2023 Disney World Crowd Calendar

By Tom Bricker Crowds, Tips & Tricks 187 Comments

These free 2023 Walt Disney World crowd calendars rate dates so you can choose best weeks to go & avoid the worst, skipping long lines and high wait times. We cover seasonal events, weather, park hours, Orlando travel trends, and factors impacting when to visit Florida’s theme parks. (Updated July 13, 2023.)

Let’s start with the good news, and that’s that crowds are down significantly year-over-year. This started the week after Easter, and the second half of April through late May ended up being the slowest stretch at Walt Disney World since Fall 2021. Wait times rose gradually between the week before Memorial Day and the last week of June, before dropping sharply over the Independence Day holiday weekend.

Much has been made of the summer slowdown at Walt Disney World. Some media reports have characterized the parks as dead, ghost towns, or totally empty–none of which are accurate. If you’re expecting nobody else in the parks or no waits at the big rides, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. However, crowds are lower and lines are significantly shorter than at the same time the last two years!

There are a number of reasons for this, but the simplest and most straightforward explanation is an exhaustion of pent-up demand. Disney CEO Bob Iger and Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro have both directly addressed the lower attendance, and that’s the main explanation. There are contributing factors, to be sure, but this is largely a story of the backside of “revenge travel.”

Walt Disney World was a popular vacation destination the last two years thanks to Florida’s accelerated reopening. Consumers have now gotten their “fix” of Orlando theme parks, and have moved on to other destinations, resulting in a slowdown at Walt Disney World even as business is booming for international travel and the cruise industry. (Both of which essentially “reopened” in earnest over a year after Walt Disney World.)

Walt Disney World has attempted to remedy the diedown in demand. Discounting has also gotten more aggressive, with Walt Disney World releasing over a dozen different discounts through Christmas Day 2023–more than were available for the entirety of last year. In addition to the savings on resort hotels, there are two new ticket deals for this summer, plus an increase in merchandise and dining discounts for Annual Passholders and Cast Members.

Of course, this is a crowd calendar and not a discount roundup, but the two are directly related. The point is that Walt Disney World has already pulled several “levers” in an attempt to maintain its previously elevated attendance, but crowds are still on the decline. Expect that trend to continue for at least the next few months.

Accordingly, you should be in pretty good shape if you’re visiting between now and around October 5, 2023. Crowds will not be static across all of those dates, but the overwhelming majority of those dates should be lower than last year and below average, meaning crowd levels of 5/10 or lower on most days. Between the second week of August and late September 2023, it’s likely that crowd levels will be 1/10 to 3/10 most days. (If you’re looking for more specific predictions, that’s what the crowd calendars below are for.)

With that said, there really is no “slow” season at Walt Disney World. Attendance has increased by millions of guests annually, and as a result, almost every single day of 2023 will be significantly more crowded than 2013. Last year was much busier than 2021, which was much busier than 2020. Prior to that, 2019 was the busiest in Walt Disney World history.

Crowd calendar scores are relative and calculated on a rolling basis relative to the prior 365 days. They are not anchored to 1971 or 1993 or 2008 wait times–that would be absolutely useless from a practical/planning perspective. In other words, a 1/10 today is not the same as a 1/10 in September 2012 or October 2015. Today’s 1/10 might be closer to a 5/10 from five years ago.

This also means that 2023 crowd calendars are relative to last year when pent-up demand was still running strong at Walt Disney World. If you look back to 2018 or 2019, the current crowd levels are still below-trend…but not way below average. Looking back even further, pretty much every single day in 2023 would be 10/10 if we used 2008 or earlier as the baseline.

Point being, if you last experienced Walt Disney World in the post-reopening period, or even in 2017 or during the Great Recession, your baseline expectations and experience probably would be different than someone who visited during holiday weeks during the last year or when pent-up demand was really running hot.

