History Made at Disney World: Guests Turned Away

Walt Disney World Resort has seen many record-breaking crowds in its history, but nothing could prepare it for what it would see in 2024.

We are just a little more than a month through 2024, and we’re already seeing history be made at Walt Disney World Resort, at least for one certain attraction: The Country Bear Jamboree.

The Country Bear Jamboree, which closed down a couple of weeks ago to make way for an all-new show, was performing its last day at Magic Kingdom Park, but no one could prepare Disney for the crowds that wanted to make their way into the Frontierland attraction. As you likely already know, the attraction ended up shutting down early that night, and many believe it just couldn’t handle the massive volume of guests it saw. Unfortunately, guests who had waited in line to see one last showing of the attraction were turned away.

Now, a couple of weeks out from that night, we have more information about how historically significant that night was for Country Bear Jamboree.

In its history, Country Bear Jamboree has averaged a maximum wait time of less than 15 minutes for nearly all of its existence. In 2020, those numbers jumped to 32 minutes on average, but much of that had to do with social distancing guidelines and capacity restraints that Disney put in place during the pandemic. In 2022 and 2023, its average maximum wait time was 15 minutes.

However, the numbers reached up to 50 minutes on the night of its closure. If you saw the photos, you know that there were Disney park guests lined up down Frontierland just to take in the show one last time. Though Disney fans have always been avid supporters and swamped attractions on their last day, not even Walt Disney World Resort could have predicted that there would be nearly a 1-hour wait time for the Country Bear Jamboree, an increase of more than 100%.

While the Country Bear Musical Jamboree will include easter eggs from the beginning to the end, including a familiar tune fans may remember, the bears will sing new, reinterpreted Disney tunes in different genres of country music – like bluegrass, pop-country, Americana, rockabilly, and other styles.

The new show will reopen this summer, but no exact date has been given.

What do you think about this history made at Walt Disney World Resort? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments!