Magic Kingdom Summer Kickoff Crowd Report
We’re back with another update on Magic Kingdom construction, crowds, and changes. In this Walt Disney World park report, we’ll take a look at wait times, problem points, and congestion (or lack thereof) over Memorial Day weekend, which is the traditional kickoff to the summer tourist season in the parks.
The big topic today is crowds and congestion at Magic Kingdom. For the past two-plus weeks and for the better part of the month, Magic Kingdom has been fully booked across all three buckets of Disney Park Pass reservations. So at least in theory, every single day should be equally busy, without much regard for weekends or holidays.
The real wildcard is capacity. Both the park itself and individual attractions. During the most recent earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek indicated that Walt Disney World was in the process of started to raise capacity caps based on past guidance from the state and CDC. So current crowds are really a matter of how much the attendance cap has increased from 35% v. how much attraction efficiency has improved.
Cynically, we expected some growing pains during this process, with park capacity being bumped up first and attractions catching up with that later, as resources and staffing allowed. Based upon both our observations and wait time data, the opposite appears to be true.
Since early April, average daily wait times in Magic Kingdom have decreased from 35 minutes to 23 minutes this weekend (per Thrill-Data). This has been a pretty consistent weekly decline. Our theory is that increased attraction capacity/efficiency is outpacing any increases in the attendance limit.
This isn’t to say some attractions don’t still have long wait times.
During our visit, both Splash Mountain and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train never dropped below 45 minutes. However, when you consider that this was over a holiday weekend and the kickoff of a big summer travel season, that’s not too bad.
That’s especially true when other headliners like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain are both sporting 25-30 minute lines.
In fact, pretty much every major attraction aside from the mountains had a wait time at or under 20 minutes at some point during our day in Magic Kingdom. (And we did not arrive for rope drop–these are midday or later waits!)
In particular, Pirates of the Caribbean has seen its wait time collapse, going from regularly filling an overflow queue to being entirely inside the building. (Expect the “Please Wait Here” markers pictured above to disappear by the end of the week.)
This isn’t because swashbuckling is no longer trendy with the youth, but because the attraction is operating more efficiently. This should underscore what a difference it makes to load more guests in each boat. (And why that 35% number was always, largely, meaningless.)
Same deal with Carousel of Progress, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, and Country Bear Jamboree. All of these previously had measurable wait times due to in-theater physical distancing. Personally, I suspect that visible lines are also something of a self-fulfilling prophecy; more people line up for something when they see a line and vice-versa.
Now, seat spacing has been relaxed and the wait time is typically however long it is until the next show. This is a pretty big deal for us, as these Magic Kingdom masterpieces are among our favorite things to do. They’re also a great midday break. (Time for us to update itineraries yet again as scheduling shows has become easier!)
It’s a similar scenario for Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. Among longtime fans, this has a reputation as a no wait ride, but that hasn’t been true in years. Prior to the closure of Walt Disney World, its extended queue was routinely overflowing, with actual wait times of 20 minutes.
We did the PeopleMover as a walk-on for the first time in ages. There was a time when we measured “success” by whether or not we could loop the TTA PeopleMover (seriously, we wrote at length about this fine art a couple years ago). We have not looped the PeopleMover since September 2019, but could have during this visit. It’s been so long that I need to practice my finger twirl before giving it a try, though. (Plus, I wonder if Cast Members still recognize that as the universal TTA looping request signal.)
While on the topic of the Peoplemover, here’s our first elevated look at TRON Lightcycle Run construction in over a year. For more details and updates on the upcoming coaster–including photos from the Contemporary–see TRON Lightcycle Run Info: Opening, Construction Photos & Concept Art.
Despite travel roaring back, work has slowed to a crawl on the coaster. It could still open in 2022, but not at the current pace of construction. We’re starting to wonder if the new plan is to stagger the openings of major in-progress attractions between now and 2023.
While the return of FastPass+ is the biggest concern among readers right now, dining–not long attraction wait times–is the biggest problem-point.
We checked the walk-up waitlist repeatedly, and never saw anything available for a party of 2. I doubt we would’ve been more successful as a party of 4 or more.
During peak meal hours, you’re going to have a wait to place a Mobile Order and then another to pick up your food. Depending upon the park and where you want to eat, this could be a pretty significant source of frustration. If you submit a Mobile Order at noon, you might not be eating until 2 pm.
