Data Reveals Official Start of 'Off-Season' at Disney World, Parks to Become Ghost Towns

New data might reveal when the theme parks at Walt Disney World (WDW) will see some relief from the big crowds leading to high wait times and some parks reaching capacity on multiple days.

Disney World ‘Off-Season’ Nowhere in Sight as Parks Experience Long Wait Times, Big Crowds

For those of you unaware, the WDW parks are kind of a mess right now. Wait times have reached five hours for some attractions, while one Disney World park, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, saw an average of two hours for nearly all of its rides throughout the park.

The Disney paid service, Genie+, also reached a new record high, with guests spending almost $40 per person. Despite the prices being up for Genie+, the Reservation system for the parks also malfunctioned a few times these last few weeks after some parks sold out entirely, closing out all remaining guests seeking to spend the Holidays at the parks.

Even this weekend, the runDisney marathon caused an opening delay for EPCOT for today and tomorrow. To make things worse, the reservation system will be down for maintenance tomorrow, which will make a lot of folks unhappy as they try to make their reservations to the theme parks tomorrow.

So When Will the Official ‘Off-Season’ Commence?

The news above might sound like the most terrible thing in the world right now, but rest assured; things will calm down again for a short time at the parks before those Spring break and summer crowds arrive in Central Florida. But when? Well, that’s where science comes into play – theme park science. The best site around for honest analytics for theme parks is Thrill Data.

Thrill Data is a website that tracks theme parks’ wait times and crowd levels worldwide. Thrill Data provides real-time data on amusement park ride wait times. The site also offers free graphing and downloading of wait time data, coaster counts, reservation alerts, and more. Thrill Data’s data can help users learn when to visit and when to ride. Users can also create trip reports and build data-based agendas.

According to information from 2022 and 2023, the second week of January seems to be the time to be at WDW for low wait times across the board and less hassle in dealing with those pesky large crowds.

Observing the holiday season, it’s evident that there are three clear peaks. Initially, there’s a surge in the week leading up to Christmas. Interestingly, Christmas Eve tends to mark the valley regarding wait times during the holiday season, followed by a gradual increase leading to the pinnacle a day or two before the New Year. This pattern aligns with the trends observed in the 2022-23 data. The information above looks similar to this year’s, with some expectations and minor changes for 2024 thus far.

So what does this mean? Well, if we look at the data above, we can determine that around January 10 through the end of the month, that’s when the crowds will thin out, and those looking to visit the theme parks without dealing with large crowds and long wait times should do so around then.

Again, this should be taken with a grain of salt, but with the promising data presented above, one could speculate that around the next week or two, folks should be seeing some relief from these heavy crowds.