Not only that, but a ‘low’ crowd levels does not mean that in absolute terms. Even on 1/10 days, the parks will not be veritable ghost towns (for the most part) allowing you to do snow angels on the ground. You will see rides with 60-90 minute posted wait times. You will encounter areas of congestion. “Uncrowded” at Walt Disney World means something different than it does at the American Dream Mall or Wyoming in The Last of Us. The most popular rides, especially during the middle of the day, will still have long lines.

For example, going from a 10/10 crowd level to a 1/10 crowd level means you might encounter a 65-75 minute average wait time for popular rides–including but not limited to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan’s Flight, Slinky Dog Dash, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After, Na’vi River Journey and Avatar Flight of Passage–as opposed to 90+ minute wait times. Since those numbers are averages, it also means higher peaks and lower lows. Below-average crowd levels does not mean every attraction is always a walk-on!

There’s also the fact that, during slower timeframes, Walt Disney World uses promotions and special events, hosts major conventions and youth sporting events, and has dynamic pricing for tickets, hotels, and even Genie+ and Lightning Lanes in an attempt to redistribute or increase crowds.

We’re not trying to be debbie downers. Our goal is to provide realistic expectations and preparation for crowds. And if you read reports of the parks being empty, ghost towns, or dead…well, you might have be surprised to encounter “only” a 75 minute wait time for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. (Yes, that’s a lot of waiting–but that posted wait time is also inflated and still far lower than it’d be during peak season.)

Point being, there are still definitely big differences in crowd levels, and you should plan accordingly. No matter how hard Disney might try, there are certain times that travel is slower. School schedules, weather, seasonal festivities, youth sporting events, conventions, and other factors all play a huge role in crowd levels at Walt Disney World.

As one final note, these crowd calendars are mostly a measure of wait times rather than congestion. Wait times are quantifiable whereas congestion is subjective and constantly changing. While wait times are usually a good proxy for crowd levels, they are not conclusive of attendance or in-park congestion.

There are several other variables that can impact “feels like” crowds, from festivals at EPCOT to weather to guest demographics to ride breakdowns to operational efficiency to day of the week. Beyond that, wait times can be manipulated by Walt Disney World–they’re often inflated, or otherwise inaccurate. But to the extent wait times are inflated, they are consistently inaccurate, so it all evens out in the end.

This all impacts crowds, or the perception thereof, and how they diverge from wait times. As such, posted waits are an imperfect measure of Walt Disney World’s raw attendance or crowds. Imperfect as they might be, wait times are still the best measure of crowds–and the only objective one. The alternative is relying on individual guest perceptions, which are much more flawed and incomplete.

If you’re more concerned with the quality of the overall experience, including “feels like” congestion, weather, special events, and more– we also have something more holistic and practical: our list of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2023 to 2025.

With those limitations in mind, our 2023 Walt Disney World crowd calendars should be pretty accurate. This is due to attendance normalizing, more slack in the reservations system, plus fewer capacity constraints and staffing shortages. Walt Disney World is still not totally “out of the woods” with with these woes, but they should only be factors during the busiest dates of the year–when crowds would be 10/10, regardless.

Going forward, new variables could disrupt crowd dynamics–everything from the economy to gas prices to geopolitical risk to household balance sheets and more. If oil prices spike again or fears of a recession grow in 2023, attendance will drop. But even economists can’t agree on what’ll happen, so don’t expect Walt Disney World crowd forecasters to know. (As such, the further out the 2023 Walt Disney World crowd calendars go, the less accurate they are.)

Even if it is busy when you visit Walt Disney World, it’s entirely possible to beat bad crowds by utilizing Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Early Entry, Extended Evening Hours, rope drop, etc. We cover the best & worst approach for each park in Best Time-Saving Strategies for Walt Disney World. (If you’re only going to read one planning post, make it that!)

If you want to read a few more posts–all more useful than crowd calendars–be sure to also check out our Walt Disney World Itineraries for plans of attack, with options now with and without Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. Speaking of which, we have a ~4,500 word  Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ for those who want to thoroughly master the new paid FastPass system.

