September 2026 at Disney World: Crowd Calendar & Info
Our guide to September 2026 at Walt Disney World offers a free crowd calendar, when to visit, red flag dates to avoid, new attraction openings & closures, plus Halloween events & early fall weather. We also cover what’s happening at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios.
Relative to summer, September is a good month to visit Walt Disney World due to off-season crowds for most of the month and seasonal events like Halloween. School is back in session, and wait times are low from Labor Day until crowds arrive towards the end of the month for the start of convention and group events seasons, plus early fall breaks. The September crowd calendar below makes this month a really attractive time to visit.
While every park isn’t going to be “dead” every day of the week, if you plan well, you can really avoid crowds during a September Walt Disney World visit. That also means shorter September park hours, but you can’t really argue with accomplishing more in less time. There’s only really one downside to September at Walt Disney World, and it’s a fairly big one.
That one downside is the weather, which is bad for two distinct reasons that we’ll cover in the next section. On balance, mid to late September can still be a very good time to visit Walt Disney World, but it’s not for everyone. You have to be able to tolerate (or gamble on) the weather in order to be rewarded with extremely low crowds.
Let’s take a look at what you can expect in September at WDW…
September Weather at Disney World
The downside comes in terms of weather. In terms of temperatures, September is better than June through August, but it’s still a gamble. It’s a lot like May in this regard: it can be temperate and pleasant, or insanely hot. Especially early in the month, it can be pretty hot and humid.
At the beginning of September, average high temperatures are 90°, with average lows of 75°. Towards the end of the month, the weather improves slightly, with historical highs of “only” 87° and lows of 72°. Add oppressive humidity that’ll fog your glasses the second you step out of your hotel room, and September is still a pretty undesirable month in terms of weather.
Suffice to say, if you’re visiting Walt Disney World in September, remember to pack accordingly, bringing the Frogg Toggs for the humidity…and ponchos for the rain so you don’t spend $179 on them at Walt Disney World. You can view day-by-day temperature and weather forecasts plus historical averages for Walt Disney World weather in September here.
September is also the height of hurricane and storm season. For each of the last three years, hurricanes have impacted operations at Walt Disney World at the very end of August or beginning of September. (Add last year to that list, as Hurricane Idalia offered a scare, but didn’t materially impact operations at Walt Disney World!) In recent years, Hurricanes Ian, Dorian and Irma have caused the parks to close.
You may want to consult our Visiting Walt Disney World During Storm Season article to navigate the afternoon showers (or worse) without them putting too much of a damper on your trip. Things get better towards the end of the month both in terms of humidity and storms, so your best bet is definitely to hold off on visiting until later in the month if you can.
WDW Seasonal Events in September
September 1 marks the end of Cool Kid Summer at Walt Disney World, which might have some of its dance parties and character encounters extended or made permanent. (It wasn’t really much of an “event” in the first place.)
To answer a common question: yes, you will see Halloween decorations if you visit Walt Disney World in September. Any day in September. However, the only park that gets decked out for Halloween is Magic Kingdom.
The big event for September is Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. In September, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party starts happening with increasing frequency. By mid-month, Magic Kingdom is closing early for MNSSHP a few nights per week. As discussed below, this really throws a monkey wrench into attendance dynamics.
Another event that’ll occur throughout September 2026 is the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival. This is a great way to graze and sample different cuisines, or attend instructive seminars, or other foodie special events. It’s also a great way to lighten your wallet, as it is very easy to spend a lot of money at Food & Wine Festival on these small samples.
Especially if you buy booze: not only can you spend a lot on the drinks, but the drinks might cause you to relax your credit card swiping hand and use it more freely on snacks. Not that we know from experience or anything. Check out our Guide to the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival for more tips and tricks for this event.
EPCOT Food & Wine Festival once again starts ahead of Labor Day weekend, meaning it’ll still be fresh by the time September rolls around. This means weekends at EPCOT will be busier, as Floridians and Annual Passholders head to the park to eat and drink their way around the world.
SEPTEMBER REFURBISHMENTS & NEW ATTRACTIONS
For an idea of what’s going to be closed in September 2026, check the Walt Disney World Refurbishment Schedule. That schedule won’t be completely accurate until around May, and it’s likely that the announced ride reimaginings will be winding down before Spring Break.
