Magic Kingdom Report: Crowds & Decor Down
It’s time for our first Magic Kingdom park report of 2021! In this Walt Disney World update, we take a look at the cavalcades, character greetings, crowds, wait times, construction progress, and more.
While this isn’t our first visit to Magic Kingdom of the year, it is since the Christmas decorations–and crowds–have gone down. Both stayed up longer than we anticipated, probably in large part due to residual bookings of annual Walt Disney World Marathon trips (despite its cancellation).
It’s always a bit odd to see Magic Kingdom in its vanilla state for the first time after months of Halloween and Christmas. It’s like visiting “Diet EPCOT” in June (or July in 2021) to see the park without festival booths. That’s how it looks in a normal, unadorned state, but you just get used to the overlays. I don’t know where I’m going with this, so let’s switch gears…
One of the most exciting things about the start of the winter off-season for me is that it kicks off the home stretch between now and the start of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary. I’m really anxious for that to start, even in what’ll undoubtedly be a scaled-back form as compared to what was originally planned.
Here’s hoping that in the next couple of months as things start to improve, Walt Disney World gets more aggressive with its plans and preparations. Given the current crowd trends, now is the perfect time for attractions to go down for refurbishments and plussing…
With the Christmas season over, Magic Kingdom also ends its multi-month run of holiday cavalcades.
These are still a nice touch that infuse the park with characters and energy, but they don’t hold a candle to the Halloween and Christmas ones. It doesn’t help that the floats themselves are pretty tired–it’d be nice to see ones from Festival of Fantasy used.
Instead, Mickey Mouse is still wearing his Wonder Bread Wardrobe from his 90th anniversary.
This limited time costume now debuted two years ago as part of the Surprise Celebration overlay to the Move It! Shake It! MousekeDance It! Street Party. Even that was several months after the actual 90th anniversary.
Not to knock the cavalcades too much, especially after we praised them upon their debut last summer. These are still a great touch, and first-time visitors will enjoy them.
It’s just now that we’ve enjoyed the superior seasonal ones, our “tastes” have evolved. Sort of like eating steak for the first time after years of meat loaf. The latter is good, but it’s no steak. In this case, Walt Disney World should also be iterating upon and improving its offerings as the phased reopening continues.
One such improvement is relocating Cinderella’s Stepsisters to outside Princess Fairytale Hall.
I’m not sure whether this is a permanent thing, but it’s a savvy move that allows more fluid and sharper interactions with guests…while also not resulting in congestion behind Cinderella Castle.
Winnie the Pooh and friends (or in this case, just the friends) have relocated from Crystal Palace to the Train Station for their physically-distanced greetings. This is new to us, but I have no clue when it happened–sometime since mid-December.
Speaking of Crystal Palace, we have not done the modified meal (and have no intention to do so), but we’ve heard literally nothing positive about it. That’s not a huge surprise, and is fairly common for the reconfigured character buffets. We’d love to hear more feedback and reader reviews on these meals, so please share the good and bad in the comments.
On the construction front, the canopy for the TRON Lightcycle Run roller coaster continues to be installed.
We wandered around from Tomorrowland to Storybook Circus trying to get peeks through the trees, and the canopy support infrastructure appears pretty close to finished.
The gravity building is also enclosed, with this being the view of that over by Barnstormer. Once it’s done, this will be the worst view, as it’s one of the few angles where the show building won’t be concealed by the canopy. We’re probably less fixated on sight-lines than other fans; this doesn’t really bother us. One really extreme angle from a kiddie coaster queue is hardly make or break.
When it comes to TRON Lightcycle Run’s ongoing work, the best view is actually outside the park; you can see canopy installation that still needs to be done on the Contemporary Resort side.
Here’s a look where the gravity building has been sealed around the coaster track. This is (obviously) temporary, done because TRON Lightcycle Run construction will soon pause until at least the next fiscal year starts in October 2021.
As a reminder, Walt Disney World has hinted that TRON Lightcycle Run isn’t expected to open for the start of the park’s 50th birthday year. That isn’t officially confirmed, but it’s an open secret at this point. The best case scenario is TRON Lightcycle Run debuts by Summer 2022 for a second push of what’s likely to be an 18-month celebration of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary.
Turning to refurbishments, the Rivers of America remains drained.
It may not look like it from the photo above, but a lot has been happening here and on Tom Sawyer Island.
Aside from track replacement for the Liberty Square Riverboat, the big visible thing thus far has been the refurbishment and repainting of Harper’s Mill.
