Tag: Weekly Analysis

Memorial Day Week 2026: The Reopening Flood That Reshaped the Resort

Five major attractions returned from refurbishment within a 72-hour window this week, and the data shows exactly where guests went. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run had already been back for a few days heading into the holiday weekend, but Tuesday brought Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets, Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live!, and the Drawn to Wonderland playground back to Hollywood Studios — plus Bluey’s Wild World at Animal Kingdom — all on the same day. That kind of concentrated novelty demand, layered on top of a Memorial Day weekend, made this one of the more interesting weeks the resort has seen in a while. If you’re planning a visit in the next two weeks, understanding what happened here tells you a lot about where guests will still be gravitating.

Week at a Glance

This was a legitimately heavy week by late-May standards. The resort-wide median came in at 20 minutes, up from 15 minutes the prior week and sitting above the six-week rolling average. Magic Kingdom was the standout at 7/10 — its heaviest reading in the data window — while Hollywood Studios clocked in at 6/10, above its already-elevated baseline. Animal Kingdom and EPCOT both landed at 5/10, which sounds moderate but represents a meaningful step up from recent form at both parks.

The week’s shape was driven by two overlapping forces: Memorial Day itself (Sunday through Monday, with the post-holiday tail into Tuesday) and a wave of attraction reopenings concentrated at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Add Soarin’ Across America returning at EPCOT on Monday — the park’s biggest capacity-soaker — and you had genuine demand pressure across all four parks simultaneously for most of the week. The headline: this wasn’t just a holiday bump. The reopenings kept crowds elevated well past Monday.

Park-by-Park Analysis

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom carried the week’s heaviest crowd designation, and the day-by-day picture explains why. Sunday and Monday both came in at a 15-minute median — which is deceptively light — but Tuesday through Friday all held at 20 minutes, the upper edge of the Moderate band for MK. Saturday dropped back to 15 minutes, a modest end-of-week release. The park’s 7/10 weekly rating reflects sustained above-average pressure rather than a single blowout day.

Memorial Day itself (Monday) included a Disney After Hours event at Magic Kingdom, but that’s a late-night add-on that starts after normal park close. It had no bearing on daytime crowds — guests who showed up Monday for the holiday were operating in full-day conditions. The Monday median of 15 minutes is actually encouraging given the holiday; it suggests the holiday crowd spread fairly evenly across the resort rather than concentrating at MK.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad recorded 15 downtime incidents this week, and Winnie the Pooh added 22 more. Both are meaningful losses when MK is running heavy — Pooh in particular is a Fantasyland anchor that helps absorb family groups. Prince Charming Regal Carrousel also saw 14 incidents, which matters less for waits but compounds the friction for families with young children moving through that area.

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios averaged a 6/10 — Busy — for the week, and its 40-minute median sits right at the threshold between Moderate and Busy for this park. What’s striking is how flat the daily line was: 35 minutes Sunday, 30 Monday, 35 Tuesday, then 40 Wednesday through Saturday without variation. The Memorial Day dip on Monday is real, but the post-holiday floor never really dropped. The reopenings held it up.

Smugglers Run had already been drawing novelty demand heading into the week, and Tuesday’s simultaneous return of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (now themed to The Muppets) and the Drawn to Wonderland playground added fresh pull. Guests who had been avoiding HS during those refurbs came back, and new guests drawn by the reopening news showed up on top of the holiday traffic. The 90th percentile wait of 70 minutes and a 180-minute peak suggest the top-tier attractions — Rise, Tower, and the newly returned Muppets coaster — were running long on the busiest days.

Slinky Dog Dash had 18 downtime incidents this week, which is worth flagging. On a week when HS was already running at a Busy level, losing Slinky intermittently pushed demand toward other Toy Story Land options and downstream to Star Wars land. Saturday’s Disney After Hours event at HS was a late-night-only affair and didn’t affect daytime operations.

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom had the most interesting trajectory of the week. It opened Sunday and Monday at a 35-minute median — solidly Moderate — then Wednesday actually dipped to 30 minutes before climbing to 45 minutes Friday and Saturday. That late-week surge is notable. Bluey’s Wild World reopened Tuesday, and by Friday the novelty demand had clearly not worn off. Animal Kingdom’s 5/10 weekly average understates the Friday-Saturday reality, when the park was running at 45-minute medians — squarely in Heavy territory for AK.

Expedition Everest logged 18 downtime incidents, which is a significant number for AK’s marquee thrill ride. When Everest is cycling down repeatedly, Avatar Flight of Passage absorbs the overflow and waits there climb accordingly. The combination of Everest unreliability and Bluey novelty demand made the back half of the week genuinely challenging at this park.

EPCOT

EPCOT was the relative haven this week. Sunday and Monday held at a 15-minute median — light by any measure — before stepping up to 20 minutes Wednesday through Saturday, where it stayed flat. The 5/10 weekly rating is accurate: consistently moderate, never threatening to become a difficult day.

Soarin’ Across America returned Monday after its refurbishment, and the data shows it clearly. Soarin’ averaged 42 minutes this week versus a 32-minute baseline — the only outlier attraction in the dataset. That’s novelty demand doing exactly what you’d expect. The EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival continued all week, drawing foot traffic to the outdoor kitchen booths, but festival attendance and ride demand are largely independent. Future World attractions stayed manageable.

EPCOT’s reliability picture was rougher than its crowd level suggests. Test Track had 33 downtime incidents — the highest of any attraction in the resort this week — followed by Spaceship Earth at 20, Frozen Ever After at 16, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at 15, and The Seas with Nemo and Friends at 14. That’s five major EPCOT attractions running unreliably in the same week. Guests touring World Discovery and World Nature were navigating a lot of board changes.

