Walt Disney World Wait Times for Last Week of September 2021
Walt Disney World celebrates its 50th birthday in October. But, before that happens, we can close the book on the previous month.
Let’s talk about the average Walt Disney World wait times for the last week of September of 2021.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom
We’re in a weird spot on the calendar, one that frankly has no historical precedent.
On the one hand, it’s late September in the middle of a pandemic.
Yes, Central Florida’s numbers have improved, but people must also worry about their own towns.
As such, some folks have eschewed travel late in the summer and early in the fall.
On the other hand, Walt Disney World’s 50th-anniversary celebration represents probably the most significant tourist event in Florida in, well, 50 years.
Something has to give here. But, to my surprise, the most recent period that we’re tracking actually saw a traffic decrease.
Yes, the average Animal Kingdom attraction came with a wait of only 13 minutes, down from 16 minutes last time.
Obviously, that information signals drops at most attractions. To wit, Avatar Flight of Passage fell from 38 to 31 minutes last week.
Na’vi River Journey behaved similarly, as its wait decreased from 33 to 29 minutes. Frankly, that’s the story across the park.
Take a look at the average waits for the other attractions:
- Expedition Everest – 10 minutes, down 3
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 10 minutes, up 2
- Kali River Rapids – 9 minutes, down 5
- Kilimanjaro Safaris – 9 minutes, down 1
- DINOSAUR – 7 minutes, no change
- TriceraTop Spin – 5 minutes, no change
Folks, ignoring the time spent walking around the park, you could have ridden literally everything at Animal Kingdom after waiting in line for just 110 minutes!!!
On many days, Avatar Flight of Passage requires that much wait time on its own. People who visited Animal Kingdom last week had a terrific time!

Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Did the trend continue at Hollywood Studios? The short answer is yes. This past week, the average ride required a 27-minute wait.
In the previous frame, the average had been 32 minutes. So, guests spent less time in line here as well.
That’s not even the most remarkable part. We have a new attraction increasing the overall wait time. And it debuted at number one in the wait time tracking.
Yes, I’m referencing Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which is now a regular standby line wait.
The average wait for it was 74 minutes, which is honestly less than what I had expected. That’s nearly a full week of data, too.
So, Disney made the correct determination in switching it to a standard line queue. The demand has slowed down enough that it’s now okay to do this.
Obviously, Rise of the Resistance required the longest wait of anything at Walt Disney World last week, but that was a predictable turn of events.
We’ve tracked several other attractions with similar waits over the past three months, and none of them was the hottest ride in Orlando.
As such, I feel pretty good about what Disney has done here. Obviously, that could change depending on what happens in early October. We’ll follow up on that next week.
Here are the other wait times at Hollywood Studios last week:
- Slinky Dog Dash – 54 minutes, down 6
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – 38 minutes, down 8
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – 37 minutes, down 9
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – 30 minutes, down 7
- Toy Story Mania! – 28 minutes, down 10
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 24 minutes, down 12
- Alien Swirling Saucers – 20 minutes, down 6
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 14 minutes, up 2
- Muppet*Vision 3D – 10 minutes, no change
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue – 8 minutes, down 8
In evaluating this data, I believe that the opportunity to ride the best Star Wars attraction siphoned demand away from everything else in the park.
However, this turn significantly impacted the other Star Wars attractions.
You could have ridden Star Tours on a loop last week because its demand was so low.
EPCOT
Okay, we’ve talked a lot more than usual this week. So, let’s just look at the numbers at EPCOT and Magic Kingdom.
We’ll obviously talk about EPCOT more next week since Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is debuting Friday.
Until then, here are the average attraction wait times:
- Frozen Ever After – 30 minutes, down 7
- Test Track – 29 minutes, down 9
- Soarin’ – 20 minutes, up 4
- Turtle Talk with Crush – 10 minutes, no change
- Mission: SPACE – 9 minutes, down 2
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 7 minutes, no change
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 7 minutes, down 1
- Living with the Land – 6 minutes, down 1
- Spaceship Earth – 6 minutes, down 2
- Journey into Imagination with Figment – 5 minutes, no change
The average EPCOT attraction required a wait of 13 minutes, down from 16 minutes last time.
Just to be clear, only three attractions here required a wait of more than 10 minutes. That’s genuinely incredible.
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom reaffirmed its status as the most popular theme park on the planet last week with the Themed Entertainment Association’s latest report.
However, the crowds remained smaller than usual. The average attraction wait held at 18 minutes, down a modest two minutes from last time.
Here are individual attraction average waits:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – 45 minutes, down 5
- Jungle Cruise – 44 minutes, down 4
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 37 minutes, down 4
- Haunted Mansion – 30 minutes, down 2
- Splash Mountain – 26 minutes, down 1
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 25 minutes, down 1
- Astro Orbiter – 23 minutes, down 5
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – 18 minutes, down 2
- Space Mountain – 18 minutes, down 2
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 17 minutes, down 1
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 16 minutes, up 2
- It’s a Small World – 15 minutes, down 2
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 12 minutes, no change
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic – 9 minutes, down 1
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 9 minutes, up 1
- Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 8 minutes, down 2
- The Barnstormer – 7 minutes, no change
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 7 minutes, no change
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 7 minutes, down 3
- Mad Tea Party – 6 minutes, down 1
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – 6 minutes, down 5
- Tomorrowland Speedway – 6 minutes, down 2
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – 5 minutes, down 1
- Country Bear Jamboree – 4 minutes, no change
