As we continue to observe Disney World operations, we wanted to illustrate how much more busy the parks are on the weekends versus the weekdays. While a well-timed photo can show a crowd, or lack thereof, we wanted to dive into the data of wait times a bit just to show how much worse it is to visit Disney World on the weekends.

The Data

For this article, we’ll be using wait time data provided by Thrill-Data.com. We’ll be comparing the last seven days of wait times, from Monday, August 17th through Sunday, August 23rd. As Disney continues to allocate more Disney Park Pass availability to Annual Passholders, it’s possible that these numbers will continue to rise. Of course, Disney is signaling that they are anticipating low crowds this fall, so the following trends may continue through to the holiday season.

Magic Kingdom

We’ll start at Magic Kingdom, which was the world’s most visited theme park in 2019, and just about every year before that. It’s the centerpiece of the Vacation Kingdom, and while it may not be the most densely populated park at the moment, it will likely still be a big draw for visitors in the coming months.

Of course, there is no Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party this year, which would have started about two weeks ago, believe it or not. As you’ll see in the graphs to come, EPCOT and Disney’s Animal Kingdom have the biggest disparity between weekdays and weekends, but Magic Kingdom still has a noticeable difference. Here’s the chart.

In terms of the days, Saturday is the busiest, about 8.6% longer waits than on Sunday. That said, here’s a look at how Saturday compares to other days of the week:

• 36% longer waits than Friday
• 54% longer waits than Thursday
• 76% longer waits than Wednesday
• 61% longer waits than Tuesday
• 56% longer waits than Monday

As you can see above, the wait times for the weekend are remarkably longer than during the weekdays at Magic Kingdom. Last week, the best day of the week to visit was Wednesday.

EPCOT

In a recent report by Deutsche Bank analysts, it was said that Disney’s Animal Kingdom and EPCOT were outperforming Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in terms of attendance. At first glance, that might seem to be untrue, but the report was talking about percentage decrease when compared to a year earlier for the parks. When you put it that way, it’s very likely that EPCOT and Disney’s Animal Kingdom saw the lowest percentage decrease year over year. That said, EPCOT might be propped up by the weekend crowd. Here’s a look at the graph.

Just like Magic Kingdom, we see that Saturday is the busiest day at EPCOT at about 7.5% longer waits than Sunday. Here’s a look at how Saturday waits compare to the rest of the week:

• 68% longer waits than Friday
• 94% longer waits than Thursday
• 78% longer waits than Wednesday
• 68% longer waits than Tuesday
• 95% longer waits than Monday

In terms of wait times, Monday barely edges out Thursday as the shortest waits last week.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

We’ll head out to the jungle next and check up on Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Out of all four Disney World theme parks, Animal Kingdom has the lowest average waits. We’ve seen unprecedented wait times at Flight of Passage where it’s now rare to wait more than 30 minutes to ride what was Disney World’s longest wait the past few years.

Just like the other parks, Saturday is the busiest day of the week at Disney’s Animal Kingdom too. Unlike normal trends in the past, we don’t see a fluctuation in the days of the week that are busy for a theme park. Now, the advice is: avoid the weekends at all costs. When compared to other days of the week, here’s how Saturday’s wait times stacked up:

• 10% longer waits than Sunday
• 121% longer waits than Friday
• 134% longer waits than Thursday
• 146% longer waits than Wednesday
• 128% longer waits than Tuesday
• 123% longer waits than Monday

The data is shocking. While other theme parks have double-digit differences in wait times, Animal Kingdom kicks it up a notch and hits triple-digit differences between the weekends and weekdays. If there is any park where it’s outright silly to visit on the weekends, it has to be Animal Kingdom.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

We’ve saved the best(?) for last. Disney’s Hollywood Studios is kind of the outlier in that it is the park that fills up the fastest for the Disney Park Pass reservation system, but might be the park with the lowest actual capacity. It’s a smaller theme park and with most of the stage shows still shuttered as a result of the Actors’ Equity battle, it really is a half-day park. That said, guests are forced to show up early if they want the best shot at getting a coveted Rise of the Resistance boarding group. As you can see in the graph below, the weekends aren’t as clear-cut as terrible days to visit. That’s likely because the park is often at capacity for Annual Passholder reservations. Even with a lack of demand from other ticket types, the park is experiencing more consistent demand from guests than the other parks.

Again, we see that Saturday is the busiest day of the week, but at marginally slimmer margins when compared to other parks. Here’s how Saturday compares to other days of the week:

• 19% longer waits than Sunday
• 23% longer waits than Friday
• 33% longer waits than Thursday
• 50% longer waits than Wednesday
• 45% longer waits than Tuesday
• 24% longer waits than Monday

Locals Driving Attendance

If there is one takeaway that we can obtain from this data is that locals are driving attendance. Disney CEO Bob Chapek noted that 50% of the guests visiting Disney World right now are from local markets. While Chapek didn’t say what a normal percentage of locals would be, estimates put it in the 10% range. Disney World is very much an international tourist destination, so having 50% of the guests visiting from local markets is a seismic shift for Disney World.

As we look towards the weeks and months ahead, we expect the weekend vs weekday disparity to continue and maybe even grow. Disney is cutting its theme park hours by anywhere from 10-20% on September 8th, making it even more difficult for locals to visit. Another factor to consider is that kids are back to school in Florida. As of yesterday, over 90% of counties have resumed school in Florida. Nationwide, that figure is closer to 50-60%.

So, what did we learn? Now, more than ever, avoid the weekends at all costs. Of course, there are a ton of variables to consider when deciding if visiting Disney World right now is for you, but if you make it far enough in your planning to get to what days of the week you should visit, the answer is as close to Wednesday as possible.

As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!