Daily Pattern Analysis

Day	Busiest Park	Lightest Park	Notes
Sun, May 24	AK & HS (35 min)	MK & EPCOT (15 min)	Pre-holiday crowd builds at thrill parks
Mon, May 25	AK (35 min)	MK & EPCOT (15 min)	Memorial Day; Soarin’ reopens; After Hours at MK (no day impact)
Tue, May 26	MK (20 min)	EPCOT (15 min)	Post-holiday; Muppets coaster, Bluey, HS courtyard all reopen
Wed, May 27	HS (40 min)	AK (30 min)	Crowds settle into mid-week; HS novelty demand holds
Thu, May 28	HS (40 min)	MK & EPCOT (20 min)	Steady mid-week pressure across resort
Fri, May 29	AK (45 min)	MK & EPCOT (20 min)	Banana Ball event; AK climbs with Bluey demand; Banana Ball brings evening crowds
Sat, May 30	AK (45 min)	MK (15 min)	MK eases; AK holds heavy; After Hours at HS (no day impact)

The pattern that stands out: MK and EPCOT tracked together almost perfectly all week, while HS and AK ran hotter and diverged from each other by the weekend. The Memorial Day holiday itself produced less of a spike than the week’s cumulative reopening pressure — Monday was actually one of the lighter days at MK and EPCOT. The real volume came from guests who delayed their visit until the fresh attractions were available, then showed up Tuesday onward. Saturday’s MK dip to 15 minutes while AK held at 45 minutes is the sharpest single-day divergence in the dataset.

Reliability Report

EPCOT’s ride operations deserve a closer look this week. Test Track’s 33 incidents made it the least reliable major attraction in the resort — guests who planned their EPCOT morning around a Test Track run were repeatedly pivoting to Guardians or Remy. With Frozen Ever After also logging 16 incidents and Remy at 15, the World Showcase side of the park was absorbing extra demand from guests who couldn’t get into their planned World Discovery attractions.

The Spaceship Earth situation (20 incidents) is particularly disruptive because it’s a high-capacity anchor that helps move guests through the park entrance. When it’s cycling down repeatedly, the main entry area backs up and creates a compressed feeling even when overall waits are moderate.

At Magic Kingdom, Winnie the Pooh’s 22 incidents across the week hit hardest during morning hours when Fantasyland is most contested. Guests who rope-dropped for Pooh and found it down had limited nearby alternatives — Seven Dwarfs and Peter Pan absorbed some of that overflow.

Weather Impact

Weather data was not available for this reporting period. Late May in Orlando typically brings afternoon thunderstorms that can temporarily push guests indoors and create brief waits spikes at covered and indoor attractions. Given EPCOT’s outdoor festival activity and the week’s overall crowd levels, any significant weather holds would have been felt most at the outdoor kitchens and open-air queue areas — but without confirmed data, the crowd patterns described above reflect what the waits show without weather as a confirmed variable.

Next Week Outlook

The first full week of June historically marks the transition into summer operating patterns — longer park hours, fuller staffing, and the beginning of school-out season for most of the country. With Memorial Day behind us, the post-holiday soft spot typically lasts about a week before summer crowds build in earnest.

The attraction novelty factor is still a real variable heading into next week. Smugglers Run, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets, Bluey’s Wild World, and Soarin’ Across America are all still in their elevated-demand window. Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom are the parks to avoid if you’re trying to minimize waits — EPCOT and Magic Kingdom are the better plays early in the week. Tuesday and Wednesday are likely to be the lightest days. If you’re visiting, morning hours at EPCOT are the strongest value: Soarin’ novelty will fade faster than you think once school’s officially out across more markets, but this coming week it’s still a factor. Get there at rope drop and clear Soarin’ and Guardians before noon.

Watch Animal Kingdom on the weekend — if Bluey’s Wild World continues drawing strong numbers and Everest reliability doesn’t improve, Saturday could be the toughest touring day of the coming week at that park.

Plan Smarter with Lightning Brain

This week showed what happens when reopening demand and a holiday weekend overlap — the crowds don’t just spike on the holiday, they stay elevated through the week as different guests chase newly-available attractions. Knowing which parks are absorbing that novelty demand, and which days offer the best escape, is exactly the kind of signal Lightning Brain is built to surface. Lightning Brain is now available at lightningbrain.app and on the App Store — check it before you book your next day.

Soarin’ Bows Out, But Nobody Noticed the Lines

Soarin’ Around the World had its final days at EPCOT this week — and if you’d expected a dramatic farewell surge, the data didn’t deliver one. Despite closing-soon notices and nostalgia energy building around the ride, EPCOT’s median wait sat at a calm 15 minutes for the entire week. That’s the headline from May 10-16: a resort-wide exhale after weeks of elevated spring break pressure, with crowds running well below the 6-week rolling average across all four parks. Even a Magic Kingdom private event, a freshly reopened Big Thunder Mountain, and two After Hours events couldn’t push the needle much.

Week at a Glance

This was, simply put, a light week. The resort-wide median landed at 20 minutes, matching the past two weeks but down sharply from the 30-minute pace set in early April during spring break season. That means the current stretch is running in the bottom fifth of all days tracked this year — busier than only 19% of the year so far. Post-spring-break shoulder season has arrived in full.

No federal holidays. No major school break overlaps. The Flower & Garden Festival continued at EPCOT, contributing foot traffic without meaningfully inflating queue demand. The most structurally interesting day was Wednesday, when a private buyout closed Magic Kingdom to regular guests at 5:30 PM — and the data shows a modest response, but nothing dramatic. By Saturday, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom saw modest upticks as the typical weekend pattern kicked in, but even those highs were well within comfortable range.

