Ok, so I’m terrible: I can’t handle that my trip just ended so I’m thinking about another one. 
We’ve talked a lot about doing a summer trip that would be centered on water parks and pools with the regular parks / rides being secondary, and I’m attracted to the lower crowds in mid - late Aug. I lived in FL but it’s been awhile and I can’t remember what mornings / nights are like during that time. The idea would be to rope drop, leave parks around noon, then go back to parks in the evening. The break would be filled with napping and pool time (except on water park days where we’d be at that park all day–we’ve never been to a WDW or Universal water park). Are mornings and nights bearable or is it still very hot? I know it would still be humid. Just wondering how hot it “feels.” I’ve gone 3 Thanksgiving weeks due to not wanting to be out in the heat but crowds got to me this time so heat seems like a lesser problem.
Hot as the surface of the sun and humid as a rainforest. Yes, even at 0600. It’s a pretty awful time of year if you aren’t into that kind of thing.
But plan accordingly and you can still have fun.
It is very hot and humid, but there is a lot of A/C around the parks (except Animal Kingdom) that helps break it up. I’m from one of the snowiest places in the country so heat is not something I’m down with, but the price and the crowds (which seem to be more then they used to be), make dealing with the heat infinitely easier. And while it can be muggy even in the morning and night, it is noticeably better than mid-day.
Are June or July any better? Btw my point of reference is that I lived in Tallahassee for a few years about 20 yrs ago. I’m wondering if it’s hotter / more humid in Orlando because it’s more south.
The average Temp in Tallahassee is actually a couple degrees warmer in august
We always go late August for my sons birthday. I find as long as we take an afternoon break to swim or even relax in air conditioning we are good. But with that said where I come from as horrible weather so I welcome the sun and the heat. We are heading down this Saturday and it will be my first time going this time of year. It will be interesting to see how touring will be. Perhaps after this trip I might never Want go in August again lol.
I found the mornings and nights more bearable, but they were still very hot. A/C helped a lot during the day, and rides where we got wet (as long as we weren’t headed straight into A/C afterwards), but the days where we toured more in the evening were the most comfortable.
I feel like the mornings were a little bit better before 9:30 or 10am, but not hugely better.
Note: I still had an awesome time! If we go back it will be at a different time of year though.
Have you ever been in a sauna? It’s kind of like that. The kind of humidity where if you come out of air conditioning your glass will fog right up. I understand there are places in the world where August is the start of fall, that is not Florida. The start of fall there is … sometime around the end of October but just barely.
Y’all are making me nostalgic for when I lived in FL. I remember the “sauna” effect.
We went this year for those last 2 weeks of August. We = me + DH (both 47 at the time) and our twins (13 at the time) . We are a Canadian/British family, and have lived in the UK, California, and Canada. We are used to drier Californian heat (although we had plenty of days there when my kids declared it too hot), and also very good at coping with the cold weather of the UK and Canada. So, we were feeling pretty apprehensive about going to Florida in mid-late August. But, our desire for lower crowds won out over our apprehension about the heat, and we went for it! Now that we’re living in Canada, our schools don’t go back until after Labour Day, and so we were able to take advantage of the dip in the crowds when most American schools have gone back (when we lived in California, we were part of that back-to-school-in-mid-August crowd).
We were in the Orlando area Aug 15-31 this year, and we loved it! It was really hot and humid, and we did have to manage our time between air conditioned places and being outside, and be extra careful with sunscreen. But we only had one day that felt completely miserable, where it didn’t even cool off at all in the evening (that day was not helped by all of us picking up a nasty cold/virus while there). We had some anxiety at the end of our trip regarding a hurricane, but it didn’t materialize until several days after we left.
If you’re going for water parks, it seemed like a great time of year - lower crowds but still hot enough to really enjoy the water parks! We did both of the Disney ones and Volcano Bay at Universal. Volcano Bay was hands down the favourite water park, but we also had the most amazing time doing the late night H2O Glow party at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon.
We went to the very last H2O Glow of the year, on Aug 24, and it was amazing. Normally the schedule of those parties is that Typhoon Lagoon closes to day guests at 8 pm, and the party is 8 pm - 11 pm, with you able to enter at 6 pm on a party ticket. Well, we got lucky, because they had just changed the operating hours that week so that Typhoon Lagoon closed to day guests at 6 pm! (apparently that’s standard for the end of summer) So when we arrived at 6 pm thinking we’d have 2 hours overlap with day guests, we were surprised to find that they were clearing out all the day guests, and we practically had the place to ourselves! A lot of people with party tickets didn’t show up until closer to 8 pm. We got so much done in those 2 hours, and even once the rest of the party guests came, it still never felt crowded. I’d highly recommend trying to do that event if it is offered next year. The theming was great, too, and we met Buzz, Woody, and Jessie there with super short lines (but we were soaking wet in swim suits, so they’re not the best photos!).
