Crowd Mass Overtakes EPCOT, Guests Flee Disney World Park in Droves

Crowds overwhelmed EPCOT on Thursday after the Walt Disney World Resort theme park closed early on Wednesday, May 21. The early closure followed the abrupt cancellation of the park’s nighttime spectacular, Luminous The Symphony of Us, on Tuesday, May 20. Regular Disney Park guests were unable to view the fireworks show two days in a row.

EPCOT announced Wednesday’s early closure back in March. Instead of closing at 9:00 p.m., the second Central Florida Disney park shut its doors to regular guests at 5:30 p.m. due to a private buyout from the 2025 SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference Orlando. The private event ran from 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., giving Disney cast members two hours to remove daytime guests from the park.

Because EPCOT closed more than three hours early on Wednesday, many guests with single-park tickets chose to visit Magic Kingdom Park, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park instead. While some Annual Passholders and guests with Park Hopper tickets still went to EPCOT, the park appeared deserted on May 21. Redditor u/Tedanyaki shared this photo after getting an entire ride vehicle to themselves on the Living with the Land attraction:

Unsurprisingly, the calm was short-lived. On Thursday, May 22, crowds swarmed EPCOT. Single-day ticket holders and undoubtedly some who missed Luminous The Symphony of Us on Tuesday flocked to the park to experience a day of normal operations.

“EPCOT [is] absolutely mobbed today,” u/hollysk8 wrote on Reddit. “25 minute wait for Living with the Land. Remy’s is down and my lightening lane redemption pass cannot be used for Frozen? Ugh!”

Several Disney Parks fans agreed. Many said they purposefully avoided EPCOT after the early closure.

“Everyone who decided not to go to EPCOT yesterday due to it closing at 5:30 is going today,” u/harmacist87 replied. “If you ever see a park has an early closing, like MK for party nights, and you don’t care about seeing fireworks , go to the park that day. The park will be way less crowded and you will probably get more done in that shorter timeframe than you would with the full day, because like you are observing, everyone will go to the park the day with longer hours.”

“Correct. Was at EPCOT yesterday and it was a ghost town,” said u/SlurnieKosar. “Hopped to MK for fireworks and it was a jam packed. I figured EPCOT would play catch up today.”

When do you visit Walt Disney World Resort to avoid high crowd levels? We would love to hear from you in the comments!