These free 2025-2026 Walt Disney World crowd calendars rate dates so you can choose best weeks to go & avoid the worst, skipping long lines and high wait times. We cover seasonal events, weather, park hours, Orlando travel trends, and factors impacting when to visit Florida’s theme parks. (Updated May 18, 2025.)
Let’s start with a blunt reality: Summer 2025 and beyond is going to be a wild time for crowds at Walt Disney World. The last couple years have seen normalizing attendance patterns, during which time it became much easier to predict crowd levels and wait times. To the extent that crowd calendars were inaccurate, it was generally just a matter of across-the-board overestimates–the general trend lines were accurate, just too high.
That’s not what we’re expecting with our 2025 Walt Disney World crowd calendars starting in late May. We’ll be brutally honest: Walt Disney World crowds are probably going to become less predictable again this summer, to the point that we’d caution against over-reliance in this or any other crowd calendars. (Especially the automated AI ones that just take historical wait times and spit out future predictions without explanation.)
The biggest factor is Epic Universe, Universal Orlando’s third theme park. Epic Universe is the elephant in the room, calling into question historical patterns–and not just with crowds, but also discounts, seasonal events, release dates, and much more. This is both because attendance will change organically as a result of a new theme park and because Walt Disney World will need to adjust in order to lure guests to visit as it attempts to compete with Universal Orlando.
We’re already seeing this happen. Walt Disney World has gotten really aggressive with summer discounts, the result of which is the lowest prices for Walt Disney World vacations in over 6 years. (See How to Get the Cheapest Walt Disney World Trip Since 2019.) This makes sense, as the only new additions Walt Disney World has are two stage shows at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, plus Starlight Night Parade at Magic Kingdom. None of that can compete with Epic Universe, but attractive pricing can lure price-sensitive guests, especially since Universal Orlando is not cheap.
This approach appears to be working. During Disney’s latest earnings call, CFO Hugh Johnston revealed that bookings for Walt Disney World are trending up 4% in the third quarter, are up 7% for the fourth quarter, and even early 2026 is outpacing the prior-year. Walt Disney World’s strong results for the last quarter, as well as the forward-looking forecast, are discussed at length in Walt Disney World Bookings Are Up for Rest of 2025.
In addition to this, the rollout of Epic Universe has been rockier than expected. Part of this was Universal Orlando’s aggressive approach to ticketing, which undoubtedly pushed many potential guests to the sidelines–or a ‘wait and see’ position. It hasn’t helped that word of mouth on Epic Universe has been more mixed than anticipated, likely causing even more potential guests to postpone visits until 2026. (See Why You Should Skip Epic Universe in 2025.)
Officially, Disney’s perspective with regard to Epic Universe has been: a rising tide lifts all ships. Regardless of what happens, it’s almost certain that the impact–positive or negative–will not occur evenly throughout the year or across the board at all four Walt Disney World theme parks.
The real range of possibilities is a slight decrease to a slight increase in attendance–Walt Disney World is not going to be a huge spike or catastrophic drop. Averaged per day across all of the parks, even this range of outcomes for 2025 crowds would look pretty negligible as compared to this year. You might wait a few minutes less per attraction, again on average across all four parks.
It now appears that rising tide thesis is correct–or at least, that discounts lure more guests to Walt Disney World. Even with the increased forward bookings, our expectation is that crowd changes will not occur evenly across all four parks. Tourists have finite vacation time and budgets, and adding Epic Universe means sacrificing visits to other parks. Here’s what we view as most likely to happen in Summer 2025 and beyond.
First, Magic Kingdom have wait times on par with last year in Summer 2025 and higher feels like crowds. This is due in part to Magic Kingdom being Walt Disney World’s flagship park, so it’s the one tourists flocking to Florida for Epic Universe are most likely to add-on during their visit if doing Disney as a diversion instead of destination. That will be partially offset by the popular 3-Park Walt Disney World Summer Ticket Deal excluding Magic Kingdom.
