Walt Disney World Crowd Calendar Update for July 2018
July is here, and we continue our monthly schedule of updates to the Disney World Crowd Calendar.
We are taking a wait-and-see approach before making any changes to Disney’s Hollywood Studios crowd levels. With the first week of Toy Story Land being open, we are already seeing wait times at the new attractions settle down. Next month’s update will include changes based on what we learn from July’s data. The increase in Disney hotel promotions suggests that reservations are down. We believe that some people are delaying their trips and waiting until Galaxy’s Edge (the Star Wars land at Hollywood Studios) opens in late 2019. The fall has a few days where Magic Kingdom crowd levels dropped 4 or 5 points. These are days where the park closes early due to a holiday or private party.
July 2018
The longer park hours and summer heat help keep the crowd levels moderate in July. The new Toy Story Land will draw guests to spend more of their time at Hollywood Studios. The crowd levels predictions at the other parks have been reduced slightly. Take advantage of the early opening times and late closings. Take a break during the peak of the heat, and you can tour the parks with low to moderate crowds.
August 2018
The summer heat continues, but the crowds start to taper off. School districts starting going back to school in early August. By the end of the month, 80% of students are back in classes. Hollywood Studios crowds will start to moderate and get in line with the other parks. August 17, we see the first 2018 Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. Typically the days between the parties have higher crowd levels. Many guests will avoid the Magic Kingdom on party days due to the shorter park hours.
September 2018
September has some of the lowest crowd levels of the year. Labor Day weekend is the end of summer crowds. The Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, free dining, and other hotel promotions are ways that Disney tries to increase attendance. The Halloween parties continue in August, with Magic Kingdom having higher crowds on non-party days.
October 2018
October will see some weeks with summer level crowds. Many school systems have their fall breaks in October. The Food & Wine Festival continues through November 12. The Magic Kingdom has 18 Halloween parties. Days without a party will have the Magic Kingdom crowd levels in the 7s and 8s.
November 2018
Besides Veteran’s Day weekend and Thanksgiving week, crowd levels will be low. The Magic Kingdom begins to offer Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Just like with the Halloween Party, the days between the parties have higher crowd levels. Many school districts have the entire week of Thanksgiving off. Crowds start growing the weekend before Thanksgiving and peak the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
December 2018
Early December has low crowd levels. Most school districts are in session through Friday, December 21. December 22 is the start of the most busy time at Walt Disney World. Crowds won’t drop until 2019 begins.
January-February 2019
Crowd levels taper off quickly. By Friday, January 4, 30% of school districts are back in session. Most of the remaining school districts go back to school the week of January 7. There will a bump in the crowd levels for WDW Marathon Weekend (January 9-13), MLK Jr. weekend (January 19-21), and Presidents Day week (February 15-23).
March – April 2019
Easter Sunday is April 21, 2019. When Easter is late, spring break crowds are spread across more weeks. In 2019, the “spring break” season will span from March 10 to April 21. The weeks of March 17 and April 14 will have the highest spring break crowds.
May – June 2019
The end of April through most of May will have low crowds. Most school districts are in session and wrapping up the school year. Memorial Day weekend going into the first week of June will have high crowds. In the second week of June, crowds will moderate to typical summer level crowds.
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We are going in September 2018. What was the reason for such a drop in the crowds??
Very happy to see Crowd Levels decrease for our trip Feb 5-13th! I was getting worried the numbers were significantly higher then in the past. Now they are back in line with normal. Do you think that the lower then expected wait times for Toy Story Land are an indication that people are waiting for Star Wars?
Thanks for all the work.
Yes, we think people delaying their WDW vacations due to Star Wars Land, and other construction projects. Reservations appear to be down based on Disney extending free dining and other discount offers. We also think that the lower Toy Story Land wait times are due to Disney Hollywood Studios having morning Extra Magic Hour every day. It is possible for people to do all of the studio’s attractions with EMH and FastPasses without having to wait much.
Thanks for the reply and I am happy to hear that. We mad a decision to move our trip up a year in order to avoiding the crowd/cost after Star Wars opens so glad to hear early on it looks like it will pay off.
Just wondering why the decrease in crowds over the Columbus Day week? Great news for us because I was dreading 10/10 crowds due to the change in my daughter’s fall break now being over this week. Thanks!
Columbus Day week is the peak time for fall break. You will find some 8s but the crowds will not reach the levels we see during spring break or Christmas.
Third week of July showing crowd numbers dropped significantly at Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood studios, and slightly at Epcot. Could you go a bit in detail on what the reason is especially at Hollywood studios, and why Epcot did not see the drastic drop as the other 3 parks.
Thank you.
The past few years we have seen more moderate crowds during the summer. Crowds levels between 5 and 8 are what you should expect during the hot summer months.
Why are crowds so low for Thursday October 25th It’s not a Halloween party night so I assumed it would be higher
There is a Halloween party on October 25th.
The party takes place on the following dates:
August 17, 24, 28 and 31
September 3, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 21, 23, 25, 28 and 30
October 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 26, 28, 30 and 31
Thank you for taking the time to respond.
https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/crowd-calendar?m=2&utm_expid=.9ZFNELOQQu6UCDsJpk231w.3&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Ftouringplans.com%2Fusers%2F630310
The above page showed it as full park hours with no party but I just checked and the Disney site shows the party.
If you look in the notes column on the Crowd Calendar page it does show “Halloween Party at MK” and the Magic Kingdom closing time at 6pm. I see if we can improve the layout to make it more clear when hard-ticket events are occurring.
Crowds went down the week of Thanksgiving, big jump from 9 to 6 on 11/17. Good for me, we’re going then, but wondering the reasoning behind.
November 17, is the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This will be a travel day for most people taking the whole week off. In 2016 we saw a 6 on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, 2017 we saw a 9. The high crowd level in 2017 was due to several attractions being offline. Winnie the Pooh was closed 38% of the day; Space mountain closed 15% of the day; Seven Dwarfs 12% of the day; Splash Mountain closed 11% of the day.
The model is expecting a day more like 2016 than 2017. We hope so. 🙂
The crowds are mostly down from October 20th through the 26th. Any reason why?
Thanks!
Most school systems that take a fall break, will be done with their vacations on October 19. Travel will be lighter between October 21 and November 16.
Happy to see the crowds go down for President’s day week. Any specific reason why? Just interested.
For 2019, the only thing that has changed is we have a more complete database of school schedules. It looks like the number of schools on break during Presidents’ Day week has gone down. Crowds are also lower when Mardi Gras does not fall on the same week as Presidents’ Day.