How Busy Is Disney World Today? Crowds by Park & Hour

By Chris M. · Park news & crowds · Lake Buena Vista, FL

Published October 22, 2026

As of Thursday, Oct 22, Disney World is moderately busy, and the crowds are spread unevenly. SupaPark’s crowd forecast has Hollywood Studios at 6/10 today, its busiest day of the next two weeks. EPCOT is the busiest park overall for the stretch, averaging 7.0/10 from Oct 22 to Nov 4. Magic Kingdom (3.8 average) and Animal Kingdom (2.7 average) stay light. One more thing to know: Magic Kingdom closes early to day guests tonight for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.

The number that should shape your day is this one. Over the last 30 days, SupaPark’s wait data shows Kilimanjaro Safaris with a 5-minute median posted wait at 6 PM and 55 minutes at 10 AM. That’s the same ride in the same park, 50 minutes apart. Right now, when you show up matters more than which park you pick.

Today’s crowd read, park by park

Here’s SupaPark’s forecast for Oct 22 to Nov 4, which covers today and the next two weeks:

• EPCOT: 7.0/10 average, peaking at 8/10 on Oct 24. It’s the busiest park in this window by a wide margin.
• Hollywood Studios: 5.4/10 average, peaking at 6/10 today (Oct 22). If it’s on your plan today, you’re there on its worst day of the stretch.
• Magic Kingdom: 3.8/10 average, peaking at 5/10 on Oct 24. Halloween party nights shorten day-guest hours on Oct 22, 23, 25, 27, 29 and 31.
• Animal Kingdom: 2.7/10 average, peaking at 4/10 on Oct 23. It’s the lightest park of the four.

Here’s my take: a 6/10 at Hollywood Studios is very manageable with a plan, and a 3/10 at Animal Kingdom can still feel packed if you hit the safari at 10 AM. The crowd score tells you how much room you have for mistakes. The clock decides what your day actually feels like.

The hour matters more than the crowd score

This table shows the median posted wait across each park’s five busiest rides, measured by SupaPark over the last 30 days (Sep 23 to Oct 21). It’s the recent daily pattern, not a forecast for specific future dates, but it’s the best guide to how a typical day plays out right now.

Three patterns are worth knowing:

• The first hour is the cheapest at three of the four parks. At 8 AM, the medians are 20 minutes at Magic Kingdom, 25 at Hollywood Studios and 30 at EPCOT. If you’re staying on-site, Early Theme Park Entry is how you get into that window.
• EPCOT never takes a midday break. Waits keep climbing and peak at 65 minutes around 3 PM, and even 8 PM only drops back to 48. Front-load EPCOT or accept long lines in the afternoon.
• Animal Kingdom flips the usual pattern. Its lowest point is late in the day: 15 minutes at 6 PM, down from 45 at 11 AM. Late afternoon there is quietly one of the best values on property.

Best and worst hours for the headliners

These are SupaPark’s 30-day medians for posted waits, best hour vs. worst:

• Kilimanjaro Safaris: 5 min at 6 PM vs 55 min at 10 AM
• Na’vi River Journey: 15 min at 8 AM vs 45 min at 11 AM
• Test Track: 30 min at 8 AM vs 78 min at 11 AM
• Frozen Ever After: 25 min at 8 AM vs 70 min at 5 PM
• Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets: 20 min at 8 AM vs 55 min at 11 AM
• Slinky Dog Dash: 36 min at 9 PM vs 70 min at 11 AM
• Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin: 5 min at 8 AM vs 40 min at 5 PM
• Jungle Cruise: 5 min at 8 AM vs 40 min at 12 PM

Two of these go against the usual advice. Slinky Dog Dash is at its best late at night, not at rope drop. Kilimanjaro Safaris is shortest in the early evening.

Magic Kingdom: plan around party nights

On party nights, Magic Kingdom closes early to day guests: Oct 22 (tonight), Oct 23, Oct 25, Oct 27, Oct 29 and Oct 31. On those days, the 28-minute median at 8 PM doesn’t apply to you, because you won’t be in the park. Plan your day as if it ends in the late afternoon.

What that means in practice:

• Treat the morning as your whole day. At 8 AM, Jungle Cruise and Buzz Lightyear both have 5-minute medians. Ride Jungle Cruise early on standby instead of spending a Lightning Lane on it, since by noon the median is 40 minutes.
• Don’t use Lightning Lane selections on it’s a small world or Dumbo. Both move a lot of people and rarely build lines long enough to justify a slot. Use the slot on Peter Pan’s Flight, which tends to hold a line all day.
• Use Mickey’s PhilharMagic as a break in the middle of the day. It’s seated, air-conditioned and in Fantasyland. Save it for late morning or early afternoon when the land gets crowded, not for rope drop.
• Expect Main Street, U.S.A. to be packed from mid-morning. If you arrive after the opening rush, head straight into the park. Take your castle photos later.

If you want a full Magic Kingdom day that runs into the evening, look at the non-party dates. Be aware that Oct 24 is the park’s busiest forecast day of the stretch at 5/10. Even at its peak, Magic Kingdom stays lighter than EPCOT does on an average day.

