The absolute least crowded time to go.

[Zooey72]

I have hunted around to find the best time to go in terms of crowds and have found some dates are better than others. When we go our family goes pretty much on the same month/day every time. We show up on Labor Day and stay the week. Most people it seems use labor day as their last day and than head back home. We learned this by staying at Disney over Labor Day and seeing much higher crowds, but than right after Labor Day they drop to nothing. We tried going once in Feb. and it sucked with the cold weather and it was like an hour wait for many of the rides (with the exception of 'Soar'n we have never waited more than 15 minutes for any ride going after Labor Day). When you throw in free dining and weather cooler in comparison to July/August, but not so cold you can't swim. The only bad thing is that it is hurricane season and we never know if mother nature is going to end up canceling our vacation for us.

All that being said, are there any SLOWer times to go to Disney, and what is the absolute slowest in terms of crowds?

No offense to anyone but to me going in the summer is just crazy. If it were reversed and Disney was paying me to go to their parks during that time I would say no. Standing in line for 3 hours to go on Space Mountain is not fun for me.

 

[lovin'fl]

None.
Kidding...not kidding.
Anyway, probably February (except around President's Day). First half of Feb.

 

[Disneylovingmomof2]

No slow times anymore. I was there a random week in Feb during no holidays and it was crowded.
I have kids so it’s not an option for me, but supposedly May right before schools are starting to get out, and Sept when everyone is just going back, could be slightly less crowded.

 

[2009CAN]

early sept isn't bad crowd-wise but still super humid

 

[FutureDisneyEventPlanner]

I have been in May, June, July, August, September, November, and December. November was my favorite time. I went the week before Thanksgiving (Nov 11-16) and it was fabulous. Minimal crowds. I never waited more than 30 minutes. The weather was perfect. I loved it.

I'm going next week so we'll see how that is...

 

[lovin'fl]

Now from End of Sept through Race weekend in January is crowded. Thanks to Food and Wine and Halloween and Xmas party events at MK. Anytime around a holiday or off school and any of the race (run Disney) events are crowded. Near end of Jan, first half of Feb and then end of Aug and early Sept seem best for lowish crowds. May is even busy now, with Mother's day and Flower and Garden festival and school getting out in some places. Every Sat and most Sun are red on UT's crowd calendar.

 

[Klayfish]

No offense to anyone but to me going in the summer is just crazy. If it were reversed and Disney was paying me to go to their parks during that time I would say no. Standing in line for 3 hours to go on Space Mountain is not fun for me.

No offense taken, believe me. But your comment gives me the impression you're fairly misinformed. It's completely true that there are no "slow" times at WDW. As I've said on many threads about crowds, WDW is the most popular tourist destination in the United States. So anyone expecting to go there and walk around almost by themselves all the time is just setting unrealistic expectations. Having said that, relatively speaking, summer is one of the better times to go. Crowds aren't really all that bad. We've been to WDW in summer many times, including several years straight now...and again this summer. We've had many days where we are surprised how light the crowd is...again, relatively speaking.

And we never...ever...wait 3 hours for Space Mountain...or any ride. That's what FP+ is for. I kid you not when I say on a 2+ week summer trip, we will never wait in a line more than 20 minutes for any ride (shows not included). Summer is the best time for us to get FP+ after FP+...one right after the other, all day. If we feel like it, we literally hop from ride to ride.

 

[JennyDrake]

January, right after the marathon weekend.

 

[chicagoshannon]

This year it was even super crowded the entire month of January and early February. We were there the week before Presidents week this year and it was NUTS. Definitely wasn't a slow time at all.

I'm hoping first two weeks of Sept will still be ok but with the Halloween parties starting in August now I just don't know.

 

[chris benton]

Hopefully the higher crows during "normally" slower times this year will re-stabilize? I'm hoping it was due the the weather issues from last fall.

I was genuinely surprised at how "slow" Labor Day appears to be.

 

[DisneyPrincess1984]

We went second/third week of September in 2016 and we only waited in a long line once - for TSMM. We loved the wait times but hated the weather. It was super hot and humid and rained every day we were there. Our Epcot night got completely rained out - I have never been caught in a downpour quite like that for that length of time- and if I remember correctly, we missed a hurricane by a week. So even though I loved the wait times, we said we would never go that time of year again. I would have rather waited in lines just a bit longer - and had better weather. We went into the trip thinking we would stay at the parks until closing every night, but we were so exhausted from the heat that we never made it that late a single night we were there. I also felt like we were "hurried" even though lines were shorter - because we were so hot, we just wanted to get to our next destination all the time rather than really enjoy "down time" in between attractions. We were always focused on finding air conditioning rather than thoroughly enjoying our surroundings and taking our time like I would have liked to have done.

