Walt Disney World is now over one month into the off-season, and crowds have dropped to their lowest level in 5 years. This wait times report covers data for Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Plus, what to expect in October 2025 and a ‘sweet spot’ to start thinking about for late 2026.
These low crowds are not a new development–neither in the last few weeks nor in recent years. Excluding the post-reopening period, the window between when schools go back into session from mid-August until early October has been the slowest stretch of the year at Walt Disney World for many years running. This headline is hardly breaking news or some unprecedented event–September crowds simply confirm what we long have known and expected.
Even prior to then, the parks weren’t particularly packed. It was a slow summer at Orlando’s theme parks, which was also not surprising. Summer has become like a prolonged shoulder season, with only a few slight spikes into moderate territory before school goes back into session and the real off-season arrives. Despite the summer slowdown, August and September managed to be even less busy than May through July. October is already on a similar trajectory, although as explained at the end, we expect that trend to reverse soon.
Before we get going, the usual caveat on crowds: what’s covered in these reports is wait times data that’s pulled from My Disney Experience and compiled into graphs. It’s valuable for tracking and comparing wait times across days, weeks, months, and years. A lot can be gleaned from posted wait times, but they’re not always conclusive of in-park congestion or crowds.
Posted wait times are almost always inflated, some lines don’t post wait times, they don’t account for Lightning Lane changes, EPCOT festivals, and can’t tell us anything about congestion for fireworks, parades, etc. Nevertheless, wait times are the only objective measure of Walt Disney World crowds. On-the-ground observations can be useful, but they have shortcomings.
With that background out of the way, let’s take a look at crowd levels for the last month. As always, all graphs and wait time stats are courtesy of Thrill-Data.com:
We’ll start with the monthly numbers for Walt Disney World as a whole, dating all the way back to 2019.
Monthly crowd levels climbed from last October through this March, and then have been on a steady decline since. This is consistent with last year, and comparable to most other years. The most notable change is that May was busier than June or July, when it used to be the shoulder season slowdown. May is still a slower month relative to spring break, but then crowds just kept dropping post-Memorial Day.
September was the slowest full month of 2025 to date, with a 26 minute average wait time and 1/10 crowd level. Those numbers are actually identical with last August, so in this case, flat attendance does correspond with flat wait times. Prior to that, August was the second-slowest month of 2025 with an average wait of 28 minutes; July was the third-slowest month of 2025, with an average wait time of 30 minutes. The fourth-slowest full month of the year was June…and so on and so forth.
As noted in the intro, September being the slowest month of 2025 is not surprising. That’s more noteworthy here is that September 2025 tied last September and October for the least-busy months since September 2021! That was back before the 50th Anniversary, amidst COVID cancellations due to the Delta wave and reinstated mask rules.
So there’s an asterisk on those dates, but I’d also contend there’s an asterisk on last September and October due to hurricane-induced cancellations. Had those hurricanes not happened, those months both would’ve had higher averages than 26 minutes.
The bottom line is that September 2025 was the least busy normal month at Walt Disney World since September 2019. That was the “good ole days” of Walt Disney World, and the calm before the storm that led to several consecutive months of colossal crowds right up until the closure the following spring.
Above is a look at weekly wait times for the last year. (Ignore that last bar again; it’s the current week.)
There were a couple busier (relatively speaking) weeks in late July and early August due to “last hurrah” summer vacationers, but there was a sharp drop-off around the time Central Florida schools went back into session. It was downhill from there, including the two weeks bookending Labor Day. Suffice to say, there’s a reason why we wrote about this being One of the Best Weeks at Walt Disney World and called it to your attention late last year.
The second half of September actually did see rising crowd levels, with average wait times of 27-28 minutes. That’s still low in the grand scheme of things (1/10 and 2/10 crowds), but it was enough to lift the overall average to 26 minutes. The month had started out even slower than that.
Looking at the daily data for the last year, it should be fairly easy to spot two lulls around mid-June and the Independence Day holiday weekend, plus spikes in both late June and late July through early August. Post summer, August 10th was the day with the big drop-off.
Since then, the dailies have been up and down, with spikes over the weekends–especially on Saturdays–whereas weekdays have been consistently low. This is actually an atypical dynamic. For most of the last few years, weekends have had lower wait times (but often not lower “feels like” crowds or attendance).
Saturday, September 20, 2025 ended up being the busiest day of the last several months, with a 35 minute average and 5/10 crowd level.
You might notice from the above graphs that crowds grew over the course of late September and have fallen off a cliff over the course of the last week. The specific turning point is September 28, 2025.
The reason why weekends were busier in September was the multi-month Florida resident ticket deal winding down. These “use it or lose it” tickets expired on September 27, 2025. Locals tend to work on weekdays, so the last couple weekends of validity tend to spike as a result.
This also explains why crowd levels fell off a cliff on Sunday, September 28th. Prior to that, both Saturdays and Sundays had been elevated. It’s no coincidence that the first weekend day after the ticket deal expired reflected a return to the typical weekend dynamic. It’ll be interesting to see whether that trend holds, as there’s a new ticket deal starting October 5, 2025–albeit not as good of one.
