Why do you choose to go (or not go) in the HEAT and CROWDS?

[PortieOwner]

My husband and I are highly educated professionals who are fully responsible for our kids. No one is going to tell me if and when I can pull my kids out of school, but yes, they can try to! And honestly, a lot of the policies these schools institute are not legally enforcable. (Yes, high schools can withhold credit for excessive absences, but that's about it.)

I was taken out of school all the time for family trips when I was a kid. Both my parents have PhDs and between my wife and I we have 2 PhDs and a JD. No way some Ed School graduate is going to tell me we can't have an educational vacation at WDW, or for that matter in India, Greece or Alaska.

 

[PortieOwner]

While early Sept. is very humid and still quite hot (next week it will be in the low 90s in Orlando) it is not that terrible. This year I vacationed in India in August. Even that was survivable, despite the lack of central AC, few pools, and frequent electrical power cuts.

WDW is easier to cope with in hot weather--lots of attractions are indoors, the buses have good AC, and hotel AC actually works and reduces humidity. And there are plenty of swimming pools. In India I only got into a pool about 4 times, and those were the only times I was truly cool.

 

[Nutty4Disney]

We usually go in late Jan. or early Feb., but this year we are going in Dec. We don't have children at home, so a nice winter break is great for us. My DH is in construction, so summer is busy for him at work. It gets cool that time of year (it was only 32 degrees when we woke up one morning), but go to the parks a little later and bring a sweatshirt or jacket for the evening. I had to buy a sweatshirt the first year while we waited for the fireworks. The CM said they sell more sweatshirts at that time then the rest of the day. I have only been in the summer once when my children were small. I do remember it being hot. I don't remember it being crowded, but that was about 15 years ago!

 

[Guzzi]

We have made both our trips in the summer peak crowd and heat season. We had no real choice in the matter cause my Wife is a teacher and cannot take any time off during the school year. The Feb and March school breaks were not a good choice for us as the airfares from northern ny to Orlando are almost twice what we paid for our airfare in the summer. Our two round trip airfares in 2005 and 2006 were approx 780$ and 840$ respectively. I have a coworker with an orlando time share who travels for the Feb week and pays almost 2000$ for airfare, that much more would be a deal breaker for us.
2005 Trip Carribean Beach Resort
The heat and humidity; , 05 trip straddled the last week of July and into the 1st week of August, it was hot it was humid and it rained almost everyday were were there for a part of the day. never for more than an hour or so, most for much less.
The Crowds; It was Crowded. We did that trip off the cuff, no advance planning no dining reservations and managed to have a good time. My wife after some minor debate each morning called and made dining reservations for that day without any trouble. We used fast pass as much as possible and the only ride we wanted to do but didnt get to was soaring.
2006 Trip Coronado Springs
The Heat and Humidity; 06 trip was July 18-25 it was also hot and humid but not as bad, less heat/humidity than 05 and it only rained one day we were there, our last day in the parks as we waited for a bus to the resort it poured, Noah's Ark kinda rain, but i was done when we got to our hotel
The Crowds; It was crowded again! but we expected it. We utilized Tour Guide Mike and his strategys for touring the parks and had a wonderful time. we were able to ride all the big rides, Space mountain, TMRR, Splash Mountain, Everest, Dinosour, FAst Track, Soaring at least twice on the days we attended the respective parks. I dont think we waited more than 15 minutes to ride any ride while we were there We made ADrs in advance and things worked out great in that respect.

we are planning our next trip for July 08, probable the 7th through the 14th, so we are their for my wife's birthday, and will be faced with the same issues. Just drink plenty of water, get early, (rope drop) starts to your days and the summer croweded season is cool

 

[mousiemom]

we usually go every Jan. but having the AP this year we have gone in Jan., end of May, and we are leaving in 2 days for the free dining. Now, I live here in the deep south where the weather is the same as WDW. Very humid and hot. On this trip, we will be indoors eating all the time and not focusing on hitting every ride because we will be back Sept. 27th. My 7yr dd's school's policy is 7 parent excused absences for the year. I believe in pulling my dd out for family vacation because i live like it's your last day. she is an A student and they have no problem with it as long as she makes up her work. I will be pulling her out for 8 days for the next 3 trips. We are going the end of Sept cause we wanted to go to the MNSSHP and Dec. 14th week for the decorations. We go swimming every Jan. and i love wearing sweats at DW.
Can't wait to be at my happy place in 2 days!!!!
Mousiemom

 

[beccasmom]

We go in the summer because of school issues too. We try to ensure we get there before July (and massive crowds). We visited WDW once during spring break and it was so crowded (but the weather was great), that it was hard to enjoy anything. Even the hotel lobbies were just a blur of people.....it was too much. Personally, I like the winter months (we are going for a quick trip in early December this year). Early December is terrific; the weather is usually pretty nice and the crowds are very manageble. And we love seeing the Christmas decorations.

Hot, humid weather makes me miserable. and we have seen plenty of that at home this summer! So July and August are out for us, although we did go in August a few years back due to crazy schedules. Early May is my absolute favorite time to visit, but we haven't been able to manage that in a while.

 

[denise5374]

We go in August too because like many others my DH is a teacher and can't take time off during the school year. We just got back from a week at WDW(8/18-8/25) and YES it was HOT and YES it was HUMID but we survived. We have been there 5 times before so we did all the thing we had to do and a few of the things we wanted to do and we did OK. We were at the parks at opening and left around 1pm had an early dinner and went to a park after dinner. THe lines weren't bad at all. We were able to get fastpasses for the rides we wanted and the others had about a 20minute wait. Maybe I was expecting it to be much worse but it didn't seem crowded at all.

We are planning on going again in 2009, the same week.

 

[sherabby]

We went to Disney Aug 14th to the 20th. The heat does not bother me one bit and I am not the type to pull my child out of school and miss a whole week of education. It was hot during our visit two weeks ago but the park lines were not unbearable at all. Most signs posted 20 minute waits and it was even less than that. Fast pass was awesome too! We did all 6 parks in 6 days and I screwed up because we had tickets for our last day in Disney but our flight was at 1pm. I should have booked a much later flight and spent the day at Typhoon Lagoon!