Disney World Crowd Calendar 2025 & 2026

If you are trying to find out when the busiest time to visit Disney is, then our Disney World Crowd Calendars for 2025 and 2026 will help you avoid crowds and long waits in line. There is no real “off-season” in Disney World, but you definitely can find plenty of days when the crowd levels are low.

There are many tools that will help you to plan your Walt Disney World vacation, but perhaps none is more important than a Disney crowd calendar. Whether you are going alone, with friends, or with your family, it will help you avoid the crowds which will ultimately lead to a more fun trip.

In this post, we are going to share with you our 2025 Disney World crowd calendar, show you how to use it, and how to find the best dates for you. We’ll go over the busiest days and months of the year in the parks so you don’t find yourself there during those times.

We’ll explain exactly what a crowd calendar is, why it’s useful, but also why you can’t always rely on them 100%. And if you happen to find yourself in one of the Disney World parks on a day when it’s super busy, we’ll help you to avoid the crowds as much as possible and make the best of it.

Our Disney World crowd calendar is based on predicted attendance and will point out the exact dates when you are least likely and most likely to find the theme parks packed with people. Many factors are taken into consideration when making it like school schedules, events, holidays, and more, which will give you the best chance possible to go on the right days.

Crowd Levels aren’t the only factor you should take into consideration when deciding when to plan your trip. For a more balanced look, read our guide on the Best Times to Visit Disney World in 2025 which looks at the crowds but also the weather, park hours, and prices, among other things. We even rank our favorite months to visit from best to worst.

Also, if you want the latest Disney World trip planning advice, including crowd calendar updates and more don’t forget to sign up for our FREE Weekly E-Mail Newsletter. You can sign up here: Join our E-Mail Newsletter!

Latest Disney Crowd Calendar Update

(UPDATE) – We’ve updated our Crowd Calendar to reflect the latest crowd expectations for 2025 and beyond.

As if planning a Disney crowd calendar in 2025 wasn’t already hard enough, things got a whole lot more difficult over the past few years, especially after the reopening of the Disney World parks and extremely volatile crowd levels in that time.

In order to predict what could happen in 2025, we have to first take a good look at what happened last year. We will address whether or not we expect crowd levels to keep rising and what effect that will have on wait times.

Just a word of caution, since the parks reopened, any traditional Disney World crowd calendar has been thrown out the window as it has been extremely difficult to predict attendance with any reliability up to this point.

Some of our predictions for 2024 came true, however, with so many unpredictable factors, we were by no means perfect. Any estimates for 2025 should be taken with a grain of salt as the past couple of years have been harder than ever to understand crowds, and we are far from perfect.

2024 was an interesting year to say the least, and we had no idea how crowd levels would react throughout the year. There were a lot of unknown factors in play such as new attractions opening and a slowed-down economy, reducing overall travel to Walt Disney World compared to the previous year.

We initially thought that the boom we experienced in 2022 would continue, as the year went on though, it was clear that people are slowing down a bit when it comes to taking vacations, especially when visiting “The most magical place on earth.”

What really surprised us was the sheer number of discounts that Disney has been offering to get people to the parks over the last year or more.

Even though there were periods of high crowds as always, when looking at the year overall, attendance levels were lower than the previous year in almost every month. This was seen in wait times which were also down year-over-year for most attractions.

In 2024, things got off to a good start in January with the parks having good attendance, though not as much as the previous couple of years. After that, there was an steady decline almost all year long. In February, wait times remained moderate, but down year over year. Because of the high crowds the year before, we had basically written off traveling to WDW in February as it seemed almost impossible. Instead it was much more pleasant in 2024.

Wait times ticked up slightly up in March and April with people starting to travel more for Spring Break and Easter, but not nearly as much as we were expecting. The parks should have been incredibly busy during those months, especially since there have been a few new attractions in recent years for people to come out and see, but the parks were much more empty compared to the prior year.

May was extremely quiet and perhaps our favorite month to visit from last year with insanely low wait times which made us very happy guests. We were expecting June and July to pick up a bit, but it never got to normal crowd levels for the summertime.

If you really want to look at the numbers, our friends over at Thrill-data.com have some incredible charts where you can see the steady climb in wait times throughout the year.

The above chart shows Magic Kingdom wait times starting in January 2024 and going through November 2024.

You can see the avg wait for an attraction was around 40 minutes in January 2024, but that went down to 30 minutes in February 2024. June 2024 had avg wait times of 25 minutes, and it kept dropping throughout the summer.

Here are the graphs for EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom:

There was a big drop in August, and a bigger one in September. This happens every year, but not to this level. In fact, in September the avg wait time for attractions in all 4 parks was right around 26 minutes, a big difference from last year which was around 36 minutes during the same time of the year.

October should be one of the busiest months of the year, as it’s been trending in that direction for years now. This past Oct was low though, and in the Animal Kingdom wait times were only 26 minutes on average compared to 47 minutes just a couple of years ago!

Crowds were also way down through the holiday season in November and December, a startling observation. These months are always near the top of our busiest months list, but in 2024 they were also down about 15-20% from last year’s average.

So does this mean crowds will continue to fall in 2025 and beyond? Yes, we think there is a good chance of that happening.

Crowds always increase from September to December, in the Spring and Summer due to the holidays and school schedules. However, the fact we didn’t see that happen in 2024 could be a warning sign of things to come.

The high levels of a few years ago were due to a number of factors. Many domestic travelers weren’t traveling for a couple of years but then all of a sudden in 2022 and 2023, they felt more comfortable with the idea of going to Walt Disney World. It became “the safe destination.”

Also, many DVC members who hadn’t used their points in previous years were “forced” to go to Disney World thereafter to avoid losing their points.

Those factors were no longer a problem in 2024 and contributed to the lower attendance, room bookings and ride wait times across the board.

Looking forward to 2025, there are many factors that will determine the crowd levels…

The biggest one though is the question of the economy. It’s now been a couple of years since most of the world has had to deal with rising inflation, and there just isn’t as much disposable income for vacations to expensive places like Walt Disney World at the right now.

Many economic experts were even predicting the United States to fall into a recession in 2024. It looks like we avoided that, but we may not be out of the water yet with the prices of everything sky-high. If that continues and if inflation stays high throughout the year, we may start to see even more lulls in park attendance again.

We could also see the drop in attendance coming a mile away since Disney been offering heavy discounts on hotel rooms and vacation packages for a couple of years now, even around the holiday season. Usually, there are very little discounts, if any during what should be the busiest time of the year. Instead, Disney realized they had a ton of hotel occupancy to sell with discounts of 35% or more.

We are going to be watching very closely the current Disney World discounts into the new year. If we continue to see big discounts as the year goes on, that will be a sign Disney still has plenty of hotel rooms to sell and that crowds will be down again in 2025.