Honestly, following a good itinerary and utilizing smart strategy is way more important than choosing the “right” dates. There are some exceptions to this, such as going on New Year’s Eve instead of September 6, but by and large, using smart strategy will put you in a better position than picking the least-busy days and doing zero strategizing.

Ideally, you’d opt for a best of both worlds approach–choosing good dates as well as utilizing savvy strategy, but that’s not always possible. After all, there’s a reason most families visit Walt Disney World during school breaks. If you don’t have any choice but to travel during busier dates, you can still beat the crowds.

With that said, here are more detailed suggestions for when you should and shouldn’t visit Walt Disney World…

2023-2024 Disney World Crowd Calendars

If you’ve already narrowed down a season or range of dates during which you want to visit Walt Disney World, we’d recommend forgoing the remainder of this post. Instead, refer to our individual monthly guides, which offer free crowd calendars and cover weather, seasonal events, refurbishments, and what’s new & next.

These 2023 Walt Disney World crowd calendars offer more granular details for each specific month. We’d suggest reading all months for the time of year you’re considering. For example, if you’re thinking of a summer vacation, read the May through August monthly guides; if you’re considering Christmas, consult both November and December.

Again, these 2023 Walt Disney World crowd calendars are only reliable about 6 months in advance. It’s still too early to make reliable predictions for next spring and beyond. With that said, some of the same general patterns play out year in and out, so later months are useful for broader weekly trends–rather than specific dates to visit.

If you’d prefer something more holistic instead, we’d recommend consulting our 2023-2024 Best & Worst Months to Visit Walt Disney World. That is a broad overview of when to travel to Walt Disney World, plus a few of our favorite weeks to visit. That’s more of a qualitative assessment that also factors in generalized crowd trends.

These Walt Disney World crowd calendars cover the best and works week to visit in each month, with overarching assessments of attendance trends and wait times at Walt Disney World. In so doing, we eschew numerical or color-coded crowd calendars for detailed, qualitative explanations.

We believe this approach to Walt Disney World crowd calendars is far more useful to readers. While it’d be easier to mindlessly choose dates by what’s green or has a low number on crowd calendar, that approach doesn’t do proper justice to attendance and wait time trends.

For these crowd calendars, we combine normal data like wait times and other info that serves as a proxy for crowds with our in-person observations and anecdotal experiences. From all of this, we’ve learned to spot patterns and notice things about wait times and attendance at Walt Disney World, which we share with you in our crowd calendars.

Suffice to say, you’re far better off spending the ~10 minutes to read each crowd calendar section, as we explain the why and how of these patterns. Some months of the year–September through December, especially–crowd calendars don’t tell the full story.

Having a little knowledge about the ebb and flow of attendance throughout the day will far better prepare you to avoid crowds and zig when others zag. Some parks and attractions see visitor numbers and lines spike during certain parts of the day, and it’s important to understand the why of this, so you can plan around the peak crowds.

On top of that, attendance dynamics have changed over the years. January and February used to be slow season and Summer used to be peak season–neither of which are true anymore. There are several other ways that attendance patterns have changed at Walt Disney World that we address in those rankings.

Walt Disney World has become aggressive with promotions and scheduling seasonal events during the slowest stretches to entice people to visit and close the gap. These attempts to close the gap have been successful to a degree in that there is now truly no “dead” season. However, the difference in crowds between mid-September and the week before Christmas remains significant. That’s just one example–choosing a good week as opposed to a bad one can be huge.

This isn’t to say that there’s no way to avoid the crowds anymore–there absolutely is–and crowd calendars will help with that. The slower dates are still noticeably slower than the busier dates. All we’re saying is that crowd calendars are not some ‘magic bullet’ that you can use without doing any other research to have a great trip, walking onto every attraction. Over-reliance on Walt Disney World crowd calendars (including ours!) will lead to disappointment.

If you’re trying to determine when to visit, we recommend starting by choosing seasonal events and the type of weather that appeal most to you, and then narrowing your dates within those broad parameters based on what crowd calendars identify as the best and first weeks to visit. Walt Disney World crowd calendars are still a useful tool, but they’re not a planning panacea.

