Category — 1. Summer at Walt Disney World

THE 4th OF JULY 2014 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Disney World celebrates the 4th of July at several parks–and on July 3rd as well!

On Thursday, July 3, 2014, the Magic Kingdom has a special fireworks show “Celebrate America” at 9p.

On Friday, July 4, 2014

• The Magic Kingdom has the same show at the same time–“Celebrate America” at 9p
• Epcot’s Illuminations has a special holiday ending added, and is shifted from its normal 9p time to 10p, and
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios will have a special 4th of July fireworks presentation at 10.20p

Those following this site’s FastPass+ High Crowd Itinerary for Walt Disney World will be at Disney’s Animal Kingdom July 3rd, and at the Magic Kingdom on July 4, and have both evenings off.

Sensible people might swap these two dates, being at the Magic Kingdom and seeing the fireworks on the 3rd, and going to the Animal Kingdom and skipping the fireworks on the 4th…

FOURTH OF JULY CROWDS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

July is the most consistently crowded month at Disney World, and in the month, the week that includes the 4th of July is the most crowded week.

July is the most crowded month because every US schoolkid on a typical (that is, not year-round) calendar has the entire month off.  This is not true of either June or August.

Within July, many parents gravitate towards the week of the 4th for their vacations, because since the 4th is a holiday, they need to take one fewer vacation day to get a week off.

And people want to see fireworks on the 4th…so the Disney World parks offering fireworks on the 4th of July will be packed!

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OVERVIEW: JUNE 2014 AT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews June 2014 Walt Disney World crowds, prices, deals and discounts, weather, and operating hours; adds a few other notes; and ends with week by week summaries.

If you must go to Disney World in the summer, the beginning of June is your best choice for a first visit.  Crowds while not good, are lower then than most of the rest of the summer, prices are OK–except at the value resorts–and the full weight of summer weather is not yet in place.

(The end of August is the next best choice.  Prices and crowds are much better, but you are not only in peak summer then, but also the peak of the hurricane season.)

Crowds build over June, peaking the week that includes the 4th of July (a Friday in 2014, so the most crowded June week is that beginning June 28).

Moreover, Star Wars Weekends look to continue through June 8 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, leading to massive crowds there on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through the 8th.

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This site’s Disney World crowd calendars always show crowds dropping off in later August.

For example, in 2013, crowd rankings go from 9/high at the beginning of August down to 1/lowest in early September.

This page both explain how that comes about and also reviews how the site’s crowd calendars are built.

END OF SUMMER 2013 CROWDS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

The highest-crowd periods at Walt Disney World all have one thing in common: they are convenient times for parents to take their kids to Orlando.  That is, they are times that kids are out of school and that parents traditionally can take off of work.

What’s not so clear until you do the numbers is that actual school vacation dates are much more varied than you’d think.  And there’s no good source you can go to that explains what all these varied dates are.

So every year about this time one of my nieces goes to almost 200 school district websites and captures all the key vacation dates for the upcoming academic year. (This time of year because you’d be surprised many districts don’t put their calendars up for the upcoming year until June; this year, about 180 had their calendars out by the time we agreed to stop collecting data.)

These include the 100 largest school districts in the U.S., plus eighty more of the next largest school districts in the more highly-populated states east of the Mississippi–that is, the states from which in particular Walt Disney World draws its visitors.

I then create a database that shows based on district enrollment every kid who is off on every date, sum these by state, and weight them based on the state’s proportion of total US visits to this website (because Disney won’t tell me actual visitation by state!) See the image above for a screenshot example.

Finally, I calculate percentage of total weighted kids on break by date and use that to inform the crowd calendars. (There’s about 12.6 million actual kids in the database.)

Above are the results of this for when kids go back to school in 2013.

So you can see that kids don’t start going back to school in real numbers until the week of 8/10; almost half are back in school the week of 8/17; almost 70% are back by the week of 8/24, and almost 90% are back in school by the week of 9/2.

Thus, in the 2013 crowd calendar, the week of 8/10 is rated 9/high crowds, the week of 8/17 6/moderate crowds, the week of 8/24 2/lower crowds, and the week of 9/2 1/lowest crowds!

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THE FOURTH OF JULY 2013 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Disney World celebrates the 4th of July at several parks–and on July 3rd as well!

On Wednesday, July 3, 2013, the Magic Kingdom has a special fireworks show “Celebrate America” at 9p.

On Thursday, July 4, 2013

• The Magic Kingdom has the same show at the same time–“Celebrate America” at 9p
• Epcot’s Illuminations has a special holiday ending added, and is shifted from its normal 9p time to 10p, and
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios will have a special 4th of July fireworks presentation at 10.15p

Other Fourth Fireworks

• The Magic Kingdom will be offering the same show–instead of Wishes–at 10p July 1, 2 and July 5-7

Those following this site’s summer itinerary for Walt Disney World will be in Downtown Disney for Cirque du Soleil July 3rd, and at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on July 4.

Sensible people might swap all this around, and see the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom on the 3rd, and do what the itinerary has written for the 3rd on the 4th…

FOURTH OF JULY CROWDS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

July is the most consistently crowded month at Disney World, and in the month, the week that includes the 4th of July is the most crowded week.

July is the most crowded month because every US schoolkid on a typical (that is, not year-round) calendar has the entire month off.  This is not true of either June or August.

Within July, many parents gravitate towards the week of the 4th for their vacations, because since the 4th is a holiday, they need to take one fewer vacation day to get a week off.

And people want to see fireworks on the 4th…so the Disney World parks offering fireworks on the 4th of July will be packed!

For more on July 2013 at Walt Disney World, see this.

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OVERVIEW: SUMMER 2013 AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Summer at Walt Disney World—loosely defined as Memorial Day in late May through Labor Day in early September–is an often difficult season.

Summer Disney World weather is hot and humid, and in mid-August shifts to hot, humid, and also the peak of the hurricane season.

Summer crowds at Disney World are very high most of the summer–lightest in the last part of August, and also lighter in early June. They peak over the Fourth of July holiday.

Disney World summer prices show a different pattern in 2013 than in prior years, and begin high only at the value resorts.  They drop to near their lowest level of the year at the deluxe resorts resorts in mid-July, and at the moderate resorts and value resorts in early August.

Deals and discounts are available for parts of this period.

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OVERVIEW: AUGUST 2013 AT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews August 2013 Walt Disney World crowds, prices, deals and discounts, weather, and operating hours; adds a few other notes; and ends with week by week summaries.

[Read more →]