Is It Still Worth Visiting During ‘Fall’ Off-Season at Disney World?
For over a decade, we’ve been singing the praises of early “fall” off-season being among the best times to visit Walt Disney World. But are August and September still good months to visit Walt Disney World, or are the tradeoffs for low crowds too much? That’s the question this post explores. (Updated December 8, 2024.)
We’ve been doing WDW during the fall off-season as long as we’ve been visiting together as adults. It started by accident. There was a brief window when Free Dining was offered but our school had yet to go back into session. We took advantage, and it was fantastic. Hours were just as long but crowds were much lower. We did the Pirate & Princess Parties, saw SpectroMagic, enjoyed evening Extra Magic Hours until after midnight, all while having ridiculously good–and huge–meals. It’s wild how much of that is gone or no longer possible.
We became hooked on this time of year and found ourselves routinely returning during this ‘sweet spot’ at Walt Disney World, especially once we got Southwest Companion Passes and joined Disney Vacation Club. Then we started spreading the good word about mid-August through September to anyone who would listen. Long-time readers of the blog probably already know that our #1 month of the year at Walt Disney World was September for a long time. That’s no longer the case, but it was for the better part of a decade.
As we’ve pointed out for several years, mid-August through September have remained reliably uncrowded even as other past off-season months have gotten busier. For us, what fully “cemented” the status of mid-August through late September was when not even the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge moved the needle on crowds.
September 2019 was our first time experiencing the month as Floridians, and we took full advantage. If you weren’t there, it’s impossible to explain how gloriously uncrowded the parks were and how awesome ‘Extra, Extra Magic Hours’ was. It’s almost unbelievable given how things changed ~6 months later when the parks closed (and they still haven’t fully recovered).
To be entirely honest with you, nostalgia for both our first off-season visits together and those more recent heyday of early fall off-season has probably clouded my judgment, and caused me to keep on my rose-colored glasses about this stretch. However, reality has really set in over the course of the last couple years…
December 8, 2024 Update: We are not putting our “money where our mouths are” as it turns out. Not this year and definitely not in 2025. For all of the digital ink spilled here last year about the heat and humidity, we did it again this year and will repeat the ‘mistake’ in 2025. There are a few reasons for this.
The first is that the return to a normal start for the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, which means we can take an early September trip (as opposed to early August) and hit both, while also increasing our chances of better weather. To that point, my September and October visits this year were much better than June through August visits. I know that won’t always be the case, but the odds of lower temperatures do increase–even if slightly–in September and October. (Unfortunately, the odds of hurricanes also go up–as we saw in 2024!)
Second, there’s the upcoming “Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away” Parade. Walt Disney World hasn’t announced when this will debut, but our expectation is around Memorial Day 2025. Magic Kingdom has been starved of a night parade for the better part of the last decade, so even if crowds continue their ‘summer slump’ as a whole, we’re still expecting the parade route to be packed. As such, August and September after schools go back into session and the parade isn’t quite as new should make viewing it easier.
Fourth, although it’s not Walt Disney World, our thought process is more or less the same with Universal’s Epic Universe. We anticipate that being difficult to experience during its opening summer season, and our fear is that it’ll actually be worse from late September through all of October, when Halloween Horror Nights gets into full swing and many Universal fans plan their visits. So again, the early fall off-season represents a sweet spot between summer vacation and Halloween (as well as Christmas).
Finally, there’s the 2025 Destination D23 at Walt Disney World. Not relevant to many of you, but I’ll absolutely be attending, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this fun fan event that’ll be bigger than ever. This makes the window around Labor Day, which this year were the two slowest weeks since October 2021, two of our favorite weeks to visit Walt Disney World in 2025. If the parks are as slow and wait times are as low in 2025–or even close to it–they’ll make dealing with the weather “worth it.” Walt Disney World was blissfully uncrowded.