Choosing which days to visit Walt Disney World is just one aspect of planning a trip. To make sure you tackle everything, make sure you read our Guide to Planning a Walt Disney World Trip, which covers all of the essentials. With that said, here’s what else to consider…

Weather

If weather is an important consideration, we highly recommend heading down from in late September, October, early November, late February, March, or April. Those are ideal from a weather perspective. That is, assuming you want more temperate weather, rather than extreme heat and humidity or more cold weather. If you like your clothes drenched in sweat from high temperatures, May until late-August are the perfect times for you to visit.

Late summer and early fall are the height of hurricane and storm season, which have become increasingly relevant. We highly recommend consulting our Visiting Walt Disney World During Storm Season article before booking a trip this time of year. The best case scenario is navigating the afternoon showers without them putting too much of a damper on your trip. Worst case, an approaching hurricane forces you to cancel your trip or be at Walt Disney World while the parks close due to the storm.

If you must visit between the late spring through early fall, just 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. Read our Unique Disney World Packing List for some items you might not otherwise think of taking.

While early December and January are great times to visit to avoid crowds, our experience has been that these are the worst two months in terms of weather. Not only does it get extremely cold (well, relatively speaking–it is Florida after all), but there are substantial swings in temperature. You might find yourself wanting to wear shorts in the morning but by late afternoon it is jeans and sweatshirt weather. As the night rolls on, you might even find yourself wanting to put on a parka.

If you travel during these seasons, expect to bring more luggage and make more stops at your room to change clothing (or at least plan on renting a locker to store additional layers of clothing each day). You may be lucky and find relatively consistent temperate weather during these timeframes, but it’s best to prepare for the worst so that you don’t have to purchase a bunch of $50 sweatshirts from the Emporium on Main Street. Those $50 sweatshirts can add up quickly! Check out our Winter Packing Tips for Disney post for more insight on what to take on your winter trip to Walt Disney World.

Park Hours

In talking to others, we’ve found that this is the one area that people consider the least when planning their trips, which we think is at least a small mistake. It’s important to note up front that, typically, less busy seasons have shorter park hours and busier times have longer park hours.

It thus stands to reason that you can basically get the same amount done in a shorter day during a less busy time than you could during a busier time. However, this isn’t always true. If you use an efficient touring plan (see our Itineraries for Walt Disney World), you have a good chance of getting more done during a busier time of year than during a slower stretch.

This is especially true if you get to the park early and stay late. Sometimes during especially busy times, Magic Kingdom will open at 8 am and will close at 11 pm. While we’ve taken advantage of these hours without taking a break during the day, we realize some of you are mere mortals.

A great strategy to employ during days with operating hours such as these is to get to the park shortly before opening, stay until around 11 a.m., go back to your resort to nap or relax, and return around dinner time to stay until park close. Regardless of the time of year, the parks will always be fairly slow during the first couple operational hours, and will always be fairly deserted late at night. Ride as much as you can early in the day and do less popular attractions as the day wears on.

Similarly, park hours should be taken into account based upon your sleep habits. If you’re a late-to-rise night owl, the Fall and late Winter/early Spring months may be a bad idea, as these entail many early closing times. If you’re not going to get to the parks until noon anyway, your day might be only 7 hours or so.

Conversely, if you wake up early and generally call it a day by 5 or 7 pm or so, those midnight closings aren’t going to do you any good. Make sure you check Disney’s park hours calendar when planning your trip. It’s important to note that this calendar is often inaccurate far in advance (Disney posts hours conservatively, then extends them as bookings increase).

Special Events

This is a big one for us, as we’ve been to Walt Disney World so many times that it’s nice to visit during different times of year to keep things varied. Even if it’s your first visit to Walt Disney World, if you have particular interests, you might want to consider planning your trip around these special events. The schedules for these varies, as does the price (if any), so please consult the respective page for each event when doing your planning and budgeting.

