Walt Disney World Wait Times for Second Week of August 2022
Has school started back in your area? Based on anecdotal research, I’d say it’s a coin flip whether you answered yes.
Obviously, we’re winding up the unofficial summer tourist season at Walt Disney World. At some point, crowd sizes should decrease…at least theoretically.
Disney officials recently confirmed that 2022 attendance levels have nearly returned to 2019’s record-setting numbers.
People have waited far too long to visit Disney theme parks. Now, they’re visiting in droves, and the start of the school year may not stop them.
Something’s gotta give here. Did that happen this past week? Let’s examine the Walt Disney World wait times for the second week of August 2022.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
The rule with wait times is that we always start with Animal Kingdom, primarily for alphabetical purposes.
However, we also do this because Avatar Flight of Passage often hints at the overall Walt Disney World behavior for the week.
When Pandora – The World of Avatar tracks more guests, the rest of the Disney campus usually follows. Did that happen this week?
Avatar Flight of Passage averaged a 96-minute wait, which is identical to last week. Meanwhile, Na’vi River Journey dropped eight minutes to 66 minutes.
So, we’re trending down slightly. Here are the park’s other wait times:
- Kali River Rapids – 51 minutes, down 6
- Kilimanjaro Safaris – 50 minutes, down 10
- Adventurers Outpost – 46 minutes, down 2
- DINOSAUR – 40 minutes, up 3
- Expedition Everest – 37 minutes, down 1
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 13 minutes, up 1
- TriceraTop Spin – 10 minutes, no change
As you can see, most Animal Kingdom attractions decreased their lines slightly over the past week.
Overall, guests waited an average of 45 minutes, a three-minute decline.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Still, we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. Hollywood Studios can blow up the gains from Animal Kingdom.
We’ll know more after we examine the top six or seven attractions here, most of which average a wait of 60+ minutes.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance averaged a wait of 121 minutes, an increase of 23 minutes from last week.
I’m not reading much into that because Rise of the Resistance experienced an unusually good and smooth-running week then. So, this is more of a return to normal.
How did the rest of Hollywood Studios do? Well…
- Slinky Dog Dash – 92 minutes, down 8
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – 80 minutes, down 5
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – 75 minutes, up 2
- Toy Story Mania! – 66 minutes, down 2
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – 64 minutes, up 1
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 53 minutes, down 5
- Red Carpet Dreams – 41 minutes, down 2
- Meet Sulley at Walt Disney Presents… — 40 minutes, down 1
- Alien Swirling Saucers – 39 minutes, down 1
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue! – 27 minutes, up 2
- Celebrity Spotlight – 25 minutes, up 1
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 13 minutes, down 2
- Muppet*Vision 3D – 10 minutes, no change
So, most Hollywood Studios attractions decreased their wait times last week.
Overall, guests waited an average of 48 minutes, down two minutes from last time. We seem to be talking about modest drops rather than significant ones.
EPCOT
During this summer, a three-headed monster has emerged at EPCOT. Guests wait for the longest for Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Test Track.
That pattern remained over the past seven days. This time, Remy required the longest average wait at 71 minutes, the same as last week.
Obviously, this means the other two attractions decreased their waits. Frozen Ever After dropped seven minutes to an average of 68 minutes of line time.
Meanwhile, Test Track averaged 64 minutes, down considerably from 70 minutes last time.
We are definitely trending the right way at EPCOT. Let’s look at the other attractions:
- Mission: SPACE – 33 minutes, down 11
- Soarin’ Around the World – 31 minutes, down 16
- Royal Sommerhus – 18 minutes, down 5
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 14 minutes, up 2
- Turtle Talk with Crush – 12 minutes, down 3
- Spaceship Earth – 11 minutes, down 9
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 10 minutes, down 3
- Living with the Land – 9 minutes, down 3
- Journey into Imagination with Figment – 7 minutes, down 7
Obviously, these are ridiculously low wait times overall. Guests spent an average of 28 minutes in line per attraction, a four-minute drop from last time.
That’s not even the most impressive part. Nine different EPCOT attractions required sub-20-minute waits. That’s an incredible park day right there!
Also, remember that the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival is ongoing. So, there’s plenty to do at EPCOT right now.
Despite this fact, the wait times are already in the off-season range!
Magic Kingdom
Okay, park attendance seems to be trending down. Did that hold at Magic Kingdom? Let’s check:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – 75 minutes, down 5
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 68 minutes, down 10
- Jungle Cruise – 61 minutes, up 2
- Splash Mountain – 60 minutes, down 3
- Town Square Theater – 51 minutes, down 10
- Haunted Mansion – 50 minutes, up 4
- Space Mountain – 48 minutes, down 3
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 45 minutes, up 3
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – 44 minutes, down 3
- Astro Orbiter – 40 minutes, no change
- Princess Fairytale Hall – 37 minutes, down 7
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 36 minutes, down 5
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 34 minutes, up 1
- Tomorrowland Speedway – 32 minutes, up 6
- It’s a Small World – 30 minutes, down 1
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 26 minutes, down 2
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 24 minutes, up 2
- The Barnstormer – 18 minutes, down 3
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic – 17 minutes, down 3
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 16 minutes, no change
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – 15 minutes, down 2
- Mad Tea Party – 14 minutes, no change
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 13 minutes, down 2
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 12 minutes, no change
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – 5 minutes, no change
- Country Bear Jamboree – 5 minutes, no change
Overall, guests waited for an average of 34 minutes for Magic Kingdom attractions. That’s a three-minute drop from the previous week.
So, Disney does appear to be losing some of its crowds as the school year begins.
However, international travelers will soon arrive at the parks for the first time in ages.
That change may counterbalance the standard slower crowds during the fall.