Let's talk about the wild wait times at Disney and Universal this week.
As all experienced theme park fans know, this is the busiest week of the year at the parks in Orlando and Southern California. Holiday crowds pack Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld, Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood, Knott's Berry Farm, and other local parks from rope drop to closing time. Visiting theme parks literally is my job, and I would not consider visiting a park this week - a belief that I suspect is held by many other long-time Theme Park Insider readers.
But for millions of Americans and international tourists, the week between Christmas and New Year's is the most convenient time for a dream Disney or other theme park visit. The weather in LA and Orlando typically is better now than during the summer vacation season, while school and work schedules make the other months of the year off limits. So people book their trips, even if they have to queue up and wait - a lot - once they get to the parks.
It's clearly worse in Florida than in California this week. Today, afternoon waits ranged up to around 90-100 minutes at Disneyland and up to around two hours at Universal Studios Hollywood, while waits in Orlando ranged up to two and half hours at Universal and up to three hours at Walt Disney World.
Throughout the year, Disneyland is much more reliant on local annual passholders than Walt Disney World. But Disneyland has blocked all passes this week, leaving only those with the highest-priced day tickets of the year able to visit. College football bowl games also help bring more visitors to Florida, where there are five games this week, as compared with just two in California.
If you are visiting the parks this week, I hope that you are finding joy even with all the waiting. Hey, it's all "family time" in lime, right? My one bit of advice would be to remember that everyone is trying to get their money's worth by getting to the parks early. That means that many families won't have the stamina to make it to closing time. Identify the rides you want to experience that have the worst mid-day wait times and plan to hop on those in the last couple of hours of the day. Dive into that Avatar Flight of Passage queue just a few minutes before the park's 8pm close. There are no more Lightning Lane arrivals after then, so the standby queue will start moving more quickly then, too.
Before then, don't overlook easier-to-access attractions at Disney such as the Tomorrowland PeopleMover, Carousel of Progress, Tom Sawyer Island (especially if you have kids who need to run around for a bit), The American Adventure, Impressions de France, and Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. At Universal, don't sleep on Universal Orlando's Horror Makeup Show or The Bourne Stuntacular, which tends to eat up crowds.
And, above all, please be kind to the cast and team members working the parks this week. They are doing their best to make your vacation as wonderful as it can be, despite what can be very tough circumstances for everyone. Please remember to thank them at every opportunity. Let's start the new year right, with a spirit of kindness for everyone.
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The worst part about the holiday week in Orlando isn't the theme parks. It is I-4.
I'm not sure if they can do anything with I4 to make it any better. The slim hope we have is the express lanes extension to champions gate, but that's years away ... although they've made a start, but with sand lake and Daryl Carter intersection work in full swing, it's a nightmare that just keeps on getting worse.
But wait .... then there's Epic in 2025. Oh my.
To quote Mr. T, I pity the fool that goes to Disney this week. Next week will also be crammed, at Disneyland at least, because Cali schools are out next week as well.
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Honestly, if you have the luxury of dropping in and out of the parks throughout the week, and you can flex your plans - particularly if you're a single rider - this week is nowhere near as bad as people make out. I was at Universal Orlando this week last year and did about 4 half days and had a great time. I'd been a bunch of times before but not for about 5 years, and I had a blast. I did Velocicoaster about 15 times, Hagrids half a dozen or so, and everything else multiple times over. The only thing that was really that bad was Gringott's, which I ended up doing only two or three times. It's not a great time of year, and if you're a family going for a single day it'll be awful, but it's also hy no means as bad as people make out for certain types of visitor.