Halloween and Christmas events in the Magic Kingdom are separately ticketed, meaning you can’t use your standard park tickets for them. Unlike regular park tickets, you also can’t purchase these tickets at a discount from authorized vendors (which can save you a lot of money on regular tickets). Despite this, both events are a ton of fun and well worth experiencing. As you can read in our Ultimate Guide to Christmas at Walt Disney World, it’s our favorite time to visit the parks!

We’ve written tips & tricks for almost every seasonal event at Walt Disney World, because most aren’t simply a matter of “show up, have fun.” We encourage you to click these links (they will open in a new tab) and read the guides. Like all things Walt Disney World-related, you’ll have a much better time and see more that the event has to offer if you do some advance planning…

Winter

  • Walt Disney World Marathon – The flagship runDisney race weekend is held in early January, usually the weekend after New Year’s. It typically occurs while schools are still out for winter break, effectively extending the holiday season crowds into early January.
  • EPCOT International Festival of the Arts – Returning for 2023, this is one of the highlights of January and February at Walt Disney World for us. Truly captures the essence of old school EPCOT Center.

Spring

Summer

  • EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival – Beginning in mid-July, this is EPCOT’s flagship culinary event. Want to know what to do–and more importantly what NOT to do? Read our guide. It’ll give you an idea of what’s not worth the money, and what is worth doing.

Fall

  • 2023 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom – Possibly more than any other special event at Walt Disney World, you need to do advance planning for this. Character meet & greets can form hour-plus long waits, and there’s so much to do that you can’t accomplish everything in one party. We highly recommend reading this guide!
  • EPCOT Food & Wine Festival – Same as above usually continues through mid to late November.

Holidays

School Schedules

If school schedules are something around which you must plan, chances are you’re going to go during one of the busier (or at least not one of the least busy) times of the year. School schedules are the paramount consideration for many other families planning trips, too.

It may seem convenient to visit during one of the ‘holidays’ your kids have off from school, but it’s important to consider whether other schools have these same dates off, as well. Of the traditional school holidays, only Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends are good times to visit.

Because most schools have the week before Christmas until the shortly after New Year’s off, this is an especially crowded window to visit. Likewise, the same goes for President’s Day weekend, Easter week, Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day week, Veterans Day week, the entirety of the Summer, and Thanksgiving week.

Although schools do vary their Spring Break schedules, don’t expect the parks to be any less busy because of staggered Spring Breaks. Mid-March until mid-April are also incredibly busy dates for the parks because of Spring Breaks, with the two weeks abutting Easter being the absolute worst (since most schools still use Easter as a proxy for Spring Break).

Some people don’t have many other options, so it’s going during a school break or nothing. If so, it’s not the end of the world. As we’ve stressed above, crowd calendars are not as important as they used to be. Simply pack your patience and have a good touring plan (which is far more important than choosing dates based upon a crowd calendar, anyway). For help with this, refer to our Free Walt Disney World Park Itineraries & Touring Plans. We have the perfect strategy for fun, efficient, and memorable days in the parks!

If you don’t have kids or aren’t otherwise forced to travel around holidays or traditional vacation periods, we’d highly recommend avoiding them. Not because we have anything against kids, but because crowds and prices will be higher during these breaks. Plan around them and save both time and money!

If you are unsure of when visiting Walt Disney World might be best for you–or need personalized help with any aspect of your trip from hotels to the Disney Dining Plan and more–we recommend contacting a no fee “Authorized Disney Vacation Planner” (basically, Disney’s term for a travel agent) to get a quote and to help you plan. They get their commission from Disney, so none of the authorized (key word) planners will charge you for booking their trip and helping. Here’s one such Authorized Disney Vacation Planner that we recommend!

Ultimately, all of this is a long-winded way of saying that consulting crowd calendars for Walt Disney World in 2023 is useful, but strategy matters more. That has been the case since ~2018, but it’s more pronounced than ever right now. With Disney Park Pass reservations booking up on a daily basis, crowds are largely being leveled and not reflective of actual, organic demand. That presumably does vary much more day-to-day or week-to-week, but that’s not playing out with the capacity caps in place.

