When is the Best Time to Go to Disney World?

One of the first questions I am normally asked is "When is the best time to go to Disney World?"  Unfortunately, the answer really depends on a number of different factors.

The first factor most people consider is how busy the parks will be.  The more people there are in the parks, the longer you will have to wait to ride the rides, to eat, and to move from place to place.  Therefore, most prefer to find the time when the parks are not too busy.

If you have children, then you are often forced to work around a school calendar.  Most schools frown upon you pulling your children out of school for a vacation during the school year, but I will leave this up to you.  I can tell you that the busiest times at Walt Disney World are when school is NOT in session.  Therefore times like summer, the few weeks around Christmas and New Year, and a good portion of March and April (Easter and Spring Breaks) are busy.  They are also the time of year when you will pay the most for on-property hotel rooms. 

Do not despair. Look for times in the school calendar that might be specific to your school or your area of the country.  For example, my daughter had a Thursday and Friday off in October for teacher in-service days.  We considered flying out right after school on Wednesday, spending Thursday through Monday in the parks and returning home on Tuesday.  We could have had five days in parks, with only two additional days out of school.

If you are not bound to a school calendar, then you can avoid the busiest times in the parks (which means you can also avoid the highest priced hotel rooms).  There are a few easy ways to determine how busy the parks are expected to be:

Check the price-per-night for on-property rooms 
You can do this by going to the Walt Disney World site.  Then go to "Places to Stay" on the menu bar, and then select "Book a Resort Hotel Room."  Provide some basic information about dates you are considering and how many people are in your party.  Select "Continue." Now you are presented a number of different Resort Categories.  Pick the type of resort you prefer and a set of options will be provided to you.  On this page you can see the price per night for the room.

So, assuming the school calendar for Fall of 2012 has those two in-service days again in October, I can check for the rates for October 25-30th as a Value Resort.  The offer for the All-Star Music Resort has the room rate as $110/ night for Thursday, Sunday, and Monday with Friday and Saturday nights at $125/ night.

If I look at Thanksgiving weekend instead, November 22-27, then the rates for the same room are $149 for Thursday and Friday, $125 for Saturday, and $110 for Sunday and Monday.

A different way to look at rates is to pick a specific resort and drill down to see the rates.  For example, I looked into the Coronado Springs Resort.  This tells you the "Season" and the specific dates that apply to that season.  There is a drop-list on the right allowing you to check out the different season. As you change the season selection, you will see which dates apply to that season and the different room rates for those dates.  Again, the lower the rates, the lower the expected volume in the parks.

Check out YouTube
I know it sounds a little crazy, but hear me out.  Look for videos of the parades posted around the time of year you are thinking about going.  If there are lots of people crowding the street to watch the parade, then there are lots of people in the parks. Look at the difference in the number of people in this October 6th video compared to this Christmas time video.

Remember when you were out of school
Because the school calendar hasn't really changed THAT much since then :) If you have fond memories of trips over the summer or spring break, you can bet there are parents hoping to make those same memories for their kids.

Check out the Disney offers
The best offers are made when the parks are not busy.  You can find offers directly on the Walt Disney World site here.  If you are a Chase Disney Rewards Visa member, check out the members' benefits site.  They tend to post offers there a little earlier than when they are released to the public, but you need to have a Disney Rewards Visa in order to take advantage of these.

Other things to consider
Please understand that different times of the year, as well as the volume of guests in the parks, will play into your park experience in unexpected ways.  For example, one or both of the water parks will be closed over the winter for maintenance.  If you really wanted to go to Blizzard Beach, then November may not be a good choice.

If you love to see the fireworks, you may only have a few evenings when they are available.  When we went in November 2010, we didn't get to see Wishes because it only played twice while we were there and we had other plans (like character dinners) on those evenings.

I hope these suggestions help you to determine when is the best time for your group to visit Walt Disney World.  No time is the perfect time, you just have to make sure it is the best time for you and your traveling party.