Not everyone can visit Walt Disney World during the best weeks of the year, which is precisely why crowds remain low during our favorite dates despite the “secret” getting out. WDW’s target demographic of families with young children are largely limited to school breaks, brief recesses, and long weekends.
This list is written with these parents and school-aged kids in mind. Ditto teachers, federal employees, or anyone else who is restricted to traveling during what are typically the worst weeks of the year. Breaks that are bad for a reason! It’s not as if every planner consults our Walt Disney World Crowd Calendars and says to themselves, “I’m going to do the exact opposite of what they advise for no reason at all.” Of course not. Families visit during school breaks for lack of better options, even if they’re aware of the crowds during those timeframes.
As our own daughter gets older and the clock is ticking on our days of travel “freedom,” we’re becoming acutely aware of this. We’re also becoming more cognizant of the need for a more practical planning resource for when to visit advice. When other parents who have slightly older kids ask us about the best times to visit Walt Disney World, we’re being met with blank stares when we rattle off a bunch of dates that are (basically) right before or after school breaks. Apparently that’s “not helpful” and “almost feels like a cruel tease.” Who knew?!
We’re creating this resource with that in mind. It’s basically to answer the question we’ve heard from fellow families & friends: “we know it’s going to be more crowded, but which school breaks are the best for visiting Walt Disney World?”
The goal is a more practical planning resource, similar to our 25 Best Restaurants at Walt Disney World or even our Rankings of All Walt Disney World Resort Hotels from Worst to First. With these, we’ve dropped the pretense of objectivity, and are working more within the confines of the reality that Walt Disney World’s target demographics inhabit–schedules, preferences, budgets, and so forth.
In other words, this list is basically the least-bad weeks to visit Walt Disney World among dates that are realistic options for families with school-aged kids. If you’re solo travelers, couples, childless Disney Adults, empty nesters, retirees, or even willing to pull your kids from school, this list does NOT apply to you. Consult something else–you have better options!
For everyone else, we’d recommend our regularly-updated list of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025, 2026 & 2027.
That list is based on past & predicted crowd levels, wait times forecasts, seasonal events, weather & more. It’s also aimed at being a more practical resource than regular crowd calendars, combining the best quantitative wait times data and our qualitative on-the-ground experiences over the last two decades.
The animating idea is that the vast majority of tourists aren’t visiting for a single day here or there, but rather, for 5 days to a week. Aside from “holidaymakers” from the United Kingdom, few families are doing more than 10 day trips and most non-locals are doing more than a single day or two.
When combining one of these resources with our Best & Worst Days to Do Each Park at Walt Disney World, this should offer definitive advice for choosing dates and picking parks. This narrows down the week, and then that provides what you need to know to choose when to visit each park.
This list of the least-bad weeks considers a variety of subjective variables in conjunction with expectations about Walt Disney World’s attendance and wait times. It’s weighted for crowd levels and is backed by historic wait times data from the the last three years.
However, it’s aimed at being more holistic than a conventional crowd calendar. If this were simply by-the-numbers, every week on this list would be between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It would literally be as simple as that–pick pretty much any week during summer (with 3 exceptions). Since summer is the longest school break, it’s the one with the most diluted crowds. It’s also the least-pleasant school break, so there’s that!
As always, if you want updates on news & rumors, discount releases, crowd reports, and much more, sign up for our FREE Walt Disney World Email Newsletter. On with the list of the best of the worst weeks to visit Walt Disney World!
N/A. Christmas Day to New Year’s Eve (Hell Week)
Honestly, I love visiting Walt Disney World during Hell Week. There’s an enthusiastic energy in the air, the fireworks are fantastic, there’s extra entertainment–the list goes on and on. Speaking subjectively, there’s a lot to love about the window between Christmas and NYE. Especially for longtime WDW fans who are happy just to be there, and don’t have to ride X number of attractions.
Speaking objectively, it is far and away the worst week of the year at Walt Disney World and by a wide margin. The week leading up to New Year’s Eve is always 10/10 on the crowd calendar, and be more like 15/10 if the scale allowed. That’s not hyperbole. If we took the next busiest week, anchored that as 10/10 and then used a standard scale of minutes between each crowd level, Hell Week would be 13/10 to 15/10 most years. It is that much worse than the second-busiest week of the year.
Given that, it doesn’t even make this list–not even as an honorable mention. Although I do believe New Year’s at Disney should be a bucket list entry for every diehard fan, that’s advice for repeat visitors with many, many trips under their belts. People who visit multiple times per year for many years. When it comes to first-timers or infrequent visitors, there’s no way in heck that I’d recommend this week. It’d be like trial by fire; the recipe for a bad first impression even if using Lightning Lanes and the savviest of strategies.
10. First Week of January
We fondly remember visiting Walt Disney World around New Year’s Eve over a decade ago. Crowds were bonkers in the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. But once New Year’s Day arrived, the parks were dead until Marathon Weekend runners arrived almost a week later. It was like flipping a switch–as if the crowds never recovered from their NYE hangover.
