Tumbleweeds: A Changing Frontierland

 

Walt Disney World is starting to undergo some major refurbishments that will change the landscape of its parks, hopefully for the better, for many years to come.  A lot of this has been talked about for the last couple of years, most notably at the recent D23 event where some of the biggest projects were officially confirmed, including a Villains Land at Magic Kingdom and Tropical Americas replacing Dinoland at Animal Kingdom.

One of the bigger surprises announced there was a new Cars themed mini-land in Frontierland at Magic Kingdom.  The good vibes turned a little sour after it came out a little while later that this would be replacing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island.  I won't rehash all of that post here, but suffice it to say that my reaction (and that of many others) was negative, as we will be losing a place of calm tranquility in the midst of the world's busiest theme park.

Holiday Crowd Levels 2024

 

We're back, and today we're taking a look at wait times and crowd levels over what is typically the busiest week of the year for Disney, the week between Christmas and New Year.  In this post, we'll pull up the raw data and compare these numbers to last year.  We'll also see if we can figure out whether the recent trend of "soft" crowds at Disney World carried over to the busiest time of year.

I want to define what I mean by "soft" (with those heavy air quotes).  The overall trend for Disney World in terms of wait times in 2024 was down compared to the previous year.  As always, when you visit, how prepared you are, ride down time, weather and just plain bad luck can impact your particular trip.  I'm not saying your individual experience is any less valid - if you went during a school break, for example, and found the place bustling with people, that doesn't mean it didn't happen.  We can only focus on attraction wait times, which is the best indicator of crowds, even if it is imperfect.