Most families who are planning to go to Walt Disney World start doing so at least 6 months in advance, if not 1 year. A lot of people were in a wait-and-see frame of mind over the past year, and we’ll see if Disney can do something to change their minds.

If attendance does pick up, it surely won’t be because of a flood of new attractions coming to the parks. There are no “new” E-Ticket attractions coming in 2025 and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure was the only new attraction of interest in 2024, and even that was only a refurbishment of an existing attraction.

The only thing really on my radar this year is the re-imagining of Test Track which we are hoping can at least surpass the low bar set by the previous version. Beyond that the slate is pretty empty.

We do expect the trend of busier weekends to continue this year. Local visitors have been strong in the past year who come on the weekends to have fun. This has been especially true in EPCOT as the park gets much more full from people visiting for the various festivals.

Also, Disney World annual passes have returned, so attendance from Florida residents should also continue to rise.

So what will 2025 look like?

After the holidays and into the winter, crowds should drop off somewhat, but perhaps not as much as in normal years since we are already starting from a low bar. Either way, one of the slowest months in 2025 is January. February has gotten busier in recent years and we haven’t recommend going then in a while, but this year may not be that bad, especially during the first half of the month.

In March 2025 we have crowd levels at one of the highest for the year with Spring Break which is always a big draw to Walt Disney World. Last year it was even higher than usual with Easter also being in March, that’s not the case this year, but we still expect it to be one of the worst months this year.

April should be the second-busiest month in 2025 because of Easter and any guests lingering over from Spring Break in the first half of the month.

May should have a massive dip in crowds from March and April, and it’s one of my favorite times to visit. Things should get busier again in June and the Summer should peak in July with all kids off from school and many families traveling to Disney World.

August and September traditionally have the lowest crowds, and we expect 2025 to be the same.

October 2025 will get busier in Disney World between Columbus Day, EPCOT festivals, and Halloween. The weekends in October should be busier than the weekdays, so plan your days wisely.

In November, things will be busier than usual in the first half of the month with Veteran’s Day and runDisney events. There is a slight lull in the middle of the month until guests start coming for the Thanksgiving holiday. We should see normal holiday crowds in 2025, especially if the capacity limits are back to 100% by then.

December should follow a similar path as it normally does, with lower crowds in the first half of the month and then slowly building up to huge numbers at Christmas and New Year’s.

Overall, from what we’ve seen over recent months and lack of demand right now for Walt Disney World vacations, we expect attendance to be low, at least through the beginning of the year. If the economy picks up and interest returns, it could be a different story in the second half of 2025. But right now, we see lower attendance than usual.

That said, the unpredictability of the world scene means you should take our WDW crowd calendar with a grain of salt at the moment. Even though we have a much better idea of how the crowd flow will work after seeing how things went last year, there is still some margin for error.

We will continue updating the 2025 and 2026 dates with our crowd estimates as the year goes on and as we have more information, so keep checking back.

One thing is fairly certain, however, overall crowd levels in Disney World this year will be lower than a couple of years ago, if we end up seeing a full-blown recession in this country, things could get even worse.

If you want to see how the restrictions over the last few years have affected crowds at Disney World, you can read our Guide to Walt Disney World Reopening and our Disney World Closure Guide which explain what happened with the parks during that time. Oh how far we’ve come…but on to 2025!

What is a Disney World Crowd Calendar?

A crowd calendar helps us predict how busy a Disney park will be on any given day. This means if used properly, a crowd calendar can help you avoid Disney World when attendance is highest and when the lines for rides are the longest.

Our 2025 Disney World Crowd Calendar takes all 4 theme parks into consideration, the two water parks, and how busy Disney Springs and all the restaurants on property will be.

If you hate waiting in line as much as we do, Disney crowd calendars are a life-saver! If there was such a thing as a Disney-planning toolbox, this would be your hammer, an essential tool never to leave home without!

While not all guests have the flexibility to plan their entire trip around the least-crowded times of the year, using a Disney crowd tracker is still useful to pick days where there are only moderate crowds and at least avoid the absolutely busiest times of the year.

Why Crowd Calendars Are Helpful

Using a Disney crowd calendar to find the right days to go to the parks means:

• Less time wasted waiting in line for rides
• Less time in line for food
• Easier to get Advanced Dining Reservations
• Easier to get Genie+ reservations for the popular attractions
• More space when navigating the parks
• Having more freedom to choose what to do once you get to the parks
• More entertainment showtimes

Not all parks have the same attendance or crowd flow. There are certain times of the year when a given theme park will flow differently than other times of the year. Even attraction lines behave very differently from season to season or week to week, with much depending on how many cast members are working that day ride efficiency and how many people are in the park.

For example, if you try to ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance on a holiday or one of the busiest days of the year, you will have to get there well before the park opens if you don’t want to wait for hours in line.

Also, crowd levels in the parks can vary throughout the day from morning to afternoon and evening. That means it’s important to react and know what to do when peak crowds start arriving. If you have a basic understanding of how crowds work, you will have a much better time!

They are also great at seeing events in Disney World that you otherwise would never have realized are going on during your trip. I’m guessing you didn’t know that the D2 Summit cheerleading championship happens in May and can bring big crowds did you? Knowing all these small details will help you to be better prepared for your trip.

How Our Disney World Crowd Calendar Works

How did we come up with our Disney World Crowd Calendar for 2025? It would be easy to just throw a dart at the calendar and assign a color, but that wouldn’t be a very effective way of predicting peak crowds.

We selected which days and weeks are going to be the busiest based on a variety of data factors. Those factors include:

• Season
• Historical attendance during that period
• Ticket Prices
• Hotel Prices
• Hotel bookings (% of filled rooms)
• Upcoming Events/Attraction Openings
• Expected Wait Times
• Theme park projections
• Current Health Crisis
• Bad Economy

Looking at all these different factors gives us a good idea of what kind of attendance you are likely to find on a given day. After decades of visiting the parks and observing attendance patterns, we’ve found this to be the best way to determine crowd levels as you can’t just go on school holidays alone.

All that said, no Disney World Crowd Calendar is 100% right, even in a year like 2025. Expect there to be some small differences between our predictions and the actual crowd sizes.

It is meant to be used as a helpful guide and not the definitive source of your vacation planning and we do our best to constantly update our projections to give you the most accurate predictions for your trip.

Rating System

We’ve broken down each day on the calendar into one of 5 colors. Each of these colors represents the expected crowds in Disney World on that day. The colors and crowd levels are as follows:

• Green = Least Crowded Days (Best times to go)
• Light Blue = Light Crowds
• Yellow = Moderate Crowds
• Orange = Heavy Crowds
• Red = Most Crowded (Avoid at all costs!)

