Thanksgiving is a popular time to visit Walt Disney World. A four-day weekend from school and work provides plenty of time for families to spend at The Most Magical Place On Earth. If you’re thinking about heading down to Orlando next year, we’ve got your Disney Thanksgiving crowds breakdown!
Magic Kingdom
Hours: 8am – 12am
EMH: 1 hour before park open
If you plan on visiting the Magic Kingdom on Thanksgiving, don’t. It’s one of the busiest days of the year which will lead to more time waiting in line. The morning Extra Magic Hour meant that all of the resort guests got an hour head start on the average guest. If you really must go to the Magic Kingdom either go for the first hour or two of operation and then park hop, or go for the atmosphere. If this is your first time reading these reports you’ll see both actual and posted wait times. Actual is what it really took guests to go through the line and posted is what Disney estimates (and what you’ll see on the signs in front of the rides in the parks). Let’s look at some peak actual times:
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: 130 minutes
Peter Pan’s Flight: 102 minutes
Space Mountain: 76 minutes
Pirates of the Caribbean: 73 minutes
That’s high. Like we mentioned, the Magic Kingdom is not the park to visit on Thanksgiving.
Hollywood Studios
Hours: 9am – 10pm
Again, as it’s Thanksgiving, we saw higher crowds and wait times than even earlier in the week at Hollywood Studios. The best way to avoid crowds is to go to the parks early in the day, take a mid-day break, and return later in the evening. We saw wait time drops during both showings of Fantasmic (as is expected, even on normal days, due to the shows popularity). If you can get into the park at rope drop in the morning and come back during Fantasmic to ride your favorites a second time, then you’ll be able to avoid the bulk of the crowds. Let’s take a look at peak actual wait times:
Toy Story Midway Mania: 113 minutes
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster: 128 minutes
Tower of Terror: 106 minutes
Take a peek at wait times during the half hour after the 6:30pm and 8pm Fantasmic shows to see the slight drop in wait times.
Epcot
Hours: 9am – 9pm
Those who don’t go to the Magic Kingdom generally chose Epcot before Hollywood Studios, and Thanksgiving Day was no different. Let’s dive into these wait times. The first and last hours are the only good times to wait in lines. We saw the following peak actual times:
Test Track: 133 minutes
Soarin: 101 minutes
Living with the Land: 60 minutes
As you can see, any day where you have to wait up to 60 minutes for Living with the Land is a busy day. We saw a little drop during lunch, but I would stick to the first and last hours of operation as the time to visit the top attractions.
Animal Kingdom
Hours: 8am – 8pm
Animal Kingdom is the best park to visit on Thanksgiving (and most of the other major holidays). Often overlooked, Animal Kingdom is usually guests last choice when picking a park to visit. There is a reason we listed the Animal Kingdom last. While waits are elevated compared to a normal operating day, you’ll still be able to hit all of the attractions that matter to you. Here is the order of highest peak actual waits:
Dinosaur: 110 minutes
Expedition Everest: 54 minutes
Kilimanjaro Safaris: 54 minutes
As always, the early bird gets the worm. The first two hours of operation were the best time to visit the large attractions. The last hour also proved to be a good time to ride your favorites. All in all, the Animal Kingdom would be my choice if I were to ever spend a Thanksgiving Day at Walt Disney World.
Happy Thanksgiving!