Walt Disney World Wait Times for Post-Thanksgiving 2022

Okay, Thanksgiving Week was wild at Disney, but it thankfully wasn’t as busy as what we witnessed in 2018 and 2019.

There’s probably something to the notion that savvy guests visit the week before Thanksgiving to avoid the rush.

Still, there’s one behavior we can safely expect this week and next. Disney theme parks tend to slow down during the lull between Thanksgiving and mid-December.

Did that happen this past week? Sort of! Here are the wait times for the week after Thanksgiving 2022.

Photo:visitorlando.com

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Let’s start with Animal Kingdom’s most popular attraction, Avatar Flight of Passage.

This ride will commemorate five years of dominance in 2023. It’s legitimately been the park alpha since the inception of Pandora – The World of Avatar.

Photo: Disney

Last week, guests waited an average of 112 minutes, which is only three minutes less than last time. I’ll be honest that I expected a bigger drop.

Was this a fluke, or did Hollywood Studios claim larger post-Thanksgiving crowds than usual? Let’s check the other wait times to see:

• Na’vi River Journey – 64 minutes, down 9
• Kilimanjaro Safaris – 61 minutes, up 21
• Adventurers Outpost – 53 minutes, down 1
• Expedition Everest – 36 minutes, up 2
• DINOSAUR – 22 minutes, down 2
• Kali River Rapids – 17 minutes, no change
• TriceraTop Spin – 15 minutes, up 3
• It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 10 minutes, no change

Photo: Disney

Overall, guests waited an average of 40 minutes, two minutes less than last time.

We do have an attraction skewing a data a bit here, which is Kilimanjaro Safaris. I’m honestly not sure why it was up so significantly week over week.

Photo: Disney

In the coming weeks, we’ll track whether that was a one-off or a sign of things to come.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Disney’s most kinetic park behaved strangely during Thanksgiving. Wait times dropped from the previous week.

Photo credit: DisneyWorldVacationGuide.com

Let me be clear on this point. If I had bet money in Vegas on the park’s crowds, I would have LOST EVERYTHING on that outcome. I never saw it coming.

Did Hollywood Studios continue to behave unpredictably? Here are the average waits for last week:

• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – 107 minutes, down 18
• Slinky Dog Dash – 100 minutes, up 5
• Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 89 minutes, up 5
• Toy Story Mania! – 70 minutes, up 5
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – 66 minutes, up 2
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – 63 minutes, up 2
• Rock & Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – 60 minutes, up 3
• Red Carpet Dreams – 47 minutes, up 7
• Alien Swirling Saucers – 40 minutes, up 5
• Celebrity Spotlight – 32 minutes, down 5
• Meet Sulley at Walt Disney Presents – 31 minutes, down 2
• Star Tours – The Adventures Continue! – 26 minutes, up 6
• Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 15 minutes, up 5
• Muppet*Vision 3D – 10 minutes, no change

Guests at Hollywood Studios waited an average of 48 minutes per attraction last week, the same as Thanksgiving.

Part of that stems from the fact that people seemingly avoided Hollywood Studios more than usual during the holiday.

I presume they felt the Thanksgiving crowds were bad enough without introducing Star Wars-sized lines into the mix.

EPCOT

Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure has once again emerged as the most popular standby line queue attraction at EPCOT.

(Matt Stroshane, photographer)

During the past week, guests waited an average of 85 minutes, which is 18 minutes less than last time.

Frozen Ever After suffered a similar drop, shaving 13 minutes off its average wait. It held at 77 minutes for the week.

Photo: Disney

Similarly, Test Track also declined to 57 minutes, which is a more modest drop of four minutes.

Still, we can tell that crowds diminished after the holidays. Otherwise, EPCOT would have held better.

After all, with the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays and Candlelight Processional ongoing, it had less reason to drop than the other three parks.

Photo: Walt Disney World

Here are the other average waits for verification:

• Royal Sommerhus – 37 minutes, up 2
• Soarin’ Around the World – 35 minutes, down 3
• Mission: SPACE – 16 minutes, down 5
• Turtle Talk with Crush – 15 minutes, down 5
• The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 14 minutes, up 1
• Spaceship Earth – 13 minutes, down 2
• Journey into Imagination with Figment – 9 minutes, up 2
• Living with the Land – 5 minutes, down 4
• Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 4 minutes, down 3

Photo: Disney

So, EPCOT guests waited for an average of 29 minutes, three minutes less than during the holiday week.

Magic Kingdom  

Photo: Disney Parks

Did Magic Kingdom also experience overall drops in wait time? Let’s check:

• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – 81 minutes, up 8
• Peter Pan’s Flight – 76 minutes, up 9
• Jingle Cruise – 66 minutes, up 3
• Haunted Mansion – 51 minutes, up 10
• Town Square Theater – 49 minutes, up 11
• Space Mountain – 48 minutes, down 2
• Splash Mountain – 48 minutes, up 13
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 47 minutes, up 8
• Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – 45 minutes, up 8
• Prince Fairytale Hall – 41 minutes, up 5
• Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 40 minutes, up 10
• Pirates of the Caribbean – 39 minutes, up 14
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 38 minutes, up 4
• Astro Orbiter – 35 minutes, up 6
• The Barnstormer – 30 minutes, up 8
• Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 29 minutes, up 9
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 27 minutes, up 8
• Tomorrowland Speedway – 24 minutes, up 7
• Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 20 minutes, up 7
• Mad Tea Party – 19 minutes, up 5
• Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – 15 minutes, up 4
• Disney’s PhilharMagic – 14 minutes, no change
• Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – 5 minutes, no change
• Country Bear Jamboree – 5 minutes, no change

Photo: Disney

Obviously, the slow period we tracked during Thanksgiving has returned to normal this past week.

Guests waited an average of 37 minutes, which is seven minutes more than last time when we pretty much knew odd guest behaviors were at work.

Photo: orlandoattractions.com

So, guests waited less time per attraction at the two parks, the same at one park, and significantly more at Magic Kingdom.

Next week’s data should drop significantly before the waits rise again as Christmas approaches.

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Feature Photo: Touring Plans