Obviously, the more days you can fit into your vacation that are green (lowest crowds) or light blue (light crowds), the happier you are going to be. It’s almost impossible to have every one of your days in Disney World be a day with low crowds, but try to pick a week with as many as possible.

The colors follow the same pattern in 2025 as they did last year. We did this to reflect how crowded the parks feel and what wait times are right now and we’re measuring things compared to how much space people actually have in the parks.

For 2025 there aren’t as many light days on our calendar as in years past, and many more orange days. Again, this reflects how full the parks will be based on their reduced capacities, which could change at any time. For now, it’s the new normal.

2025 Disney World Crowd Calendar

(Updated) – Here is our updated 2025 Disney World Crowd Calendar. Feel free to download it or print it out to bring with you on your vacation.

Also, if you are a journalist, travel agent, or blogger, feel free to link to this page to share this calendar with your audience.

Biggest Determining Factors for Crowd Levels in Disney World

Figuring out when peak crowds will arrive at Walt Disney World isn’t easy, but it can be determined by a few major factors. Here are the most common factors to take into consideration:

School Schedules

School schedules are the biggest factor to consider when trying to figure out Disney World crowds. When the school season is in session, families are less likely to travel to Disney World, meaning fewer people in the parks during those days.

Some parents are willing to take their kids out of school for a week to bring them to Disney (thanks mom and dad!), but this is rare and not the norm.

Most parents are only able to bring their kids during the holidays or summer break period when they don’t have to take them out of school and it’s either: 1. Go when crowds are heavy or 2. Don’t go to Disney World at all.

Obviously, we don’t recommend number 2, and we think if planned properly you can still have a great time if you visit when kids are off from school. A trip to Disney World is expensive, but prices are also much cheaper when kids are in school.

Not only will the parks be less full, but you will also save tons of money on your Disney vacation in the process.

We recommend reading our post on the cheapest time to go to Disney World if you are on a budget.

Holidays

Hand-in-hand with school schedules are the national holidays. Some of them bring bigger crowds to Disney World than others, but all of them increase attendance at least to a degree. Here is a list of the holidays that have an effect on crowd levels in Disney World in 2025:

• New Year’s Day – Jan 1
• Martin Luther King Jr Day – Jan 20
• Valentine’s Day – Feb 14
• President’s Day – Feb 17
• St. Patrick’s Day – Mar 17
• Easter – April 20
• Memorial Day – May 26
• The 4th of July – July 4
• Labor Day – Sep 1
• Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day – Oct 13
• Halloween – Oct. 31
• Veteran’s Day – Nov 11
• Thanksgiving Day – Nov 27
• Christmas Day – Dec 25
• New Year’s Eve – Dec 31

Not all holidays are created equal and some are much busier than others. Christmas, New Year’s, Thanksgiving, Easter, and the 4th of July are by far the worst and are the times when families visit the most. This is because of the convenience of having around a week or more off from school, making a trip to Florida doable.

Some of the holidays that bring fewer crowds to the parks are Labor Day and Memorial Day. So if you have to visit during a holiday, those are the best choices. St. Patrick’s Day and Valentine’s Day are even less crowded but don’t draw big crowds anyway on their own.

Disney World Special Events 2025

Special events can greatly influence crowd levels in Disney World and a lot of people come out to the parks when there is something new going on. Some of these can include the EPCOT festivals, new attractions, runDisney races, hard-ticketed events like Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

Even youth sporting events like dance or cheerleading competitions have a big effect on how many people are visiting the parks during a given week.

Here is a look at all the Disney World events in 2025 that will have an effect on the crowd levels:

• Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend: Jan 8 – Jan 12
• EPCOT® International Festival of the Arts: Jan 17 – Feb 24
• Pro Bowl Weekend: Jan 30 – Feb 2
• Cheerleading & Dance Competitions: Jan 17-19, Jan 31 – Feb 2, Feb 7 – 10, Feb 14 – 17, Feb 28 – Mar 2, Mar 7 – 9, Apr 25 – 28, May 1 – 5
• runDisney Princess Half Marathon Weekend – Feb 20 – Feb 24
• runDisney Springtime Surprise Weekend: April 3 – April 6
• EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival: TBD (Early March – Late May/Early June)
• EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival: TBD (Late Aug – Mid-Nov)
• Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party: (Early Aug – Oct 31)
• Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend: Oct 30 – Nov 2
• Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party: TBD (Early Nov – End Dec)
• EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays: TBD (End Nov – Dec 30)

All the big Disney World events are back in 2025 and you don’t need to worry about them getting canceled as they were a few years ago such as the marathons, and the cheerleading and dance competitions.

Why Crowds Calendars Aren’t Always 100 Percent Correct

As great as a good Disney World Crowd Calendar can be, it is not the end-all-be-all to Disney vacation planning. Don’t think you can just pick a time when the calendar tells you the parks should have fewer people and think that’s all you need to do to have a successful Disney trip. Crowd calendars are just one part of the planning.

You can’t count on them 100% as there are just too many variables that can change at a moment’s notice. In the past, everyone thought that the crowds for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge would be off the charts in Disneyland and Disney World and there would be lines outside the parks all day. It turns out that was completely wrong advice and the resorts on both coasts had one of the lightest Summer attendance ever.

The weather can turn a park from heavy crowds to empty in a matter of days. Whenever there are hurricanes in Disney World, the parks turn into a ghost town for days before and after the storm hits. You can’t predict the weather and you have to go with the flow.

Then there’s what happened in 2020 with parks closing and guests having to reschedule for a future date or completely cancel their vacations due to economic hardship. 2020 was on pace for one of the busiest years in Disney World in recent memory, and things changed overnight and it became the year with the lightest crowds ever once the parks reopened.

Disney is great at manipulating the park attendance and releases special offers throughout the year once they realize that bookings aren’t at the level they are looking for. Promotions like Disney Free Dining and Annual Passholder hotel discounts can end up bringing more people to the parks than originally anticipated.

Even when theme park capacity isn’t at 100%, it can feel more crowded than it actually is. Disney tends to reduce park hours and understaff the parks when they don’t anticipate a lot of people coming to the parks on a given day.

So even though there are half the people in the Magic Kingdom on a weekday in September than there are during the holidays, the actual wait times could be similar depending on if rides are running at full capacity that day or not.

This is made evident when Disney decides to do last-minute maintenance on attractions or there is a refurbishment for one of the higher capacity attractions. If Pirates of the Caribbean and “it’s a small world” both go down at the same time, expect to see increased wait times in all the other attractions throughout the park.

Relying too much on a crowd calendar will just let you down. We think they are an awesome tool to put in the right position to succeed when visiting Disney World, but they also must be combined with a good Lightning Lane strategy and overall touring strategy which will both help you solve any problem that going when there are peak crowds can solve.

