Disney, Florida, in August??

[FramboiseCoulis]

Hi
As a single parent, I'm thinking of taking my 8 year old to Disney in Flordia...even though we are an hour's drive from Disney Paris, which does not cut it for us!

Is August a bad month to go to Florida, both in terms of weather / crowds?

any advice welcome

merci
chris

It will be hot and humid.
Sounds like hell to me. May is nice.

If you go, go in the second half of August. The US schools start to go back by then and so the crowds are smaller. However the parks still operate on long hours, so you have plenty of time to go early, go back to your base for a swim/ nap when its hottest and then go back for the evenings.
The tempreture and humidity will he high but if you take it gently and prepare you can have a lot of fun.
Do stay close, maybe on Disney property.

Thanks for the quick replies.
My problem is that I only have 3 weeks off in August (first 3, and no double STBEH will want her for the last 2 weeks in Aug), and 2 weeks off at Christmas, so am limited with times I can travel.

The humidity sounds horrendous. But i guess a mother will do anything for her kid!

Otherwise, any other recommendations on where to go with an 8-year old, I really fancied the US.

cheers

We went in August and had a brilliant time. If you get to the parks as soon as they open, most of the Americans won't be there as they seemed to arrive late morning/lunch time! We also used the Unofficial Guide to Disney's advice and maps to get the most out of our stay.

We tended to leave the parks in the afternoon, before the rain and have a dip in the pool before going out each night. Yes it was hot and humid, but all the inside areas and shows are air conditioned if you need to cool off.

Wouldn't recommend it to be perfectly honest.

40 degrees every day.
Queued for up to 2 hours per ride. All fast passes sold out.
Absolutely jammed packed with huge crowds of kids wearing matching T shirts as they were in the same groups.
We were behind these for every ride and show.

We also were poisoned by the water fountains which we filled our water bottles from through the day in the parks as drinks were so expensive.

3 days of vomiting and upset tummies.
Horrendous.

It's the start of hurricane season. It was years ago but we were there late August and there was a hurricane warning, flash floods and tropical storms! and yes incredibly humid.

It can rain a hell of a lot in August; the humidity levels can be sky high as well. I would think twice about going in August altogether.

April/May is better than August.

In your circs I would look at December or Christmas instead but avoid the parks on Christmas Day. If you do go around the Christmas period you will need to arrive at the parks as early as possible prior to opening time (I write from experience here).

We go to Florida every couple of years and tbh I wouldn't recommend anytime in august.

Its extremely hot (30 +) and humid. Its hurricane season. The queues for the rides are 1-2 hours minimum. Unless you can afford express tickets (universal) or willing to wait for express slots (Disney).

In fact even the express queues in universal have had 1 hour plus queues, because they regularly sell too many. Yes the parks are open longer, but wiring is still a ball ache.

My favourite time is late Jan. Warm, not hot. No queues etc. We went for new year last year, was so busy we won't do that again.

I must say with fast passes (we had no trouble getting these for most rides) and a plan of the rides we wanted to do in order, we didn't wait longer than 30-40 minutes for any of the big rides except Toy Story. The 'baby' rides seemed to have the biggest queues, but assume your 8 yr old will want to go on the biggest rides s/he can get on!

We went at the end of August and never queued more than an hour. But there were thunderstorms everyday.
I would go at Christmas instead in your circumstances and plan ahead. The unofficial guide is a great help for planning.

I've been a few times in August, although this was about 20 years ago now, when I was a teenager. We never found the queues too bad, although we went at the end of August, so maybe this was a factor (plus it was, like, two decades ago).

It was definitely humid, but everywhere is air conditioned.

The worst thing I found (don't laugh) was the spiders. July/August is banana spider season, and they're massive. Like, really huge. They spin their webs between trees and just hang there. Ack ack ack. To give them their due the Disney resort gets rid of all the spiders on site, but you'll see them everywhere else. We went to an alligator theme park and I saw one that could have swallowed me whole without a glass of water.

My bum still squinches every time I think about it.

the Disney fastpass system is changing - so do not rely on it!

would not go in August (especially first half!)- we last went in October break and would choose that one any day!! Everything specially set up for Halloween etc, less humid, less wet, less hot but still hot enough...

I think August would be hell tbh. We went in October and it was great. We were generally queuing 30-40 mins and could get some fast passes. But you could see all the extra roped off areas that weren't in use for peak season and it was osuld destroying just to look at it never mind queue in in. My colleage went in August and queued for 21\2 hours for the Harry potter ride at universal, we queued for 35 mins in October.

f you can only go in August - look at the busy day guides on dibbs etc - it predicts which parks are busiest on which days based on previousl years footfall. We found it very accurate and if you can plan things around yellow and green days and any local blips in August it might be better. Also, get al the park apps on your phone for live queue times as you can save some time doing this as well.

Wow, thanks for all this great knowledge!

I might have another possibility - going 2nd July for 10 days, as our school finishes early.

Would going early July make a massive difference>? Obviously STBEH would have to agree, but it might be a solution.

I think that would be better as not as hot ? and the UK schools won't have broken up yet.

we used this planner and it was pretty accurate.
www.undercovertourist.com/planning/when-to-visit/disney-world-crowds-calendar_july-2014.html#disney-opening-hours

mind you august looks less busy according to this?

also this one:

www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/busy-day-guide.php

looks like July might be worse - 4th July?

www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/When-to-Visit-Orlando-and-WDW-p-78.html

July will be very busy, due to US summer break season, pretty much EVERY school in the US is off for July.... some days the parks reach full capacity.

The heat will be in the 90s but the humidity will be a bit lower and less chance of storms...

You asked for other ideas, bit random but what about a safari in South Africa??!! 8 is about the minimum age for game drives I think

Gawd, checked out thedibb, could I face such crowds for 10 days?? Yikes, maybe not! Having a serious think now.

Re safari, would love it, but don;t think my daughter would be so fussed.

Do you get October Half term? I reall think that would be a fantastic time to go, we had a fabulous time last October and thought Orlando was great. My 8y old loved it.

My daughter gets half term, but I work in education and it's one of my busiest times, so difficult to go far away. Would love to though.

What about Disney in California ? California is lovely , you could do San Diego zoo, all the other theme parks and there is a fab aquarium in Monterey . Haven't actually done Disney but I know a friend who went last august and was surprised at how little they had to queue. Also Cali weather stays around the early 20s most of the year x

Hi we have been in Feb and May- (Feb was the best around 70-80 degrees most days and blue skies, may was quite humid and rained on three afternoons). No experience of Florida in August .
We have been to both California and Toronto in August and had a fab time. Loads to do with kids and similar price .