Walt Disney World Wait Times for Early March 2024
The 2024 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival has officially opened, unofficially signaling the start of spring.
With Spring Break and Easter right around the corner, Disney crowds should slowly ramp up in size over the next few weeks. So, how were the crowds during the festival’s early days?
Let’s check the Walt Disney World wait times for the first week of March 2024.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
We’ll track an interesting phenomenon this week, although it’s really more about something that happened two weeks ago.
On President’s Day 2024, guests flocked to Walt Disney World in record numbers…and then they stayed.
Park attendance and especially wait times were up significantly.
So, we’re comparing the parks from February 26th to March 3rd with that odd post-President’s Day rush.
We’ll keep that in mind as we examine the data. Here were Animal Kingdom’s wait times last week:
- Avatar Flight of Passage – 98 minutes, down 27
- Na’vi River Journey – 70 minutes, down 15
- Adventurers Outpost – 51 minutes, down 9
- Kilimanjaro Safaris – 42 minutes, down 35
- Expedition Everest – 41 minutes, down 21
- DINOSAUR – 27 minutes, down 11
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 15 minutes, no change
- TriceraTop Spin – 11 minutes, down 8
Overall, Animal Kingdom guests waited for an average of 41 minutes per attraction last time, which is 19 minutes less than during the post-President’s Day crowds.
You’ll note that several attractions experienced dramatic drops in wait times.
However, I can tell you from checking the data that they’re still larger than on the same dates in 2023.
Animal Kingdom was down from the post-President’s Day timeframe, but it’s up relative to this time of year on average.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
I’ve already reviewed the wait times this week. So, I’ll go ahead and spoil that this behavior unfolds at the next two parks.
Several attractions watched their wait times plummet relative to the previous week.
Here are the average wait times at Hollywood Studios last week:
- Slinky Dog Dash – 102 minutes, down 19
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – 87 minutes, down 28
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – 63 minutes, down 19
- Toy Story Mania! – 60 minutes, down 22
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 56 minutes, down 34
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – 53 minutes, down 28
- Red Carpet Dreams – 40 minutes, down 7
- Alien Swirling Saucers – 39 minutes, down 12
- Celebrity Spotlight – 22 minutes, down 5
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue! – 16 minutes, down 15
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 15 minutes, no change
- Muppet*Vision 3D – 10 minutes, no change
Overall, guests stood in line for an average of 47 minutes per attraction, 12 minutes less than during the post-holiday crowds.
In 2023, the average wait at Hollywood Studios was only 40 minutes per attraction, though.
As I noted at the time, it was one of the lowest average wait times at the park in recent memory.
In other words, Hollywood Studios wait times have increased year-over-year, but they’re down from post-President’s Day.
EPCOT
We’ve got a different factor to consider at this park, as the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival opened on Wednesday.
Five of the seven days I’m tracking here occurred during the festival.
Notably, most attractions are still down from the prior week, though.
Here are EPCOT’s average wait times for the start of the festival:
- Frozen Ever After – 86 minutes, down 11
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure – 79 minutes, down 18
- Test Track – 66 minutes, down 18
- Soarin’ Around the World – 51 minutes, down 14
- Royal Sommerhus – 42 minutes, down 2
- Living with the Land – 22 minutes, up 6
- Mission: SPACE – 20 minutes, down 19
- Spaceship Earth – 18 minutes, down 10
- Turtle Talk with Crush – 18 minutes, down 3
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 16 minutes, down 7
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 14 minutes, down 2
- Journey into Imagination with Figment – 10 minutes, down 7
Overall, EPCOT attractions required a 36-minute wait, which is nine minutes or 20 percent less than last time.
Magic Kingdom
Okay, we know the story by now. Guests crowded the parks for President’s Day, and then went home, leaving the parks emptier.
Here are Magic Kingdom’s average wait times last week:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – 78 minutes, down 24
- Jungle Cruise – 67 minutes, down 9
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 67 minutes, down 15
- Haunted Mansion – 48 minutes, down 12
- Space Mountain – 48 minutes, down 26
- Princess Fairytale Hall – 45 minutes, down 3
- Ariel’s Grotto – 42 minutes, down 6
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 42 minutes, down 20
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – 41 minutes, down 10
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 41 minutes, down 6
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 39 minutes, down 8
- Town Square Theater – 39 minutes, down 5
- Pete’s Silly Sideshow – 37 minutes, down 4
- Astro Orbiter – 33 minutes, down 10
- Enchanted Tales with Belle – 32 minutes, down 7
- It’s a Small World – 31 minutes, down 10
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 30 minutes, down 7
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 27 minutes, down 12
- The Barnstormer – 26 minutes, down 14
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 26 minutes, down 8
- Tomorrowland Speedway – 20 minutes, down 10
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic – 17 minutes, down 1
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 17 minutes, down 5
- Walt Disney World Railroad – 16 minutes, down 7
- Mad Tea Party – 15 minutes, down 9
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 15 minutes, down 6
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – 14 minutes, down 3
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – 5 minutes, no change
Final Thoughts
At Magic Kingdom, the average wait per attraction was 31 minutes, which is nine minutes or 23 percent less than last time.
Overall, the entirety of Walt Disney World watched its wait times decline by about 20 percent.
That’s not a sign of anything that happened this past week.
Instead, it reinforces how strong the President’s Day crowds were.
In fact, three of the four parks required a longer wait in 2024 than on the same dates in 2023. Magic Kingdom proved the only exception.
So, we’ve simply reached a time when President’s Day has become a destination vacation period for many Disney fans.
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Feature Photo: Disney