July advice for parks

[minerva78]

We are finally going for our first family Disney trip in July, after years of planning trips but not actually going - we always ended up on cruises instead. My husband and I celebrate our 20th anniversary in July and our plan was always to be on a cruise by ourselves to celebrate our anniversary. But it will be awhile before I feel comfortable on a cruise ship again.

I already had 5 day tickets from a trip we never took last year so he decided he wanted our whole family to go to Disney, because he really wanted to go somewhere, ANYWHERE, to celebrate our anniversary. Even if we had to bring our kids, lol. I went to Disney many times as a child and I am really hesitant to go in July, because of the horrible heat. I am still worried about the heat, but I also would just like to do anything special for our anniversary.

To make it as bearable as possible, this is what I plan to do:
- We're going for 9 days, with only 5 day tickets, so we can have rest days after every two park days.
- We do not plan to stay in the parks all day, maybe from opening until about 2 or 3 (or later in Epcot if it still doesn't open until later).
- If we do plan to stay in a park later, I will book an ADR for lunch.
- I plan to get some cooling towels and portable misting fans for all of us.
- We plan to wear the blue surgical masks because they are a lot more comfortable for me to breathe in and we can throw them away as needed.

Can you give me some more tips? Like I said, this is not ideal and I'd much rather go in December. But my husband has wanted to see Galaxy's Edge so much and this way we can go on our actual anniversary, which I know he will enjoy. Thanks!

 

[Mango7100]

We have been in July and August and are taking our first post COViD trip over July 4. I live in the South and still find the heat in Orlando another level of crazy. Haven’t used them, but some others have said the misting fans make them feel worse—the misting stays on you with the 100% humidity. If you are sensitive to the heat, staying until 2 or 3 may be too long. That is peak “OMG it’s hot” time. Maybe consider until 11 or 12 and then go for an indoor experiences/lunch. Also, sunscreen. Lots of it and reapply

 

[minerva78]

We have been in July and August and are taking our first post COViD trip over July 4. I live in the South and still find the heat in Orlando another level of crazy. Haven’t used them, but some others have said the misting fans make them feel worse—the misting stays on you with the 100% humidity. If you are sensitive to the heat, staying until 2 or 3 may be too long. That is peak “OMG it’s hot” time. Maybe consider until 11 or 12 and then go for an indoor experiences/lunch. Also, sunscreen. Lots of it and reapply

Oh, thank you for the advice about the misting fan, I don't know why that didn't dawn on me. We live in NC and the humidity gets crazy here so I should have known misting ourselves in water would just make it worse, lol. Much worse in Florida. I will look into indoor experiences around 12 instead. I hope more restaurants are open by then. I had considered just leaving and coming back later in the evening but I don't know if we leave if my family will be willing to go back out again. Or if parks will close early. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[preemiemama]

Oh, thank you for the advice about the misting fan, I don't know why that didn't dawn on me. We live in NC and the humidity gets crazy here so I should have known misting ourselves in water would just make it worse, lol. Much worse in Florida. I will look into indoor experiences around 12 instead. I hope more restaurants are open by then. I had considered just leaving and coming back later in the evening but I don't know if we leave if my family will be willing to go back out again. Or if parks will close early. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Another NC person here! Yes, we get humid in summer- and yes, it's worse in WDW! We go often in June/July, and we survive mostly because of afternoon breaks. We typically leave around 1, go back and swim or just relax, then head back out to the parks for dinner. We'll be there again mid-July (for our anniversary as well) and are also hoping for more restaurants and later park times!

 

[mamaofsix]

I would echo the advice to do rides until 11 or 12 and then have an ADR in the parks for noon. After that, you can either do indoor shows / attractions or go back to hotel to swim. Although, be forewarned: right now they are limiting numbers in the pools and reports are that you often have to be put on a waiting list several hours long to get "pool time." Hopefully that changes by July.

Return to the parks in the evenings, hopefully the night-time shows will have returned by then!

 

[TTA Rider Matt]

Advice I always give is to eat lunch at 11 and dinner at 5. Food locations are emptier, easier to find seats at quick service locations. A lot of times we’ll go into a park around park opening, then leave around 1-2 to go back to the hotel for a swim/nap, before returning to the park (or a different park) at 4 or so. Of course this will depend on what parks we’re going to (for example, if we’re at MK and going to Epcot in the evening, we’ll take the monorail, or if we’re at HS and going to Epcot, we’ll take the skyliner, and skip our midday break). It doesn’t sound like you are going to be on a torrid pace to get through the parks, so that gives you a lot of flexibility. If I were only doing half days in parks, I would probably do them in the afternoon/evening instead of waking up early, but that’s more because I’m not a morning person and neither is my wife lol.

 

[jsbowl16]

Most of our advice has been given especially the afternoon break. We also freeze a plastic bottle of water the night before for each of us and take them in as our drinks. They melt as the day goes on and you always have a cold drink. It also saves a lot of money when bottles of water are $3 to $4 in the parks. We also do 9 days but with the afternoon breaks we are in the parks everyday.

 

[loves to dive]

Most everyone has given you good advise, plan to go back to the resort mid-day even if it's just to go to the room and rest or take a shower and change clothes. You don't say where you are staying but if you are at a moderate or deluxe resort check out the leisure/Adult pools, from what I've been reading they aren't as crowded right now.

Be prepared for rain, could be lots of rain or just a quick shower but it's Florida in the summer, it will rain just about every day. It will be hotter and muggier after the rain. The parks will be less crowded during the rain so put on those rain coats/ponchos/umbrellas and play in the rain. Take shoes that can stand up to the rain and more than one pair.

We are from Georgia and while most people from other places in the south say the Florida heat and humidity is worse, I'll say it doesn't bother us any more than at home. Maybe we are used to it so have learned how to adjust our lives around it, who knows.

Take hats or some sort of head covering, that sun can be brutal.

Have fun and don't stress the small stuff. That ride will still be there next time so if you don't get to ride it, no big deal (well unless it's Great Movie Ride which I'm still bitter about). Even if you hear a thousand times "you have to do x or eat at x" don't stress if you can't. You can't miss what you've never had and it's been my experience that sometimes y is much better than x. Go slow and enjoy the details and the place, stop and look and just enjoy the place. It's too hot in the summer to hurry and stress.