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Credit: 0soulis0, FlickrLeading up to this weekend, the prevailing narrative around Disney World was that it had been empty to start the fall. Disney expected October to bring the crowds back, but on the first weekend of the month, the Disney World ghost town continued.
But then this weekend, wait times at Disney World exploded. While wait times aren’t necessarily a good predictor of crowd sizes, this gives us an idea of just how crowded the parks were this weekend.
With most people having a three-day weekend, it appears that many of them decided to head to Disney World to celebrate. On Sunday, nine Disney World rides’ wait times reached triple digits. It’s been months since the parks have seen wait times this high.
The day’s highest wait time was at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at EPCOT, which hit 140 minutes. Here are the other rides that saw triple-digit wait times over the course of Sunday.
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure 140 minutes
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 135 minutes
- Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind 130 minutes
- Avatar Flight of Passage 125 minutes
- Test Track 110 minutes
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance 110 minutes
- Tron: Lightcycle/Run 110 minutes
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 105 minutes
- Slinky Dog Dash 100 minutes
The nine most popular rides at Disney World reached 100+ minutes at various points throughout Sunday. While many of them did not remain at 100+ minutes throughout the day, they stayed above an hour for most of Sunday.
Disney World anticipated that these wait time increases would come, and they were able to make even more money off them. Disney increased its Lightning Lane prices in advance of the October surge. The increase included all levels of Lightning Lane.
As we move into October and November, expect larger crowds, especially on weekends and Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party nights. With Halloween, New Jersey Teacher’s Weekend, and Veterans Day Weekend coming, these types of crowds will become the norm.
And before you know it, it will be Thanksgiving, and the Christmas crowds will start rolling in. So, if you were looking for an empty park, your window may have already closed.
What were the crowds like for you at Disney World this weekend? Let us know in the comments.