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. Jabroniville November 17, 2021

    I just came from Disney World, and it was pretty okay from Nov. 7-10, but then got SLAMMED at Nov. 11th and never let up. Even the Cast Members were horrified and shocked at the rush. I kind of expected it given how hotels were actually SOLD OUT as of a month ago until more opened up (cancellations/more hotel staff?). Asking around, me and most other people admitted “I would have considered September, but I figured that would be insanely busy because of the 50th, so held off a month”. So we basically all had the same idea at the same time, lol.

    My plan involved more or less setting up an extended trip so it didn’t matter so much if I couldn’t do anything (Frozen, Rise & Mine Train all hit 1.5-2 hours wait routinely) on any given day. HS & MK required Genie+, but the others did not. Even so, even my “rise early and get there at the beginning” trick didn’t always pan out (twice the big rides- Rise & Train- were broken at park opening), and scheduling a proper day is a miserable experience thanks to the weirdly staggered bus & park openings so I didn’t always get that right.

    Reply
  2. Emily October 20, 2021

    Coming from someone with no kiddos, but still looking to have a super fun time, would you say May is a safe month to go? The flower garden sounds amazing and something I could see myself and husband really enjoying. My husband is a big guy, and HATES humidity, would you say this is getting into a danger zone of hot weather?

    Reply
  3. Mickey1928 October 12, 2021

    I agree with everything you’ve written here. Excellent information that covers almost every angle of choosing a date. Almost. As of Oct 12th it’s missing one important category to consider. Price of onsite hotel. Right now WDW is offering nothing except a so so AP 25% discount from Dec 12th to Dec 24th. That’s actually a pretty good time for out of state AP’ers to go. If you can afford it, add a couple of full price days to stay past Christmas.
    Personally I suspect next year will have great prices for rooms to offset lower crowds. Without going into reasons why suffice it to say that conditions in the country will make it so. My advice is save today like there’s no tomorrow and a much needed trip to Disney will be very affordable in 2022.

    Reply
  4. Andrea October 12, 2021

    We’re coming the first week of November. I just seen that it’s the wine and dine run at Disney World and Jersey week? Do you expect the crowds to be bad at the resort? I may have to reschedule our trip . We are doing three days at the parks and three days at the resort.

    Reply
  5. Desiree October 11, 2021

    I’m concerned that during our early November trip, it will be overrun with Brits since the travel ban will have just been lifted. Actually, I’m looking forward to hearing the beautiful accents in line! Just wondered if you had taken that into account. Thanks for all your updates, can’t wait to hear how Genie+ goes!

    Reply
    • Tom Bricker October 11, 2021

      It’s really hard to say how that will play out. I know early bookings have been strong for international flights, but we’re still skeptical it’ll meaningfully move the needle on crowds that quickly. It’s really short notice and there would have to be a LOT of them coming all at once.

  6. Christina Neumeier October 11, 2021

    Unfortunately after our last visit, from which we returned 3 days ago. . .I think Disney has lost its magic! Too many issues to go into. We’ll not be back any time soon.

    Reply
  7. Chilly Willy June 29, 2021

    Going in the middle of January. What kind of weather can I generally expect?

    Reply
  8. Vilmi C April 13, 2021

    Hi,
    I have a three day park pass for December. I am planning Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studious on a Thursday to Saturday. Which day would you recommend to visit each park?
    Thank you for your time.

    Reply
  9. Meagan February 7, 2021

    Hi Tom,

    My kids are attending in person school and have their Spring Break scheduled for the week of March 15th. I’m an avid reader of your blog and a WDW veteran. I agreed with your mid-March assessment and was happy that their break was nowhere near Easter 🙂 Oddly, I’ve just popped in to the Park Pass calendar and seen DHS booked for 3/15 (Mon) through 3/18 (Thurs) for WDW resort guests but not APs (we are both). The rest of the calendar is a sea of green, even for DHS! Any thoughts on this?

