Summer: The new low season?

[dreiwhit]

Born and raised in Texas and you couldn't pay me to go in the summer.

I've spent 39 of my 46 years in Alabama. No way am I going to WDW in the summer!

 

[ucfknight]

The only place you're going to be late is Disney Springs. Mk closes at 10pm almost every night this summer and Epcot closes at 9-10pm, also. Evening EMH's for either park have been reduced to once a week. So sorry, you won't be anywhere late other than your hotel room or DS.

To be fair, Epcot has typically closed at 9:00 PM in the summer (and most of the rest of the year as well) for decades.

 

[DaisyJ]

To be fair, Epcot has typically closed at 9:00 PM in the summer (and most of the rest of the year as well) for decades.

Yes, 9pm is the standard close for Epcot.

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

The only place you're going to be late is Disney Springs. Mk closes at 10pm almost every night this summer and Epcot closes at 9-10pm, also. Evening EMH's for either park have been reduced to once a week. So sorry, you won't be anywhere late other than your hotel room or DS.

Ah well, I'll have to shoot for the day that has the EMH. Still better than 6pm! I don't know what I'll be doing with myself at 6pm on a Saturday in December. Lots of late nights at Jelly Rolls, I guess lol. But hey, at least in the summer I can swim! That's another downside to the winter that I've put up with - in August I can stay somewhere with a cool pool and actually use it.

 

[DaisyJ]

Ah well, I'll have to shoot for the day that has the EMH. Still better than 6pm! I don't know what I'll be doing with myself at 6pm on a Saturday in December. Lots of late nights at Jelly Rolls, I guess lol. But hey, at least in the summer I can swim! That's another downside to the winter that I've put up with - in August I can stay somewhere with a cool pool and actually use it.

The pools close at 10pm.

 

[hakepb]

To be fair, Epcot has typically closed at 9:00 PM in the summer (and most of the rest of the year as well) for decades.

Which like closed pavilions, early closures for a food and drink Mecca remain one of the many bizarre things about Epcot.

 

[stinkpickle]

There is one area of the parks that I notice is much less crowded in the summer than during the fall is WS at EPCOT.

F&W festival makes WS super crowded in the fall, very, very crowded. Every summer when we go to WS, DH comments "Wow, there is hardly anyone here"

It doesn't help that WS has a lot of concrete exposed to sunlight. WOOF!

 

[maryj11]

I've spent 39 of my 46 years in Alabama. No way am I going to WDW in the summer!

If I had a choice I wouldnt go in summer either but with school we have to.

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

The pools close at 10pm.

Yep, and when the park closes at 6pm, that's lots of time to swim. Also the quiet pools are open later. I asked for fun things that I might miss by skipping summers, you don't need to be such a Debbie downer.

 

[sharonabe]

Ah well, I'll have to shoot for the day that has the EMH. Still better than 6pm! I don't know what I'll be doing with myself at 6pm on a Saturday in December. Lots of late nights at Jelly Rolls, I guess lol. But hey, at least in the summer I can swim! That's another downside to the winter that I've put up with - in August I can stay somewhere with a cool pool and actually use it.

Come on here, let's give the WHOLE story. MK is the only park that closes at 6 pm and that's ONLY on nights that have the MVMCP. Otherwise, MK is open until 9 or 10 pm. EP is open until 10 pm in December due to the Candlelight Processional. HS is open until 8 pm most nights. We don't yet know what the evening hours for AK will be, but expect at least a 7 or 8 pm closure, and they may go as late as 9 pm too.

 

[patrickpiteo]

Yes, code speak for South American tour groups, which are comprised of 15 year old girls who are "watched" by a few "adults" (usually guys in their early 20s). Groups will range in size from 20-75+. They don't show up typically until July 4th roughly and I think are mostly gone by August. I don't stay onsite, but I've heard horror stories about them there. In the parks, I will have to be honest and say that this year we found them to be quite tame compared to years past. Yes, there was some chanting, which is quite annoying, and we had to make a few mad dashes to beat them to the queue for a ride we were about to get on. But we didn't have issues with them trying to push through lines, etc...that we have in the past. Maybe just luck this time, but they weren't as big of a deal this year...in our experience.

At the MK July 3rd about 75-100 of them blocked a stretch of main street right after the fireworks. No one could pass or move past them. Add the clapping chanting it was terrible.. Security, CM's came over tried to get them to disperse. One head wrangler was arguing with the one security guard. Guest Relations got many complaints that night on it ..

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

Come on here, let's give the WHOLE story. MK is the only park that closes at 6 pm and that's ONLY on nights that have the MVMCP. Otherwise, MK is open until 9 or 10 pm. EP is open until 10 pm in December due to the Candlelight Processional. HS is open until 8 pm most nights. We don't yet know what the evening hours for AK will be, but expect at least a 7 or 8 pm closure, and they may go as late as 9 pm too.

Love the candlelight processional! I do it every year. But, I feel like I'm always skipping MK, because it takes a lot of time to get in & out. Between Food & Wine and Christmas stuff I spend most of the time in Epcot. But maybe MK will be bad in the summer too due to all the kids? Guess I'll find out. Oh, what I really should do this winter is skip Fantasmic for once and use the time to ride TOT. I love Fantasmic but it's true that I might be closing out my nights in DHS a couple nights in a row!

 

[DaisyJ]

Yep, and when the park closes at 6pm, that's lots of time to swim. Also the quiet pools are open later. I asked for fun things that I might miss by skipping summers, you don't need to be such a Debbie downer.