 

[DizneyMommy]

I have hunted around to find the best time to go in terms of crowds and have found some dates are better than others. When we go our family goes pretty much on the same month/day every time. We show up on Labor Day and stay the week. Most people it seems use labor day as their last day and than head back home. We learned this by staying at Disney over Labor Day and seeing much higher crowds, but than right after Labor Day they drop to nothing. We tried going once in Feb. and it sucked with the cold weather and it was like an hour wait for many of the rides (with the exception of 'Soar'n we have never waited more than 15 minutes for any ride going after Labor Day). When you throw in free dining and weather cooler in comparison to July/August, but not so cold you can't swim. The only bad thing is that it is hurricane season and we never know if mother nature is going to end up canceling our vacation for us.

All that being said, are there any SLOWer times to go to Disney, and what is the absolute slowest in terms of crowds?

No offense to anyone but to me going in the summer is just crazy. If it were reversed and Disney was paying me to go to their parks during that time I would say no. Standing in line for 3 hours to go on Space Mountain is not fun for me.

Do you have a Touring Plans subscription? I would look through the historical crowd data for the last couple of years and see if you see a trend in slower times. At least that is real data instead of “feels like” or opinions which can be so subjective! ;-)

 

[mom2rtk]

Hopefully the higher crows during "normally" slower times this year will re-stabilize? I'm hoping it was due the the weather issues from last fall.

I was genuinely surprised at how "slow" Labor Day appears to be.

Probably not. Because Disney is now staffing down during slower times so it still feels busy.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

The summer is actually less crowded than the fall, or so I've read. Disney is offering more discounts in the summer now. People are opting for cooler weather, F&W, the parties, etc.

 

[Gentry2004]

I haven’t been during this time, but I hear the first 3 weeks of May are nice.

 

[Disneylover99]

I have hunted around to find the best time to go in terms of crowds and have found some dates are better than others. When we go our family goes pretty much on the same month/day every time. We show up on Labor Day and stay the week. Most people it seems use labor day as their last day and than head back home. We learned this by staying at Disney over Labor Day and seeing much higher crowds, but than right after Labor Day they drop to nothing. We tried going once in Feb. and it sucked with the cold weather and it was like an hour wait for many of the rides (with the exception of 'Soar'n we have never waited more than 15 minutes for any ride going after Labor Day). When you throw in free dining and weather cooler in comparison to July/August, but not so cold you can't swim. The only bad thing is that it is hurricane season and we never know if mother nature is going to end up canceling our vacation for us.

All that being said, are there any SLOWer times to go to Disney, and what is the absolute slowest in terms of crowds?

No offense to anyone but to me going in the summer is just crazy. If it were reversed and Disney was paying me to go to their parks during that time I would say no. Standing in line for 3 hours to go on Space Mountain is not fun for me.

We go mid August til labour day weekend. It's super hot! Wouldn't the weather be the same right after labour day? Does the temp. drop considerably at the beginning of September?

 

[OneinThree]

Ummm, there are no slow times at Disney anymore. We are close by and go often. From our experiences, mid-August through September is the best of the worst these days.

 

[anniemae]

The week after Labor Day is very very slow. All schools back in session.

Early May is also very very slow. I have heard it's mostly walk on. Plus weather is great.

That said, there really is no slow time. Just busy and really busy. Disney is purposely evening out the crowds so there is no slow time. This year, all bets are off with opening of Toy Story.

 

[DisneyOma]

The week after Labor Day is very very slow. All schools back in session.

Early May is also very very slow. I have heard it's mostly walk on. Plus weather is great.

That said, there really is no slow time. Just busy and really busy. Disney is purposely evening out the crowds so there is no slow time. This year, all bets are off with opening of Toy Story.

Disney is messing with the 'slow' times by offering more Halloween parties, longer Food and Wine, Flower and Garden, etc.

 

[AFwifelife]

About 15 years ago, February was the best time to go. It would be dead. Now the crowds have pretty much evened out. Still busy around holidays and special events but there's no dead times anymore. That said, we are going next month the week before Memorial Day weekend. It's been easy to get all the ADRs I wanted, FPs were a breeze even logging in later, and I have a great room rate.