AttractionsWalt Disney World (FL)

Which Rides Are Indoors at Disney World?

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Not to state the obvious, but sometimes it is just way too hot to stand around outside in Florida. Yeah, you could go to the water parks, but that’s not really what you came to Disney World to do. Never fear, TouringPlans is here! We’ve got a complete list of all the attractions at Disney World that are indoors to get you out of the heat. Queues too! Secret bonus feature: this list also works for getting out of the weather when it’s cold and you need to warm up. Double secret bonus feature: indoor attractions are less likely to close when there’s lightning in the area.

Indoor attractions are climate-controlled with both heat and air-conditioning, as are indoor queues. Queues marked as shaded may have fans and other features to make them cooler than the surroundings, in addition to just being covered. Queues marked as having an overflow area have a significant portion of the wait indoors, but often have long lines that extend beyond the indoor portion of the queue. Tap the links below to go directly to your park of interest.

Indoor Rides and Shows in the Magic Kingdom
Indoor Rides and Shows at EPCOT
Indoor Rides and Shows at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Indoor Rides and Shows at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

If you’re researching in advance to have a weather plan, you may also like to read:

Magic Kingdom Indoor Attractions

The most consistent air-conditioning bang for your buck in the Magic Kingdom is unquestionably the shows. The shortest is the Country Bear Jamboree at 10 minutes and in most cases you’ll see the very next show. The best rides for beating the heat in the Magic Kingdom are Pirates of the Caribbean and “it’s a small world”. Small world is 14 minutes of air-conditioned boat ride, with waits that rarely exceed 30 minutes. And although lines for Pirates can get as long as an hour, the ride itself is on the longer side at 8 minutes and often stops for a couple of extra minutes as you wait to unload. On the other end, Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan’s Flight are both short, but have interactive queues that kids might find to be an attraction in themselves.

Magic Kingdom Indoor Rides
Magic Kingdom Indoor Shows
Magic Kingdom Indoor Meet & Greets

Honorable mention: TRON Lightcycle/Run and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train are both indoor/outdoor coasters and each is short enough that you’re not going be getting any relief from the weather on the ride. But both have a significant length of indoor queue, with waits long enough that you’ll get a chance to enjoy the air-conditioning (or heat) for quite a bit before you get on the ride.

EPCOT Indoor Attractions

EPCOT is a tale of two parks. At the front of the park Worlds Celebration, Discovery, and Nature are built around enclosed pavilions that contain multiple activities within. It’s easy to make your way from one climate-controlled oasis to the next. Perhaps the best example is the Land Pavilion where you can spend over an hour to ride Soarin’ and Living With the Land, catch a showing of Awesome Planet, and get a snack or meal as well before heading back outdoors. World Showcase on the other hand is full of outdoor pavilions with outdoor entertainment and indoor rides/movies. Not included in the list below are EPCOT’s mini-museums, which are also indoors and can soak up quite a bit of time if you are so inclined. A few quick notes:

  • There is so much indoor queue for The Seas with Nemo that my family joke is that if the wait time says 5 minutes that just means it will take you that long to walk through the empty line to the ride.
  • Going in the other direction, the indoor queue for Figment is quite short – maybe 15-20 minutes – but it’s rare for the ride to have a wait that long.
  • The queue for Spaceship Earth is pretty much entirely outdoors, but the ride itself is 16 minutes once you get on.
  • You will need to use the Virtual Queue to access the line for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
EPCOT Indoor Shows
EPCOT Indoor Rides
EPCOT Indoor Exhibits & Greetings

Hollywood Studios Indoor Attractions

At Hollywood Studios, climate control is mostly what you see is what you get: if it looks like it’s in a building, then it has air conditioning and heat. The exception here is Rise of the Resistance, where the show building is well hidden and there’s a goodly length of outdoor queue before it moves indoors.

Hollywood Studios Indoor Rides
Hollywood Studios Indoor Shows & Exhibits
Hollywood Studios Indoor Meet & Greets

Animal Kingdom Indoor Attractions

Animal Kingdom is often cited as the hottest park; all the greenery traps the humidity and cuts down on breezes. Still, there’s lots of shade to be found as the park was designed thoughtfully around the climate. Even for outdoor rides, queues are generally shaded. It’s actually pretty amazing that you aren’t much, much hotter as you tour Animal Kingdom, given the relative lack of air-conditioning in this conservation-oriented park. If you’re truly looking for an extended blast of indoor air, head to Conservation Station. There are a number of indoor exhibits in a single building there; we haven’t listed them separately below.

Animal Kingdom Indoor Rides & Shows:

 

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Jennifer Heymont

Jennifer has a background in math and biology, so she ended up in Data Science where she gets to do both. She lives just north of Boston with her husband, kids, and assorted animal members of the family. Although it took three visits for the Disney bug to "take", she now really wishes she lived a lot closer to the Parks.

2 thoughts on “Which Rides Are Indoors at Disney World?

  • This is helpful and it would be great for TP to add symbols to the plans to indicate this.

    Reply
    • Thanks Karlie. I’ve passed your suggestion along to the dev team.

      Reply

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