The headline: this was one of the better touring weeks of the year so far.

Park by Park

EPCOT

EPCOT logged a 3/10 week despite hosting two attention-grabbing storylines simultaneously: Soarin’ Around the World’s final days and the ongoing Flower & Garden Festival. The park’s median held at 15 minutes every single day of the week — flatline consistency that’s unusual even for a light week. The 90th percentile reached 70 minutes, suggesting Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and a handful of other headline attractions still had real waits at peak times, but the overall park experience was relaxed throughout.

Soarin’s closure window didn’t drive the queue spike you might expect. Either guests have already processed the goodbye, or the broader low-crowd environment absorbed whatever bump in demand materialized. For anyone who still wants a final ride, this week’s data suggests the window may be less frantic than feared — though the attraction officially closed Tuesday with one day remaining at the start of the week.

Flower & Garden continues to animate the park’s common areas while leaving attraction queues largely undisturbed. That pattern has held consistently: festival guests browse topiaries and food booths, but the rides don’t see proportional queue growth.

Operationally, EPCOT had a rough stretch for its marquee attractions. Test Track logged 26 downtime incidents — the highest of any attraction resort-wide — and Spaceship Earth added another 16. On days when both were offline simultaneously, guests heading to Future World had fewer operational options, though the light overall crowd meant alternatives weren’t overwhelmed.

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios came in at a 3/10 for the week, with a median of 30 minutes against the 6-week average of 40. That’s a meaningful improvement for a park that often runs hot. The Thursday Disney After Hours event is worth noting explicitly: it started at normal park close and had zero effect on daytime operations. Day guests on Thursday saw a 25-minute median — the park’s lightest day of the week.

Saturday pushed back to 40 minutes as weekend demand returned, but even that sits right at the 6-week average. Rise of the Resistance logged 15 downtime incidents this week, its second consecutive rough stretch. On days when it went offline mid-morning, Smuggler’s Run absorbed some of the displaced demand — though the light overall environment kept any wait inflation manageable. Fantasmic! ran nightly throughout the week without flagged issues.

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom lands at a 4/10 for the week — the highest crowd level of the four parks, though still firmly in comfortable territory. The most interesting day was Wednesday, when a private corporate buyout closed the park to regular guests at 5:30 PM. Unlike a publicly sold party where guests know in advance and avoid booking, private events carry weaker daytime suppression. The data reflects that: Wednesday’s MK median was 10 minutes, the park’s lightest day. Some guests likely left early as the private event approach, but the morning and midday hours ran very light.

Big Thunder Mountain, freshly reopened after a refurbishment closure, continued attracting above-normal attention. The ride has been back for nearly two weeks now, and novelty demand is still visible in the data — it consistently drew guests who hadn’t ridden in months. Space Mountain had an operational rough patch with 23 incidents this week, and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure added 14 more. Rope-droppers targeting Space Mountain on its down mornings found themselves redirecting toward Big Thunder or Tomorrowland Speedway.

Monday’s Disney After Hours event at Magic Kingdom was a late-night-only affair and didn’t compress daytime hours. The park ran a 15-minute median on Monday — identical to several other days, no After Hours effect visible in the daytime data.

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom delivered the week’s most dramatically light conditions. Friday’s median dropped to 10 minutes — by any standard, an exceptional touring day. Wednesday and Thursday also came in at 15 minutes each. The park’s 3/10 week average (25-minute median) runs well below its 6-week baseline of 35 minutes, and Flight of Passage almost certainly spent multiple days well under its typical ceiling. Kali River Rapids had 12 downtime incidents, but with crowds this light, guest impact was minimal — waits redistributed without meaningful queue buildup at alternatives.

Animal Kingdom’s early closings on several nights compressed the usable park window, but mornings and early afternoons were exceptional. If you were at the resort this week and skipped Animal Kingdom, you left the best touring conditions on the table.

Daily Pattern

Day	AK Median	HS Median	EPCOT Median	MK Median	Notes
Sun 5/10	30 min	30 min	20 min	15 min	Weekend holdover demand, still manageable
Mon 5/11	35 min	35 min	20 min	15 min	After Hours at MK; no daytime effect
Tue 5/12	20 min	30 min	15 min	20 min	Soarin’ final day; EPCOT held flat
Wed 5/13	15 min	35 min	15 min	10 min	MK private buyout at 5:30 PM; lightest MK day
Thu 5/14	15 min	25 min	15 min	20 min	After Hours at HS; HS lightest day of week
Fri 5/15	10 min	30 min	15 min	15 min	AK hit its lightest point of the week
Sat 5/16	30 min	40 min	15 min	15 min	Weekend demand returns; HS and AK climb

The week followed a recognizable mid-May shoulder pattern: Sunday and Monday carried some residual weekend energy, Tuesday through Friday settled into the lightest stretch, and Saturday bounced modestly as the next weekend wave began. Hollywood Studios ran counterintuitively higher on Wednesday and Monday than some other days — its steady demand from Star Wars and Toy Story Land creates a higher floor even when the rest of the resort goes quiet. EPCOT’s flatline through the week stands out: 15 or 20 minutes every single day, no spikes, no soft days. Remarkably stable.

Reliability Report

Test Track was the week’s most disruptive presence, going offline 26 times across the week. For EPCOT guests building a morning plan around Test Track as an early anchor, the unreliability was genuinely problematic — when it closed within the first hour, options in Future World East are limited, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (which doesn’t take standard Lightning Lane) became the fallback for many guests. Spaceship Earth added another layer of Future World uncertainty with 16 incidents of its own.

