Something unexpected happened at Walt Disney World Resort on Memorial Day 2026: the crowds simply didn't show up. The wait times across all four Central Florida theme parks are proof.
Reading the Room Through Wait Times
Walt Disney World Resort doesn't publish attendance figures, but the My Disney Experience app provides a reliable real-time window into how busy the parks actually are. On Monday, that window revealed a Central Florida Disney destination that looked nothing like the holiday-weekend destination families have historically struggled to navigate.
TRON Lightcycle / Run was the only Magic Kingdom Park attraction to reach a 60-minute wait at peak afternoon hours, and even that spike was partly the result of Space Mountain going temporarily offline and redistributing its crowd. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, a ride that routinely stretches to two-hour waits when the park is firing on all cylinders, sat at 45 minutes.
Pirates of the Caribbean, “it's a small world,” and Mad Tea Party were all showing five-minute waits — numbers that amount to walk-on access for some of Magic Kingdom Park's most consistently popular rides.
EPCOT's Biggest Rides Were Unusually Accessible
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which regularly sends standby guests into triple-digit wait times, peaked at just 55 minutes during the afternoon. Frozen Ever After, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, and the Anna and Elsa meet-and-greet — all of which tend to carry waits well north of an hour — were operating well below their typical thresholds throughout the day.
New Attractions Couldn't Drive Disney's Hollywood Studios Crowds
Disney's Hollywood Studios had more going for it this Memorial Day than perhaps any other park. The Walt Disney Studios Lot courtyard had recently soft opened, Rock ‘n' Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets was drawing guests in previews, and the newly updated Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run — which debuted its Mandalorian & Grogu (2026)-inspired mission on May 22 — was fresh off its launch. None of it translated into the crowds those openings might have been expected to generate.
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror reached just a 20-minute wait time during the afternoon. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run sat at 15 minutes.
X (formerly known as Twitter) user @WDWNT posted a photo of an empty Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge on Monday afternoon:
Where is everybody?
Where is everybody? pic.twitter.com/an0fv4SaYL
— WDW News Today (@WDWNT) May 25, 2026
Disney's Animal Kingdom Was the Quietest of All
Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park saw the lightest conditions of the day, even with the soft opening of Bluey's Wild World at Conservation Station. Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest were effectively walk-ons during the mid-afternoon.
Avatar Flight of Passage was the only attraction across all four Walt Disney World Resort theme parks to crack triple digits on Memorial Day 2026 — a distinction that on a normal holiday weekend would be shared by a much longer list.
Were you at Magic Kingdom Park, EPCOT, Disney's Hollywood Studios, or Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park on Monday, May 25? Tell Disney Fanatic about your experience in the comments!
