As we reported yesterday, Disney has doubled the pandemic-era capacity for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Previously the single attraction with the highest wait time across Walt Disney World, it would appear that Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway benefited greatly from the capacity increase.

According to historical data from thrill-data.com and a graph from the @wdwwait twitter account, the wait for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway was cut by almost 40% yesterday when compared to the previous six Tuesdays.

First, here’s a look at the wait time chart for Disney’s Hollywood Studios yesterday. As you can see, Runaway Railway was dethroned by Slinky Dog Dash for top average wait time. The hourly heat map also shows that wait times were consistently higher for Slinky Dog Dash compared to Runway Railway.

Going back to last Tuesday, we can see a totally different landscape.

Going back even further, we see that Tuesdays have averaged just over 80 minutes for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Yesterdays wait time of roughly 51 minutes represents a 35% reduction in posted wait time. You’d have to travel back to August to find a monthly average wait time below what guests experienced yesterday.

While the theoretical capacity has doubled for the attraction, a 35% increase in efficiency is likely in line with the real world improvements. Not every party is a party of four and because Disney isn’t seating parties together in the same row, attractions with plexiglass will still operate below 100% capacity.

As we said yesterday during our review of the ride with plexiglass barriers, the attraction experience isn’t diminished much with the plexiglass in place, and the tradeoff of reduced wait times will likely be enjoyed by all.

Beyond the data, it’s worth noting that this is the new normal. Disney is adjusting and tweaking their operations to deal with having a functioning theme park during a pandemic. While news about a vaccine is encouraging, Disney will have to deal with COVID-19 for months, if not years to come as the population gets vaccinated.

We expect more adjustments as Disney looks to increase their overall attendance in the theme parks to a level that is not only safe, but profitable.

This is only one day of data, but we’ll continue to keep an eye on Runaway Railway and more attractions as Disney optimizes the pandemic-era guest experience.

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!