I'm grateful for all these positive comments and encouragement that it can still be lots of fun with the crowds!
We love Thanksgiving week. Been twice and going again next year and the year after.
To me it is the perfect weather situation and that is the most important to us. Yes it’s crowded, but the atmosphere is special and festive. We did AK last year on Thanksgiving day and it was one of the best Disney days we’ve ever had.
We don’t care too much about having a traditional meal, so that isn’t something I consider.
We did the holiday festival on Black Friday last year and it was insane. We won’t do that again.
The resorts are all decked out by then, so you can check those out, too!
We wouldn't care too much about the meal, either. I think eventually we will do Thanksgiving week. My one hesitation is that we really want to do the Epcot holiday things, and we'd have to leave the Saturday after Black Friday, and I don't want to deal with being there the first day it's open. But agreed - the weather is super important to us!
Christmas Break is my favorite time to visit WDW, hands down. There is something special about celebrating one of my favorite holidays in one of my favorite places.
As a teacher, I totally feel the the struggle with being limited to school breaks!
These are my exact thoughts about Christmas break! It scares me a little because of the crowds, but I absolutely love and adore Christmastime at
Disneyland - it's my favorite time of year there - and WDW seems to be even better.
We've been during all the times you listed. Our most visited time of year is the February break due to lower crowds than the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays). However, we do love visiting during the Christmas season, and typically go during Thanksgiving break. I personally think it is a little less crowded than Christmas week, but others may have different experiences.
I'm honestly kind of surprised that Feb break would have lower crowds than those other options! I thought President's weekend and the Princess Half on the weekends surrounding it would make it nuts. Sounds like that's definitely a viable option, then!
Festival of the Arts intrigues me.
We always go during school holidays. we have done many Thanksgiving trips, including 2017, 2019, 2020 (2018 was Universal,) The weather is GREAT. Crowds can be pretty heavy sometimes, but manageable with rope dropping, or later nights. I LOVE the Christmas decorations. There is usually not a festival going on though M-Thurs (but, they're often on the weekends, so if you can be there for that, they are fun too)
we also do a lot of summer trips, but our summers usually start early, like May 21 or so, and we can often get some time there before Memorial day, but if we can't, we've enjoyed early June. Did one August trip. VERY HOT! still had fun, but whew.
President's day weekend is only 1 day off for us, so we never go then, and it is very busy from what I hear, but if we had a whole week, we might try it. When we lived in LA, we often went during Mardi Gras break (that varied from Feb to early March) and loved it.
We did one spring break and said never again. I would especially not go the week before Easter.
Good luck planning. We plan all our Disney around school calendars, and while limited, it's all we can work with, and it's totally do-able and fun!
I am glad to hear positive things about Thanksgiving! We definitely plan to try it at some point. I wish my summer started that early. I have a friend who's a teacher and gets out that early, and they went the last week of May. I don't get out until around June 7-10. (Actually, that's probably because we have that Feb break...ha!)
We personally prefer spring break because they're different all over the country - so it spreads out the crowds a bit. Ever with 9/10 park crowds, we've had really awesome trips....and it's not usually scorching hot which makes my husband happy.
February break would also be a good time as not a lot of southeastern school districts get that holiday (at least in my experience in Georgia/Tennessee).
Not a lot of districts in CA get it either. But I have heard that a lot of districts in the northeast have it off. Maybe I'm wrong? That's good to know about the southeastern states, though!
I'm glad to hear that about spring break. Have you gone connected to Easter? That's what worries me. My break is always connected to Easter. I wish they'd break it off so I could go to Disney more easily....haha!
February is great, but the holiday weekend days are pretty crowded. Love the cooler temps but hours are shorter.
We’ve been in early May and over Memorial Day weekend, and it wasn’t stupid hot yet, crowds weren’t too bad, and hours were longer.
Thanksgiving week was great, but we left on the actual holiday to avoid the weekend crowd. Weather was glorious and it was a great start to the Christmas season, even without a Christmas party.
Finally about to get my kids out of school, but now my daughter (my main Disney pal) is going to teach, so we’re right back to those times too!
Are the hours during that Feb week long during the weekends, and shorter during the week? Since we've only been during the summer, we've always had longer hours. That would be a weird change.
I laughed at your last sentence. If we have children, I wonder if the same thing will happen to me - ha! I've been tied to the school calendar for my entire life, so I can't even imagine a different way of life! I hope she loves teaching. It really is the best. I'm in my 9th year of it, and right now I teach 3rd grade, which is my very favorite.
Ahoy, fellow teachers!! President's Day 2021 falls during Mardi Gras week, which means the parks are full of folks from Louisiana. Last year, our experience was that the parks were more crowded during Mardi Gras break than they'd been for the 3 Thanksgivings we've spent in WDW. We like Thanksgiving in WDW because we can enjoy the Christmas decorations and it isn't quite as crowded as Christmas week. The closest we've ever been to Christmas was departing on Dec. 22 and the parks were so crammed that we couldn't freely move due to overcrowded park areas. We've also been twice during Spring Break/Easter, but we don't like how hot it can get during that time of year mixed with larger crowds. However, no matter what, if we go with a good plan and reasonable expectations, we've always had a great time. Best wishes for happy memories!
These boards actually taught me that Mardi Gras break is a thing, so I definitely would watch for those being the same week! I'm glad to hear that Thanksgiving is good! That's a good point about spring break. We are ok with heat management in the summer, but of course it's far less crowded than it would be during spring break. The combination of the two might be a bit much!
I really dislike the parks on school Hollidays..
But I would pick sb or presidents day because the weather is better
(We no longer go on spring break because we moved to Florida)
When we were locals to DLR, we were the same way. We totally avoided the parks on school breaks. Now, it's the only time we go, although we have a bit more freedom there since we're a 7 hour drive away and can do a long weekend. We've gotten used to the increased crowds, but it took some adjustment!
We’ve been the week of 4th of July & the week of 12/25-1/1 & I love both! My husband & oldest don’t like crowds, so they would not like to return at Christmas. The crowds really are intense & you can’t do as much as you can at other times, plus it’s the most expensive time to visit. But it’s so beautiful & festive & the weather is fantastic.
4th of July is definitely very hot. We live in coastal VA so we’re used to hot & humid. We go early, head back to the hotel around noon, and then back to the parks in the evening. I find it even too hot for the pool in the middle of the day. But it’s not as crowded as Christmas & I think that there’s a fun holiday mood. We avoided MK on the 4th & watched the fireworks on the 3rd instead.
Between those 2, for me, I’d pick summer. Heat doesn’t bother me as much as crowds.
I was on the July 2019 board on here, and was surprised to read about how people didn't think the 4th crowds are really that bad. We are going to have to try it sometime, because we've done the heat and know we can handle it ok, though it's of course not our favorite thing! We have heat here, but we do not have humidity at all, so Orlando is a shock to our systems. We followed the same strategy, and found that Disney After Hours events really helped (we did 3 of them), since it's so much more tolerable at night.
My favorite was always New Year’s Eve. It’s a crazy busy time but we really enjoyed being at WDW. The celebration was wonderful and the fireworks were amazing!
I have never even considered NYE at Disney, but now you have me intrigued about that too! I'm sure it's super exciting and a fun way to bring in the new year!
