So we’re looking at late August 2020. My birthday’s on the 20th, but most crowd calendars (including TP) say the crowds won’t really drop off until the 25th or so (from 4/5/6 down to 2/3/4). That’s fine, I don’t have to be there on my actual birthday, but I also notice that TP’s predictions has the first half of September (and the last couple days of August, really) with mostly 1s. But that’s when Food & Wine begins. I would think the crowds would get really small the week prior to F&W, then get heavier when F&W starts. Is that not the case? I look at 2019’s actual crowd levels for those days, and sure enough, the park was absolutely dead from Aug 29 to Sept 20, the first three weeks of F&W.
That’s when kids go back to school, not a popular time to pull them from school.
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Remember that Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party starts during this time. You might want this but if you don’t MK hours are cut big time during the days it occurs.
I will be there from August 23-28. I checked the crowd calendar and it shouldn’t be busy. I am from the Philly area and it gets humid here so I am used to it by then.
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That’s right before MNSSHP. It’s going to be very hot and humid. Of coarse there is plenty of air conditioning around and it does keep the crowds down. Might consider the Water Parks this time of year.
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I think MNSSHP started mid August last year
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Yes on our last day, 16th August.
@MJDARBY this year a lot of people moved trips because SWGE opened on 29th Aug, but it should still be a quiet time.
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Don’t forgot that Dorian made an impact on this year’s numbers.
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This was our experience. We’ve done the first week of September following labor day, and the parks were practically empty. Most rides were walk-ons, with almost nothing more than a ten-minute wait. It was great!
Only reason we didn’t choose that same week for a later trip (we did late October instead) was simply because early September is still REALLY hot. But if heat doesn’t bother you, it is a great time to go.
As far as F & W, it mostly just impacts Epcot starting around noon in World Showcase. Furtureworld is mostly unaffected…but WS becomes unbearable on the weekends. I’d go to Epcot during a weekday, and try to get WS done as early as possible to avoid the F&W crowds if necessary.
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This is definitely something to be aware of during Sept/Oct. Hurricane season is in full swing. We did a trip to Universal one year where we lost a day because a Tropical Storm blew over. It was okay, though. We were able to accommodate it. Just hunkered down in our condo for a day watching movies.
We have gone at the end of August five times now in recent years and the crowds do drop even more the later in our trip but do increase again for the Labor Day weekend.
One thing to keep in mind is the TP crowd calendar is based upon ride wait times not how many people are in the park. The opening days of F&W in world showcase is crowded in my opinion. This is not reflect in the crowd calendar as many are only there for F&W and not there for attractions.
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I’m going down for the first week of September and I hope this holds true, but remember Labor Day is very late this year so us NY/NJ schools that normally wouldn’t travel then, may be doing just that (like me)
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Have you been in August before? I knew it was going to be really hot and humid, and I don’t regret going when we did (Aug 23-30 at WDW), but I would not go that time of year again even for the low crowd levels.
My brother-in-law and his family went the 2nd or 3rd week of September, and they had even lower crowd levels than we did. They also had the super early EEMH, which I’m mildly envious of, but they also had all the heat and humidity and hurricane risk that we did too. If it’s the best time for you, you’ll certainly still have a great time (and birthday celebration sounds fun), but there were several times I found myself thinking “this park must be at least 5 times more amazing then you’re not wilting from heat and humidity.”
I was there on a labor day week and in Magic Kingdom when Hurricane Katrina was passing Florida. The days in the park are long and I hit one park in the morning and swam or napped in the afternoon then back to the park in the evening. Sometimes we left when we saw black clouds. Often, a daily downpour between 3 and 6 in the afternoon and usually lasting 20 minutes or less.
Re: weather — we’ve been in early September before, so we know what to expect. We’re from Texas, so temps will likely be cooler in central Florida than they will be at home. And we’re both fit, so we’re pretty durable. Very first time we went to WDW was September of 1999…I hadn’t gotten healthy yet, so I was carrying an extra 30 or 40 pounds, I smoked a pack a day and didn’t exercise. I was so soaked with sweat, it was disgusting. Man, that first day I looked like I had literally stepped into a shower. Eeech.
Back in 2014 we went that first half of Sept, It was hot, humid and just barely tolerable for the kids. The upside was that we could walk on almost any ride we wanted. We went to a MNSSHP one night and as the rest of the family wanted to get character pics, I went off and got 6 rides in on Space Mountain…in a row, I also got lucky that a awesome cast member let me cut thru a hallway to jump back into “line” ok I walked right back on. My son wasn’t old/tall enough to ride. I highly suggest that if you can, this is the best time of the year for a first time trip with little ones. Drink plenty of water…NOT SUGARY DRINKS!
OK, booked our trip for August 24-29, 2020. Grand Floridian lagoon view with a 25% room rate discount plus Park Hoppers. We’ll just miss my 50th b-day, but that’s just 4 days prior to our trip, and I’d rather have light crowds than nightmare crowds! Thanks for the feedback, everybody. I’m sure I’ll start some other thread to obsess over ADRs or FastPasses of some such…
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I will be at Riviera August 23 to 28.
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We will be at GF (lagoon view too) August 13 - 27…see you there!
15 days, wow…you coming in from outside the US?
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