The Four Disney Parks, Ranked by Wait Time

Hollywood Studios runs the longest average wait of the four Walt Disney World parks in our data. Magic Kingdom — the busiest of the four by attendance — is actually the calmest.

The hour-by-hour picture, side by side

Here is the park-wide average wait, hour by hour, for every Walt Disney World park in our data:

Hour	Magic Kingdom	EPCOT	Hollywood Studios	Animal Kingdom
8am	11.3	26.5	20.5	19.2
9am	14.6	24.7	26.1	21.9
10am	17.4	26.2	35.2	27.4
11am	20.4	30.3	38.4	30
12pm	22.1	29.8	40	30.9
1pm	21.5	28.4	37.1	27.9
2pm	19.2	26.8	36.5	24.9
3pm	20.5	26.6	33.5	22.8
4pm	20.6	26.8	31.7	21.9
5pm	21.4	26.7	33.6	22
6pm	21.8	27.3	35.4	19.3
7pm	22.7	28.5	39.1	13.5
8pm	21.6	26.2	36.5	17.5
9pm	17.7	24	25.6	—
10pm	13.2	19.5	22.5	—

Animal Kingdom's data runs 8am–8pm; the other three run 8am–10pm. Averaging each park's own hourly figures above gives a simple, comparable ranking:

Park	Avg of hourly waits (min)	Best hour	Worst hour	Swing
Hollywood Studios	32.8	8am — 20.5	12pm — 40	95%
EPCOT	26.6	10pm — 19.5	11am — 30.3	55%
Animal Kingdom	23.0	7pm — 13.5	12pm — 30.9	129%
Magic Kingdom	19.1	8am — 11.3	7pm — 22.7	101%

By this measure, the order from busiest to calmest is Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, then Magic Kingdom. Animal Kingdom has the widest swing of any park — its worst hour runs more than double its best — but because its best hour (7pm) is so low, its overall average still lands well below Hollywood Studios and EPCOT.

The single longest wait doesn't belong to the busiest park

Ranking by daily average is one lens. Ranking by headliner is another, and it tells a different story:

Park	Longest average wait	Attraction
EPCOT	69.5 min	Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
Hollywood Studios	56 min	Slinky Dog Dash
Magic Kingdom	54.4 min	TRON Lightcycle / Run
Animal Kingdom	49.8 min	Avatar Flight of Passage

Hollywood Studios has the busiest park overall, but EPCOT holds the single longest average wait of any attraction across the four parks: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at 69.5 minutes. A park can run calmer on average and still hide the longest individual line.

Best and worst day, park by park

Park	Quietest day	Busiest day
Magic Kingdom	Tuesday — 15.3 min	Wednesday — 22.4 min
EPCOT	Thursday — 25.1 min	Tuesday — 29.7 min
Hollywood Studios	Wednesday — 28.5 min	Friday — 38.6 min
Animal Kingdom	Wednesday — 19.6 min	Saturday — 26.7 min

There's no single "best day" that works across all four parks. Wednesday is the quietest day at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom — but it's Magic Kingdom's busiest day of the week. If your trip covers multiple parks, the smart move is matching each park to its own quiet day rather than picking one day and hitting all of them.

The takeaway

Ranked by overall wait in our data, from busiest to calmest: Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom. But "calmest park" and "shortest single line" aren't the same thing — EPCOT's Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind outwaits every other headliner at Walt Disney World, busiest park or not. Plan around the specific ride you want, not just the park's reputation.

For live numbers on your visit day, check the wait times pages for Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.

Related reading

• Magic Kingdom Touring Plan
• EPCOT Touring Plan
• EPCOT vs. Hollywood Studios Waits
• The Best Hour at Every Orlando Park
• Your First Hour at a Disney Park, Planned

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