It was one of the busiest days of the year at Disney’s Hollywood Studios today as crowds begin to build for the busiest weeks of the year. As you may know, the week surrounding Christmas and the new year is, historically, the busiest week of the year at Walt Disney World. A perfect storm of schools letting out for winter break and the magical holiday season makes Walt Disney World a very popular place to be this time of year, with crowds and wait times starting to build.
While visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios earlier this afternoon, we noticed that the extended queue was in use for Rise of the Resistance, stretching out of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and wrapping through the MuppetVision 3D extended queue space. Rise of the Resistance was down all morning, opening around 1pm and drawing wait times of nearly 3 hours once word got out that the ride was running again. It wasn’t just Rise of the Resistance that was popular today though, Slinky Dog Dash has averaged more than a two-hour wait time so far, and Tower of Terror is pushing 100 minutes. Toy Story Mania is averaging nearly two hours today as well, with the highest posted wait time reaching 170 minutes, according to data from thrill-data.
While Hollywood Studios was particularly busy today, and the only park to not have Disney Park Pass reservations at some point during the day before park hopping today, there were other rides with elevated wait times this afternoon around Walt Disney World as well such as Frozen Ever After with a more than 2-hour wait this afternoon, and Flight of Passage taking the top spot at a nearly 200-minute posted wait.
With bigger crowds and higher wait times, you can also expect Disney Genie+ prices to increase over the coming days. With Thanksgiving highs at $35, the question is: will Disney Genie+ be priced higher during peak week, and will it break the $40 mark?
In terms of what to expect over the next three weeks, history tells us that we can expect longer wait times and higher crowds as we approach New Year’s Eve. In 2022, the busiest day of the year was Thursday, December 29th. In the graph below, we can see the weekly average wait times for the past year, with a spike on the right side of the graph (this week) matching up with what we saw last year. Overall, the month of December is averaging well below 2022 figures, but we expect the next two weeks to be roughly in line with what we saw last year, with next week busier than this week.
Another factor driving up wait times today is that it is the last day of the year that Annual Passholders without the top-tier Incredi Pass can visit the parks. After today, the Sorcerer Pass, Pirate Pass, and Pixie Dust Pass are all blocked out from the parks until January 5th, 2024.
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!