To ask the best time of year to go to Florida?

[PrincessPeachy1]

Just looking for experience of folk who have had family holidays in Orlando, more the Disney parks. What time of year is best to go price wise and also for when it’s not as busy? I know it will be mobbed most times but I’m thinking July/August will be worst? Thank you

We went in July. Never again!! It was way too hot, DH usually loves the heat but even he struggled and I found it almost unbearable. The crowds were ridiculous.

February, hardly any people.

Jan or Feb

We went the last two weeks of August as we'd researched that a lot of American schools are back by this point.
It wasn't too busy but it was absolutely boiling. I wasn't prepared for just how hot it was! I'd try go a different time just for the heat alone.

You need to google crowd calendars.

Thank you! I have been thinking maybe June before the schools break up, I’m not so good with the heat so I’m definitely thinking avoid the peak summer time.

American schools break up end of may until August so it's always busy the whole summer.

June is extremely hot and experiences a lot of rainfall. It also historically has been one of the busiest periods, though the last couple of years haven’t been as bad you will still experience longer than average wait times.

We've been almost every year for the past 12 years, at various times of year. I find the best time to go is either April/May or September. MY favourite time is May because the weather is not too hot but still lovely and warm and the nights also stay warm. I found in April there was sometimes a chill in the evenings, but that's just me. They do have rain showers throughout the day, but it's so warm there that everything is usually dried off within 30 minutes, although in April it tends to take longer to dry off.

September is great but beware of the hurricanes. Our holiday got cut short a few years ago because of the hurricanes, so we've gone back to visiting in May.

October/November I found too cold.

We love June/July/August, but I agree that it is probably too hot for a lot of people & especially if you have kids they will probably struggle with it because it is a busy, active holiday. Plus summer holidays start for America around June time and then obviously July/August you have the UK summer holidays too, so a lot more crowds to contend with.

We've never been in December, but that's on my bucket list, only because Disney at Christmas is my dream!

November was great - around 25-28 degrees and no queues anywhere (not around Thanksgiving!)

Price wise scottish schools break up June and US schools off in june so will be busy weather wise it will be hot and humid I preferred May it wasn't as humid

I’d say April/May (except weeks before and after Easter) or September (except Labor Day weekend, and there is a risk of hurricanes.

If you have children and need to go in school holidays then I’d say May or October half term. We’ve been a few times in October and it’s generally warm/hot, and quiet. Although once we had fairly cold weather (around 15 degrees) for a few days, and once a big hurricane went up the East Coast and the parks were shut for a couple of days (although we’d moved on to the Gulf Coast by then, so it didn’t really affect us). I would still go again at that time though.

I enjoyed October/November time... Still warm but not uncomfortably hot.

July was very hot and there was a torrential downpour for about an hour every afternoon.

Black Friday time - November.

Thanksgiving the parks are packed, then that week the Americans go back to school and work, plus decorating their houses for Christmas is a big thing. We walked on to every single ride.

Tbh going any time is great. We’ve done Feb, March, May-June, September and Nov-Dec. But Nov-Dec is my favourite

Late September is my favourite as it's quieter and still hot, plus the Food and Wine festival is on, although that starts from August now.

If you're tied to the summer holidays the last two weeks of August are the quietest but the risk of hurricanes is the highest. However I've been there for tropical storms, depressions and hurricanes and the pass quickly and tend to quieten the parks down even more.

www.easywdw.com/easy/crowd-calendars/ Josh no longer updates these since releasing a book but they're still pretty accurate. Also touring plans.com has a similar, detailed tool for a price.

Also try thedibb.co.uk and disboards.com for further info on all things Disney. My hobby is helping people plan Disney trips so feel free to ask me anything!

We went around October half term and loved it. Still busy but queues not bad at all.Temperature hot but not humid. Around 30c, still warm in the evenings. Added advantage of all the Halloween parties at Disney, Universal etc which are fantastic.

September/October or April/May.

Not too hot or too cold or too hurricaney. Queues not too bad. Be aware though, that in the off-season often only one of the Disney water parks will be open, as we discovered to new husband's disappointment.

We have been in early/mid June and late August/early Sept we deliberately picked those times to avoid the American school holidays.

In June the weather was great, very warm and humid and no need to heat the pool in our villa. Each afternoon there was a 20 - 30 min flash rainstorm that would start and end very suddenly but it was completely dried up half an hour after it happened. We just made sure that if we were in the parks at that time we were doing something undercover such as Mickey's PhilharMagic or Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Magic Kingdom. On the last day of our Holiday the schools had just broken up and the crowds were noticeably bigger.

In late August the weather was great again with hardly any showers but you are moving into tornado season. We had a tornado warning but luckily it ended up as just blustery winds overnight and the only casualty was a sun lounger that blew into the pool. We slept through it and didn't hear a thing. Also in early September Magic Kingdom was transformed for Halloween overnight so we got to experience that too.

October

We did late feb early March last year. Got busier the further into March we got but we chose our dates to avoid some events going on that increase crowds. I wouldn’t say it was too manic though, but Disney is never going to be quiet! Temp wise we had mostly sun with a few overcast days but I had a bit of a tan when we returned after two weeks.

We also hired a villa instead of staying in the park hotels as they were eye wateringly expensive! Our villa cost about $1000 for the week and had a pool, hot tub, pool table and was generally fab. We hired a car for about $350 and it took between 20 and 40 minutes to get to each of the parks.

I think you’ll have to accept that a Disney holiday is always going to be expensive and crowded. I read lots of Disney forums before we went and lots of ‘regulars’ (Americans) were moaning that because of crowd calendars the periods that were once ‘quiet’ times to go aren’t really quiet anymore!

But still you will have a fab time as we did!

Beginning of December is great. Before the schools finish for xmas but the parks are all done up ready for xmas.

With kids, the last week in August is great. We do the last two weeks in August (American schools are back before then).

Without kids, first week of January is almost dead, but weather can be awful. First week in September is very quiet. Mid September to mid October is a good time.

But it’s never not busy. It’s either manageable or not manageable.

We go once or twice a year and never during unmanageable times. Avoid Christmas, Easter, spring break, and July like the plague!

We usually go in October and it's fine. However, this year Disney are opening a new land and a new ride at Hollywood studios at the end of August/beginning of September, so it's going to be busier than usual.

We've done nov/dec, december, February, September/october, this year we're going october/November, all the times weve been, have been fairly quiet, expecting busier this year due to star wars, my favourite was 1st 2 weeks in December lovely and christmassy very quiet parks. English summer type weather. February we found was very quiet and weather not as reliably warm and lots of stuff down for refurb/maintenance due to it being the absolute lowest of the seasons.
Love september/October for the Halloween stuff but generally busier than the other times weve been and noticeably hotter than November or December.

February was the cheapest.

February the weather was great for us- hot but not boiling. And it's the dry season. Is also the cheapest time to go.