Which Disney World Rides Require the Longest Waits?

When you’re at a Disney theme park, the ONLY bad part is aimlessly standing in line.

Imagineers have mitigated the aggravation a bit by creating immersive backdrops at most attractions.

So, you can perform magic while you’re waiting at Peter Pan’s Flight or solve a mystery at Haunted Mansion.

Still, in a perfect world, none of us would willingly spend our time standing in line. At some attractions, it’s inevitable, though.

Which Walt Disney World rides require the longest waits? Here’s a park-by-park list with some discussion.

Magic Kingdom

We’ll start with the most popular theme park in the world, Magic Kingdom.

Here’s something you may not know about the Most Magical Place on Earth.

Generally speaking, the lines here aren’t bad at all. That’s because Disney makes it up in volume.

What I mean is that through decades of clever theme park management, Disney has more or less perfected crowd flow.

Since Magic Kingdom hosts more attractions, it evenly distributes tourists across the park.

So, even though up to 20 million tourists will visit Magic Kingdom this year, the bottlenecks remain fairly rare.

Two Magic Kingdom attractions will require prolonged waits.

Those are Tron Lightcycle / Run, the newly built roller coaster, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

The latter ride remained the most popular attraction at Magic Kingdom for the body of a decade.

Then, Tron switched to a traditional standby queue in September 2024. Since then, it has consistently required the longest wait.

A handful of other attractions often feature waits of 40 minutes or more.

Something to keep in mind is that wait times vary by date, with some months and seasons more crowded than others.

For example, your average wait in September will be fractional compared to Spring Break or Christmas Week.

Still, you should consistently expect to stand in line for at least 40 minutes for the following attractions:

• Haunted Mansion
• Jungle Cruise
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Space Mountain
• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

A few other attractions, such as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, can reach this level.

However, the Big Thunder roller coaster will remain closed throughout 2025 due to refurbishment.

Overall, Magic Kingdom attractions will average a wait of 25 to 38 minutes each, depending on the crowds that day.

EPCOT

So, that’s how long you should expect to wait for the average ride at Magic Kingdom.

EPCOT often requires longer waits since it has fewer attractions. That’s the “make it up in volume” factor I mentioned earlier.

Disney also recently modernized EPCOT and added some new popular guest spots, leading to an attendance surge here.

You should expect to wait 28 to 43 minutes per attraction at EPCOT, with a handful of attractions skewing the list.

I refer to them as the Big Three, and they are Frozen Ever After, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.

Test Track will join this group when it returns late in the summer of 2025.

Until then, you should expect to wait at least an hour for every attraction in the Big Three.

On crowded days, you should add 25 percent to Frozen and Ratatouille and 50 percent to Cosmic Rewind…possibly more.

We’re still lacking data on that one, as it only recently switched to a standby queue. 

Otherwise, only two other EPCOT attractions will have extended waits on most days.

Those rides are Mission: SPACE and Soarin’ Around the World.

Historically, Spaceship Earth has a weird phenomenon where it’s the most crowded ride to start the day.

Guests enter the park and ride the first thing they see, which is Spaceship Earth.

However, the recent switch of Cosmic Rewind to a standby queue has reduced the early morning rush at Spaceship Earth.

I cannot say for sure whether it’s a temporary or permanent change.

Just to be safe, plan to do Spaceship Earth in the afternoon or evening, though.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

One of the fascinating aspects of Disney World is the cyclical crowd behavior.

The hot park one day will become the slower park later. We’ve watched this pattern unfold at two parks over the past decade.

When Pandora – The World of Avatar debuted, fans flocked to Animal Kingdom. But that was in 2017.

Nowadays, that park gains the fewest visitors at Disney World.

Similarly, Hollywood Studios was on fire after Toy Story and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened in 2018 and 2019.

For a while, I thought the park might never slow down, but it finally did in 2024.

Still, “slow” is a relative term here. Several attractions at Hollywood Studios require waits of 45 minutes or longer.

The list includes all the following in their general order of average wait times:

• Slinky Dog Dash
• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
• Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
• Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• Toy Story Mania!

On crowded days, even less popular rides like Star Tours – The Adventures Continue! and Alien Swirling Saucers could reach 45 minutes.

Also, you should know that Tower of Terror sometimes requires longer waits.

Disney occasionally leaves the ride open while repairing one of the elevator shafts.

When this happens, the ride hosts significantly fewer guests and thereby suffers a wait time increase.

When you see Tower of Terror’s wait time at 90 minutes or longer on a non-holiday, that’s probably what has happened.

This behavior is thankfully rare, though. But the average Hollywood Studios ride is rarely less than 30 minutes.

Conversely, the park sometimes averages a wait of nearly an hour per ride. And that’s AFTER the park has lost some popularity.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Finally, we have the park with the fewest attractions. Not coincidentally, Disney is retooling Animal Kingdom on the fly.

Later this year, Dinoland USA will permanently close, replaced by the Tropical Americas.

This change will impact the average wait times at the attractions, as it’s the opposite of “we’ll make it in volume.”

With fewer rides to do, guests must wait longer for each one. And that’s worrisome at Pandora – The World of Avatar.

As things already stand, both rides average a wait of 60+ minutes.

Na’vi River Journey is typically right in that range, while Avatar Flight of Passage hovers around 80-100 minutes.

Remarkably, I could argue that those numbers may come down this year.

It would hinge on fewer people attending Animal Kingdom due to the closures and construction.

Even if that happens, you’ll still probably spend two hours standing in line just for these two rides. Totally worth it!

Otherwise, the most popular attraction is Kilimanjaro Safaris, whose wait is typically 45 minutes or longer.

Sometimes, Expedition Everest will reach that level as well, and DINOSAUR might during crowded periods.

After all, everyone knows the ride is closing soon, which could cause a rush.

Other than that, the only attraction where you might wait an extended time is at Festival of the Lion King.

Occasionally, a show sells out, forcing you to wait until the next one begins the following hour.

Overall, Animal Kingdom attractions typically average a wait of 35 to 50 minutes on most dates.

Okay, that’s everything you need to know about the attractions with the longest waits at Walt Disney World.

I’ll add something similar for Disneyland Resort in a few days.

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Feature Photo: Disney