At Magic Kingdom, Space Mountain’s 23-incident week meant rope-drop guests regularly arrived to find it offline. The timing mattered: guests who shifted to Big Thunder Mountain, still drawing post-reopening novelty interest, found waits there running longer than usual in those morning windows. The Barnstormer and Walt Disney World Railroad also had notable downtime stretches, though with crowds this light, neither created serious queue problems at alternatives.

Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios logged 15 incidents — a concerning pattern if it continues into the busier summer weeks ahead.

Next Week Outlook

May 17-23 continues deep in shoulder season with no federal holidays and no major school breaks on the calendar. Expect conditions similar to this week — resort-wide medians in the 15-20 minute range, with Hollywood Studios running slightly higher as its demand floor holds steady. EPCOT’s Flower & Garden Festival continues, maintaining the same dynamic: busy promenades, relaxed queues.

With Soarin’ Around the World now closed, EPCOT loses one of its anchor rides. Watch for whether Guardians or Test Track (assuming improved reliability) absorbs any of that displaced demand. If Test Track’s operational issues persist into next week, EPCOT mornings could feel more constrained than the raw crowd numbers suggest.

Best strategy for next week: Animal Kingdom midweek mornings remain the highest-value touring opportunity at the resort. Plan MK for later in the week when Big Thunder novelty demand has continued softening. EPCOT is a low-commitment call any day — if you’re going, arrive early and don’t count on Test Track being available.

Plan Smarter with Lightning Brain

This week showed that even a quiet week has structure — the right day at Animal Kingdom on Friday was a fundamentally different experience than any day at Hollywood Studios. Picking the right park on the right day is exactly what Lightning Brain helps with. Now available at lightningbrain.app and on the App Store. Check it before you go.

Big Thunder Reopened, Soarin’ Is Counting Down, and Animal Kingdom Had a Week Worth Noticing

Two attraction storylines dominated May 3-9 at Walt Disney World, and they pulled in opposite directions. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad returned from refurbishment on Sunday — drawing the novelty crowds you’d expect — while Soarin’ Around the World began its final countdown toward closure, with four days remaining as of this Saturday. Together they shaped where guests concentrated their energy, and the data tells an interesting story about which parks absorbed the pressure and which ones quietly offered some of the best touring conditions of the spring so far.

Week at a Glance

This was a light-to-moderate week by May standards — the resort-wide median held at 20 minutes, flat against both last week and the 6-week average. In terms of year-to-date standing, this week was busier than only 18% of days so far in 2026, which puts it firmly in the “comfortable” range for a resort visit. Wednesday was the clear standout as the easiest day of the week, with EPCOT hitting a 15-minute median and Magic Kingdom matching it. The weekend bookends were the busiest, particularly Sunday and Monday when Animal Kingdom ran notably hotter than the rest of the week.

The headline: Animal Kingdom’s first two days looked nothing like the rest of its week, and Magic Kingdom ran heavy all week long relative to its own calibrated baseline despite waits that look modest on paper. For guests on the ground, the experience varied considerably depending on which park they chose and which day they showed up.

Park-by-Park Analysis

Animal Kingdom

The most dramatic intra-week swing in the data came from Animal Kingdom. Sunday and Monday both logged 45-minute medians — placing the park squarely in heavy territory by its own crowd-level calibration. Then Tuesday arrived, and the median dropped to 20 minutes. That’s a 55% reduction in a single day, and it held through Wednesday before gradually rebuilding toward the weekend.

What explains the Sunday-Monday spike? Animal Kingdom drew guests who prioritized it on the front end of their trips, likely in combination with guests who wanted to experience the park before shifting attention to Big Thunder’s reopening at Magic Kingdom. By Tuesday, that opening-weekend novelty energy had dissipated and Animal Kingdom settled into its natural spring rhythm. The weekly median of 30 minutes lands 14% below the 6-week average — a meaningful improvement — and for guests who visited Tuesday through Friday, conditions were genuinely excellent. Flight of Passage almost certainly stayed manageable on those days, and mornings would have been particularly productive.

Saturday climbed back to 40 minutes as weekend guests arrived, but even that represents comfortable touring compared to peak periods. Animal Kingdom at a 4/10 for the week is a win.

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom ran at 7/10 for the week — its “Heavy” tier — which is notable because the median wait was 20 minutes. That’s the nature of Magic Kingdom’s calibration: its baseline is so low that 20 minutes represents a genuinely heavy day. The park held at 20 minutes every single day except Wednesday and Thursday, when it dipped to 15. No day breached the upper ranges, but there was no light day either.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad’s return from refurbishment is the obvious story here. Reopening day was Sunday, and novelty demand for freshly-returned attractions is a reliable crowd concentrator. Guests who had been waiting out the refurbishment showed up to knock it off their list, and the effect lingered through the week. The downtime data reinforces this: Big Thunder logged 14 incidents this week, suggesting the ride is still finding its operational footing post-refurb. Guests who rope-dropped for Big Thunder on mornings when it went offline found themselves pivoting — and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which itself logged 17 incidents this week, was not a reliable backup either.

The Monday Disney After Hours event at Magic Kingdom was a late-night add-on only — day guests were completely unaffected, and the park ran its normal schedule. No daytime suppression here.

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios was the most consistent park of the week — almost to a fault. It opened at 45 minutes on Sunday, stepped down to 40 on Monday, held at 35 through Wednesday and Thursday, then recovered to 40 on Saturday. The 40-minute weekly median is exactly at its 6-week average, landing at a 6/10 (Busy). No dramatic spikes, no gift days.

