Walt Disney World Wait Times for the Fourth Week of August 2021
Okay, the tide turned over the last two weeks. The brutal crowd sizes of July have mostly gone away.
In their stead, we’re watching August crowds lead to much more reasonable wait times for attractions.
Did the trend continue this past week? Here are the wait times for the fourth week of August 2021.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
My fact-checker did a triple take and then some more fact-checking when they noticed the wait time for Avatar Flight of Passage. That tells the whole story here.
You could have waited in line for BOTH Pandora attractions in roughly an hour. I’m totally serious.
Avatar Flight of Passage required a 31-minute wait, down five minutes from last time.
Meanwhile, Na’vi River Journey possessed a similar wait of 28 minutes, down one minute from previously.
Literally every other attraction at Animal Kingdom came with an average wait of 12 minutes or less. Look for yourself:
- Kali River Rapids – 12 minutes, down 7
- Expedition Everest – 11 minutes, down 2
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 10 minutes, no change
- Kilimanjaro Safaris – 10 minutes, down 6
- DINOSAUR – 7 minutes, no change
- TriceraTop Spin – 5 minutes, no change
The average attraction at Animal Kingdom required a comically low 14-minute wait. That’s down from 17 minutes last time.
Friends, if you visited Animal Kingdom over the past week, you got to do EVERYTHING you wanted and then some.
In fact, you’ll be bragging about this trip for the rest of your life. You and I can exchange stories of our insanely great Disney luck.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
At this point, only two attractions at Walt Disney World consistently require waits of 50+ minutes.
You can probably guess the one at Magic Kingdom, as it’s been that way for years.
At Hollywood Studios, Slinky Dog Dash still struggles to match its exceptionally high demand, more than three years after its debut.
The roller coaster required a 58-minute wait this past week, the longest one at Walt Disney World. Still, that’s down five minutes from last time.
Two other attractions came with 40+ minute waits, yet both of them decreased from last time.
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run dropped from 47 to 43 minutes. Meanwhile, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway fell from 45 to 43 minutes.
Still, those of you who read these articles regularly know that Hollywood Studios crowds have come down a lot in just a month.
Here are the other attractions:
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – 33 minutes, down 5
- Toy Story Mania! – 28 minutes, down 6
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 24 minutes, down 7
- Alien Swirling Saucers – 21 minutes, no change
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 14 minutes, no change
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue – 14 minutes, no change
- Muppet*Vision 3D – 12 minutes, up 1
Hollywood Studios seems relatively impervious to crowd fluctuation in a way that Animal Kingdom isn’t.
I presume Star Wars attractions keep guests coming here no matter what. The average attraction came with a 27-minute wait, down 11 minutes from last time.
While that’s MUCH better from last time, it’s also still double the Animal Kingdom waits.
EPCOT
I’ll briefly discuss three attractions to make my point about EPCOT this past week.
Test Track’s wait time dropped from 53 minutes previously to 36 minutes (!) this past week. Folks, that’s a steal of a deal.
The last time we rode this, I waited 70 minutes. People last week were boarding in half the time.
Meanwhile, Frozen Ever After came with the same 30-minute wait as last time. That’s not the big story, though.
Soarin’ Around the World dropped all the way down to a 13-minute wait, six minutes lower than last time.
The Soarin’ pre-show combined with boarding the ride and Soarin’ takes about 13 minutes. So this one was virtually walk-on.
We had this happen earlier this year and rode it several consecutive times.
I was around five years ago when a single Soarin’ line always came with a 50+ minute wait. These kids today don’t know how good they have it!
- Mission: SPACE – 12 minutes, no change
- Turtle Talk with Crush – 11 minutes
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 8 minutes, up 1
- Spaceship Earth – 8 minutes, no change
- Journey into Imagination with Figment – 8 minutes, up 3
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 5 minutes, down 2
Like Animal Kingdom, EPCOT park guests might as well have owned the place. They only waited 14 minutes per attraction, the same as the previous time.
So, someone feasibly could have done everything at EPCOT and Animal Kingdom in one day last week!
Magic Kingdom
Okay, let’s check one last park to confirm what’s going on with wait times. Here’s what happened at everyone’s favorite park last week:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – 53 minutes, down 5
- Jungle Cruise – 43 minutes, down 8
- Astro Orbiter – 40 minutes, up 8
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 38 minutes, down 8
- Splash Mountain – 37 minutes, down 13
- Haunted Mansion – 28 minutes, down 7
- Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 25 minutes, down 1
- Space Mountain – 22 minutes, down 16
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 20 minutes, down 4
- Buzz Lightyear Space Ringer Spin – 20 minutes, down 4
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 15 minutes, down 8
- It’s a Small World – 15 minutes, down 7
- Tomorrowland Speedway – 14 minutes, down 1
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 14 minutes, down 4
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – 12 minutes, no change
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic – 11 minutes, down 1
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 10 minutes, down 4
- Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 10 minutes, no change
- The Barnstormer – 8 minutes, down 1
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 8 minutes, down 4
- Dumbo the Flying Pig – 8 minutes, down 2
- Mad Tea Party – 6 minutes, down 3
- Country Bear Jamboree – 5 minutes, up 1
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – 4 minutes, down 1
Even Magic Kingdom witnessed smaller crowds overall. This past week was the rare instance where guests waited less than 20 minutes for the average attraction.
The 19-minute wait represents five minutes less than last time.
Overall, you would have felt like you hit the jackpot if you visited any park but Hollywood Studios last week.
Even a trip to Hollywood Studios would have met MUCH less resistance than just a month ago.
Obviously, the crowds have died down at Walt Disney World, giving guests a much better chance at an unforgettable visit!