The higher feels like crowds or congestion will be attributable to the debut of Disney Starlight Night Parade. That will draw more locals, Annual Passholders, and other fans to Magic Kingdom once that debuts. It will also keep people in the park later, making wait times less likely to drop at the end of the night. However, the new parade appears unlikely to debut until the second half of July 2025, so do not expect any impact through Independence Day. (See When Will Disney Starlight Night Parade Open?)
A similar dynamic might play out at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. These have become the top 2 parks at Walt Disney World in terms of tourist drawing power, so if the influx of visitors for Epic Universe are doing any Walt Disney World parks, it’s one of these two–or both. Disney’s Hollywood Studios won’t see as much of a bump as Magic Kingdom, even with two new stage shows, because those won’t be as much of a draw as Starlight parade.
Animal Kingdom and EPCOT will take a hit. EPCOT will likely be down slightly year over year, especially as it has nothing new to offer. Last year, World Celebration and CommuniCore Hall were brand new, with other attractions being new-ish. This year, there’s nothing brand-new, and there are signs that Test Track 3.0 won’t debut until the end of summer or early fall. (It won’t be a big driver of attendance when it opens–but it could keep people away while it’s closed.)
Animal Kingdom will likewise be down. Animal Kingdom is already the park people with limited time in Central Florida are most likely to cut, and this will be exacerbated by Epic Universe and the park being in the midst of construction and having multiple attractions (of an already limited ride roster) down as a result. Animal Kingdom is already the “easiest” park at Walt Disney World from a strategy perspective, and it’s going to get even easier for the next few years. (See Should You Skip Animal Kingdom Until 2027?)
How the second half of 2025 plays out depend on factors that are not yet known. This includes how many new visitors will Epic Universe draw to Central Florida, whether people actually postpone visits during opening season for fear of higher crowds (that don’t materialize), how aggressive Disney gets with discounts for August 2025 and beyond, ongoing seasonal trends, and more. We could see major shifts in the second half of 2025 crowd patterns–or relatively minor ones. Suffice to say, there’s a range of outcomes!
The good news is that even with this uncertainty, the contours of crowd calendars should remain accurate, more or less. Shoulder season will be slow; summer will have fairly steady attendance with its normal twin peaks; August and September will still be off-season; Jersey Week will still be busier than the week that follows; Thanksgiving 2025 will be worse than dates after that–which will remain our favorite week of the year to visit Walt Disney World. Christmas and New Year’s will be the busiest two-week stretch of the entire year, followed closely by the first week of January 2026.
There will be some points where this breaks down a bit, but if you’re looking for the best dates to visit within August 2025 or November 2025, I still have a fairly high degree of confidence in our predictions. At least, to the extent of which sets of dates will be better or worse. (Relative assessments like that are easier to make, especially within timeframes of a single month or two.)
The same cannot be said for the numerical crowd level scores. I’d take those a lot less seriously. And that goes for all crowd calendars, not just ours. Again, there’s a lack of precedent here that makes this impossible for anyone to predict with a high degree of confidence–that’s doubly true for the resources that just take historical data and spit out predictions without any critical thought put into the “why” of it.
To this end, you might instead want to consult our lists of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025 & 2026. If you’re looking for a convenient resource for planning a weeklong or so vacation to Walt Disney World and want to know when to visit or avoid based on crowds & congestion, weather, special events, and more–look no further, and check out that list instead of reading the month-by-month calendars below.
To be entirely honest, I like those lists more than these crowd calendars and send friends and family that post as opposed to this when they want help choosing dates. From my perspective, it’s foolish to rely solely on quantitative measures (that might be flawed!) when qualitative factors can be more make or break.
Those have already been updated for 2025 once following the release of resort and ticket discounts through September 2025. They’ll be revised again once Walt Disney World announces debut dates for Starlight and whatever other surprises might be in store. All of those dates should be very coming soon–subscribe to our free email newsletter for updates.
Turning back to these crowd calendars, we have a couple more notes. Crowd levels are calculated on a rolling basis relative to the prior 365 days. They are not anchored to 1971 or 1993 or 2008 wait times. In other words, a 1/10 today is not the same as a 1/10 in September 2012 or October 2015. Today’s 1/10 might be closer to a 5/10 from five years ago.