The scrim is now down here, revealing a fresh new look and rock-work. It’s always nice to see Disney giving attention to lower-profile projects like this. Here’s hoping more 1971 originals receive TLC between now and October!
Across the way, the Hall of Presidents is now closed for an unannounced amount of time to add a President Biden Audio Animatronics and…who knows what else.
In our updated 2021 Walt Disney World Refurbishment Calendar, we offer speculation about the scope of this work, potential reopening date, what’s unlikely to change, and more.
Over in Fantasyland, the scrims are now down on ‘it’s a small world’, revealing a vibrant new facade.
You might also notice from this photo that crowds are pretty light in Magic Kingdom’s perpetually-congested “Irvine Alley.” On that note, let’s turn our attention to attendance…
While not quite hitting the ghost town levels of last July, Magic Kingdom is pretty dead on weekdays right now.
It was overshadowed by the Disney’s Magical Express update, but last week’s Walt Disney World News Roundup detailed how wait times were at their lowest level since August.
Even with the holiday on Monday, this week has been more of the same.
Magic Kingdom wait times are up slightly week over week, but we’re still talking averages hovering around 20 minutes. That’s not bad compared to November and December–or even last January, which was actually busier than the prior holiday season.
Lower wait times also impact the congestion and “feels like” crowd levels, as far fewer overflow queues are in use.
Back during the holidays, the above stretch of Adventureland became a pinch-point due to the lines for Pirates of the Caribbean, Jingle Cruise, and stroller parking consuming much of the walkways.
It’s the same story around counter service restaurants.
Previously, there were guests loitering around outside Cosmic Ray’s, Pecos Bill, and other eateries. We haven’t seen that at all–even during peak hours–since the first week of January.
It’s not as if everything is a walk-on. We don’t want to showcase empty park photos and give you that impression. Again, the average wait is still ~20 minutes.
For instance, Haunted Mansion might be at 5 minutes. Meanwhile, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is posting a 45 minute wait at the exact same time. Most of you probably understand how “averages” work, so we won’t belabor the point.
Our expectation is that this continues between now and (roughly) mid-March, with only a few spikes. (See our Will Crowds Keep Skyrocketing at Walt Disney World in 2021?)
There are no guarantees, but our expectation is that crowd trends will be more difficult to predict the deeper we get into the year. Beyond the wildcard of pent-up demand and revenge travel, there are also a lot of unknowns about rules, entertaiment, hours, etc. Things could be back to normal by September…or things could be largely unchanged save for higher crowd levels. It’s impossible to predict right now, but we’ll keep you posted based on our observations in the parks and with speculation based on other real-world developments.
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
If you’ve visited Magic Kingdom this month, what has been your experience with crowds and wait times? Issues with congestion or crowds? Thoughts on visiting during the winter off-season v. waiting for more normalcy? Are you anxious for more info or announcements about Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary? Thoughts about anything else covered here? Do you plan on visiting Walt Disney World this year, or are you sitting it out until 2022? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I know this really doesn’t relate to the article but I really miss toontown. Does anyone Know any information about maybe bringing something back like that again. I am a baby boomer and I really enjoy that part of the park.
We were there last week and not once was the posted wait time close to what we actually waited. If it said 45 minutes, it was 25; if it said 15 or less, it was pretty much walk on. I think they are over-inflating the posted wait times to discourage people from filling up the overflow lines. Also, most lines that look really long, like Smuggler’s Run or Seven Dwarves, move almost constantly. Similar with Rockin Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror. The Flight of Passage was walk-on almost all day, even though it often said 45 minutes. I think they were taking into account people walking slowly through the line to take pictures and check out the scenery.
If you are going for the rides, it is definitely worth it. If you are going for the Disney experience, then wait and go when the shows, entertainment, and general cast member interactions resume. We really missed pin trading and eating inside at our favorite restaurants.
We were at CTR for dinner in the first of January. Biggest comment on it right now is it’s all about where you get seated. We were right by Cinderella’s walkway so our princess got a ton of attention. If we would of been sat somewhere else there would of been a huge drop off compared to a normal meal there. Also one of my wife’s biggest disappointments was no family picture as you come in. We figured it was missing, but we take one every year.
CRT….
This is random but… it just me worried that the social distancing floor markers are going to leave a mess when they’re finally removed? The ones that have fallen off for whatever reason leave some pretty unattractive residue, and a year’s worth of different wear (a bit like trying to replace a carpet tile…)
Can’t WAIT for that day.
