Walt Disney World Wait Times for Thanksgiving Week
Thanksgiving Week has come and gone at the parks.
As MickeyBlog reported throughout the week, Disney was as crowded as ever.
Here are the average wait times for Thanksgiving Week 2023.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
All entertainment activities generally work the same way in terms of attendance.
During holiday weeks, crowds typically swell because potential customers enjoy more free time.
As we grow older and start adulting for real, leisure activities become more challenging to schedule during the average week.
With holidays, planning a park visit is much easier. So, we shouldn’t be surprised by larger crowds or reports of Disney Genie+ sellouts.
However, at Walt Disney World, many guests visit earlier in the month, which sometimes leads to modest wait time increases or sometimes even slippage during Thanksgiving.
What happened this time? Here are the average wait times at Animal Kingdom for the past week:
- Avatar Flight of Passage – 115 minutes, up 33
- Na’vi River Journey – 82 minutes, up 12
- Adventurers Outpost – 56 minutes, up 5
- Kilimanjaro Safaris – 56 minutes, up 10
- Expedition Everest – 48 minutes, up 15
- DINOSAUR – 37 minutes, up 13
- Kali River Rapids – 22 minutes, up 4
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 15 minutes, no change
- TriceraTop Spin – 15 minutes, up 3
So, yes, crowds appear to be much larger during Thanksgiving, at least at Animal Kingdom.
Every attraction increased its wait from the week before Thanksgiving.
Overall, guests stood in line for 50 minutes per attraction, which is 11 minutes or 28 percent longer.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
If Animal Kingdom is like that, all bets are off at Hollywood Studios.
We do have a secondary factor, though. Remember that Disney Jollywood Nights impacted part of this week’s wait times.
The same statement will apply to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom when we get there, too.
Anyway, here are the average wait times at Hollywood Studios last week:
- Slinky Dog Dash – 131 minutes, down 5
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – 101 minutes, up 4
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – 100 minutes, up 3
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – 93 minutes, up 19
- Toy Story Mania! – 91 minutes, down 7
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – 84 minutes, down 4
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 75 minutes, up 14
- Red Carpet Dreams – 49 minutes, down 4
- Alien Swirling Saucers – 45 minutes, down 3
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue! – 24 minutes, down 1
- Celebrity Spotlight – 23 minutes, down 5
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 15 minutes, no change
- Muppet*Vision 3D – 13 minutes, up 3
Overall, guests stood in line for an average of 63 minutes per attraction, which is the same as last week.
Of course, Hollywood Studios rarely requires an average wait of more than 55 minutes anyway. So, it was already a lot last week and then maintained.
EPCOT
Thus far, the crowds have increased substantially at one park and remained extraordinarily large at the other.
At EPCOT, guests had that much more reason to visit.
As MickeyBlog chronicled in detail, the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays started on Friday.
So, we had early Thanksgiving crowds followed by the opening day festival rush, which is a thing.
How did these phenomena impact the parks? Here are the average wait times for EPCOT’s attractions during Thanksgiving Week:
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure – 89 minutes, up 8
- Frozen Ever After – 86 minutes, up 4
- Test Track – 75 minutes, up 7
- Soarin’ Over California – 53 minutes, up 5
- Royal Sommerhus – 36 minutes, down 5
- Mission: SPACE – 33 minutes, up 10
- Spaceship Earth – 26 minutes, up 7
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 21 minutes, up 4
- Turtle Talk with Crush – 21 minutes, up 2
- Journey into Imagination with Figment – 20 minutes, down 1
- Living with the Land – 14 minutes, down 1
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 12 minutes, down 1
Overall, EPCOT guests stood in line for an average of 40 minutes per attraction, which is three minutes more than last time.
Magic Kingdom
Finally, we have the average wait times at Magic Kingdom last week:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – 97 minutes, up 6
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 86 minutes, up 4
- Jingle Cruise – 78 minutes, no change
- Space Mountain – 74 minutes, up 10
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – 56 minutes, up 2
- Haunted Mansion – 56 minutes, up 3
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 55 minutes, up 10
- Princess Fairytale Hall – 50 minutes, down 5
- Ariel’s Grotto – 45 minutes, up 3
- Town Square Theater – 45 minutes, up 5
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 43 minutes, up 5
- Astro Orbiter – 41 minutes, up 2
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 39 minutes, up 1
- Enchanted Tales with Belle – 38 minutes, up 2
- It’s a Small World – 37 minutes, down 3
- Pete’s Silly Sideshow – 36 minutes, down 12
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 36 minutes, down 5
- The Barnstormer – 35 minutes, up 2
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 35 minutes, up 7
- Tomorrowland Speedway – 30 minutes, up 5
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 29 minutes, up 2
- Mad Tea Party – 24 minutes, up 3
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 22 minutes, up 4
- Walt Disney World Railroad – 22 minutes, up 1
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic – 19 minutes, up 1
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – 18 minutes, up 1
- Country Bear Jamboree – 16 minutes, down 1
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 16 minutes, down 1
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – 5 minutes, no change
Final Thoughts
Overall, guests at Magic Kingdom waited for an average of 41 minutes per attraction, which is two minutes more than last time.
So, all Walt Disney World theme parks either increased their wait times or held the same as last week.
And the one place that stayed the same already had one of the highest averages ever.
Yes, friends, we can safely say that Thanksgiving Week crowds were massive at Walt Disney World!
Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below, and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond Level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon!
Feature Photo: Disney