PHOTOS and VIDEOS: Check Out the New Year’s Eve Crowds at Disney World!

New Year’s Eve at Walt Disney World can be overwhelmingly busy with theme parks reaching capacity like Magic Kingdom did last year.

Even though Disney has limited theme park capacity and will close parks before midnight this year, many families have chosen to ring in 2021 in the parks. From crowd levels to wait times, here’s what happened at Disney World today!

As the holiday season has brought more crowds into the parks, we’ve been sharing some of the crazy lines during the day, like the wait at Animal Kingdom for Avatar Flight of Passage. So, here’s an overview of what Disney World looked like in all four theme parks on New Year’s Eve.

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom is open the latest on New Year’s Eve and will close at 11 PM. We were curious how early closing would impact the number of guests who chose to celebrate at this park during the day. It actually wasn’t too bad this morning!

Molly’s headed into Magic Kingdom for the day! 🏰 pic.twitter.com/3UOJlvMelP

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) December 31, 2020

 

The Dapper Dans made their tour down Main Street and not too many people were crowding on the curbs.

Good morning from The Dapper Dans! pic.twitter.com/mJMfiqQEsA

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) December 31, 2020

Areas that are open wide allowed for less crowding today. In a normal year, you might see tons of people crowding in front of the castle for a picture. It was fairly chill this morning around 10:00AM.

Cinderella Castle 🏰 💙 pic.twitter.com/uUyarzwLJC

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) December 31, 2020

Generally, Fantasyland becomes a bottleneck for crowds who are trying to get to Liberty Square and Frontierland. This area wasn’t too congested today!

Just hanging in Fantasyland! pic.twitter.com/oqJZNShPew

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) December 31, 2020

We were surprised to see the Haunted Mansion reach low wait times like 20 minutes and Peter Pans’ Flight reach 45 minutes. New Year’s Eve will generally draw in much bigger crowds. This year looks a little different. It’s crowded, but not as crowded in comparison to previous years.

The shorter lines continued into the afternoon with Splash Mountain averaging at 45 minutes…

Splash Mountain is currently a 45 minute wait! We expected it to be way longer today! pic.twitter.com/WWcIY1fEoc

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) December 31, 2020

…and Big Thunder Mountain hitting 40 minutes.

We headed into Adventureland to check out the crowds too. This area can become really congested during peak seasons. There was plenty of seating and the line for Aloha Isle Refreshments wasn’t too long!

Walking through Adventureland! pic.twitter.com/qkfB2jn35h

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) December 31, 2020

 

The low wait times continued as Pirates of the Caribbean was only 35 minutes in the early afternoon!

Pirates of the Caribbean is only a 35 minute wait! 🏴‍☠️ pic.twitter.com/UHkD9pnNCW

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) December 31, 2020

The longest wait was for the Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train at 85 minutes. The long line wasn’t too surprising considering the attraction is still seating every other row so the trains have a limited capacity.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is currently a 85 minute wait. pic.twitter.com/pd16aT31ox

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) December 31, 2020

 

We did see big lines for Space Mountain. The extended queue wrapped around several times outside. The line might look a little deceiving considering guests are physically distanced between travel groups. The wait was about 45 minutes at this time.

Crowds or not, we’re always treated to a little magic! A Custodian was decorating the sidewalk with some water art featuring our favorite grumpy duck!

Honestly, we left the Magic Kingdom wondering all the people went! There are no fireworks tonight so it seems guests went to other parks today.

Hollywood Studios

It seems that more crowds formed at Hollywood Studios and EPCOT today. At the beginning of the day, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster hit a whopping 100 minutes and the Tower of Terror reached around 70 minutes.

Surprisingly, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway reached to 60 minutes in the morning and went down to 40 minutes in the afternoon. Not too shabby!

Toy Story Land saw bigger wait times with Slinky Dog Dash at 80 minutes, Alien Swirling Saucers at 45 minutes, and Toy Story Midway Mania at 50 minutes. Again, we’ve seen worse, but these are larger crowds than what we’re used to lately.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is where we saw the highest wait time today. Millenium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run reached a wait time of 110 minutes while we visited. The line stretched down by Rise of the Resistance!

It seems that most of the Hollywood Studios crowds ended up in Galaxy’s Edge on Millennium Falcon!

EPCOT

Over at EPCOT, Spaceship Earth had a 45 minute wait in the afternoon. The picture certainly looks crowded, but this is an average wait for the attraction.

The Land Pavilion had a huge line heading into the building. This is where you’ll find the Living with the Land and Soarin’ Around the World attraction. The rides certainly attracted some fans!

Overall, the crowds weren’t as bad as we predicted. As the holiday season wraps up at Disney World, we’ll be sure to keep you updated on the crowd levels we find in Disney World!

Check out what the park hours are in January!

Are you surprised by these crowd levels at Disney World? Tell us in the comments!

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