Rise of the Resistance logged 13 downtime incidents, which is meaningful for a park where it anchors the morning strategy for most guests. On the days it went offline early, the queue demand likely redistributed toward Tower of Terror and Smugglers Run. Wednesday’s Disney After Hours event at Hollywood Studios was a late-night-only operation — it had no bearing on daytime waits. The park’s 35-minute median on Wednesday was the lightest of its week, and that’s the day to have been there.

The Flower and Garden Festival ran all week at EPCOT, drawing foot traffic away from Studios on the margins, which may partly explain why Hollywood Studios stayed in its lane without spiking. Fantasmic! ran all seven nights, giving the evening entertainment scene some consistency.

EPCOT

EPCOT delivered the most interesting pattern: strong early week, genuinely light mid-week. The park opened at 25-minute medians Sunday and Monday, dropped to 20 Tuesday, then hit 15 on both Wednesday and Friday — the lightest single-park days recorded at EPCOT this week. That 15-minute median is well into comfortable territory by EPCOT’s calibration.

The Flower and Garden Festival continues to do what it always does: pack the outdoor garden areas while the indoor attractions stay manageable. The festival drives foot traffic, not queue demand. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Test Track are where the pain points live — and Test Track logged 48 downtime incidents this week, the highest of any attraction at the resort. That’s not a minor operational hiccup; guests who planned their EPCOT day around Test Track found it unreliable throughout the week. On the flip side, Soarin’ Around the World — closing permanently in roughly four days from the end of this reporting period — saw the nostalgia crowds building. Guests who want one last ride should not wait. The line was already elevated, and it will only grow as the final day approaches.

Daily Pattern Analysis

Day	Busiest Park	Lightest Park	Notes
Sun, May 3	AK & HS (45 min)	MK (20 min)	Big Thunder reopens; novelty crowds at MK, AK leads resort
Mon, May 4	AK (45 min)	MK (20 min)	AK holds heavy; MK After Hours (no daytime impact)
Tue, May 5	HS (40 min)	AK (20 min)	AK drops sharply; resort-wide softening begins
Wed, May 6	HS (35 min)	EPCOT & MK (15 min)	Best day of the week; HS After Hours (no daytime impact)
Thu, May 7	AK (35 min)	MK (15 min)	Mild rebuild; MK stays light
Fri, May 8	AK (30 min)	EPCOT & MK (15 min)	Second-best day; EPCOT and MK remain comfortable
Sat, May 9	AK & HS (40 min)	EPCOT & MK (20 min)	Weekend rebound across all parks

The pattern here is a classic mid-week valley. Sunday and Monday carried the week’s highest loads — partly from weekend travelers maximizing full days, partly from novelty demand around Big Thunder’s return. Things softened noticeably by Tuesday and bottomed out Wednesday, which is typical for a week without a holiday anchor. The Friday dip is worth noting: EPCOT and Magic Kingdom both held at 15-minute medians on a Friday, which is unusual and represents a genuine opportunity for guests who have flexibility. The weekend rebound on Saturday was predictable and modest — this is a soft week overall, and even the busiest days weren’t alarming.

Reliability Report

Test Track was the week’s most unreliable attraction by a wide margin — 48 downtime incidents across seven days. For context, most of the week’s other troubled attractions logged between 10 and 20 incidents. Guests who built their EPCOT morning strategy around Test Track were frequently left scrambling, and the timing of those outages matters. Soarin’ is already drawing long lines due to its impending closure; when Test Track also goes offline, the options for EPCOT’s marquee Future World experiences narrow quickly. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure added 16 incidents of its own, making the World Showcase corridor more dependable than Future World for consistent throughput this week.

At Magic Kingdom, the newly reopened Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (14 incidents) and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (17 incidents) both struggled, creating a frustrating one-two punch for guests who planned morning rides around Fantasyland and Frontierland. Haunted Mansion’s 11 incidents and Winnie the Pooh’s 19 incidents added to the uncertainty. Rope-droppers at Magic Kingdom had a harder week than the median wait numbers suggest.

Weather Impact

No weather data was available for this reporting period, so we’re working from crowd and operational patterns alone. May in Orlando historically brings afternoon thunderstorm activity that can briefly hold outdoor attractions, but nothing in this week’s data suggests a weather-driven anomaly. The mid-week dip in waits aligns with typical demand patterns rather than a weather disruption, and peak waits remained below the thresholds that usually indicate mass guest movement from outdoor to indoor attractions.

Next Week Outlook

Soarin’ Around the World closes permanently with roughly four days remaining. If you’re planning a trip in the next week and Soarin’ is on your list, treat it like a must-do on day one — do not assume you’ll get back to it. Lines will grow as the final day approaches, and the last operating day will be extremely long. Book Lightning Lane if it’s available and arrive early.

No major federal holidays or long weekends are coming in the next seven days, which means the crowd trajectory should stay in the light-to-moderate range. Mid-week continues to be the safest bet. EPCOT’s Flower and Garden Festival remains in full swing, and that park’s Wednesday-Friday performance this week gives reason for optimism if you can be there on a weekday. Magic Kingdom’s Big Thunder novelty factor will continue to fade, which should gradually relieve some of the concentration around that attraction. Animal Kingdom showed that its weekday potential is real — if you’re going, aim for Tuesday through Friday and plan your morning around Flight of Passage before the crowd builds.

Plan Smarter With Lightning Brain

This week showed that knowing which day — not just which park — can be the difference between a 15-minute EPCOT and a 25-minute one. The Soarin’ closure window, Big Thunder’s return, and the mid-week valley are exactly the kinds of overlapping signals that are easy to miss when you’re planning a trip and hard to act on without real-time data. Lightning Brain tracks all of it. Check current wait times, crowd forecasts, and attraction status at lightningbrain.app, and download the app on the iOS App Store to take it with you into the parks.

