Walt Disney World Resort, usually bustling with families during the summer months, is experiencing an unexpected drop in crowds this year. Traditionally, summer is the peak season for theme park attendance, as families from all over the world take advantage of school breaks. However, 2025 has seen a quieter-than-usual summer at the Central Florida Disney parks, with visitors reporting noticeably lower crowd levels and shorter wait times.
Disney Dining has been tracking declining crowd levels, and countless guests report noticing the difference. Even with a number of discounts being offered on resort hotels, theme park tickets, and add-on experiences, the four Walt Disney World Resort theme parks are much less crowded than expected for what should be the busiest season of the year.
A recent Reddit post by u/BeerandGuns sparked a discussion among fans about the lower-than-expected wait times at Magic Kingdom Park, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park.
“I’m looking at wait times as of 1:30 central time on June 17 and they are far lower than I would expect mid-June,” the Disney Parks fan wrote. “Soarin 5 minutes, GotG 60 minutes, Tower of Terror 30 minutes etc. These are much lower than when we went in early March. Anyone there and have input on current park levels or employees seeing this? If I’d have known it was this reasonable I’d be there now.”
Recent Walt Disney World Resort visitors chimed in with similar observations.
“We were there the first week of June,” u/BrightFireFly commented. “We’ve traveled in the summer, fall and winter. Several visits. This was the slowest I have ever experienced the park.”
“One of our MK days (and a Saturday at at that), Peter Pan’s Flight stayed right around the 30 minute mark,” the guest continued. “By early evening, things like POTC were essentially walk on. We didn’t even struggle to find decent seats for QS which has been an issue in the past in the heat of summer. We waited less than 20 minutes to meet Anna and Elsa in the middle of the day.”
“We went to EPCOT last Thursday, Hollywood studios on Saturday and animal kingdom on Sunday,” u/mmmforme replied. “Waits were low, and on average 10-15 less than what was posted. We got all rides at all parks done each day no lightning lane passes.”
The lower crowds aren’t just affecting wait times.
“It’s empty here in the area in general right now—not just Disney,” u/sparty219 said. “What’s weirder to me is that I’m seeing restaurants show up as available that I haven’t seen in years.” They mentioned that Space 220, a notoriously difficult-to-book restaurant, had availability for July and August, which is unusual for this time of year.
Many Redditors offered theories as to why crowds have thinned out. The Florida heat and the uncertain economy were often cited as factors.
“It is hotter than the first level of hell here,” u/ChevronSugarHeart wrote. “The economy is uncertain—nothing is conducive to coming right now.”
Others pointed to the recent opening of Universal Orlando Resort’s Epic Universe theme park as a potential draw for guests away from Walt Disney World Resort.
“To add in, Epic Universe opened 2 weeks ago,” u/Dramaticnoise wrote.
“People are going with a brand new park that opened up a month ago 20 minutes up the road,” u/Ad-hocProcrastinator echoed.
Despite these theories, some Disney Parks fans maintained that the current crowd levels were typical.
“Wait times look pretty normal to me,” u/Chris-Jean-Alice commented. “I think the old summer is packed thing isn’t really true anymore, they’re busy all year round now and only during peak Christmas time are they really that slammed.”
Are the crowds at Walt Disney World Resort smaller than usual? Share your thoughts with Disney Dining in the comments!
Disney has succeeded in making itself unaffordable. People don’t have that kind of money to spend anymore. Disney prices keep going up yet the economy is still suffering. The parks are now for the upper class of society.
The biggest reason is that international visitors (Canadians in particular ) are no longer coming for vacations, for obvious reasons. The US tourist economy has lost MILLIONS.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with the temperature, or the fact that you wrote about summer, and it hasn’t even started yet lol. Disney will be just fine I’m sure
Disney is broken. Our family had spent 100’s of thousands there since 1974. That ended in 2020. I’m not sure I ever want to go back. We have found other places to vacation that have been wonderful that we’d not found if we hadn’t stopped going to WDW.
I just returned home from WDW last night. and I have never seen the parks with visitor levels low like this. I was an annual passholder for years and years, but I think they have hurt themselves with the pricing of everything. The passes have about doubled in price since I last bought them, and everything else as well.
I mention the passes, which I could reasonably justify paying the extra cost, but I dropped them about 5-6 years ago because “if you have an annual pass, that means you want to go often, and I just can’t afford paying $25 for a burger”. My family of 4 cannot eat and have a couple alcoholic drinks at a sit-down (not fast service) restaurant for less than $225… FOR LUNCH! Often dinner is much worse. $7 for a 12 oz bottle of coke in 95-degree weather and 90% humidity. It goes on and on. That’s why I can’t get the passes.
I now go once a year for about 4 days. I live and work in Florida and we don’t make the money that those from up north do. Such a shame we can’t enjoy like we did for the past 40 years. I just spent an average for 4 days of $1134/Day between tickets, food, a couple of souvenirs and hotels etc.