know you mentioned this at beginning of article, but me and my wife keeping wishing to go back to Disney World with our kids and have the magical vacation me and her had the second week of December 2008. That is my perception of a dead park as it was wonderful and wait times seemed like nothing. Will it ever be like that again?
Probably not without a global recession, financial crisis, terrorist attack, or global pandemic. Basically, any of the scenarios giving rise to crowd levels of that nature are things you wouldn’t want to hope for, as it means something catastrophic in real world terms.
In normal times, I can’t imagine that degree of slowness ever again. Things have changed so much since then.
Sorry you’re getting, or feeling, so much negative feedback on posts like these. I hope you will bear in mind that surely the majority of your readers (majority of everyone) just read “quietly” but appreciatively. I think it’s a real shame you have to spend a quarter of your post preemptively defending yourself. You shouldn’t. Who cares what the trolls say? I know that’s easier said than done. Anyway, I am sorry I don’t say “thank you” more often. I am confident that goes for vast majority of your readers. Speaking for myself, I find these kinds of posts among the least “fun” – in that it’s intrinsic to the statistical subject matter, and in that – as your trolls fail to note – facts are facts, so it’s not the kind of thing that allows thoughtful readers much room for opinion or insight.
But it’s also probably among the most USEFUL kind of post for planning future trips. I never miss these articles. Conversely the latest update to, say, “ten best burgers” is more fun and allows more comment-worthy discussion is also probably the least “essential” for long time readers and park visitors like me (though I will read that too…eventually).
I hope I’m being clear, I’ve rambled some: these posts are GREAT and don’t let the b******s grind you down.
Thank you.
Thank you thank you thank you.
Thanks for the kind words!
I’m well aware that selection bias is at play with the type of comments posts like this attract. Most people probably digest the info and have “no opinion” so they simply move on. And that’s fine! There’s absolutely no need to comment in such a scenario.
The preface probably reads overly defensive, but there’s also a purpose for that. For casual guests, it is important to have context and understand what crowd reporting/calendars actually do (and don’t do). Setting expectations is key, otherwise people see 2/10 crowd levels and assume the parks will be empty–leading to disappointment. That’s the exact opposite of my goal with this blog, so I seek to avoid that whenever possible.
I also don’t think everyone who has negative experiences with crowds at Walt Disney World even on dates that aren’t objectively the busiest is being a troll. There are very real reasons why a day or entire trip can go sideways, and I don’t want to be dismissive of those.
Anyway, appreciate the feedback and positive words!
Well said, Mark. I agree 100%!
Hi Tom.
Thanks for the report. We are a family from UK and visit every 1-2 years. We read and love all your blogs! The attendance reports are especially important for us and we find them to be accurate and helpful, and improve our holidays! Keep up the good work!
The confounding variable here is Disney’s DAS abuse crackdown. I don’t think we should underestimate the impact it has had on wait times. DAS allows users to effectively be in two places at once. If DAS accounted for 8+% of the guests and 50+% of LL swipes, Disney’s crackdown on the abuse was going to have a profound impact on wait times. Additionally, this explanation seems to harmonize the eye-witness reports about the number of people walking around the parks with the wait-time data. Disney’s DAS crackdown may have been one of the most effective and smart things it has done in a long time.
This is in there, albeit briefly and not by name as I’ve found any references to that draw criticism (lost count of how many times I was called “ableist” in response to the last crowd report, which had absolutely nothing to do with the policy change and was just remarking on causes of lower wait times).
Anyway, from the post:
“One thing I do want to note is that Walt Disney World has been laying the foundation for the rollout of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass since May 20. It’s my strong belief that this has resulted in a gradual reduction of standby wait times over the course of June and July. I don’t have any way of corroborating this with data–it’s simply a mixture of my anecdotal observations and a bit of background knowledge.”
Thanks, Tom! I appreciate that you not only look at the wait time time data to measure the crowds, but also look at the official statements of Disney during quarterly reports. While wait times aren’t a perfect measure and don’t accurately measure capacity during parades/major events/WS booths on festival weekends, for guests who experience the entire day at the parks they are a very important metric. Also, as you have shown over time wait times do fall in line with reports of WDW from the Disney company itself.
