The one two new points of interest opening in 2025 at Walt Disney World each debuted at the moment (Could 27) to large crowds and excessive wait occasions. This covers the lengthy strains it’s best to count on to come across for the Little Mermaid Musical Journey and Villains Unfairly Ever After, though with short-term technique for incorporating these stage reveals into your DHS itinerary.
Earlier than we dig into opening day of those two new points of interest at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, let’s discuss greater image crowds. This has been a scorching subject of late, as coated in Epic Universe is Lifeless. That coated how Common Orlando’s new park was seeing COVID-era attendance over the weekend, with walk-on wait occasions and crowd ranges that’ll barely crack 1/10 as soon as there’s extra knowledge within the system.
This submit has not been nicely acquired on social media, presumably amongst Common stans who don’t know methods to learn past headlines (you made it to paragraph three, in order that fortunately isn’t you!). That’s as a result of bolded as the primary sentence within the second paragraph is a “large kudos” to Common Orlando for selecting low crowds. In any case, the UOR diehards have countered this commentary by stating that crowds have been additionally low at Walt Disney World over the weekend. And you recognize what: they’re not improper!
This additionally isn’t precisely stop-the-presses information. By vacation weekend requirements, Memorial Day weekend is just not a ‘pink flag’ vacation. Despite the fact that it’s the unofficial begin of summer season, most faculty districts in Florida and different states are out till a couple of days to some weeks after Memorial Day.
Even for these districts which might be out, Memorial Day is normally too early for large summer season holidays–these normally happen a bit later into the summer season, with Memorial Day being extra of a fast weekend getaway or grilling at residence. Memorial Day is in no man’s land, considerably much like Martin Luther King Day (between New Yr’s and winter break) or Labor Day (between summer season trip and fall break). Crowd ranges are comparable because of this, as the first draw is locals.
Suffice to say, Memorial Day tends to be proper on par with Labor Day because the least-busy “main” vacation of the 12 months. Independence Day is definitely turning into a darkish horse candidate to surpass each, however that’s an issue of Disney’s personal making–and never as a consequence of a scarcity of natural demand primarily based on journey traits.
The necessary level is that Memorial Day weekend is much less busy than lower-profile holidays like Presidents’ Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day, in addition to the large ones which might be normally week-long breaks. Memorial Day Weekend is common, at finest, by regular requirements and gradual by vacation requirements.
As an example, let’s have a look at previous crowd ranges with wait time knowledge and graphs courtesy of Thrill-Knowledge.com:
Above is a graph of crowd ranges and common day by day wait occasions throughout all of Walt Disney World for everything of the final one year. On the far left facet, you’ll see final summer season. These are weekly crowd ranges averaging 3/10 to five/10 for the tip of Could by means of the tip of June.
On the far proper facet of the graph is Could 2025. It’s a really comparable story there, with principally 3/10 crowd ranges (if we regarded again at crowd ranges for mid-Could final 12 months, crowds can be pretty comparable). June 2025 hasn’t began but, so we clearly don’t have that knowledge.
Now let’s check out Memorial Day, particularly, on a year-over-year foundation:
In case you need extra comparisons, above is a graph of Memorial Day wait occasions for the final a number of years. (The colour-coding is relative to different Memorial Days, not every year as a complete.)
The busiest Memorial Days have been 2019 and 2022, when the typical wait time was 41 minutes. To place that into perspective, that’s about on par with MLK Day (the complete week), which averaged 40 minutes and nicely above final Labor Day, which averaged 33 minutes. In opposition to the final one year, 41 minutes can be the decrease finish of an 8/10 crowd degree.
It’s additionally truthful to level out that 2019 and 2022 are anomalies. The previous was a record-setting 12 months for Walt Disney World attendance that has but to be surpassed (and possibly received’t till the 2030s when Villains Land opens), and the latter was the height of pent-up demand. Memorial Days since have been coming again to actuality, with the 2025 Memorial Day Weekend having 2/10 to five/10 crowd ranges. That’s barely under expectations, however nothing surprising.
From my perspective, that’s the largest distinction between this weekend’s crowds at Epic Universe and Walt Disney World–expectations vs. actuality. And we really didn’t have that top of expectations for Epic Universe’s opening weekend.
Based mostly on identified capability caps, we have been anticipating one thing on par with later paid previews. As an alternative, common posted wait occasions have been round one-third the ultimate week of previews. On-the-ground reviews advised even decrease ranges–that the majority posted wait occasions have been inflated, and every part however Battle on the Ministry and Toothless was a walk-on or near it for many of the weekend. (Value noting that now that the weekend is over, Epic Universe wait occasions have already elevated to paid preview ranges.)
No affordable individual with any data of crowd patterns or practical expectations would’ve forecast dramatically totally different crowd ranges at Walt Disney World. If something, the protected guess would’ve been that Common would win the weekend, with locals and vacationers alike pulled away from WDW and to UOR. This last conclusion really is appropriate. Common did “win” the weekend…by advantage of upper crowd ranges at Islands of Journey and Common Studios Florida.
Anyway, on with the evaluation of the brand new points of interest at Disney’s Hollywood Studios…
Disney Villains Unfairly Ever After has set showtimes, that means it doesn’t at present submit a wait time. That might change if excessive demand proves to be enduring, however within the meantime, the present is offered on the hour within the morning and night, and each half-hour throughout the center of the day and afternoon.
The Little Mermaid – A Musical Journey, in contrast, operates on a steady efficiency schedule from 9:15 am to 7:15 pm every day. That is much like another attraction, that means friends can queue up all through the day reasonably than arriving for scheduled showtimes. It additionally means the Little Mermaid present has a posted wait time.