For park by park analysis, we’ll start with Magic Kingdom.
Magic Kingdom has already started its “porcupine pattern” of crowds for Party Season, with full operating days being noticeably busier than days of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. This is reflected in the wait time data, and it’s even more evident from the in-park experience.
On the days when the park closes at 6 pm Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, it’s been nothing but 1/10 days at Magic Kingdom. There have been countless days with ~16 minute averages, which is a fantastic experience. September 30, 2025 has been the slowest of the year to date at Magic Kingdom, with a 14 minute average wait.
As an added bonus, most of these party-shortened days going forward have had their park opening time moved forward to 8 am. This also means that Early Entry starts at 7:30 am, which is huge. Look no further than our new field testing: Magic Kingdom’s Extra Early Entry is a Must-Do for Low Waits at Disney World’s Biggest Rides!
The flip side has also been accurate when it comes to congestion on non-party nights, which is not measured by the above graph (again, it’s exclusively ride wait times). I can speak to this from personal experience, as there’s been a noticeable uptick for Starlight and Happily Ever After, which makes sense given that there are fewer nights per week to experience both.
We expect this to get worse throughout and beyond. Thus far, non-party dates haven’t been that bad at Magic Kingdom. They will be deeper into Party Season, especially as the weekly number of events increases and around peak weeks.
This is something we’ve discussed at length, most notably in Best & Worst 2025 Crowd Days at Magic Kingdom. Suffice to say, those predictions have proven true thus far and all of Magic Kingdom’s slowest days of the year have come since the start of August.
Here’s a look at Magic Kingdom attraction by attraction averages for September 2025.
Nothing broke an hour. TRON Lightcycle Run was the high at 52 minutes (a ride I looped as a walk-on 3 times in the above rope drop report), followed by Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at 45 minutes and Peter Pan’s Flight at 41 minutes. Jungle Cruise, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh were all under 40 minutes. Nothing else was above 30 minutes.
As always, all of these numbers are averages, which still means that hour-plus waits are possible for the headliners at peak times. They’re just offset by 5-10 minute waits for lower profile attractions, or popular rides at the beginning of the morning and end of evening. I also saw 70+ minute waits for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train during the same span.
Animal Kingdom has been all over the place since off-season started, but is generally trending down. The low was 11 minutes on September 3rd and 30th, with highs of 36 minutes on September 13th and 34 minutes on September 21st. That’s an over three-fold increase, and without materially different park hours like MK!
Avoiding weekends was key, but that was towards the tail end of the ticket deal. With that now over, we can’t help but wonder whether DAK data will fall further. It also doesn’t help that more of Dinoland is behind walls and Zootopia: Better Zoogether probably won’t offer that much of a boost. Farewell visits to DINOSAUR might, but that’s been such a long goodbye that maybe it won’t.
If you zoom out and look at weekly or monthly data, Animal Kingdom has seen a sharp drop-off since summer ended. The last several weeks have been the slowest since September 2021–not tied with last year during the hurricane scares. Seasonality will improve this in the next few months, but the offseason next year is likely going to be rough without DINOSAUR.
Here’s attraction data for Animal Kingdom.
It’s rare to see both Avatar attractions below an hour, but that was exactly the case with September’s averages. Flight of Passage was 48 minutes and Na’vi River Journey was 42 minutes. The third most “popular” attraction was the Mickey & Minnie meet & greet, which is more a capacity issue than anything. Everything else was under 30 minutes, with DINOSAUR only at 16 minutes.
Our Animal Kingdom Afternoon Arrival Strategy is once again the ideal approach for this park. We even more strongly recommend that approach starting in November, as Animal Kingdom will be open after dark again this holiday season. Just make sure you arrive in time to catch the last performances of Merry Menagerie.
Early Entry or rope drop also work really well. See Animal Kingdom Park Opening & Early Entry Ride Strategy (or, “How I Did Every Ride at DAK Before 10:30am.”) Even if you don’t want to treat DAK like a half-day park–and you shouldn’t–knocking out the headliners early opens up a leisurely day with the potential for two table service meals, wandering, snacking, etc.
It’s so easy to beat the crowds at Animal Kingdom that Lightning Lane Multi-Pass is a waste of money unless you’re arriving after 9:30 am and leaving before 3 pm…which is exactly what most people are doing. (Don’t be like everyone else!)
Crowds at EPCOT are on the upswing, and in a big way!
The second half of the month at EPCOT wasn’t just busy by September standards, it was packed–period. Sunday, September 21st had an average wait time of 45 minutes for a 10/10 (!!!) crowd level. That makes it the busiest day of 2025 since the week after New Year’s, which is unprecedented.
That wasn’t even the only busy date in September. There were five (5) dates with 9/10 crowd levels and a few more 8/10 dates. All were Fridays through Mondays, most were Saturdays or Sundays (again, reflective of the ticket deal ending).
