A quick month-by-month look at Disney World cost, crowds, weather, and special events

[SarahKate]

One thing I noticed was Splash Mountain closure in February. Can you get a little more specific as far as dates? We've been there twice in February, before President's Week, with multiple visits to MK and have never seen S.M. closed.

Other than that you have really great information here!!!

 

[notfrostyjosh]

Those kinds of ride closures depend on the year. Splash Mountain is almost always closed from about January 3rd through the month of January and reopens sometime in February. This year it was scheduled to reopen February 27th. Disney can open it pretty much anytime it wants though and does occasionally, even when it it's scheduled to be closed.

 

[amybgs]

Nofrostyjosh - You ROCK for posting all of that. I am planning a trip in Nov. or Dec. and can't tell you how helpful your post was!

 

[rosiep]

Great post! Thank you...

 

[TerrytownGrl]

Great job. Thanks for the info!

 

[Lorelai]

Great job Josh! Thanks for all of your insight.

 

[Luv2Camp]

Thank you so much for all of the info! This is going to help my planning a ton!!!

 

[A Mickeyfan]

That is a good post..

and we all understood "January" no need for any corrections..
January, January's, Januarys or even Januaries, we all understood what was meant..

life is too short & precious to fret over the spelling of one word in a post like this. we are't going out for a Noble Prize here.. we are giving tips & info out to fellow Dis'ers...


and I didn't use cap's where I should have..hit me with the ruler...

 

[stitch teacher]

Notfrostyjosh,

Thank you for posting this! We normally visit the World in the summer, but this year we're going in late November. This site was very helpful to help us anticipate the weather. It'll be so nice to tour in 75 degree weather instead of 95 degree weather!

 

[Cee]

This is fantastic. Thank you!

 

[dudelydude]

Notfrostyjosh,

Thank you for a very well done and obviously well thought out list of information. Hopefully, the 'glass-half-empty' views won't take away from the self-satisfaction you should feel for a VOLUNTARY job well done.

I completely agree here. While I appreciate some critiquing (when it's requested), somebody went overboard. Big thanks to Josh to for taking the time.

 

[Cat0727]

Great post. Thank you so, so much for taking your time to write out this information!

 

[Melindarella]

Wonderful!!

Thanks for taking the time to compile all of this information into one spot!!

 

[sparklemom]

The OP's info was the most informative month-by-month breakdown I've seen. I'm on a quest for the lowest crowds possible, and this gave me really specific details for evaluating "slow" periods, written in a straightforward and accessible format. It's also helpful to know what tradeoffs I'm making, like the closure of Splash Mountain, in exchange for the low crowds. Thanks so much!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Very nice, Josh, thanks much. Lots of work there, good information.

 

[kmk1180]

Still love this thread.
Refer to whenever I'm trying to decide when to go.

And I think it's very easy and clear to read/understand.

Who cares what one other negative person think. Just because it's not the way they would have done it doesn't mean it's wrong or bad

Good Job.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Taken from http://www.easywdw.com/disneybest/disney-world-calendar-of-crowds-cost-weather-events/

This is a very rough draft of a "calendar" that will hopefully give people an idea of what to expect from Disney World on a month by month basis. I am sure it is missing some special events in particular and other parts aren't as specific as they should be. I would appreciate any corrections or additional information that should be added.

Very nicely done. A lot of info and obviously a lot of effort. I like the year-at-a-glance very much. I think it will be particularly helpful for people who traditionally travel at one time of the year but want to maximize events or minimize costs and crowds and are willing to travel at another time of year.

Critiquing is all about making the object of the criticism better. That was my goal, and that was how I interpreted what he was looking for.

I think your comments are right on for making the OP's efforts even more effective. Having read many of your posts before, I'm absolutely certain that you posted a critique rather than a criticism of the effort in an attempt to help the OP out. Props to you for taking the time and making the effort to provide help to someone else.

I'd really like to know how to link to a URL but call it something else. I'm forever posting about a link and I always have to say "click here:" and then I post the link. How do I add a URL but name it something else? (Like you have Cafeen's Corner in your signature.)

 

[Dan Murphy]

..........I'd really like to know how to link to a URL but call it something else. I'm forever posting about a link and I always have to say "click here:" and then I post the link. How do I add a URL but name it something else? (Like you have Cafeen's Corner in your signature.)

Check linking here.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Check linking here.

Thank you! I've been wanting to learn to do that for awhile and didn't know who to ask!

 

[notfrostyjosh]

Thanks for all the replies. I am glad this is helping people.

I've been working on "month by month" calendars as well, although like this one they aren't quite perfected yet.

You can see an example here



and then there's a full explanation of how to read the chart and a day by day analysis/reasoning of why the parks that are recommended are recommended

http://www.easywdw.com/calendar/september-2010-disney-world-crowd-calendar-least-crowded-parks/

in short, the first line is the cost to book a Disney resort room. $ = Value, $$ = Regular, $$$ = Peak etc.

The second line is the average high / average low and chance of precipitation based on the last 15 years of available data

The third line is a crowd estimation based on the data available from the last 3 years

The fourth line is the recommended (in green) and not recommended (in red) parks for each day. The most recommended is on the far left and each one moving to the right is less recommended than the one before it. For example, if you see

HS AK | EP MK

That means the Hollywood Studios is the most recommended followed by the Animal Kingdom. Epcot is not recommended and the Magic Kingdom would be even less recommended.

The fifth line lists the Extra Magic Hours start times and Parks

The sixth line lists scheduled Fantasmic times

And then in the top right the MNSSHP in orange is the days that Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party is scheduled.

I would recommend using the calendar as just one more resource in deciding where to visit/when to visit and it goes well with the overall calendar. After you figure out which month you're interested in you can plan more specifically by week, depending on where you want to visit and what the crowds are looking like.

I guess when I asked for "criticism" I should have mentioned that I'm very fragile. Please be gentle with me.