Weekly Park Report: May 24 - May 30, 2026

Memorial Day Week 2026: The Reopening Flood That Reshaped the Resort

Five major attractions returned from refurbishment within a 72-hour window this week, and the data shows exactly where guests went. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run had already been back for a few days heading into the holiday weekend, but Tuesday brought Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets, Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live!, and the Drawn to Wonderland playground back to Hollywood Studios — plus Bluey's Wild World at Animal Kingdom — all on the same day. That kind of concentrated novelty demand, layered on top of a Memorial Day weekend, made this one of the more interesting weeks the resort has seen in a while. If you're planning a visit in the next two weeks, understanding what happened here tells you a lot about where guests will still be gravitating.

Week at a Glance

This was a legitimately heavy week by late-May standards. The resort-wide median came in at 20 minutes, up from 15 minutes the prior week and sitting above the six-week rolling average. Magic Kingdom was the standout at 7/10 — its heaviest reading in the data window — while Hollywood Studios clocked in at 6/10, above its already-elevated baseline. Animal Kingdom and EPCOT both landed at 5/10, which sounds moderate but represents a meaningful step up from recent form at both parks.

The week's shape was driven by two overlapping forces: Memorial Day itself (Sunday through Monday, with the post-holiday tail into Tuesday) and a wave of attraction reopenings concentrated at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Add Soarin' Across America returning at EPCOT on Monday — the park's biggest capacity-soaker — and you had genuine demand pressure across all four parks simultaneously for most of the week. The headline: this wasn't just a holiday bump. The reopenings kept crowds elevated well past Monday.

Park-by-Park Analysis

Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom carried the week's heaviest crowd designation, and the day-by-day picture explains why. Sunday and Monday both came in at a 15-minute median — which is deceptively light — but Tuesday through Friday all held at 20 minutes, the upper edge of the Moderate band for MK. Saturday dropped back to 15 minutes, a modest end-of-week release. The park's 7/10 weekly rating reflects sustained above-average pressure rather than a single blowout day.

Memorial Day itself (Monday) included a Disney After Hours event at Magic Kingdom, but that's a late-night add-on that starts after normal park close. It had no bearing on daytime crowds — guests who showed up Monday for the holiday were operating in full-day conditions. The Monday median of 15 minutes is actually encouraging given the holiday; it suggests the holiday crowd spread fairly evenly across the resort rather than concentrating at MK.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad recorded 15 downtime incidents this week, and Winnie the Pooh added 22 more. Both are meaningful losses when MK is running heavy — Pooh in particular is a Fantasyland anchor that helps absorb family groups. Prince Charming Regal Carrousel also saw 14 incidents, which matters less for waits but compounds the friction for families with young children moving through that area.

Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios averaged a 6/10 — Busy — for the week, and its 40-minute median sits right at the threshold between Moderate and Busy for this park. What's striking is how flat the daily line was: 35 minutes Sunday, 30 Monday, 35 Tuesday, then 40 Wednesday through Saturday without variation. The Memorial Day dip on Monday is real, but the post-holiday floor never really dropped. The reopenings held it up.

Smugglers Run had already been drawing novelty demand heading into the week, and Tuesday's simultaneous return of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster (now themed to The Muppets) and the Drawn to Wonderland playground added fresh pull. Guests who had been avoiding HS during those refurbs came back, and new guests drawn by the reopening news showed up on top of the holiday traffic. The 90th percentile wait of 70 minutes and a 180-minute peak suggest the top-tier attractions — Rise, Tower, and the newly returned Muppets coaster — were running long on the busiest days.

Slinky Dog Dash had 18 downtime incidents this week, which is worth flagging. On a week when HS was already running at a Busy level, losing Slinky intermittently pushed demand toward other Toy Story Land options and downstream to Star Wars land. Saturday's Disney After Hours event at HS was a late-night-only affair and didn't affect daytime operations.

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom had the most interesting trajectory of the week. It opened Sunday and Monday at a 35-minute median — solidly Moderate — then Wednesday actually dipped to 30 minutes before climbing to 45 minutes Friday and Saturday. That late-week surge is notable. Bluey's Wild World reopened Tuesday, and by Friday the novelty demand had clearly not worn off. Animal Kingdom's 5/10 weekly average understates the Friday-Saturday reality, when the park was running at 45-minute medians — squarely in Heavy territory for AK.

Expedition Everest logged 18 downtime incidents, which is a significant number for AK's marquee thrill ride. When Everest is cycling down repeatedly, Avatar Flight of Passage absorbs the overflow and waits there climb accordingly. The combination of Everest unreliability and Bluey novelty demand made the back half of the week genuinely challenging at this park.

