Daily Park Report: November 11, 2026

Veterans Day Pushed Guests to the Festival Parks — EPCOT Ran Three Levels Hot

EPCOT posted a 20-minute median Wednesday, roughly a third above its own November baseline and good for an 8/10. That’s three full crowd levels above where this park normally sits, and it’s the cleanest read on where Veterans Day guests actually went: not to the castle, but to the festival. Food & Wine booths plus a holiday crowd with a day off turned World Showcase into the resort’s center of gravity. Magic Kingdom, meanwhile, ran nearly empty.

Weather wasn’t the lever. It was warm and mostly cloudy, a high of 83°F with a trace of rain that never amounted to anything. On a federal holiday, that’s just pleasant touring conditions — it didn’t make or break where the crowds landed.

EPCOT and Animal Kingdom carried the day

EPCOT peaked early, at 11 AM with a 30-minute median, which tells you guests rope-dropped the rides before settling into the booths for the afternoon. The pattern showed up across the slow-moving dark rides: Spaceship Earth doubled to 20 minutes, Living with the Land climbed to 25 under its Glimmering Greenhouses holiday overlay, and even The Seas with Nemo and Gran Fiesta Tour drew lines they almost never do. These are the climate-controlled rides people duck into between tastings, and Wednesday they were all backed up.

Animal Kingdom was the other mover — a 25.5-minute median, up about 70% from its baseline and landing at 7/10. Expedition Everest doubled to a 30-minute wait, and the quiet infrastructure rides gave the crowding away: Wildlife Express Train and Kali River Rapids both hit 20 minutes, four times their usual. When the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch is running a real line, the park is genuinely full, holiday or not.

Hollywood Studios was the steady one. A 36-minute median is right on its norm — a 6/10 that felt busier in the morning than the numbers suggest, largely because its headliner was down (more on that below). Star Tours was the standout there at 25 minutes, five times typical, as guests reshuffled toward whatever was open.

And Magic Kingdom? A 12.8-minute median, below baseline, a 2/10. It didn’t peak until 3 PM and even then only touched 20 minutes. With the festival parks pulling the holiday crowd, Magic Kingdom was the walk-on option all day for anyone who wanted one.

Downtime report

Hollywood Studios guests had the roughest morning. Rise of the Resistance was offline from 8:31 to 11:40 AM — the entire rope-drop window gone on the park’s biggest draw — then dropped again for an hour in the evening. That morning outage is the main reason Star Tours and the other open attractions saw inflated waits; demand had nowhere else to go. Over at Magic Kingdom, Enchanted Tales with Belle was down more than four hours midday (10:34 AM to 2:58 PM), and Space Mountain lost its first 70 minutes of operation. EPCOT took afternoon hits to both Test Track and Frozen Ever After, each offline over an hour during peak — frustrating losses given the day’s crowds, though the park’s indoor rides absorbed the displaced guests without much drama.

Today’s forecast: Thursday, November 12

Honesty first: yesterday’s engine call was a rough one. It had Magic Kingdom as the busy park and Animal Kingdom nearly empty, and both landed the opposite way — EPCOT and Animal Kingdom missed by six levels each. The holiday caught the model flat-footed. Here’s where today lands:

• Magic Kingdom — 1/10, around 16 minutes. The best park today, and it’s not close. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party runs tonight, so the park closes early to day guests and daytime demand thins out accordingly. If you want a near walk-on morning, this is your move.
• Hollywood Studios — 7/10, about 43 minutes. The one to avoid. Yesterday’s momentum plus early entry for resort guests points to a heavy day. Get your headliners before 10 AM or lean on Lightning Lanes.
• EPCOT — 7/10, roughly 32 minutes. Food & Wine keeps the pressure on. Hit Test Track and Frozen early, then shift to the booths as lines build.
• Animal Kingdom — 5/10, around 25 minutes. The most balanced option of the festival-and-studios group.

The simple play: rope-drop Magic Kingdom before the party crowd and spend the hot part of the day somewhere it stays comfortable.

With Magic Kingdom emptying out for tonight’s party while the festival parks run hot, knowing which park to be in is half the battle. Lightning Brain’s Park Hop Advisor shows how busy all four parks are right now, at a glance, so you can shift the moment one opens up — free. Now available at lightningbrain.app and on the App Store!