Labor Day weekend is here, Halloween is just around the corner, and the holiday season will be here before you know it! That means one thing: the potential for crowds…lots and lots of crowds!
Recently, we’ve seen crowds and wait times reach VERY low levels in Disney World. Today, we’re taking a look at how Labor Day weekend has affected crowds at Disney World.
Magic Kingdom
This weekend, we’ve seen crowd levels increase in Magic Kingdom.
On Sunday morning, attractions like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Pirates of the Caribbean boasted wait times that were an hour or more (at one point, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train reached 80 minutes, well over last week’s average of 38 minutes).
Other busy attractions on Sunday morning included Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin with a 40 minute wait, Splash Mountain with a 45 minute wait, and Space Mountain with a 45-50 minute wait.
Going into midday, six attractions were near or over an hour-long wait including Space Mountain, Astro Orbiter, Peter Pan’s Flight, Splash Mountain, Jungle Cruise, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train!
All of these wait times are nearly double last week’s averages and show that things were pretty busy today in Disney World.
On Labor Day itself (Monday), we saw more crowds again.
By Monday afternoon, Splash Mountain had a 50 minute wait, and Jungle Cruise was at 45 minutes. Other rides had lower wait times, such as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at 20 minutes.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train had a lower wait time than Sunday as well, at 55 minutes.
In general, Magic Kingdom is having a busier weekend than we’ve seen in a couple of weeks.
EPCOT
EPCOT continued this busy trend on Sunday with some big crowds in World Showcase. We saw some pretty long lines at several International Food and Wine Festival booths like Italy, China, and Mexico, which haven’t had long lines recently.
Rides, on the other hand, were a bit less crowded. At midday, Frozen Ever After had a 55 minute wait time and Test Track had a 40 minute wait time.
Future World rides like Soarin’, Figment, and Spaceship Earth all had times of 20 minutes or under when we checked.
Toward the later afternoon on Sunday, ride wait times remained mostly under half an hour, with Test Track temporarily closed and Frozen Ever After still at 55 minutes.
Generally, EPCOT was crowded in World Showcase, but less crowded in Future World on Sunday.
When Monday rolled around, we saw more lines in World Showcase, especially at the Food and Wine booths.
The Mexico pavilion was pretty crowded as well, although the Gran Fiesta Tour ride inside only had a 15 minute wait.
Frozen Ever After had a LONG line in the morning, stretching back toward the China pavilion…
…but by Monday afternoon the wait time had dropped to 45 minutes. Like Sunday, the Future World rides had fairly low wait times on Monday, with Soarin’ and Test Track both at 30 minutes.
Several EPCOT rides — like Spaceship Earth, Living With the Land, and The Seas With Nemo & Friends — had wait times of 10 minutes or less on Monday afternoon.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
On Sunday morning, there were some big lines to get into Hollywood Studios! Looks like crowds are really starting to increase, likely due to Labor Day weekend.
Some lines were short at first, like Tower of Terror’s “13” minute walk-on wait time on Sunday morning! However, Tower of Terror’s line reached 60 minutes later in the day.
There were some LONG lines at certain attractions in Hollywood Studios right off the bat on Sunday, with the highest two being Slinky Dog Dash at 70 minutes and Mickey’s Runaway Railway at 65 minutes!
Two of the other high wait times were the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at 60 minutes, and Toy Story Midway Mania at 55 minutes.
By midday Sunday, attractions like Runaway Railway, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and Slinky Dog Dash were well over an hour and rising.
On Monday, we saw more long lines at Hollywood Studios, though some were not as long as on Sunday.
Tower of Terror had a 70-minute wait earlier in the afternoon…
…but it dropped down to 25 minutes in the late afternoon. Other popular rides also dropped wait times later, like Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run with a 35-minute wait and Toy Story Mania with a 20-minute wait.
By 5PM on Monday, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway was a 45-minute wait and Slinky Dog Dash was at 50 minutes. These are definitely longer than we saw last week, but not as bad as some of the wait times we saw earlier this weekend.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Disney’s Animal Kingdom saw a crowd increase this holiday weekend as well, especially on the bigger rides. We walked on to Flight of Passage last week, but on Monday morning the line for this ride was SUPER long.
Later on Monday, the Flight of Passage wait time was at 50 minutes.
Around the parks, we saw more crowds as well, although the ride wait times weren’t too high.
Expedition Everest was at a 10-minute wait time when we checked, and Kali River Rapids was at about 25 minutes in the afternoon.
This Labor Day weekend has been a pretty busy one, especially compared to the VERY low crowds we’ve seen recently. There was a significant change in crowds this weekend, and we expect the upcoming holidays could bring in even bigger crowds. We’re always keeping up with the latest Disney news, so stay tuned for more!
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What do you think about today’s crowds? Let us know in the comments!
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Hey dfb team,
I’m going to be in wdw this coming labour day in your experience is it less crowded on the Friday and Saturday compared to Sunday and Monday ? Trying to see if we should avoid the parks and have chill days or see which parks would be less crowded on the Friday and Saturday. Although it seems there are no quiet times at the moment haha.