The downside, as you’ve probably surmised, is the weather. It was hot in 2021-2022 to the point that we found ourselves taking more midday breaks than normal and really being ‘beat’ by the weather. At the time, that felt like the worst weather we’d experienced during the August and September off-season. It was noticeably hotter, but not necessarily unexpected or historically bad. Just worse than normal.
Then the early fall off-season of 2023 happened. I’m no stranger to hot summers in Central Florida, and the couple weeks I was there in mid to late August were the worst weather I’ve ever experienced at Walt Disney World. August was so awful that there were excessive heat advisories on a regular basis and the Florida Division of Emergency Management warned residents and visitors of dangerously hot and humid conditions.
Actual temperatures often flirted with triple digits, and feels like temperatures routinely hit 110-115° throughout month. It was a record-breaking summer for Central Florida, with August being especially awful. I didn’t find 2024 to be nearly as bad, but I also visited later in August and again in September. Also, it probably “helped” that my off-season visits had better weather than my summer ones! It’s all relative!
You might think that Florida is always hot and humid this time of year. Not only that, but weather forecasts are frequently filled with hyperbole, finding new ways to sensationalize and scare. So maybe those 110°+ feels like temperatures aren’t actually all that much worse than the 90s you’ve experienced in Florida and elsewhere in other months, right?
Wrong. At least, in my opinion. I don’t have a tremendous tolerance for heat and humidity, but I at least became accustomed to it while living in Florida. However, the late summer and early fall of 2023 was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in Orlando. About the only thing that compares was a summer a few years back at Hong Kong Disneyland, which somehow manages to surpass Central Florida when it comes to heat and humidity.
By definition, record heat waves are unprecedented and atypical. And 2023 was really bad–enough to give me pause about recommending this timeframe to first-timers or anyone who hasn’t experienced it before. The next few years could be downright pleasant by comparison, but the trend is not your friend when it comes to temperatures. You’re gambling on weather this time of year, and Walt Disney World trips cost a lot.
It wasn’t just triple-digit temperatures and feels like heat this off-season in Florida. Add to that humidity above 75% plus UV indexes of 10/10, and it was a perfect storm of uncomfortable weather. About the only positive I can say about the weather during my weeks in Central Florida this August and September was that it was, thankfully, a reprieve from storm season at Walt Disney World.
Sarah was unable to join me for obvious reasons. When I first bought my ticket to attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party–the first she had missed in over a decade–she was disappointed to be missing out. That wore off by the time the party rolled around. I had been sending periodic updates on the weather, with screenshots of the temperature when I first left my room each day.
The day of the first Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party was particularly brutal. At the start of the event, the temperature was 100° with a feels like of 115 degrees. This wasn’t even as bad as it got this particular day–the actual temperature hit 102° and the feels like reached 118 degrees. Nothing says “Halloween” like triple-digit heat in early August!
There was almost no reprieve from the heat and humidity. I got up every day at the crack of dawn for Early Entry, and it was hot even at 7 am. I began keeping my camera bag on the balcony overnight so my lenses wouldn’t be fogged up when I needed them the next morning.
Evening was a similar story. Sunset was a welcome relief, but only in part. There were nights when I left the parks and the feels like temperature was still over 100 degrees. Now in fairness, when you go from blazing sun and 118° feels like temperatures to darkness and “only” 101° feels like temperatures, the difference is pretty pronounced. But I was still sweating like crazy at pretty much all hours of the day.
I worked around the weather with midday breaks, taking things slow after Early Entry and rope drop, and finding ways to avoid the heat. But even that wasn’t enough. I couldn’t help but think about how much my Walt Disney World experience differs from the average guest, as I do the parks in atypical ways and “for the sake of research.”
I also wore my dorky bucket hat paired with athletic shirts, and still managed to sweat through those every day by like 10 am. I have this really thick sunscreen that gives me the complexion of a ghost (better than cancer!) and that plus the debilitating heat, getting up early and staying out late, gave me a “nice” deathly appearance.