Soarin’ Is Closing in Days — and EPCOT Still Ran Lighter Than Magic Kingdom

Big Thunder Mountain came back from refurbishment on Sunday, Soarin’ Around the World is counting down its final days before closing, and yet the park that bore the heaviest crowds this week wasn’t EPCOT — it was Magic Kingdom. That split tells the week’s real story. While nostalgia-driven demand quietly built at EPCOT, Magic Kingdom absorbed the broader resort traffic and held at 7/10 all week. The contrast between the parks was sharper than the overall numbers suggest, and if you’re heading to Walt Disney World in the next two weeks, understanding that divergence matters.

Week at a Glance

This week, May 3–9, 2026, the resort ran at a 20-minute overall median — flat against last week and right on the 6-week average. That puts this week squarely in the bottom fifth of all days tracked so far this year: busier than only 18% of days in 2026. On paper, an easy week. In practice, the story was more uneven. Sunday and Monday saw Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios peak at 45-minute medians, then both parks settled down sharply by midweek. EPCOT and Magic Kingdom were more consistent throughout, though in opposite directions — EPCOT eased as the week progressed while Magic Kingdom stayed elevated relative to its own baseline.

The two big storylines were Big Thunder Mountain’s reopening and Soarin’s impending closure. Both drove targeted demand without dramatically inflating park-wide numbers. No major holiday, no separate-ticket parties (the After Hours events on Monday at Magic Kingdom and Wednesday at Hollywood Studios had no daytime impact), and no school breaks — this was a relatively clean, event-light week.

Park-by-Park Analysis

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom was the week’s most consistently crowded park relative to its own baseline. A 20-minute weekly median translates to 7/10 on MK’s scale — heavy — and the data bears that out across all six days. There were no breaks: every day came in at 15 or 20 minutes, with 15-minute days on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday still landing in the comfortable range but with a 145-minute peak lurking somewhere in the week.

Big Thunder Mountain’s return from refurbishment drove notable concentrated demand early in the week. Reopening days almost always generate a surge as guests who held off their visits come flooding back. By Thursday, that novelty demand had started cooling, which tracks with the 15-minute medians in the back half of the week. Haunted Mansion posted 9 downtime incidents and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train had 14 — both felt on the busier days when guests couldn’t pivot as easily. Big Thunder itself recorded 12 incidents, not unusual for a freshly returned attraction still settling in.

EPCOT

EPCOT’s weekly median also came in at 20 minutes, landing at 5/10 — moderate. But the trajectory through the week was favorable: 25-minute medians Sunday and Monday gave way to 20 on Tuesday, then 15-minute medians on Wednesday and Friday. The Flower and Garden Festival kept foot traffic humming in World Showcase, but foot traffic and queue demand are different things, and the queue data confirmed what regulars know: festival crowds browse, they don’t necessarily ride.

The Soarin’ closure countdown — four days remaining as of Saturday — is worth flagging. That closure-soon effect usually builds gradually, and the 25-minute medians early in the week suggest some nostalgia demand was already there. Expect this to intensify significantly in the final days. Test Track had a rough week operationally: 46 downtime incidents, by far the most of any attraction in the resort. That’s not a brief blip — that’s a ride that struggled consistently. Guests targeting Test Track on busy EPCOT mornings would have found a frustrating experience. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure added 15 incidents of its own, and Spaceship Earth posted 20. EPCOT’s operational reliability was the resort’s weakest point this week.

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom had the most dramatic within-week swing of any park. Sunday and Monday both hit 45-minute medians — 6/10 territory, busier than comfortable — then the park dropped to 20 minutes on Tuesday and Wednesday before recovering to 35 and 30 on Thursday and Friday. That Sunday-Monday surge likely reflects the opening-weekend carry-over effect at the broader resort and potentially guests front-loading their Animal Kingdom day before switching to the newly reopened Big Thunder Mountain at Magic Kingdom mid-week. Expedition Everest posted 9 downtime incidents, which on a park with a shorter operating day concentrates the impact. Flight of Passage, notably, didn’t appear on the downtime list — a good sign for the park’s marquee attraction.

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios was the week’s most comfortable major park. A 35-minute weekly median at HS maps to 4/10 — right at the comfortable baseline — and the day-by-day numbers were remarkably stable: 45 minutes Sunday and Monday, then 40, 35, 35, 35 for the rest of the week. The Wednesday Disney After Hours event had no effect on daytime traffic, as expected. Rise of the Resistance posted 9 downtime incidents, which on a park where that attraction is the centerpiece can create real touring disruption when it hits. Fantasmic! ran all week, which keeps the park’s evening energy up without compressing daytime queues.

Daily Pattern Analysis

Day	Busiest Park	Lightest Park	Notes
Sun, May 3	AK & HS (45 min)	MK (20 min)	BTM reopening; weekend arrivals
Mon, May 4	AK (45 min)	MK (20 min)	After Hours at MK — no daytime impact
Tue, May 5	HS (40 min)	AK (20 min)	AK drops sharply; HS stays firm
Wed, May 6	HS (35 min)	EPCOT & MK (15 min)	Midweek low; After Hours at HS, no day impact
Thu, May 7	AK (35 min)	MK (15 min)	Modest uptick at AK
Fri, May 8	AK (30 min)	EPCOT & MK (15 min)	Lightest day of the week resort-wide

The pattern here is classic late-spring: Sunday and Monday carry the weight of arriving guests, midweek softens as day-trippers thin out, and there’s no Friday surge because there’s no holiday pressure pulling in long-weekend travelers. Animal Kingdom’s yo-yo — 45, 45, 20, 20, 35, 30 — stands out as unusual and likely reflects a combination of the BTM novelty effect pulling guests to Magic Kingdom midweek and the variable nature of AK’s shorter operating hours concentrating demand unevenly. Wednesday and Friday were genuinely excellent days across the board.

