There’s a new attraction with the highest wait time at EPCOT, making it the #1 priority for both Early Entry and regular rope drop. At least, for now. This runs through a recent morning in the park to cover the crowds you’re likely to encounter between now and 2026 in Future World when arriving through the main entrance.
This field test was done on an above-average day at EPCOT, when the park had a 7/10 crowd level. This made it the second busiest day of the entire summer season (so far), behind only June 2 and tied with July 22. Wait times for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After and Test Track were all between 60 and 120 minutes for most of the day.
The park opened at 9 am to the general public and Early Entry began at 8:30 am. That’s par for the course, even on peak season dates like this–Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc. have not seen extensions. Even when Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios move forward their opening times, EPCOT rarely changes.
Although it’s been a sleepy summer due to Diet EPCOT and lower overall crowd levels, the tides are starting to turn. For one thing, Walt Disney World as a whole has been seeing ‘Last Hurrah’ crowds over the course of the last week-plus. That alone has resulted in an across-the-board uptick as families scramble to take trips before school goes back into session. It’s still not truly bad, but it’s busier than the bulk of May through July.
Then there’s the unique change at EPCOT, which is the reopening of Test Track. The park once again has 4 bona fide headliners, with two that are aimed at families and two thrill rides. There’s also Soarin’ Around the World, which is somewhere in the middle and also not quite a headliner.
Expect above-average wait times to be the ‘new normal’ at EPCOT going forward for the foreseeable future. Part of this is Test Track, but the other part is that Diet EPCOT will soon be over; Food & Wine, Festival of the Holidays, Festival of the Arts, and Flower & Garden all result in a prolonged period of almost uninterrupted, elevated crowds.
For now, Test Track is the driving force behind higher average wait times at EPCOT in the last week. Park attendance has probably ticked up slightly due to the ‘new ride smell’ on the third iteration of the thrill ride, but our suspicion is that wait times have increased to a disproportionate degree.
Meaning that guests are adding Test Track to their plans without subtracting any other rides, or at the expense of a lower-tier attraction that has more excess bandwidth. Even if attendance were unchanged, the numerical crowd level could increase by virtue of the higher wait time average. And that could happen because people are spending less time wandering World Showcase (or whatever) and more time in lines. In theory, walkway congestion could be down slightly as crowd levels (as measured by wait times) are up.
That’s a bit in the weeds, though, and the “why” of the dynamic doesn’t much matter. What does is that Test Track has increased overall average wait times at EPCOT, and above what we’re otherwise seeing across the board in late summer at Walt Disney World. The bigger and better questions is: how long will this last?
How long will Test Track own the pole position in EPCOT? When will the new ride smell wear off Test Track 3.0?
Honestly, I can’t give a definitive answer to that. There’s little recent precedent to go off that squares neatly with this, as the Haunted Mansion’s addition of Hatbox Ghost was more minor, as were the added monkey shenanigan scenes in Jungle Cruise. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is a totally different attraction, but even if it weren’t, it had a virtual queue early in its run.
As a general matter, our view is that it usually takes about 12-18 months for a new offering to fully work through increased interest among Walt Disney World fans–the kind who will go out of their way to experience something new-to-them. This isn’t really a hard and fast rule, and to be quite honest, I have no data to support it. I’m going purely off vibes and my memory of how long it usually takes for hype to die down. When it comes to longevity, it probably helps that Test Track 3.0 is reviewing pretty positively.
In its first week after reopening, Test Track has been the #1 wait time and #1 Lightning Lane in EPCOT.
It will continue to own that top spot among Lightning Lanes for a while–my guess would be through 2027–for the reasons discussed in our EPCOT Lightning Lane Multi-Pass Ride Rankings.
Wait times are a totally different story. Test Track is currently almost 20 minutes ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, with a 92 minute average versus 74 minutes in the last week. This absolutely will not last. That 12-18 month estimate is for the hype cycle as a whole, but there are layers to it. New things first lose their luster with locals, then all Annual Passholders, then DVC Members, then fans who take annual (or so) trips.
I’m not sure when Cosmic Rewind will reclaim the top spot from Test Track, but I am confident that it will happen in fewer than 18 months. My guess is that we’ll see the gap narrow in August and September (and possibly even flip), but then increase from October through December when many fans plan annual pilgrimages to Walt Disney World. It’s possibly a similar story during the 2026 EPCOT Festival of the Arts.
In any case, what we’re seeing in week 1 post-Test Track reopening won’t be the same as what we see in week 4. And that’s why I’m going to speed through this EPCOT Early Entry report, as it offers some precedential value in the near-term, but not as much as if I were to repeat this in early September once Food & Wine starts.