    Thanks for all you do!
    Meagan

    Reply
  10. Lori January 24, 2021

    Hi Tom. I have a trip booked for May 2021 and have been waiting for your updated version of that month. But it seems that you have skipped May and gone straight on to June, July, and August. Will you be updating May for 2021?

    Reply
    • Tom Bricker February 2, 2021

      Sorry for the delay–it’s now updated for May 2021!

  11. Dan January 23, 2021

    It doesn’t look like all of the individual monthly calendar posts have been updated for 2021 yet, such as May, August, and others. Do you know if May will be updated soon?

    Reply
  12. Sally Sirloin May 27, 2020

    What is the best time to visit the parks during the season of the Coronavirus?
    Will they hand out masks and gloves?

    Reply
    • Anna February 2, 2021

      They do not hand out masks but have many available for purchase. Please do not wear gloves thinking that is in any way protecting yourself or others. It is much better to frequently wash your hands or use hand sanitizer.

  13. Bruce Berger March 7, 2020

    And so the slow decline begins. I have talked to 8 different families that all have recently returned from WDW. Last 4 months. All right said it will quite some time before they go back if ever.
    Main reason? Crowds lines and costs. It appears the management has pushed the line beyond what families are willing to endure.
    Personally our recent vacation to Florida did not include WDW for the first time in years.
    It was by far the least stressful vacation we’ve had. Did state and national parks and focused on wildlife type excursions and had the most incredible times we’ had in years.
    Good bye WDW. You will NOT be missed.

    Reply
    • kami p February 3, 2021

      I was not sure if we were the only ones, but with a recent visit to Disney 1/25/21 to 1/29/21, we have discovered the disillusionment with Disney. We are avid Disney travelers, and feel that Disney had “it” for several years. But this year was different. I understand the abnormal normal, but what I do not understand is the greed Disney has…especially in the times where they are depending on their consumers to keep them out of the hole. Not only have we lost all of the entertainment, but the magic was gone. We stayed at Art of Animation and were hugely disappointed. The main pool was down, dining was poor at best (we had to order a coke and cupcake and wait for over 20 mins to have them bring it to us), the food choices were terrible, the staff was minimal, the cleanliness was questionable, the transportation was awful, the prices were raised and were exorbitant, and the experiences were minimal.

      What I do not understand is why the public keeps allowing Disney to operate this way, and not only allows it, but flocks to Disney. The prices go up and up every year, and people keep paying it. We are heading down to the Disney area the end of Feb for a pool weekend of relaxation, and we were ready to stay at a Disney resort, however, has anyone checked out the prices of Disney resorts lately? Since when did Pop Century have a min. of a $200 a night charge? I would never pay $200 a night to stay at a value resort, especially that has no amenities and terrible food!! When are we going to say enough is enough? I think my family is finally saying enough is enough. We will put our money elsewhere to serve the economy better, not a greedy company who keeps giving less and less, but charging more and more for it. The magic of Disney is wearing off fast, and I hope others start to see that… then maybe changes may be able to be made. Disney has no way where the consumer can constructively give criticism. There is no way to voice the publics opinion. Since when did paying $4 for a bottle of water become right?

      I am waking up too

  14. Allison March 6, 2020

    We’ve been quite successful at planning Disney vacations using crowd calendars over the last few years. However, using the crowd calendars again for our trip this past late February, proved to be useless as the parks were more crowded in late February than they were when we went in the summer last year. I attribute this glitch in planning to the popularity of Galaxy’s Edge (Ride of the Resistance, Smugglers Run) and Mickey’s Runaway Railway. While these are in Hollywood Studios, most people planning to visit Disney still go to other Disney parks. The spillover into the other non Hollywood Studios parks was noticeable. Last year we could easily get Fastpasses after using our first three. This time- no Fastpasses available for the rides we rode numerous times with the ease using Fastpass kiosks. The only time we could ride otherwise less popular rides without Fastpass was during an EMH at MK in the morning.