In keeping with the information, the Little Mermaid – A Musical Journey posted wait time peaked at 110 minutes round 10:45 am. Earlier than and after that, it hovered round 85 minutes. All through the day, it has been one of many highest–if not the very best–posted wait occasions in Disney’s Hollywood Studios and all of Walt Disney World. As I sort this simply after 4 pm Jap, the wait time remains to be holding agency at 80 minutes, at the same time as Slinky Canine Sprint and every part else is at or beneath an hour!
As might be apparent, this received’t final. The Little Mermaid – A Musical Journey is just not going to be a high 5 wait time in all of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Its predecessor wasn’t, and though this appears like a beautiful glow-up, the brand new model is not going to be that fashionable over time.
Something new at Walt Disney World has an preliminary rush. That is unsurprisingly true of headliner points of interest, but it surely occurs with the smaller-scale stuff, too. Moana’s Journey of Water opened with a digital queue and 5+ hour wait! Heck, in the event that they introduced Sew’s Nice Escape again at the moment, it will have the very best wait time in Magic Kingdom. (Most likely not the perfect instance given the field workplace efficiency of the remake.)
Level being, it’s going to take a couple of days or perhaps weeks earlier than the mud settles and the Little Mermaid – A Musical Journey falls into predictable patterns. Within the meantime, there’s the preliminary rush of locals, Annual Passholders, vloggers, bloggers, and many others. all who want to be first to see this.
Taking a look at June 2025 and past, my expectation is that the Little Mermaid – A Musical Journey could have a wait time roughly on par with Alien Swirling Saucers. I think it’s going to be pretty widespread to have a measurable wait time, that means you may not have the ability to see the instantly upcoming efficiency.
The explanations for this are pretty easy. The present does appear to be a significant reimagining and enchancment of its predecessor, and it’s the largest ‘new’ attraction for 2025 at Walt Disney World. On high of that, it’ll fill the void left by MuppetVision because the “simpler” high-quality counterprogramming to the headliner points of interest. It’s additionally indoors, air-conditioned, and with an honest period.
All of this strikes me as a recipe for a somewhat-elevated wait time into 2026 as vacationers and non-local Walt Disney World regulars are drawn to the attraction. It’s not going to be routinely eclipsing an hour, however waits of round half-hour wouldn’t be in the slightest degree stunning.
The Little Mermaid – A Musical Journey might be a Lightning Lane Multi-Go attraction considerably soon-ish. It’s not but clear when that’ll launch, however the touchpoints and Lightning Lane queue are already in place. Our assumption is that Lightning Lane Multi Go and Premier Go will roll out earlier than June 2025 is over.
As soon as the Lightning Lane is launched, the Little Mermaid – A Musical Journey will really be an honest same-day choice. Assuming our evaluation of ~30 minute wait occasions is correct, line-skipping may very well be the distinction between making the present showtime or the subsequent one. Which means that the time-savings of the Lightning Lane vs. standby line of this stage present might really exceed that of some rides–no less than within the quick time period.
A method or one other, this can make Lightning Lane Multi-Go extra precious at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Both to cut back your anticipate this attraction, or a unique journey to be able to slot in every part else. Disney’s Hollywood Studios has overtaken Magic Kingdom because the #1 park at Walt Disney World for LLMP, so it’s best to’ve been buying paid FastPass even earlier than this.
As for tentative touring technique, our recommendation is just slotting within the Little Mermaid – A Musical Journey and/or Disney Villains Unfairly Ever After within the late morning, early afternoon or early night. Disregard the opening day wait occasions, as even within the short-term, these are not points of interest which might be going to have peak wait occasions earlier than midday.
Throughout a perfect day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we at present advocate penciling in MuppetVision 3D for late morning, in equal half as a result of it has showtimes earlier than the large stage reveals, and since it’s taking part in to packed homes to say farewell–and that’s a option to beat these crowds. Related thought right here with both of those new reveals.
Watching round 10 or 11 am will allow you to ‘journey the wave’ of crowds for Early Entry and cord drop, after which see the reveals earlier than their rushes begin. My expectation is that that is not all that tentative, and can show to be the perfect technique as soon as the mud settles.
Earlier than lunch would be the candy spot, particularly as journey wait occasions peak and the opposite counterprogramming of the ‘large’ stage reveals don’t but have conflicting showtimes. Identical goes for the late afternoon or early night, after the large reveals wrap their day by day performances. Simply be completed earlier than journey wait occasions begin dropping.
The largest problem goes to be becoming the park’s half-dozen reveals (5 as soon as MuppetVision closes) right into a single day. Our greatest guess is that the majority friends is not going to do that, and we’ll see barely decrease crowds on the Frozen Sing-Alongside and Magnificence and the Beast: Reside on Stage because of this. Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular will most likely see much less of an affect given how dissimilar it’s to the 2 new productions.
The opposite oblique consequence of those two new stage reveals may very well be friends extending their days at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. One of many dynamics we’ve written about rather a lot is wait occasions peaking early at DHS, friends “hitting a wall” and heading for the exits early. That pacing your self to outlast the crowds–and even taking a noon break–is the savviest technique, because the final 2-3 hours of the night are wonderful, with the bottom wait occasions of the day.
These two new reveals might assist offset the highest heavy journey roster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and bridge the noon for extra friends, that means increased wait occasions into the evening. We doubt that’ll occur. It’s not like we’re on utterly untrodden floor right here. Up till March 2020, each of those venues had comparable reveals and MuppetVision was operating. The dynamic was no totally different then, and ought to be no totally different now.
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Your Ideas
What do you consider these wait occasions and crowd ranges? Trying ahead to the Little Mermaid – A Musical Journey or Disney Villains Unfairly Ever After? Will these be must-dos for you? Considering the Mermaid Musical might be a very good use of a Lightning Lane as soon as the mud settles? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even if you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
