Post-Labor Day September crowds. How awesome are they??

Butterstick

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 5, 2017
Messages
55
Planning on a trip Sept 4-8. I'm really excited about going at a low crowd time for once! What kind of wait times can we expect? Should we bother with fastpasses for anything in particular? (Besides FoP-- they were already gone at the 30 day window...)

Looking forward to an easy, breezy trip.
 
Planning on a trip Sept 4-8. I'm really excited about going at a low crowd time for once! What kind of wait times can we expect? Should we bother with fastpasses for anything in particular? (Besides FoP-- they were already gone at the 30 day window...)

Looking forward to an easy, breezy trip.
September has not been low-crowd in recent years (there are no real low-crowd times anymore), so I recommend getting FastPasses & planning like you would for any other time of year.
 
Planning on a trip Sept 4-8. I'm really excited about going at a low crowd time for once! What kind of wait times can we expect? Should we bother with fastpasses for anything in particular? (Besides FoP-- they were already gone at the 30 day window...)

Looking forward to an easy, breezy trip.

Yes you still need FP for the headliners and a good touring plan. We went that week 2 years ago and while wait times may have been lower for no headliners, the parks still felt crowded. Rope drop is your friend!
 

Planning on a trip Sept 4-8. I'm really excited about going at a low crowd time for once! What kind of wait times can we expect? Should we bother with fastpasses for anything in particular? (Besides FoP-- they were already gone at the 30 day window...)

Looking forward to an easy, breezy trip.

Historically it is one of the two least busy weeks of the year. Last time I was there I didn't use any of my FP except for Seven Dwarfs and Toy Story. Magic Kingdom was a ghost town.

Seven Dwarfs, Frozen, Toy Story, and FoP will probably be the only ones you really need FP for.

I'm getting there the day after Labor Day... so pumped!
 
September has been getting busier and busier over the last few years. Last year September and October we're busier than the summer months. It seems like the days of super low crowds in September are over.
 
Last year September and October we're busier than the summer months. It seems like the days of super low crowds in September are over.

There's no way September was busier than the summer. There's just no way. Where are you getting this info from?
 
There's no way September was busier than the summer. There's just no way. Where are you getting this info from?
People were talking about it here last fall and I had a friend who was there toward the end of September and said that it was the busiest she'd ever seen it in the Fall. And the last couple of summers have been noticably less busy than they had been in the past.
 
People were talking about it here last fall and I had a friend who was there toward the end of September and said that it was the busiest she'd ever seen it in the Fall. And the last couple of summers have been noticably less busy than they had been in the past.

The OP asked about Labor Day week, not the end of September.

Yes, September generally has been getting busier as the years go by, but Labor Day week specifically is still one of the very slowest weeks. Traditionally slower than late September. Not many kids are pulled out of school for Labor Day week as the school year is just beginning or has just begun for many. There are usually lots of families with younger kids who aren't in school yet that week.

At the end of September and then into October, more parents pull kids out. And in October, fall breaks begin for many.

Even with the lower summer crowds as reported, I would bet the slower summer days are still busier than Tues - Fri of Labor Day week.

This year, F&W will be going on at Epcot during Labor Day week for the first time. I expect this to impact crowds at Epcot, but aside from that I expect lower crowds as usual.

OP, it is still a great week to go! You won't experience walk-ons everywhere as we once did in years past, but will still experience lower crowds than almost any other week.

And yes, I would definitely still FP whatever headliners you plan to do.

We will be there Labor Day week too! :)
 
Last edited:
DH and I go every September and always expected low crowds. We would get back, I'd read about other people saying how uncrowned it was and couldn't believe we visited the same place because it always seemed packed to me. Until last year, where I actually felt the crowd level was lower. And everyone on the board seemed to think it was really crowded!

My conclusion was that all those other years I must have just been in the wrong park at the wrong time, because last year was tremendous! So, I go in to the trip not really worrying about crowds. I try to make the best plans looking at all the calendars and keep my fingers crossed.

Like the weather, crowd levels are unpredictable. Hopefully they are low, but I am just happy to be at Disney! Have a great trip!!
 