When is Disney World Least Crowded in 2025 & 2026?

The smaller the crowds are, the less time you are going to have to wait in line for your favorite ride. So the objective is to find when there are the least amount of people in the parks as possible when you go.

These are the best dates, solely based on the crowd levels, not including other factors like weather. Just the days when you are less likely to run into droves of people.

Here are the dates you’ll find are going to be the least crowded in Disney World in the next 2 years.

Lightest Crowds in 2025:

• Jan 5-7 and Jan 13-16
• Jan 21 – Feb 7
• May 1-31 (excluding weekends & 26th)
• Aug 11-31
• September (the whole month)
• Nov 3-5
• Nov 12-20 (avoid Veteran’s Day)
• Dec 1-5

Lightest Crowds in 2026:

• Jan 2-10 (excluding Marathon dates)
• Jan 20 – Feb 6
• May 1-22 (excluding weekends)
• Aug 10-31
• September (the whole month)
• Nov 1-13 (avoid Veteran’s Day)
• Dec 1-11 (weekdays)

A lot of this could change depending on when the Disney World park capacities return to normal and how many people can actually afford a Disney vacation at this time. We’ll be updating these dates on our Disney Crowd Calendar as more information comes out.

When is Disney World Most Crowded? 2025 and 2026

Walt Disney World always has peak crowds during the big holidays. New Year’s and the days following are always packed, with Martin Luther King Day Weekend, President’s Day Weekend, Spring Break, Easter, the 4th of July, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas into New Year’s Eve.

If you are concerned about finding large crowds when you go, then you will definitely want to follow our crowd calendar to know which ones to avoid. Here is a list of when Disney World will be the most crowded in the next 2 years:

Busiest Days in 2025:

• Jan 1 (New Year’s Crowds)
• Jan 17-20 (Martin Luther King Weekend)
• Feb 14-23 (President’s Day Weekend)
• Mid-March – Mid-April (Spring Break & Easter)
• July (4th of July and the entire month)
• October 10-13 (Columbus Day Weekend)
• Nov 21-30 (Thanksgiving Week)
• Dec 13 -31 (Christmas and New Year’s Weeks)

Busiest Days in 2026:

• Jan 1 (New Year’s Crowds)
• Jan 16-20 (Martin Luther King Weekend)
• Feb 13-22 (President’s Day Weekend)
• Mid-March – Mid-April (Spring Break & Easter)
• July (4th of July and the entire month)
• October 9-12 (Columbus Day Weekend)
• Nov 20-29 (Thanksgiving Week)
• Dec 16 -31 (Christmas and New Year’s Weeks)

This is looking out all the way into 2026 so things can change from now until then, but for the most part, these are going to be the days with the highest attendance.

Busiest Days of the Week at Disney World

What about the busiest days of the week at Disney World? Are there certain days which are always better to visit the parks no matter what time of year you go?

Out of all the days of the week, Saturday is usually the busiest in the theme parks.

In general, the Disney theme parks are more crowded on weekends than on weekdays. This is because during the week the majority of visitors are there on vacation. However, the Florida locals also come to the parks more on the weekends when school and work are out, therefore filling the parks more.

Weekends are also a great time for visitors because it means taking off fewer days from work. If a family is coming for 5 days, you can be sure 2 of those days will be Saturday and Sunday. Many holidays are part of a long weekend, attracting both locals and out-of-town visitors.

EPCOT Weekends

If at all possible, DO NOT go to EPCOT on the weekend. We just talked about Florida locals coming to the parks more on Saturday and Sunday, and Epcot benefits the most from this trend.

EPCOT hosts 4 festivals per year:

• EPCOT International Festival of the Arts
• EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival
• EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival
• EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays

Each of these festivals lasts from 1 to 3 months and in total, there are less than 3 months per year when EPCOT does not have a festival going on. Locals are drawn here because it’s a great place to meet your friends and walk around World Showcase while grabbing some snacks and drinks.

You definitely should go to Epcot during your visit, but if there is a festival going on, make sure it’s during a weekday.

Magic Kingdom Mondays

While visiting the theme parks during the week is always recommended, you might not want to visit Magic Kingdom Park on Monday which happens to be one of the park’s busiest days.

The reason behind this is that many people are just starting their vacation on Mondays, and what better place to make you really feel like you are in Disney World, than stepping onto Main Street U.S.A.? For that reason, it always sees higher crowds on Mondays than the other days of the week.

Sunday is actually a pretty good day to visit the Magic Kingdom as guests are either arriving that day or leaving to go home. Any other weekday is also fine, just check the calendar to see if there is a hard-ticketed event that day. In that case, the park will close early to regular guests but as long as you aren’t staying past dinner time it won’t be a problem.

Early Theme Park Entry

Early Theme Park Entry allows guests who are staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel, to enter the parks 30 minutes before the general public each and every morning.

We are big fans of rope-dropping the Disney parks to get a great jump on the attractions that day, and ETHE means you can do rope drop even before off-site guests. This can be a big advantage in avoiding the crowds and should be considered when planning your trip.

It doesn’t matter which Walt Disney World Resort Hotel you are staying at, they are all eligible for Early Theme Park Entry. This means you will have early access to your favorite attractions and can ride them before the crowds get too big.

This is the current replacement for Extra Magic Hours and at this time Disney if this is a long-term solution or only temporary. You no longer have to figure out which parks have early access on a given morning, all 4 parks are the same and each lets you in 30 minutes early, 7 days a week.

While there aren’t many perks anymore for staying on property, Early Theme Park Entry is one of the only ones left that actually helps, especially with new or extremely popular rides like Rise of the Resistance.

Staying Off-Site – In this case, you can’t participate in Early Theme Park Entry. From a planning point of view, you still want to show up at the front gate before the scheduled park opening.

When they finally let you into the park, many of the good rides will already be packed, but you still will have lower wait times than in the middle of the day. The wait times at Disney theme parks increase dramatically after the first two hours of the park opening, so even if you miss the first 30 minutes, there is still plenty of time to get things done.

Combining your crowd calendar while showing up for Early Theme Park Entry is a recipe for success!

Extended Evening Theme Park Hours

Similar to Early Theme Park Entry, Extended Evening Theme Park Hours gives guests extra time in the parks, but instead of the morning, you have access at night.

The way it works is guests staying at one of the Disney Deluxe or Deluxe Villa Resort hotels get extended access to the theme parks on select nights. That means that you will be able to stay late at the parks and continue enjoying the attractions while all the other guests will have to go home.

Also, Extended Evening Hours are not in every park, and not every night of the week. It’s similar to the old Extra Magic Hours with each park selected on certain nights. On these nights, the parks stay open until 11:00 pm, 12:00 am or even 1:00 am.

