When to Go and How Long to Stay

Summary:

• My favorite time of year to visit Disney World is October or early November. Second favorite is early March or April
• Avoid June through September as the weather is very warm and there’s a high chance of hurricanes
• I recommend staying for 4 or 5 full days and building in one day to enjoy the magic outside the parks like your resort or Disney Springs

Summer  

From June to September, the weather becomes extremely warm and humid. I have flashbacks of visiting Florida in the summer and being drenched with sweat within 10 minutes of being outside. So as a result I recommend avoiding visiting in the summer. It’s also one of the busier times of the year because kids are out of school. Additionally, the hurricane season is from June to November. I have been caught in several hurricanes down at Disney now, and it is never a fun experience.

Spring  

Spring at Disney World brings flowers, nicer temperatures and fun events. The Epcot Flower and Garden festival happens at this time, which is a lovely way to celebrate the changing seasons. There’s usually also a Springtime Race through RunDisney. Spring Break time at the end of March does tend to bring very large crowds and should be avoided. Outside Spring break, this is my second favorite time of year to visit.

Winter  

During the Winter time temperatures cool down and you may even need to break out some hats and gloves for evening adventures. The holiday celebrations at both Magic Kingdom (Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party) and Epcot (International Festival of the Holidays) are very fun and festive ways to celebrate the holidays, and with Jollywood Nights now at Hollywood Studios you really can’t go wrong.

January and February bring the Festival of the Arts at Epcot, and several races including marathon weekend. This time of year tends to have lower crowds, but the weather can sometimes be cold.

Fall  

My personal favorite time of the year to visit is in the Fall; October and early/mid November. During this time, the weather is still warm but a more comfortable temperature. My favorite Epcot festival (the Food and Wine Festival) is going on as well as two Magic Kingdom parties; Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in October and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party in November.

It is still technically hurricane season but, in my non scientific observations, it feels like there tends to be less this time of year.

How Long to Stay For  

Once you figure out when to visit you need to figure out how long to stay for. With four parks, I always recommend that you stay for at least four full days; one for each park. If you are able to spend more time I highly recommend staying five days to build in a relaxation day. I like to do two parks, have a chill day, then do the other two parks to help break it up. Having that day of rest in between makes the difference for me to avoid being super tired at the end of my trip. It gives me a day to recoup and go into the remaining parks with my energy battery replenished. What I do on my rest day totally depends on how I’m feeling so I like to keep it open with no plans. Somedays I sit by the hotel’s pool, go to Disney Springs, or do a monorail resort crawl. Disney World is a trip where you have to plan a good portion of it in advance, so not having to do so for one day gives you a nice reprieve.

If you cannot travel for at least 4 full days, my recommendation is to give Magic Kingdom and Epcot their own days and to combine Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. They can both easily be half day parks in my mind, especially if you take advantage of Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass.