Walt Disney World Wait Times for Pre-Thanksgiving Week
Next week, Walt Disney World will host some of its largest crowds of the year.
Thankfully, the mobs really won’t factor into wait times until Wednesday, November 24th. So, that’s only one day out of next week.
Still, we should track longer lines over the next two updates. This time, we’re gonna find out how the crowds work the week before the holiday.
Here are Walt Disney World’s Pre-Thanksgiving week wait times.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
We’ve trended wrong the past two weeks, by which I mean that crowds have undeniably increased in November.
Ordinarily, October claims fewer park guests than November. However, that has changed a bit recently due to the surging popularity of Halloween events.
Will that trend continue? Well, Avatar Flight of Passage averaged a 61-minute wait last week, down 12 minutes. So, there’s that.
Meanwhile, Na’vi River Journey almost matched its sibling at 59 minutes, down six minutes from last time.
Overall, that’s the pattern at Animal Kingdom this week. The rides either matched last week’s wait times or dropped some.
Here’s the data:
- Kilimanjaro Safaris – 33 minutes, down 3
- Expedition Everest – 19 minutes, down 1
- DINOSAUR – 14 minutes, down 3
- TriceraTop Spin – 10 minutes, down 2
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 9 minutes, down 2
Overall, Animal Kingdom rides averaged a 30-minute wait, down five minutes from last time. That’s a substantial drop.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Frankly, Hollywood Studios has gotten kind of crazy the past few weeks. So, I’m hoping for a downward turn here as well.
Thankfully, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, the ride that sets the tone here, fell to 114 minutes. So, that’s waaaaay down from the prior average of 151 minutes.
Given the number of attractions at this park, Rise of the Resistance skews all other data, as you’ll see in a moment.
Here’s the other stuff from Hollywood Studios:
- Slinky Dog Dash – 75 minutes, down 3
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – 60 minutes, down 7
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – 55 minutes, down 5
- Toy Story Mania! – 53 minutes, down 5
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – 51 minutes, down 3
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 41 minutes, down 54 (!)
- Alien Swirling Saucers – 33 minutes, down 5
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue – 18 minutes, down 10
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 13 minutes, no change
- Muppet*Vision 3D – 10 minutes, no change
You can already tell this will be the case, but the park’s average attraction lowered its wait time mightily last week.
An attraction took 43 minutes, down 10 minutes from the previous article. Suffice to say that guests were happier at Hollywood Studios last week.
PS: the difference with the Tower of Terror stems from its technical difficulties on several recent days.
On many occasions, only one side operated, and some of those elevators weren’t fully operational.
EPCOT
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure won’t factor into these discussions because it remains a virtual queue experience.
So, the longest of the standby entrance rides at EPCOT remains Frozen Ever After. A journey to Arendelle took 75 minutes, down a minute from last time.
Test Track held at 45 minutes, which is a decent range for it. I’d like to see Frozen Ever After come down a bit comparatively. Still, it’s probably a byproduct of the switch to Lightning Lane.
Here’s the rest of EPCOT:
- Soarin’ Around the World – 30 minutes, down 6
- Spaceship Earth – 13 minutes, down 1
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 12 minutes, no change
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 12 minutes, no change
- Turtle Talk with Crush – 10 minutes, no change
- Journey into Imagination with Figment – 9 minutes, down 5
- Mission: SPACE – 8 minutes, down 3
- Living with the Land – 7 minutes, down 5
The average EPCOT attraction came with a wait of 23 minutes, down one minute from last week.
Magic Kingdom
So, we’ve tracked three theme parks. Two of them had their wait times drop by 15-20 percent. The other fell slightly week over week.
How does Magic Kingdom stack up? Weeeeeell…
Jungle Cruise jumped from 79 to 86 minutes this week. There’s an explanation here, though.
Remember that the ride temporarily switches to Jingle Cruise during the holiday season. As a result, this version is in greater demand since it’s rarely available.
Meanwhile, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train held at 75 minutes, which is two minutes less than last time. It’s on the high end but tolerable.
If you can afford to pay for Lightning Lane, that’s probably smarter than waiting for 75 minutes. And yes, I feel the same way about Rise of the Resistance.
Here’s everything else at Magic Kingdom:
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 68 minutes, down 7
- Splash Mountain – 50 minutes, up 5
- Haunted Mansion – 49 minutes, down 1
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 42 minutes, no change
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 40 minutes, down 2
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 39 minutes, no change
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – 38 minutes, down 4
- Space Mountain – 36 minutes, down 4
- Astro Orbiter – 33 minutes, down 5
- It’s a Small World – 32 minutes, down 4
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 30 minutes, no change
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 28 minutes, down 1
- Princess Fairytale Hall – 25 minutes, no change
- Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 24 minutes, down 2
- The Barnstormer – 23 minutes, down 5
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 20 minutes, up 1
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 18 minutes, no change
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic – 17 minutes, previously closed
- Tomorrowland Speedway – 17 minutes, down 4
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – 14 minutes, down 1
- Mad Tea Party – 14 minutes, down 4
- Town Square Theater – 10 minutes, down 3
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – 5 minutes, no change
- Country Bear Jamboree – 4 minutes, no change
Overall, Magic Kingdom attractions averaged a 32-minute wait, down three minutes from last time.
So, the parks were less crowded last week, but that’s about to change…