Good morning, we just completed our first Disney trip and I am already on to thinking about the next one! I am thinking 2020 for the next trip. By that time my oldest will be in school and my wife will also be working in a school so we are looking at going during the summer when everyone is off. My first thought is the week after fourth of July or the last week of August before Labor Day. Personally going in July would be easier for me from a work perspective but late August is do-able. I am looking at crowd calendars for 2019 (may not be apples to apples for 2020 but its all I got right now) and I am seeing some big differences in what some sites have for these two time periods. TP has Magic Kingdom rated as 4-6 on the crowd level scale for July. For late August it is 2-3, so definitely a “slower time” but its not like you are going from a 9 to a 1. Other websites I look at though seem to have a drastic difference in crowd levels between mid July and late August, with late August being much less crowded. Like I said, I think that July would have been preferable but it it means it will be much busier we could do August. Any advice?
A lot of schools start back BEFORE labor day, so late August crowds reflect that.
If I were in your shoes, I’d pick late August over July.
The flip side is that late August usually has shorter hours, and MNSSHP starts which makes MK a bit more complicated, though it’s only been on a Friday so far so not as bad as Sept/Oct. of course you might view that as a positive!
From a weather perspective, both will be like visiting Hell, but with more humidity. Historically, late August is much less crowded than July.
We’ve gone in July (once being the week after the 4th) because of school/work schedules. I know it’s hot and humid, but if you go with that expectation, it’s still a lot of fun! The hours are long, so you in my opinion, can do a lot more. It will be super crowded, however, the last two times I went in July only once I had a touring plan. Both trips were great! The second trip with the plan made it go so smoothly! The lines weren’t horrible with it, and we weren’t even staying on site. If I had the choice of July, or right before school starts, I’d probably still pick July.
We went to Disney this past September, from the 24th to the 29th and it was hot and humid every day (high of 95 but real feel of 100+ with humidity) and while we found it somewhat uncomfortable we found that as long as you wear the right clothing, drink lots of fluids, and duck into the air conditioning every once and a while, it really wasn’t that bad.
It’s hurricane season in September, so you will likely get more rain in August. I believe they also had that big hurricane in late August 2 or 3 years ago. So I would pick July instead.