It’s still early, but possible closures at this point include Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Carousel of Progress. If we’re lucky, either Spaceship Earth or Journey into Imagination will also be down for lengthy reimaginings next summer. It’s also possible that the new Walt Disney Studios Lot, a replacement for Animation Courtyard, is finished by summer, but that could be a Late 2026 debut.
That refurbishment calendar doesn’t reflect the full scope and scale of construction at Walt Disney World. The parks are just now ramping up their next development cycle, and that’s already evident in Frontierland at Magic Kingdom, Dinoland at Animal Kingdom, and en route to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
While the guest impact won’t be nearly as bad as the last development cycle, there will be visible construction walls, closures, and more. See Walt Disney World’s 5-Year Plan: Construction, Closing & Opening Dates for New Lands & Rides for everything you need to know.
Making matters worse, none of the big new stuff will be open in 2026. It’s all still a year or more away. There’s a vague possibility that phased openings of Tropical Americas or Monstropolis start before 2027, but we doubt it. And we’re highly skeptical that anything would be ready by September, even if phased openings are to happen. Those would be more likely around Christmas, not the start of the off-season.
Another wildcard during the off-season is the repainting of Cinderella Castle. Walt Disney World announced that the new look will feature grays, creams, blues, and touches of gold aiming to enhance the castle’s architecture. They’ve given no timeline whatsoever, only that the project team is “still putting the finishing touches on the paint design process,” which suggests there might be a bit of a delay before it occurs. It could make sense to do the repainting during the off-season, and potentially install the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights at the same time. Fingers crossed.
Recent additions at Walt Disney World include Test Track 3.0, which reopened following a year-long reimagining. Other updates in EPCOT include Frozen Ever After, which will get new Audio Animatronics in 2026, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, which will receive a variety of enhancements.
There’s also Villains Unfairly Ever After and the Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure, which are stage shows at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. There are also newly-opened bars, GEO-82 at EPCOT and the Beak & Barrel Pirates of the Caribbean Tavern at Magic Kingdom.
The highlight of the year is also at Magic Kingdom: Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away, which is Walt Disney World’s first night parade in roughly a decade. Starlight pulls inspiration from Main Street Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic while featuring modern technology and fan-favorite characters.
We love Disney Starlight Night Parade and highly recommend making a point of watching it during your trip. The parade isn’t perfect, but it has great “bones” thanks to a celestial soundtrack and excellent floats. It’s a worthy addition to Walt Disney World’s legacy of nighttime entertainment, and we cannot get enough of it. See our rundown of the Best Starlight Night Parade Viewing Spots & Tips to Beat Magic Kingdom’s Massive Crowds!
For an overview of what else is on the horizon, see What’s New & Next at Walt Disney World in 2026 & Beyond.
SEPTEMBER 2026 DISNEY WORLD CROWD CALENDAR
There’s no color-coded September 2026 crowd calendar for Walt Disney World at the top of this section because that’s reductionist and doesn’t give you the full picture of Walt Disney World attendance trends. WDW crowd calendars are less reliable due to how Disney manipulates attendance patterns, staffing, closures, and ride capacity.
It’s better to offer an explanation of what to expect crowd-wise this fall at Walt Disney World. This is doubly true because each park varies (especially during this time of year) and there are also differences between crowd levels as measured by wait times and “feels like” crowds or congestion. That’s the bad news.
The very good news is that September is the best month of the year to visit Walt Disney World from an objective perspective. (From a subjective perspective is an entirely different story due to the weather forecast!) Literally the entire month sees below average crowds. Even Labor Day weekend (September 4-7, 2026) draws far smaller crowds than most other holidays.
Each of the last couple of years, Labor Day has been downright dead at Walt Disney World. Labor Day was a repeat of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, which was one of the slowest stretches of the entire year at Walt Disney World. History will not repeat itself to nearly the same degree, but as we explain in the following post, Labor Day Weekend Isn’t Busy at Disney.
To that point, the last week of August 2025 was the slowest at Walt Disney World since the last week of September 2021. The same week in 2023-2024 was barely busier, with a 25 minute average and 1/10 crowd level versus a 23 minute average and 1/10 crowd level last year. Both weeks were incredibly slow–the two least busy weeks since October 2021!