Reliability Report

EPCOT’s Test Track dominated the downtime chart with 46 incidents across the week — the equivalent of an attraction that was going down repeatedly throughout operating hours on multiple days. Guests who planned their EPCOT mornings around Test Track faced a rough experience. Spaceship Earth added 20 incidents, meaning the park’s bookend attractions (entrance icon and the festival-adjacent Test Track) were both unreliable. Remy’s 15 incidents compounded the issue in World Showcase.

At Magic Kingdom, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train’s 14 incidents and Winnie the Pooh’s 18 kept guests on their toes in Fantasyland. Guests who had planned a Fantasyland sweep on busier days would have felt that downtime acutely, given the limited alternatives in that area. Big Thunder Mountain’s 12 incidents post-reopening are worth monitoring — that number should improve as the attraction settles back into normal operations.

Weather Impact

The weather data for this week was not available in sufficient detail to draw specific conclusions. Standard early-May Florida conditions — warm temperatures, afternoon storm potential — would be the baseline assumption, but no weather-driven operational anomalies appeared in the queue data to suggest major weather holds or unusual indoor-attraction surges.

Next Week Outlook

The single biggest factor shaping next week is Soarin’ Around the World’s closure, now just days away. Expect EPCOT’s numbers to climb meaningfully in the final operating days as guests make last-chance visits. The Soarin’ queue area can back up aggressively when the attraction is running its final stretch — plan accordingly, arriving early or using Lightning Lane. The rest of the resort should remain in similar territory to this week’s comfortable range, absent any new events. Mid-May is historically one of the calmer stretches of the year: schools are largely still in session across major feeder markets, there are no federal holidays, and no major Disney-specific events were flagged for the coming week in this dataset. Wednesday through Friday are your best bets for light touring across Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Hollywood Studios. If Soarin’ is on your must-do list, get there in the first 30 minutes of park opening — the closer to closure day, the longer those waits will run.

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Hollywood Studios Just Had Its Best Week in Six Weeks — and Most Guests Had No Idea

Hollywood Studios came into this week carrying a six-week median of 45 minutes. It left at 35 — a meaningful drop that puts the park firmly in comfortable touring territory. For a park that regularly piles guests into Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge, a week where the 90th percentile sits at just 60 minutes is genuinely rare. The quieter week-over-week comparison from the last two weeks (both at 15-minute resort medians) doesn’t tell the full story either: this week’s 20-minute resort median is only slightly elevated, and the distribution was favorable. If you’ve been waiting for a window to do Hollywood Studios without the usual grind, the data suggests you just missed it — but the pattern may persist.

Week at a Glance

April 26 through May 2 was a moderate week by most measures — a 20-minute resort-wide median, up from the 15-minute medians of the prior two weeks, but well below the 30-minute readings from late March and early April. The week ranks in the 18th percentile year-to-date, meaning roughly four out of five weeks in 2026 have been busier. No federal holidays, no school breaks, and no party nights shaped the calendar. The EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival continued its run, and Disney After Hours events at Hollywood Studios (Wednesday) and EPCOT (Thursday) bookended the week’s midpoint without affecting daytime operations. Saturday was the busiest day across the board, as it almost always is, but even then nothing pushed into heavy territory. The headline is straightforward: this was a genuinely light, well-distributed week with Hollywood Studios as the unexpected standout.

Park-by-Park Analysis

Hollywood Studios

The numbers here are striking in context. A 35-minute weekly median against a six-week baseline of 45 minutes is the single biggest positive deviation across all four parks this week. The 90th percentile of 60 minutes means even the longest waits stayed manageable. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run averaged just 28 minutes — roughly half its 30-day typical, and the kind of number that makes Lightning Lane feel unnecessary. Star Tours came in under six minutes on average, well below its already-modest baseline.

Wednesday’s Disney After Hours event at Hollywood Studios carried no daytime implications — regular park operations ran on their normal schedule, and day guests saw no early closure or compressed hours. The lighter conditions this week appear to reflect the natural post-spring-break lull rather than any event-driven effect. Peak wait of 150 minutes likely reflects a brief Rise of the Resistance surge, probably on Saturday or Sunday when the park was at its busiest. Tuesday and Wednesday were the lightest days, both at 30-minute medians.

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom tracked exactly at its six-week baseline — 35 minutes, no deviation. That consistency is its own story. Sunday and Saturday both hit 40-minute medians, while Wednesday came in lightest at 25 minutes. Flight of Passage and Expedition Everest anchored the demand curve; Everest logged 21 downtime incidents this week, the third-highest total in the resort. When Everest is down, the surrounding area of Asia tends to absorb displaced guests, which can create brief spikes at Kali River Rapids and nearby attractions even while the park-wide median stays flat.

The 130-minute peak wait is notable — that almost certainly belongs to Flight of Passage on Sunday or Saturday. At a 5/10 crowd level, Animal Kingdom was the busiest park on both weekend days, which is consistent with its pattern of drawing heavier weekend traffic when other parks run light.