Overall, EPCOT averaged a 7/10 crowd level for the entirety of the month versus 1/10 for Walt Disney World as a whole. It’s kind of remarkable that September 2025 was (tied for) the slowest month since September 2021 despite this strong showing from EPCOT. It shows just how much the other parks underperformed.
You’ll also notice that EPCOT is back to underperforming since the ticket deal ended. The degree to which discounts is propping up crowds is really fascinating. It suggests that maybe more price increases next week are not the greatest idea…but what do I know?!
EPCOT is always a wildcard, but I’ll admit that this one caught me by surprise. We always point out that EPCOT is the locals’ park, and Floridians are more likely to visit for festivals. Given that, the seemingly obvious explanation for this is that the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival is now underway.
In looking at the data, you might be inclined to believe this is the cause of higher crowd levels on weekends. I’m not so sure about that. Food & Wine definitely spikes weekend attendance–it always does. But normally, that does not translate to higher posted wait times or crowd levels. It’s like a mirage in the data. Locals wait in line for food booths, not rides. But for the last few weeks, attraction wait times are also up significantly.
We weren’t in the parks on any of these dates, so I can’t speak to what “feels like” crowds were like, but my guess is not good! Honestly, until I looked at the data, this wasn’t even on my radar. We didn’t hear any reader comments or complaints. This has me really curious–anyone visiting EPCOT on a Friday through Monday from September 12th through 27th? What was your experience?!
Above is a look at attraction wait times for EPCOT in September.
The #1 attraction in all of Walt Disney World ended up being Test Track 3.0, with an impressive 75 minutes. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind was 64 minutes, with Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at 49 and 48 minutes, respectively.
Hopefully the powerful performance of Test Track 3.0 has Disney executives taking note, showing that competent ride reimaginings can drive numbers. As much as I think Cosmic Rewind is the better attraction, I hope Test Track continues to overperform; it bodes well for the budgets of the inevitable Spaceship Earth and Journey into Imagination reimaginings.
Finally, there’s Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
As always, this is the park with the highest average wait times in all of Walt Disney World, owing to its disproportionate number of headliners. Disney’s Hollywood Studios didn’t see much of a summer slowdown, likely due to Little Mermaid ~ A Musical Adventure and Disney Villains Unfairly Ever After. A surprisingly strong showing for Cool Kid Summer might’ve helped, too.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios saw a September slowdown, but not as pronounced as the other parks. And it’s seen the same weekend uptick as the other parks over weekends. Once again, we’ll point out that Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the #1 park for Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. If you’re going to buy LLMP anywhere, make it DHS.
Last but not least is the attraction averages for DHS in September.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was the only attraction outside of EPCOT with an average above an hour. Slinky Dog Dash fell short of that mark at 55 minutes. Toy Story Mania had a 43 minute average, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway was 38 minutes, followed by several other attractions that were over 30 minutes.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens in October and beyond with several of those Star Wars Launch Bay posted waits falling off the list. That alone could artificially boost the overall average by a bit. Something to remember when we break down data for the holiday season.
Looking forward, it’s pretty much a sure thing that the slowest stretch of the year at Walt Disney World is in the rearview mirror. September is the best month of the year to visit from a wait times perspective; with the exception of last year, October is usually a turning point.
That has not happened yet, but it will soon. We’re still in the early innings, and usually the start of October is similarly slow. The true turning point should come with the days leading up to the Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day holiday weekend.
As discussed in the October 2025 Walt Disney World Crowd Calendar, this holiday always catches people by surprise, but it is busy at Walt Disney World during the lead-up to that long weekend and the dates thereafter.
In the meantime, this past week and the coming one is the ‘sweet spot’ to visit after the ticket deals expire. While this is consistently the case, we’d caution against planning around that for 2026 at this point since we don’t yet know when they’ll end (some Disneyland fans got burned by that this year).
On the other hand, planning for this ‘sweet spot’ in 2026 after ticket deals are announced is a very smart strategy! It’s definitely something to keep on your radar if you’d consider a visit in early October 2026 but don’t need to book until next spring.
For reference, the deals that are most impactful on crowds are typically released between late April and early May. So pencil your plans in now, and then circle back to firm things up next spring if this week-plus window is appealing.
Suffice to say, mid-October 2025 will be busy. There are several days and at least one week in there that will end up being the busiest since April. The bigger question mark is what happens after that. Going by past precedent, there will be a gradual decline after most school districts have had their fall breaks, before another spike in the lead-up to Veterans Day, another very busy holiday that catches Walt Disney World visitors by surprise.
Although there’s a new ticket deal for October through December 2025, we’re not expecting it to have nearly as big of an impact on crowds over the next 3 months. Even absent that, signs already point to heavier holiday season crowds. Fortunately, there are a handful of slow windows amidst the peak weeks–all of which are flagged in Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Disney World in 2025, 2026 & 2027.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on September being the slowest month since Fall 2021? Predictions for October? If you visited EPCOT on a weekend in the second half of last month, what was your experience? Have you done Magic Kingdom during the day of a MNSSHP night? Do you agree or disagree with anything in our report? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
