How Were Walt Disney World Wait-Times in April?
Easter and Spring Break have come and gone at Walt Disney World. Also, the pandemic has lessened in scope.
So, you’re likely wondering what’s happening with crowds at Walt Disney World.
(Kent Phillips, Photographer)
Let’s take a look at how long the wait times were for your favorite Walt Disney World attractions this month.
Hopefully, this information will help you prepare for a May visit.
Photo: Matt Stroshane
Wait-Times at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Before we discuss specifics, you should understand a general rule. Despite rumors to the contrary, Disney hasn’t upped capacity any.
As such, attendance has basically flatlined. The parks host roughly the same number of guests each day.
This consistency comes with pros and cons. You’ll never face shocking crowd levels, but you’re also unlikely to visit on a less populated day.
At Animal Kingdom, Disney only operates seven rides at the moment. During the early phase of the park’s reopening, lines were comically short.
Photo: Disney
Today, that’s no longer the case. Based on April data, you’ll wait 35 minutes on average to ride anything.
Of course, one attraction skews the picture. Avatar Flight of Passage requires one of the most prolonged waits at Walt Disney World, 65 minutes.
However, some other rides will surprise you with their wait times, particularly if you arrive at an unfortunate time.
DINOSAUR averaged nearly 45 minutes for the month, although it’s trended toward 35 minutes lately. I’m a DINOSAUR superfan, and I think that’s a lot.
Image Credit: Disney
Meanwhile, two other rides hover around 40 minutes. Kilimanjaro Safaris and Na’Vi River Journey represent the oldest and newest parts of the park.
I think you’ll get tremendous bang for your buck with either one, but I suggest that you Rope Drop either the safari or Pandora to skip one line.
Photo: Disney
We experienced an unusually cold April at times. I mention this because Kali River Rapids averages 30 minutes of line time…and half of that on some days.
You should not expect that trend to continue. Conversely, Expedition Everest’s line has remained short for many months now.
You can ride this one in 20 minutes or less on most days. Finally, TriceraTop Spin remains at 5-10 minutes because, well, you know.
Wait-Times at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
One park at Walt Disney World continues to confound. Hollywood Studios remains the most crowded, chaotic of the four gates.
When park guests visit, they never know what to expect. On some days, the lines are outstanding. On others, you feel like all you do is stand in line.
The situation can change in the middle of the day, too. It’s a highly challenging park to predict.
One day soon, the situation will improve. A current sticking point at Hollywood Studios involves Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
Disney is still working on parts of the attraction, limiting the hourly/daily throughput by a lot. So, its lines are long because of that.
Still, Tower of Terror averaged less than 60 minutes in wait-time for April.
That number was trending down at the end of the month, too. It was mainly in the 50-minute range over the past week.
Tower of Terror’s lines are the second-longest at the park. The worst ones are at Slinky Dog Dash, which has been troublesome without FastPasses.
You should plan to wait 60-75 minutes for the Toy Story Land attraction. There’s little leeway here.
Photo: Matt Stroshane
Otherwise, the rest of the themed land is fine. You can probably ride Alien Swirling Saucers and Toy Story Mania! in an hour.
Meanwhile, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run has settled into the 50-minute range, and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway has dropped to 40 minutes!
That’s no different than Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith and only a few minutes longer than Star Tours: The Adventures Continue.
Overall, Hollywood Studios actually came down a bit in April as the holiday vacation crowds vanished.
Wait-Times at EPCOT
Every time I talk about EPCOT, people look at me like I’m crazy. I fervently believe it’s the park that provides the best current value.
My thought process comes down to wait times, most of which are pretty small.
EPCOT currently operates nine rides, and five of them (!) still require waits of 20 minutes or less.
The attractions with the Midas touch right now are Living with the Land, The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Journey into Imagination with Figment, Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros, and Mission: SPACE.
I need to explain one of those answers, though. Mission: SPACE possesses a weird split. There’s little demand for the Green (i.e., calm) version.
However, the Orange version features at least double and sometimes triple the wait. So, you can virtually walk on one but not the other.
(Disney)
You’ll also find a mixed bag at Spaceship Earth. On some days, the lines remain short all day, but then it’ll suffer some weird outages.
Spaceship Earth has averaged a 30-minute wait over the past month, which is abnormal for it.
The good news is that Frozen Ever After remains better than before the pandemic. You should expect a 45-minute line, but you may get even luckier.
Unfortunately, the line for Soarin’ has increased dramatically in March and April. When we visited in February, it was a walk-on ride literally every time.
Now, you’ll stand in line for 55 minutes on average, and that’s even the longest line. That honor belongs to Test Track, which hovers around 60 minutes.
So, you should plan your day around the three-hour block of Frozen Ever After, Test Track, and Soarin’.
Photo: Disney
Everything else at the park comes with shorter lines than you’ve ever seen at Walt Disney World, save for the daredevil side of Mission: SPACE.
Wait-Times at Magic Kingdom
During the pandemic, something has changed at Magic Kingdom. For the first time since Seven Dwarfs Mine Train opened, it doesn’t have the longest line.
That roller coaster requires a wait of roughly 55 minutes on average, which is about 20 minutes less than it was 18 months ago.
Instead, guests know that Splash Mountain will change soon. So, they’re riding it as much as possible while they can. It takes about 70 minutes now.
Beyond those two rides, everything else at Magic Kingdom falls somewhere between manageable and fantastic.
Jungle Cruise also possessed a rush factor due to the announced changes. Its waits still averaged just 45 minutes, though.
Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean, the park’s other two icons, fell in the 40-minute range.
Five more attractions hovered around 30 minutes, which is better than usual for all of them.
They’re Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Peter Pan’s Flight, Astro Orbiter, It’s a Small World, and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.
Two rides actually require longer waits right now.
Image Credit: Disney
I’m speaking of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (27 minutes) and Prince Charming Regal Carrousel (25 minutes).
Everything else in the park hovers around 20 minutes, which makes me drool.
You could feasibly ride Haunted Mansion, Mad Tea Party, Under the Sea ~ Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Tomorrowland Speedway, and Barnstormer in two hours!
So, Magic Kingdom rivals and maybe even surpasses EPCOT in terms of how much you can accomplish during a visit.
Overall, the data is clear. A Walt Disney World vacation remains better than usual due to the shorter lines during the pandemic.
One day soon, crowds will increase, and I hope Disney brings back FastPasses to account for that.