EPCOT

EPCOT was the relative haven this week. Sunday and Monday held at a 15-minute median — light by any measure — before stepping up to 20 minutes Wednesday through Saturday, where it stayed flat. The 5/10 weekly rating is accurate: consistently moderate, never threatening to become a difficult day.

Soarin' Across America returned Monday after its refurbishment, and the data shows it clearly. Soarin' averaged 42 minutes this week versus a 32-minute baseline — the only outlier attraction in the dataset. That's novelty demand doing exactly what you'd expect. The EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival continued all week, drawing foot traffic to the outdoor kitchen booths, but festival attendance and ride demand are largely independent. Future World attractions stayed manageable.

EPCOT's reliability picture was rougher than its crowd level suggests. Test Track had 33 downtime incidents — the highest of any attraction in the resort this week — followed by Spaceship Earth at 20, Frozen Ever After at 16, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure at 15, and The Seas with Nemo and Friends at 14. That's five major EPCOT attractions running unreliably in the same week. Guests touring World Discovery and World Nature were navigating a lot of board changes.

Daily Pattern Analysis

The pattern that stands out: MK and EPCOT tracked together almost perfectly all week, while HS and AK ran hotter and diverged from each other by the weekend. The Memorial Day holiday itself produced less of a spike than the week's cumulative reopening pressure — Monday was actually one of the lighter days at MK and EPCOT. The real volume came from guests who delayed their visit until the fresh attractions were available, then showed up Tuesday onward. Saturday's MK dip to 15 minutes while AK held at 45 minutes is the sharpest single-day divergence in the dataset.

Reliability Report

EPCOT's ride operations deserve a closer look this week. Test Track's 33 incidents made it the least reliable major attraction in the resort — guests who planned their EPCOT morning around a Test Track run were repeatedly pivoting to Guardians or Remy. With Frozen Ever After also logging 16 incidents and Remy at 15, the World Showcase side of the park was absorbing extra demand from guests who couldn't get into their planned World Discovery attractions.

The Spaceship Earth situation (20 incidents) is particularly disruptive because it's a high-capacity anchor that helps move guests through the park entrance. When it's cycling down repeatedly, the main entry area backs up and creates a compressed feeling even when overall waits are moderate.

At Magic Kingdom, Winnie the Pooh's 22 incidents across the week hit hardest during morning hours when Fantasyland is most contested. Guests who rope-dropped for Pooh and found it down had limited nearby alternatives — Seven Dwarfs and Peter Pan absorbed some of that overflow.

Weather Impact

Weather data was not available for this reporting period. Late May in Orlando typically brings afternoon thunderstorms that can temporarily push guests indoors and create brief waits spikes at covered and indoor attractions. Given EPCOT's outdoor festival activity and the week's overall crowd levels, any significant weather holds would have been felt most at the outdoor kitchens and open-air queue areas — but without confirmed data, the crowd patterns described above reflect what the waits show without weather as a confirmed variable.

Next Week Outlook

The first full week of June historically marks the transition into summer operating patterns — longer park hours, fuller staffing, and the beginning of school-out season for most of the country. With Memorial Day behind us, the post-holiday soft spot typically lasts about a week before summer crowds build in earnest.

The attraction novelty factor is still a real variable heading into next week. Smugglers Run, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets, Bluey's Wild World, and Soarin' Across America are all still in their elevated-demand window. Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom are the parks to avoid if you're trying to minimize waits — EPCOT and Magic Kingdom are the better plays early in the week. Tuesday and Wednesday are likely to be the lightest days. If you're visiting, morning hours at EPCOT are the strongest value: Soarin' novelty will fade faster than you think once school's officially out across more markets, but this coming week it's still a factor. Get there at rope drop and clear Soarin' and Guardians before noon.

Watch Animal Kingdom on the weekend — if Bluey's Wild World continues drawing strong numbers and Everest reliability doesn't improve, Saturday could be the toughest touring day of the coming week at that park.

Plan Smarter with Lightning Brain

This week showed what happens when reopening demand and a holiday weekend overlap — the crowds don't just spike on the holiday, they stay elevated through the week as different guests chase newly-available attractions. Knowing which parks are absorbing that novelty demand, and which days offer the best escape, is exactly the kind of signal Lightning Brain is built to surface. Lightning Brain is now available at lightningbrain.app and on the App Store — check it before you book your next day.