Disney World Wait Times Got Worse Last Week, Especially at Animal Kingdom

If Walt Disney World felt a little busier last week, your legs were not lying to you. Wait times climbed at all four parks during July 20 through July 26, but one park stood out way more than the others. Animal Kingdom jumped almost 20 percent compared with the week before. And over at Hollywood Studios, Slinky Dog Dash decided same-day Lightning Lane availability was apparently optional.

Here’s what changed last week and what I’d actually do with that information when planning your trip.

Animal Kingdom Had the Biggest Jump

Hollywood Studios still had the highest average wait times overall, which is pretty normal. The interesting part was Animal Kingdom.

Average waits from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. looked like this.

Park	July 13–19	July 20–26	Change
Hollywood Studios	44 min	45 min	+1 min
Animal Kingdom	32 min	38 min	+19%
EPCOT	32 min	34 min	+6%
Magic Kingdom	27 min	29 min	+7%

Animal Kingdom went from a 32-minute average wait to 38 minutes in one week. That is not a tiny swing. Kali River Rapids jumped from 34 minutes to 46. Flight of Passage climbed from 54 to 65. Expedition Everest went from 29 to 36.

Kali makes sense. It is July in Florida. At some point you stop asking whether you want to get soaked and start asking how quickly Disney can dump a bucket of water on your head. But Flight of Passage and Everest moving up at the same time tells you this was more than one popular water ride having a good week. Animal Kingdom was simply busier.

Slinky Dog Dash Is Becoming a Pre-Booking Problem

This was probably the biggest Lightning Lane story of the week. Slinky Dog Dash had zero same-day Lightning Lane availability across all seven days we tracked.

Gone.

In previous weeks, Slinky would usually sell out before the park day five or six days out of seven. You could occasionally catch a day where some availability survived. Last week, that little opening disappeared.

If Slinky Dog Dash is important to your family, I would treat it as an advance booking priority. Do not build your Hollywood Studios plan around the idea that you will grab it later.

Could somebody get lucky during a random restock? Sure. I could also find a $20 bill in the parking lot. Neither one is a strategy.

Test Track, Remy and Frozen Stayed Predictable

Not everything changed. Test Track, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After continued to disappear during the morning at roughly the same times we have been seeing. Test Track sold out around 9:20 a.m. on average. Remy lasted until roughly 11 a.m. Frozen Ever After was right around 10:55 a.m.

This is actually useful news.

Predictable rides are easier to plan around. You know these Lightning Lanes are going to get harder to find as the morning goes on, so your early selections should focus on the rides you actually care about. For me, Remy and Frozen are normally my first EPCOT targets anyway. I would not leave either one sitting there while booking something you can easily grab later.

Millennium Falcon Is Still the Procrastinator’s Lightning Lane

Millennium Falcon continues to be the weirdly forgiving Tier 1 option at Hollywood Studios. Its Lightning Lane lasted until around 9 p.m. on average last week. That made it the final Tier 1 Lightning Lane standing every single day.

So while everyone else is fighting over Slinky Dog Dash, you usually have room to breathe with Millennium Falcon. That does not mean ignore it forever. Just don’t panic-book it first because you see availability. There are usually bigger problems to solve.

Magic Kingdom Evenings Got Tighter

Magic Kingdom also showed signs of heavier evening demand. Space Mountain had been keeping Lightning Lane availability until roughly 8 or 9 p.m. during the previous couple of weeks.

Last week, it was disappearing around 6 p.m. on average. That is a pretty large shift.

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway also continued doing what Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway does best. Being completely unpredictable. It normally sells out sometime during the afternoon, but we caught at least one day where Lightning Lane availability disappeared by 9:55 a.m. So I would not call Runaway Railway a ride you absolutely must book first. I also would not stare at available return times all morning thinking you have forever. Sometimes you don’t.

Not Every Ride Got Worse

One reason I like looking at individual rides instead of declaring an entire week “busy” is that crowds do not hit everything equally. Kilimanjaro Safaris actually dropped from a 26-minute average wait to 23 minutes. Tower of Terror and Toy Story Mania also came down slightly.

So yes, overall waits increased. But that does not mean every ride suddenly had an extra 20-minute line. This is where the data gets more useful than simply looking at a crowd level number. You can find the rides that are actually changing.

What I Would Do With This Data

At Hollywood Studios, I would make Slinky Dog Dash one of my biggest advance Lightning Lane priorities. Same-day availability is becoming way too unreliable to make it part of Plan A. At EPCOT, I am still targeting Remy or Frozen early and watching Test Track closely. At Animal Kingdom, I would take Flight of Passage seriously right now. Rope drop it, use Lightning Lane, or accept that you may spend a decent chunk of your day standing in that queue.

And Millennium Falcon?

Leave it alone for a while. It continues to be one of the easier Tier 1 rides to grab later.

This is also exactly why I built MouseQueue. Disney’s Lightning Lane system changes throughout the day, and availability does not move the same way for every attraction. MouseQueue tracks those patterns so you can spend less time guessing and more time deciding which ride actually needs your attention.

Because refreshing the Disney app like you are trying to buy concert tickets is technically a strategy. I just think we can do better.

How We Measure the Numbers

These standby numbers use time-weighted average posted waits between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. That matters because a ride hitting a 90-minute wait for 15 minutes should not make the entire day look like a disaster. We also continuously track Lightning Lane availability across Walt Disney World’s attractions to see when rides sell out and how availability changes throughout the day.

The data in this report covers July 20 through July 26, 2026, compared with July 13 through July 19.