This will be advantageous to you if you are a night owl because the majority of guests with kids are not going to stay out that late and ride wait times will be extremely low. Many times we’ve been able to go on rides like Space Mountain or Peter Pan’s Flight and only have to wait 5-10 minutes.

Read our Guide to Extended Evening Theme Park Hours for a more detailed look as well as tips.

More Tips to Avoid the Crowds at Disney

Here are a few more key tips to make the best use of your Disney crowd calendar and avoid the crowds.

Rope Drop Is Key!

The best way to avoid big crowds in Disney World is to rope drop the parks. Rope dropping essentially means getting to the parks before they open in order to be one of the first people at the best attractions.

Since the theme parks are usually at their peak attendance in the late morning to afternoon, this is a tried-and-true strategy that will significantly improve the number of rides you can do in a day, and help you avoid crowds. It’s a must-do if you are going to the parks on a holiday.

Learn How to Use Lightning Lane

The next way to avoid crowds in Disney World is to have a good Lightning Lane strategy. This is the replacement service for FastPass+ and Genie+, and it also was created to allow you to essentially skip the lines on whatever attractions you make reservations for, giving you very minimal wait times.

There are 2 ride reservation systems, Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass, both of which you need to pay extra for if you want to use. Guests with reservations then use the Lightning Lane to bypass the standby line.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass costs $16-$39 per day, per guest. With that fee, guests can make reservations for attractions they want to ride throughout the day in a specific time slot like FastPass+. They then come back when that time slot is called.

Attractions included in the Lightning Lane Single Pass on the other hand let you skip the line for a one-time fee and not an all-day pass. This is useful if you just want to pay for one ride and not the whole day.

The process starts ahead of your visit (7 Days in advance for Disney World Resort Hotel guests and 3 Days for all other guests) at 7:00 am when you can start making Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Single Pass reservations for that day using My Disney Experience.

The best strategy is to get a Lightning Lane reservation for the most popular rides with the longest wait times, that way you can avoid the longest lines when you visit that park.

This is easier to do when you choose a day from the crowd calendar that is expected to be low attendance because you will be competing with fewer people for those coveted Lightning Lane reservations. On peak-crowd days it is much harder, and rides like Slinky Dog Dash or Flight of Passage may be out of reach.

Read our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Disney World and our Guide to Lightning Lane Premier Pass for more info and tips.

Watch Out for Party Days

One thing that can ruin your park strategy is the hard-ticketed parties in Disney’s Magic Kingdom. These after-hours events only let in guests with a special ticket for the event and the Magic Kingdom closes at 7 pm on those nights.

The two main parties to be aware of are: Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, which takes place from August through October, and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party from November to December. Both of these events are held three times per week in Disney’s Magic Kingdom.

These events are usually packed themselves, so not a good idea if you are trying to avoid crowds as much as possible. The first party of the year is usually packed, and then crowds fall off a bit, only to reach peak levels in the days before the actual holiday.

It’s also important to know when the parties are being held so you don’t show up to the Magic Kingdom at 5 pm, thinking you have the rest of the night, only later to find out the park closes at 7 pm.

Use Hard-Ticketed Events to Your Advantage

There are some hard-ticketed events that you can use as a perfect way to experience the parks and rides the attractions without the crowds and without the long wait times. These events happen late at night usually at 10 pm, giving visitors 3 hours to explore the parks, while limiting entrance to only a few thousand people.

Such events include:

• Disney After Hours – (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios)
• Disney Villains After Hours – (Magic Kingdom)

Planning Mid-Day Attractions Right

Timing is everything when trying to avoid long lines in the Disney attractions, and that means knowing what time of the day is best to do each one.

As a general rule, the big E-Ticket rides should be done early on in the day. This is because park attendance is always lower at the opening and gradually increases until mid to late afternoon. So naturally, the queue for Space Mountain is going to be much shorter at 9 am than at 2 pm.

If you followed our Rope Dropping advice, that means getting in line before the park opens to ride the most popular attraction, especially if you aren’t using Lightning Lane. The other big ones you should be able to knock out by waiting in line during the first couple hours after opening or by using your Lightning Lane selection.

So what should you do in the middle of the day? This is the best time for shows. Any non-ride attraction or entertainment like parades or shows like The Lion King or Nemo should never be done in the morning. Many are indoors with air conditioning and are a great break from the Florida sun while waiting for some of the lines on the rides to lessen.

Then in the evening, it’s time to get in line for the popular rides again when the crowds die down as people go back to their hotels or go to dinner. Make sure to plan your midday right!

Plan the Best Rides at Beginning of Your Trip

Ok, so we told you that the Lightning Lane is useful in avoiding crowded lines right? The thing is depending on what time of year you go, you might have a hard time getting one for the most popular rides in Disney World since so many people are also trying to get one at the same time.

To help put the odds in your favor, we recommend doing the best rides at the beginning of your trip, as soon as you get the chance. For example, if you plan on visiting the same park on multiple days during your trip, do the most popular rides right away.

Prioritize those popular LL attractions and make them your first selections each day. The best rides tend to fill up right away each morning, so if you wait, there is a good chance they won’t be there later in the day.

This is good advice no matter if you are using Lightning Lane or not. If you are using the standby queues and see a popular attraction that has a decently low wait time, take advantage of that and do it right away. You may come back later in the day or another day and find the wait time is much longer so don’t procrastinate.

If you get another chance to ride them in the last few days that’s great, but at least you won’t feel forced to wait 3 hours in line because it’s your only option.

What to do if You Are In the Parks When It’s Crowded?

Sometimes, even with the best planning and using a Disney World crowd calendar, you still end up with huge crowds on the days you’re in the parks. Maybe going during the holiday season was the only time you could bring your family, and now you’re stuck.

Don’t worry, there are still ways to minimize wait times and make your experience a pleasant one. Here are some tips:

Take a Mid-Day Break

Let’s face it, most families (especially if you have little kids) just can’t do a day from rope drop until the park closes at night. I don’t have kids and I can’t even do it! This strategy is so good because it allows you to enjoy the two best parts of the day and skip the worst.

As we said, park attendance starts out slow in the morning and slowly gets busier and busier as the day goes on until the evening. That’s why we like to go early in the morning, then return to our hotel in the middle of the day when the people start flowing in the turnstiles.

We can then either take a well-earned nap in the room or put our bathing suits on and take a dip in the hotel swimming pool.

Depending on our plans for the rest of the day, we sometimes then go back to the same park later in the evening, once it’s calmed down some. That lets us not waste time in the middle of the day when lines are the longest and rest up for later.

