Is Disney World Crowded on Thanksgiving? We Found Out the Hard Way

Thanksgiving crowds are here!

In recent decades, the holiday season has arguably become the most popular at Disney World. The period from Thanksgiving through Christmas sees some of the biggest crowds of the year thanks to vacation time and a slew of special events and holiday celebrations.

2024 was no different, as Thanksgiving at Magic Kingdom was PACKED. The first thing we noticed was the line at the ticket booths. Yes, people were walking up the day of trying to get tickets!

When we entered the park, a cavalcade was just ending…and because of that, Main Street was PACKED.

We waited around for a few minutes so the crowds could disperse.

The Thanksgiving crowds are here at Magic Kingdom! 🏰✨ pic.twitter.com/kBYyJCBsJQ

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) November 28, 2024

While it was still busy, we didn’t feel like a sardine anymore!

We made our way around the park heading to Tomorrowland first (along with what felt like half of the park). With two hit attractions — TRON and Space Mountain — it makes sense!

Fantasyland had a bit more room, but attraction lines were winding outside of buildings.

Then we weaved our way through a hectic Frontierland and Adventureland.

With crowds like this, you may be wondering what the wait times look like…and although they aren’t horrendous, they are up there!

When we checked at noon, the longest wait time was at TRON Lightcycle / Run with a nearly two-hour line. The usual suspects including Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Peter Pan’s Flight were not too far behind.

Some of the rides that are typically less busy had inflated wait times on Thanksgiving. Yes, that’s Dumbo with a 50-minute wait time! Meet and greets with Mickey and Ariel will also cost visitors some time with wait times at 45 minutes.

On the other hand, some of the lowest wait times included shows like Carousel of Progress, Country Bear Musical Jamboree, and Mickey’s PhilharMagic. The Prince Charming Regal Carrousel also only had a 15-minute wait time.

Magic Kingdom was busy and Park Passes were completely full for Annual Passholders. However, the other three parks had availability AND wait times looked the same as any other day around this time of year. At noon, these were the highest wait times in each park

• Disney’s Hollywood Studios — Slinky Dog Dash at 80 minutes
• EPCOT — Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at 75 minutes
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom — Flight of Passage at 75 minutes

If you are taking a multi-day vacation around this time of year, it may make sense to do Magic Kingdom on a different day and choose one of the other three parks for Thanksgiving Day. It’s fairly busy all around, but Magic Kingdom is the busiest! This isn’t the worst we’ve seen the park, but our reporter said it was in the top 10 busiest days they’ve seen.

Stay tuned to AllEars for more Disney World updates. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Are you heading to Disney World for the holidays this year? Let us know in the comments below.

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