Disney & Universal Crowd Calendar Updates Sep-Oct 2026

Today we’ve released updated crowd calendars for Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and Universal Orlando.

We’ve made these changes after comparing our summer predictions against actual crowds we observed in the parks. Most of these changes are minor adjustments by 1 point, and only on specific days of the week. The dates for these changes are September 10 through October 12, 2024.

Our crowd calendars are based on the parks’ posted wait times at popular attractions between 11 am and 5 pm. The calendars use a 1-to-10 scale, with 1 representing low crowds and 10 representing very large crowds.

Our crowd calendar accuracy goal is that the predictions should be within 1.0 points of the actual crowd levels, on average and over time. We want to be exactly right, of course, but weather and unscheduled ride breakdowns are unpredictable for specific days.

Walt Disney World Crowd Calendar Updates

Year-to-Date Performance by Park

Our Magic Kingdom crowd predictions are at +/- 1.26 year-to-date, and +/- 0.67 over the last month. The YTD performance is our all-time best accuracy.

Our EPCOT crowd predictions are +/- 1.47 YTD and +/- 1.33 for the past month. Our all-time record for EPCOT accuracy is +/- 1.28, and that’s a reachable goal for 2026.

Our Hollywood Studios crowd predictions are +/- 1.61 YTD and +/- 1.03 for the past month. Our all-time record for the Studios is +/- 1.33, and we’re trending in the right direction.

Animal Kingdom’s crowd predictions are +/- 1.43 YTD and +/- 1.13 for the past month. The Animal Kingdom’s all-time accuracy record is +/- 1.28, and that’s also a reachable goal for 2026.

These Updates by Park

Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios No changes. We’re generally overpredicting crowd levels by about 1 point at both parks, but I’d rather overpredict by 1 than underpredict by 1.

EPCOT Most of EPCOT’s crowd calendar errors are from overpredicting crowds. That’s happened 24 of the past 30 days. In looking at the specific data this summer, those overpredictions tend to happen on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. We’ve adjusted our crowd estimates for most of those days down by 1 point.

Animal Kingdom We’ve ovepredicted Animal Kingdom’s crowd levels for 7 of the past 30 days, and those overpredictions tended to be on Mondays and Fridays. We’ve adjusted those days down by 1 point for the next month.

Disneyland Resort Crowd Calendar Updates

Year-to-Date Performance by Park

Our Disneyland crowd predictions are at +/- 1.80 year-to-date, and +/- 1.07 over the last month. Also trending in the right direction. Our all-time best performance for Disneyland is +/- 1.80, and that’s a realistic goal for 2026.

Over at Disney California Adventure our crowd predictions are +/- 1.69 YTD and +/- 1.28 for the past month. DCA’s all-time calendar accuracy record is +/- 1.63, so we’re only 0.06 points off that and headed in the right direction.

These Updates by Park

Disneyland We’ve overpredicted Disneyland on 21 of the past 30 days. The largest misses there have been on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This update moves those crowd levels down by 1 point.

Disney California Adventure Like Disneyland, we’ve overpredicted DCA on 19 of the past 30 days. Much of that overprediction has come on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. We’ve moved those crowd levels down by 1 point.

Universal Orlando Crowd Calendar Updates

Year-to-Date Performance by Park

Our Universal Studios Florida crowd predictions are at +/- 1.52 year-to-date, and +/- 1.33 over the last month. Our all-time best performance for USF is +/- 1.08.

Our Islands of Adventure crowd predictions are +/- 1.67 YTD and +/- 0.83 for the past month. IOA’s all-time calendar accuracy record is +/- 1.10.

Our Epic Universe crowd predictions are +/- 1.60 YTD and +/- 1.50 over the last 30 days.

These Updates by Park

Universal Studios Florida We’ve underpredicted USF on 13 of the past 30 days. The largest misses there have been on Saturdays by 2 points, and Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays by 1 point. This update increases those crowd levels for those days by those amounts.

Islands of Adventure There’s no clear over- or under-prediction trend for IOA, so we’ve made no changes in this update.

Epic Universe We’ve overpredicted Epic Universe on 20 of the last 30 days. Most of those have been on weekdays, so we’ve made these adjustments for the next month: Mondays (-1), Tuesdays (-1), Wednesdays (-2), and Thursdays (-1).

Next Crowd Calendar Updates

Our next scheduled crowd calendar update will be in early October, 2026. That should include the first 3 months of 2027. We’re not expecting Tropical Americas or Monstropolis to open until fall, 2027 at the earliest, so I don’t think we’re within a year of those yet.