Pretty much every single day this year would be 10/10 if we used 2008 or earlier as the baseline. If you last experienced Walt Disney World several years ago, your expectations and experience probably differ from someone who visited over holiday weeks in 2022 when pent-up demand was running hot.
Not only that, but a ‘low’ crowd levels does not mean that in absolute terms. Even on 1/10 days, the parks will not be ghost towns allowing you to do snow angels on the ground. You will see rides with 60-90 minute posted wait times. You will encounter areas of congestion. “Uncrowded” at Walt Disney World does not mean empty. The most popular rides, especially during the middle of the day, will still have long lines.
You may be disappointed to see 60 minute waits on a supposedly low-crowd day, and conclude that it actually isn’t slow. But it gets much, much worse. Hour-long waits are better than 2-hour ones! Moreover, those numbers are averages, so it also means higher peaks and lower lows–so you can beat wait times in any crowd level with savvy strategy. Avatar Flight of Passage might peak at a 300 minute wait on a 10/10 day when its average wait time is 140 minutes.
If you want to understand more about Walt Disney World crowd calendars, their strengths and limitations, or addressing misconceptions about crowds, see our list of the “Top” 10 Ways Walt Disney World Fans Are Wrong About Crowds. That’s worth reading if you want a better understanding of WDW attendance patterns, feels like crowds vs. wait times, and a few fairly easy ways to “beat” the crowds.
There are still definitely big differences in crowd levels, and you should plan accordingly. No matter how hard Disney might try, there are certain times that travel is slower. School schedules, weather, seasonal festivities, youth sporting events, conventions, and other factors all play a huge role in crowd levels at Walt Disney World.
With all of that out of the way, here are more detailed suggestions for when you should and shouldn’t visit Walt Disney World…
2025-2026 Disney World Crowd Calendars
If you’ve already narrowed down a season or range of dates during which you want to visit Walt Disney World, we’d recommend forgoing the remainder of this post. Instead, refer to our individual monthly guides, which offer free crowd calendars and cover weather, seasonal events, refurbishments, and what’s new & next.
These 2025 Walt Disney World crowd calendars offer more granular details for each specific month. We’d suggest reading all months for the time of year you’re considering. For example, if you’re thinking of a summer vacation, read the May through August monthly guides; if you’re considering Christmas, consult both November and December.
These Walt Disney World crowd calendars are most reliable about 6 months in advance. With that said, some of the same general patterns play out year in and out, so later months are useful for broader weekly trends–rather than specific dates to visit.
For these crowd calendars, we combine normal data like wait times and other info that serves as a proxy for crowds with our in-person observations and anecdotal experiences. From all of this, we’ve learned to spot patterns and notice things about wait times and attendance at Walt Disney World, which we share with you in our crowd calendars.
Note that the above crowd calendars do not, for the most part, offer park by park crowd levels. On a calendar day basis, that’s far too granular and no longer possible to predict.
However, we’d direct you to Best & Worst Days to Do All Parks at Walt Disney World for advice on choosing which day to do each park. Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT typically follow patterns and picking the right (and avoiding the wrong) days can make a big difference, no matter what time of year (uncrowded or crowded) that you visit.
Having a little knowledge about the ebb and flow of attendance throughout the day will also prepare you to avoid crowds and zig when others zag. Some parks and attractions see visitor numbers and lines spike during certain parts of the day, and it’s important to understand the why of this, so you can plan around the peak crowds.
Suffice to say, crowd calendars are not some ‘magic bullet’ that you can use without doing any other research to have a great trip, walking onto every attraction. Over-reliance on Walt Disney World crowd calendars (including ours!) will lead to disappointment.
If you’re trying to determine when to visit, we recommend starting by choosing seasonal events and the type of weather that appeal most to you, and then narrowing your dates within those broad parameters based on what crowd calendars identify as the best and first weeks to visit. Walt Disney World crowd calendars are still a useful tool, but they’re not a planning panacea.
As for other tools, utilizing Lightning Lanes, Early Entry, Extended Evening Hours, rope drop, etc. will help immensely. We cover the best & worst approach for each park in Best Time-Saving Strategies for Walt Disney World. (If you’re only going to read one planning post, make it that!)
