Space Mountain Hits 3-Hour Wait as Presidents' Day and Mardi Gras Collide at Disney World

Feb 17, 2026 in "Magic Kingdom"

Posted: Tuesday February 17, 2026 1:25pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney World wait times reached three hours this morning as overlapping holiday crowds packed all four theme parks.

Space Mountain saw wait times exceed 3 hours today at Magic Kingdom

More than 10 attractions had wait times over 100 minutes between 10 am and 1 pm. Space Mountain topped the charts at 185 minutes. Avatar Flight of Passage hit 180 minutes, TRON Lightcycle / Run reached 125 minutes, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind peaked at 125 minutes. Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance all exceeded 100 minutes.

The spike comes from an unusual calendar alignment. Presidents' Day fell yesterday (February 16), while today is Mardi Gras.

Crowds arrving at Magic Kingdom on February 17, 2026

Why Today's Crowds Are So Heavy

Presidents' Day Weekend Spillover

Yesterday's holiday created a three-day weekend. Many guests arrived Monday and are now on day two or three of their trips. Locals with extended weekends are still visiting mid-week.

Tuesday typically sees peak holiday attendance because most visitors don't head home until Wednesday or later.

Mardi Gras School Breaks

Mardi Gras affects Disney attendance more than most realize. Louisiana, Alabama, parts of Mississippi, and some Florida districts have full weeks off or extended long weekends around Fat Tuesday.

Families from these Southern markets often skip local parade closures and travel to Orlando instead. That regional bump happens every year, but this year it overlaps with Presidents' Day traffic.

Double Holiday Impact

February 13-22, 2026 is forecast as one of the busiest winter weeks due to this calendar collision. When Presidents' Day and Mardi Gras fall in separate weeks, crowds split across two travel windows. When they overlap, both school-break markets arrive simultaneously.

Historical data shows this consolidation pushes crowd levels to 8/10 or higher across all parks.

Youth Sports Travel

Mid-February brings gymnastics events, soccer tournaments, and cheer competitions. Hotels near ESPN Wide World of Sports fill up with families who combine competition schedules with park visits.

Mild Weather Appeal

No summer heat, no hurricane risk, and lower perceived busy season make mid-February attractive to families. Many who'd normally wait for Spring Break travel now.

EPCOT Festival Season

The EPCOT International Festival of the Arts runs through February 23. Festival attendance adds extra traffic to an already crowded week.

Park-by-Park Breakdown (February 17: 10 am - 1 pm)

Disney's Hollywood Studios saw the highest average waits at 72 minutes. Slinky Dog Dash reached 120 minutes, while Tower of Terror hit 150 minutes.

Disney's Animal Kingdom averaged 49 minutes. Avatar Flight of Passage peaked at 180 minutes, with Expedition Everest at 80 minutes.

EPCOT averaged 47 minutes. Test Track reached 105 minutes, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind hit 125 minutes, and Frozen Ever After topped 75 minutes.

Magic Kingdom averaged 42 minutes despite Space Mountain's 185-minute peak. TRON Lightcycle / Run reached 125 minutes, while Seven Dwarfs Mine Train hit 95 minutes.

What to Expect This Week

The February 13-22 window remains one of the busiest stretches of 2026 so far. Wait times should stay elevated through this weekend as overlapping school breaks continue.

Crowds typically ease after February 23 when both holiday windows close and the EPCOT festival ends.

Your best strategy: arrive at rope drop, use Lightning Lane when available, and target low-wait attractions during peak afternoon hours.

