Walt Disney World Wait Times for the Fourth Week of May, 2021
Over the past month, we’ve discussed the evolving nature of Disney theme park wait times here at the end of the pandemic.
This time, we’ve reached a crossroads, as it’s the first major holiday since half the adult population received the vaccination.
However, the cutoff date means that we’ll have a before and after vibe this week and next.
The wait times we’ll discuss for the fourth week ended on Thursday, May 27th. So, none of the three-day Memorial Day weekend crowds factor in.
Keeping that in mind, let’s take a look at what the Walt Disney World crowds looked like for the past week!
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
You will notice a trend this week, albeit one that makes perfect sense. Generally, attraction wait times came down.
Why did this happen? People prefer to visit on vacation days, which means that many waited until Memorial Day.
So, attractions like Avatar Flight of Passage reduced their line time a lot. Two weeks ago, guests waited 76 minutes then 70 minutes the following week.
For the past seven days, waits dropped down to 60 minutes, which is VERY good. In fact, you could have ridden both Pandora rides in 100 minutes.
Na’Vi River Journey required just a 40-minute wait, the same as last week.
The rest of the list is eye-opening, as Kilimanjaro Safaris fell from 45 to 33 minutes, the shortest wait time in a while.
DINOSAUR dropped that much more, as it had been 30 minutes but dropped all the way down to 20 minutes.
As a reminder, DINOSAUR required a 38-minute wait just two weeks ago.
You can really appreciate the importance of seating every row on the attraction when you contrast the recent changes.
Kali River Rapids proves to be the outlier here, as it increased from 20 to 32 minutes.
I suspect this one’s as simple as the temperature went up several degrees. However, I’ll keep tracking it in case something else factors in.
The outlier the other way is It’s Tough to Be a Bug!, which now seats every theater row. That dropped its wait time in half, from 30 to 15 minutes!
The other two Animal Kingdom attractions are Expedition Everest (19 minutes, down from 21) and TriceraTop Spin (five minutes, down from 7).
Overall, Animal Kingdom rides averaged a 28-minute wait, down from 33 minutes last week.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
I’ve got bad news and absolutely incredible news at Hollywood Studios.
Slinky Dog Dash remains one of the most extended lines at Walt Disney World, as it averaged a 70-minute wait this week.
However, the other attraction of note here changed dramatically. Last time, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror tied Slinky Dog Dash with a 75-minute line.
For the past week, Tower of Terror’s wait time collapsed to 27 minutes. In fact, this information surprised me so much that I verified it several ways.
As I write this, Tower of Terror averaged 24-minute waits on consecutive days and has a 25-minute listed wait right now.
I mentioned last month that Disney had reduced throughput while undergoing renovations.
Based on this information, I must presume that these refurbishments have concluded.
With Twilight Zone falling out of the top five, the two attractions with the next-longest wait times are Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
The Star Wars ride fell from 55 to 45 minutes this past week. Meanwhile, the roller coaster dropped two minutes to a 38-minute average.
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway also went down from 45 to 35 minutes. This was a GOOD week to visit Hollywood Studios.
More about Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Here’s the rest of the attractions:
- Toy Story Mania! (32 minutes, up two minutes)
- Star Tours: The Adventures Continue (30 minutes, no change)
- Alien Swirling Saucers 26 minutes (down one minute)
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy (16 minutes, down five minutes)
- Muppet*Vision 3D (13 minutes, down 17 minutes!)
I should explain that Muppet*Vision 3D is also seating every row again. That’s why its wait time declined by more than half.
The average Hollywood Studios attraction required just a 30-minute wait, down 10 minutes, aka a full third, from last week.
Seriously, if you went to Hollywood Studios this past week, you were a happy tourist.
EPCOT
The top two attractions at EPCOT saw their wait times come down this week.
Test Track fell from 55 to 52 minutes, while Soarin’ dropped all the way to 47 minutes. As a reminder, they were tied last week.
The Orange version of Mission: SPACE also generally maintained its wait time. It was at 50 minutes last week and then 47 minutes this week.
I swear I’m not taunting, but the Green version averaged only 13 minutes for the past seven days.
The choice is clear about which side to ride, people! Nobody ever listens to me about this, though.
Frozen Ever After fell back to 40 minutes, similar to two weeks ago but down from last week’s 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, here’s the list of wait times for the rest of EPCOT’s attractions, the ones with sub-20-minute lines:
- Spaceship Earth (17 minutes down three minutes)
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends (16 minutes, no change)
- Journey into Imagination with Figment (15 minutes, down five minutes)
- Living with the Land (10 minutes, down two minutes)
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros (5 minutes, no change)
The average EPCOT attraction required a wait of 28 minutes, down from 30 minutes last week.
Magic Kingdom
This time, I’ll try something different with Magic Kingdom. Here’s the complete list of attractions, along with their changes in wait times.
- Splash Mountain (58 minutes, up six minutes)
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (48 minutes, up two minutes)
- Jungle Cruise (40 minutes, down five minutes)
- Space Mountain (40 minutes, no change)
- Pirates of the Caribbean (35 minutes, down five minutes)
- Peter Pan’s Flight (30 minutes, down three minutes)
- Astro Orbiter (29 minutes, down five minutes)
- It’s a Small World (27 minutes, down one minute)
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic (25 minutes, down five minutes)
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (22 minutes, down two minutes)
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (21 minutes, down six minutes)
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel (20 minutes, no change)
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (19 minutes, down five minutes)
- Haunted Mansion (18 minutes, down three minutes)
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid (15 minutes, down three minutes)
- Country Bear Jamboree (12 minutes, no change)
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover (12 minutes, down 13 minutes)
- Mad Tea Party (12 minutes, down two minutes)
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress (12 minutes, no change)
- Tomorrowland Speedway (nine minutes, down six minutes)
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin (nine minutes, down six minutes)
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant (eight minutes, down three minutes)
- The Barnstormer (eight minutes, no change)
Thoughts about Magic Kingdom Wait Times
The main topics here are Splash Mountain and the PeopleMover. Everything else is in line with last week.
Splash Mountain appears likely to experience high wait times until Disney finally closes it for re-theming. If anything, its waits should increase this summer.
As for the PeopleMover, remember that it only reopened in May. So, those longer wait times reflect the rush from guests who missed it.
Now that the PeopleMover has been back a while, it’s returned to its regular lines, as expected.
Overall, the average Magic Kingdom attraction required a 23-minute wait, down from 25 minutes last week.
I fully expect a surge due to the holiday crowds. So, most of these numbers should go up next time.