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom came in at a 4/10 for the week, with a 15-minute median against a six-week baseline of 20 minutes. Several family-tier attractions ran well below their typical marks: Dumbo averaged 11 minutes (down from a 30-day typical of about 21), Barnstormer averaged 13 minutes, and it’s a small world averaged under 13. These aren’t headline rides, but they’re useful barometers — when the spinner and dark-ride queue is this short, the whole park is breathing.

Tuesday was the outlier on the high end at 20 minutes, while Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, and most of the weekdays held at 15. The 90th percentile of 50 minutes is unusually restrained for Magic Kingdom. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh logged 19 downtime incidents — second only to Test Track resort-wide — which likely cost some guests a smooth morning in Fantasyland. The 115-minute peak was almost certainly Tron Lightcycle Run or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train on Saturday.

EPCOT

EPCOT was the quietest park in the resort this week at a 3/10 crowd level. The Flower and Garden Festival kept foot traffic through the outdoor kitchens elevated, but as tends to be true with EPCOT’s festivals, booth lines don’t translate directly to ride queues. Soarin’ averaged 31 minutes — down from a 45-minute typical — and Spaceship Earth averaged just 13 minutes against its 20-minute baseline. If you wanted to walk into Test Track or Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind with minimal wait this week, Tuesday through Friday were your window.

Thursday’s Disney After Hours event at EPCOT was a late-night-only affair with no bearing on daytime conditions. Test Track’s 23 downtime incidents — the most of any attraction in the resort this week — are worth flagging. If Test Track is on your must-do list and you’re visiting in the coming weeks, build in a backup plan or check operational status before committing to a plan around it.

Daily Pattern Analysis

Day	Resort Highlight	Busiest Park	Lightest Park	Notes
Sun, Apr 26	Weekend peak	AK (40 min)	MK / EPCOT (15 min)	Arrival day surge at AK
Mon, Apr 27	Flat mid-week	AK / HS (35 min)	MK (15 min)	EPCOT ticked up slightly
Tue, Apr 28	MK blip	AK (35 min)	EPCOT (15 min)	MK at 20 min, HS lightest at 30
Wed, Apr 29	Best day of the week	AK (25 min)	EPCOT / MK (15 min)	After Hours at HS — no daytime impact
Thu, Apr 30	Steady mid-week	AK / HS (35 min)	EPCOT / MK (15 min)	After Hours at EPCOT — no daytime impact
Fri, May 1	Modest uptick	AK / HS (30–35 min)	EPCOT (15 min)	MK climbed to 20 min
Sat, May 2	Weekend close	AK / HS (40 min)	EPCOT / MK (20 min)	Consistent resort-wide increase

Wednesday was clearly the best touring day of the week, with Animal Kingdom coming in 10 minutes below its weekly median and both EPCOT and Magic Kingdom at their floor. The pattern is familiar for this calendar stretch — mid-week departures and before the next arrival wave — but the depth of the dip was notable. Saturday’s bump was modest rather than dramatic, which speaks to the overall light character of the week. The Animal Kingdom anomaly on Sunday and Saturday (consistently 5–10 minutes above MK and EPCOT) reflects its strong weekend pull, likely from guests whose schedules concentrate the harder parks into bookend days.

Reliability Report

Test Track had the roughest week operationally — 23 incidents across seven days. Guests planning EPCOT mornings around Test Track almost certainly encountered at least one unplanned closure during the week, and with the attraction being a frequent Lightning Lane selection, those downtimes likely backed up the standby line considerably when it reopened. Slinky Dog Dash at Hollywood Studios logged 21 incidents, which is notable given how light the park ran overall — the shorter queue environment actually makes downtime more disruptive, since guests counting on a quick Slinky ride as part of a lighter itinerary had less buffer. Expedition Everest’s 21 incidents are in line with its recent pattern; the coaster has shown recurring intermittent issues. Guests who rope-dropped Everest this week and found it offline had Kilimanjaro Safaris and Flight of Passage as natural fallbacks, and the data shows AK held relatively stable despite the interruptions.

Weather Impact

No weather data was available for this analysis period. Given the light crowd conditions and the absence of any weather-driven demand shifts visible in the queue data, there were no notable indoor-versus-outdoor divergence patterns to report. Late April and early May in Orlando typically bring warm, humid afternoons with the possibility of brief afternoon storms — if those occurred this week, they didn’t materially alter the park-wide demand picture.

Next Week Outlook

The week of May 3–9 falls squarely in the post-spring-break, pre-summer lull — one of the most consistently light stretches of the Disney World calendar. No federal holidays, no major school breaks, and no separate-ticket party events are flagged for the coming week. Expect conditions to resemble this week or slightly lighter, particularly mid-week. Hollywood Studios should remain in the 4/10 range; EPCOT is a strong candidate for 2–3/10 days Tuesday through Thursday. If you’re visiting, Wednesday or Thursday at EPCOT or Hollywood Studios are the strongest touring bets. Animal Kingdom tends to hold firmer on weekends regardless of overall resort conditions, so if AK is on your Saturday agenda, expect it to be the busiest option that day. The one thing to watch: Mother’s Day falls on Sunday, May 10 — not a meaningful crowd driver at Disney World historically — but the Saturday before (May 9) can carry a modest weekend bump as families arrive for the weekend. Plan Sunday through Friday accordingly.

Plan Smarter with Lightning Brain

Hollywood Studios running 22% below its six-week baseline while Animal Kingdom held exactly flat — that kind of park-to-park divergence is exactly what separates a good day from a frustrating one. Picking the right park on the right day this week could have meant the difference between 28-minute Falcon waits and a 40-minute Animal Kingdom median. Lightning Brain is now available on the iOS App Store to help you make that call before you leave the hotel. Check it out at lightningbrain.app and download it on the App Store.