As we often say, pack your patience and arm yourself with savvy strategy if you’re visiting Walt Disney World in the coming weeks or months. The bad news is that it’s going to be very busy with “feels like” crowds and wait times among the highest we’ve seen in the last two years. The good news is that these crowds are more “beatable” than those of this winter or last holiday season.

Hopefully this is a valuable primer to help you choose when you want to visit Walt Disney World. Figuring out when to visit is an important first step, but there’s much more to know. You’ll also want to read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post to buy the cheapest tickets from legitimate sources. To figure out where to stay, our Walt Disney World Hotel Reviews page is a great resource. Want to know where to eat or if the Disney Dining Plan is right for you? Our Walt Disney World Dining Resources will help! For lots of other Walt Disney World trip planning tips and comprehensive advice, make sure to read our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide.

Your Thoughts

Visiting Walt Disney World during the best dates to avoid crowds is probably one of the most important aspects of trip planning. What season, month, or week do you generally visit WDW? Do you visit at times when you know crowds will be light, or do you visit when school is out of session? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? 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!

Written by Tom Bricker

187 Responses to “2023 Disney World Crowd Calendar”
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  1. Anthony Pilawski September 16, 2023

    Hey Tom, we love your blog and have found the tips priceless. I would like your thoughts on the current crowds. We arrived 9/11/23 and are staying until 9/19/23. We always come this time of year for ‘low’ crowds and have never been disappointed on the past. This time crowds are crazy big. Even early entry at magic kingdom at 7:30 on a party night had us backed up to in front of the castle, and wednesday 9/13 at magic kingdom was so crowded you couldn’t move. Animal Kingdom today 9/16 saw eaits for the safari before 11 am at over an hour! It was always 25 minutes or less in years past. Maybe your blog has become so popular that it has moved the crowd needle? Anyway curious on your thoughts for crowds for mid- september!

    Reply
  2. Amy England August 11, 2023

    I would like to read your recommendations on a Monday-Friday park itinerary at Disneyworld- we are going for spring break and won’t be there on a weekend.

    Reply
  3. lindsay hillmann July 15, 2023

    I will be at DW November 11-19th and i am trying to follow your strategy of going to MK on party days and inversely going to the other three on non party days. Do you think this strategy holds true for Veterans Day crowds on the 11th/12th? Since there are MMVMCP dates sandwiching (9th,10th,13th,14th) Veterans Day weekend. My plan was to stay out of MK that weekend but should I plan on all parks being 10/10 crowded regardless? Thank you so very much!

    Reply
  4. Michael C May 23, 2023

    Great use of a fish-eye lens and creative use of reflections :-).

    Reply
  5. Michelle April 25, 2023

    Hi Tom,

    I found a great blog that you did on rope dropping on party days (MNSSHP in my case) and the route to take, which rides to do first, i can not, for the life of me find it again! could you point me in the right direction please!

    Love your blog, although i think i am trying to plan a little too far in advance of our trip this October ??

    Thanks

    Reply
  6. Gerhard April 24, 2023

    Just came back from a five day stretch at Disney. The crowds were less and the wait times lower both early mornings and late nights. Didn’t need any paid passes! Weather was perfect! It was probably one of our best weeks in years!

    Reply
  7. Abbey April 16, 2023

    Why is Sunday, April 30 a day to avoid at Hollywood Studios? I’ve seen a couple calendars note it as a high crowd day but can’t figure out what would drive that specifically.

    Reply
    • Tom Bricker April 16, 2023

      That’s an update within the last 2 days, as Fantasmic will be dark on May 1-2, which will result in larger crowds the day before and after when it’s being shown. May 4 will be busier at DHS because of Star Wars Day.

      None of those dates will be truly “bad” by any stretch. This is generally a good time of year to visit; you’ve already missed the worst of spring break, and are arriving before summer season starts. Don’t sweat it too much!

  8. Dawn Harris February 27, 2023

    Is there a simple hyperlink in any of these articles that takes you directly to the crowd calendar? I’ve been scrolling through several articles and can’t seem to find it.

