Best Time of year to go

[RuthieT]

What time of the year is the best time to go that we could experience low crowds?

 

[xlxo]

Avoid Christmas, spring and summer break.

 

[pepe of ohio]

We try to take advantage of slow times also and coin side with value season for cheapest room rates...

We prefer room only discounts over free dining so our options are wide open...

We also want Florida sun and heat ( we do pool time every day around noon so no winter months..

Best time we've found ( but it's been filling up some ) is late May and early mid September....

Disney has been pretty good filling up the slack times with promotions and discounts so those used to be walk on trips are about gone...

 

[SWofDisorder]

Stay away from any school vacations in all areas of the USA, also holidays, even 3 day weekends.

We use to go late September for the low crowds, the start of MNSSHP and soft opening to F&W. Also early December is good but not during the filming of the Christmas parade.

Have a magical holiday.

 

[RuthieT]

We want to miss as much school vacations and when its not to crazy hot.. What are temps and humidity like in early December or even February?

 

[fairyjess]

October or March. Excluding Columbus Day, and I would expect also Halloween weekends.

 

[staceyrhood]

As a 13 year local if I would ever move and come back to visit I would choose... The week before Thanksgiving, first 2 weeks of December, first 3 weeks of May, or mid September. All are low crowds. I would avoid march, April, July, August, and week of Christmas and New Years most. And October the past couple years has been crazy busy because of fall breaks. I hope this helps

 

[annyeb]

We begin our WDW vacation November 1st. Weather looks for highs to be in the mid 70s-low 80s the whole week. We would have liked warmer but we'll take it. The crowd calculations look to be low. Hoping it's true.

 

[DisneyNole12]

I always love the first two weeks of Dec and first week of Feb. The weather is beautiful and crowds are pretty low. Obviously in December you are getting all the holiday decorations which adds a little something but Feb is just as great!

 

[pinkgirlmommy]

I am trying to decide between 1st week in March (before Spring break) orlast week in April/1st week in May. Prices seem way lower for the first optipn but I want to swim so wondering if we should wait until April/May!

 

[Merida DunBroch]

We generally go in the last week of April, and it seems that the crowds are lower then.

 

[Alesia]

What time of the year is the best time to go that we could experience low crowds?

Keep in mind that lower crowds often mean shorter park hours and more ride refurbishments, and sometimes less desirable weather.

This past year we went the last week of May/first week of June and it was perfect! The weather was beautiful and (despite what every one always says) the crowds were pretty small; we didn't wait more than 15 minutes for anything.

 

[nkereina]

October or March. Excluding Columbus Day, and I would expect also Halloween weekends.

Respectfully disagree. In recent years, October crowd levels have become moderate with the growing popularity of MNSSHP and Food & Wine. March sees Spring Break crowds beginning as well.

OP - if I were you, I'd study the crowd calendars. Easy WDW is a good one. Anything 4 and under is good - you won't find many weeks where it's all 4's though. Disney does a good job of bringing in groups/conventions or holding events that supplement their slow times. FWIW, early September and the month of January are statistically the slowest times of year. The drawbacks are that September is the start of the school year and it's boiling hot, and January can be downright cold with shorter daylight and park hours. Both months, especially January, also see major ride and resort refurbishments.

We went the last week of September a few years ago and crowds were good but it was too hot for us. We've gone the week before Thanksgiving two years now. Weather has been just OK. Last year crowds were low, this year they were much higher. We're looking at going the last week of April for our next trip, expecting crowds to be moderate but trading that off for hopefully better weather.

 

[gardengalB4]

Late January/early February is when we like to go...sometimes we walked right on to rides...
....the drawbacks...
cooler weather-which we prefer over the summer heat & humidity--we dress in layers and bring along gloves for the evening that feel so good.
Shortened park hours...but this keeps us from over-doing it...we are rope drop people.We relax or go to DTD in the evening.
Some ride closures
Sometimes it is too cool to swim-picture the lifeguards around the pool in coats
The groups from SouthAmerica- Can be rude-avoid them! The rude people bother me...I don't believe you should go to another country & act this way.

 

[msb578]

As a 13 year local if I would ever move and come back to visit I would choose... The week before Thanksgiving, first 2 weeks of December, first 3 weeks of May, or mid September. All are low crowds. I would avoid march, April, July, August, and week of Christmas and New Years most. And October the past couple years has been crazy busy because of fall breaks. I hope this helps

Crowd-wise, I had a good experience with *late* August. Much different than early August.

Weather was awful though. It made me appreciate where I live.

Mid January and early December were both pretty good.

 

[pinkgirlmommy]

Thanks everyone! We have decided to go February 28-March 7 due to schedules so hopefully we will be leaving when everyone else is showing up for Spring Break!

 

[Frozen2014]

We try to take advantage of slow times also and coin side with value season for cheapest room rates...

We prefer room only discounts over free dining so our options are wide open...

We also want Florida sun and heat ( we do pool time every day around noon so no winter months..

Best time we've found ( but it's been filling up some ) is late May and early mid September....

Disney has been pretty good filling up the slack times with promotions and discounts so those used to be walk on trips are about gone...

Sorry to but in, but am dreaming about a return trip and am looking at different times....later April or early May seems like a nice time. So I'm wondering by end of May...it must be getting pretty hot by then?

 

[Alesia]

Sorry to but in, but am dreaming about a return trip and am looking at different times....later April or early May seems like a nice time. So I'm wondering by end of May...it must be getting pretty hot by then?

We were there late May/early June this year and the weather was perfect. Around 80 every day, pretty much non-existent humidity (although that seems to be relative,) It only rained once (for 15 minutes) during the whole 10 day trip. I didn't even get a sunburn, despite my inability to remember to re-apply. It was the only trip we've ever taken to WDW that none of us ever felt too hot or too cold.

 

[Frozen2014]

We were there late May/early June this year and the weather was perfect. Around 80 every day, pretty much non-existent humidity (although that seems to be relative,) It only rained once (for 15 minutes) during the whole 10 day trip. I didn't even get a sunburn, despite my inability to remember to re-apply. It was the only trip we've ever taken to WDW that none of us ever felt too hot or too cold.

Sounds perfect.
We went in Oct and found the same with sunscreen...but I also put it down to the fact that when standing inline for a ride, it isn't long before you're inside or covered. So we weren't really just standing there in the hot sun for too long (aside from maybe the parade but that wasn't a long time)

 

[msb578]

We were there late May/early June this year and the weather was perfect. Around 80 every day, pretty much non-existent humidity (although that seems to be relative,) It only rained once (for 15 minutes) during the whole 10 day trip. I didn't even get a sunburn, despite my inability to remember to re-apply. It was the only trip we've ever taken to WDW that none of us ever felt too hot or too cold.

I'm not a local by any means, but I do think you got a little lucky. The average high for that time of year is 89, which isn't far off from the peak of summer. Maybe it does tend to be less humid?

And the sun is about as high in the sky as it ever gets, so I'm amazed you didn't get burned.