Recommending Animal Kingdom on Gay Days – Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That

On June 4th through June 7th, 2009 the annual “Gay Days” event will hit Walt Disney World. Since 1991, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered community as well as their supporters were encouraged to “Wear Red and Be Seen” at Orlando’s theme parks . The events are not officially Disney sponsored but they do represent enough of an increase in crowds that we add it to our crowd calendar. Each day, the event rotates through one of the four major parks starting with June 4th at Animal Kingdom; June 5th at Disney’s Hollywood Studios; June 6th at Magic Kingdom; and June 7th at Epcot.

Normally, we encourage our readers to avoid parks that are holding special events but on June 4th we have recommended Animal Kingdom. It is one of those cases where the Animal Kingdom represents the best choice among the four parks. Magic Kingdom and Epcot are out for June 4th because they are hosting Extra Magic Hours. Disney’s Hollywood Studios would be a good choice but there is a Fantasmic show scheduled that night. Add this all together along with our dozen or so other crowd statistics and Animal Kingdom still looks the best.

If you’ve always wanted to wear those rainbow colored Mickey ears, now is your chance! Take our advice and head to the Animal Kingdom. If touring the park with your family and a few thousand of your gay and lesbian red-shirted friends doesn’t sound appealing then go to plan B. Really, choosing amongst the other three parks is at your discretion. Unfortunately there are valid reasons to avoid all four parks that day. Pick your favorite park, take advantage of Extra Magic Hours, try a Water Park or go off-site.

If you do take our advice, tote the red shirts and be proud! Also, send us the wait times you experienced so we can see if we were right.