Daily Park Report: November 13, 2026

Hollywood Studios Ran Packed on a Friday — a 9/10 With Food & Wine Pulling Its Own Crowd

Hollywood Studios posted a 42.8-minute median Friday, more than a fifth above its own 30-day baseline and enough to land a 9/10 — busier than roughly 85 percent of the park’s past year. That’s the headline for anyone touring this weekend: on a day when Magic Kingdom was deliberately quiet for the Christmas party, the Studios became the default park, and the waits showed it. EPCOT climbed right alongside it, running three full levels above its own norm thanks to Food & Wine. Two parks hot, one park hollowed out on purpose — that was Friday.

Weather wasn’t a factor in any of it. Clear skies, a high of 73, and zero precipitation meant nothing to blame or credit on the sky. This was pure crowd distribution.

Hollywood Studios and EPCOT carried the day

The Studios peaked at 1:00 PM with a 60-minute median across the park, and the standout was Star Tours, averaging 45 minutes against a typical 10. That’s a motion-simulator attraction normally used as a walk-on palate cleanser suddenly behaving like a headliner — a clear sign the park was simply full, with overflow demand spilling onto every available ride. For most guests that meant Rise of the Resistance and the Toy Story headliners were the long waits, while even the “filler” rides lost their walk-on status by midday.

EPCOT told a similar story in miniature. A 20.4-minute median works out to a 36 percent bump over baseline and an 8/10, peaking at 11:00 AM. Food & Wine is the obvious driver, but the interesting wrinkle is where the waits landed: Spaceship Earth doubled to 20 minutes, Living with the Land hit 25, and a cluster of gentle indoor rides — Nemo, Gran Fiesta, Figment — all ran double their usual. That’s festival behavior. Guests parking near the food booths treat the air-conditioned rides as rest stops between courses rather than destinations.

Animal Kingdom deserves a mention for the biggest percentage jump of the day — a 58 percent surge to a 23.7-minute median. Before anyone panics, that still only rates a 4/10. The park sits on such a low baseline that a busy morning (it peaked at 11:00 AM, 35 minutes) reads as a huge percentage without the waits ever becoming uncomfortable. Comfortable touring, just not the near-empty morning Animal Kingdom regulars expect.

Magic Kingdom, by contrast, did exactly what a party day asks it to. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party closed the park to day guests at 6:00 PM, and the daytime ran light — a 12.8-minute median, a touch below baseline, good for a 5/10. The odd detail is the peak at 6:00 PM (20 minutes), which is party guests flooding in right at the handoff, not day-guest demand. If you held a regular ticket Friday, this was a half-day park and most people planned around it — which is precisely why the other three absorbed the overflow.

Downtime: Rise of the Resistance had a rough shift

Rise of the Resistance was the day’s problem child, going down three separate times at Hollywood Studios — midday for nearly three hours, again in late afternoon, and a third stretch in the evening. On an already-packed day, every reopening dumped a fresh wave into the queue, and with the park this full there was no easy alternative; guests just rotated the pressure onto Star Tours and the Toy Story rides. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway also stuttered twice through the early afternoon. Over at Magic Kingdom, the PeopleMover sat idle from 12:37 to 4:13 PM — nearly four hours of lost shade and rest during the warmest part of the day, which stings more than its short wait suggests.

Today’s outlook: Saturday flips the pressure to Magic Kingdom

Our engine missed badly on Magic Kingdom yesterday — it called a 2/10 and the park came in at 5. Credit where it’s due, it nailed the avoid-park call, but the MK miss is worth owning. Today the model swings hard the other way.

Saturday, November 14 shapes up as a Magic Kingdom day: the engine pegs it at 9/10 with a 27-minute median, the park to avoid. With no party tonight, all that suppressed demand comes roaring back. Hollywood Studios lands at a 7/10 (43 minutes), but note it closes early tonight for Disney Jollywood Nights, so compress your day there. EPCOT holds a 7/10 (34 minutes) with Food & Wine still running, and Animal Kingdom is your best bet at 6/10 (27 minutes). The move is simple: rope-drop Animal Kingdom or Magic Kingdom’s headliners before 10, and let Saturday’s inevitable Magic Kingdom crush happen without you in the middle of it.

One scheduling note — Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is down for refurbishment, so don’t build a Magic Kingdom morning around it.

Rise of the Resistance down three times in one day is exactly the kind of chaos you can’t plan around in advance. Lightning Brain buzzes you the moment a ride you care about goes down — and the moment it’s back up — so you’re first in line on the reopening instead of finding out from the crowd. Now available at lightningbrain.app and on the App Store!