Daily Park Report: January 9, 2026

Marathon Weekend Delivers Ghost-Town Touring Across All Four Parks

Walk-on waits at Dumbo. Five-minute queues for Spaceship Earth. A 75% drop at Living with the Land. Friday's data tells a clear story: Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend creates one of the best touring windows of the year, and yesterday's crowds proved it.

All four parks posted crowd levels between 3/10 and 4/10, with EPCOT and Animal Kingdom dropping 36-40% below their 30-day averages. The combination of marathon runners resting before Saturday's races and casual tourists avoiding the perceived chaos created a resort-wide lull. Near-perfect weather—82 degrees, mostly clear skies, zero precipitation—would normally draw heavy crowds to outdoor attractions. Instead, guests who showed up found breathing room everywhere.

EPCOT: The Biggest Winner

EPCOT recorded the steepest drop of the day: a 40% decline from its 30-day average, settling at a 15-minute median and a 3/10 crowd level. For context, this park typically runs 25-minute medians during this stretch of January. The 11 AM peak hit just 25 minutes—a number most parks would celebrate as an off-peak afternoon.

The attraction data reveals just how empty the park felt. Spaceship Earth posted 5-minute averages against a typical 15 minutes. Living with the Land, still running its Glimmering Greenhouses holiday overlay, dropped to 5 minutes—75% below its usual 20. Even Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, normally a 55-minute commitment, averaged just 35 minutes. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind did go down for 48 minutes mid-morning, and Remy followed with a 45-minute closure around noon, but neither disruption materially impacted a park this empty.

Animal Kingdom: Light Crowds, Quiet Touring

Animal Kingdom matched EPCOT's 3/10 crowd level with a 19-minute median—36% below its 30-day average of 30 minutes. The 11 AM peak reached only 35 minutes, comfortable territory for a park that can spike to 45+ during busy periods.

Zootopia: Better Zoogether posted 10-minute averages, half its typical 20-minute wait. Kali River Rapids went down for 53 minutes during the early afternoon, but with crowds this light, displaced guests absorbed easily into other Pandora and Africa attractions. Expedition Everest's 36-minute morning closure occurred before most guests arrived, limiting its impact.

Magic Kingdom: Comfortable Despite Being the Busiest

Magic Kingdom technically recorded the highest crowd level at 4/10, but a 15-minute median still represents a 25% drop from its 30-day average. The noon peak hit just 20 minutes—a number that would register as a slow Tuesday during moderate seasons.

Fantasyland became a walk-on paradise. Dumbo averaged 5 minutes against a typical 15. Mad Tea Party, Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, and the PeopleMover all posted 5-minute averages at 50% below normal. The Magic Carpets of Aladdin dropped to 10 minutes from its usual 15. TRON Lightcycle / Run went down for 45 minutes in the late afternoon, and Winnie the Pooh had two separate closures totaling over an hour, but with so much capacity available elsewhere, guests simply redirected without building queues.

Hollywood Studios: Headliner Trouble in Toy Story Land

Hollywood Studios posted a 4/10 with a 35-minute median, 12.5% below average. Respectable numbers, but this park absorbed the day's most disruptive downtime sequence.

Slinky Dog Dash vanished for 102 minutes during the peak noon-to-afternoon window. Families hunting Toy Story Land options found themselves rerouting, and that pressure showed when Toy Story Mania went down twice later in the day for 32 and 30 minutes respectively. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster added a 96-minute afternoon closure, and Rise of the Resistance dropped for 42 minutes during the dinner hour. Four headliner attractions experiencing significant downtime on the same day is unusual—but with base crowds running light, the cascading effect stayed manageable rather than catastrophic.

Downtime Patterns Worth Noting

Yesterday logged 17 notable closures exceeding 15 minutes across the resort. Hollywood Studios bore the heaviest burden with five incidents totaling nearly five hours of combined headliner downtime. EPCOT saw six closures but spread across attractions with lower demand. The timing clustered notably in the early-to-mid afternoon, suggesting either scheduled maintenance windows or heat-related mechanical stress during peak temperature hours.

For guests in the parks, the practical impact was minimal. When Slinky Dog went down at 12:57 PM, Hollywood Studios was running a 45-minute peak median—meaning displaced riders found 35-40 minute alternatives rather than 60+ minute backups. Light base crowds absorbed the disruption.

Today's Outlook: Marathon Morning Creates Split Conditions

Saturday brings the Walt Disney World Marathon itself, which fundamentally changes morning transportation dynamics. Runners and spectators will dominate resort movement before 10 AM, but the race clears by early afternoon.

Expect a slow-starting morning across all parks as marathon logistics complicate arrivals. Post-race, runner families typically gravitate toward lower-intensity parks—EPCOT and Animal Kingdom historically see slight afternoon bumps while Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios stay suppressed. Weather remains ideal: 81 degrees, mostly clear, zero precipitation chance.

The play today: If you can reach the parks by rope drop despite marathon road closures, you'll find near-empty conditions through late morning. If transportation delays push your arrival past 11 AM, pivot to Hollywood Studios or Magic Kingdom where post-marathon crowds tend to stay lightest. Animal Kingdom closes earliest on marathon weekends, so prioritize it for morning hours if Pandora is your goal.

Yesterday's downtime concentration at Hollywood Studios suggests monitoring attraction status before committing to Toy Story Land—two consecutive days of heavy closures would be unusual, but the pattern warrants awareness.

Track the Marathon Effect in Real Time

Marathon Weekend creates exactly the kind of unusual crowd patterns that reward data-aware touring. Lightning Brain tracks these dynamics live, so you can see which parks are absorbing runner families and which are staying empty. Now available at lightningbrain.app and on the App Store!