As noted above, this Early Entry report starts from the main entrance, as I was staying at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. I walked over to the TTC and took the monorail to EPCOT, which was mostly an efficient means of arriving to the front entrance. Walking beats taking the resort line and then transferring, at least from the Poly.
Honestly, I wasn’t planning on doing any EPCOT Early Entry testing during Test Track’s first week back. In part because I don’t see tremendous planning value in the exercise, and in part because I was already doing other morning strategy tests and staying late at Magic Kingdom every night for both performances of Starlight Night Parade. This was supposed to be my morning to sleep in.
I’m bad at sleeping in. Rather than lying in bed like a doofus staring at the ceiling and listening to the Hey Disney soundscape, I got out the door and arrived at EPCOT right as Early Entry started. Not enough time to be at the front of the pack, but enough to get a good idea of how things were unfolding.
Upon entering EPCOT, there’s a row of Cast Members scanning MagicBands, resort room keys, or whatever appropriate identification you might have if staying at one of the participating third party hotels. These are located to the right of Spaceship Earth. If you’re arriving for regular rope drop, you’ll go to the left of Spaceship Earth where the crowd is held until 9 am.
Normally, there’s a holding area for Early Entry in the breezeway between Connections Cafe and Creations Shop. I’m sure that was also the case on this particular morning, but when I passed on the monorail, this was not the case as of around 8:20 am. The queues were already pre-loaded then, and these areas were largely empty by the time I entered around 8:25 am.
There’s clearly-marked signage for all of this–here’s a fairly step-by-step look from arrival through the queues at both Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Test Track:
Test Track had far and away the longest line, with the wait time immediately jumping to 60 minutes once finally posted (around 8:40 am) and then 80 minutes shortly thereafter. I would hazard a guess that this estimate was fairly accurate.
Note that although the line would look shorter later, the wild card is always the Lightning Lane. No one is going to be using that for the first half-hour, so standby should be moving faster. But if you’re this far back, you’re going to still be in line once the first Lightning Lane arrivals start trickling in.
By contrast, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure both posted 30 minute waits during Early Entry. Frozen Ever After was 15 minutes. I didn’t venture back to World Showcase to see how long those lines looked, but those numbers are about what I’d expect. Frozen Ever After could be back to walk-on status during Early Entry (despite the 15 minute posted time) as it often used to be. It’s now the very clear 4th priority.
We anticipated this to some extent, which is why our recent Best Early Entry at EPCOT Plan: Beating the Rope Drop Rush in World Showcase focuses on Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After. That goes on to suggest that maybe you’ll have time to jump in line to a third line before the rope drop rush arrives, so long as you’re at the front of the pack for the Rat Ride, everything moves smoothly, and you walk briskly.
That’s still probably accurate, but the question is whether Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind or Test Track is the better #3 pick. Again, assuming you make it over there before the rope drop rush. For now, I’d pick Cosmic Rewind. That line is staying shorter throughout Early Entry, and having a ~30 minute wait at 9 am isn’t bad at all.
That’s doubly true if you’ve already raced around EPCOT to knock out the Rat Ride and Frozen Ever After. The air conditioned indoor queue and lengthier pre-shows might be perfect. By contrast, I’d be weary of getting stuck in the longest line of the day (or close to it) at Test Track.
As before, the best approach to Early Entry at EPCOT comes down to whether you’re arriving via the main entrance or International Gateway. If you want to take the path of least resistance, start with the major headliner closer to your entrance. This will always be the right call, whether that means beginning at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure or Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.
Unless you’re at the front of the pack, we’d save Test Track for later in the day…for now. And rather than making a concerted effort to be at the front of the pack by arriving at ~7:45 am, we’d probably stroll up a bit later and opt for the easier approach to Cosmic Rewind. Even though Test Track is efficient and now lacks a pre-show, demand is heightened and it’s prone to the dreaded delayed openings and there’s still a mid-afternoon lull.
On the other hand, starting at Cosmic Rewind presents a challenge because the total time commitment is higher due to the multiple pre-shows and lengthier queue. This is the big reason why entering via International Gateway and knocking out Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After remains the best approach from our perspective. Alternatively, rolling up at ~8:45 am after the initial Early Entry wave at Cosmic Rewind (but before regular rope drop) is the easier, lower stakes way to go!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on Early Entry at EPCOT? Is Test Track your top pick now that it’s the #1 longest line in EPCOT? What’s your preferred approach to mornings at EPCOT? What will be your top priority now that there are 4 bona fide headliners open during Early Entry at EPCOT for the first time ever?! Any other feedback on arriving early to the Walt Disney World theme parks? Agree or disagree with our advice or approach? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
