How Have Disney World Wait Times Changed Since Reopening?

It may be hard to believe, but it has been over a year since Disney World began its phased reopening — that’s right, Disney Springs reopened way back on May 20th, 2020! Since then, we’ve seen the four theme parks, most of the resort hotels, and even one water park reopen.

Tree of Life

We’ve been covering just about everything that’s been happening in the theme parks since they reopened in July of 2020, including wait times! We were curious to see just how much wait times have changed since those first few days (remember when Flight of Passage was only a 5 minute wait?).

We looked at the wait times on the parks’ reopening dates (July 11th for Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom and July 15th for EPCOT and Hollywood Studios) as well as exactly one month following those dates (August 11th and August 15th). We then compared those wait times to two recent dates: May 12th and May 18th, 2021. Take a look at how wait times have changed!

Magic Kingdom

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

July 11th, 2020: 28 minutes
August 11th, 2020: 30 minutes
May 12th, 2021: 50 minutes
May 18th, 2021: 49 minutes

Space Mountain

July 11th, 2020: 19 minutes
August 11th, 2020: 10 minutes
May 12th, 2021: 36 minutes
May 18th, 2021: 43 minutes

Splash Mountain

July 11th, 2020: 37 minutes
August 11th, 2020: 35 minutes
May 12th, 2021: 54 minutes
May 18th, 2021: 48 minutes

Splash Mountain

EPCOT

Frozen Ever After

July 15th, 2020: 32 minutes
August 15th, 2020: 35 minutes
May 12th, 2021: 35 minutes
May 18th, 2021: 47 minutes

Test Track

July 15th, 2020: 60 minutes
August 15th, 2020: 43 minutes
May 13th, 2021: 47 minutes (Test Track was closed the day of May 12th)
May 18th, 2021: 50 minutes

Soarin’

July 15th, 2020: 32 minutes
August 15th, 2020: 45 minutes
May 12th, 2021: 63 minutes
May 18th, 2021: 58 minutes

Test Track

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Slinky Dog Dash

July 15th, 2020: 45 minutes
August 15th, 2020: 50 minutes
May 12th, 2021: 77 minutes
May 18th, 2021: 80 minutes

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway

July 15th, 2020: 100 minutes
August 15th, 2020: 53 minutes
May 12th, 2021: 40 minutes
May 18th, 2021: 39 minutes

Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run

July 15th, 2020: 35 minutes
August 15th, 2020: 45 minutes
May 12th, 2021: 44 minutes
May 18th, 2021: 56 minutes

Slinky Dog Dash

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Avatar Flight of Passage

July 11th, 2020: 5 minutes
August 11th, 2020: 13 minutes
May 12th, 2021: 69 minutes
May 18th, 2021: 51 minutes

Expedition Everest

July 11th, 2020: 5 minutes
August 11th, 2020: 23 minutes
May 12th, 2021: 22 minutes
May 18th, 2021: 21 minutes

Kilimanjaro Safaris

July 11th, 2020: 5 minutes
August 11th, 2020: 12 minutes
May 12th, 2021: 43 minutes
May 18th, 2021: 44 minutes

Expedition Everest

Looking at the popular rides that we sampled, the majority of wait times have increased since the parks first opened back in July of 2020. Keep in mind that since the parks first reopened, park capacity as well as ride capacity has gone up. We’ve also noticed varying degrees of accuracy with posted wait times, especially when the parks first opened (wait times would typically be a bit longer than the actual wait time we experienced).