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.
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
- July 11th, 2020: 28 minutes
- August 11th, 2020: 30 minutes
- May 12th, 2021: 50 minutes
- May 18th, 2021: 49 minutes
- July 11th, 2020: 19 minutes
- August 11th, 2020: 10 minutes
- May 12th, 2021: 36 minutes
- May 18th, 2021: 43 minutes
- July 11th, 2020: 37 minutes
- August 11th, 2020: 35 minutes
- May 12th, 2021: 54 minutes
- May 18th, 2021: 48 minutes
EPCOT
- July 15th, 2020: 32 minutes
- August 15th, 2020: 35 minutes
- May 12th, 2021: 35 minutes
- May 18th, 2021: 47 minutes
- 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
- July 15th, 2020: 32 minutes
- August 15th, 2020: 45 minutes
- May 12th, 2021: 63 minutes
- May 18th, 2021: 58 minutes
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- 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
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
- July 11th, 2020: 5 minutes
- August 11th, 2020: 13 minutes
- May 12th, 2021: 69 minutes
- May 18th, 2021: 51 minutes
- July 11th, 2020: 5 minutes
- August 11th, 2020: 23 minutes
- May 12th, 2021: 22 minutes
- May 18th, 2021: 21 minutes
- July 11th, 2020: 5 minutes
- August 11th, 2020: 12 minutes
- May 12th, 2021: 43 minutes
- May 18th, 2021: 44 minutes
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).
Be sure to check back as we collect daily average wait times from around Disney World so you can be prepared for your upcoming vacation!
Click here for tips on how to get shorter wait times at Disney World WITHOUT a FastPass!
Are you planning a Disney World vacation for 2021? Let us know in the comments!
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Wait times are just going to get longer and longer. Bring back Fastpass!