Disney Wait Times for Second Week of July 2021
Okay, now that the July 4th holiday weekend has come and gone, Walt Disney World theme parks…well, they shouldn’t change much.
After all, we’re still talking about July holiday vacations, which means larger crowds. So, how did Disney do during the post-holiday week? Let’s take a look!
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Let’s skip to the end of the page here. Traffic increased at Walt Disney World after the holidays, which wasn’t a surprise.
Disney has increased capacity at its parks. While it’s still not quite back to pre-pandemic limits, we’ve reached a level of semantics.
Theoretically, Disney could squeeze more people into the parks. However, until some form of FastPass debuts, the wait times would feel oppressive.
Honestly, we’re approaching those levels right now.
For the week ending July 16th, the average Animal Kingdom attraction required a wait of 52 minutes, up from 45 minutes over the July 4th holiday.
Avatar Flight of Passage factors heavily into that total, as guests needed to stand in line for an average of 127 minutes.
That’s 14 minutes more than the holiday week, a statement that tells the whole story. Overall, all Animal Kingdom waits trended upward.
Na’vi River Journey ticked up over the hour-mark, requiring a 61-minute wait, up from 52 minutes last time.
Kilimanjaro Safaris nearly reached an hour as well. It had been 50 minutes but reached 56 minutes this past week.
Here are the other average wait times at Animal Kingdom:
- Kali River Rapids – 51 minutes, up 15 minutes
- Expedition Everest – 43 minutes, up 8
- DINOSAUR – 40 minutes, up 9
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug! – 18 minutes, up 1
- TriceraTop Spin – 15 minutes, up 5
As you can see, vacationers didn’t receive much bang for their buck at Animal Kingdom this past week.
Waiting in line 15 minutes for TriceraTop Spin is about as bad as standing in line at the DMV to renew your license.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
I’d like to tell you that the situation improved at Hollywood Studios, but I’d be lying.
The average attraction came with a line time of 47 minutes, up from 41 minutes over July 4th week. So, you can tell which way this is trending.
For all the frustrations we have about FastPasses – and I’m among the fans who don’t really miss them – they serve a purpose.
The longer line/shorter line system in place shrinks wait times thanks to the brilliance of virtual queuing. We need it back, just hopefully in more modern form.
FastPass has served its purpose. We can do better during the age of big data, though. Disney probably thinks the same thing and is prepping Disney Genie for that reason.
Until then, all we have are regular lines, and they were rough at Hollywood Studios last week.
Slinky Dog Dash required a staggering wait time of 95 minutes, up six minutes from the holiday. Even worse, that’s one of the most extended wait times since the summer of 2019.
The hits keep coming, too. FOUR other rides at Hollywood Studios came with waits in excess of an hour.
As a reminder, a few weeks ago, only one or two rides at Walt Disney World involved 60+ minute wait times. Yet, here we are talking about five at Hollywood Studios.
The clock is ticking on Disney’s FastPass decision, and the proof of that stems from the data.
More about Hollywood Studios
Here are the overall average wait times at the park:
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – 79 minutes, up 14
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – 71 minutes, up 11
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – 69 minutes, up 11
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – 62 minutes, up 12
- Toy Story Mania! – 51 minutes, up 3
- Alien Swirling Saucers – 42 minutes, up 5
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue – 31 minutes, up 8
- Muppet*Vision 3D – 12 minutes, no change
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy – 12 minutes, down 3
In terms of wait times, Toy Story Mania! has returned to the days before it added a third track. So, that’s not great.
Generally speaking, seven rides with wait times over 40 minutes is just too much. Disney needs to do something here.
EPCOT
Okay, I’ve talked too much thus far. So, let’s just talk about the basics at EPCOT and then post the average waits.
The standard EPCOT attraction would have needed a 29-minute wait, virtually the same as last week’s 28 minutes.
I’ve been shouting this throughout 2021, and it remains true.
EPCOT provides the best park value right now. However, the debut of the 2021 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival may change that some.
- Test Track – 71 minutes, up 4
- Frozen Ever After – 47 minutes, no change
- Soarin’ Around the World – 30 minutes, no change
- Mission: SPACE – 27 minutes, down 2
- Spaceship Earth – 26 minutes, up 2
- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros – 25 minutes, up 2
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends – 16 minutes, no change
- Living with the Land – 16 minutes, up 2
- Journey into Imagination with Figment – 15 minutes, up 2
Overall, everything here, save for maybe Gran Fiesta Tour, seems quite reasonable. This park somehow avoided the surge at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.
Magic Kingdom
You may wonder, “What about Magic Kingdom?” Well, the average attraction wait time was 37 minutes, up five from last week.
So, Magic Kingdom experienced the same crowd increase as the other two parks. Folks, there’s a reason why EPCOT guests are always so happy this year.
Here are the average Magic Kingdom wait times:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – 78 minutes, up 9
- Splash Mountain – 77 minutes, up 17
- Space Mountain – 64 minutes, up 15
- Jungle Cruise – 60 minutes, up 10
- Peter Pan’s Flight – 57 minutes, up 9
- Haunted Mansion – 51 minutes, up 10
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 47 minutes, up 15
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – 43 minutes, up 9
- Astro Orbiter – 43 minutes, up 5
- It’s a Small World – 41 minutes, up 8
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 41 minutes, up 9
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 36 minutes, up 2
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – 32 minutes, up 4
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant – 29 minutes, up 6
- Tomorrowland Speedway – 25 minutes, up 2
- The Barnstormer – 25 minutes, up 4
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 23 minutes, up 4
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin – 23 minutes, up 4
- Mad Tea Party – 21 minutes, up 7
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 17 minutes, no change
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic – 16 minutes, no change
- Country Bear Jamboree – 8 minutes, up 4
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Disney – 6 minutes, up 1
Friends, when I strongly encourage you to visit at times other than July, THIS is why. The wait times are disproportionately long.
The next three or four weeks should look similar, presuming Disney doesn’t do anything with FastPass. But then, it’ll slow down some in mid-August.
Thank the earlier school calendar for those smaller crowds. Until then, we’ll all be standing in line at Walt Disney World.