Walt Disney World Wait Times for Third Week of January 2024
EPCOT fans are beside themselves with joy as one of the park’s best festivals is now open.
For more than 10 days, guests have flocked to the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival.
Disney specifically created this event to address the historic January lull at the parks, and the strategy has worked wonders.
More people visit Walt Disney World in mid-January than they ever had before the festival.
Still, we’re just talking about mid-January, so the parks are still a bit slower than usual.
Let’s keep that in mind as we discuss the Walt Disney World wait times for the third week of January 2024.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
The other part of this week’s discussion involves refurbishments.
During the slower weeks in January and February, Disney cycles attractions to maintain them.
Many of them are attractions that aren’t as appealing in winter anyway. For example, Kali River Rapids is currently offline.
When one attraction closes at a park with fewer offerings, the other wait times typically increase slightly.
There’s more demand for a smaller batch of options. Did that happen this past week?
Here are Animal Kingdom’s average wait times:
- Avatar Flight of Passage – 106 minutes, up 8
- Na’vi River Journey – 74 minutes, up 3
- Adventurers Outpost – 49 minutes, up 4
- Kilimanjaro Safaris – 46 minutes, up 16
- Expedition Everest – 44 minutes, up 4
- DINOSAUR – 31 minutes, up 6
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 15 minutes, no change
- TriceraTop Spin – 12 minutes, up 2
So, yes, every attraction at Animal Kingdom increased its average wait from the previous week.
Overall, guests stood in line for an average of 47 minutes per attraction, which is five minutes more than last time.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
At Hollywood Studios, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith has closed and will stay that way for multiple months.
As with Animal Kingdom, one popular attraction’s absence causes a ripple effect. The impact shouldn’t be as severe at this park, though.
Here are the average Hollywood Studios wait times for last week:
- Slinky Dog Dash – 103 minutes, down 1
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – 90 minutes, down 8
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – 71 minutes, up 6
- Toy Story Mania! – 68 minutes, down 5
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 67 minutes, down 3
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – 63 minutes, no change
- Red Carpet Dreams – 41 minutes, up 2
- Alien Swirling Saucers – 40 minutes, up 2
- Celebrity Spotlight – 23 minutes, up 2
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue! – 16 minutes, down 2
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 15 minutes, no change
- Muppet*Vision 3D – 10 minutes, no change
Overall, guests waited for an average of 45 minutes per attraction, which is the same as the previous week.
EPCOT
During our most recent wait times discussion, EPCOT had dropped a bit despite the start of the Festival of the Arts.
The explanation was that the festival only debuted at the end of the week and didn’t factor into the data as heavily.
Now, we have a full week of wait times recorded, but it’s still, you know, mid-January. Did the crowds go up or down?
Here are EPCOT’s average wait times last week:
- Frozen Ever After – 79 minutes, up 4
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure – 78 minutes, down 5
- Test Track – 67 minutes, down 2
- Soarin’ Around the World – 51 minutes, up 2
- Royal Sommerhus – 39 minutes, up 4
- Mission: SPACE – 23 minutes, down 2
- Spaceship Earth – 19 minutes, down 2
- Turtle Talk with Crush – 19 minutes, no change
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 16 minutes, no change
- Journey into Imagination with Figment – 15 minutes, up 2
- Living with the Land – 15 minutes, up 1
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 12 minutes, no change
Overall, EPCOT visitors spent an average of 36 minutes in line per attraction, which is the same as last week.
Effectively, the festival’s full week counteracted the diminishing crowds in mid-January.
That statement alone explains why Disney started the Festival of the Arts. It’s a draw at a time when the parks sorely need one.
Magic Kingdom
I don’t expect Magic Kingdom to behave differently from the other three parks. Here are its average wait times last week:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – 95 minutes, up 7
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 72 minutes, no change
- Space Mountain – 65 minutes, down 1
- Jungle Cruise – 59 minutes, up 2
- Haunted Mansion – 50 minutes, down 1
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 46 minutes, down 7
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – 43 minutes, up 5
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 42 minutes, up 3
- Princess Fairytale Hall – 41 minutes, up 1
- Ariel’s Grotto – 40 minutes, up 3
- Town Square Theater – 39 minutes, down 2
- Astro Orbiter – 37 minutes, up 2
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 35 minutes, down 3
- Pete’s Silly Sideshow – 34 minutes, up 2
- Enchanted Tales with Belle – 32 minutes, up 1
- The Barnstormer – 30 minutes, up 3
- It’s a Small World – 28 minutes, down 2
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 27 minutes, up 1
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 27 minutes, down 1
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 25 minutes, no change
- Tomorrowland Speedway – 22 minutes, up 2
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 19 minutes, up 1
- Country Bear Jamboree – 18 minutes, up 2
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic – 18 minutes, no change
- Walt Disney World Railroad – 17 minutes, no change
- Mad Tea Party – 16 minutes, down 1
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – 15 minutes, no change
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 12 minutes, down 1
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – 5 minutes, no change
Final Thoughts
Overall, guests at Magic Kingdom stood in line for an average of 30 minutes per attraction, which is one minute less than last time.
So, two parks remained the same, one increased slightly, and another decreased slightly.
That’s precisely the stability Disney officials want to see during mid-January.
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Feature Photo: Disney