Walt Disney World Wait Times for the Third Week of August 2021
Okay, the last time we discussed wait times, everything was trending downward.
However, my park intel suggests that something staggering has happened.
After two chaotic school years, everyone’s ready for life to return to normal. As such, people have already done their vacationing for the summer.
Folks, I suspect that the WDW wait times for last week are going to shock you! So let’s check to see whether I’m right.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Let’s kick this chart off the right way. I know what I’m about to tell you will blow your mind.
Friends, Avatar Flight of Passage averaged a wait time of 36 minutes over the past week. As a reminder, it was 75 minutes last time.
That’s not even the most remarkable part. During the last week of July, Disney fans spent 131 minutes in line for the pride of Pandora.
Personally, I’d rather ride it in 36 minutes than 75 or 131 minutes. How about you?
Hilariously, Avatar dropped so much that Na’vi River Journey nearly caught it with a 29-minute wait. That’s down from 40 minutes last time and 58 minutes in July.
The moral of the story: visit in mid-August, not July!!!
(Kent Phillips, photographer)
Here’s the rest of Animal Kingdom’s average wait times (with the last week of July number in parenthesis):
- Kali River Rapids – 19 minutes, down 12 (57m in July)
- Kilimanjaro Safaris – 16 minutes, down 12 (62m in July)
- Expedition Everest – 13 minutes, down 9 (44m in July)
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 10 minutes, no change (18m in July)
- DINOSAUR – 7 minutes, down 10 (39m in July)
- TriceraTop Spin – 5 minutes, no change (15m in July)
Photo: Disney
The average Animal Kingdom attraction required a 17-minute wait, which is better than whichever Six Flags is closest to you.
At 17 minutes, attraction waits dropped 12 minutes from last time. In July, the same average was 55 minutes. It’s like a switch just flipped at Walt Disney World.
Image Credit: Disney
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
So, despite all the good news, Hollywood Studios could still prove an outlier. After all, this park plays by its own rules. And it’s usually the most crowded.
To wit, Slinky Dog Dash still required a 63-minute wait, which is down 19 minutes from last time. Still, it’s an hour spent standing in line.
As such, Hollywood Studios may yet show that the lines didn’t shrink much. We’ll need at least two more attractions to decide.
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run fell 19 minutes as well, but it’s still at 51 minutes. That’s on the high side for it, recent events notwithstanding.
Image: Disney
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway also dropped from 56 to 45 minutes. Again, that’s better than in recent weeks. Overall, it’s above average, though.
Hollywood Studios remains a bit enigmatic. This park simply doesn’t empty out the way that the others do. Too many people need their Star Wars Land!
Image Credit: Disney
Here are the other park averages:
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – 38 minutes, down 19 (81m in July)
- Toy Story Mania! – 34 minutes, down 11 (55m in July)
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 31 minutes, down 17 (68m in July)
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 14 minutes, no change (13m in July)
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue – 14 minutes, down 9 (35m in July)
- Muppet*Vision 3D – 11 minutes, no change (15m in July)
The average park ride required a 38-minute wait, which is down 10 minutes from last time. At the end of July, guests needed 51 minutes to ride anything.
Photo: Disney
So, we’ve made incremental gains at Hollywood Studios compared to massive ones at Animal Kingdom.
EPCOT
How will EPCOT play out? You can probably guess. This park receives the least love of the four.
When ride lines thin, it turns into that much more of a value pick. To wit, Test Track dropped to 40 minutes this week.
Image Credit: Disney
Last time, the dark ride/roller coaster hybrid held at 53 minutes and had reached 78 minutes in July. It’s effectively lost half its line in a matter of weeks!
Frozen Ever After modestly dropped from 36 to 30 minutes. Last month, it averaged 58 minutes. So, the same pattern holds here.
With Soarin’, the trend blows up. In July, guests spent 38 minutes in line. That number fell to 19 minutes last time.
Somehow, it shrunk more over the past week, averaging 14 minutes. Folks, if you can get on Soarin’ in under 15 minutes, you should ALWAYS do it.
Here are the other EPCOT attractions:
- Mission: SPACE – 12 minutes, down 2 (37m in July)
- Spaceship Earth – 8 minutes, down 6 (30m in July)
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 7 minutes, down 6 (23m in July)
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 7 minutes, down 3 (32m in July)
- Living with the Land – 5 minutes, down 2 (15m in July)
- Journey into Imagination with Figment – 5 minutes, down 1 (18m in July)
I’m going insane at the knowledge that people spent more time riding Spaceship Earth than standing in line for it.
Why wasn’t I at Disney last week? The only answer: I’m a moron.
Overall, EPCOT attractions averaged 14 minutes, down four minutes from last time. In July, it averaged 33 minutes.
However, let’s not bury the lede here. With that short a wait, you could have done three or four rides in an hour at EPCOT last week. That’s insane!
Magic Kingdom
I think the trend is quite evident by now. Still, let’s drive the point home with these Magic Kingdom averages:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – 58 minutes, down 15 (97m in July)
- Jungle Cruise – 51 minutes, down 6 (82m in July)
- Splash Mountain – 50 minutes, down 10 (85m in July)
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 46 minutes, down 8 (66m in July)
- Space Mountain – 38 minutes, down 14 (79m in July)
- Haunted Mansion – 35 minutes, down 10 (65m in July)
- Astro Orbiter – 32 minutes, down 9 (46m in July)
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 26 minutes, down 4 (46m in July)
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – 24 minutes, down 12 (55m in July)
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 24 minutes, down 16 (60m in July)
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 23 minutes, down 4 (41m in July)
- It’s a Small World – 22 minutes, down 8 (47m in July)
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 18 minutes, down 8 (44m in July)
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 14 minutes, down 5 (35m in July)
- Tomorrowland Speedway – 13 minutes, down 9 (35m in July)
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – 12 minutes, down 8 (n/a)
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic – 12 minutes, down 6 (26m in July)
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 12 minutes, down 2 (28m in July)
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 10 minutes, down 6 (39m in July)
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 10 minutes, down 8 (30m in July)
- Mad Tea Party – 9 minutes, down 5 (20m in July)
- Barnstormer – 9 minutes, down 8 (n/a)
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – 5 minutes, no change (7m in July)
- Country Bear Jamboree – 4 minutes, up two (7m in July)
Credit: Disney
The average Magic Kingdom attraction required a 24-minute wait, down eight minutes from last time and 24 minutes from July.
So, Magic Kingdom has also witnessed its ride times cut in half over the past few weeks.
If you can go to Disney right now, the lines are short, my friends!
