Walt Disney World Wait Times for the First Week of May 2021
Last week, we examined wait times at various Walt Disney World attractions. And you liked it so much that you asked for more details!
So, we’ve decided to make it a weekly update! Ask, and ye shall receive, as we live to please here at MickeyBlog.
Here’s what we learned about Walt Disney World wait-times during the first week of May!
General Information
We’ll add some color to these comments in the upcoming weeks, showing the park trends.
What you should know for now is that common sense applies to park wait-times.
You’ll face larger crowds on weekends than weekdays, as more people have vacation days then. Also, the Florida locals are more likely to visit.
The parks have ebbs and flow throughout the day, usually around the times you’d expect.
You’ll find lulls at lunch and dinner time. Meanwhile, the parks tend to peak in attendance three to five hours after they open.
During the final two hours of a park day, crowds start to dwindle as people feel like they’ve done enough and head back to the hotel/house.
Holidays will skew the results, though. For instance, Disney restaurants were extremely crowded on Sunday because…Mother’s Day.
People want to treat our moms to a meal as a small token of gratitude for, you know, suffering through the horrible pain of childbirth to bring us into existence.
(Matt Stroshane, photographer)
In other words, Disney works just like you think it does, even though you’ve probably never put much thought into it. Occam’s Razor applies.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
As I mentioned last time, Disney’s current capacity limits have led to a remarkable outcome.
Image Credit: Disney
The parks demonstrate fairly standard behavior throughout the week. The ebbs and flows are much smaller than if full capacity were possible.
In looking at various data sources online, I’ve noticed that a “crowded” park day and a “low-traffic” park day vary by only a small margin of visitors.
So, the trends are set in stone for the moment, but they will evolve as more people get vaccinated and return to the parks.
Disney just dropped temperature checks and is weighing its options on other Coronavirus precautions. They’re doing this because the threat has diminished.
For this reason, the Disney that you’ve always known before 2020 is ready to return. Until then, traffic patterns remain static.
To wit, Pandora – The World of Avatar operates two of the Animal Kingdom’s most popular attractions. Both their wait-times went down slightly this week.
Avatar Flight of Passage dropped to 60 minutes from 65, while Na’Vi River Journey fell from 40 to 35 minutes.
Kilimanjaro Safaris and DINOSAUR remain the other two attractions with the most significant wait-times.
Photo: Disney
Both saw lesser crowds with five-minute reductions in wait-time. DINOSAUR required 40 minutes on average, while the safaris needed 35 minutes in line.
Kali River Rapids and Expedition Everest maintained rather than declined. The wet ride took roughly 30 minutes on average, while the roller coaster was only 21 minutes.
TriceraTop Spin actually increased to eight minutes this week, but it’s still nearly walk-on most of the time.
The other attraction I’ll start tracking is It’s Tough to Be a Bug!, which had a 25-minute line queue.
The trick with shows is that when you miss one performance, you’re stuck for 10-15 minutes waiting for the next one no matter what.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
The current alpha at Walt Disney World dropped a bit overall this week, too.
At Toy Story Land, Slinky Dog Dash averaged 65 minutes of wait-time, while Toy Story Mania! and Alien Swirling Saucers hovered around 25 minutes.
All three totals are down slightly but not significantly. In my experience, Toy Story Land wait times fluctuate wildly depending on other circumstances.
You should keep an eye on My Disney Experience in case the latter two attractions have wait-times of 15 minutes or less. That does happen sometimes.
Last week, I mentioned the issues with the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Disney hasn’t completed renovations yet. So, it’s running with less throughput.
This thrill ride came with hour-long waits throughout April, but that number dropped slightly during the last week to 50 minutes.
Alas, it went back up to 55 minutes for the first week of May. The trend I mentioned last week may be over. We’ll check back next week!
Oddly, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith and Star Tours both went down. They were at 35 and 25 minutes, respectively. That’s not bad at all.9
The other two crowded attractions at the park maintained shorter waits last week, too.
Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run dropped to 45 minutes while Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway required only 36 minutes.
By the way, when you want to do something fast at Hollywood Studios, your best bet remains Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy. Its wait is less than 20 minutes!
EPCOT
When you graph the wait times at EPCOT, the chart looks ridiculous. Four attractions have long bars while the other five are short.
However, there’s a surprise at the top this week. I usually refer to EPCOT as having a Big Three of Test Track, Soarin’, and Frozen Ever After.
While most people would agree that those are the top three rides, a different attraction has snuck into the top three in wait-time.
The orange (i.e., turbulent) side of Mission: SPACE required a 40-minute wait, which matched Soarin’ and surpassed Frozen Ever After.
Image Credit: Disney
You could have traveled to Arendelle in just 35 minutes, which is really good.
The best news comes at Test Track, though. Last time, I mentioned an average wait of an hour.
Photo: Disney
For the first week of May, that number dropped to 45 minutes! That’s the shortest wait I’ve seen at Test Track in a while!
As always, uptime vs. downtime determines its success. So, the ride broke down less often last week.
The other change involves Spaceship Earth, which increased a bit to 25 minutes.
Only four EPCOT attractions featured less than 20 minutes of wait-time, five if we can count the green version of Mission: SPACE.
The divide in wait-time for the orange and green sides mystifies me. Green provides a newer experience, people!
The other four are the usual crew of Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros (five minutes), Living with the Land (ten minutes), Journey into Imagination with Figment (12 minutes), and The Seas with Nemo & Friends (14 minutes).
Magic Kingdom
Guests at this park experienced better luck for the week, as the top three rides all came down a bit in wait-time.
Splash Mountain required its usual hour, but Seven Dwarfs Mine Train dropped down to 45 minutes, which is terrific.
Meanwhile, Jungle Cruise dropped five minutes from 45 to 40. Similarly, Pirates of the Caribbean and Space Mountain lowered from 40 to 35 minutes.
Ten Magic Kingdom attractions fell in that sweet spot of 20-30 minutes for waits. The usual suspects are:
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Astro Orbiter
- It’s a Small World
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Haunted Mansion
Credit: Disney
We also had two outliers. I’d been curious to track the return of the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover.
Its average wait-time approached 30 minutes, which would be patently absurd on a typical day.
However, the beloved ride was closed for more than 15 months. We’ll track how long it sustains its “We missed it so much!” popularity.
The other weird one is Prince Charming Regal Carrousel. It remains a 25-minute wait, which makes no sense to me.
Who are the people waiting this long for that ride???
The other eight rides at Magic Kingdom came with waits of 10-20 minutes, which is spectacular.
In short, if you visited Magic Kingdom last week, you had an amazing time. The lines were shorter than we’ve seen in a while.
Feature Image: CoasterKings.com