Giving you facts isn't being a "debbie downer".

 

[Shellyb84]

We've been the past 3 summers. In 15 and 16 we went over July 4th, this year we went end of June (left July 2nd) and the crowds were soooo much better and we missed the tour groups. It is really hot, but we're from the Atlanta area so it's really about the same as home in the summer. We rope drop and leave the parts before or after lunch and go to the pool for the rest of the day. We go at other times throughout the year as well, but I prefer summer because the crowds aren't as bad and all the nice pool time.

 

[Klayfish]

At the MK July 3rd about 75-100 of them blocked a stretch of main street right after the fireworks. No one could pass or move past them. Add the clapping chanting it was terrible.. Security, CM's came over tried to get them to disperse. One head wrangler was arguing with the one security guard. Guest Relations got many complaints that night on it ..

Ugh...that stinks for sure. We were in AK that night, so didn't see it. We very much considered ourselves lucky this trip. We've had issues like you describe in the past. They've blocked pathways...I've always just pushed right through them. Definitely not fun.

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

Giving you facts isn't being a "debbie downer".

I know park hours, pool hours, etc. I'm asking for what it's like to go in the summer...is the heat really that unbearable, what can you do that you can't do in the winter, etc. When I'm like "oh yay, I can swim, there's something different" and someone's like "nope the pool will be closed", that seems like a downer to me. But maybe you were just trying to be helpful. If I didn't know the pool hours now I would know to be sure to get my swimming in before 10pm. Thank you. I haven't been in the summer for 5 years and I remember it hot and crowded with 2-3 hour wait times for everything, but the parks have a lot of different stuff now and I thought maybe it would be good to give it another try.

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

We've been the past 3 summers. In 15 and 16 we went over July 4th, this year we went end of June (left July 2nd) and the crowds were soooo much better and we missed the tour groups. It is really hot, but we're from the Atlanta area so it's really about the same as home in the summer. We rope drop and leave the parts before or after lunch and go to the pool for the rest of the day. We go at other times throughout the year as well, but I prefer summer because the crowds aren't as bad and all the nice pool time.

Good to know that it's about the same as Atlanta. That's where I am so if I can survive here then hopefully I can survive summer Disney! It would be awesome to go to the pool all afternoon!

 

[Shellyb84]

Good to know that it's about the same as Atlanta. That's where I am so if I can survive here then hopefully I can survive summer Disney! It would be awesome to go to the pool all afternoon!

Yep you could definitely handle it then! It is awesome, especially when that pool is Stormalong Bay

 

[Klayfish]

I know park hours, pool hours, etc. I'm asking for what it's like to go in the summer...is the heat really that unbearable, what can you do that you can't do in the winter, etc. When I'm like "oh yay, I can swim, there's something different" and someone's like "nope the pool will be closed", that seems like a downer to me. But maybe you were just trying to be helpful. If I didn't know the pool hours now I would know to be sure to get my swimming in before 10pm. Thank you. I haven't been in the summer for 5 years and I remember it hot and crowded with 2-3 hour wait times for everything, but the parks have a lot of different stuff now and I thought maybe it would be good to give it another try.

Good to know that it's about the same as Atlanta. That's where I am so if I can survive here then hopefully I can survive summer Disney! It would be awesome to go to the pool all afternoon!

We also live in Atlanta. There is certainly the huge asterisk of "how do you handle heat", which is purely subjective, but it's very similar to ATL summer. T-storms are more common for sure, but the heat and humidity isn't all that different. You can do anything you want in the summer...and water activities just make it more fun. Like I said, so many of the rides have a/c, both in the ride itself and in the queue. You don't need to take a mid-day break from the heat if you don't want to...just plan to do indoor rides. But if you want a break, great, go swimming or to a water park. They're awesome!

Learn the FP+ system well young Jedi, and treat you well, it will (said in my best Yoda voice). We were just there for the first two weeks in July, and the longest line we waited in was 30 minutes. And we rode every single e-ticket ride...most of them multiple times. I can't even count how many times we did RnR and TSMM...probably 8 or 10 each. Rode Navi twice, 7DMT 5 times, etc...

 

[FrancoFun]

I know park hours, pool hours, etc. I'm asking for what it's like to go in the summer...is the heat really that unbearable, what can you do that you can't do in the winter, etc. When I'm like "oh yay, I can swim, there's something different" and someone's like "nope the pool will be closed", that seems like a downer to me. But maybe you were just trying to be helpful. If I didn't know the pool hours now I would know to be sure to get my swimming in before 10pm. Thank you. I haven't been in the summer for 5 years and I remember it hot and crowded with 2-3 hour wait times for everything, but the parks have a lot of different stuff now and I thought maybe it would be good to give it another try.

We were at WDW last week. We're from Canada (Toronto area) and so we're not really used to the heat, and even we did not find it unbearable. The only day that I found super warm was Animal Kingdom, but with a misting fan and a CamelBak to keep hydrated, we managed. I know many people like to take breaks in the summer, but we did not want to waste the park time. We did rope drop to 3pm one day (so we could go to Disney Springs afterwards), rope drop to about 6pm most days, and then rope drop to close on our MK day.

We did enjoy going back to the resort in the evening and swimming (before 10pm, so we'd be fresh for rope drop the next day.) Spending two evenings in Disney Springs was super fun. The only park that I found to be crowded was MK (I'd rate it about an 8 out of 10 that day), where as the other parks were very manageable. As a teacher, I can only go during school breaks and I would not hesitate to visit in July again.