Wait Time Forecasts And Predicted Park Hours For The Next 365 Days
Back in November, we added hourly wait time forecasts for every day for the next six months in Walt Disney World and the next two months in Disneyland. Back then, we were limited to forecasting when Disney had released park hours. But no more! We’re pleased to announce that we are now predicting park hours and wait times on both coasts a full twelve months in advance. Simply visit our Walt Disney World Crowd Calendar and Disneyland Crowd Calendar, click on any date, then click on the “view park wait times” or click on the park links to see the wait times.
What we’re really excited about is to give you much better clarity as to what the crowds will feel like. Instead of just seeing that your next trip will be 6s, 7s, and 8s, you’ll be able to see hourly estimates of every ride you care about for each day of your trip. So we’ve got you covered if you want to know the wait times at your favorite Magic Kingdom attractions on Christmas Eve, or what Soarin’ will be like after the 2012 marathon, or how early you’ll have wake up to get Toy Story Mania! fastpasses on New Year’s Eve (hint: it’s early!).
In addition to wait times, we hope you’ll find the predicted park hours, Extra Magic Hours, showtimes and hard ticket event schedules useful (particularly in Disneyland, where the park hours are only released two months in advance). These can be used for all kinds of planning purposes; for example, I recently used it to check on the typical park hours and times for Fireworks in Disneyland in the Summer.
A few notes! We specifically label park hours/schedules when they are predicted. The hours and schedules are estimates based on historical data, so they may not match the official park hours when they are released. They also may not reflect certain operational changes that Disney has made, for example, the discontinuation of Evening Extra Magic Hours at Animal Kingdom (however, Disney may bring these back eight months from now, which is why we leave them in). We’ll be doing another blog post soon about exactly how these work, so be sure to check back!
What do you think of the hourly wait time forecasts and predicted park hours and schedules? Will you use them for your next trip?
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We are visiting CA Aug 19-27th. Was apprehensive about going to park when Blockout was lifted but your predictions show less wait time starting aug21? Did you take in account that the blockouts are lifted? Is school already back, thus lower weekday crowds? What day would you suggest for a one day visit to Disneyland resort? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks jacki
Assuming the predictions are more reliable than not, I think this is fantastic. Thanks!
We hope they are! They’re based on hundreds of thousands of wait times and lots of statistical modeling.
I’m curious about projected wait times for Star Tours 2. I assumed it would draw pretty big crowds, but the peak wait times even on days of heavy attendance look unexpectedly short to me. Is this because of different throughput on the new ride, or do you just not think the new ride will draw significant numbers of riders?
Hey RS, great catch — I’ll ask Fred how we’re going to handle the adjustment of the forecasts when the attraction is open.
Looking forward to seeing your forecasts. My 2 kids are dying to ride the new Star Tours, but we’re also going to want to ride TSM, so we’ll be relying on you guys. 🙂
This is awesome! We’re planning a trip in September and it’s really nice to see the predicted wait times and show times throughout the day. A really great addition would be if you could add the predicted times that Fast Pass will run out. I’d love to see that data for each day.
Hey Amanda, we have these! If you click on an attraction, like the Soarin’ or Toy Story Mania above, you can see the FASTPASS estimates as well!
Those FASTPASS estimates came in really handy for my family last December, as did the wait time forecasts. It was great to look at your forecasts, especially when there weren’t a lot of reported wait times from people in the parks. We love Lines in our household!
We went to Disneyland last week (March 13-16) and I tried using the wait times forecasts for the 1st time. I wanted a plan for our arrival evening at DCA. Unfortunately, the wait times forecasts were often inaccurate (by as much as 45 minutes for a couple of attractions). I know things occasionally happen to throw wait times off, but we found this to be the case several times. I guess I was expecting the predictions to be closer to actual wait times (i.e. within 10 minutes). So while I love the idea of the wait times forecast, I think there are still kinks to work out before I use it again.
Hey Amanda,
Thanks for the feedback — that’s terrible results! We typically have lower estimates than Disney’s, but never by 45 minutes. Can you email me more with the specifics? henry@touringplans.com. Thanks!
When did Disney get rid of evening EMH for AK? Anyone know the reason?
Hey John, this was in late February: http://wdwmagic.com/Attractions/Animal-Kingdom/News/28Feb2011-Disney's-Animal-Kingdom-evening-Extra-Magic-Hours-now-mornings-only.htm
We are going 1st week of May and I have already been scouring the hourly wait time forecasts to try to tweak a plan that will be perfect for our family! I was so excited to see this addition to your website that I think my husband thought I had won the lottery (sorry honey, no such luck!). But seriously, I think this adds such a wonderful new dimension to planning our trip. Can’t wait to test it out!
Awesome, thanks Jennifer!