We had one day at Blizzard Beach, and that did feel fairly busy (we went Aug 21, a Wednesday), but only on the slides where you had to wait for tubes. Things like the wave pool and lazy river didn’t feel too crowded.
We did Volcano Bay twice in the last week of August, Wed 28th and Fri 30th. On the Friday, the weather was a bit wet, and there was a period of almost an hour where everything was closed because of threat of lightning. Volcano Bay really wasn’t crowded during that week. The Tapu Tapu virtual queue system worked really well for the super popular slides, but a lot of the slides were at Ride Now most of the day with pretty short lines anyways. And the “fast” lazy river there was just awesome. Both days we went, we left around dinner time, but I think if you stayed into the evening it was probably even less crowded but still plenty warm enough to enjoy it.
As far as the non-water parks, we did appreciate having lower crowds. Especially during the last week of August at Universal (Aug 26-30), it really wasn’t crowded at all. We were at Disney Aug 19-25, and it was very manageable in terms of crowds, although there were some moments (especially at HS) that felt crowded. The very best thing we did was two After Hours events. Those helped with both the crowds and the heat. We did the Animal Kingdom one and the Magic Kingdom one. Painfully expensive on top of everything else, but absolutely worth it and the true highlights of the trip!
I don’t think we will be going back, ever - it was a long way to travel and very expensive and we have other priorities - but, if someone were to ask if it was a good time of year to go, I think I’d give a pretty enthusiastic yes as long as you plan your days around getting out of the mid-afternoon heat (table service lunch! air-conditioned shows!) or being at the pool or water park during those hours. Keep in mind that the operating hours for the parks can be a lot shorter then than at busier times of the year - most of the parks closed at 9 pm during our trip, and we wish they’d been open later (which is why we did the after hours events). So that was perhaps a negative (but presumably the shorter hours are also because of the lower crowds).
Wow, thank you for the detailed response! Very helpful.
As others have said, it’ll be very hot. We were there July 27-August 3rd and there were many days my kids were wilting by 9:30. We just made an effort to hydrate + eat all the dole whips/ice cream, brought misting fans + cooling towels and ducked into AC when we could. We took breaks every afternoon and had a blast!! We also had at least two evenings that were quite pleasant due to afternoon/evening showers.
I know summer is next level hot but TBH you could get scorching temps other parts of the year too. The year before we went mid-October and temps were in the low 90s. We’re from Dallas so are accustomed to the heat (temps are normally a few degrees hotter here than Orlando) but it’s way drier here. And even if the climate was the same you don’t just walk around outside in North Texas for 5 hours in late July like you do at WDW unless you’re a crazy person!!! 
We just went August 22-Sept 5 and it wasn’t as bad as I thought. We did mostly evenings in the parks and it was really nice. With the long trip and the super low crowds, we didn’t need full days. They few days we did mornings, we went super early and left by 11am. It does get really hot like 11am-4/5pm. We are from the east coast (Philadelphia area), so we’re used to humidity.
I was afraid it would be unbearable and it wasn’t. We had an amazing trip. We got to do everything we wanted to do due to low crowds. I would definitely go back in late August.
I would suggest a misting fan. I also wore bikini top and bottom as underwear and those quick dry running shorts. That made all the difference for me. Tried skimmies and they were way too hot.
I tried some skimmies that were marketed as cooling, and they were ok. I also thought about the heat when packing bras, and figured out which ones were least likely to make me sweaty around the band. I think that helped a lot too.
@MAFK, you’ve convinced me the main mistake we made for our trip around the same time as yours was not including water parks! My kids didn’t seem quite old enough for the after hours schedule so I’m glad (without any pesky envy 
) that they were highlights for your family.
I don’t like heat. We went August 11-18 this year and it was hot but turned out to not be as bad as I expected.
We managed by doing rope drop at the Extra Magic hour parks in the morning, grabbing lunch near the gate or at the resort then planning for the pool after lunch. We planned on the pool, but there’s a decent chance that an afternoon thunderstorm will roll on any given day in August. While the rain shuts down the pools and the outdoor attractions, it also puts a big dent in the heat and the crowds. The outdoor meet & greets + other attractions without fast pass often have next to no line after the rain passes. Stock up on cheap ponchos before the trip and keep an eye on the weather forecast so you can head back to the parks if the rain starts.
When the sun is out, hydration and hats go a long way to keep the kids from getting heat headaches.
Hollywood studios was the most brutal when it comes to heat. It was the only bad heat experience we had. We got off RnR at 11:15. We should have just grabbed a Popsicle and played Giftshop-AC hopscotch to the front gate or maybe hit a restaurant with AC. Instead we made the mistake of catering to DS7’s desire for lunch at woody’s lunch box . He was being so cute about wanting to sit on the baby bel cheese wedges. He wasn’t cute by the time we were done. We walked a lot of hot pavement both ways, we arrived in time to hit the lunch rush, and the outdoor seating at the restaurant was sweltering. But we had a mister, no place to be in a hurry, and enough available snack points for as many ice creams & iced drink stops as necessary.