July or August?

[E&Cmom]

If you had to go to DL at this time, when would you go? We were thinking of going for March Break as we did 3 years ago but now I don't think that will be happening. I might be able to figure out something for late May but we might have to go the summer. School here is off from the end of June until the day after Labour Day. My DD will be turning 13 on July 24th so around then might be a fun time to go.

Obviously summer is crowded . What are summer crowds like compared to Spring Break ones which I have experienced?

 

[chickapin parterre]

I would think with your experience that you could utilize mornings and evenings to have a great time, rest, hydrate and refuel in the noon hours. Just because the park hours are longer does not mean that you have to be in the park all those hours. Plus with the heat, the evenings would be manageable as folks are leaving after all day in the hot park and you are entering refreshed. The spring break hours are shorter, so folks tend to hang out longer, cool weather, refurbs create longer lasting crowds. where as summer has the heat to drive folks out of the park, and if they are new visitors they are not resting so by day 3 they are exhausted and sleeping in....and ..bingo....mornings are great.

 

[Julia33]

As APs we avoid spring break so I can't give you much insight there. Summer typically has more shows and later hours, but there is not a whole lot of difference in crowds. Its just crowded in the summer no matter what. I would recommend avoiding the 24 hour event and any AP event days AT ALL COSTS. These are terrible and the parks are nuts, so try to make sure your trip doesn't coincide.

Only other thing to say is that August is typically more hot and sweltering than July.

 

[Aladora]

We've gone near the end of August 4 times and while it is hot, there have only been a few days that are REALLY hot. Our September trip was hotter than any of our August ones, oddly enough. We like to time it that we go right after most of the CA schools have gone back and since DS never starts back until after labour day, the timing works well for us.

If our Canadian $ was not so terribly crappy right now, I would likely be planning for this August again.

 

[figment_jii]

I generally think that peak Spring Break crowds tend to be similar to summer crowds in the park. August is a tough month to predict because while summer crowds tend to be petering out, DLR is also transitioning from their summer peak schedule to their non-peak schedule. So that tends to mean shortening hours and reductions in entertainment. On the flip side, the summer AP blockout tends to end in mid-August, so you'll see a spike in attendance when the AP holders return to the parks for the first time since the start of summer. I think weather can be kind of hit-or-miss; any time from summer through October can be warm/hot, so you really don't know what it'll be like.