    We stayed at Pop Century, booking it 9 months out, before Skyliner opened. Something to consider, this transportation option to HS and Epcot is a game changer for good! It doesn’t open up early enough to get to HS if you need to be there at opening for Ride of the Resistance, but in all other ways is the best way to get to HS and Epcot. However, the resorts it is attached to are much more difficult to book as they are now very popular. We tried to book Pop Century again, and it didn’t have any rooms available the week we usually go this time.

    My thoughts are that crowd calendars are not going to be reliable the next few years while Star Wars is working out it’s kinks in the rides. It makes sense that the typical times of year for lower crowd levels from before would still hold true, but I agree that even though the crowds might be lower, it doesn’t feel like it anymore!

    Reply
    • Becky S March 6, 2020

      Last year, Disney World was very busy at the end of January and throughout most of February as well. So, I don’t think the business of those weeks this year is just because of Galaxy’s Edge. I think this is the new busy time at Disney because so many people want to avoid the heat and believe they are also avoiding the crowds.

  15. Brian Karl March 5, 2020

    I really hope it doesn’t impact Christmas. It’s the only time we can go this year. It’s already crazy enough

    Reply
  16. Andrew Wilson February 21, 2020

    I think I’ve finally convinced my wife to take a 4 day trip to WDW this summer. This will be our first adults only trip there. Due to scheduling, the only time we can go would be the first week of June (my wife is a 1st Grade teacher). We understand that it will be hotter than our usual trip in March/April for Spring Break. But I’m sure it won’t be much worse than where we live (Southern Illinois, where it’s usually 100% humidity by June).

    How are the crowds that first week of June compared to Spring Break? I don’t particularly mind the crowds, as we usually have a solid plan and know where we’re going and when to do it. We also won’t have our four kids with us, so that will save some of the time we need to slow down for them. Thanks to anyone who can chime in!

    *And don’t worry about the kids, we’re taking them to Disney Land and Universal Hollywood in July*

    Reply
    • Perri Fuerst February 23, 2020

      Hi Andrew,

      To be honest, I think that early June will be a better time to go than March/April. It will definitely be hot and crowded (as it is always crowded), but I don’t think it will be as crowded as Spring Break. It is the beginning of Summer for many states during that time period, but I still think it will be a bit less crowded than Spring Break. As you said, with your plan, you will be golden! Enjoy!

  17. Perri F Fuerst February 5, 2020

    Hi Tom,

    I am a Disney vet – have been many times throughout my childhood and even in the recent years (I am 27) – I still love to go! I will be visiting Disney for 5 days (May 16th-May 20th of 2020) staying at the Disney All-Star Resort. We are doing 4 days at Disney Parks at 1 day at Universal.

    I have never to been to Disney this time of year before. What do you anticipate the crowds will be like during this Saturday May 16th-Wednesday May 20th visit? It is RIGHT before Memorial Day Weekend, but I am wondering if the MDW weekend crowds will impact that week, or if we will get lucky and it won’t get busy until around that Friday of MDW, when we will have left on Wednesday? We were supposed to be there this week (Feb 1st-5th), but I came down with the flu. Can you compare the two times?

    Let me know your thoughts!
    Thanks for your help!

    Reply
  18. Melanie February 3, 2020

    We returned from Disney World last week. I’m so appreciative of the articles to give better insight from someone who has traveled to that wonderful place so many times. We had a blast! There were many people from all over the world who were kind, weather was perfect, a really positive experience except we all were exhausted.

    Reply
  19. Kelly January 6, 2020

    What do you think about Veterans Day being on a Wednesday this year? Will that make a difference in crowds?

    Reply
  20. Lori W. Morris January 5, 2020

    Hi. I have four kids ages 5-13 at time of travel and due to our varied activities we have two chances to visit this spring, either March 22-28 or Easter Sunday April 12-18. I have read many of your articles, which I love, that say both of these options are horrible for crowds. Will I really be pulling my hair out with either one? The Easter Disney hotel spike is balanced by lower airfare so for good weather and less horrendous crowds, which of the above-mentioned weeks do you recommend?

    Reply
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