Overview
- EPCOT recorded the day’s highest waits, with Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind peaking around 225 minutes and Test Track reaching about 205 minutes, according to WDWMAGIC’s midday data.
- Magic Kingdom’s New Year’s Eve show Fantasy in the Sky ran exclusively on December 30 and 31 at 7:30 p.m. and 11:50 p.m., with EPCOT’s countdown at 11:54 p.m. and Hollywood Studios’ fireworks at 11:57 p.m.
- To ease congestion, Hollywood Studios shifted some meet-and-greets to sightings or new locations, moving characters like Mary Poppins and Pluto to Grand Avenue and placing Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio on a balcony near the park entrance.
- Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort limited access to parts of its beach and the Lava Pool to wristbanded hotel guests from 10 a.m. to midnight on December 30–31, while Disney Springs offered no midnight countdown and closed retail at 10 p.m.
- Animal Kingdom remained the least crowded option with a 7 p.m. close and no New Year’s programming, helped by a cold front that kept water-ride waits unusually low such as Kali River Rapids at about five minutes.