It’s really hard to come up with a better metric for total attendance, other than waiting (and waiting and waiting) for in-depth global attendance reports from from the Themed Entertainment Association and AECOM. Parking lots don’t measure total attendance well because they fail to account for most on-site guests who use various methods of Disney transportation to the parks. (Maybe in conjunction with wait times to estimate percentages of off-site guests?) Crowds at rope drop exist because gates exist and are closed before rope drop, as shown during those Early Early Magic Hours at HS where practically everyone who entered the Studios that day was there before 6AM. (One would probably need a TEA/AECOM level resources to stand at the gates and measure crowds after rope drop, and likely the wait to process the data would be as long.) The best thing is to do what Tom does: use wait time data and explain what the data means and how it should be used.
I’ve long suspected that both Disney and Universal are providing attendance numbers to TEA/AECOM. For one thing, I don’t think even they have the means of estimating attendance with a high level of accuracy (maybe a major Wall Street firm would, but that’s about it). For another, both companies are the biggest sponsors of TEA, and there’s this in the methodology section (end of the report):
“AECOM obtains the figures used to create the TEA/AECOM Theme Index and Museum Index through a variety of sources, including statistics furnished directly by the operators, historical numbers, financial reports, the investment banking community, local tourism organizations, and professional estimates where necessary.”
It’s interesting that Disney stopped furnishing these numbers during earnings calls/quarterly reports, but I suspect that’s because they want investors to focus on other numbers. Per guest spending, for example, is a much more important metric.
1 poncho.
1 umbrella (sun or rain).
1 cooling towel.
1 neck fan.
BRING IT!
“1 umbrella (sun or rain)”
This is really a game changer.
Sarah has been using a sun umbrella for ages, but I’ve resisted. I finally was ‘forced’ to use one for the sake of the baby while wearing her–what a HUGE difference!
I found on my trip to MK this week that a straw hat made a world of difference in the sun ( in the torrential rain on Thursday not so effective)
Absolutely the sun umbrellas are a game changer for our September visits. I’ve had mine for years and got it at EPCOT. I also use all the other gadgets Tom recommends to stay cool!!!! Thankyou Tom!!
On our trip last week, Epcot definitely felt the most “empty.” There were definitely big waits in France and Norway, but Soarin’ was fairly short all day and when we were exiting after fireworks, there was tons of space in World Showcase. We’re not really into the festivals as a draw (were at F&W once and all I could think was “people come and drop a ton of cash for this?!”) but the empty booths were very noticeable. It gave a very weird vibe to the park. Given that those booths are now used almost year-round, it felt like a half-boarded up downtown somewhere in certain areas of the park. Surely they could come up with a “summer showcase” and do something a little extra!
We did Magic Kingdom on Sunday and Hollywood Studios on Monday. While our faces melted off we enjoyed the breathing room in both parks, something we didn’t have in our mid December 2023 trip. We used the new lighting lane system and did well with it and noticed between 3:00-3:15 on both days ride refills happened. The only downfall for us is we had to be at both parks by 10am in order to unlock that 4th ride. We usually roll in around 1pm otherwise.
We will be there next week (and attending the first Halloween party)— appreciate your report. Like you, I am dreading having to be at the parks and on a ride before 10AM- we don’t care about LLs for most of the T2 rides so it’s going to be a tough week. We’re a West Coast family and the early mornings are brutal. I hated 7AM Genie+, but now we still need to get up for the VQs and then we have to actually leave the hotel room before 9. I’m basically the walking embodiment of the “not like that” meme.
Can you explain what you mean that you needed to be in the park by 10 to unlock the 4th ride? Was this because there was no lightning lanes available as the day went on?
With the new system only being only 4 days old I wasn’t sure what late afternoon availability would look like. I didn’t want to risk not being able to ride all the Tier 1 attractions. It was really slow Sunday and Monday so we did well but I’m guessing from October-December if you show up late it will be Tier 2 attractions mostly.
To reiterate, Walt Disney World has not been busy for the last few months. It’s been a slow summer at Orlando’s theme parks..
This is as far as I have read. I have lived here (on Disney World Property) for two years now and have never seen it busier. Whatever metrics are being used to measure the business is misleading at best. If you are a Disney amateur and someone who you trust told you that it’s not busy and you saw the crowds amassing at rope drop, you might feel misled. The “summer crowds” might not be at capacity, but every parking lot is almost full every day. If this is “not busy” I can’t imagine what we are in store for this fall.
Hurricane, I don’t know you, and I don’t know Len Testa personally, but Touring Plans has shown the same trend as well. I’ll take data-based commentary from a man who puts his name on the line (and has an excellent track record) compared to second-hand info from a message board rando any day.