EPCOT: the busiest park, so front-load it

With a 7.0 average and an 8/10 forecast on Oct 24, EPCOT is where a slow start costs you the most. Here’s how I’d handle it:

• Ride Test Track first. Its median goes from 30 minutes at 8 AM to 78 at 11 AM, the biggest jump on this list.
• Go to Frozen Ever After next. It peaks later (70 minutes at 5 PM), so heading there right after Test Track usually still catches a reasonable line before the afternoon build.
• Don’t count on an evening drop. The park-wide median at 8 PM is 48 minutes, better than 3 PM but still not low.

If you’re doing EPCOT on Oct 24, that’s the day Lightning Lane Multi Pass is most likely to be worth it there. Buy it, book your selections in advance when your window opens, and keep adding the next one through the day. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind isn’t included in Multi Pass, because it’s sold separately as a Single Pass.

Hollywood Studios today: 6/10 calls for a plan

Today is Hollywood Studios’ busiest forecast day of the two weeks, so arriving at 10 AM without a plan will cost you.

• Rope drop Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets. It’s 20 minutes at 8 AM, then 55 by 11 AM.
• Save Slinky Dog Dash for the evening. The median falls from 70 minutes at 11 AM to 36 at 9 PM. Most people rush it at rope drop, which is exactly why it’s better late.
• Stay into the evening if you can. The park-wide median drops to 35 minutes at 8 PM, the lowest of the day after the first hour.

On a 6/10 day, Multi Pass is most useful during the late-morning and midday rush, when the park-wide median sits around 50 to 55 minutes. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is a separate Single Pass purchase.

Animal Kingdom: the lightest park, and you may not need Multi Pass

At a 2.7 average with a 4/10 peak on Oct 23, Animal Kingdom is your easiest day of the stretch. It’s also the park where you can most often skip Multi Pass, because the list of headliners is short.

• Rope drop Pandora. Na’vi River Journey is 15 minutes at 8 AM, then 45 by 11. If Avatar Flight of Passage is a must-do (it’s a Single Pass ride), send one adult ahead to read the actual posted wait before the group commits to a line.
• Then ride Expedition Everest on standby while the opening crowd is still stuck in Pandora. If your group doesn’t mind splitting up, check the single rider line.
• Ride the safari later. The data clearly favors the evening: 5 minutes at 6 PM vs 55 at 10 AM. The trade-off is that animals are often more active in the cooler morning. If short lines matter more to you, go late. If seeing the animals matters more, go early and accept the wait.

The late-afternoon dip at Animal Kingdom (18 minutes park-wide at 5 PM) means you can sleep in, arrive after lunch and still ride most of the park. Check the posted park hours first, since the data here only runs to 6 PM.

Forecasts are a starting point, not a guarantee

A forecast tells you what’s likely. It can’t predict a ride going down at 10:15 or a rainstorm that empties the outdoor queues. That’s why live numbers matter on the day. Live waits, the best-time-to-ride forecaster and the crowd calendar are free at supapark.com. SupaPark can also alert you when a ride you’re watching drops to a walk-on or goes down: Free members get email alerts, and paid plans add instant push notifications.

The one thing to remember

Crowds today are moderate. Plan around the clock, not the crowd score. Ride the headliners in the first hour, save Slinky Dog Dash and Kilimanjaro Safaris for late in the day, front-load EPCOT, and on party nights treat Magic Kingdom as a morning park.

Frequently Asked Questions

How busy is Disney World today?

As of Oct 22, it’s moderately busy. SupaPark forecasts Hollywood Studios at 6/10 today, EPCOT is the busiest park of the next two weeks (7.0/10 average), and Magic Kingdom (3.8) and Animal Kingdom (2.7) are running light.

Is Magic Kingdom closing early today?

Yes. Magic Kingdom closes early to day guests on Oct 22 for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, and it does the same on Oct 23, 25, 27, 29 and 31. Plan to finish your day guest touring by late afternoon.

Which Disney World park is least crowded right now?

Animal Kingdom. SupaPark’s forecast averages it at 2.7/10 from Oct 22 to Nov 4, with a peak of just 4/10 on Oct 23.

What time of day are Disney World lines shortest?

At Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and Hollywood Studios, the first hour is shortest, with 30-day medians of 20 to 30 minutes at 8 AM across each park’s top rides. Animal Kingdom is the exception: its shortest waits come around 6 PM (15 minutes).

Do I need Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Animal Kingdom this week?

Often, no. With crowds forecast this light, rope dropping Pandora, riding Expedition Everest on standby and saving Kilimanjaro Safaris for the evening usually covers the park without Multi Pass.

Keep planning: today’s crowd forecast · is Lightning Lane worth it

Go deeper — the full guides: The Ultimate Ranked Guide to Walt Disney World’s Must-Do Rides (All 4 Parks, Ranked 1–25) · TRON vs Cosmic Rewind: Where to Spend Your Morning · The Best Row to Request on Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster

SupaPark tracks live wait times and crowd forecasts, and pings you the second a hard-to-get reservation opens or a ride goes walk-on — free to start at supapark.com.