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Wait Times for Rides Already Exceeding 3.5 HOURS at Disney World as New Year’s Eve Approaches

Guests celebrating the holidays and planning to ring in the new year at Disney World are spending much of their vacation time in line for rides, as some queues have posted wait times of more than 3.5 hours.

disney world reopens july 2020
Credit: Becky Burkett

It’s no surprise that among the most popular times to visit the four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort is during the final weeks of December.

Guests love the sights and sounds of the parks during the Christmas season, and there’s no experience like ringing in the new year while taking in the visage of Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom, Spaceship Earth and World Showcase at EPCOT, the Chinese Theater at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or the Tree of Life and the World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

disneys hollywood studios
Credit: Becky Burkett

Celebrating the holidays at Disney World is an experience unmatched by any other, and as such, the parks can become crowded–and occasionally, they are simply non-navigable because of the number of guests that seem to be packed into every available space in the parks.

(Even so, the holidays at Disney World are magical!)

magic kingdom and hollywood studios disney world holidays
Credit: Becky Burkett

This week is no different, as crowds of people have flocked to the four Disney Florida theme parks, whether to get in one last trip to Disney in 2023 or to ring in the new year with other Disney fans/New Year’s Eve revelers, and the result–among other things–has been crazy long wait times in lines for guest-favorite attractions and rides. If you’re visiting during this last weekend of the year, here’s what you need to know about the wait times so far.

Magic Kingdom Park

Saturday morning began with high wait times at several of Magic Kingdom’s most popular attractions, but Disney World’s first theme park doesn’t take the prize for highest wait times–at least not as of the time of this post.

The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction had a wait time of just over an hour at 70 minutes, while Space Mountain was climbing toward a two-hour wait, and Peter Pan’s Flight had wait times of about 10 minutes longer than Space Mountain.

wait times disney world
Credit: Disney/My Disney Experience Screenshot/Canva

No surprise here, as the guest-favorite Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was already seeing a two-hour wait in the queue.

EPCOT 

EPCOT saw some high wait times this morning, too. After a brief closure of Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at the France pavilion along World Showcase, the ride opened with more than a 2.5-hour wait in the queue.

remy's ratatouille adventure
Credit: Becky Burkett

Mission: SPACE had a 75-minute wait, while guests in line for Test Track were looking at a nearly two-hour wait in the standby queue, and the Frozen Ever After attraction in the Norway pavilion at World Showcase had a two-hour wait.

wait times disney world
Credit: Disney/My Disney Experience Screenshot/Canva

While none of these wait times is wildly different from what is usually seen during peak seasons at the Walt Disney World Resort, each of the wait times still represents a significant chunk of guests’ time in the park, and some decide to simply skip the rides with wait times of more than an hour, especially if it’s there last day in the parks.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

wait times disney world
Credit: Disney/My Disney Experience Screenshot/Canva

 

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

This morning, Disney’s Animal Kingdom was the clear winner for the park, with the highest wait times in the standby queue for an attraction. (And we’re sure you already know which ride it is, even without looking.)

wait times disney world
Credit: Disney/My Disney Experience Screenshot/Canva

Guests in line to meet Mickey and Minnie at Adventurers Outpost were in for an almost one-hour wait, while guests looking to kick back and relax in the serenity of a journey down the Na’vi River were already waiting 85 minutes or more for the chance to unwind.

shaman of songs on na'vi river journey
Credit: Joel, Flickr

But guests looking to prove they’ve got what it takes to be a Na’vi warrior were already proving something else this morning–that they have the patience to wait it out in a packed queue.

As of Saturday mid-morning, the standby queue for the Avatar: Flight of Passage attraction was already seeing a 3.5-hour wait at 205 minutes. That wait time isn’t vastly different from the attraction’s original wait times when it first opened in 2017, proving that Flight of Passage continues to be one of the most popular attractions in all of the Walt Disney World Resort.

Avatar Flight of Passage
Credit: Disney

If you’re visiting the parks this weekend, be careful out there, and if not, let us know in the comments below about the longest you’ve ever waited in line for Disney World attraction.

Becky Burkett

Becky's from the Lone Star State and has been writing since she was 10 and encountered her first Disney Park when she was 11. It was love at first Main Street Electrical Parade. Joy is blank lined journals, 0.7 mm pens, and all things Walt, Woody and Buzz, PIXAR, Imagineering, Sleeping Beauty (make it blue!), Disney Parks history and EPCOT. At Disney World, you'll find her croonin' with the birdies at the Enchanted Tiki Room or hangin' with Woody and the gang at Toy Story Land. If you can dream, you really can do it!

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