This is why we’ve stressed the buying groceries if you’re visiting Walt Disney World during the phased reopening. It has been a problem for months, but is getting worse. You don’t need to cook full meals, but at least do breakfast in your room and bring snacks to the parks. One of the biggest timesavers right now is eating at off hours–there’s your FoodPass hack! 😉
Aside from the dining situation, “feels like” crowds are really not too bad. You never would’ve known this was a holiday weekend by walking around Magic Kingdom. There are countless reports of this weekend kicking off a booming summer for travel, but Walt Disney World simply does not reflect this surge.
We’re still expecting this to change in the very near future, but for now, this holiday weekend felt pretty similar to last summer or this winter. Definitely more people, but not noticeably so, and with pretty low wait times.
Keep in mind that current crowd levels are not due to a lack of demand. Disney Park Passes are, and have been, fully booked for weeks. When Walt Disney World releases more reservations (and it’s really a matter of when, not if), that’s going to change the equation.
Frankly, we wonder why this hasn’t already happened. There could be other constraints at play–such as the lack of dining, transportation, or other woes due to staffing. Regardless, we’ll be closely watching the Disney Park Pass calendar this week, as we suspect another big refill could occur on June 2.
As always, we’d caution against looking at photos and assuming they tell the full story. We’ve stressed this repeatedly in our post-reopening park reports, but it bears repeating.
The above photo was taken at park closing with a telephoto lens. This is literally the busiest time of day on Main Street; three hours earlier, I could’ve taken an empty shot of this scene. While this is definitely more crowded than it was in January or last July, this is about par for the course at park closing–and has been for several months.
The elephant in the room with all of this is the recently-relaxed health safety protocol. As you can probably surmise from the photos, most guests are not wearing masks outdoors at Magic Kingdom. As mentioned in our EPCOT Update, we’re going cover that divisive topic in a separate report (just didn’t want you to think we’re intentionally glossing over it).
Rather than reopening that unpleasant can of worms, we’ll leave you with more ‘pleasant’ photos from what was an incredibly enjoyable and surprisingly serene visit to Magic Kingdom:
That’s a wrap on another great visit to Magic Kingdom. Aside from the rule relaxations, not really any profound updates this month. We view that as pretty much the best case scenario, as there’s really only one direction for crowds and wait times to go at this point. For now, it’s still a great time to visit Walt Disney World with short waits, fast-moving lines, and relatively low crowds. Of course, that does entail compromises like missing parades, nighttime spectaculars, meet & greets, etc.
We’re still concerned that June is going to be the “growing pains” month, with attendance limits increasing to catch up with the improved attraction efficiency, but without more entertainment, dining, and other temporarily suspended offerings. Hopefully these worries are unfounded, but it seems unlikely that Disney will keep crowds artificially low as demand soars. Now that our break is over, we’ll be visiting Magic Kingdom regularly throughout the next several weeks and will let you know if/when the scales tip.
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 anything covered in this Magic Kingdom park report? If you’ve visited Magic Kingdom recently, what has been your experience with crowds and wait times? Do you expect Walt Disney World to ramp up attendance caps as soon as the holiday weekend is in the rearview mirror, or do you think staffing and/or other constraints will preclude that? Have you been able to loop the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover? 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’ve been in WDW for most of the past month, first staying at Pop Century, then at Fort Wilderness. The entire time, the crowd levels didn’t feel much different – maybe a little more on weekends than weekdays. Attraction wait times stayed pretty much the same. I never had any issue with mobile ordering – the only place that consistently had long waits for ordering window was Woody’s Lunch Box. I was even able to get several last minute reservations, or walk ups. In fact, at MK on Memorial Day, I had my choice of restaurants for walk up – Skipper Canteen, Tony’s, and Crystal Palace. Another day, we got a walk up at Liberty Tree.
The biggest difference I felt in increased capacity was transportation. This was really the only downside to this whole adventure. In the evenings from 5:00 to 7:00, the Skyliner station at CB was jammed up with people trying to get to Epcot. We nearly missed our reservation at Topolino’s (one of the last minute reservations I got) because we were stuck at the station waiting in line for 45 minutes. It may be better now that they are seating more than one party in the gondolas.