Another great advantage of going back to the hotel at midday is you get an escape from the tremendous heat towards 12 pm and into the afternoon. That can be excruciating at times and you might be too tired to stay in the park all day until the evenings, which are the most pleasant for the heat.

Go to the Parks In the Rain

When it starts raining in Disney World, thousands of families immediately start running for the exits and make their way back to their hotel. While that may be tempting considering the crazy downpours that are common in Central Florida, waiting the storm out and staying in the park is one of the best ways to beat the crowds.

Thunderstorms in Florida don’t last very long and usually will bring the sun back out a short time later. What you should do is find the nearest show to where you are, go in, and by the time it’s over, the storm is already likely to have passed by. Now you have a good portion of guests who have gone home and lower wait times on the rides.

Ride During the Parades

If you want low wait times, you need to go on the rides when the people aren’t there right? One great opportunity is to hit some of the most popular ones when a parade is happening (this is for the Magic Kingdom obviously).

Now I’m not saying to skip the parade and never see it, but if you are going to the Magic Kingdom for two days during your trip, there is no need to see the parade twice. The same goes for if you have been to Disney and seen the parade dozens of times already. Use that time wisely.

Eat at “Odd” Hours

This is another great one. Step outside the box and don’t eat your meals at traditional times. Not only will you find shorter lines getting your food, if you go on the attractions when everyone else is eating, you are likely to find fewer people in the queue.

This is especially true at Dinner and doesn’t work as well at Lunch. If you eat an early dinner at 3:00 – 4:00 pm, or a late one at 8:00 pm or later, you can use that window in between to ride attractions while the majority of guests are eating.

Disney World Crowds – Month by Month

Let’s take a look month by month at the Disney World crowds and get an overall snapshot of each of them. We’re going to look at all the major events and holidays occurring over the next 12 months, and then talk about the crowd levels throughout each month.

(Crowd Calendar details for 2025 will be continually updated as Disney releases more information including park hours, procedures, and special events.)

January 2025

Events of Note:

• New Year’s Day – Jan 1
• Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend – Jan 8-12
• EPCOT International Festival of the Arts – Jan 17 – Feb 24
• Cheerleading Competitions – Jan 17-19
• Martin Luther King Jr Day Weekend – Jan 17-20
• Pro Bowl Weekend – Jan 30 – Feb 2
• Cheerleading Competitions – Jan 31 – Feb 2

• Jan 1-4 – Crowds are still at year-high levels from New Year’s with the rest of the holiday visitors. Since New Year’s is on a Wednesday, levels are extremely high until guests go home on Sunday. Avoid these days at all costs.
• Jan 5-7 – Moderate crowds between New Year’s and the Marathon Weekend.
• Jan 8-12 – Even though holiday guests return home, crowd levels remain high for the highly anticipated Marathon Weekend.
• Jan 13-20 – This is a great 4-day stretch in Disney World as very little is going on and a break between the marathon and the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday the following weekend. This is one of our favorite weeks to visit.
• Jan 17-20 – Attendance picks back up for these 4 days due to guests arriving for the Martin Luther King Weekend break. This is also the start of The EPCOT International Festival of the Arts which will draw crowds to EPCOT over the weekend. National dance and cheerleading competitions can also bring crowds.
• Jan 21-28 – This is another great time to visit in January. There are mostly moderate to light crowds.
• Jan 29-31 – The rest of January has very light crowds. The weekend will have a slight uptick, but nothing big.

We expect January 2025 to have low crowd levels once visitors leave after the holiday season. It will probably have one of the lowest crowd levels all year.

Heavy crowds come out for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend is a big draw. Avoid these two weekends for the best results.

Weekends will be busier than weekdays in January with locals coming to EPCOT for the Festival of the Arts. Also don’t expect a drop-off in crowds at Hollywood Studios, which should be at max capacity during every month of the year.

Read our guide to Disney World in January for more details.

February 2025

Events of Note:

• EPCOT International Festival of the Arts – Jan 17 – Feb 24
• Pro Bowl Weekend – Jan 30 – Feb 2
• Cheerleading & Dance Competitions – Jan 31 – Feb 2,
• Cheerleading & Dance Competitions – Feb 7-10
• Cheerleading & Dance Competitions – Feb 14-17
• Valentine’s Day – Feb 14
• President’s Day Weekend – Feb 14-17
• Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend – Feb 20-24
• Cheerleading & Dance Competitions – Feb 28 – Mar 2

• Feb 1-9 – These first days are usually pretty quiet with low attendance and wait times. However, with all the competitions this year we expect higher crowds in the beginning of the month.
• Feb 10-13 – Valentine’s Day and sports competitions see Disney World attendance go back up to moderate from the 10-14.
• Feb 14-17 – Heavy crowds for President’s Day Weekend and start of the Disney Princess Half Marathon.
• Feb 18-23 – Moderate crowds as the marathon comes to an end.
• Feb 24-28 – Lighter crowds remain basically through the end of the month.

Early February 2025 is going to be relatively busy with a lot of events and tons of visitors coming out for President’s Day Weekend, the Disney Princess Half Marathon and sports competitions.  Usually, we see lower crowds in the beginning of the month, but we expect more than usual this year.

Last year, the second half of the month was packed and it had some of the longest wait times all year. Weekends will definitely be busier in February rather than weekdays as Annual Passholders tend to come out more then.

Read our guide to Disney World in February for more details.

March 2025

Events of Note:

• EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival – Early March – Early June
• Cheerleading & Dance Competitions – Feb 28 – Mar 2
• Mardi Gras – Mar 4
• Cheerleading & Dance Competitions – Mar 7-9
• Spring Break Crowds Arrive – Mar 8-31
• St. Patrick’s Day – Mar 17

• Mar 1-7 – This used to be a great week to visit, but it has gotten much busier in recent years. Expect moderate to heavy crowds for the first week of the month. EPCOT’s Flower and Garden Festival opens this week and more locals come out. It’s also very busy due to Mardi Gras and the Contest of Champions.
• Mar 8-22 – Schools around the country start letting kids out and Spring break crowds start arriving in Disney World and get heavier as the month continues.
• Mar 23-31 – Things go from bad to worse as Spring Break crowds keep pouring in. From now until the Easter holiday is one of the busiest times in Disney World every year and should be avoided unless you have no other choice. Expect heavy crowds for the rest of March and long wait times in the parks.

March used to be a personal favorite time to visit, but it has gotten out of control in recent years. The first half used to be a wonderful time to visit with Spring in the air and flowers everywhere. However, moderate crowds have grown to heavy in the first half of the month, and it should be the same in 2025.

Heavy crowds then come in the second half when kids start getting off school for Spring Break. Last year was really busy and the parks felt like they were back to 100%.