If this were a trip with Sarah and Megatron, we would want nice family photos. I’m not sure the extent to which that even would’ve been possible unless we prioritized pictures first thing in the morning or took second-showers and returned for post-sunset photos.
The heat gives everyone a shorter fuse, too. Although it’s not something that’s measurable, I can say with complete confidence that I overhear and observe more meltdowns–among both children and adults–in August and September than during November and December.
This isn’t me passing judgment. The heat and humidity are to blame, and it’s not like I’m immune to it. The weather causes crankiness, and I found myself being a bit more irritable than normal, and annoyed by things I typically would’ve brushed off. The difference is that I was flying solo, so it was simply an internal grumbling to myself and not outward orneriness.
Even stopping short of full meltdown territory, the heat and humidity just beat you down. The weather is exhausting, making it exceedingly difficult to do a full day in the parks without a midday break or taking time to decompress. This alone can undermine any efficiency gains from the lower crowds.
If you’re skipping a few hours or going at a slower pace due to the weather, you might end up accomplishing just as much during the slowest days in August as you would during slightly busier (but much more pleasant) weeks in late October to December.
Unscheduled breaks or necessary downtime can also exacerbate tensions and stress. If your months-in-the-making plan dictates being in the park from opening until closing–but it becomes clear that’s not feasible–it can be crushing to see that slip away. One of the reasons we are anti-spreadsheet is because we’ve seen exactly this scenario play out too many times.
While I did several full days from Early Entry until after park closing in August and September, my batting average was probably less than .500. And that’s just me, an adult who likes to power through whenever possible. Envisioning how we’ll do Walt Disney World as a family with a child in tow…I just cannot fathom full days during this time of year.
By contrast, I can do full days during the holiday season with ease. The temperatures are much more conducive to it, as are the fewer hours of daylight. Even if crowd levels are higher, that might only amount to an extra ~5 minutes of waiting per attraction. But if you’re spending an extra ~2 hours in the parks per day, you’ve more than offset the added wait times.
And although it’s tough to quantify, I’d argue that the whole vibe is merrier during that time of year, from guests to Cast Members. Silly as it might sound, I fully believe you feed off of the energy around you at Walt Disney World. It’s much easier to be reinvigorated and upbeat thanks to the collective energy in November and December than August and September.
Another issue that’s becoming more pronounced is park hours. There’s now fewer hours that the parks are opening after dark, which is the most pleasant time of day to do Walt Disney World during September.
I did Extended Evening Hours a couple times at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT during the most recent off-season, and it was the busiest I’ve seen it at either park–worse than the peak of spring break, despite much lower crowds during the day. I’m guessing there are multiple reasons for Extended Evening Hours getting busier, but the most obvious to me would be weather.
Eligible guests probably took midday breaks with the intention of returning to the parks in the evening. (Rather than staying all day, getting burnt out, and heading home before ExEH started, as often happens.) The influx of guests at the start of Extended Evening Hours would seem to corroborate this.
Equally concerning is how Walt Disney World quietly shortened hours in September. A lot of attention has been rightfully paid to Magic Kingdom closing too early or now opening at 9 am on most MNSSHP dates. Walt Disney World cutting hours at EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios is just as big of a deal–and one that has flown under the radar. It’s really unfortunate and if this trend repeats itself in September 2024–but not October, November, or December–it will significantly change the calculus on which of these times is the “best” to visit.
With all of that said, mid-August through late September remains a really appealing timeframe for a few reasons. First and foremost is that it’s consistently uncrowded. Yeah, it’s busier now than it was in 2008 or 2017, but relative to other months in the same calendar year, it’s #1 for crowds.
Unlike other months that were once the off-season but have since seen spikes (looking at you, January and October!), August and September are likely to stay uncrowded. The main factors keeping attendance down–school schedules and weather–aren’t going to change. Walt Disney World can’t get crafty scheduling runDisney, ESPN Wide World of Sports, conventions, or other events in September to buoy attendance, as the weather makes it a non-starter for so much.
