Is there really no slow season anymore?

[SarahC97]

I see a lot of people say that WDW doesn't have a slow season anymore. Do you really think that's true? I realize things have changed in the parks over the last few years, but I just went during Labor Day week and thought the crowds were fantastic. I would definitely consider that week to be on the slower side. Sure, there were a lot of people, but the wait times for rides were great and the parks and buses were easy to navigate. Certainly better than last October for me. I guess it's all relative.

 

[Klayfish]

I guess it's all relative.

That's the thing, it's all relative and subjective. One persons' definition of "slow" is another persons' definition of a mob scene. Generally speaking, attendance is up steadily from its' low point after 9/11, so it's busier than it was 15+ years ago.

Just my own $.02, the crowds don't bother me...even 4th of July and Christmas Week. I love WDW, so I don't really care all that much what the crowds are like.

 

[SarahC97]

That's the thing, it's all relative and subjective. One persons' definition of "slow" is another persons' definition of a mob scene. Generally speaking, attendance is up steadily from its' low point after 9/11, so it's busier than it was 15+ years ago.

Just my own $.02, the crowds don't bother me...even 4th of July and Christmas Week. I love WDW, so I don't really care all that much what the crowds are like.

I do prefer to go when it's not crazy, but I've been pretty happy with our last couple of trips, regardless of crowds. It's certainly not as great as it was a few years ago, but you're right - I love Disney and a crowded day at Disney is better than being at home!

 

[stinkpickle]

Slow periods still happen, but they usually don't last for an entire week anymore.

 

[only hope]

Slow periods still happen, but they usually don't last for an entire week anymore.

Unless a hurricane travels up the state into Georgia, cutting off the flow of tourists. I’m a local and went twice right in the days before the storm...best days I’ve ever had. I watched wait times on the app after the storm and they stayed crazy low till late in the week.

 

[DebbieB]

I see a lot of people say that WDW doesn't have a slow season anymore. Do you really think that's true? I realize things have changed in the parks over the last few years, but I just went during Labor Day week and thought the crowds were fantastic. I would definitely consider that week to be on the slower side. Sure, there were a lot of people, but the wait times for rides were great and the parks and buses were easy to navigate. Certainly better than last October for me. I guess it's all relative.

Part of it is knowing how to plan. If you go to MK on a Monday during Party season (and no party that night), it's going to be jam packed. Going on a day with a party, it's going to be less crowded. Use fastpass for the major attractions. I've gone different times of the year and have no complaints.

 

[mom2rtk]

Labor Day is one of the very few predictably slow times left. WDW draws a lot of their guests from the Northeast, and schools tend to start there the week after Labor Day. And while parents will take kids out of school, very few are willing to do so that first week of school.

The rest of the year is a major crapshoot. Prices are up so my theory is that people are swapping out of traditional peak times into the less expensive other seasons.

 

[MaC410]

I know this is probably an obvious observation but wouldn't the size of your party also help determine how you view the crowd sizes? A party of 2 is going to have a much easier time doing things than a large family on "crowded" days. It's much easier for a party of 2 to pick up same day fastpasses throughout the day than a large family. Something like that definitely helps mold your opinion on how crowded the parks may be.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

Labor Day week is still slow. Usually close to the start of the school year so less kids are pulled from school. Although, did it feel so slow to me because people had already cancelled trips before Irma this year? We were there Tues/Wed and left Thurs. and the parks felt like they always have on previous LD week trips.

Maybe that week will get slower because perhaps people like us who were affected by Irma won’t go during peak hurricane time ever again! Could be an even slower week next year. Will be interesting to see.

 

[AngiTN]

I see a lot of people say that WDW doesn't have a slow season anymore. Do you really think that's true? I realize things have changed in the parks over the last few years, but I just went during Labor Day week and thought the crowds were fantastic. I would definitely consider that week to be on the slower side. Sure, there were a lot of people, but the wait times for rides were great and the parks and buses were easy to navigate. Certainly better than last October for me. I guess it's all relative.

No. It's not possible. There has to be a slow season. As in, there is a time of year where there are fewer people than other times of year.
To say otherwise is to say you can't have a small drink, only a medium and a large.
I guess technically you can say that, but really, technically, there is a drink smaller than the other one. It may be a 32 oz cup but if the other cup is 64 oz, it's still smaller. You can call it whatever you want.
So I don't agree that Disney doesn't have a slow season. It does. It has a season that is slower than the others.
But that doesn't mean it has a season where it's empty.

ETA - Actually, I wouldn't even call it a season. I would say there are times when there are fewer people there. And I don't think it's a single span of time, I think there are a few during the year where the crowds drop. Still, don't view it as empty.

 

[SarahC97]

No. It's not possible. There has to be a slow season. As in, there is a time of year where there are fewer people than other times of year.
To say otherwise is to say you can't have a small drink, only a medium and a large.
I guess technically you can say that, but really, technically, there is a drink smaller than the other one. It may be a 32 oz cup but if the other cup is 64 oz, it's still smaller. You can call it whatever you want.
So I don't agree that you can't say Disney doesn't have a slow season. It does. It has a season that is slower than the others.
But that doesn't mean it has a season where it's empty.

Agreed!

So -- when are the slower seasons? My guess would be late August - early September and parts of January and February.

 

[KenHutch]

Look at the bright side when all of the scheduled construction is done crowd levels should balance out a bit in the parks and if attendance keeps climbing (and Universal keeps pushing them) that long talked about 5th park may actually see daylight.