We don’t anticipate Spring Break 2025 to be quite as busy as last year since you had Easter at the end of the month. But it will still be very crowded, no doubt.  If you are worried about crowds, definitely avoid March as it’s right in the middle of the busy season with extremely high crowd levels.

Read our guide to Disney World in March for more details.

April 2025

Events of Note:

• EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival – Early March – Early June
• runDisney Springtime Surprise Marathon – Apr 3-6
• Easter – Apr 20
• Cheerleading & Dance Competitions – Apr 25-28

• Apr 1-6 – The few days of the month have heavy crowd levels as guests are still here from Spring Break as well as the runDisney Springtime Surprise Marathon going on.
• Apr 7-11 – Some guests lingering from Spring Break, but the second week of the year should be less busy with moderate crowds as Easter guests have not yet arrived.
• Apr 12-20 – Heaviest crowds of the month during the Easter Holiday.
• Apr 21-27 – Crowd levels remain moderate to high.
• Apr 28-30 – There are some crowds for the cheerleading and dance competitions, but they fall down to moderate levels during the last few days of the month, and this is a nice time to visit.

Easter week is always one of the busiest of the year, and with the holiday happening in April this year, this will be the second busiest month of the year, especially leading up to the holiday and some guests still there from Spring Break.

The last week of April is a much nicer time in Disney World with wonderful weather and the Easter and Spring Break crowds going home. If it’s similar to last year it should be good even though there are still dance and cheerleader competitions going on.

Read our guide to Disney World in April for more details.

May 2025

Events of Note:

• EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival – Early March – Early June
• Cheerleading & Dance Competitions – May 1-4
• Memorial Day – May 26

• May 1-22 – Light to Moderate crowds for most of May. Higher on the weekends as locals come to the parks more. One of the best stretches of the spring and an awesome time if you hate crowds.
• May 23-26 – Memorial Day weekend is the opening of Summer and should bring increased crowds.
• May 28-31 – Crowds slowly start coming to the parks as some U.S. schools start letting kids off for Summer Break.

May is usually a good time to visit as crowd levels are low before the Summer crowds appear. In fact, we moved May up a few spots on our rankings of the best months to visit Disney World because of the low crowds we experienced last year.

Weekends are the only time to avoid, as many locals come to the parks. The very end of the month should have an increase when Memorial Day weekend comes. For the rest of the month, expect light to moderate crowd levels.

Read our guide to Disney World in May for more details.

June 2025

Events of Note:

• EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival – Early March – Early June

• June 1-27 – Crowds are moderate for the majority of June. Crowds are heavier on the weekends.
• June 28-30 – Crowd levels increase toward the last week of June with guests starting to arrive for the 4th of July holiday.

There isn’t too much going on at Walt Disney World in June 2025 as far as special events. June is always a popular month since kids are off from school and families start taking their summer vacation and crowds should start to rise closer to normal Summer levels

Crowd capacities should be back on their way up at this point and the last week should be the busiest with 4th of July guests arriving.

Read our guide to Disney World in June for more details.

July 2025

Events of Note:

• 4th of July – Jul 4

• July 1-6 – I don’t have to tell you the 4th of July and the surrounding days are some of the busiest days all year in Disney World. There are usually wall-to-wall people, making wait times excruciatingly long, plus it’s all done in excruciating heat. I’ll pass.
• July 7-31 – While July isn’t quite as busy as it has been in years past, moderate to heavy crowd levels remain for most of the month as families with kids are visiting during Summer break.

July is always one of the busiest months of the year, with loads of people every week. U.S. residents will be in the middle of vacation season with many people taking the family to Walt Disney World.

See our guide to Disney World in July for more details.

August 2025

Events of Note:

• EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival – Late Aug – Mid Nov
• Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party – Early Aug – Oct 31

• Aug 1-10 – Moderate crowds remain in Disney World for the first part of August. Avoid the weekends if you can, which are worse.
• Aug 11-18 – Crowd levels drop off significantly and are mostly light with moderate weekends.
• Aug 19-31 – From the end of August until Labor Day is one of the least busy times in Disney World every year with the majority of kids now back in school.

August is usually one of the quieter months of the year, and between the heat and kids going back to school, it will stay that way in 2025.

The EPCOT Food and Wine Festival begins toward the end of August which means EPCOT will be busier on the weekend. Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party also usually debuts in August, which makes going to the Magic Kingdom very busy. This party will debut in early August.

See our guide to Disney World in August for more details.

September 2025

Events of Note:

• Labor Day – Sep 1
• EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival – Late Aug – Mid Nov
• Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party – Early Aug – Oct 31

• Sep 1 – Crowds return to moderate levels for the Labor Day long weekend. Labor Day isn’t nearly as busy as some of the other holidays in Disney World but this is the busiest the parks will be until mid-October.
• Sep 2-30 – This is traditionally the longest stretch of days with low crowds in Disney World. Even weekend crowds are low in the parks unless you go to the Food and Wine Festival in EPCOT (which we don’t suggest doing). This is when you will find good deals on hotel rooms too and save a ton of money.

September, in general, is one of the least-crowded months in Walt Disney World, and September 2025 should follow suit. Labor Day will have an uptick in guests at the beginning of the month before dropping off during the second week of the month and beyond.

If you can stand the heat, this can be the most pleasant time to visit Disney World since wait times are super low and prices for tickets and hotel rooms are about as cheap as they will be all year. It’s also a good month for events with the Food and Wine Festival and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in full swing.

Read our guide to Disney World in September for more details.

October 2025

Events of Note:

• Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day – Oct 13
• EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival – Late Aug – Mid Nov
• Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party – Early Aug – Oct 31
• runDisney Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend – Oct 30 – Nov 2

• Oct 1-9 – Moderate level crowds during the first week of the month. Busier on the weekend.
• Oct 10-15 – The Columbus Day week will see the heaviest crowds in Disney World for October and should be avoided if possible.
• Oct 16-27 – After the Columbus Day holiday crowds return to moderate levels except on the weekends which are higher.
• Oct 28-31 – The days leading up to Halloween will be busy, especially on October 31st at the Magic Kingdom.

October is usually one of my favorite months at Walt Disney World but it has also turned into one of the busiest. The Columbus Day holiday is a huge event in the middle of the month that has a big impact, so expect heavy crowds.

Expect the Magic Kingdom to have long waits the whole month with Halloween parties being a big draw. We also would stay away from EPCOT on weekends during the Food and Wine Festival as there are many more locals since they are off from work.

We would avoid the whole month if you want to stay away from crowds.

Read our guide to Disney World in October for more details.

