Crowds summer

[DaviVascaino]

Looks like HS is definitely the busiest park today. Hopefully crowds die down a bit before we arrive on the 18th. Local schools start the 11th.

please keep me posted in terms of crowd levels and weather. I am planning to go late Aug 2026. thanks

 

[lovethattink]

how is the weather? manageable? lol

I live in Florida and this is the hottest it’s been, records made. I think we are back to normal August temps now. But it’s Florida and it’s hot and humid.

It’s manageable with the proper precautions.

 

[DaviVascaino]

I live in Florida and this is the hottest it’s been, records made. I think we are back to normal August temps now. But it’s Florida and it’s hot and humid.

It’s manageable with the proper precautions.

define normal august temps

 

[DisneyFive]

We were just there July 22- July 31, so 9 nights. This was our 5th trip this time of year (Late July, Early August) going back to 2016.

We did:

• MK 3 times
• HS 2 times
• EP 2 times
• AK 1 time
• Typhoon Lagoon 1 time

The parks did not feel overly busy, and probably the least crowded summer visit. I mean, there are always a lot of people in the parks so they don't ever feel "empty" in the summer, but this one never felt crowded either.

We've had late September visits more crowded in the peak years of Free Dining, like 2013-2015, that actually got up into the crowd levels of 7 - 9.

Touring plans had forecasted this trip to be 4's - 7's but looking back now they adjusted the actuals down to 2's to 6's depending on the day. I would say it actually probably felt more like 4-6 out of 10. We've been using touring plans since 2010 and I remember those 2's in 2010 were like ghost towns in the morning compared to now. Nothing felt as low as a 2 during this trip.

Either way, crowds have never been the issue in the summer for us. Just prepare for the heat (we take afternoon breaks). For us, we wouldn't visit without a "skip the line system", so we bought LLMP for every day except AK. I loathe paying for it, but If we didn't have LLMP we would have gotten FAR less enjoyment out of our visit.

We do refuse to pay for ILL so we did stand in line for those, but that's just one per park and typically was anywhere from 30-80 minutes for ROTR, FOP, TRON, and Guardians.

 

[godfather927]

how is the weather? manageable? lol

It's awful. I'm never coming in August again. We only did it because my daughter had been asking to do a Halloween party but with our work schedules, we could never take time off in October or September, so we finally decided to try to make a mid August trip work and I instantly regret it, lol. The storms and rain have been hitting every night too. With our luck, we'll get poured on during the party night next week.

 

[lovethattink]

define normal august temps

This is this week’s 10 day forecast. More rainy from the system going to the Carolinas.

 

[muppets3d]

It is looking like the best times to visit WDW are when the Florida APs are blacked out.

 

[RivShore]

And a point from this week's earnings call - DIS said Experiences bookings are up 6% so far for Q4 (Jul-Sep), so it looks more and more like this summer will be busier than last.

 

[toesmom]

I look at wait times periodically and they have been moderate. Right now, 40 min Haunted Mansion, 60 Tron, 45 Space Mtn, 25 pirates, 65 Tiana

We spent 10 days returning July 20, crowds were moderate. I don’t think there is a low season. Long lines for popular attractions

 

[Minnie1222]

And a point from this week's earnings call - DIS said Experiences bookings are up 6% so far for Q4 (Jul-Sep), so it looks more and more like this summer will be busier than last.

It looks like posts #36, 37, and 38 were right all along.

 

[DisneyFive]

And a point from this week's earnings call - DIS said Experiences bookings are up 6% so far for Q4 (Jul-Sep), so it looks more and more like this summer will be busier than last.

It looks like posts #36, 37, and 38 were right all along.

IDK, 6% more is probably imperceptible to the average guest.

25% more? Maybe.

 

[Mousefan mom]

Just got back, we were there 8/3-8/9, just 2 adults staying at POR for our anniversary. When we first got in, we felt the crowds were noticeably lighter, in fact last Sunday our arrival day (super early flight) we didn't do lightening lanes and had a wonderful day in MK (we didn't do many headliners). Every other day we had either lightening lanes, premier pass (at AK which was much more affordable) and we did the 2 after hours at Hollywood and Epcot (Hollywood was worth it, Epcot was not IMO if you like rides and charachters). Epcot is more a dance party and TT was down most of the night. We did a lot--but we were paying top dollar, so put that in perspective. The heat got us more than the crowds. The crowds increased through the week--and we saw almost as many international travelers as American. I think Disney does a strong marketing campaign, particularly in Europe to entice a lot of August travel and they often come over in larger multigenerational family groups. Although we enjoy the diversity, we found they would often crowd out the quiet pools (difficult to find a chair even in the quiet pools, larger families with lots of kids playing ball in the pool when you maybe just wanted to peacefully relax, I got hit in the head with beach balls several times, lol.). We were VERY lucky on rain--but that is changing now with lots more coming in. The bad part, is when it doesn't rain, it is even hotter, and the heat was absolutely next level. We were having a very hot (for us) summer in the midwest and we trained for this by hiking almost daily, no matter how hot or rainy it was here...and nothing prepared us for Florida heat.