Be sure to also check out our Walt Disney World Itineraries for plans of attack. Following a good itinerary and utilizing smart strategy is often more important than choosing the “right” dates. There are some exceptions to this, such as going on December 29 (average wait time last year of 70 minutes) instead of October 1 (average wait time this year of 18 minutes), but by and large, using smart strategy will put you in a better position than picking better days and doing zero strategizing.
Ideally, you’d opt for a best of both worlds approach–choosing good dates as well as utilizing savvy strategy, but that’s not always possible. After all, there’s a reason most families visit Walt Disney World during school breaks. If you don’t have any choice but to travel during busier dates, you can still beat the crowds.
Choosing which days to visit Walt Disney World is just one aspect of planning a trip. To make sure you tackle everything, make sure you read our Guide to Planning a Walt Disney World Trip, which covers all of the essentials. With that said, here’s what else to consider…
Weather
If weather is an important consideration, you’ll want to target the months of November through April–and maybe October and May. Those are ideal from a weather perspective. That is, assuming you want more temperate weather, rather than extreme heat and humidity or more cold weather. If you like your clothes drenched in sweat from high temperatures, June through September are the perfect times for you to visit.
Late summer and early fall are the height of hurricane and storm season, which have become increasingly relevant. Consult our guide to Visiting Walt Disney World During Storm Season article before booking a trip this time of year. The best case scenario is navigating the afternoon showers without them putting too much of a damper on your trip. Worst case, an approaching hurricane forces you to cancel your trip or be at Walt Disney World while the parks close due to the storm.
If you must visit between the late spring through early fall, just remember to pack accordingly. Read our Unique Disney World Packing List for some items you might not otherwise think of taking. Seriously, you could save a ton of money on impulse purchase and have a more pleasant trip with our recommendations that’ll help you better prepare for staying comfortable in Florida weather (among other things).
Park Hours
We’ve found that park hours are the biggest variable that people fail to consider when planning their trips. This is at least a minor mistake. It’s important to note up front that, typically, less busy seasons have shorter park hours and busier times have longer park hours.
It thus stands to reason that you can basically get the same amount done in a shorter day during a less busy time than you could during a busier time. However, this isn’t always true. If you use an efficient touring plan, you have a good chance of getting more done during a busier time of year than during a slower stretch.
This is especially true if you get to the park early and stay late. Sometimes during especially busy times, Magic Kingdom will open at 8 am and will close at 11 pm. While we’ve taken advantage of these hours without taking a break during the day, we realize some of you are mere mortals.
A great strategy during days with operating hours such as these is to get to the park shortly before opening, stay until around 11 a.m., go back to your resort to nap or relax, and return around dinner time to stay until park close. Regardless of the time of year, the parks will always be fairly slow during the first couple operational hours, and will always be fairly deserted late at night. Ride as much as you can early in the day and do less popular attractions as the day wears on.
Similarly, park hours should be taken into account based upon your sleep habits. If you’re a late-to-rise night owl, the Fall and late Winter/early Spring months may be a bad idea, as these entail many early closing times. If you’re not going to get to the parks until noon anyway, your day might be only 7 hours or so.
Conversely, if you wake up early and generally call it a day by 5 or 7 pm or so, those midnight closings aren’t going to do you any good. Make sure you check Disney’s park hours calendar when planning your trip. It’s important to note that this calendar is often inaccurate far in advance (Disney posts hours conservatively, then extends them as bookings increase).
Special Events
This is a big one for us, as we’ve been to Walt Disney World so many times that it’s nice to visit during different times of year to keep things varied. Even if it’s your first visit to Walt Disney World, if you have particular interests, you might want to consider planning your trip around these special events. The schedules for these varies, as does the price (if any), so please consult the respective page for each event when doing your planning and budgeting.
Halloween and Christmas events in the Magic Kingdom are separately ticketed, meaning you can’t use your standard park tickets for them. Unlike regular park tickets, you also can’t purchase these tickets at a discount from authorized vendors (which can save you a lot of money on regular tickets). Despite this, both events are a ton of fun and well worth experiencing. As you can read in our Ultimate Guide to Christmas at Walt Disney World, it’s our favorite time to visit the parks!
