Magic Kingdom wait times by hour: what 140 days of data show

At Magic Kingdom, the median posted wait stayed at 20 minutes from 11am through 7pm, then fell to 15 minutes at 8pm and 10 minutes at 9pm. Mornings were shorter: 5 minutes at 8am and 15 minutes at 10am. That is the pattern in WaitScout's own polling from 2026-06-02 to 2026-10-19.

These are posted waits, not measured standing time. This guide shows the full hour-by-hour table, which individual rides break the park-wide pattern, and what to do with it. The Methodology section explains every number.

What are the posted wait times at Magic Kingdom by hour?

Here is every local hour with enough data, across all rides that posted a wait, for the 140-day window. "Median" is the middle posted wait for that hour; "average" is the mean.

Hour (local)	Posted waits	Median (min)	Average (min)
8am	8,811	5	13.8
9am	23,820	13	16.9
10am	26,752	15	20.8
11am	26,770	20	23.9
12pm	26,131	20	24.9
1pm	24,044	20	23.9
2pm	23,722	20	22.7
3pm	22,944	20	22.5
4pm	21,354	20	23.1
5pm	18,501	20	24.6
6pm	16,986	20	23.8
7pm	15,293	20	24.3
8pm	14,633	15	21.6
9pm	12,722	10	16.2
10pm	8,008	10	16.0

Hour 7am (1,079 posted waits on 33 days) and 11pm (1,554 on 71 days) exist in the data but cover far fewer days than the hours shown, so they are left out of the table.

What is the best time of day to go to Magic Kingdom?

The data supports a range, not a single hour. The shortest median waits were at 8am (5 minutes), 9am (13 minutes), 10am (15 minutes), and again from 8pm to 10pm (15, 10 and 10 minutes). The longest sat in a wide plateau from 11am to 7pm.

Posted waits are rounded to 5 minutes, so one median can stand in for several neighbouring hours. A median of 20 at 11am and 20 at 7pm does not mean the park felt the same at both times. The average is a little more sensitive: it peaked at 24.9 minutes at 12pm and was 24.6 at 5pm and 24.3 at 7pm, so a small late-afternoon bump shows up in the data.

If your trip has one flexible slot, the first two hours and the last two hours are the ones to protect. For the question of whether the first hour or the last hour is better, read rope drop or last hour.

When are Magic Kingdom wait times the longest?

From 11am to 7pm, the median was 20 minutes in every hour. The hours with the most posted waits were 10am to noon, each with more than 26,000 in the window.

The average posted wait peaked at 12pm at 24.9 minutes. It did not climb higher later in the day: 4pm averaged 23.1 minutes and 6pm averaged 23.8 minutes.

Do individual rides follow the park-wide pattern?

Some do and some do not. The table below shows the ten Magic Kingdom rides with the highest overall median posted wait, with each one's best and worst hour in the window, using only hours with at least 7 days of data. Character meet-and-greets are excluded because they are not rides.

Ride	Overall median (min)	Best hour (median)	Worst hour (median)
TRON Lightcycle / Run	55	8am (37.5)	8pm (70)
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train	45	9pm (35)	12pm (50)
Peter Pan's Flight	40	9pm (25)	12pm (45)
Jungle Cruise	35	8am (5)	10am (35)
Tiana's Bayou Adventure	35	8am (5)	1pm (45)
Space Mountain	30	8am (15)	11am (40)
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin	30	8am (5)	4pm (40)
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh	30	8am (20)	3pm (35)
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad	30	8am (10)	12pm (35)
Haunted Mansion	20	8am (13)	11am (25)

Two things stand out. First, eight of these ten rides have their best hour at 8am, the earliest hour with data. Second, two rides are different. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Peter Pan's Flight had their shortest median at 9pm. TRON Lightcycle / Run also stands out: its best median was at 8am (37.5 minutes) and its worst at 8pm, at 70 minutes. If TRON is your priority ride, the evening is the hour to avoid in this data.

The 8am figures come from fewer rows than midday figures. Jungle Cruise had 334 posted waits at the opening hour against 5,688 across the 11am to 3pm stretch, so the opening-hour medians rest on far less data. Rope drop, ride by ride lists those sample sizes ride by ride.

Does the day of the week change the hourly pattern?

The hourly shape above pools all seven weekdays. Magic Kingdom's overall median was 20 minutes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and 15 on the other four days, with 19 to 20 days of data behind each weekday. We have not cut hours by weekday: the samples would be too thin to publish. See the best day of the week at each park for the weekday numbers.

Did waits change between summer and early autumn?

Slightly. Magic Kingdom's monthly median was 20 minutes in June and July, 15 minutes in August and September, and 20 minutes in the 19 days of October in the window. This data runs from 2026-06-02 to 2026-10-19 only. It says nothing about winter, spring or holiday weeks.

How can you use the hourly data on your trip?

1. Put the ride with the longest median wait (TRON Lightcycle / Run, 55 minutes overall) into the opening hour, where its best median was (37.5 minutes at 8am), and avoid 8pm, where its worst was (70 minutes).
2. Keep the 11am to 7pm stretch for shows, meals, and rides with a median of 20 minutes or less overall, such as Haunted Mansion.
3. Check the live Magic Kingdom wait list before you commit, because a single day can differ from a 140-day median.
4. If you buy Lightning Lane, the Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane page lists current prices.
5. To pick a day, use the Magic Kingdom crowd calendar.

A page cannot tell you the moment a line shortens. The WaitScout iPhone app can alert you when a ride's posted wait drops, which is useful from 11am to 7pm, when the park-wide median is 20 minutes and the ride you want is above it. See the app features.

FAQ

What is the shortest posted wait time hour at Magic Kingdom?

8am had the lowest median at 5 minutes, but it also had far fewer posted waits (8,811) than 10am (26,752). Late evening, 9pm and 10pm, had a median of 10 minutes, with 12,722 and 8,008 posted waits behind them.

What is the longest posted wait hour at Magic Kingdom?

There is no single hour. The median was 20 minutes in every hour from 11am to 7pm. The average was highest at 12pm, at 24.9 minutes.

Which Magic Kingdom ride has the longest posted wait?

TRON Lightcycle / Run, with an overall median of 55 minutes across 8,590 posted waits on 138 days.

Is 8am the best time at every ride?

No. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Peter Pan's Flight had their shortest median at 9pm, not 8am.

Are these actual waits?

No. These are posted waits, rounded to 5 minutes. WaitScout does not measure how long anyone stood in a line.

Methodology

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Every figure comes from WaitScout's wait_history table for Magic Kingdom, from 2026-06-02 to 2026-10-19 (140 local days). Times are converted to America/New_York and grouped by local hour. Only rows with a posted wait are used. Median is the exact median of posted minutes; average is the arithmetic mean. Posted minutes come in 5-minute steps, so many hourly medians tie, which is why best and worst hours are reported as ranges. Ride-level best and worst hours use local hours 8 to 21 and require at least 7 days of data in the hour; ties resolve to the earlier hour. Character meet-and-greets, shows and films are excluded from the ride table. Hours with data on fewer than 100 days are omitted from the hour table. Magic Kingdom opening and closing times are not in the database, so hours are shown as observed, not as park hours. There is no data for winter, spring or holiday weeks.

WaitScout is an independent planning tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by The Walt Disney Company. All park names are used for identification purposes only.