How's May?

Moonstorm

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Messages
218
For WDW, I know most of May is listed as the regular season. What are the crowds like? What's the weather like? Is this a generally good time to go? Last time I was there was in 1997 and I went at the end of Sept. into Oct. The weather was awesome and I don't think line waits were longer than 20-30 minutes!

Unfortunately, that time of the year won't work for the next trip in 2008.
 
I went in May 3 years ago and the crowds wasn't too bad. We was there a week before Memorial day, so around Thurs leading up to the holiday, the crowds started picking up. The wait time before Thurs was around 20 minutes but some rides we was able to walk right on. From Thurs on, the wait time was around 40 minutes or so.
 
We have gone the last four years in May at various times (first, second, third week). We have never gone around Memorial Day so the following is pre last week of May.

The weather varies. But it is hot at least upper 70's if not low to mid 80's but nothing like August was when we went about 10 years ago. There are the occasional freak rainstorm but for the most part the weather is sunny and clear. It can quickly get cold at night so bring a long sleeved shirt or sweater to pull on over your shirt if you stay for Fireworks, Illuminations, Fantasmic or just stay out late at Downtown Disney.

As far as the waits: most rides and attractions have wait times around 20 minutes or significantly less like 5 or 10 or 15 minutes if it is not a popular ride or it is a downtime. There were many occasions that rides like Buzz Lightyear, Small World and Mission Space had a wait time of 5 minutes. But then there are the big ticket rides that always have a long line. I never passed Expedition Everest without seeing a wait of at least 40 minutes. And Soarin' was always at least an hour wait.

Overall the weather is pleasant and the crowd sare lighter because about half the public schools in the country run through June. On the other hand there always seem to be numerous groups of 12-15 year olds wandering around in matching shirts (bands, choirs, dance groups?) Groups of tweens and teens left to run around Disney can get a little annoying but overall May is a great time to go.

FYI about ADR's: even though May has lighter crowds you will still want to make reservations for breakfast, lunch or dinner if you have your heart set on a specific restaurant. For lunch or dinner you may not have to make reservations now but make them early on when you get into the park. If you wait until it's time to eat dinner you'll find that there is no table service place left.
 

FYI about ADR's: even though May has lighter crowds you will still want to make reservations for breakfast, lunch or dinner if you have your heart set on a specific restaurant. For lunch or dinner you may not have to make reservations now but make them early on when you get into the park. If you wait until it's time to eat dinner you'll find that there is no table service place left.

We're going May 10-19. We made ADR's in mid-March (right after we decided we were actually going in May). I don't know what availablility was actually like at that time as we asked for our breakfasts for 10ish and our dinners for 7:30 or so, but when we called last week to make some changes in our dining schedule, we were already getting the "we've got a 4:30 or a 9:00" line. Just an FYI.
 
We are going in may again. We find that may is a good month because the lines arent too long and the weather is just getting hot. But we also live in south mississippi so the weather is comprable. This time we are going May 19th through May 29th. So i hope that things are the same as the last may we went. :banana: :banana: :banana:
 
Also i forgot to put in my last post that the crowds arent usually getting busy until the end of the month because some schools arent out and the holiday is comming up.
 
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We've gone the first or second week in May twice, (2004 & 2006) Both times the highs were around 88 but not super humid. Perfect for water parks. Crowds weren't bad at all. 5-20 min wait for most rides. :cloud9:
We like early May so much we will probably do it again in 2008. Too bad there are no school holidays/teachers' inservices during that time. But we'd like to squeeze 1 more week in before ds begins middle school in 9/08.
 
Awesome! We're going back and forth between the first and second week of May at this point.
 
We always go first 2 weeks in may when we go and it has always been really warm and not big crowds!
 

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