Most schools are going to be in session during most of August and all of September, and parents are unlikely to pull their kids out after the new school year just started. For tons of people, it’s simply an undesirable time to visit, and that has remained true no matter how many times they’ve heard effusive praise about the early fall off-season. Many fans, perhaps the wiser ones, might view that as the Siren’s Song of September (and August).
Finally, there’s pricing. If you look at the Cheapest Times to Go to Walt Disney World, you’ll see that the early fall off-season typically trails only the winter season. Even that is no sure thing, as superior discounts in mid-August through September can more than bridge the gap.
An arguably better comparison is how the early fall off-season compares to the final three months of the year. Not only are room discounts better and rack rates lower, but there’s a wider range of deals–like the recent 4-Parks Magic Tickets. Then there are significantly lower prices for hard ticket events like Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. It all adds up!
Ultimately, I can see why the early fall off-season is still such an appealing time for so many Walt Disney World diehard fans to take trips. It’s cheaper and less crowded, reminiscent of simpler days in past decades when prices and attendance were lower. The seasonal events are a ton of fun, and there’s something so satisfying about walking onto attractions with virtually no waits. You feel like a VIP.
Personally, I love the idea of August through late September. I see photos of us in empty parks that stir up fond memories, conveniently forgetting the heat we endured along the way. To some degree, I think that’s how nostalgia works–your mind savors the good and lets go of the bad, creating an idealized version of a past that never existed.
In fairness, we have warned about weather and even made ‘qualitative’ recommendations to go later in September or October, avoiding the best stretch of crowds in favor of the likelihood of a more pleasant experience. There’s a reason our 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025 don’t recommend the weeks that typically have the absolute lowest crowds.
We’ve instead advised waiting until later in September when it’s slightly busier (but still slow relative to the rest of the year), late October, or the low-crowd windows in November and December. Even though none of those dates are as objectively uncrowded as mid-August through early September, they’re subjectively superior.
Of course, that all depends upon your tolerance for crowds and heat. If you hate the former but don’t mind the latter, maybe August and September are still attractive months for you. Again, the lows are really low during the fall off-season, which is one of the few reliably uncrowded times left. Just know what you’re getting yourself into, because the heat is really hot, too!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Do you think it’s still worth braving the weather in August and September for the lowest crowds of the year at Walt Disney World? Or, would you take the slightly higher crowd levels but subjectively superior overall experience during the November and December lulls? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!
Now that you’re a parent — As Megatron become school age, you’ll see how WDW planning changes. You’re mostly limited to when school is out of session.
So therefore, it’s merely a choice between bad weeks. Depending on where you go to school, August is often the rare time that crowds are low AND school is out of session. President’s Week, Spring Break weeks, Thanksgiving, Christmas… you get better weather but brutal crowds and pricing.
It’s which evil do you pick.
We got lucky when we went to Disney last September. We went the first week of September, and the weather wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d expected (and planned for). We didn’t use our cooling towels or fans once. And we went home right before the week-long barrage of rain hit. We may try September again this year; I don’t know. I’m also looking at November and December, but unfortunately the first week of December isn’t what it used to be. The crowd levels have risen immensely and so have the resort prices.
I agree with that perspective. we also used to love September for all those reasons, but the heat and humidity in Orlando are serious and we did reschedule our Sept 2023 trip to January 2024, due to the heat last year.
We are currently scheduled to go again in early Sept 2024.
Last year, Orlando was in that weather phenomenon called a “heat dome”. Temps were so bad in part because the heat was trapped in by the atmosphere for months. Night time which under nirmal conditions cools off the earth just doenst happen ina heat dome. The heat was trapped for months in places all over the country.
