In January I headed south to Walt Disney World for our family vacation. We took advantage of the Armed Forces Salute and stayed with family to help stretch the budget. We ended up spending under $1500 for our 10 day visit (not all the days were spent at the park). I think that is pretty good for a family of 8.
Since summer has arrived and many families begin the trek to the Mouse House I decided to post 30 days of Disney tips. You see, our trip this winter was not my first visit to Disney. It was probably my 200th visit. I loooooove Disney and since I lived in Orlando for about 25 years I have been many times. For several years my husband and I bought annual passes and sometimes went 2 to 3 times a week!
Over the years I have learned a lot of Disney and hope to share some of my tips with you over the next 30 days. If you have a Disney tip would like to write a guest post email me at thehappyhousewife (at) gmail (dot) com.
Disney Tip #1
Do not visit Disney World during the months of June, July, or August. Seriously, Orlando is the humidity capital of the world. The weather is miserable during the summer months, and the parks are very, very crowded. Just remember if your kids are on summer break, so are the rest of the children in the United States (and maybe the rest of the world).
According to Pixie-Dust Travel (and I agree having visited Disney throughout the year) below is a listing of the busiest and slowest times at Disney World.
Highest Attendance:
- Presidents’ week in February
- Mid-March through Late April (Spring Break)
- Memorial Day weekend
- Mid-June through Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day and weekend
- Christmas week through New Year’s Day
Moderate Attendance:
- After Presidents’ week in February through early March
- Late April through early June (except Memorial Day weekend)
- The first part of Thanksgiving week
Lowest Attendance:
- January (except New Year’s Day) until just prior to Presidents’ week in February
- The week following Labor Day until just prior to Thanksgiving week
- The week following Thanksgiving until the week prior to Christmas
We visited this year from January 8th to the 15th. It was dead! Seriously, the longest line we waited in was the Jungle Cruise and that took about 20 minutes. It is really enjoyable to visit the parks when the weather is cool, the high was in the 60’s, and the lines were short.
Tomorrow’s tip… best days of the week to visit each park!
Courtney says
So excited about this series as we are planning our trip to Disney!!!
Last time we went it was the week after labor day and it was SO nice! Not crowded at all!
Amy says
We’ve been tentatively planning another trip to Disney so these posts are great. I know the Armed Forces Salute is a great deal but what is the best way to buy tickets if you don’t have a family member in the armed services? Last time we just bought the tickets at the gate. Not sure if there was any way we could have reduced that a bit.
We went last time the week of Columbus Day in October and it was moderately busy. My inlaws that went with us said it seemed almost as busy as when they’d gone in the summer before. We still had a great time but we waited an hour for lots of the rides. It’s good to hear about January. That’s when we were thinking of going.
Nique says
We visited in Early March and it was WONDERFUL. Not too crowded and the weather was nice!
Lisa says
I just wanted to say that the day after Thanksgiving is a GREAT day to go. We go then because everyone else goes shopping. The park was not crowded at all. Plus you can walk off all that turkey from the day before!!!
Alison @ Hospitality Haven says
I agree with you – I have been to Disney at various time throughout the year, and I found April and October to be the best times. I’ve been in March during March break, and July, and both were hectic. It’s still fun, but as you say, when the line-ups are short, it’s much more enjoyable!! 🙂
Michele says
While I agree that summer is very hot, the last two weeks of August are actually not very crowded in the park, especially the last week of August. Nearly all of the schools in the south have already started back up. We’ve gone during that time and had very short lines! We’ve also gone during the last two weeks of January, which is even better! No lines and not too hot. So if you have to go in the summer, try it right before Labor Day.
Mari says
Very timely. We are one of those crazy families that are going end of August first part of September. This will be our first trip. I have seen some great tips on other sites, can’t wait to see what advie you have. This will be our first vaction in 4 years. Our last trip was to China to get our DD. 🙂
Jenny Reed says
Great info! I look forward reading the rests of your posts and sending you my guest post too from the eyes of a former Cast Member 🙂 There are so many great things to see while at Disney (and so little time :))
Tiffany says
Thanks so much for this! My sister and I have been talking about planning a trip next winter for our families, so this will be a great help!
Dawn Coulter says
I am so glad you are posting about Disney World. We are also taking advantage of the Armed Forces salute deal. We are leaving this weekend. I am so excited as my children and husband have never been. We are also spending a day at Sea World as we were able to get free military tickets. Any great money saving tips or ideas for those with kids are greatly appreciated.
Jennifer says
this will be a timely series, as I am contemplating starting to save for a disney trip in a couple of years. Unfortunately we would have to go over christmas or in the summer, because my dh is a teacher. We are always on a school schedule. Spring break won’t even work, because he has a different spring break than the kids. Ugh. Still I am hoping to go in couple of years. Can’t wait to read more.
Lori Gray says
Well, we are one of those people crazy enough to go in the month of August. Yes, I am trying to prepare myself (at least mentally) for the heat! But since we went just this last December, we didn’t want to take the kids out of school again for it. December was kind of a bust for us…DD got very sick and ended up in the ER and we lost a couple of days…of everything!
SO, my advice, especially if you have kids…GET THE TRAVEL INSURANCE!!! We did and it paid for all of the medical bills (almost $2500!!) and the lost days (lodging and meals from the meal plan). So it is definitely worth it!!!
I am looking forward to more tips….I need to get my toosh planning something!!
Thea @ I'm a Drama Mama says
Considering we just decided on dates for our kids’ FIRST trip to Disney, these posts couldn’t be more timely!
And it looks like we are already ahead of the game…we chose January 16-23 as our dates. YAY!
Heather says
Excellent idea! I’ve been picking the brains of the few people I know with any Disney knowledge recently so I can’t wait to copy and paste all your pertinent info into my little Disney planning folder. Please touch upon age appropriateness. I don’t want my youngest (4 weeks to go) to be too young to really get anything out of it. But I don’t want to miss the window for the oldest to just LOVE it (currently 27 months). And we’ll be going from WA state so I want to get the most bang for my buck as we will likely not be frequent visitors.
Pattie says
I live in San Diego and frequent Disneyland a lot as well. These tips work for that park as well! It sucks going in the summer time! It is crowded and hot!! We love to go in October when the Halloween decorations are up and in Early November when they have the Holiday stuff up. There is nothing like going during the holidays…love it!!
MNKristy says
We have almost always gone in October, taking our kids out of school (that’s when they were still in public school) to go and it’s been great. It’s still warm enough to swim and the crowds are not bad at all. Off season is the best!
Shannon C says
We’ve enjoyed going the second week of Sept. and 1st week of October. Very few lines and still warm enough to enjoy the pools! I’m hoping the military discount will be extended to when dh comes home. We are planning on going when he gets back from deployment. We are huge Disney fans here!
Heather says
We are going with my parents the first week of Nov. in 2010. They always go that week. Here in NJ it is the week of the teachers convention so our kids are out of school but nobody else is, so it is empty.
Tonya says
FYI–June 2-8, 2009 is Gay Days at the Disney Parks. I’d hate for someone to have spent as much $$ as it costs to go to Disney ($75+/ticket) + $12 parking, and then have to see some possibly questionable activity there.
Tiffany says
I love Disney! I agree that the summer months are terribly hot, but that was the only time we could travel last year. We still had fun, but it was hot. Did you mention hot? 🙂
The Diaper Diaries says
YEA!! We are going over Christmas (yes I know crazy busy time, but the rents are paying so I am not complaining 🙂 can’t wait to read all your tips.