One thing to note is that Labor Day does fall roughly one week later in September 2026, but we don’t anticipate that materially impacting crowd dynamics. The holiday itself is more or less a non-factor (see above), so the impact isn’t even remotely comparable to Thanksgiving or even Columbus Day or Veterans Day shifting around. The same weeks in late August and September 2026 should be more or less equivalent to last year.
There are several reasons why we actually like Labor Day weekend from a subjective or holistic perspective, including the start of the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, Extended Evening Hours, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, and some of the least-expensive dates to visit of the year (aside from the weekend itself).
There’s really no terrible time to visit as far as the September 2026 crowd calendar goes. There will be an ever-so-slight spike due to the holiday weekend, and select dates in the second half of the month will see another spike due to ticket deals and seasonal attendance trends (getting closer to fall break; weather starting to improve from summer).
Beyond that, September 2026 will feature some of the lowest crowds of the year at Walt Disney World. In terms of the crowd calendar, this is one of the last bastions of the off-season at Walt Disney World. Average weekly crowd levels will be 1/10 to 3/10 during this date range.
If you’re purely concerned about crowds, we’d recommend going from August 21 to September 4, 2026. You’ll note that this is immediately before Labor Day, despite our praise for the holiday above. Even though Labor Day is slow by holiday weekend standards, there nevertheless is a slight spike from Friday through Monday. Still lower than 90% of dates, but elevated as compared to the 10 days that follow.
Even so, crowds drop off again on September 8, 2026. That day through September 11, 2026 is likewise a good time to visit. Rosh Hashanah is that weekend, and might cause a slight spike to crowds, but Saturday and Sunday still won’t be busy–just busier than the weekdays before and after.
In fact, weekends through the second half of September 2026 will likely be busier than weekdays.
This might seem counterintuitive, because normally the weekends are slower at Walt Disney World. That’s still true, but the key difference in late September is that a multi-month Florida resident ticket deal is usually winding down. These are “use it or lose it” tickets, and locals tend to work on weekdays, so the last couple weekends of validity tend to spike as a result.
Usually, this isn’t the only ticket deal winding down in September. Unfortunately, none of these tickets have been released for 2026, so we don’t know the impact. The Florida resident ticket deal has ended on September 27th or 28th in each of the last few years. Adjusted for the day of the week, and it will likely expire on September 26, 2026. We’ll update this once those deals are released, as they have a huge impact on crowd dynamics.
If they do end early, the weekends that follow will have a sharp decrease in crowds. If they expire later, those same weekends would be even worse. The point is that crowds spike in late September as people rush to use ticket deals before they end.
We’ve seen this trend play out in each of the last three years. It’s also most pronounced on Saturdays, which go from being the best day of the week to visit to the worst. As such, we’d highly recommend avoiding the parks on September 12, 19, and 26. Sundays aren’t usually as bad, but there’s another spike on Monday (that part is normal).
Across the board, weekdays will be progressively worse later in September–just not to the same degree as Saturdays due to the aforementioned ticket deals. The bottom line is that if you have the option to visit in the first half of September or the second half, you should definitely choose the first.
The contrast between those dates towards the end of the ticket deals expiring and the rest of September–otherwise one of the slowest months of the year–will be very stark. Crowds will feel even worse as a result. While these wouldn’t necessarily be ‘red flag’ dates to avoid during peak season timeframes like Spring Break or around Christmas, they’ll be about as bad as it gets during what’s otherwise the off-season.
Expect September 19-26, 2026 to be the busiest stretch of the month. The last couple days of the month–or even the very beginning of October–shouldn’t be too bad. Assuming, of course, that the ticket deal has expired by then.
In fact, we’d be more inclined to visit from September 27 to October 4, 2026 than we would the week before that. It’s not usually the case that crowds get better over the course of early fall, but that week in particular looks like one to target. At least, as contrasted with the one before it. Again, the expiration of those ticket deals are big drivers of attendance and crowds that catch a lot of fans by surprise.
We should note that October is a bit of a wildcard. The first week has been slower in the last few years, but it’s unclear how much of that has been driven by hurricane scares. Otherwise, October is a big month for conventions and other group events, plus fall breaks for various school districts around the country. This usually picks up closer to Columbus Day, though.
