2025 CROWDS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD
The chart lower on the page shows my forecasts for 2025 crowds by week at Walt Disney World.
My Disney World crowd forecasts are based on a combination of historical patterns and the specific influence of school breaks. The varying year to year timing of school breaks particularly shapes crowding during the spring break season.
Ticket and even hotel prices also had some influence on my forecasts, but ticket prices are not the clear crowd forecast that some think they are. Lower-priced days will be less crowded, but not all higher priced days are more crowded, as Disney prices tickets not only for quantitative demand but also for perceived value. For more on 2025 ticket prices at Disney World, see this.
As always, I forecast by Saturday arrival date, and the forecast includes the arrival Saturday through the second Sunday following–so 9 total days.
For a larger image, click here.
THE 2025 DISNEY WORLD CROWD CALENDAR
Crowd levels are ranked by week from 1-11 in the following way:
1: Lowest of the year
2: Low-minus
3: Low
4: Low-plus
5: Moderate-minus
6: Moderate
7: Moderate-plus
8: High
9: Higher
10: High-plus
11: Highest
HOW TO INTERPRET THE 2025 DISNEY WORLD CROWD CALENDAR
Dates are the Saturday of arrival.
As is the case in almost every good Disney World crowd calendar, the forecasts are about wait times for rides–not about how crowded the areas outside the rides might be.
The forecasts are about the weeks relative to each other.
The “low crowd” weeks–those colored green, and rated 1-4–represent the best crowd levels for a family visiting for the first time and unsure if it will ever return.
However, lower crowds do not always mean a better week to visit. Some low-crowd weeks best avoided by first timers who may never return because they are in the mid-August to mid-October peak hurricane season or the early January-early February ride closure seasons.
The “moderate crowd” weeks–those in black and rated 5-7–have crowd levels that in the past I traditionally would not particularly recommend to first time visitors. However, with the aid of daily Early Entry in each of the parks, and the tools of Lighting Lane Muti Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass, crowd level 5 days can be managed quite easily, so I now have no qualms about recommending them.
Crowd level 6 and 7 days are trickier, as among other things they often have more uncertainty associated with them. However, I’d go during such weeks myself with no hesitation, and think these levels are totally OK for returning visitors who don’t need to see everything and already know how to work Walt Disney World.
The “high crowd” weeks–those in red, rated 8-11–should be avoided by everyone. They aren’t, which is why they are so high.
MY DISNEY WORLD CROWD CALENDAR GOES UP TO “11”
The influence of the Unofficial Guide has led almost all Disney World crowd calendars to top out at 10.
However, I’ve always thought that the really nastiest weeks of the year deserved even more emphasis.
So, in homage to Spinal Tap, I assigned 11 to “highest.”
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Hey Dave. Been a long time since I checked in here. Hope you are well. We are thinking of a last minute trip for Jersey week. Anything I need to be aware of in terms of expected scheduling? I think Halloween parties are done, and Xmas won’t start just yet. Hoping BAU means nothing crazy…
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Hi Eric! The Halloween parties are done, but the Xmas party at MK starts Friday 11/7 and Hollywood Studio’s newish holiday party, Jollywood Nights, opens on 11/8.
Thus MK closes at 6p on 11/7 and HS closes at 7p 11/8. The early closes make each of those a great park to visit on their party days, as people avoid them because of the early closes–but of course you’ll miss the new evening parade and the fireworks at MK, and Fantasmic at HS, if you go to the parks those days, and only those days.
The other three parks will then be extra busy each of the days a park closes early. This will be especially true on Saturday 11/8, and I’d make that an AK day if you are not going to HS.
Give me your specific dates that you are thinking about, and how many days you wanna go to each park, and I’ll advise more!
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Hi Dave. We booked our trip 7/1 – 7/7. We are only doing DHS for 2 days and DMK for one day. During our time, any advise as far as which park to avoid on certain days? We’re staying on-site so can take advantage of the extra time.
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Hi Eric, Friday, Saturday and maybe Sunday will probably mobbed everywhere except AK, especially Friday. I’d focus as much as possible on the days before and after. Beyond that it does not much matter–having early entry every day means picking the best days doesn’t matter like it used to…
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hey Dave. It’s been such a long time since I have reached out to you. I hope you are doing well. I’m trying to go to WDW in Feb. can you tell me the best week for lowest crowds? I’m thinking the middle of the week? No weekends. THANK YOU!
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Hi Michael!! I hope you are well.
For midweek, this week and the week beginning 2/22 are best, and the worst is the week beginning 2/15.
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Hi. The JPG of the “THE 2025 DISNEY WORLD CROWD CALENDAR” is not clear enough to see the dates. In years past, you made it clickable to enlarge the image. Can you fix to either make it clickable or make the image clearer. Thanks and sorry to complain. Your site is very helpful for us.
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Hi John–I replaced the jpg with a png, and also added a link to open the png directly. Let me know if this helps enough!!
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