I have a couple of companion fares to use and am considering booking an Aug. '21 trip (23rd-30th ish).
From Seattle, so hot in Aug will be really hot. If I can get over the weather, what do you all think on a few topics:
Will there be 50th Anniversary merch available?
What % chance do you give not having to wear a mask?
Parades and fireworks back?
Best guess on crowd level?
Thanks!
I considered an August trip once. Then I spoke to a friend who used to live in Orlando. She thoroughly advised against it. I get heat stroke easily, so I took her advice. If you handle the heat well, you might consider it. But definitely plan on pool time during peak heat hours.
well we hold Annual passes and haven’t been able to activate them for the last two years. We were kind of hoping to make three trips to WDW in 365 days but now it is looking doubtful. Was going to be Oct of this year then March of Next year and October of that year. Looks like it might be July of this year October of this year and December of the same. We generally stay two weeks at a time so this is going to be difficult. May have to stay off property and rent a car. I think they charge for parking at the resorts and the room is going to be limited in 2022. Only other thing that might save money for us is eating off site and flying Allegant into Sanford FL and getting a rental car to drive to Disney World. May just rent a home. No real reason to stay on propriety anymore, no perks so the AP ticket are all we need to use to get our money back… What a time to decide to have purchased AP’s. Brother dies last year. Virus hits this year. Disney is mostly shut down in the coming year and now they want to make cuts to there magic. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The heat in August is notable. It is hurricane season too. Not all schools have started; many states start after Labor Day so crowds can be on the higher side. As far as masks go… it depends where we are as a nation with the vaccine and virus.
Shoot, hurricane season. Didn’t even think about that. May need to re-think.
Meh it’s just water… hurricane season: June 1st - Nov 30th
I can do just water.
I just went this last august with DD20 and DD17. We live in Tacoma. The heat was oppressive for sure but we did survive. I did plan a late lunch at a TS restaurant in each park on most of our park days. That helped so much. Just sitting in the AC and relaxing for an hour was key. There was a moment on each day where I thought I can’t handle this! But we would go into a queue or a shop with AC and the moment passed.
My favorite trip ever was in August and it was cooler than a previous June trip. It just depends but yes typically it’s the hottest. However if lines are still socially distanced you will be spending more time in the sun than I did when I went in an August.
Oh! Best advice I got was to bring an umbrella. For shade. With the queues out in the sun we used it several times.
Random trivia: Originally, umbrella were entirely for the sun.
Thoughts on if 50th Anniversary stuff will be available? There was at DL prior to 60 as we were there, but just curious. It doesn’t mean much in terms of making a decision, but would be a fun plus.
We have been there in August the past two years. Imagine walking around all day in a sauna, with the sun beating down on you. That’s about what it is. If you can get past the fact that you are going to be hot and damp with sweat all day, you will still have a great time. Umbrellas and midday AC breaks make it bearable, as well as going in and out of indoor rides/attractions during the hottest part of the day, or just taking a pool break. All that said, we did it in masks this year including my youngest kids age 3 and 7 and everyone had a great time. There was once a time I swore off WDW in summer, until I began to want to go so much I didn’t care! And, high school and football began to dictate our schedule. However, given the option, I would keep trips between Oct - April for better weather.
I would expect low crowds the end of August since school will have just started for most. As for the other questions, don’t know but I’d expect the longer you wait, the more will be back.
Parasol = para sol = for sun!
Highly recommend cooling towels, they made the heat so much bearable for us. We’d never used them before so we forgot about them until halfway through our trip. What a difference!
Our last couple of trips have been in July - not August, but close - we adjusted our schedule to go early, tour & then maybe eat lunch and leave. Take a nap - rest - get some downtime out of the heat. Then go back before/after dinner when things are cooler. Works well for both the heat and the crowds.
Now the biggest caveat for that plan this year may be hours reverting back to normal so one can actually go early and late. If the hours stay short, that plan goes out the window…
Yeah. I was surprised at how well they worked. We also had two portable fans you wore around your neck, which was nice at times.
Something to note about August is that at MK, in particular, but also at the other parks, more of the queues are outside in direct sun unlike when we aren’t socially distanced, so your times of respite from the heat are substantially reduced. This made the heat that much worse. The best of the parks in terms of heat was Epcot since more of the time you are inside pavilions for prolonged periods of time.
Heat is where park hopping to Epcot late afternoon helps. The walkways are broader - people are more spread out (in theory). And the plantings and buildings are more spread out - more breeze.
We did trips first week of July 2018 and first week of September 2019. Both hot and humid. We used big brim hats - almost parasols. We also returned to our resort right after lunch. Both trips we were out of the room at sunrise or before. In July we had planned to use the pool midday but opted for air conditioning instead. Showers, naps, dry clothes. Back at the parks around 4 or 5 pm.
We also brought cold packs. The kind you squeeze and stick on a sports injury. These things have saved me more than once at AK, where the lush foliage can work against cooling breezes. About 9:30 or 10 am my niece would look at me, break out the cold pack and slap it on the back of my neck. Relief from heat I didn’t know I was feeling. Then we would stop for a frozen lemonade break. 
I am a bit worried about this for summer. But for us, the alternative would be mornings in the parks, afternoons at pool/room, evenings at a resort TS restaurant = less park time.
I hadn’t even thought of the reduced hours. We would for sure use the early mornings to get as much done as possible. If crowds are lower, we could certainly make due with less hours. We went Presidents Day week in '20 and it was jammed. Thanks to this site and a few others we were able to get pretty much all the headliners with minimal wait, but we didn’t get to do everything we wanted as there were trade offs in terms of line time.