Crowds in July & August??

[dennisnlisab96]

I have not been to Disney in the summer since I was a kids...we usually go in November or April vacation. How bad are the crowds. We are planning a trip for next summer DH, myself and our 6 kids We won't be spending mid day in the parks at all...we will have the gold plan so my kids will be doing other stuff during the HEAT of the day. Any info would be great!!

 

[MsMulan]

I went last summer (late August) with my DS(6) at that time. We had a great time despite the rain. I think the crowds were less than in the height of the summer. We spent an average of 10 to 15 minutes in line for most rides. Fastpasses are still necessary for some attractions. I think if you can survive the weather, it is a good time of the year to go.

 

[emmabelle]

I've been in July in 2000, '02, '03. The crowds in the morning are manageable and get worse as the day goes on. MK is always packed, but the other parks aren't that bad at all. We try to get to the parks as early as possible, take the afternoon break and go back at night. We decided to try April for 2005 to escape the heat which I think is worse than the crowds.

 

[oldkicker]

ITA agree with what emmabelle wrote.

We were there a couple of weeks ago, August 1-7 on five-day hoppers. The crowds were pretty big, especially at MK. Blizzard Beach reached capacity one day too.

We avoided the early entry parks but did make it to the parks for park opening. We were able to visit every attraction we wanted to see, all more than once.

The Fast Pass system made a big difference. Now that you can have more than one Fast Pass at a time, a little planning goes a long way to getting to experience more attractions. We'd typically grab a fast pass for an attraction, see a couple of uncrowded attractions, grab another Fast Pass on our way to the first Fast Passed attraction and go on from there.

We also coupled up attractions, grabbing a Fast Pass for one and then riding the other while waiting for the Fast Pass to come due. For example, we'd grab a Fast Pass for Buzz Lightyear, and ride Space Mountain while waiting for the Buzz Fast Pass. We also paired up Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, and Tower of Terror and Rock 'n Roller Coaster.

We also noted that a long wait wasn't permanent! We'd sometimes check back within an hour and find the wait time sometimes slashed in half. The long waits were sizable, often well over an hour, but we never waited nearly that long (except when Space Mountain broke down, but that's another story!)

Have fun planning and enjoy your trip!