    Reply
  9. Kat Uppman November 9, 2022

    We have a trip planned Dec. 31, 2022-Jan. 9, 2023, and I’m optimistic that crowds will be decent simply because we could still get ALL our dining reservations for the week several days after the 60-day window opened! That NEVER happens!!!

    AND there were several times to choose from, meaning we got the exact reservations and times we were looking for, without stress and without paying for the alert program we usually need. Fingers crossed this is a sign for low crowds!!

    Reply
  10. Chris J November 6, 2022

    Just returned from three days in the DisneyWorld parks (11/2-4) using Tom’s tips and it turned out great! We started at AK in the morning (with Park Hopper and G+ all three days) but reserved ILL and LL for HS where we hopped that afternoon. Took Skyliner from POP very early and walked onto Remy. Rode it a second time with a very short wait. Then had 5-15 min. waits for Frozen, Soarin’, Spaceship Earth and all the rest we wanted to do at EPCOT before hopping to HS at 2. Even able to ride Guardians after messing up the virtual queue process. (NOTE: Guest Relations was extremely helpful to us throughout our stay with helping us fix our technology mistakes!)

    Using our ILL and LL selections we were able to ride all the “big” rides we wanted to do at HS. Next day at MK was great — with all the pricy extras we added, we were able to avoid any line longer than about 20 minutes.

    Finally, our third day we started at AK, then hopped over to EPCOT for Friday afternoon. BIG MISTAKE and we were kicking ourselves since Tom warned us not to go on Friday afternoon during the Food & Wine Festival! It was MADNESS and we knew we quickly knew we made a big mistake so we stayed out of the World Showcase and focused on the other parts of EPCOT.

    I know Tom predicted huge crowds in November but we were pleasantly surprised that the crowds weren’t that bad at any of the four parks, EXCEPT the one time we didn’t take Tom’s advice and we hopped over to EPCOT. We stayed at POP and loved taking the Skyliner to EPCOT and HS. It’s so much easier, quicker and more pleasant than the shuttle busses.

    I can’t say enough about WDW Guest Relations. We had several snafus (missed our LL window due to overlapping plans, messed up virtual queue for Guardians, etc.) and they fixed it for us every time. After reading so much about the parks/resorts being filthy, rude cast members, etc. we were wary of going but our experience was just the opposite. We had a wonderful time (about our 15th visit) but were very tired after all that walking.

    Listen. To. Tom. His tips (plus Genie+ and ILLs and Park Hopping) were what enabled us to have such a good time and very short waits in line. Although I have to say I was a little annoyed at all the extra charges Disney is now requiring for a more pleasant visit.

    Reply
    • Chris November 6, 2022

      Just realized in my earlier post that I wrote we started at AK in the morning and hopped to HS. We actually started at EPCOT and hopped to HS on the first day.

  11. rorosen November 3, 2022

    Veteran Disney fans, the set including any who have held an annual pass more than one year, have likely ridden most rides multiple times and now, regarding park rides, abide with interest in the new things that come along at a pace but know that the experience of being in the parks is far greater than the sum of the rides. i don’t need the rides terribly much at this point. with all the competitive energy required. I just want somewhere we can go and be happy among other people being happy. Therefore (and here is the point) i wish disney would concentrate on creating the glorious common areas of ideal parks, distanced enclosures of the eternal afternoon, well suited for collective contemplation, for instance, but free from any particular sectarian restraints,.. (except for America, of course,..)
    Why not? like what I suppose was recently planned big for EPCOT,..