Still, busier is a relative term. The last full week of September 2026 will be worse than the rest of the month. However, if crowd levels hit 6/10, that’s technically true as the first three weeks will have crowd levels way below that. That’s exactly what we’re predicting–crowd levels averaging out at 6/10 or possibly 7/10 in the last week of the month, but with a wider range for Magic Kingdom (see below).
For Magic Kingdom, there’s an added wrinkle to the crowd calendar: Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP). On nights this event is held, the park closes to regular ticket holders at 6 pm. Consequently, Magic Kingdom is less busy during the day time hours on dates when MNSSHP is held, and more busy on days the Halloween event is not occurring.
We’d strongly recommend visiting Magic Kingdom during the day on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party nights, and then bouncing to another park at around 4 pm. Animal Kingdom will always be your best option for lower-crowd evenings during the fall.
This might seem counter-intuitive, but it’s because the party is separately-ticketed. Typically, the biggest impact is felt closer to Halloween, so the phenomenon isn’t bad at all in September. We’ve reported on this phenomenon at length, seeing this play out every single day of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party season.
You can also expect EPCOT to have worse “feels like” crowds on weekends. This is particularly true when local Florida colleges like UCF have away football games. However, this does not show up on crowd calendars, which measure wait times. (These locals cause congestion but typically don’t impact wait times.)
EPCOT’s attendance will be lightest on weekdays during the day, with heavier crowds after work as locals turn out to graze at the Food & Wine booths. (This is something that is tough to convey via a traditional numerical crowd calendar for Walt Disney World.)
SEPTEMBER PRICING & DISCOUNTS
Since it is the off-season, September is also a great month to visit in terms of both pricing and potential discounts. You can check available discounts via Disney here. Disney isn’t the only place where September is the off-season, so expect cheaper airfare.
As far as pricing goes, early to mid-September is considered “value” season and late September is “regular” or “fall” season for resort room rates and park tickets (read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post for ticket recommendations to avoid having to deal with seasonal pricing).
Ultimately, September is a one of the top months of the year to visit Walt Disney World if you can handle the heat and humidity. It really comes down to which you dislike more: high crowds or high heat.
If you need to convince a spouse to make a spontaneous getaway, there’s really no better argument that I can think of than “that one dude on the internet said we should!”
As you can see in our rundown of the Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2026 & 2027, we’re strong proponents of September. So much so that we recommend multiple weeks during the month.
Weather aside, September is one of our favorite times of the year for personal visits to Walt Disney World. For a while, we took trips to Walt Disney World during this time for 4 consecutive years, as those low crowds were too much to resist.
Now that we’re parents, we definitely favor the better weather during the best dates in November and December, but if you can handle the heat, there’s literally no better month than September. And like a fine wine, September gets better as it “ages” with the best times to visit usually being at the very end of the month–mainly due to better weather even as crowds increase ever-so-slightly from their off-season lows.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Are you a fan of visiting Walt Disney World in September? Have you found the crowds to be light? Is the weather this month bearable to you? Are you planning on visiting in September 2026 or is the potential for a hurricane too much of a gamble for you? If September is not your preferred month to visit Walt Disney World, which month do you like? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
We arrived late afternoon, August 31st for the holiday weekend. I’ve paid close attention to your thoughts about this particular weekend, and so far, they have been spot on! We did MK Sept 1, early entry. MNSSHP was that night (which we knew) and couldn’t believe how many people on the bus were unaware of this! We walked on almost every ride (2 18 y/o’s in tow, so no kiddie rides to speak of), 7 dwarves being the only exception, with a 30 minute wait time. WHAT?? We were out of the park by 2:15, also having 1 parade and lunch at the Crystal Palace under our belts. Perfection! DHS today, early entry, we were off both Star Wars rides by 9, slinky dog, tower, rock n’ (twice!) with too much time to jewelry shop $$! Out by 2:15. We live 90 minutes away, so Labor Day weekend may become our new go to long weekend! Thank you for your incredibly sound insight!
This will be my third consecutive year going mid to late September. Three years ago I took my son and last year my mother and daughter and this year is a solo trip. I love going this time of year and have had amazing trips. (Yes we were there during the hurricane last year) can’t beat the low crowds!
I’m taking my 11 year old Sept 21-24 for a quick trip and am hopeful that crowds will, indeed, be low. I’ve never gone in September before, but we didn’t take a summer vacation this year and the kiddo happened to have a couple of days off school so it’s going to work out nicely. We’re both looking forward to it!
