WDW Wait Times for Early October 2024
I have a friend who feels like the luckiest tourist on the planet.
His family arrived at Walt Disney World two days after Hurricane Helene had departed Florida.
Then, he left town on Friday, right as reports suggested that Tropical Storm Milton was going to turn into a hurricane.
So, he missed the bad weather and reported some of the shortest lines he’s ever experienced at a Disney theme park.
Was he lucky, or was that the reality of Hurricane Helene’s post-landfall impact on theme parks?
Here are Walt Disney World’s average wait times for early October 2024.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
The fiscal year just ended for The Walt Disney Company. Now, Fiscal 2025 is well underway.
As a Disney fan, you could care less, but here’s why it matters.
A new fiscal year means a new theme park budget. Disney designs its fiscal years with theme parks in mind.
Since September is the slow season, it’s okay that the company has used most of its annual allotment already.
Once October begins, a new influx of cash allows for theme park updates…like the start of the Tropical Americas.
So, you should expect an announcement about DinoLand USA at any time now.
Until then, everything should stay relatively the same at Animal Kingdom. Did it? Here are the park’s average wait times:
- Avatar Flight of Passage – 47 minutes, down 8
- Na’vi River Journey – 47 minutes, down 8
- Adventurers Outpost – 31 minutes, down 4
- Kilimanjaro Safaris – 29 minutes, down 1
- Expedition Everest – 27 minutes, up 1
- Kali River Rapids – 22 minutes, down 5
- DINOSAUR – 18 minutes, down 6
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 10 minutes, no change
- TriceraTop Spin – 9 minutes, no change
Overall, the average Animal Kingdom attraction required an average wait of 27 minutes, which is four minutes less than last time.
To a larger point, that’s one of the slowest weeks over the past five years.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Walt Disney World fans know that Hollywood Studios is the least predictable park these days.
Anything can happen here and usually does. However, we’ve witnessed a rare level of stability over the past month.
Did that trend of a calmer, gentler park continue last week?
Here are the average wait times at Hollywood Studios last week:
- Slinky Dog Dash – 62 minutes, down 5
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – 54 minutes, down 3
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – 51 minutes, down 5
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – 47 minutes, down 3
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – 47 minutes, up 2
- Toy Story Mania! – 44 minutes, down 3
- Red Carpet Dreams – 36 minutes, down 2
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 36 minutes, down 5
- Alien Swirling Saucers – 30 minutes, down 3
- Celebrity Spotlight – 15 minutes, up 1
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 15 minutes, no change
- Muppet*Vision 3D – 10 minutes, no change
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue! – 10 minutes, down 3
Overall, Hollywood Studios guests stood in line for an average of 32 minutes, which is two minutes less than last time.
Folks, I’d wondered whether we’d ever see the day again, but Hollywood Studios is officially reasonable again with its wait times!
By the way, this will be the last week we track Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, which closes on October 7th.
That’s theoretically a high throughput attraction that was rarely heavily attended.
So, I don’t expect a dramatic impact on next week’s wait times, but that’s something to watch.
EPCOT
At EPCOT, the 2024 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival remains the primary draw.
The festival remains appealing no matter what else is happening at Disney World, which is part of its genius.
Still, we’ve tracked some wait time drops since early August. Did that trend continue?
Here are EPCOT’s average wait times for the past week:
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure – 55 minutes, down 4
- Frozen Ever After – 54 minutes, down 2
- Royal Sommerhus – 40 minutes, up 2
- Soarin’ Around the World – 34 minutes, down 5
- Meet Mickey & Friends – 23 minutes, down 4
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 19 minutes, down 1
- Turtle Talk with Crush – 19 minutes, up 1
- Mission: SPACE – 17 minutes, up 1
- Spaceship Earth – 17 minutes, down 2
- Living with the Land – 16 minutes, down 3
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 14 minutes, down 1
- Journey into Imagination with Figment – 14 minutes, down 1
Overall, EPCOT attractions averaged a wait of 26 minutes, which is two minutes less than last time.
So, this was the park with the lowest average wait thus far.
In combination, the three parks are averaging a wait of 28 minutes. That’s very good.
How much of that was caused by people avoiding the parks and canceling trips due to the inclement weather?
That’s a fair question that’s impossible to answer based on the sparse amount of data we have. I suspect there’s some impact, though.
Magic Kingdom
So, we’re trending down and quite slow for Disney World.
Does that statement apply to Magic Kingdom? Here are the parks’ average wait times last week:
- Tron Lightcycle / Run – 103 minutes, down 15
- Seven Dwarfs Mine True – 54 minutes, down 1
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 47 minutes, down 2
- Haunted Mansion – 37 minutes, down 3
- Space Mountain – 36 minutes, no change
- Princess Fairytale Hall – 32 minutes, down 1
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 31 minutes, no change
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 31 minutes, down 3
- Pete’s Silly Sideshow – 31 minutes, down 4
- Ariel’s Grotto – 29 minutes, down 1
- Town Square Theater – 28 minutes, down 2
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – 27 minutes, down 1
- Enchanted Tales with Belle – 23 minutes, no change
- It’s a Small World – 23 minutes, no change
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 23 minutes, down 4
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 21 minutes, down 2
- Astro Orbiter – 20 minutes, down 2
- The Barnstormer – 18 minutes, up 1
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic – 18 minutes, no change
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 16 minutes, down 1
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – 15 minutes, no change
- Country Bear Musical Jamboree – 14 minutes, down 2
- Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 14 minutes, no change
- Tomorrowland Speedway – 14 minutes, down 2
- Walt Disney World Railroad – 14 minutes, down 1
- Mad Tea Party – 11 minutes, down 2
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 10 minutes, down 3
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 9 minutes, down 3
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – 5 minutes, no change
Final Thoughts
Circling back to my friend, he described the morning crowd at Magic Kingdom on October 4th, 2024, as the smallest he’d ever seen.
Since he goes to Disney frequently, that statement got my attention.
\In looking at the wait times, you can tell he wasn’t exaggerating.
The average Magic Kingdom ride required a wait of 22 minutes, which is one minute less than last time.
There’s also a real chance that it’s the lowest non-pandemic wait time I’ve ever tracked here.
So, yeah. There was a hurricane impact, and now Milton is heading this way. Buckle up for another rough week.
To Disney World Cast Members, please stay safe. You’re being heroes right now.
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!