November 2025

Events of Note:

• EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival – Late Aug – Mid Nov
• runDisney Wine & Dine Half Marathon Weekend – Oct 30 – Nov 2
• Holiday Decorations Go Up – First Week in November
• Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party – Early Nov – End of Dec
• Veterans Day – Nov 11
• Thanksgiving Crowds Arrive – Nov 22
• Thanksgiving – Nov 27
• EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays – Late Nov – Dec 30

• Nov 1-5 – This week normally brings heavy to moderate crowds, and that is once again true this year with the Wine & Dine Half Marathon happening. That combined with Jersey Week in the beginning of November means slightly higher crowds than normal, but a little slower before Veteran’s Day.
• Nov 6-11 – Veterans Day weekend brings heavy crowds to Disney World in 2025.
• Nov 12-20 – This is the lightest crowds get in November and a short break before the Thanksgiving holiday begins.
• Nov 21-23 – Thanksgiving begins to arrive and crowd levels go up to heavy.
• Nov 25-30 – This is the peak for crowds in November, only topped by the Christmas and New Year’s weeks.

The two holidays in November usually make for a very busy month (at least half of it), and crowd levels in 2025 could be even higher than normal. We think the Marathon and Veteran’s Day will see heavy levels as usual. We will be able to tell a lot once Columbus Day happens and we see how many people come for that as a good indication.

The EPCOT Festival of the Holidays starts at the end of November which will increase crowds in EPCOT. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party returns once again in 2025, and that means even more crowds to the Magic Kingdom.

Thanksgiving will top off a very crowded month at Walt Disney World and will definitely be more visitors than locals in the parks. This will set up how Walt Disney World will close the rest of 2025.

If you are at all concerned about crowds, any time around Thanksgiving should be avoided.

December 2025

Events of Note:

• Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party – Early Nov – End of Dec
• EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays – Late Nov – Dec 30
• Holiday Crowds Arrive – Dec 20
• Christmas Day – Dec 25
• New Year’s Eve – Dec 31

• Dec 1-5 – The first week and a half of December crowds drop off and it’s one of the only breaks you can get at this time of the year in Disney World, especially if there aren’t any cheerleading competitions happening. Even though it’s quiet, it’s not as slow as in past years since so many locals also come to the parks and resorts to see the holiday decorations go up.
• Dec 6-12 – Crowds start to build as the holiday approaches.
• Dec 13-19 – Heavy crowds at Disney World in the week before Christmas.
• Dec 20-31 – This starts the busiest two weeks in Disney World of the year from the days before Christmas until New Year’s week is over.

Like November, December is going to have periods of high crowds and moderate crowds, and the way things are shaping up, it should be comparable to a normal year, maybe more. Crowd levels are always lower at the beginning of the month up until the week before Christmas when it then slowly increases. 

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party is running through the week of Christmas which means a packed Magic Kingdom.

The Christmas to New Year’s period will have very heavy crowds like any other year. This will be the case no matter how many people Disney is letting in by then.

Ranking Crowds at Disney World by Month from 1-12

We’ve created a list of all the months and organized them from numbers 12 to 1 in order from least busy to busiest. When creating our crowd calendar we assigned a number to each day of the year from 1-5 for how busy that day is. We then totaled up those numbers for a final total of points at the end of each month, with the highest number being the busiest month of the year.

We thought the overall months’ crowd rating would come out differently than it did when we added everything up, with some months held as being less crowded, much higher up on the list.

What’s important to remember is that this is a total that reflects the entire month, not just certain weeks or days. A certain month might be really busy in one part, but have light crowds in another part which balances things out.

Ok, here are the busiest months in 2025 at Disney World ranked:

1. September
2. August
3. May
4. June
5. July
6. January
7. February
8. October
9. March
10. November
11. April
12. December

With crowds always hitting their peak around the holiday season, and with Christmas being one of the most popular holidays at Walt Disney World, it makes sense that December is the busiest month of the year in 2025.

In second place this year is April. Easter falls here in 2025 and that’s another super popular time to be in the parks. Not to mention you have crowds still from Spring Break in the second half of March and into the beginning of April.

Traveling and Florida is always a popular destination for Spring Break so when you combine it with Easter also in March, it makes up one of the busiest 4-week stretches of the year. It landed in second place, but honestly, we are splitting hairs as the crowd projection is almost identical to December.

If you really have to go in April, go during the second week. But we’d still avoid it as it will be chaos.

As for the least busy, it’s the usual suspects. August and September are almost always the least crowded months since kids are going back to school then.

May is the 3rd least crowded time to visit and though it’s traditionally been one of the busier months, in recent years we’ve seen a sharp downtick in crowd levels and as long as you avoid the weekend, it’s one of the least stressful times to visit Disney World.

January is usually next in line as many families have just finished the holidays and are reluctant to travel again so soon. However, we also think crowds will be lower than normal in June and July if you can handle the heat.

FAQs

Summary

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to avoid crowds in Disney World, and none better than using a good crowd calendar. The busiest times of the year in the parks are always going to be when school is on break, especially during a holiday.

If you aren’t forced to visit during those busy times because you don’t have kids or your schedule is flexible, then we highly recommend you skip those busy times as it will save you time and money on your trip.

No matter what you decide, make sure to consult a Disney World crowd calendar to help plan things out. Just remember, it’s not a magic bullet that will make all the people disappear, and there is no real “‘off-season” in Disney World anymore. That said, you can position yourself well by using one, but also use a good Genie+ strategy and Rope Drop the parks when you can for maximum efficiency.

Need Help Planning Your Trip?

We know it can be extremely stressful to plan a Disney vacation and sometimes you want help. The easiest way to book your trip is by using an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. They will listen to your needs and preferences and help you every step of the way.

We personally use René Cittadino at Show you the World Travel for our Disney World reservations, and we highly recommend her and her amazing team when you are planning your trip too. Trust us, they make the process much more enjoyable.

They will help you to make advanced dining reservations, book special events, and more. The best part is that they are 100% FREE and it doesn’t cost you any more money to use them than it does to book directly through Disney. Instead, they will actually end up saving you money by continuing to look for better deals even after booking your trip.

Just Click Here for a Free Quote and get started making your Disney World plans today!

That wraps up our Disney World Crowd Calendar in 2025. We hope that we gave you enough info to figure out which one is the best for your next trip!

If you are thinking about going to Walt Disney World in the coming future, here are some other popular articles where you will find all the info and tips you need to plan your trip.

• Disney World Vacation Planning Guide
• Best Times to Visit Disney World
• Best Disney World Resort Hotels RANKED

Your Thoughts

I want to know what you think about our 2025 and 2026 Disney World Crowd Calendars…

• When do you think the least crowded time in Disney World is?
• When are you planning your next trip?

Let us know in the comments section below!

If you enjoyed this article, as always I appreciate it if you’d share it with others via social media.  I work hard at making this website into a useful resource for you and your family to plan your visit to the Disney Parks and I hope it can help you! Thanks 🙂