Tom,
I want to thank you for your valuable advice, which my family followed during a wonderful trip to WDW from which we just returned last night. In our last 4 days in the parks, we were able to do 69 attractions (not counting the parade, fireworks, and Electrical Water Pageant), an average of 17 per day. That included hitting the 6 hardest-to-ride rides (the 5 that don’t take Genie+, plus Slinky Dog Dash) a total of 12 times, riding each at least once.
We employed a variety of your approaches: 1. M.K. on a party day while stacking Genie+ reservations for DHS; 2. early entry at DHS, a dip in the hotel pool, afternoon at A.K.; 3. early entry on an M.K. party day (16 attractions in 6 hours and some amazing morning light) and EPCOT in the afternoon and evening; 4. DHS in the early afternoon during a tropical storm (okay, maybe not one of your recommendations), A.K. in the late afternoon, and M.K. at night including Extended Evening Hours.
Importantly, your advice allowed us to succeed even while making sure our 10- and 8-year-old kids got about 10 hours of sleep per night. (We couldn’t go late and then start early.)
On two off days, we hit Typhoon Lagoon, Hoop-De-Doo, played 9 holes of golf, toured hotels, and had a delicious bison burger at Geyser Point.
(We also enjoyed 3 mornings of Tonga Toast, which I first had 40 years ago.)
By the way, the wait times on 8/30 (the main tropical storm day), while short, were more exaggerated than usual. They were like estimates during the last hour of park opening. Avatar Flight of Passage was saying 15-25 minutes when it was actually 5 minutes one time and a walk-on the other (plus the 6 minutes to walk through the marathon queue).
Finally, we stayed at Shades of Green and loved it. Its buses, our main concern, actually seemed better than the Disney buses (which we often used as well), because they have — and generally stick to — a set schedule, so you’re less apt to sit there waiting. Shades’s very big rooms, fun pool, tranquil setting, and $3.50 fresh-squeezed orange juice were quite attractive. The only hotels I’d say are clearly more appealing (the 3 monorail hotels and the Yacht & Beach) cost literally 4 times as much. I know you have fond memories of Shades from your childhood — you should try it out again!
Sorry for the long post, but mostly I wanted to say thanks. As you can tell, we had a very Bricker-like vacation. Have a great time touring the parks with your soon-to-be-born daughter in the coming years!
Great summary Jeff. We are attending at the end of Sept., beginning of Oct. Can you give us some Genie + and Lightning advice? Thanks, BB
Thanks Bruce. Well, I’ll give it a shot. What worked best for us was stacking Genie+ reservations for Hollywood Studios during the daytime hours in another park. Every 2 hours, you can book a new ride on Genie+, and it can be at another park (provided you buy Genie+ for all parks and not just for one).
By stacking reservations in this way, we ended up with four Genie+ reservations for DHS from 6:30 P.M to 9:00 P.M. We rode all four rides and didn’t wait in a single standby line (on a day when the average wait at DHS was quite high: 51 minutes). We booked one of those four reservations (for Slinky Dog Dash) around the time the park opened, as nighttime time-slots were already being offered then for that popular ride. We spent the late morning and early evening at Magic Kingdom on a party day with pretty light crowds, used only a couple of Genie+ reservations there, then enjoyed our bonanza of post-dinner reservations at DHS.
Echoing Tom, I don’t think you’ll need Genie+ for days at Animal Kingdom or EPCOT, unless you’re going to park-hop to DHS or Magic Kingdom after going to A.K. or EPCOT in the morning. If so, you should stack reservations for the 2nd park while you’re in the 1st one.
If you go to the Magic Kingdom on a non-party day, you’ll want to use Genie+ there, rather than trying to reserve rides elsewhere, as it’ll be more crowded.
I hope that helps!
Still no earlier Magic Kingdom opening on Mickey’s Not So Scary Party day September 4 — which is also Labor Day! Sad panda.
While it would be ridiculous if the MK opens at 9am on a party day, I hope for your sake it’s ridiculous because WDW isn’t updating its final schedule three days ahead of time.
I know!!! And no other 8am opening on a party night in the schedule
I didn’t catch if there was early entry at 7:30 on September 1st. It’s still showing 8:30 for the 4th. The only party date in September that shows 7:30 early entry is the 15th and 22nd.
