Daily Park Report: September 25, 2026

Three Parks Ran Hot While the Halloween Party Emptied Magic Kingdom on Friday

Hollywood Studios posted a 43-minute median on Friday, September 25 — a full five crowd levels above where the park normally idles, and its busiest reading in weeks. That’s the number worth planning around. With Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party pulling Magic Kingdom off the daytime board, guests spread out and pushed the resort’s other three gates into heavy territory all at once. If you were touring Friday, the smart move was the near-empty Magic Kingdom before 6:00 PM. Everywhere else, you were standing in a real line.

Where the crowds went

Start with Hollywood Studios, because it carried the day. An 8/10 with a noon peak of 55 minutes means the park was working hard from rope drop. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run doubled its usual wait to 40 minutes, and Alien Swirling Saucers climbed to 35 — a sign that even the second-tier attractions were absorbing overflow. This is the park that most consistently soaks up displaced Magic Kingdom guests on party days, and Friday it did exactly that.

Animal Kingdom was the bigger surprise relative to its own habits. A 25.8-minute median is roughly 72% above its baseline, jumping the park two levels above where it normally sits. The peak came early — 10:00 AM at a 40-minute median — which tells you guests front-loaded their morning before the midday heat. Kilimanjaro Safaris ran 35 minutes and the Wildlife Express Train, of all things, hit 15. When the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch has a wait, the park is genuinely full.

EPCOT rounded out the busy trio at an 8/10, with Food & Wine doing its usual work of packing World Showcase. Waits peaked at 10:00 AM around 30 minutes, then the crowd shifted toward the festival booths. The Seas with Nemo & Friends quadrupled its typical wait to 20 minutes, and Spaceship Earth held at 20 — classic festival behavior, where guests use the air-conditioned rides as breaks between tastings rather than destinations.

Then there’s Magic Kingdom, quiet for the opposite reason. At a 2/10 and a 9.7-minute median, it ran roughly a third below its norm — textbook party-day suppression. The park closed to day guests at 6:00 PM for the Halloween party, and knowing that, fewer people bought day tickets. If you had a Friday morning there, you basically had the run of the place: an 11:00 AM peak of 15 minutes was as bad as it got.

Downtime report

Hollywood Studios guests took the hardest operational hits. Rise of the Resistance went down three separate times — a 66-minute morning closure, then again in the late afternoon and evening — so anyone chasing it needed patience and a backup plan. Slinky Dog Dash was offline from 5:15 to 6:35 PM, and Alien Swirling Saucers closed for nearly two hours starting at 6:50, thinning Toy Story Land’s options right as evening crowds peaked.

Over at Magic Kingdom, TRON Lightcycle / Run had the roughest day, down more than two hours mid-morning and again after lunch. Tomorrowland’s people-movers struggled too, with the PeopleMover posting two separate closures. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Space Mountain both went down in the evening during party hours — an inconvenience for party guests, but no impact on the light daytime crowd.

Today’s prediction

For Saturday, September 26, our engine reads it as a busy day across the board. Expect Hollywood Studios at an 8/10 with a 46-minute median — the park to avoid unless you’re committed to early entry and a tight rope-drop plan. EPCOT lands at 8/10 (36 minutes) with Food & Wine still in full swing, and Animal Kingdom also at 8/10 (31 minutes). Magic Kingdom is your best bet at a 6/10 and about 23 minutes; with no party tonight, it runs a full schedule but sits well below the other three.

An honest note on the scorecard: yesterday’s forecast underplayed the surge, missing Animal Kingdom by four levels and both EPCOT and Hollywood Studios by two. The best-park and avoid-park calls landed, but the raw crowd levels came in hotter than modeled — worth keeping in mind if today skews busier still. Weather won’t save you either: clear skies, a low of 65 warming to 82, means comfortable, fully bookable touring. Head to Magic Kingdom early, or start at Hollywood Studios the moment early entry opens and knock out Rise before it has a chance to hiccup again.

Special events reshape the entire resort, and Friday proved it — one party at Magic Kingdom pushed three other parks into heavy crowds. Lightning Brain’s event-aware modeling shows you where to tour while party guests dominate elsewhere. Now available at lightningbrain.app and on the App Store!