Shockingly low wait times at Walt Disney World theme parks on July 4

Jul 04, 2023 in "Fourth of July at Walt Disney World"

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Posted: Tuesday July 4, 2023 4:29pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Guests celebrating the Fourth of July at Walt Disney World are seeing surprisingly short wait times across all four theme parks today.

Fourth of July is usual a very busy day at Walt Disney World

As of mid-afternoon, and after park hopping became available to guests, the longest wait was at Frozen Ever After in EPCOT, at 90 minutes. Most rides have a 30-minute wait, including Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Slinky Dog Dash, Big Thunder Mountain, and Mission: SPACE. Only four attractions have waits in excess of 60 minutes.

Many attractions have wait times of less than 20 minutes, including Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run, Soarin', Expedition Everest, and Tower of Terror.

Two shockingly low wait times are at Disney's Hollywood Studios, with Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway at 5 minutes, and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at just 20 minutes.

Possibly explaining the low crowds at Disney's Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios is the lack of fireworks tonight. Guests will likely spend the day at either EPCOT or Magic Kingdom, with both parks offering special fireworks shows for July 4. However, wait times at both of those parks a significantly below the usual Fourth of July levels which have typically seen waits in excess of 3 hours at popular rides.

Disney executives have previously expressed concern about summer attendance, and if today's wait times are an indication of a new normal, this July may be a great time to visit.

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Touchdown4 hours ago

I still enjoy BOG. The fillet is solid (and makes the price much more palatable) the French onion soup is delicious, and 2 out of the three desserts on the trio I really like, the truffle is just ok.

C33Mom13 hours ago

Our issue with BoG is two fold: (1) is that it’s been extremely slow when one member of the party has an unusual allergy— I appreciate the caution but I think they lost track of us, we were there nearly 3 hours one time and 90m+ the other, and (2) it’s really really heavy for mid-day meal at a theme park. We never made it before it became prix-fixe, but it sounds much more our speed.

Angel Ariel23 hours ago

We haven't gone to BOG since the movie to prix fixe for both lunch and dinner. We loved lunch. I enjoyed the croque monsieur, the atmosphere was great. That it was quick service and big and cool was amazing. Now? Primo Piatto has that sandwich, and a gluten-free version that's delicious - so we'll be going there for the foreseeable future. None of us eats enough to have a 3 course meal at Disney.

James Alucobond23 hours ago

Dinner is not much better, unfortunately. Lunch was somewhat okay when it existed because it was more reasonably priced, but the entire setup is hampered by the fact that it was meant to convert for different dining experiences throughout the day. If they're going to stick to it being upscale table service all day, the seating and floorplan need a rethink.

UNCgolf23 hours ago

The only time I went to BoG was for breakfast, and yeah, it wasn't very good. You were essentially just paying for the setting, and I don't think the setting really works. I wasn't that impressed with it -- it probably would be better if it wasn't set up like a big loud cafeteria, though. The setting at Cinderella's Castle is much better, but I don't care about the character dining aspect and you pay a huge additional upcharge there for the characters. California Grill switched to prix fixe so it's definitely an avoid IMO. But I didn't think it was that great before, either. Flying Fish was significantly better and so was some of the food at Disney Springs.

Vegas Disney Fan1 day ago

I think this will be our first MK trip we aren’t going to BoG since it opened, we used to love going there for lunch, the French onion soup, French dip sandwich, and gray stuff was an amazing lunch, unfortunately they took away that option, then we tried breakfast one year and all I remember is getting the exact same food we’d have gotten at our Disney hotel but at twice the price, needless to say we’ve never been back for breakfast, last trip we tried dinner there and although it was good we’d rather go to a great place like Boathouse if we’re spending $75 a person. We love the setting, and enjoy the food, but it’s just not worth the money anymore. We really enjoyed Cinderellas castle when we went but it was a one and done for us, a really fun experience but way to expensive for the food quality. Cali grill has never been on our radar, we’ve left the park for dinner a few times but we always seem to end up at one of the Polynesian restaurants.

Trauma1 day ago

The youngest will be 18. Even the kiddie table has grow up :(

UNCgolf1 day ago

And not just the pathways, but the shops etc. too. A park with 20k guests and all rides standby would feel significantly less crowded than a park with an equal 20k guests, but 15k of them are just waiting on their next VQ spot.

PREMiERdrum1 day ago

I get what you're saying, but each "spot" you're holding simultaneously displaces another guest. Flat capacity and the ability to wait for more things at the same time makes your pathways seem busier than they would have been previously with the same number of guests.

networkpro1 day ago

My sympathies in advance if you get BoG, Cindy's or Cali grill. They aren't very good currently.

JoeCamel1 day ago

Who has to sit at the kiddie table?

Trauma1 day ago

I want to thank you and @wannabeBelle for your advice. I was easily able to get into my reservations by splitting my party in two.

JD801 day ago

Sit down dinner is down with some exceptions for sure. Prefixe menus and LL (for two reasons) are the main culprit I bet.

JD801 day ago

That is not how you do that analysis. They are still X amount of people in the park. If you want to say there may be less people in standby at any given point, then sure. But people in multiple places? LL doesn't create an additional multiplier.