This year Florida does not appear to be in the path of a “heat dome”, so while it should still be very, very hot, hotter than usual even, this year the heat of the day will be able to escape the atmosphere allowing nightime temps drop dramatically. So long story short, there should be some evening to nightime reprieve from the heat, and a slower rise to daily highs, making the heat somewhat less intense, at least for brief periods each day.
I agree that with temps rising everywhere, the fall at WDW is kinda dicey anymore, but as long as there is no heat dome predicted, I think we’ll still give it a try, but if I hear even a whiff from meteorologists about a heat dome developing in Orlando 2024. I’ll reschedule our Sept trip in a heart beat.
We did mid September last year for MNSSHP. The temperature was unbearable- we were all in costumes and lasted an hour before they wound up in a bag. Our photos -we did a photo session as o really wanted Halloween costume photos from the party – we look wilted and drenched. We will not do September again. And Halloween costumes will only be matching t shirts.
Thanks to Tom’s prior recommendations about September, and my own experiences from mid-September 2022, I will returning to Disney World the fourth week in September. The crowd levels in 2022 were a little high, but I attributed that to being the tail end of the COVID revenge travel. In reality, I did not find the crowds to be a major issue. With some planning, and good use of Genie+ and ILLs, we were able to do just about all we wanted to do. Yes, it was warm, but we had showers 4 of the 6 days we were there. That cooled temps some. And I’m from the South, so I’m accustomed to hotter weather.
Many years ago, we were there in mid-September. I kept seeing school-age kids all over the place. I wondered why weren’t they in school?
We went to WDW in the last week of September 2023, one day for each of the 4 parks, and IMO the crowds were absolutely bonkers in each park. I thought the weather was pretty good, it might have been a bit humid but we’re from the midwest and used to the humidity.
2.5 hours for FoP, over an hour wait for food at Flametree, over 75 min for DINOSAUR, EPCOT was shoulder to shoulder from about 1pm to close, MK was jammed up with waits of nearly an hour for Dumbo and the Barnstormer of all rides….DHS was somewhat decent but that was also the hottest day of all our park visits and it rained non-stop from about 5pm to close.
I chalked it up to being the last week the 4-Day/$99 per day park ticket was able to be used. We were using those tickets, and my guess is many other people were doing the same before their tickets expired. Maybe others had to push their vacations back for one reason or another and they were forced to use their tickets in that last week of September, but I will never….ever….believe that week to be a down week for crowds as long as the 4-Day ticket expires that week. Which it does again this year.
That’s a great catch, Bryan! Tom ought to note somewhere that the 4-Day Magic (and the 3-Day Special) Tickets need to be used by Saturday, September 28 so crowds will be elevated for sure the week (and weekend) prior to that, and maybe somewhat the week (and weekend) before that.
I’d say the first weeks in September and the following week and weekend in October would be better, but it goes back to the idea of focusing on best Weeks rather than best Months to visit WDW.
This is a very, very good point and also an accurate one based on what we’ve observed with ticket deals and crowds at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland in the last few years. WDW releasing the ticket deal earlier this year–and thus giving people more time to prepare–will likely only exacerbate it this year.
Tom, do you expect this September 2024 to be different from 2023 crowd wise? We booked a trip for September 19th – 30th, were traveling in from Canada and the trip is quite expensive for us with airfare, ground transportation, and the high exchange rates we have to pay for the US dollar. We cant afford a deluxe resort so were staying at Pop Century. We booked in late September willing to face some bad weather mainly hoping for lower crowds. After Reading your
post and a lot of the comments here it sounds like the crowds were very Very heavy/crowded with high wait times mid to late September last year!! Do you expect that will happen again?? Even though we’ve already booked non refundable, no changes allowed air fare I’m considering canceling our trip if were going to be experiencing high level crowds with 100 minute wait times and end up standing in extremely long lines in horrible weather. We’re all adults in our family group and I don’t see the point in paying all this money for this trip just to be unable to do most of the rides we want to do. Since they’ve changed Extra Evening Hours to be offered only to deluxe resort guests we cant even try our luck at lower evening temperatures. I know most of us could not handle standing in hour long lines in sunny 90+ degree temperatures. Should we cancel?? Should we expect WDW to be experiencing high level crowds in mid to late September
again this year?? Very worried!!
