Credit: Haydn Blackey, FlickrMany families avoid Walt Disney World Resort on long holiday weekends, but Memorial Day 2026 didn’t meet typical crowd expectations at Magic Kingdom Park, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. Even with the soft opening of the new Walt Disney Studios Lot courtyard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Bluey’s Wild World at Conservation Station at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, the Central Florida Disney destination was a ghost town on Monday.
Memorial Day Crowds at Magic Kingdom
Evaluating the Memorial Day crowds at Walt Disney World Resort is as simple as checking the My Disney Experience app. While Disney doesn’t release attendance data, attraction wait times are among the easiest ways to see how many people are visiting the Central Florida theme parks.
Starting with Magic Kingdom, TRON Lightcycle / Run was the only ride to reach a 60-minute wait at peak time (mid-afternoon), and that only happened when Space Mountain closed temporarily. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which reaches up to a two-hour wait on the busiest days at the Magic Kingdom, was only a 45-minute wait.
Other popular rides, like Pirates of the Caribbean, “it’s a small world,” and Mad Tea Party, were listed at five-minute waits, which basically means they were walk-ons.
EPCOT
The highest wait time at EPCOT in the afternoon was Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at 55 minutes. That seems like a long time, but it’s almost nothing for a ride that usually sees standby queues in the triple digits. Similarly, it’s rare to see the Anna and Elsa meet-and-greet, Frozen Ever After, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at wait times below an hour.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Even at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where the Walt Disney Studios Lot courtyard recently soft opened and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets is in previews, popular attractions like the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror only reached a 20-minute wait in the afternoon. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, which debuted a new mission inspired by The Mandalorian & Grogu (2026) on May 22, only had a 15-minute wait.
This park saw higher wait times across the board, but it also has fewer attractions than Magic Kingdom Park and EPCOT. On X (formerly known as Twitter), @WDWNT shared this photo of an empty Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge:
Where is everybody?
Where is everybody? pic.twitter.com/an0fv4SaYL
— WDW News Today (@WDWNT) May 25, 2026
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park
Like Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park has fewer attractions than Magic Kingdom Park and EPCOT, but it saw even lower wait times on Memorial Day. Even with the soft opening of Bluey’s Wild World at Conservation Station, popular attractions like Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest were practically walk-ons in the mid-afternoon.
Avatar Flight of Passage was the only Walt Disney World Resort attraction to reach a three-digit wait time on Memorial Day 2026.
Would you visit the Central Florida Disney parks on a holiday weekend? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments!
