Help! July or August??

[kaytieedid]

Does it even make a difference?? We're booked from 6/28 - 7/13 right now and I'm getting nervous about the 4th of July holiday and the tour groups.

Would it make much of a difference if we went Aug 2 - 17 or Aug 9 - 24??

 

[drusba]

Does it even make a difference?? We're booked from 6/28 - 7/13 right now and I'm getting nervous about the 4th of July holiday and the tour groups.

Would it make much of a difference if we went Aug 2 - 17 or Aug 9 - 24??

July is the heaviest month for tour groups although I don't really consider those a problem. Time around July 4 (about 3 days before and 3 after) is the most crowded time of the normally very crowded summer months. August will not have those extreme July 4 days; moreover, if you go Aug 9 to 24, you are actually going to have a string of quite manageable crowd days since the huge summer crowds dissipate about mid-month. The weather is about the same, very hot with often a few daily, heavy but not long, thunderstorms, with the risk of a hurricane a little higher in August than July.

 

[hakepb]

It might of been a fluke last year, but the 1st 2 weeks of July in 2012 were very manageable

of course MK on the 3rd was insane during the fireworks, and DHS on the 4th was crazy...but so worth it!

Otherwise I stuck to my typical fall plan of sleeping in, never rope drop, getting a FP for headliners and ne'er wait more than 20 mins, and I did everything I wanted to do. (My last attraction was COP because I realized I didn't do it earlier in the trip, MK wasn't that packed, and COP was a backup plan)

I even experienced a few freaky low crowd moments:
On 7/1/12 I walked onto PP @9:30p.. it took 10 minutes
On 7/8/12 DHS was still distributing TSM FP...at 4pm

It sure seemed lines as reported on apps were much longer in August.

 

[hakepb]

July is the heaviest month for tour groups although I don't really consider those a problem. Time around July 4 (about 3 days before and 3 after) is the most crowded time of the normally very crowded summer months. August will not have those extreme July 4 days; moreover, if you go Aug 9 to 24, you are actually going to have a string of quite manageable crowd days since the huge summer crowds dissipate about mid-month. The weather is about the same, very hot with often a few daily, heavy but not long, thunderstorms, with the risk of a hurricane a little higher in August than July.

There were a ton of your groups in July. (I don't think there were any teens remaining in Brazil) I avoided them fairly well in the parks...and was glad they weren't staying at BWV

 

[kaytieedid]

Thank you everyone. I am definitely leaning towards August!!

 

[Desnik]

From my experience, there is a huge difference between crowds in July and Aug. The end of Aug is great. I would go with the Aug dates you posted, the 9th-24th.

 

[twinklebug]

I love going during the second half of August - you can really feel the crowd levels dropping from day to day. That gets my vote!

We have to go in July this year, as I have a bunch of points that will expire at eom. I was thinking the last week of July. My grown son has mentioned he'd like to meet us in WDW over the 4th, when his company has shutdown and mandatory vacation - but I really don't want to hit the height of the summer crowds. The one thing that keeps me thinking about it is I really want his little brother to have some 1:1 time with him. The 15yo gets so bored in Disney now

 

[hakepb]

I guess another way of stating it, my vacation at the beginning of July last year felt like (2)evenings of crowd level 10 (for fireworks you can't get any other time of the year) (6)days of crowd level 4-6 and (2)days of crowd level 2.

In hindsight, looking at wait times in August..Aug was much worse, and I would gladly choose July again.

 

[KSL]

We have taken four trips in late August and love it. Yes, it is HOT, there's no denying it. And you do have the risk of thunderstorms or hurricanes. We've been pretty lucky in that respect, but we know it is a chance we take going at that time of year. Nevertheless, the lower crowds and cheaper points DVC-wise make it a good option for us. Plus we love planning and anticipating all summer. This year we are going Aug. 11-23 and are so excited already!!!

 

[kaytieedid]

I guess another way of stating it, my vacation at the beginning of July last year felt like (2)evenings of crowd level 10 (for fireworks you can't get any other time of the year) (6)days of crowd level 4-6 and (2)days of crowd level 2.

In hindsight, looking at wait times in August..Aug was much worse, and I would gladly choose July again.

Now I'm not so sure about August. I think we would have to do 8/2 - 8/17 since my son starts school on 8/26. I'm so torn. We do lots of pool time but the last thing we want to do is get caught up in massive 4th of July crowds and tour groups at the parks. We usually do September and it's always so hot, so we're prepared for the ungodly heat again

 

[hakepb]

Now I'm not so sure about August. I think we would have to do 8/2 - 8/17 since my son starts school on 8/26. I'm so torn. We do lots of pool time but the last thing we want to do is get caught up in massive 4th of July crowds and tour groups at the parks. We usually do September and it's always so hot, so we're prepared for the ungodly heat again

It might of been a freak one time occurrance last year for me..or EasyWDW.com was that good...just relaying my experience that was not as bad as the few Thanksgiving weeks I've experience..

 

[rutgers1]

We are going the first 2 weeks of July and just go into it knowing that the crowds will be crazy. We use fast passes well, spend the afternoon by the pool, and always go to the SUPER LATE NIGHT evenings at Magic Kingdom. By 1AM, the place is pretty cleared out.

We went in August once, and the crowds were considerably better.

 

[moredisneyplease]

i only go in July because I have to (kids out of school June 15-Aug 15). its honestly not that bad if you do it right. enjoy parks early in the mornings/late at night and enjoy the pools and water parks in the late morning/afternoons (if the thunderstorms dont ruin that). yeah those groups from Brazil are big and my boys stare at their skimpy swimsuits but we walk the other direction.

if i could go later in August I would!

 

[aes74]

I would go in August. Yes, it's hot. But we floridians don't generally venture back to Disney until August for one last hurrah before school starts until then due to crowds.

 

[Sandisw]

We've been every week in the summer from 4th of July until as late as August 23rd. I can tell you that each week was a little less in terms of crowds--at least it seemed that way.

For the past few years, since owning DVC, we've settled into August and like it. We will do the 13th to the 20th this year and then the 6th to the 13th in 2014 so we get two trips from our AP's.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Help! July or August??

No.

 

[lovin'fl]

We did the 4th of July week one year and it was super busy all week with the 4th being outrageously crowded (trying to watch the fireworks). We haven't been to WDW in August, but have been in Sept twice and have been to Universal in August (last year) and those trips were all very nice and not crowded. Just HOT, but so is July. Check out the link below for a crowd calender.

http://www.dadsguidetowdw.com/disney-world-crowd-calendars-2013.html