All four Disney World Parks are now open and crowd levels can be described in one word. Low. Every day has been a crowd level ‘1’ at each park (except yesterday when EPCOT edged up to a level ‘2’). We think those low crowds are going to continue until significantly more admission reservations are offered. We don’t have a lot of wait time data since the reopening but because the parks have fixed attendance the wait time patterns look similar every day. So, we are updating the Disney World Crowd Calendar.
What’s On This Update
Attraction wait time forecasts for Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are first, then Epcot and Hollywood Studios will be updated on Friday. However, the Crowd Calendar for all four parks will be updated now. You will see crowd level ‘1’s predicted every day though July and August. If you have a Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom touring plan scheduled for a day in July or August it would be a good idea to re-optimize it now. For EPCOT and Hollywood Studios plans, you should re-optimize on Saturday. Our testing shows that despite the low wait times you can still save 45 minutes of standing in line by following an optimized plan. Not only that, but by definition, an optimized touring plan is also optimal for social distancing. Follow the plan and you will minimize your exposure to bottlenecks and crowded queues.
We are tracking the availability of ticket reservations multiple times a day, so if we see more reservations available that may indicate an increase in a park’s attendance cap. In that case, another Crowd Calendar update will be in order.
Wait Time Patterns
We expected to see spikes in posted wait time during attraction vehicle cleanings which are scheduled throughout the day. However, it doesn’t appear that those spikes have occurred. We do see spikes in actual wait times though, so if you get in line and it isn’t moving it is likely because the vehicles are being cleaned. This adds between 7 and 15 minutes to your wait, depending on the attraction.
New Models
Since the wait time patterns are so different since the reopening we have new models to forecast the wait times. These new models use only what we have observed since July 11. They are a lot simpler than the usual models because the wait time patterns don’t vary much day to day. We are watching closely for changes though, if we see something we will let you know.
Have any questions for the stats team? Let us know in the comments.
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