Crowds Memorial Day and Gay Days?

[magicwishes]

We are planning on going to WDW May/June 2015. The earliest day we can leave is the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. Two weekends later are Gay Days.

Which weekend would you avoid more due to crowds Memorial Day or Gay Days? Will the weather be much different? We could go later in the summer, but would you go as early in the summer as possible?

 

[magicwishes]

Edited for simplicity now, any thoughts?

 

[pens4821]

Can't answer your question, just here to say we're in the same boat. We're thinking Memorial week or 2nd or after week in June. Don't want to go to far into June because I'm sure heat/crowds keep growing.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

We have been Memorial Day weekend now the past 3 years. We typically arrive the Tuesday or Wednesday before the weekend. We have found the crowds to be fabulous the week before..the holiday weekend is obviously much more croweded...but with a plan, we have never had any huge waits. The weather is beautiful (for us) - This year it was really hot (90's) but not a ton of humidity. This past trip it only rained 1 afternoon.
The later you go into June, the more crowded it will get due to schools letting out for the summer and the humidity will be brutal.

 

[worm761]

We are planning on going to WDW May/June 2015. The earliest day we can leave is the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. Two weekends later are Gay Days.

Which weekend would you avoid more due to crowds Memorial Day or Gay Days? Will the weather be much different? We could go later in the summer, but would you go as early in the summer as possible?

I have been both weekends. Memorial Day weekend will be crowded. The crowds will thin a bit during the week. But Florida schools start getting out that week so the parks start picking up.

Gay Days are not bad. My advice if you choose to go during Gay Days is to look at their schedule and avoid the park they will be in. Especially if that park happens to be DHS on a Star Wars Weekend. Most crowded I have ever seen a park. Learned that little lesson the hard way!

 

[NJ Goofy]

We were there this past Memorial Day weekend. We actually arrived the Wednesday before the holiday weekend. The crowds were no problem until the actual weekend. Saturday and Sunday were pretty crowded. The Friday before the weekend was the 24 hour day at MK. It was kind of cool seeing the park so crowded at 3:00 am.

By the way it was unusually hot for the end of May, I think on Saturday the real feel temp was 103° . Good luck.

 

[jd4nati]

I can't speak for the memorial day crowds but we just returned from a trip during Gay Days. As has been suggested, we avoided the park that was scheduled for Gay Days each day and we had no issues. We were there from June 3-10 and the parks started to get progressively more crowded starting Saturday, June 7. We had no rain our first 5 days and temperatures were in high 80s/low 90s those days. Our last few days were much hotter with higher humidity. Of course the weather will be hit and miss but crowd wise we would go again the first week of June. I'm not so sure I'd book a trip starting the second week of June as the difference in crowds was vast. FP+ made the higher crowds tolerable though.

 

[Skywise]

Memorial Day.

I was just there during Gay Days for Star Wars Weekend and didn't notice any particularly larger crowds except for the friday that Gay Days coincided with Mark Hamill's first appearance at DHS for SWW which also just happened to be the last day for use of Florida Resident Discount tickets.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

How did you find the crowds to be the week of Memorial Day? I'm sure Saturday through Monday are pretty nuts, but are Tuesday through the following weekend just as bad? I'm considering changing our trip from the last week in April/first week in May to the week following Memorial Day.

 

[charleygop]

We have gone the past two years the week Memorial Day falls in. Crowds were okay but did start to build on the weekend.

 

[georgina]

I was there this year from Monday Memorial day until Friday, so not on the weekends at all. I went early every morning and used FP later, going to Epcot in the evening most days. The only time I thought it was getting very crowded was an afternoon in AK, but I had gotten there by 8 and was ready to leave by 2.

 

[Ametista]

We just went to MK on Saturday when it was gay days and the crowds were lower than normal for early June. A CM we know suggested we go during gay days because of that and we were thrilled that after the 9pm parade almost everything was walk-on. The line for Splash was 5 walk on at 9:30 and same for BTMR.

 

[Brave teacher]

Our trips every year either coincide with Memorial Day weekend or Gay Days. Our trips during Memorial Day have always been less crowded than the ones that include Gay Days.

 

[boBQuincy]

We just went to MK on Saturday when it was gay days and the crowds were lower than normal for early June. A CM we know suggested we go during gay days because of that and we were thrilled that after the 9pm parade almost everything was walk-on. The line for Splash was 5 walk on at 9:30 and same for BTMR.

Our experience was similar, we arrived shortly after rope drop and found the park almost empty . We had read the gay group does not arrive early and that was accurate, MK was pretty quiet until about 10:30 am. It got busier after that but not as much as it was the day before (Friday).
This is Frontierland at 10:18...