I hope the markers stay forever, lol! I love the extra space in line.
I agree with Erik. The social distancing in the queues make the wait so much better
We visited The Magic Kingdom Thursday 1/21/21. We spent the day doing what many others were doing , playing Sorcerers Of The Magic Kingdom for the last time. Ending on Sunday players were lined up at the portals. In Tortuga people were trading cards to complete their set. There was a great demand for party cards and ultra rares.
I did notice they are refilling Rivers Of America. It may take a few days but construction seems to have ended.
We go to WDW on Monday for five days staying at Gran Destino Towers for the first time.
Eating at the Crystal Palace (we’ll see how that goes) , Chefs de France , and Raglan Road.
We were there on Thursday as well and noticed the Rivers of America being filled back up. Exciting!
Tom, is the scrim down on the Main Street Railroad Station. If it isn’t, any idea of the time frame for that refurbishment?
Was still up yesterday.
I was down there from 1/8-1/15. The crowds were light and wait times were not bad. Not having Fast Pass is a problem, however. Also the food situation isn’t great. Liberty Tree wasn’t up to par, Cosmic Rays was terrible and my daughter went to Crystal Palace and said the food was terrible. I will say that Le Cellier, Topolino’s and California Grill were all outstanding, as was Teppon Edo. The shortened park hours make the day short in general. Disney Springs was great and hopping. I stayed at BLT this time but will return and stay at SS in May.
Our family of 5 is visiting Feb 6-13th and staying at Riviera. I am a hard core planner but am having a lot of trouble with the park reservations. One of your posts suggests reserving HWS over anything else since it may book up. Do you feel this will still be the case with the lower crowds? And will the festival of the arts affect Epcot’s attendance? As it stands now, we will only be park hopping there as you recommended it is always available.
Jen! Same dates as us. They just expanded park hours for the week and that makes me happy! Can possibly get in more time and maybe even try for a midday break we have taken on previous trips.
We were at Disney World January 10-16. The crowds were very low in all the parks but HS. We had a great time! Per your request, here is my review of Crystal Palace:
I wish I had listened to the reviews. I submitted a dietary request form ahead of time and had my allergy information in hand. The chef was very distracted when he came to speak to me and kept forgetting to send me items. The waiter seemed to avoid us like allergies were contagious or something. The food was just okay. After handing the waiter my card to pay the bill, I asked to speak to a manager. As I got teary eyed, I explained that the meal was lacking Disney magic and all my concerns. She had the waiter return my card with no charge for the meal. One of the greeters at the door visited with us as we were departing which helped improve our spirits. We exited the park an hour after closing and got some great castle pictures.
Tom, I’d love to read more content from you about things that interest you. Like Studio Ghibli! Perhaps you could have a separate part of the site for non-Disney/theme park articles. You could share a few more of your more unusual topics or things that the majority may not like. I just like to read your articles instead of the news so would appreciate you sharing anything you feel like 🙂
Please start with the Top 10 Ghibli movies. I love them and loved visiting the museum a few years ago. The room that I think is called The Beginning of Movement (with the stop motion stands) brought me to tears. Standing alone in this strange country watching these beautiful scenes unfold before me. Ugh… I can’t wait to go back.
Hello, my family and I are in the depths of “should we go or should we stay.” My kids have never been to WDW before, and they are still at that magical age: 7 and 9. It is hard to pass up lower crowds so we can just enjoy riding the rides, even though we miss out on so many other things. Can anyone share if they have visited WDW recently in January, 2021? What was the experience like: restaurants, hotels, etc…?? Is it worth going and missing out on so much, but still paying full price for tickets?? Thank you!
We went last August which appears to be comparable in terms of current crowds. If your priority is the rides: it’s great. If your priority is the “experience” – entertainment, all food options, meet & greets; you will be disappointed. We are there 90% for the rides so for us it was absolutely worth it to experience WDW in a DLR fashion – riding multiple e-tickets every day over and over…without the nonsense of FP+ and sometimes with almost no wait. It all depends on your priorities.
We went 1/11 to 16 staying at Yacht club. Crowds were definitely low, with HS higher but still manageable. Actual wait times were lower than posted times in most cases. We did half day at Epcot on arrival day, HS Tuesday, MK Wednesday, HS again on Thursday and AK on Friday. Using Tom’s advice scored virtual queues of 49 and 22.