Hi, Tom. We went in 2023 the day after Labor Day for four days. This was our first time going in a hot month and whoa nelly!!! was it hot!! Surface of the sun hot! Our personal favorite time to go is the last couple of days of January and first couple days of Feb. However, we have an adult special needs son who is MAD for Disney and Halloween so we thought we’d try MNSSHP. October was not a scheduling option for us so we sucked it up and went in September. Never again!! Atleast not early September!! Our cooling clothes (that we carried around in ziplocks of ice/water), hydrating with electrolytes and taking periodic AC breaks saved us for sure. We’re going the last few days of sept for the food and wine festival and are reeaalllyyy hoping the heat won’t be quite as bad. Fingers crossed!!
Hey Tom, always love your posts! My family has been visiting Walt Disney World every other year in September for about the last two decades. I’ve gone other times of the year, but I am more ‘heat’ tolerant than ‘crowd’ tolerant! Although I love the Christmas season, the ‘low crowds’ of September are just way to enticing! There are SO many ways to ‘beat the heat’. Just go slower, take more breaks, find those shows in AC to take an afternoon break, etc. I have to agree that 2019 was the sweet spot for us. September 2019 seemed so low in crowds that it cemented in our minds that we will always go in September.
I remember back in 1999, we had a death in our family and afterward I just took off to WDW to get some time alone, all I can say is it must’ve been during that period when everyone was huddled in their homes due to the 99-2000 computer scare, you know, all this end of the world theories going on.. anyway I kid you not that September day there was No Body there except me and the Staff waiting at each ride!!! Believe me, to this day its something I’ll never forget!!!
August is a total no go for us. It’s really hot and with hurricane season being in full swing, one moment it is so humid you can barely breathe, and the next it is raining through your umbrella. Mid-September gets better and October before Hallowe’en can also be good. This all depends on the park choice.( I have observed as a pass holder.) I’ve had a great time in January, February, skipping any spring break times, skipping mid to late June and all of July. Was in Epcot in mid – May and it was surprisingly not crowded. I’m going in two days – early June – and hopefully the temps will have diminished a bit. We had mid-90’s already in May. Could be a harbinger of temps to come. It can be hit and miss but I always check wait times if I don’t hit the parks right at opening (which rarely happens). Oh, and evenings, too, can be much cooler at Epcot plus, that park typically stays open later. Thanks for all that you do!
I’ve tried going in September. It’s nice. But the real problems with Disney go much deeper than timing. It’s the attitude of the company. It’s not so much the wokeness, although that grows tiresome. We’re just sheep to be fleeced.
If you are going in early fall, then you should be going at the end of September into early October. Until the 3rd week of September it is SUMMER. We started out yearly trips to Disney World in 1994. Each year we would take our kids out of school the first week of September for our trip to Disney. The kids school told us that family time was important and since our kids made good grades and kept up with their school work we were good to go. The end of August and early September are summer and they will likely be pretty hot even in normal years. I am from Texas and I am comfortable in temperatures warmer than most. In 2021, we were there September 11-20. It was average Sept. weather. Mornings and evenings were warm but comfortable. Mid days were hot enough to be uncomfortable but often cooled by short thunderstorms. In 2022, we were there Sept. 4-11. It was more rainy than usual–raining for hours at a time for several days. That kept the temperatures cooler, but it was humid. Still comfortable in the mornings and evenings. In 2023, we were there Sept. 11-19. I found the mornings and evenings to be enjoyable but we did take longer than usual breaks in the mid day to avoid the heat. We will be back this September. Most days we can go to a park early and get most of the most important attractions done before noon. Then we head back to the resort and rest a bit. Then we head out for an early dinner in the air conditioning and finish out what we want to do in the cooler evening. Thirty minutes is the max I am willing to stand in line for anything and, with a little planning, I can do everything I want during our early September trips.