The park opens at 9, so early entry for hotel guests is 8:30. It’s not a huge advantage, bit it certainly helped us!
On party days, Magic Kingdom’s early entry begins at 7:30 due to the park closing early to those without party tickets. At least, that’s what has happened in the past..
This is the first time I read your articles and I find them very interesting, as you have real down-to-earth expectations and accurate information of what is – or should be – coming to WDW in a near future.
As I am considering visiting the parks in September 2024, you have already helped me a lot, with this «September 2023 at Disney World: Crowd Calendar & Info» review.
I would be interested in subscribing to your next chronicles, so please, take good note of the informations I leave, along with this reply.
Thank you very much!
Michel Lesage
Repentigny, Quebec (Canada)
Any thoughts as crowds for D23 this year? Booked our trip for week of Labor Day thinking it would be quiet. Would crowds come early to do parks before D23? Go afterwards (which I’m hoping as we leave Saturday)? just come for the expo and don’t go to parks? May just purchase MNSSHP to get a park fix?
Do you feel the D23 crowds will affect the parks a lot the 8-10th? I’ve never been during the Expo.
I wondered the same. I am considering a trip in September but trying to choose the best possible dates.
These crowd calenders are incorrect. Disney was EXTREMELY busy this week. The park was packed and wait times were long.
Based on collected wait time data, no day this week has been above 4/10 on the crowd calendar. Most dates have been 2/10.
With the fact that Rosh Hashanah falls on a Monday this year, would you expect a crowd bump the weekend of September 24th-25th because some schools will be closed? Has this historically caused any increase in crowds on that Monday?
Hello! We are currently planning an impromptu trip to Disney world for next week! Do you think it’s necessary to get genie +. I plan on doing an ILL for ROTR and maybe a couple others.. but I’m not sure if we will need genie +. We went last September ( middle of the month) and did not miss fast passes at all. There was no need! This will be our first trip with genie + and lightning lanes.
Thanks for any advice!
Meredith, I wouldn’t get it. We did the last week of August last year and it was incredible! BUT! They required masks, delta variant had just came out, kids were going back to in person school for the first time in two years, and no international visitors yet. I’m sure this year it will be busier than last year, but not enough to justify genie in my opinion. If you look on Disneys website, most resorts are still available next week. Park availability is wide open (no parks fully booked). When I looked in Feb (which is supposed to be off season), I couldn’t find any reasonable resorts available until mid May! So the fact that so many are available just a week away says something. Plus, Disney+ days are the week after Labor Day, so folks might be waiting until then for perks in the parks. When we went, we literally walked on frozen and tower of terror three times in a row. FOP was only 20 minutes one time, less than 45 all other times. We got on ROR in 45 minutes. They let us stay on Thunder Mtn and ride it over and over, lol! I think the last week of Aug is a great time to go.
Hey Tom – I’m not sure if you did that on purpose, but the photo of the Italy booth at EPCOT immediately made me think of Josh (easywdw). Regardless, thanks for the tribute and to anyone not familiar, the Italy booth is infamous for having only the freshest ingredients and the best value. /sarc/
Hi! I’ve learned so much from reading your blog posts! Currently planning an early December trip and trying to think through Magic Kingdom plans on party vs non party days. If you go on a party day (but not doing the party), can you book a dining reservation, for say 5:45pm (assuming MK closes at 6pm to regular guests), so you can have dinner without cutting too much into your MK day and stay in the park a bit longer (and then of course, would leave once done with dinner)? Thank you!
I’m going to be in Orlando on a Father/Son trip Sept 15th-24th. First 3 nights at Universal, then Copper Creek the rest of the trip. Safe to say, you have made me excited about the crowds, especially for the Tuesday Magic Kingdom morning (MNSSHP night). I’ll be using your Amazon link to get a couple of Frog Toggs, as I remember using these back when I was a kid during the Summer, and I remember they work really well against humidity. Do you find it best to soak them in free Disney ice water? Thank you for providing such wonderful content every day.