Buses are even worse. One driver was very candid with us, and said there was a serious shortage of both drivers and buses. They can’t get many of the furloughed drivers back, and many buses were sold off during the closure. Disney has contracted a third party bus line to help out both with resort to park shuttles, and Magical Express, but at park closing there are still waits of an hour or more just to get on a bus. It took over two hours to get from MK to Epcot via bus one evening. The bus stop at MK had well over 100 people waiting. We opted to go back to our resort and catch a bus to Epcot from there instead. However, when the bus got there, the driver said he had passengers to drop off at another resort, then would be going to MK first to pick up a load before going to Epcot.
Transportation is going to be the biggest pain point as capacity increases. But it’s still better than what we experienced at Universal – they threw open the gates, but they don’t have the staffing and resources to deal with it. Not even close.
Thanks for the thorough report!
That’s great about walk-up waitlist; we haven’t had that much luck the last several days, but still good to hear.
I’m planning on doing a separate transportation report in the next few days because, you’re right, it’s bad. We’re thinking about booking a stay at Pop Century just to test rope drop on the Skyliner, but I’m not sure I want to spend that much money just to conclude “it’s a mess.”
Tom! Love your blog. Heading to Disney the 15-22 of august. Really want to do the vip day of thrills. Any idea when this will come back so I can book? Called a couple times and cast members in the vip office don’t know. They are only offering 7 hour private vip tours. Might need to splurge if day of thrills does not make a come back! Thanks!!
I haven’t heard anything whatsoever about tours. No rumors–nothing. Sorry!
I am another person who would be ok without fastpasses. The lines move so much faster without it. At one point when Toy Story Land was being built, there were no fast passes. The line was very long but kept moving. I waited in that long line less time than during times in the past when there were fast passes and the line was much much shorter.
I am in the process of planning our next trip for April 2022. Without Magical Express, we are going to stay at Universal for our Universal, Sea World and rest days. No more incentive to stay totally on Disney property. This means four to five nights we previously stayed at Disney hotels that we will be staying at Universal. I love Disney and will always stay on property for our Disney days but no longer for our entire vacation stay.
We were in WDW for Memorial Day weekend… Thurs – Mon. We were bracing ourselves for massive crowds & long wait times, and we were shocked to find the complete opposite! I couldn’t believe how short the wait times were for nearly all of the attractions in all 4 parks. And the parks didn’t feel congested at all. We went to Blizzard Beach on Saturday and it closed due to capacity within an hour of opening… but it still didn’t feel super crowded and we never waited more than 15 mins for any of the water slides. It was a fantastic weekend all the way around!
Thanks for sharing that info about Blizzard Beach–good to know how early people should arrive!
My daughters and I visited Epcot on 5/18/21. The cast members said they had seen larger crowds the three days prior. It was the most crowded I have ever seen Epcot, probably 95% capacity. Could not see the topiaries or gardens it was so crowded. We usually are passholders and would visit a lot so seeing the huge unannounced increase at Epcot was very disappointing. Long waits for rides and food. Exhausting in the heat.
We visited Hollywood Studios on 3/19/21. The crowds were larger than the 35%/45% capacity also. But not as crowded as our experience at Epcot.
Long lines for rides because there are no fast passes. Fast passes help make your time in the park more efficient. You know when to go to your ride, when to eat and don’t need to stand wasting time in lines.
If Disney is increasing park capacity they need to begin fast passes again. Unfair to do one without the other. The cost of entry to the park is too high to waste time & money waiting needlessly.
Your article mentions Magic Kingdom only. Possibly Disney is keeping park capacity lower at MK but not at the other parks?
I took a picture of the large amount of strollers parked outside Mickey & Minnie’s runaway railway in HS. Wish I could share it here.
It’s possible capacity is not at the same level across all parks, but I doubt it.
Epcot “feels like” crowds are such a wildcard because of guest flow through the park.
Following closely for our family Christmas Trip in December☺ï¸
Hi, Tom. My family was at Magic Kingdom yesterday for the first time in almost 2 years. I concur with everything you wrote in this post. We started our day at Animal Kingdom and then hopped over to MK around 6 pm when the drizzle started falling. Between then and closing we road Big Thunder Mountain 3 times in a row (all walk-ons), Haunted Mansion walk-on, carousel, Mad Hatter, Space Mountain, then Splash Mountain at closing. My 10 year old was thrilled to have conquored 4 Disney mountains in one day (he rode Everest 4 times at AK earlier in the day). We meandered out of the park enjoying the serene quiet and taking lots of empty nighttime photos. At close to 10 pm we could hear fireworks off in the distance. Those of us who noticed all perked up our ears and speculated together where they might be coming from. We finally exited around 10:15 and rode the ferry back to TTC to cap off an amazingly fun and uncrowded day.