Some tips--Remy, DO THE SINGLE RIDER line, no one seems to know about this, despite cast members announcing and encouraging it, but your que will be AC and it was basically a walk in our experience while the outside hot que was a 45 minute.

The new Test Track is amazing! However, if it rains, it is going to be down. During the after hours, it closes an hour before the event ends normally, and it was down for technical difficulties the first hour and a half of the after hours (we were surprised they still closed it early, it was really only open about 40 minutes, but we got to ride).

Pack your patience and understand what you are getting into...with higher international travelers there can be cultural barriers, larger groups want to stick together making it more challenging to navigate crowds, language barriers, and folks may not understand or know how to do Disney as much as those of us who go often know. Overall, we had a great time--but we paid for the upcharges and trained for us--if we didn't, I don't think my review would be as positive...

 

[DaviVascaino]

Just got back, we were there 8/3-8/9, just 2 adults staying at POR for our anniversary. When we first got in, we felt the crowds were noticeably lighter, in fact last Sunday our arrival day (super early flight) we didn't do lightening lanes and had a wonderful day in MK (we didn't do many headliners). Every other day we had either lightening lanes, premier pass (at AK which was much more affordable) and we did the 2 after hours at Hollywood and Epcot (Hollywood was worth it, Epcot was not IMO if you like rides and charachters). Epcot is more a dance party and TT was down most of the night. We did a lot--but we were paying top dollar, so put that in perspective. The heat got us more than the crowds. The crowds increased through the week--and we saw almost as many international travelers as American. I think Disney does a strong marketing campaign, particularly in Europe to entice a lot of August travel and they often come over in larger multigenerational family groups. Although we enjoy the diversity, we found they would often crowd out the quiet pools (difficult to find a chair even in the quiet pools, larger families with lots of kids playing ball in the pool when you maybe just wanted to peacefully relax, I got hit in the head with beach balls several times, lol.). We were VERY lucky on rain--but that is changing now with lots more coming in. The bad part, is when it doesn't rain, it is even hotter, and the heat was absolutely next level. We were having a very hot (for us) summer in the midwest and we trained for this by hiking almost daily, no matter how hot or rainy it was here...and nothing prepared us for Florida heat.

Some tips--Remy, DO THE SINGLE RIDER line, no one seems to know about this, despite cast members announcing and encouraging it, but your que will be AC and it was basically a walk in our experience while the outside hot que was a 45 minute.

The new Test Track is amazing! However, if it rains, it is going to be down. During the after hours, it closes an hour before the event ends normally, and it was down for technical difficulties the first hour and a half of the after hours (we were surprised they still closed it early, it was really only open about 40 minutes, but we got to ride).

Pack your patience and understand what you are getting into...with higher international travelers there can be cultural barriers, larger groups want to stick together making it more challenging to navigate crowds, language barriers, and folks may not understand or know how to do Disney as much as those of us who go often know. Overall, we had a great time--but we paid for the upcharges and trained for us--if we didn't, I don't think my review would be as positive...

by upcharge you mean LL?

 

[Mousefan mom]

by upcharge you mean LL?

Yes we did a combination of "upcharges" to regular park hopper tickets--more affordable with just 2 adults--this would be VERY pricey for a family with kiddos though. We had premier pass for one morning at AK (you get a lightening lane to each attraction one time, no time constraints go at your own pace), we had the multipass lightening lanes for each park day (including the day we did premier at AK in the morning, we finished our day in MK that night and used it for that park), and we also booked 2 after hours parties for Epcot and Hollywood while we were there. We got to do a lot--but this is what I mean by upcharging everything. Only one day did we have no extras just park tickets, that was arrival day--and we just did rides like Tiki Room, Country Bears, Train, etc. that day. We didn't want to wait in line in the very hot sun, so to us this was worth it.