One thing we experienced was with the parks closing at 7 for MK and HS dinner was an issue. We couldn’t eat in the parks since we got a lot of rides in the last couple of hours. A lot of resort restaurants were not open so we had slim pickings.
It was mentioned somewhere else but worth repeating. The Line for the gondolas at Epcot closing were extremely long. We felt bad for the people waiting in the line that backed all the way over the bridge to beach club.
We never felt unsafe and the distancing in lines worked well.
We had a great time. I would recommend going even without the parades and fireworks.
If you think there is a chance you will be able to go again in the next couple years, I would say keep your current plans to go. You are probably more aware of what is not going to be there then they are. Yes, there are shows you are going to miss and meet and greets are not as they once were, but who’s to say they will return to the same caliper. What you won’t miss is the crowds. With low crowds you will get so much in. Those things you miss this time can be experienced at a later visit, when you have fewer things to check off your list. When we went in May 2019, we visited MK only over the course of two days. It took two days to do almost everything on our list and that was with skillful planning of fastpasses, which enabled us to avoid waiting in line more than 20 minutes at any attraction. There is so much to experience, you just can’t fit it all in on one visit. We are going back in March. This time we plan to hit all 4 parks. We will skip all the headlining rides – we are not ready for them. Headlining rides, new attractions, and shows will be the focus of our next trip in two more years. My husband enjoys the fact that we don’t over do it; we try to stop and smell the roses or per my husband’s preference, people watch. My girls will be 7, 5 & 4 when we go in March. They are very observant and inquisitive; I want to get in as much magic as I can before they become too aware.
I was there 1/7 to 1/13 with wife and 6yo daughter. We had a great time. We saw a lot of the same that Dave mentioned, except for Dining. I had ADRs for every night. for the 7pm park closes, I scheduled 6:55 or later if possible adrs to ensure we got as much out of the parks as we wanted. Also, AoA food court opens early and stays open late, we ate dinner at 830 the night we arrived. We did several character meals too, those were still super fun even if they don’t come right to your table, garden grill in Epcot they basically come to you still, just stand behind your table, but very close. We did Topolinos breakfast the day we flew out. I would definitely recommend. The food is so good here.
If you can get everyone up and out the door so you’re in the park 30-45 minutes before posted open, you’re going to get a lot of rides done, even if middays get busier in the near future. In my opinion, there’s still lots to do in most parks that the things not available aren’t that big of a deal. In Animal Kingdom, we spent most of our day doing Wilderness Explorers. My daughter thought it was so much fun going around spotting the WE stations and collecting stickers. In Epcot, it’s fun to walk around and check out the festival booths. If you can get there in the next month, the Arts festival has a lot of fun stuff for all ages. Not sure if kids, especially boys, will enjoy the flower and garden festival starting in March. Hollywood studios, you could spend hours in Toy story land and galaxies edge just appreciating all the work it took to create the lands. Especially galaxies edge. There’s a lot to see there. We spent the least amount of time in MK. Wife was parked out by the time we got there – it was our last park, but ride times are good enough that you can spend all day riding rides and forget that you missed a parade or stage show in front of the castle.
We did experience the issue Dave mentioned with sky liner being backed up, we got in line on the bridge, but, in my opinion, you’ll run into that at the bus station as well, but the nice thing about skyliner is it constantly moves. The change station at CBR had no line at all, so those of us heading to pop or AoA got right on once there. It was backed up in the morning though when heading to Epcot.
Don’t forget, Disney World does have the buy 3 get 2 free tickets right now. So at least there’s a little discount on the ticket price, if it’s a better deal for you than the hotel discounts. Can’t stack em.
I recommend going. But it really depends on your comfort level and what you want to do.
My advice is that since it is the first visit for your children everything will be magical. They will not know what is missing, and will totally enjoy the magic available today. There is so much to do and see that will keep them excited throughout your visit. We were there in December and had a wonderful time.
Hello. My family of 5 stayed at Caribbean Beach Resorts from 1/3/21 to 1/9/21. This was our first time staying there. We chose CBR do to the lower price for a moderate resort and of course, the skyliner access. The logistics of the resort was definitely worth the “not so magical experience” of the resort itself. The dining in the resort was not very impressive. The parks are why we visit DW. The lines and posted times were shorter than we’ve seen in the past 5 years. We went once in 2015 and twice in 2019. Your children will definitely enjoy the trip if they enjoy the attractions. Although my wife and I, both healthcare workers, wear masks most of our days, it was difficult to truly enjoy the magic DW previously offered. The social distancing was actually nice. We just hated having to wear our masks for pictures. Definitely hit up MK for 2 days. We also really enjoyed EPCOT this trip. Snacking around the world showcase was fun. Take in the shows in the different countries. Basically, if your kids want to ride the attractions more than enjoy the true magic, go for it. If you are looking for a more meaningful, magical trip, wait until next year when, hopefully, the pandemic will be a little less hectic.
