Walt Disney World Wait Times for Early July 2023
As the calendar turned from June to July, an odd calendar configuration slotted July 4th on a Tuesday.
For this reason, guessing crowd patterns this year is challenging. Did more people visit the week before the holiday, or will they show up now?
Let’s examine the final few days of June and early days of July to figure it out.
Here are Walt Disney World’s wait times for the start of July 2023.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
I’ll start by acknowledging that we had our team of ace MickeyBlog reporters at the parks on Sunday, July 2nd. That’s the final date for this week’s data.
They reported shockingly low crowds, all things considered. Some of those photos are from 10 a.m., not Rope Drop.
I can understand when guests want to sleep in. Low crowds an hour later are a bit unusual, though.
In the previous wait times article, I’d noted that all attractions either held their wait times or increased.
Based on this anecdotal data, I wouldn’t expect the same for the past seven days. So, which is it?
Here are Animal Kingdom’s average wait times:
- Avatar Flight of Passage – 96 minutes, down 17
- Na’vi River Journey – 68 minutes, down 12
- Kali River Rapids – 45 minutes, down 4
- DINOSAUR – 43 minutes, up 4
- Adventurers Outpost – 39 minutes, down 4
- Kilimanjaro Safaris – 35 minutes, down 12
- Expedition Everest – 32 minutes, down 5
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 13 minutes, no change
- TriceraTop Spin – 9 minutes, down 1
Overall, guests at Animal Kingdom stood in line for an average of 43 minutes, which is six minutes or 14 percent less than last time.
I’d also like to point out one peculiarity here. Central Florida was HOT this past week. Temperatures were in the 90s regularly.
That’s not the kind of weather you’d expect during a week when Kali River Rapids wait times dropped. Something’s up.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Here are the average wait times at Hollywood Studios this past week:
- Slinky Dog Dash – 100 minutes, down 10
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – 98 minutes, down 30
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – 74 minutes, down 2
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – 68 minutes, down 2
- Toy Story Mania! – 65 minutes, down 8
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – 63 minutes, down 8
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 52 minutes, down 3
- Red Carpet Dreams – 38 minutes, down 2
- Alien Swirling Saucers – 37 minutes, down 5
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue! – 23 minutes, down 6
- Celebrity Spotlight – 17 minutes, down 3
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 16 minutes, down 1
- Muppet*Vision 3D – 10 minutes, down 3
Overall, guests waited for an average of 46 minutes, which is five minutes less than last time.
I want to stress two points here. The first is that when the parks are more crowded, the throughput restraints on Slinky Dog Dash hurt it.
I speculate that at some point within the next 15 months, it might permanently usurp Rise of the Resistance as the ride with the longest wait.
To a larger point, we’ve evaluated two parks now. Only one attraction, DINOSAUR, has increased its wait time.
Based on what I’m seeing, attendance was down noticeably, although we’ve still got two more parks to check.
EPCOT
Here are the average wait times for EPCOT during the past week:
- Frozen Ever After – 71 minutes, down 10
- Test Track – 69 minutes, down 3
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure – 64 minutes, down 9
- Soarin’ Around the World – 42 minutes, down 9
- Royal Sommerhus – 30 minutes, down 2
- Mission: SPACE – 27 minutes, up 3
- Turtle Talk with Crush – 19 minutes, no change
- Spaceship Earth – 18 minutes, down 5
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 16 minutes, down 1
- Journey into Imagination with Figment – 14 minutes, down 4
- Living with the Land – 13 minutes, down 3
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 12 minutes, down 2
At EPCOT, guests averaged a wait of 33 minutes per attraction last week. That’s three minutes less than the previous week.
I will emphasize that the swings at EPCOT weren’t as dramatic as at Hollywood Studios or with the E-ticket rides at Animal Kingdom.
Magic Kingdom
Finally, here are the average wait times at Magic Kingdom last week:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – 91 minutes, down 8
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 76 minutes, down 4
- Space Mountain – 60 minutes, down 6
- Jungle Cruise – 58 minutes, down 2
- Haunted Mansion – 49 minutes, down 11
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – 46 minutes, down 5
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 42 minutes, no change
- Princess Fairytale Hall – 42 minutes, no change
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 40 minutes, down 4
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 39 minutes, down 2
- Town Square Theater – 38 minutes, down 1
- Ariel’s Grotto – 35 minutes, down 5
- Astro Orbiter – 33 minutes, down 6
- Pete’s Silly Sideshow – 32 minutes, no change
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 31 minutes, down 6
- It’s a Small World – 31 minutes, down 5
- Enchanted Tales with Belle – 28 minutes, down 5
- Tomorrowland Speedway – 23 minutes, down 2
- The Barnstormer – 22 minutes, down 5
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 21 minutes, down 7
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – 18 minutes, no change
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 17 minutes, down 10
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic – 17 minutes, down 2
- Mad Tea Party – 14 minutes, down 4
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 14 minutes, down 3
- Walt Disney World Railroad – 13 minutes, down 2
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 11 minutes, down 3
- Country Bear Jamboree – 5 minutes, no change
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – 5 minutes, no change
Final Thoughts
Overall, Magic Kingdom guests waited for an average of 31 minutes per attraction, five minutes less than last time.
So, yes. People seem to have stayed away from Disney more than usual in the days leading up to July 4th.
I commented on this trend a couple of times over the past year, and I’m starting to lean harder into the premise.
People really might be avoiding Disney around July 4th because they know how crowded it is…and that’s leading to a change in behavior.
The days leading up to July 4th weren’t crowded at all in 2022 or 2023. You might want to keep this in mind for next year!
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