When to Go - The Easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit 2015 - page 20

CHAPTER 4

When to Go

In picking dates, it's important to consider crowd levels, pricing, weather, possible refur-
bishments, and special events. Our specialty is honing in on the less crowded times to visit,
when wait times are lower at attractions, lines are shorter at stores and quick service venues,
and there's less congestion inside the parks. Lower crowds means being able to do more in
a less stressful environment. From there, we typically prioritize resort pricing, followed by
weather, refurbishments, and special events.
CROWDS Walt Disney World is the most crowded when hordes of U.S. school kids are out
of school: from early June through the third week in August, Thanksgiving week, Christmas
and New Year's weeks, President's Day week, the spring break month of March; and the
weeks before and after Easter. Other dates see an ebb and flow of mostly low and moderate
crowds, all noted in the month-by-month calendar that follows.
PRICING Disney resort pricing is constantly fluctuating, so much so that the same exact room
can cost $204 one night and $245 the next night, as it does at Port Orleans Riverside from
December 10-11. Picking less expensive dates may save $150-300 per night at the deluxe
resorts. Disney calls periods of different prices “Price Seasons”: value, regular, summer, fall,
etc. Fortunately, the less crowded times are also often the least expensive.
WEATHER The main weather points that concern us are summer heat and humidity, erratic
winter highs and lows, and the peak of the hurricane season from mid-August to early Octo-
ber. Many of the least crowded and least expensive stretches suffer from weather issues, but
none of these issues is routinely as challenging as the heat and humidity of the crowded sum-
mer months.
REFURBISHMENTS Disney tends to announce refurbishments about eight weeks in advance,
making it difficult to plan a vacation around an unexpected major refurbishment. For-
tunately, refurbishments follow a pattern, and we've identified when they're less likely to
occur. In addition, it's rare that more than one or two major attractions are closed at the same
time.
SPECIAL EVENTS Certain guests, particularly those returning, may want to plan a vacation
around a special event like Star Wars Weekends or the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. Our
month-by-month calendar identifies these special events and offers some advice on taking
advantage of them, or how best to avoid them, depending on your needs.
Based on these factors—but especially low crowds and lower prices—we recommend the
following weeks throughout the year:
•

From the day after the Martin Luther King Day holiday in January until the
Thursday before President's Day in February