How Bad is the week of July 4th?

[kj2mom]

Thank you for all the replies. We are going!!! We’ve booked our first ever stay at Fort Wilderness, which was free because of credit card signup bonuses. We’ll use our annual passes and drive from Michigan with 4 kids. We will adjust our expectations and just be happy to be at Disney. I was surprised we were able to get Mickeys Backyard BBQ reservations for July 4th. We are going to do early mornings, skip the fireworks, and enjoy some resort time on the 4th. A crowded week at Disney will be better than a week in Michigan.

One year we began our trip by going to HDDR on our arrival day. When we finished we walked down to the boat to take it back to MK to get our resort bus and the timing was perfect. We stood on the beach and saw the water pageant as well as (at the time) Wishes. They were holding the boats at the time so really we had no choice but to stand and wait but it was an amazing way to begin our vacation. You might consider the beach at Fort Widlerness for fireworks??!!

 

[ashleyrm]

I went last year from 7/2 - 7/5 and found it to be quite manageable. Granted it was a solo trip so I could come and go as I pleased, and I was more focused on photography and less on getting everything done. I'd have to go back and pull my notes to see how bad the crowds really were. I did not try to watch July 4th fireworks in park for MK either on the 3rd or 4th. Watched from the ferry dock on the 3rd. I did watch Illuminations with the July 4th tag from inside Epcot on the 4th. If I get a chance to look at my notes, I'll share more. I am going back for the same 4 days this year so either it wasn't that bad or I've already forgotten how bad it was. Lol.

 

[whiporee]

If anyone sees the MK Desert Parties open up for July 3 or 4, would you mind posting it on this thread? I'm following it, and while I'm checking every day to see, I'd hate to miss it because I got busy and forgot. I promise to do the same.

You can't program it into TP, so it's just a matter of checking. Thanks!

 

[ArielSRL]

This year could very well be different because of TSL but honestly I think some people are just conditioned to say that WDW is busy in summer. I htink a lot of those haven't been in awhile or haven't been at all at that time but are just repeating things they have heard. We go in June and it isn't bad at all. In any case, I don't try to argue too much because I kind of like that most people think it is busy and steer clear!