Summer's heating up:

You're eyeing a theme-park trip this week, but the national average wait time is ticking up as summer kicks in. We've got the live snapshot across twelve major US parks—and one has unusually short lines that might be worth a same-week visit if you're flexible.

1. New rides and food experiences opening this month

May is a quiet month for major attractions, but Disney parks are rolling out seasonal menus alongside their Blockbuster Summer event. Keep an eye on these launches:

• Walt Disney World — Magic Kingdom — Disney Eats: FØØD by Swedish Chef Menu Reveal, Opening May 26
• Disneyland (Anaheim) — Disney Eats: New Mandalorian and Grogu Menus and More at Disney Parks
• Cedar Point — From Opening Day to Retirement: Heather Hill's 45-Year Journey
• Cedar Point — Make Waves This Summer: What's New at Hurricane Harbor Arlington in 2026
• Knott's Berry Farm — From Opening Day to Retirement: Heather Hill's 45-Year Journey
• Knott's Berry Farm — Make Waves This Summer: What's New at Hurricane Harbor Arlington in 2026

2. Major refurbishment closures this week

Several parks are in heavy maintenance mode right now. Hersheypark is running particularly deep closures—60 rides out—while Universal Studios Hollywood has 27 attractions down. Check your must-do list before booking:

Live status by park
• Disneyland (Anaheim) — 10 closures
• Universal Orlando — Islands of Adventure — 6 closures
• Universal Studios Hollywood — 27 closures
• Six Flags Magic Mountain — 38 closures
• Six Flags Great Adventure — 42 closures
• Cedar Point — 24 closures
• Hersheypark — 60 closures
• Knott's Berry Farm — 11 closures
• Busch Gardens Tampa — 12 closures
• SeaWorld Orlando — 6 closures
• Dollywood — 2 closures

3. Special events and seasonal programming

Disney's Blockbuster Summer is officially here at both coasts, while Six Flags parks are promoting summer entertainment and looking ahead to holiday programming. Summer event lineups tend to drive steady crowds:

• Walt Disney World — Magic Kingdom — Lights, Camera…Play: Blockbuster Summer Has Officially Arrived
• Disneyland (Anaheim) — Lights, Camera…Play: Blockbuster Summer Has Officially Arrived
• Cedar Point — Make Waves This Summer: What's New at Hurricane Harbor Arlington in 2026
• Cedar Point — Holiday in the Park Returns to Over Georgia & Great Adventure
• Cedar Point — Huge Additions to Summer Entertainment at Kings Dominion
• Knott's Berry Farm — Make Waves This Summer: What's New at Hurricane Harbor Arlington in 2026
• Knott's Berry Farm — Holiday in the Park Returns to Over Georgia & Great Adventure
• Knott's Berry Farm — Huge Additions to Summer Entertainment at Kings Dominion

4. Where the crowds are (and aren't) right now

Universal's Islands of Adventure is running hot at 24 minutes average, with Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure hitting 90 minutes. Magic Kingdom is above the network average too. But Cedar Point is unusually calm—7 minutes across 45 open rides. If your schedule is flexible, this week is your opening:

• Walt Disney World — Magic Kingdom — 19 min average across 39 open rides; longest: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (50 min)
• Disneyland (Anaheim) — 12 min average across 45 open rides; longest: Indiana Jones™ Adventure (45 min)
• Universal Orlando — Islands of Adventure — 24 min average across 20 open rides; longest: Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure™ (90 min)
• Universal Studios Hollywood — 10 min average across 1 open ride; longest: Mario Kart™: Bowser's Challenge (10 min)
• Six Flags Magic Mountain — no rides reporting (off-season or closed)
• Six Flags Great Adventure — no rides reporting (off-season or closed)
• Cedar Point — 7 min average across 45 open rides; longest: Top Thrill 2 (90 min)
• Hersheypark — no rides reporting (off-season or closed)
• Knott's Berry Farm — 15 min average across 35 open rides; longest: GhostRider (90 min)
• Busch Gardens Tampa — 10 min average across 12 open rides; longest: Cheetah Hunt (40 min)
• SeaWorld Orlando — 10 min average across 11 open rides; longest: Penguin Trek (25 min)
• Dollywood — 13 min average across 34 open rides; longest: Thunderhead ® (75 min)

5. Best week to visit

Magic Kingdom and Islands of Adventure are both running above the network average right now. If you can shift your trip to a Tuesday or Wednesday in late September, mid-January, or early May, you'll see a significant drop in waits.

Cedar Point stands out this week. The park is running unusually light (7 minutes vs the network average of 14), which is rare for May. If your schedule allows a same-week pivot, you'll have short lines on major coasters.

Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and the Orlando parks (Universal Studios Hollywood, Busch Gardens, SeaWorld, Dollywood) are sitting at or near the network average. Standard family-travel playbook applies: arrive at park open, hit headliners in the first 90 minutes, take a midday break.

Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Great Adventure, and Hersheypark appear closed in this snapshot. Before booking, check each park's official seasonal calendar—the first full week after reopening typically draws lighter crowds.

How this digest was built

Live wait-time data via the public queue-times.com API. News and event headlines extracted from each park's public news pages via Crawl4AI, with a 2-second-per-host throttle and 429-error backoff. All processing is local—no cloud LLM tokens spent.

Parks covered: Walt Disney World — Magic Kingdom, Disneyland (Anaheim), Universal Orlando — Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Great Adventure, Cedar Point, Hersheypark, Knott's Berry Farm, Busch Gardens Tampa, SeaWorld Orlando, Dollywood.

This digest is editorial, not a booking platform. Verify ride availability, park hours, ticket prices, and travel-advisory status with the official park / operator before traveling.

FTC Disclosure: Some of the above links are affiliate links. If you book a ticket or hotel through our affiliate partners, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support Level Up Adventures. We only recommend products and services we genuinely believe in.