    Reply
  12. James November 1, 2022

    We are going Dec 1st. Last year we went 2 days after thanksgiving- so roughly the same time frame. I am hopeful it wont be too crowded. We really enjoyed the weather last year- my sons were in jeans and hoodies every day ,so not typical for Orlando- helped with the Christmas vibes

    Reply
  13. Len S November 1, 2022

    After reading this I did a quick look into estimated theme park attendance at WDW. From 2012 to 2019 the annual attendance across all parks increased by over 10 million. Estimated attendance at AK and HS were both below 10 million in 2012. So that increase of 10 million plus effectively means that 5 theme parks worth of crowds are now trying to squeeze into 4 parks, and the capacity in those parks has not increased, or only done limitedly. Until Disney builds additional places for these guests to go the crowds will not diminish. It is ridiculous that it has been 24 years and counting since Disney gave us a new theme park. If they were keeping up with the pace of the first decades of operation we would have 6 gates right now!

    Reply
    • Tom Bricker November 1, 2022

      This is actually something we addressed at length recently here: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-doesnt-want-lower-crowds/

      Even with all of the additions, whether capacity has increased is debatable because most of them replaced existing areas of the parks. On top of that, a lot of entertainment and (much more importantly) park hours have been cut, effectively *reducing* capacity.

  14. Nicole November 1, 2022

    Tom – I know you are planning to do more test runs on party days in Magic Kingdom again, but we are planning to do MK on November 8. It’s a party day, but park pass reservations are already full for MK that day. Should we plan on purchasing Genie+ because of that?

    Reply
    • Tom Bricker November 1, 2022

      Exact same thing happened with the first MNSSHP day, and it ended up being 1/10 (and had low “feels like” crowds–I was there that whole day). Here was our explanation for that prior to it happening: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/no-these-dates-wont-be-busy-at-disney-world/

      My expectation is that November 8 will be at least a slightly different story, as that’s likely to be a busy week at WDW. My guess would be 5/10 or 6/10 crowds at Magic Kingdom, and higher elsewhere. I would not be the least bit surprised to see both that week and Thanksgiving go totally grey on the calendar. Hard to say just how busy it’ll get, though.

      I would consider buying Genie+ for that day in MK, but I don’t think it’ll be essentially if you do Early Entry.

  15. Erica November 1, 2022

    Hi Tom, the date (Dec 18) I wanted to attend the Christmas Party sold out. Historically, has Disney released more tickets for a sold out date or sold day-of tickets? Or am I SOL?

    Reply
  16. Dennis Adams October 12, 2022

    Tom,
    We just returned from our visit to WDW in September. Your recommendation to go in September was great. Crowds were low and thanks to you we were prepared to deal with the rain. It only rained hard three afternoon’s out of the seven days we were there. Your recommendation to go to Magic Kingdom on the day of MNSSHP was spot on. Crowds were very low and we walked on to a lot of rides. We had the Lighting lanes purchased for each day of our visit. I know that you do not recommend this but it worked out well with our park hopping. And the few rides that had waits in the stand by lines we were able to get Lighting lanes for. We did buy some individual lighting lanes and I know that you say no to this but when you only go to Disney once every three or four years and you want to ride the individual lighting lane rides twice you have to rope drop them and buy the individual lighting lane, which we did Thanks for the great advice By the way the longest line we stood in was at Giedion’s in Disney Springs and that was 25 minutes. This was the best trip for low wait times that I have every made to WDW.

    Reply
  17. Joe Beope June 22, 2022

    Kudos…I say again Kudos to you…This is a superlative site..I will be going to Disneyworld Epcot for first time ever next month. I’m a bit OCD when it comes to traveling and thus those who fail to plan. Plan to flail all over…I can breathe easier and relax now that I know what to pack, where to go, what to eat and when to get there..Thank you again…Joe

    Reply
  18. Groot January 3, 2022

    Thanks for the introspection and appreciate your analysis but this post is Waaaaaayyyyy too long. I’m a patient reader but even I was rapid scrolling at the last 1/3rd.

    Reply
  19. PJB January 1, 2022

    Happy New Year! I have been reading your posts for years and appreciate your fair assessment of all things Disney (and your sense of humor). We’ve avoided many potential pitfalls during our visits to WDW because of your suggestions. I was just clicking on links for each month in 2022 and the link for September goes to September 2021, not 2022. Thought you should know. Thanks again.

    Reply
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