Question about Tron. Any reason that you are aware of why it wasn’t put into DHS instead of MK? It doesn’t seem to fit in MK very well other than Tomorrowland.
I think most additions these days are based first on need, second (or third…or fourth) on theme. At the time TRON was first planned, Star Wars and Toy Story Lands were still under construction at DHS, and Runaway Railway was also planned. It probably didn’t seem like that park needed anything else.
If it were up to me, I would’ve put TRON where Guardians of the Galaxy is in EPCOT, and spent that budget on a Journey into Imagination overhaul plus a new pavilion and another attraction for World Showcase. Or potentially a family-friendly dark ride in Animal Kingdom.
In my view, Magic Kingdom is the park least in need of anything new. I also think that corner of Tomorrowland is going to be a nightmare to navigate.
What’s a modified meal at Crystal Palace?
Now served family style instead of buffet. But still about the same price, even without character interactions.
Actually, it is not even family style–it is just an a la carte choice of entree, with salad for the table and a shared dessert platter.
Bizarre since for roughly the same price (or in the case of kids, half the price), you could order a much nicer app, entree and choice of dessert at any other TS restaurant. It is not like Crystal Palace has any special ambiance like Be Our Guest or Biergarten to make up for the lack of characters.
Why they didn’t just bring characters back to justify the price like they did at Hollywood & Vine is a mystery.
I’d like to learn what ideas you had for essays that for one reason or another you deemed unusable for this blog,..
One broad category is topics that are too controversial. I have strong opinions about a lot of things and am fairly dispassionate about most, but a lot of time it’s just not worth sharing because they’ll cause a ruckus in the comments and require tough decisions (that I’d generally rather avoid) in terms of moderation. Plus, people come here in large part as an escape from reality, and controversy undermines that.
Another category is topics that could be perceived as clickbait. I love analyzing all things Disney, but some of that commentary isn’t interpreted as intended. Even with significant caveats, people misconstrue what’s idle speculation as being rumor. I hate misinformation, and don’t want to be the source of it, even when that’s not my intent.
The final category is stuff that really interests me, but is not really relevant to the blog. For example, I love Studio Ghibli films and have an unpublished post where I rank my top 10. Even though there’s a vague Disney connection, I decided against publishing it because it’s a bit too tenuous. Maybe someday I’ll change my mind.
Thank you for that reply. Once again, I ask if you could create a paid subscriber portal in which you post such essays. Last time I asked for you to institute paid subscriptions (so I could avoid the delirium of ad parades) it was slightly unfamiliar territory. It seems a lot easier these days to create such a monetized thing. It would be understood that you enter at your own risk. And you could simply leave a jar at the door for donations if subscriptions seem overcomplicated. Many of us are not afraid of strong opinions or controversy,.. I know you are busy enough keeping this blog current and alive but perhaps give it some thought,..
“Most of you probably understand how “averages” work, so we won’t belabor the point.”
You can never assume. Early on in my career a manager, who had an MBA, couldn’t wrap his head around why the numbers (averages) I was producing couldn’t all be nice, round numbers. I turned in my resignation as soon as I hit my year anniversary :-).
That’s simultaneously funny and sad.
In response to our last crowd report, someone pointed out that wait times for a handful of attractions were over 40 minutes. Hence the quick “reminder” that a 20 minute average does not mean everything is at or under 20 minutes…
I am baffled by the fact you have not written a post about the Muppet Show coming to Disney+. Is your love of muppets just a facade
Even more egregious is that I never did a standalone post about the Muppets in Liberty Square at Christmas. I took and edited a ton of photos, but about ~150 words into drafting up something, realized I didn’t have much of value to say.
Sometimes I can ramble for 1,000 words about some random topic that doesn’t personally interest me, other times something of great personal interest only elicits an “it’s about time” reaction. This is the latter. I try not to waste my or your time with posts like that. 🙂
Tom, as long as someone else has brought this up…This sentence from the Parks Blog announcement raised my eyebrow:
“the Muppets have been a part of Walt Disney Imagineering for the last couple of years…”
What? What does this even mean? I do not remember this being announced and I can’t really figure out the implications.