Special Events at Walt Disney World
DISNEY WORLD’S SPECIAL EVENTS
Over the course of the year, there are a number of special events* at Walt Disney World.
While they are subject to change, over the last few years they have included:
- Special New Year’s Eve fireworks at Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, and sometimes Disney’s Hollywood Studios as well
- ESPN the Weekend sports and ESPN celebrations at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
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Epcot’s International Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot in the spring, adding even more glory to Epcot’s already gorgeous gardens
- Star Wars Weekends in very late spring, celebrating the Star Wars movies at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Special summer concerts at Epcot
- Night of Joy, an early September separately ticketed evening event at the Magic Kingdom celebrating contemporary Christian music
- Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, a separately ticketed evening event in the Magic Kingdom in September, October, and sometimes early November
- Epcot International Food and Wine Festival, at Epcot in October and early November, adding multiple new wine and dining options to all the existing restaurants at Epcot
- Multiple special Christmas season events, mostly free to park visitors. These begin in mid-November, and are usually fully in place after Thanksgiving day.
- One of these events, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, is a separately ticketed evening event that happens multiple times in late November and December
- Another nominally free event, the Candlelight Processional, routinely runs out of seats; seats can be guaranteed by buying the Candlelight Processional Dinner Package
Other than the Christmas celebrations, none of these events is sufficiently compelling for typical first-time family visitors that you should schedule your trip around them.
That said, if you are at Disney World during a period one of these is running, check it out!
*I include only Disney-sponsored events that occur in the theme parks themselves. For more on unlinked events, see Disney’s website here.
2 comments
Hi, awesome site! We are joining another family on May 9th they are staying in an Orlando area hotel untill the 17th but we are leaving the 13th. We don’t have any kids and it seems like we could save the other couple some money if we book their 2 kids ages 8 and 7 to “stay” Although they won’t be, with us to save money on their park hopper passes. Are there names that go with the kids passes? Would this be a major issue? Have you heard of people doing this? Thank you so much!
Hi Tracy, ticket prices don’t vary based on where you stay…or am I misunderstanding your question?
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