Best time to go in school Hols 2013?

[finmummy]

Hi everyone, we are planning a holiday to Disney for 2013. However, question is when is the best time to go? We are going for 2 weeks but one week has to be school hols. Planning on staying at a disney hotel and just doing disney parks and Universal/IOA. Will be husband, me and our 5 year old son.
Out of the following, what is the best for weather/crowds etc?
Going 9th Feb or 16th Feb, school hols 18-22 Feb, although this will coincide with Presidents day/week (18th Feb).
Easter too expensive and too busy
Going 18th May or 25th May, school hols 27-31 May, although this will coincide with Memorial Day weekend, do the americans kids just have a long weekend then rather than a week off? Also have gay days and Star wars at end of may/beg in June, parks will be busier?
Last two weeks of August (need to be back by 1st sept), but will the humidity be too much?
Or lastly going October, either 19th or 26th oct, if school hols are 28th oct - 1st nov.
I have been in August many years ago, remember it being rainy a lot in the afternoons, and went in Oct in 2004, weather was nice then but never had to worry about school hols before. Any advice would be great.

 

[heatherbelle]

Of the choices you have listed I have been on three of those.

May - We had a lot of rain on this visit, bare in mind the first week in June is the start of the Hurricane season. The weather was also muggy, a bit like August weather at times. It was also very very busy.

August, we always go in August now, the same two weeks you have suggested. Yes you do get rain in the afternoons and sometimes all day. But the crowds are lighter.

October - This is the best time to go. It can be quite cool on a morning so you will need to take fleeces, and gloves with you, but once the sun heats up its lovely. No crowds, plus you have Mickey's halloween party too. So if I had young kids then I'd go for this time. I took my DS out of school for two weeks when he was in year 3 to do October and we went for three weeks. However, I wouldn't take him out again as he missed too much work and fell behind. So you bare that in mind too.

Feb - Never been. I would imagine its like October weather wise.

 

[orangetiggs]

Have been in feb the same time you are looking at and we found it lovely although it can be cold, we had frost a few days but crowds were ok

Have been last week aug and first week sept and loved this time of year low crowds and weather was good, doesnt bother us going in hurricane season as we have been caught in one before and disney were great dealing with it

Last year we went 19th oct to 1st nov and found the parks too busy for us and weather was chilly at times

This year we fly 1st nov for two weeks as crowds seemed to get thinner by beg of nov we found

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

Feb half term- Done this time twice. First time the weather was like our idea of a perfect British summers day, mid 20s during the day, and we just needed a jumper a night, but the following year it was jumpers on all the time for 60% of the holiday, and cold at night. Presidents Day is just a long weekend holiday, it got busy on the Thursday through to about Tuesday, but nothing that would ever put us off going that time again.

May half-term. The weather for us was great, low 30s most of the time, it did touch high 30s once or twice. Towards the end of the holiday it did rain a few afternoons (first week in June) but mostly cleared up by the evening, only once did it rain non stop. Memorial weekend is busy,but good planning helps a lot, i look at http://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/crowd-calendar found this to be a great help.Star Wars weekend is amazing, great fun and easily worth putting up with the crowds as a one off experience.The schools in the south start to break up about this time too.
The way we coped with the weather was parks a.m pool p.m and if we had any energy left back to the parks in the evening.
Hurricane season starts officially on the 1st June, but the main season for Florida is August-October.

I think we too will be forced into August holidays soon. The heat or the crowds would never put me going at this time of year, but if i had a choice a would go May/June every time. At these times its crucial to plan and take it a bit more easy than if you were going say Jan/Feb.

 

[dixonsontour]

October for us - this will be our 3rd October.

Weather is warm - usually high 20's, little rain.

We have found crowds to be fine. You also get the extra halloween decorations and food and wine festival at epcot.

If you pay a few $ and subscribe to touringplans.com it gives crowd predictions for the year so you can see when will be best for you.

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

Another useful site is http://www.easywdw.com/ Just click on dates on right hand side