Category — a. When to Go to Walt Disney World

OVERVIEW

This page outlines December 2010 Walt Disney World crowds, prices, weather, operating hours, deals and discounts, adds a few other notes, and ends with week by week summaries.

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OVERVIEW

The Christmas season at Walt Disney World includes both the best and the worst times to visit, with both prices and crowds at very low and very high levels over the period.

Decorations, special Christmas shows, programs, and events, and Christmas trees are everywhere, making Disney World as special a place to celebrate the holidays as you can find.

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2012 RESORT PRICE SEASONS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

The material below shows the different resort prices at Walt Disney World at different times of the year in 2012.

(If you are looking for current deals and discounts, click here. For 2013 prices, click here)

Ticket prices don’t vary over the course of the year–although they typically have an annual increase in the summer. See this for more on ticket prices.

Resort prices, however, are almost twice as high during some periods as they are at others. The details are below.

2012 DISNEY WORLD PRICE SEASONS

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THE WALT DISNEY WORLD VALUE SEASON

The only prices at Disney World that change a lot over the course of the year are Disney resort hotel prices.

Theme park admission ticket prices are the same all seasons of the year–although they often have an annual increase in the summer.  Dining prices go up in the peak spring break, summer, and Christmas seasons, but only a little–a few dollars per person per night.

Hotel prices, however, are all over the map–sometimes changing three times in a month–and can vary as much as 95% for the exact same room depending on when you go to Walt Disney World.

Disney has names for these seasons: value, regular, summer, peak, fall, pre-holiday, holiday, mile long, thumper, etc.

However, most people can’t remember any of the names of these seasons except for the value season and the peak season, so this site’s material on Disney World resort price seasons mostly just ignores these names and presents the numbers and the dates.

TYPICAL DATES FOR THE DISNEY VALUE SEASON

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OVERVIEW: WALT DISNEY WORLD IN AUTUMN

Autumn at Walt Disney World—loosely defined as Labor Day in early September through November–is, absent hurricanes, a season with a lot going for it.

The weather begins hot and humid, but moderates over October to some of the best visiting weather of the year.  However, the peak of the hurricane season covers all of September and the first half of October as well.

Crowds are low most of autumn, but with a serious peak at Thanksgiving.

Prices begin as low as they get all year, pop up a bit in October, more at Thanksgiving, and then right after Thanksgiving drop again to the lowest level of the year.  

At the time I write this–early May–deals and discounts are available for September. More may be announced as the season draws closer.

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RIDES CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE AND REHAB AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Walt Disney World rides and attractions can be closed for maintenance, rehab, or replacement at any time.

The way I keep up with this is to check the “Refurbishments and Attraction Closures” part of the weekly Walt Disney World Resort Update section of MousePlanet.com.

That said, the most common time for attraction closures is January and early February.  For this reason, this site suggests that first time visitors who are unsure whether or not they will ever return should avoid this period.

Why go during a period when some of the best of Walt Disney World may not be available?

For the currently known 2016 winter closures at Disney World, see this.

However, I’ve seen some claims that “only Splash Mountain is closed” during this period, so I went back and analyzed ride closures over the last five years to double check the facts.

The results of this analysis are presented below. [Read more →]