Great info and advice as always! We just returned from a 6 day visit – the longest we have ever done – and it was fantastic. I can’t emphasize enough how much more relaxing it is to: a) follow your “go early and go late” strategy – we did a few hours bright and early, and then took the afternoons off to hang out at the pool or have a nap, read, and recharge – then back for a few hours in the evening feeling refreshed. We also missed the daily afternoon thunderstorm as we were generally back at our hotel when that passed through. b) have some flex time. The extra days did not cost that much more in terms of ticket price, and they allowed us to hit anything we missed or wanted to do again. Given the unpredictable weather in September I think a couple of flex days are a great idea – even if the parks are closed one or two days it will not ruin your holiday.
I’ll be at Disney from the 5th-13th and am excited for low crowds. I went in mid September last year and despite the heat, it was very pleasant! Invested in neck fans and the water backpacks you can sip from per Tom’s packing list. Great items. My biggest concern is that I am doing Universal the 13th-19th and every Universal resort is seemingly sold out. I have been monitoring and it just seems odd as aside from HHN, it should historically also be low crowds at Universal.
We are coming to Orlando this Sept and will do Disney parks the 11th thru 14th and then a day off, and then Universal the 16th and 17th. I had originally planned it for the last week of Sept but the Universal Royal Pacific (where we wanted to stay for location and free express passes) was strangely sold out for that week many many months ago, so we swapped to Sept 10-17 week. Looking forward to having a good time, my wife can’t wait for Epcot and those food booths. We plan to hit each park early, take a mid-day break and return for afternoon shows and a few more rides. We did Disneyland in Sept 2019 and had an amazing time, especially with 3 days to see DL and DCA, and the awesome MaxPass, hope Genie+ will be a help with DW, I sure have read enough of Tom’s posts to be ready. Thanks for the great blog Tom.
We just spent five days in the Disney Parks and three days on the Disney Wish!
Four adults and four youngsters, 17, 16, 13 and 8. They all had a ball, especially the 8 year old. Maw and Paw spent a lot of their retirement money, but hey, we were able to enjoy it with them! For you adults out there, it is very expensive, everything! Very crowded, during July and very hot. We where originally going the first of June, but the Wish wasn’t floating yet, so we chose July and did get 50% off our Cruise, that was very nice. All I can suggest is that you do your homework. You want to see what you can see, and not waste any time. Make reservations as soon as you can. Plan the rides you want to go on. We thought Universal Studios was the best of all the parks, would go back there. The wine and food festival is really not for the kids. Try and stay where you don’t have to take busses. We always get the ones farthest from the park. The new skyway is good, we stayed at the Royal Caribbean. The Wish was everything they talk about, wish we could have gone more then 3 days. They have a 4 day during the week. It’s still the place to go, but just a shame it cost so much, and smaller portions.
Do love bugs count as bad weather? That’s the only September negative that wasn’t mentioned. Or maybe I’m just old; is this month no longer fall love bug season?
September love bugs are pretty negligible everything except maybe Disney Springs. I don’t recall the last time I even saw one in a park at Walt Disney World during the fall.
(Now watch, this September will be the worst month for love bugs in decades!)
We had them on our last Sept trip in 2019. Couldn’t even use beach lounge chairs or balconies. However that didn’t impact anything else so I could deal with it.
Do you think that September resort discounts will still drop for Florida residents? Inventory looks low and it is very late historically speaking.
I’m still holding out a sliver of hope for a release in the next couple of weeks, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely between the late date and the level of bookings.
We have a trip booked in September. We came the last week of Aug in 2021 and it was magical! I don’t expect that kind of trip ever again. I’m talking walking on rides like Frozen, Tower of Terror and Splash Mountain not once, but multiple times in a row. They let us just stay on Thunder Mountain and keep riding until we were bored of it, lol! Delta variant, masks required, kids back in school (and in person for the first time since Covid), and no international visitors created that. This year, we arrive evening Sunday 4th of September since my daughter decided to take summer courses and the end of August cuts too close to her finals. But we didn’t want to do parks over Labor Day weekend. So our small window before my daughter starts up fall quarter is the week after Labor Day. I’m really nervous, as we have to go to Epcot on actual Labor Day. I would rather Epcot that day than any other park, but I’m still cringing at possible crowd levels. How bad do you think it will be? I saw your blog about it last year and it being surprisingly high. Extended hours are that day for deluxe resorts, I see. But MNNSHP is that night. Maybe afternoon not so bad? Your blog really helped my trip planning last year ☺️