Park Hopping Suspended at Magic Kingdom
Park Hopping was unavailable earlier this afternoon at Magic Kingdom, but has since resumed after Walt Disney World suspended the option for the first time in several years amidst peak Spring Break crowds. This post shares what’s going on and what to expect if you’re in the parks right now.
As you’re likely aware, all-day Park Hopping returned at the beginning of this year for the first time in 4 years. Meaning that guests with a Park Hopper ticket or an Annual Pass are once again able to visit another Walt Disney World theme park at any time of day during regular park hours!
The only limit now is capacity limitations, as we’re seeing today. This means that, in theory, you could get turned away upon arrival if your destination park has already hit its attendance limit–but that was true even with the 2 p.m. Park Hopping rule. Until today, this has only ever been an issue once in the post-reopening era–for a few hours on October 1 at Magic Kingdom, the day of the park’s 50th Anniversary.
Otherwise, Park Hopping has not once been restricted, including on incredibly busy days, like the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. In fact, that peak week that rang in 2024 was the busiest period at the parks in the last 4 years, with the highest average wait times since 2019, and not once were there any capacity closures. Avatar Flight of Passage maxed out at a 300+ minute wait time and over a dozen other rides had triple-digit waits, but there were no limits on Park Hopping during that week.
The current week is busy but, objectively speaking, not that bad. It’s also notable that Magic Kingdom is only open until 11 p.m. tonight, as opposed to midnight, suggesting an internal forecast of heavy–but not peak–crowd levels. That’s also why the suspension of Park Hopping is slightly worrying–if it can occur on a day like today, there are probably 20-30 other dates when it could be paused, especially around holidays and school breaks.
In any case, here’s the message that appeared in the My Disney Experience app earlier today: “The Park Hopper option is currently unavailable for this park. Guests with park reservations for this park may still enter.”
UPDATE: The message has disappeared and Park Hopping restrictions have been dropped. We do not expect further restrictions later today. Again, this is a rarity, and this is not one of the weeks when it would normally occur.
Note that this only impacts those who are Park Hopping. As indicated, guests with park reservations for Magic Kingdom are perfectly fine. It’s also our understanding that Annual Passholders are also fine consistent with the after 2 p.m. reservation, but honestly, I wouldn’t test that. (Partly because it’s a hassle to be turned away for whatever reason and partly because why on earth would you want to go to Magic Kingdom on a day like today if you had other options?!)
It’s also our understanding that guests with Advance Dining Reservations in Magic Kingdom (or any park that might pause Park Hopping) are still allowed to enter. You’ll need to speak with a Cast Member for a manual override when attempting to enter the park, as the system likely will not recognize that you have an ADR and are thus allowed an exception when attempting to tap into the park with your ticket.
It’s important to stress this reality because getting turned away is a common concern among readers, but it’s very uncommon. If you’re still concerned about the capacity status of a park to which you’re considering hopping, the easiest way to find out is by calling Walt Disney World’s Park Hopping phone line at (407) 560-5000. We’d caution against simply asking random Cast Members inside the park you’re visiting–that’s not knowledge they’d have. (The bus stop Cast Members should know, though.)
Also note that this can–and probably will–change. In the past, we’ve seen phased closures around this time of day (typically 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) because that’s when crowd levels peak. Right around now is when fewer guests are entering than are leaving, and that’s usually doubly true on days like this when people hit a wall encountering hour-plus wait times pretty much everywhere.
Speaking of which, below is a look at current wait times in Magic Kingdom:
It goes without saying that these are bad (far worse than the last capacity closure at Magic Kingdom on October 1, 2021, when congestion was the main issue and ride wait times were surprisingly low), but they’re not terrible. Only 3 wait times that are triple digits and only 1 over two hours.
Don’t get me wrong, that’s not great. The bigger problem than those triple-digit times is the sheer number of attractions with 50-90 minute waits, which includes a number of mid-tier attractions that normally aren’t too bad. This is still a 10/10 crowd level, but it’s not much worse than last week–it isn’t even (objectively speaking as measured by wait times) the worst day of 2024 at Magic Kingdom.
Suffice to say, on a day like this, you’d definitely want to have Genie+ at Magic Kingdom. Speaking of which, that’s sold out:
Ultimately, it’s a very busy day and week at Walt Disney World. While Magic Kingdom is where Park Hopping is suspended, it is (interestingly enough) not even the park with the highest wait times. Over at Hollywood Studios, Slinky Dog Dash and Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run are both 190 minutes, and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is 125 minutes. Not to be outdone, EPCOT and Animal Kingdom each have attractions posting 145 minute waits, with others in the triple-digit territory.
So plan accordingly, purchase Genie+ early, be aggressive with booking pursuant to the 120 minute rule, have a strong refresh game for ride reservation refills. Oh, and don’t forget to take advantage of Early Entry and rope drop, as well as zig when they zag savvy strategy. One of the biggest mistakes casual guests make during weeks like this is assuming that Genie+ is an “easy” option for front-of-line access. It very much is not. You need an all of the above approach to beat the crowds–but it can be done!