That sounds like a great day!
Those fireworks were at the Marriott World Center. Unfortunately, not a test for pyro’s return to Walt Disney World.
Disney needs to do away with the park reservations. Requiring these takes away almost all flexibility from a trip.
I know I’m in the minority but I would be fine if FastPass never returned. The expectation to not have to wait in lines at the busiest theme parks in the world is unrealistic. And since we are going to be waiting in line for something, I’d prefer the waits be spread out more evenly rather than walking on to one ride but then having to wait 2 hours for another.
I’m sure someone will say “but what about the children” but I think the same thing applies there. It’s a lot easier to get a kid to wait half an hour before doing something fun than an hour plus (not at all an uncommon wait if you didn’t get a FastPass to something popular). It also saves whoever is the trip planner from needing to get up super early 60 days out to get the “best” FastPasses or constantly stalking the app for times to appear.
Hey Tom,
Thanks for the updates.
Stilling waiting/hoping for an announcement on Mickey’s Very Merry….
Scott
Tom,
You may have covered this in a previous post but we are visiting WDW from 8-17 to 8-25. Any speculation on dining plans or fast passes to returning before that time?
Hi Tom we are visiting Hollywood studios for one day. What are the odds we will be able to get on rise of the resistance? If for some reason we fail to do so is it still worth going what other Star Wars things can we say?
Super jealous!! I need a Disney fix!! Thanks for posting pics and for the updates from everyone!!
Thanks, Tom, for the update. Great photos! I’ll be back June 6 for the week. I’ve visited WDW 4 times since the reopening. It’s going to be interesting, both in terms of crowds and the changes in rules. I’ve been monitoring the wait times as well and your comments make a ton of sense. My hope Disney does not open up the flood gates the next couple of weeks! Thanks for setting expectations. I really appreciate the blog!
Hey Tom Question on Waterpark. I am headed down end of June for a week of water park fun as I luckily still have 1 month left on my annual water park pass. I don’t see any reservation system for the water park is that correct?? I only see where you have to reserve the 4 parks.
Any idea of crowds at blizzard beach lately?
Thanks again for another great article.
I do wonder if the fast pass will come back as a paid option!! Just my opinion.
Very much looking forward to our August 22nd trip! That being said, any thoughts on when Boo Bash dates and tickets will go on sale? If someone is hoping to go to 8/10 party, their call in window for dining reservation will be coming up June 10th. Mine is June 23rd and I’m trying to figure reservation schedule that I would like to aim for but really can’t if I don’t have firm dates for the party. Would hate to score great dining reservation and then find out that’s the day that fits my time schedule for the party!
Hi Tom,
You are spot on ( I never doubt your assessments) but I was at MK yesterday morning and did 5 rides within the first hour. I mobile ordered lunch early and it was pretty much a walk up. By the time I was done eating the place was packed and people in line to pick up their food. I left around noon and headed to pool and did another MK run at night. Crowds were good, waits were good, except Mine Train was down to 40mins and then it broke down. I expected the parks to feel busier then last Sept. but it really didn’t. I will say social distancing in line is a thing of the past. I had to tell several people they were too close- you know the ones that think by cramping in will get them there faster! This has always been an issue pre-COVID and I was hopeful that some would pick up good habits, guess not.
Ps also took your advice on staying at CB, building 45 and it’s a perfect spot. Still not my favorite Disney hotel but your tips were great.
Hi Tom, I spent Friday at Epcot and it was pretty much what you described crowd-wise as magic kingdom. I was fully expecting the Friday of Memorial Day weekend to be a zoo, and it was pleasantly uncrowned…at least it felt that way. I spent a lot of time in world showcase and for the first time noticed how many establishments are still closed..I know they’ve said they recalled about 80 percent of their staff..what are your thoughts on when things will be more open? Hopefully not making everything wait until the next fiscal year…
Our Trip is June 4th, I am GLUED to your blog to keep me updated on what to expect. It is unnerving to plan such an expensive trip that requires so much planning anyway, even more so when things change every day. So thankful for your detailed updates!
Thank you Tom for keeping us informed with all that is happening at WDW. I appreciate it.