Daily Park Report: January 11, 2026

Marathon Weekend Delivers Ghost-Town Crowds: Every Park Below 3/10

Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend turned Sunday into a touring unicorn: all four parks registered crowd levels of 3/10 or below, with wait times plummeting 37% to 50% below their 30-day averages. While 20,000+ runners conquered 26.2 miles before dawn, the guests who did show up conquered attractions with minimal resistance.

The numbers are striking. Magic Kingdom posted a 10-minute median wait—half its typical 20-minute baseline. Tiana's Bayou Adventure, an attraction that routinely demands 30+ minutes, operated at 5 minutes all day. This wasn't a slow Tuesday in September; this was a January Sunday with near-perfect weather (78°F high, mostly clear skies) that should have drawn substantial crowds. Marathon Weekend creates a distinct pattern: runners and their families prioritize rest over rope drop, and locals avoid the perceived chaos entirely.

Magic Kingdom: The 2/10 Day

Magic Kingdom delivered its lightest crowds in weeks, settling at a 2/10 with a 10-minute median wait. Even the noon peak hour managed only 15-minute medians—numbers typically reserved for the first hour of operation on normal days. The standout wasn't a single attraction; it was nearly every attraction. Tiana's Bayou Adventure at 5 minutes represents an 83% drop from its typical 30. Dumbo, Small World, and Under the Sea all sat at 5 minutes. Astro Orbiter, which often frustrates guests with its limited hourly capacity, managed just 10 minutes.

Space Mountain's 2-hour midday closure (11:03 AM to 1:00 PM) would normally ripple through Tomorrowland, pushing guests toward TRON and Buzz Lightyear. On a 2/10 day, the impact was negligible—excess capacity everywhere absorbed the displaced demand. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train's brief 18-minute morning hiccup similarly vanished into the overall low-crowd baseline.

EPCOT: Festival Crowds That Weren't

EPCOT registered a 3/10—the highest of any park yesterday, yet still firmly in "light" territory at 12.7 minutes median. The Festival of the Arts opened this weekend, which historically brings incremental attendance. That bump either hasn't materialized yet or was offset by Marathon Weekend's suppression effect.

The operational story at EPCOT centered on headliner instability. Frozen Ever After went down twice: 9:45 to 11:39 AM (114 minutes), then again from noon to 1:18 PM (78 minutes). That's over 3 hours of downtime on a flagship attraction. Guests hunting for Norway's standout ride found it unavailable for most of the morning and early afternoon. Test Track followed with its own extended closure from 1:30 to 4:03 PM (153 minutes). On a busier day, these cascading failures would have created visible congestion at Guardians and Remy's. Yesterday, the park simply absorbed it. Guardians itself went down briefly (27 minutes) but recovered quickly.

Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land both posted 5-minute waits—66% below their baselines. Festival guests appear to be treating World Showcase as a food-and-art crawl rather than a ride day.

Hollywood Studios: Headliners at Walk-On Pace

Hollywood Studios landed at 2/10 with a 25-minute median, representing a 37.5% drop from its elevated 40-minute baseline. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at 15 minutes (62.5% below typical) captured the day's character. Rise of the Resistance's early morning downtime (51 minutes starting at 8:33 AM) cleared before most guests arrived.

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster experienced a rougher operational day with three separate incidents, including a 75-minute evening closure from 5:00 to 6:15 PM. For guests rope-dropping or touring midday, this had minimal impact—but anyone planning a late-day Sunset Boulevard strategy found options limited.

Animal Kingdom: The Quietest Safari

Animal Kingdom posted the sharpest decline from baseline: 16.7-minute median versus a 30-minute 30-day average, a 44% drop. Kilimanjaro Safaris at 15 minutes (typically 40) meant guests could walk on and reboard multiple times if they wanted different animal sightings. For a park where Safaris often dictates touring order, this fundamentally changes the optimization calculus—you could tour in any sequence without penalty.

No significant downtimes impacted Animal Kingdom, making it the most operationally stable park of the day.

Downtime Analysis: EPCOT Bore the Burden

EPCOT accumulated the heaviest operational losses yesterday. Families arriving mid-morning for Frozen Ever After found the attraction closed for two separate multi-hour windows. Parents pivoting to Test Track after lunch discovered it offline until past 4 PM. On a busier day, this would have created visible frustration and queue spillover. Yesterday's light baseline meant guests simply walked to alternatives with minimal wait penalty—though the "attractions we planned to ride" checklist got shorter for many.

Today's Outlook: After Hours Reshapes Magic Kingdom

Monday brings a significant dynamic shift: Disney After Hours at Magic Kingdom tonight. This paid event (running after regular park close) creates predictable patterns. Day guests often leave early knowing the park will be populated by After Hours ticketholders by evening. Expect Magic Kingdom to skew light in afternoon hours as guests either depart or never arrive, anticipating crowds that aren't actually there.

The FETC education conference continues, adding incremental attendance from educators exploring the parks around their sessions. Weather cools significantly—a high of 70°F with mostly cloudy skies represents a 8-degree drop from yesterday. This shift often suppresses water-adjacent attractions (Kali River Rapids, Splash Mountain's spiritual successor in Tiana) while boosting indoor queue tolerance.

The strategic play: Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom offer the cleanest touring today. Both parks lack after-hours events and should maintain yesterday's light patterns as Marathon Weekend recovery continues. EPCOT's Festival of the Arts will see its first normal weekday—expect slightly elevated World Showcase traffic but continued low ride waits. Magic Kingdom becomes a calculated bet: light afternoon crowds if you exit before After Hours, but increasingly event-focused energy as evening approaches.

Marathon Weekend's suppression effect typically lingers through Monday as runners and families depart. Expect crowd levels to remain below seasonal averages across all four parks.

These ghost-town patterns are exactly what Lightning Brain tracks in real time—so you can identify and exploit low-crowd windows before they disappear. Now available at lightningbrain.app and on the App Store!