I was in Disneyland for three days last week and WDW for three days split by one day of flying. WDW had much more comfortable weather. It was very hot with Santa Ana winds in Disneyland! And the air quality was horrible. So don’t think SoCal is always going to be great in September or early October either. We Californians know this.
I got the feeling from some of the wording in this post that you’re no longer based in Orlando. Am I reading that correctly? I thought for a time recently you were writing as a “local” to WDW but maybe my reading comprehension is off.
Correct. We lived in Florida for a few years, but are now back in California. We (or recently, me) are in Florida about once per month for about a week (give or take depending upon what is–or isn’t–happening).
We’ve just visited between 12th September to 26th for the first time in five years from the UK and I have to agree with you about the heat and the humidity. We’ve been many, many times over the years during September and we’ve never been so hot this time. In fact my new trainers virtually melted smooth on the bottom due to the heat of the concrete surfaces. I disagree though that the parks were empty. I’ve never seen so many children in the parks as this time. I couldn’t understand why there were so many children being pushed around in huge double strollers when they were capable of walking. They were not toddlers! Also, we were on the bus every morning for 7.30 so that we were at the rope drop for 8.30, but even then, we only managed to get on one ride before 9am and over an hour wait for our next chosen favourite ride. 30mins early entry for resorts is not enough. The other thing that spoiled our trip was the MNSSHP nights as the early closure of MK meant that Epcot was absolutely heaving with people. It became unbearable so we used to head back to the All Stars resort early as we didn’t have the luxury of extra magic hours in the evening. I think it will be busy until Universal opens up their new park. When that happens, it will certainly take a lot of Disney guests away. I believe, old Universal parks were quiet this September season, but it will be different once the new one opens.
we went end of August beginning of September and I’ve never been so hot! but we walked on to most of the rides or a very small wait,back to room for rest and shower by lunch time and out again in afternoon,but I would 100% go again,I’ve been June and July before but I think this might be my new time to go
Hello Tom,
Would it have helped if I mention that my family and I visited WDW August 27-September 2, 2023. You did not post my comment. I was trying to converse what a lot of people are saying about Disney. They are having terrible vacations at Disney World. I really do wish Corporate Disney would listen. I thought perhaps they read your helpful posts too! Thanks for all help with planning my Disney family vacations!
“You did not post my comment.”
I don’t see any missing comments from you on this post.
I do see one from you on this post: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/price-increases-likely-coming-soon-for-late-2023-2024-at-disney-world-disneyland/
“Disney really needs to rethink its overall commitment to guest experience. I say this because everyone I speak to about Disney other than my best friend, (we are Disney nuts!). Everyone is over and done with Disney. I have heard Disney is too expensive, too much planing, too many people, too many rides broke down, parks not open long enough, they didn’t get to ride a certain ride. It’s sad most people I speak to feel this way. I hope somehow Disney will listen and really improve overall guest satisfaction ASAP!”
The last 5 years we’ve gone from mid August to early Sept. The first 4 times, the heat, humidity and constant sun beating down never fazed us. If anything those conditions made jumping in the pool or visiting the water park all the more enjoyable.
This year, 2023, was different. We questioned ever returning in August. Was this an aberration? Will next year be more like the other 4 years?
Unfortunately my wife is a teacher so dedicated to her job working with emotionally, physically and emotionally challenged little children that she won’t take a week off during months with low attendance and better weather.
We have tried busy holiday weeks when the weather was great but the crowds were huge. They had their moments but I wasn’t totally sold on them so for now I used the bounce back program to give August 2024 another try.
Honestly folks, if next August is as hot as this August book something else.