Can you avoid long lines at Disney World?
A theme park vacation requires plenty of planning – and certainly plenty of patience – but a recent study shows there may be a way to avoid long lines at Disney World and save plenty of time.
To find out how Walt Disney World guests can maximize their time (and money), the personal finance website FinanceBuzz analyzed wait times for every attraction, current ticket prices, and the number of attractions per park. While waiting can’t be eliminated, they did manage to find a few ways to avoid long lines at Disney World.
Disney World Wait Times
According to the study, most of the year, Disney World guests pay between $150 and $180 per person for admission to one of the four Disney World parks. That means even before spending a dime on food or merch, a family of four has already committed more than $600 just to get through the gates.
With that much of an investment in admission, minimizing the time spent waiting in line is necessary to get the most value out of a theme park day. But, realistically, is it possible to avoid long lines at Disney World? FinanceBuzz wondered too, so they compared how long people wait in line versus how long it takes to ride.
“Between ticket prices, snacks, merch, and two tiers of Lightning Lanes, a trip to Disney World is more expensive and more complicated than ever,” said FinanceBuzz Senior Content Marketer Josh Kobert. “With that in mind, we wanted to look at data on the rides and times of the year that draw the biggest crowds to give people a better idea of what they can expect and maybe act as a planning resource to help visitors create a plan to maximize the magic of their next visit.”
The study showed that across the 52 attractions Disney World offers at its four parks, guests can expect to wait an average of 38 minutes per ride, which actually doesn’t seem too bad if you’ve ever stood in a 90+ minute queue.
Interestingly, of all the parks, Magic Kingdom has the shortest average lines at only 29 minutes, and Hollywood Studios has the longest lines at an average of 44 minutes, but Animal Kingdom’s average wait time is only one minute less (43 minutes).
Best Time to Avoid Long Lines at Disney World
Some times of year are consistently better than others for avoiding long lines – generally when kids are in school, and fewer families can visit. The study confirmed this theory by determining that September had the shortest average wait time for all four parks (averaging 30 minutes), while December (a popular family vacation time) had the longest (averaging 42 minutes).
Of course, wait times at any theme park depend on demand plus how fast each ride can load and unload guests. Because of that, the study also looked at each attraction individually to find out which rides have the longest and shortest lines and, therefore, which offers the most “bang for your buck” in terms of time spent waiting in line versus time enjoying the attraction.
Magic Kingdom:
Two rides have wait times of over an hour: Peter Pan’s Flight and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (which has the longest line in the park at 74 minutes). Unfortunately, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is also one of the shortest rides, at only three minutes. On the flip side, Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress has an average wait time of just five minutes in exchange for a 21-minute rotating animatronic performance.
Epcot:
Epcot’s longest rides are Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, both of which have wait times of over an hour. But overall, lines at Epcot average 37 minutes with rides averaging 9.2 minutes.
Hollywood Studios:
The two longest lines in Disney World parks are both in Hollywood Studios. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (an average wait of 81 minutes) and Slinky Dog Dash (an average wait of 93 minutes). If you’re looking for something shorter, Muppet*Vision 3D starring Kermit, Fozzie Bear, and Miss Piggy averages just a 10-minute wait.
Animal Kingdom:
This park has fewer actual rides than the others at Walt Disney World, but Pandora — The World of Avatar is where you’ll find the longest lines, with wait times for Avatar Flight of Passage and the Na’vi River Journey both averaging over 50 minutes.
Tips to Avoid Long Lines at Disney World
Not waiting at all might be impossible, but the best way to avoid long lines at Disney World is by:
- Visiting at the right times of the year
- Optimizing the new Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Individual Pass options
- Arriving at the parks early in the day
- Prioritizing parks (and attractions) with lower demand
“Knowing which times of year to target and which ones to avoid when planning a Disney World vacation helps readers avoid overly large crowds and maximize their time enjoying as many attractions as possible,” Kobert said. “Similarly, knowing what wait times for different attractions typically look like should help in the decision-making process when it comes to choosing whether it’s worth getting in a standby line versus paying for Lightning Lane access.”
Methodology
Wait times were pulled from Thrill-Data.com, where average wait times are calculated based on times directly from theme park apps and user reporting. This analysis included only attractions with reliable historical wait time data, and rides that solely utilize a virtual queue system were excluded. For that reason, attraction totals may vary from official Disney World listings.
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