When should we go?

[fanofdisney]

I'm planning our next trip. I don't want to take our son out of school next year, so these are our choices:

Over summer break
Oct. 23-26 (fall break)
Nov. 27-30 (thanksgiving break)
Anytime between Dec. 22-Jan. 5 (chrismtas break)

Which of these would be the least painful?

Thanks!

 

[maxtomsmom]

Probably the fall break or the end of August (if your son is still off then). Christmas is insane, beautiful but very, very, I mean very crowded. The most crowded. I also hear Thanksgiving is crowded just not as bad as Christmas. In fact Christmas and Easter week are the busiest. The flip side is that the parks do stay open later sometimes past midnight. HTH

 

[eeyoregon]

October for sure!! Low crowds and awesome weather! Plus MNSSHP!

The other two options are EXTREMELY crowded, especially the week after Christmas.

 

[mommylibrarian]

Ditto October. It's my favorite time to go anyway (we'll be there Oct. 18-26 this year). It's true that the crowds are horrible at Tgiving and Christmas, but you'll also find the cost is WAY up if you are staying onsite. So October will be less painful for your body AND wallet.

 

[Aliceacc]

I vote for the end of August, or the weeks before the end of his vacation.

Since you have more time to play with, you can play with the airfares, and possibly save some serioius money. It's summer, so the days are still long and the parks are open early and stay open late. He can get back to the resort and swim at night... when you're 7, that's a big deal!

 

[LuvOrlando]

-

 

[laceemouse]

The week between Christmas and New Years is the most crowded of the whole year. If you go at that time it will be fun to see the special Christmas things, just don't plan to see every show and ride every ride. Also, if you don't get into the parks early every day you may not get in at all. It's that crowded.
I vote for fall break. Lots of schools aren't even doing them anymore so crowds should be light and the weather will be great!

 

[Desnik]

Oct! Then you can go to MNSSHP, it's fantastic! Trust me unless crowds don't bother you, you do not want to go during Xmas, or even Thanksgiving!!

 

[mickeyfan1226]

We went to WDW over thanksgiving break in 2007. The crowds didn't seem to bad. We did a lot fast passes (wonderful creation). We are looking at another trip in 2009 and I am struggling with the time of year?????? I was looking at christmas but $$$ and the crowd I was also looking at Aug. but from what I have read it is HOT We will probably go at thanksgiving again but I have awhile to decide this for sure.

 

[RMO87]

It looks like the general consensus is October. My family (me, wife, 4-year-old daughter and 19-month-old daughter) is looking to go sometime this year. We are very flexible as to the exact date.

We had originally discussed October, but thought that was during hurricane season. Is that not something to be worried about that time of year?

 

[mom_of_3_70737]

I too would go in October since your child has a break from school and you don't want him missing and days. We went over Thanksgiving 2007 (11/18-11/24) and it was terrible. There were so many people. The weather was nice, but the crowds were almost not tolerable for me. We would get to the parks at opening time and run to get fastpasses for some of the popular rides and our return time wouldn't be until 6pm...and that is if they had any passes left. Sometimes they were done distributing fastpasses by 10am!!! We missed several things b/c of the lines.....The stand by wait times for the really popular rides were 80 minutes at some points.....Defintely go in Oct. I hear it is really nice. We are going back in September and looking forward to there not being any crowds.....it will be hot.....but hopefully no crowds! Good luck! I'm sure it will be a fantastic trip!

 

[maxtomsmom]

I too would go in October since your child has a break from school and you don't want him missing and days. We went over Thanksgiving 2007 (11/18-11/24) and it was terrible. There were so many people. The weather was nice, but the crowds were almost not tolerable for me. We would get to the parks at opening time and run to get fastpasses for some of the popular rides and our return time wouldn't be until 6pm...and that is if they had any passes left. Sometimes they were done distributing fastpasses by 10am!!! We missed several things b/c of the lines.....The stand by wait times for the really popular rides were 80 minutes at some points.....Defintely go in Oct. I hear it is really nice. We are going back in September and looking forward to there not being any crowds.....it will be hot.....but hopefully no crowds! Good luck! I'm sure it will be a fantastic trip!

Historically, Sept. has the fewest crowds. Many fast pass machines won't be open because the crowds are that low. We went late Sept. It was probably one of our best trips if not vacations ever. Hot, but that's what the pool was for.

 

[mom_of_3_70737]

Historically, Sept. has the fewest crowds. Many fast pass machines won't be open because the crowds are that low. We went late Sept. It was probably one of our best trips if not vacations ever. Hot, but that's what the pool was for.

Thanks! That is what we are hoping for. It will be nice to be able to enjoy everything with out having a ton of people!

 

[fanofdisney]

Thanks for all the replies! Looks like October! We went last year the first week of December, so we've already got to see all that. It was awesome, and the crowds were light. It sounds like winter break is crazy, though. Busiest time, wow. We ended up pulling our son out of school last year. I just prefer not to b/c this year he's already been out 4 1/2 days from illness!

I CAN't WAIT TO GO BACK!!!!!!!!!