If you have questions about the basics of using–or not using–the paid FastPass service, see our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ for all of the foundational need-to-know info. This whole system is confusing and convoluted, so you might have a question or two-dozen. That answers all of the most common ones we’ve been receiving from readers.
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
Have you encountered the Park Hopping restriction today at Magic Kingdom? Are you part of the post-Easter Spring Break crowds currently descending upon Walt Disney World from the Midwest and Northeast? Other thoughts on crowds, Genie+ or Park Hopping? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!
We were at MK on Wednesday and it absolutely poured Wednesday afternoon. I can only imagine a lot of people left and decided to come back the next day to finish what they didn’t get to do on Wednesday. That being said, we had feared the worst crowd-wise this past week. It was our first time visiting during spring break and we only planned 3 days at the parks, because we had 3 one-day tickets expiring this spring. However we did most everything we wanted to do using a combination of rope-dropping during the extra morning hours and using Genie+ strategically.
Side note, Tom/Sarah… there is a Figment onesie at the Imagination store which I considered buying for Megatron before I realized it would be creepy to ask for your address. LOL! Also, I had a great chat with one of the cast members in the store (as I was stocking up on Figment gear) and he said it is almost guaranteed they are bringing Dreamfinder back. He pointed out the display of Little Golden Books and the Dream Machine in the Figzilla meet-and-greet mural. “Disney wouldn’t do that if they didn’t have plans,” he said. Fingers crossed!
We were also there Wednesday when it rained and found the crowds to be wonderfully low. Our guess was that Thursdays crowds it had a lot to do with the week’s weather forecast. It was an entire week of beautiful weather forecasted with the exception of Wednesday. We were guessing that people decided to take their rest day on Wednesday so that they had pretty days in the park. If the whole week had had a rainy forecast, I don’t think the crowd disparity would have been so pronounced.
I was upset my child missed the magic Kingdom because we were going there last and it was for her birthday.
At 6:23 PM, the phone number for park hopping status, 407-560-5000 is still saying that park hopping to Magic Kingdom is not available.
I thought park reservations were no longer required? Also, thought that the no park hopping until 2pm had been lifted and park hopper tickets now allowed you to hop around from park to park at any time of the day? Can someone please clarify??
Whether park reservations are needed or not depends on what kind of ticket you have. There is no longer a 2:00 restriction regarding park hopping, but Disney has reserved the right to limit park hopping for crowd control purposes. That is apparently what happened today.
With regard to your other post, Rise of the Resistance hasn’t had a virtual queue since September 2021. The cost of an ILL today was $25.
Do you think today is the peak and it will start a downward slide going forward? Going next week
We’re in HS at this moment and it’s completely nuts. Multiple attractions also broke down this morning and the crowd levels and wait times are insane. We’re really hoping these crowds die down in the next few days because it’s not very fun this way! We were fortunate enough to use early entry for rise of the resistance and smuggler’s run luckily!
If you used early entry for Rise of the Resistance does that mean it no longer is on a virtual queue?? I’m trying to prepare myself for our WDW vacation in the fall and I’m having trouble keeping up with all the changes. Can you buy Lightning Lane passes for RotR? Any idea how much individual Lightning Lane passes cost? Any info or advice appreciated. Reading Tom’s articles all the time but not always finding every answer to my questions, plus things keep changing and it’s hard to keep it all straight in my head.
Med, the only attractions with virtual queues at the moment are TRON and Cosmic Rewind. Rise of the Resistance has a normal line or you can buy an individual lightning lane for it. But if you can use early entry at HS it often opens earlier than it’s supposed to and you can do it almost without waiting. Early entry this morning was at 8 but they opened the gates at 7.30 and RotR opened at around 7.45, we came off it somewhat after 8 I think and then went on smuggler’s run with a posted wait of 15 minutes but it was basically a walk-on. by the time we were done smuggler’s run was 75 minutes and RotR somewhere around 100 I think. So I highly recommend getting there really early; an hour to 45 minutes before early entry is supposed to start.
We were just at MK and it was definitely crowded but didn’t feel so insane to us for this to apply (we still got most everything done thanks in large part to this blog!). We left to have some hotel rest time with plans to return later for fireworks – any idea if we’ll be able to? We have date based park hopper tickets, but only have been at MK today and didn’t plan to actually hop today. I think it means we can’t go back unless park hopping is reinstated, but if anyone has a thought, please let me know!
If the article is accurate, park hopping has been suspended but the park is not closed for entry. You should be fine.
As an update in case this happens again or folks are curious, we had no issue returning in the late afternoon/early evening when the park hopping message was still showing up. So it looks like as long as MK was your first and only park, leaving and coming back was still fine.
Weren’t there also some spring break days in I want to say 2021,when people couldn’t rope drop to islands of adventure from the studio park at universal? I seem to remember that happening?
So what do you want to bet someone will relate this to Disney winning the proxy battle. Lol
I meant park hop not rope drop. Sorry.
I wonder what they will do if someone has an advance dining reservation for say…Cinderella’s Royal Table but hadn’t hopped over to MK yet?
I can’t give the 100% official answer, but in the past, ADRs always guaranteed entry. I would be absolutely shocked if they turned away someone with a CRT reservation.