 

[SarahC97]

Look at the bright side when all of the scheduled construction is done crowd levels should balance out a bit in the parks and if attendance keeps climbing (and Universal keeps pushing them) that long talked about 5th park may actually see daylight.

They are doing a lot right now. But I'll admit the thought of the crowds the first few months after Star Wars land opens fills my little heart with fear!

 

[AngiTN]

Agreed!

So -- when are the slower seasons? My guess would be late August - early September and parts of January and February.

I would actually say mid to late Sept and then probably mid to late Jan are some of their slower times.
But, they do things to try and bring in guests so who knows. They manipulate promos very smartly
Plus, you can't discount foreign guests. Sure, here in the US we tend to avoid traveling near to the start of School (just after Labor Day in a large part of the US) or again just after the Holiday's) but that's not the case in the rest of the world. So Disney does promos outside the US to attract foreign guests when the US guests aren't as likely to travel. They've done a darn good job to keep their numbers up at a level they are happy with just about year around.
Which is why a slow time is still pretty dang crowded. By most definition. Still, it's less crowded than other times so by technical definition, slower than others.

 

[yulilin3]

When most people talk about slow season they refer the time period of about 7 to 10 years following Sept 11th 2001.
The parks were pretty empty for the longest time and people got excited to come with very low park attendance.
Then Disney stated offering the year of a million dreams and free dining and different packages that got people back to Orlando.
As to your specific question, there's no dead in the park period but there are slower weeks than others

 

[SarahC97]

I would actually say mid to late Sept and then probably mid to late Jan are some of their slower times.
But, they do things to try and bring in guests so who knows. They manipulate promos very smartly
Plus, you can't discount foreign guests. Sure, here in the US we tend to avoid traveling near to the start of School (just after Labor Day in a large part of the US) or again just after the Holiday's) but that's not the case in the rest of the world. So Disney does promos outside the US to attract foreign guests when the US guests aren't as likely to travel. They've done a darn good job to keep their numbers up at a level they are happy with just about year around.
Which is why a slow time is still pretty dang crowded. By most definition. Still, it's less crowded than other times so by technical definition, slower than others.

I'm going in January for the first time, I'm really interested to see how busy the parks are then. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on what to expect, but I'm still hopeful it won't be as bad other times I've gone.

 

[SarahC97]

When most people talk about slow season they refer the time period of about 7 to 10 years following Sept 11th 2001.
The parks were pretty empty for the longest time and people got excited to come with very low park attendance.
Then Disney stated offering the year of a million dreams and free dining and different packages that got people back to Orlando.
As to your specific question, there's no dead in the park period but there are slower weeks than others[/QUOTE

Oh, that makes sense. I didn't go in those years. I went a lot in the 80s and 90s, then didn't go back until 2013 - and I thought the week we went in 2013 in October was pretty fantastic. Went back the same week last year and it was a madhouse! It's certainly gotten busier, but I can understand that if those dead times were your baseline, no time would be slow now!

 

[kydisneyfans]

I agree it is all relative.
The emptiest I ever saw a park was Friday morning of Columbus Day weekend. This is from over 20 visits. It was dead, empty, weird.
Some crowd calendars after that weekend stated the weekend was a 10 out of 10 due to capacity, yet we went during a 3 hour window that nobody else did.

The strategy of arriving at rope drop and staying 3-4 hours, then lunch/shows/fastpasses/hotel rest, then returning about 3-4 hours before the parks close continues to work well for us. We avoid the masses during the afternoon when it seems like everyone is at the park. We get to ride everything we want, regardless of crowd level. The only ride we didn't do was FOP. That can wait.

As for slow season, I just don't think it exists anymore.

 

[tlmadden73]

I agree that it is all relative.

I think a lot of the repeat (year to year) guests that complain about it being more crowded are simply used to how the crowds were whenever they went 5,10,15 years ago and just compare it to that.

It also depends which park you hit on which days. When I went this last March, DHS (understandably) felt just awfully crowded on an EMH morning. I hop over to MK for the afternoon and it felt a lot less crowded .. especially since all my fast passes were scheduled for the afternoon at MK. Even though we had to wait 10+ minutes for the FP lane on Buzz at 2:00 PM, I still felt it was not very crowded because there were plenty of attractions that were literal walk-ons. (Granted, less 'popular' attractions)

I've gone 4 different times since 2010 at 4 different times of year. The most crowded I "felt" it was in early October of 2014 (which I was not expecting being the middle of a school year). But because of Fast Passes and just getting there at rope drop (or earlier) I never feel the crowds as much and just choose to do other things in the afternoon besides try and go on the (go where the people aren't). The crowds are different each time .. so there are definitely "slower" times .. just not "the park is empty" slow.

How I "feel" the crowds are simply based on how "wall to wall" people are, not wait times. If I can barely make it around the carousel or the walkway to Liberty Square .. THAT is crowded to me. Wait times (especially now) just seem all relative. Fast Pass + inflates wait times, plus I feel Disney seems to pair back staff during the "slower" times which makes it feel just as crowded as the summer months.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

I haven't been this year but it seems that crowds have been down throughout the year. I watch live streams weekly and without fail, the crowds are thin and/or sporadic. Reports on this board and other sites also seem to indicate that going most times this year is fine with very manageable crowds.

Pandora seems to get crowded at times but nothing insane and much less than you would expect for a brand-new, billion dollar new land.