We went last year Labor Day week and we are going again this year. We LOVED IT last year! The weekend was a bit crowded w/ the holiday and all but nothing major. After Labor Day, the crowds disappeared! It was awesome. The lifeguards at the resort pool even said it is their favorite week of the year because of low crowds lol. Stormalong Bay at the Beach Club was practically empty from Tuesday on. We thought it was wonderful.
 
We go almost every September. We've gone just after labor day and the crowds were quite low. Often the wait time is only the amount of time it takes to walk the queue such as Space Mountain or Tower of Terror. I would definitely get fast passes though because you never know. I use a website that gives projected crowd levels for each park and I plan our park days accordingly. We almost always are there for rope drop each morning, which helps. The first couple of weeks of September are best because people usually don't want to pull their kids out of school that soon.

At any rate, have a great time and enjoy just being at Disney instead of at work...no matte what you encounter! Have a magical trip!
 
We have gone to WDW almost every year the first Saturday after Labor Day. When we first started doing that 13 years ago that week was awesome!! Rarely used a fast pass as we pretty much could walk on anything. Now...... not so much. Seems to get worse & worse as the years went by. So September not as quiet as it used to be. Unfortunately
 
Disney free dining plans are in September... we are taking advantage of the package deal when we go (we were already planning on going that time of year when the free dining was announced).
 
We went last Sep., the week after Labor Day. In the past, we had always gone in the summer. Crowds were definitely lower, but I was very glad I had FPs. I was able to get everything we wanted at 60 days out, but when I went to adjust our schedule, all the "headliner" attractions were gone. I also didn't factor in the free dining plans (we're DVC members and don't get that option) and was unable to get several of our choices at around 90 days out. We did RD every day, and the first 2 hours in the parks were fantastic!

EP and MK felt very crowded, especially at night. The F & W festival really pulls in a lot of people, and I guess since it was the first week, a lot of locals came? MK at night felt almost as crowded as the summer, at least to me. Wait times in the evening were pretty long (45 - 90 min) for headliners. We found a spot on Main St. for HEA an hour ahead, and it was wall to wall 30 minutes before the show.

Of course, we had a magical time and you will too! As other people has said, make a plan and get FPs. Do RD and get a spot for any nighttime shows an hour ahead. And be ready for heat! We had 90+ every day. Drink lots of water!
 
In addition to September crowds increasing incrementally each year, there is also a change in Disney staffing that effects the feel of the park. Different people define "crowded" differently. Some focus on the sheer number of people walking through the landss. Others focus on factors such as wait times.

Disney knows better than anyone how many people to expect in the parks on a given week and they staffs accordingly. This results in wait times not decreasing at the same rate as crowds because rides are not operating at 100% capacity in the slower season. The number of cast members used to load and unload any given attraction changes dramatically, and this (almost as much as the number of potential riders) has a an impact on wait times.

So expect fewer people walking down Main Street, and shorter lines in most cases, but not drastically shorter by any means.

It still should be an awesome trip and one of the least crowded times. Sadly these days the difference between least crowded, average, and most crowded are not nearly as large as they used to be.
 
Of course, we had a magical time and you will too! As other people has said, make a plan and get FPs. Do RD and get a spot for any nighttime shows an hour ahead. And be ready for heat! We had 90+ every day. Drink lots of water!

Yup! Definitely have a plan. We had such an amazing trip last year, one of the best and it is mostly due to the way we do things now. We hit the parks for RD in the morning, leave midday and relax at the pool all afternoon and then head back out for the evening until the park closes. We do that each day, and having those breaks made it so much more enjoyable and relaxing.. especially with the heat in September.
 
When I went the week after Labor Day a few years ago cast members weren't even checking if you had a FP. I had one for Splash Mountain and went to put my Magic Band up to the scanner and the cast member said "Don't worry about it just go."
 


Disney Vacation Planning. Free. Done for You.
Our Authorized Disney Vacation Planners are here to provide personalized, expert advice, answer every question, and uncover the best discounts. Let Dreams Unlimited Travel take care of all the details, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy a stress-free vacation.
Start Your Disney Vacation
Disney EarMarked Producer






DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter

Add as a preferred source on Google

Back
Top Bottom