"off season" deals??

[mommymanda]

I'm playing around on the site to see if we can manage to take our trip this summer if there are no discounts announced. Its not looking hopeful, but I was putting in both summer weeks DH has holidays.

So I put in his first week July 21-27 which I think is peek time, and his second week August 25-31 which I remember is usually a slow time.

At this point the price difference without any discounts is only $300...which considering I would have a 1year old for the July week and a 2 year old for the August week, I'd save the $300 in flight alone. Actually when I add flights it saves me $150!!!!

Is that normal or am I doing something wrong? How crazy busy would the July week be? We went the last week of August once before and were impressed in how quick things moved.

 

[BebopBaloo]

The last week of August is quite different from July. July is really crowded. The last week of August is not nearly as bad because a lot of schools through out the country are back in session. There will be a fair amount of people that last week, but nothing compared to July. For me personally, the fewer the people the easier it is to deal with the heat.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I've had several great summer trips in July. We did not find the crowds all that bad, but it perhaps depends a little on how you tour. At 2pm, the parks may well be crowded.

After dark, park temps are perfect and crowds are low. In short, the way to tour in July is that you must be able to take advantage of EXTENDED after dark park hours. You also more or less must take an afternoon break. It also pays to get up early, and be in the parks before the heat cranks up for the day. If you can follow those three easy steps, then summer touring might be for you.

Odds are good in both months of an afternoon thunderstorm. So we hit the parks from opening until about 1pm, have lunch, take a break (nap? swim?) until the thunderstorm passes or about 5:30pm. I am willing to go to the parks ona rinay day, but summer thunderstorms are drenching, but fairly short lived. They also clear out the parks.

We found that late/August/September has rather limited park hours. So while you get low crowds in the afternoon, you get a more limited opportunity to hit the parks after dark - at least MK. Epcot's hours are nearly always the same year round (9am-9pm, except emh days), and AK only varies a little (5pm closing vs. maybe 7pm). So mostly we're talking about varied hours at MK and a bit at HS.

If you try to slug it out through the afternoon hours, it just drains you. That's why the parks are uncrowded at night in July.