We’ve written tips & tricks for almost every seasonal event at Walt Disney World, because most aren’t simply a matter of “show up, have fun.” We encourage you to click these links (they will open in a new tab) and read the guides. Like all things Walt Disney World-related, you’ll have a much better time and see more that the event has to offer if you do some advance planning…
Winter
- Walt Disney World Marathon – The flagship runDisney race weekend is held in early January, usually the weekend after New Year’s. It typically occurs while schools are still out for winter break, effectively extending the holiday season crowds into early January.
- EPCOT International Festival of the Arts – This is one of the highlights of January and February at Walt Disney World for us. Truly captures the essence of old school EPCOT Center.
Spring
Summer
- 2025 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival – Beginning in late summer, this is EPCOT’s flagship culinary event. Want to know what to do–and more importantly what NOT to do? Read our guide. It’ll give you an idea of what’s not worth the money, and what is worth doing.
Fall
- 2025 Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom – Possibly more than any other special event at Walt Disney World, you need to do advance planning for this. Character meet & greets can form hour-plus long waits, and there’s so much to do that you can’t accomplish everything in one party. We highly recommend reading this guide!
- EPCOT Food & Wine Festival – Same as above usually continues through mid to late November.
Holidays
School Schedules
If school schedules are something around which you must plan, chances are you’re going to go during one of the busier (or at least not one of the least busy) times of the year. School schedules are the paramount consideration for many other families planning trips, too.
It may seem convenient to visit during one of the ‘holidays’ your kids have off from school, but it’s important to consider whether other schools have these same dates off, as well. Of the traditional school holidays, only Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends are good times to visit.
Because most schools have the week before Christmas until the shortly after New Year’s off, this is an especially crowded window to visit. Likewise, the same goes for President’s Day weekend, Easter week, Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day week, Veterans Day week, the entirety of the Summer, and Thanksgiving week.
Although schools do vary their Spring Break schedules, don’t expect the parks to be any less busy because of staggered Spring Breaks. Mid-March until mid-April are also incredibly busy dates for the parks because of Spring Breaks, with the two weeks abutting Easter being the absolute worst (since most schools still use Easter as a proxy for Spring Break).
Some people don’t have many other options, so it’s going during a school break or nothing. If so, it’s not the end of the world. As we’ve stressed above, crowd calendars are not as important as they used to be. Simply pack your patience and have savvy strategy. Again, refer to our Free Walt Disney World Park Itineraries & Touring Plans. We have the perfect strategy for fun, efficient, and memorable days in the parks!
If you don’t have kids or aren’t otherwise forced to travel around holidays or traditional vacation periods, we’d highly recommend avoiding them. Not because we have anything against kids, but because crowds and prices will be higher during these breaks. Plan around them and save both time and money! As we often say, pack your patience and arm yourself with savvy strategy if you’re visiting Walt Disney World and you’ll do just fine, regardless of crowds.
If you are unsure of when visiting Walt Disney World might be best for you–or need personalized help with any aspect of your trip from hotels to the Disney Dining Plan and more–we recommend contacting a no fee “Authorized Disney Vacation Planner” (basically, Disney’s term for a travel agent) to get a quote and to help you plan. They get their commission from Disney, so none of the authorized (key word) planners will charge you for booking their trip and helping. Here’s one such Authorized Disney Vacation Planner that we recommend!
Hopefully this is a valuable primer to help you choose when you want to visit Walt Disney World. Figuring out when to visit is an important first step, but there’s much more to know. You’ll also want to read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post to buy the cheapest tickets from legitimate sources. To figure out where to stay, our Walt Disney World Hotel Reviews page is a great resource. Want to know where to eat or if the Disney Dining Plan is right for you? Our Walt Disney World Dining Resources will help! For lots of other Walt Disney World trip planning tips and comprehensive advice, make sure to read our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide.
Your Thoughts
Visiting Walt Disney World during the best dates to avoid crowds is probably one of the most important aspects of trip planning. What season, month, or week do you generally visit WDW? Do you visit at times when you know crowds will be light, or do you visit when school is out of session? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