Discuss on the Forums

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LilofanFeb 19, 2026

When Frozen ride opened in Epcot the wait on the first day was 5 hours. Cast were going down the line handing out ice cream.

natatomicFeb 19, 2026

Thought this was an interesting watch. I mean, I know this isn't a slow week, so it's only tangently related. But I thought I'd share it anyway. (If it's been shared before on the forum, I apologize).

doctornickFeb 19, 2026

Just an FYI, but Tuesday - in addition to being Mardi Gras - was also Lunar New Year and the schools in our area in the Northeast were off for that. Our public schools also have off for things like Eid and Diwali (in addition to Jewish holidays like Yom Kippur/Rosh Hashanah which have been on the calendar longer). That might have had as much or more impact on the number of visitors as things being closed for Mardi Gras. Edit: I see that @MickeyLuv'r already mentioned Lunar New Year

SirwalterraleighFeb 19, 2026

I can just tell you that being tied to the Catholic calendar…we haven’t found it that egregious the last few risks we traveled then. This week looks much worse to be honest

gorillaballFeb 19, 2026

Reduced capacity because RoA is closed 🤣

Chi84Feb 19, 2026

The only reason I asked is that someone suggested they only run one side of Space Mountain at after hours events. My question was whether only one side was running when the waits were significant enough to warrant two.

alexdisneyFeb 19, 2026

I think March 16th week is considered the main one this year. We will be there for 4 days

MickeyLuv'rFeb 19, 2026

Sadly, the one thing missing from my notes was the SM posted wait that night. It was closed earlier in the day, and they were letting people use (expired) LL if they also qualified for EEH. I was able to bypass the wait for SM using my LL, but the standby queue was long, and moving slowly/full due to people with LL being admitted to Omega side. Omega was reserved for LL, even though it was after park close. The inside standby queue was backed up most of the way to the ride entrance. I think it was posted 60, and it looked 60. After SM, TRON had a posted 30 at 10pm, but wait was just 20min (from entrance all the way to launch). Before SM the wait for 7D was SO low that it was posted as 7minutes (for the Seven dwarves), but was actually walk-on. That was at 9:12pm. It took at least 4min to walk the length of the queue, but we were off at 9:23pm. So if I just said, the wait for SM was 60minutes, that would be incomplete. For that matter, if I only said 7D was walk-on that night, that would also be incomplete. I think SM was popular that night because it had been down most of the day, and it was COLD, so people wanted to be indoors. A few days earlier though.... Epcot was a different story. TT was posted 40min at 8:45pm. Used LL and we were off TT in 19min. GoG was down, at 9:10pm, so walked back to re-ride TT using SR. It was still posted as 40, amid a surge of people entering the queue at 9:15pm when fireworks ended and bonus surge w/ GoG down. SR for TT took us from 9:20-9:45pm. Got in line for GoG just after 9:45pm and posted wait was 55min, though it had just reopened. Our actual wait was about 30min to boarding. When we got off around 10:20. Posted wait for GoG was 60 min. If we had not used SR, the wait for TT would have been much longer. It likely would have taken us the full 2 hours to do just two rides. Hard to say if the 60minutes posted wait for GoG at 10:20pm that night was accurate. That's one more problem with trusting any posted wait. Often, they are inaccurate. I should add, it was pretty cold that night as well, so the prospect of trudging all the way to Remy and back again was unappealing. As it happens, a few days later, weather again made Epcot a bit crazy. Mexico pavilion was PACKED due to rain. Waited about 20 for the ride, queue was backed up all the way to the lobby and snaked through the pavilion. In Norway, FEA was down but reopened just as we arrived. FEA wait was only15min. On the other hand, post-ride the gift shop was jam packed! There was a long line to buy Helly Hanson hoodies! The park was also quite busy that day because of the Arts Festival, but the crowds were mostly at the food and art booths. Many of the food booths had very long lines. So that day as well, citing the wait for just one attraction would have also been a very incomplete picture. By the time we got off the Mexico ride, the queue surge was over. People just flocked there because of the downpour, but also the park was fairly full of festival-goers.

SirwalterraleighFeb 19, 2026

There is no “spring break week”…breaks roll on different calendars for about 2 months

Chi84Feb 18, 2026

How long?

alexdisneyFeb 18, 2026

I hope this means spring break week will be a little less busy lol

MickeyLuv'rFeb 18, 2026

huh? You said you don't remember seeing long lines at after-hours events. I gave a list of examples of why long wait surges are common during extra hours. A few weeks ago, SM specifically had a long queue during EE while the rest of the park was quiet.