Times changed back around 2018. Since then, anyone still expecting a holiday hangover or serene start to the year is in for a rude awakening. It’s still true that the parks are quiet to start the New Year. That lasts all of ~4 hours on New Year’s Day due to literal hangovers.
After that, crowds increase and can be worse than the heart of the holiday season due to schools still being on break, lifting of AP blockouts, and early-arriving runDisney fans. Not to get too in the weeds, but the change is fueled mostly by the growing population in Central Florida. Many locals were blocked out around Christmas and New Year’s, and there’s an influx of demand once AP blockouts lift.
Personally, I like this week less than Hell Week. It lacks the energy and entertainment, plus once the calendar flips into the New Year, I’m ready to be done with Christmas. But it just lingers at Walt Disney World. The weather is nice and wait times do tend to be much, much lower than the previous week. Regardless, I wouldn’t proactively recommend this week to anyone. I’m just not a fan.
9. Christmas Week
Christmas week crowds are very dependent upon the day of the week of Christmas. It’s bad no matter what, just to be clear, but whether Christmas week or the first week of January ends up being the #2 worst week for wait times does vary.
Christmas crowds increase the weekend before the holiday, but the true peak comes the following Monday and Tuesday, similar to Thanksgiving. With that said, all second-half of December dates are very busy and most dates see 8/10 to 10/10 crowd levels. But not all 10/10 days are equally busy. Some are worse. That’ll probably be the case with the ~7 days before December 25 in each of the next 2 years.
Subjectively, there’s a massive gap between #9 and #10 on this list for me. Like NYE, the week of Christmas has an infectious energy. I love spending the lead-up to Christmas in Walt Disney World. Great entertainment, weather, long hours, and everyone is in a festive spirit.
I would proactively recommend this week to friends and family, just with the aforementioned crowd warnings clearly stated. The reason this week ranks so low is because there’s a much better (least-bad) time to visit during the holiday season, which ranks #1.
8. Week Before Easter
This is a fairly safe prediction year in and year out, regardless of what else happens. In fact, you could probably (accurately) predict today that the week leading up to Easter will be busy in 2028 or 2054.
Easter week has been the busiest of spring break season for as long as we’ve been covering Walt Disney World, although mid-March when Orange County is out has come close a couple of times (blockouts make that unlikely in the future).
The week leading up to Easter is usually the #1 worst week from mid-January through mid-October when it comes to wait times. While elevated, the week after Easter is never as bad as the one leading up to the holiday.
Easter’s selling points are better weather, EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival, and longer hours. If your Spring Break is anchored to Easter, and you need to choose between that week or summer vacation for your Walt Disney World trip, it’s a really tough call. Which do you hate more: high crowds or heat?
7. Late Summer
As noted above, the entirety of summer (minus 3 weeks) would make this list if it were exclusively data-driven. Those exceptions would be the last week of June, last week of July, and first week of August. At least, typically. Summer crowds are all over the place year-to-year, but there’s usually a mid-summer spike and then “last-hurrah” travel as people scramble to take trips as school goes back into session.
That leaves 3 times that are clearly the best, and a bunch of average dates. One of these best weeks is always the second full week of August, right as schools start going back into session. There will be a very predictable drop that occurs that week, with the only slight potential problem being that your kids might also go back to school that week. But if your schedule allows for it, this is without a doubt our top recommendation for summer travel.
Back in the day, this used to be one of our absolute favorite weeks to visit. Walt Disney World still ran summer hours despite the falling crowds, so it was really the best of both worlds. I remember almost empty second-showings of SpectroMagic and Magic Kingdom closing at midnight in low to moderate crowd levels. We actually saw a quasi-repeat of that with the debut of Disney Starlight Night Parade, and I’m happy to report the dynamic more or less holds up!
If you have a really late start to school, it’s worth pointing out that this only gets better with each passing week through mid-September. The last week of August is fantastic. Labor Day is not a busy holiday. Early September is slow.
The entire month of September is off-season and delaying further maintains low wait times while improving your odds of better temperatures and fewer storms. On a related note, this ranks here as opposed to the top of the list due to weather. If you’re on the fence about this tradeoff, see Is It Worth Visiting During the Early Fall Offseason at Walt Disney World? for a greater discussion of weather vs. crowds.
6. Fall Break
Objectively, the two weeks of Fall Break are usually the worst of the year up to that point since Easter. Meaning that there’s a huge gap of lower crowds. Pick any week at random in that 6 months and it will almost certainly have lower average wait times.
Columbus Day is a proxy for many Fall Breaks, and that results in an influx of visitors to Florida. It also ushers in the end of the off-season, and starts a 3-month stretch of elevated crowds…minus a few major lulls that make our ‘best of’ list. For most families, Fall Break is a long weekend as opposed to a week-long break.
That’s reflected in crowd levels being especially bad the Friday to Monday of Columbus Day, as well as the weekend that follow. The entire week is elevated, though. This stretch is often worse than Veterans Day or Thanksgiving, in fact. And it also doesn’t come with the same weather upsides.
The upside is that the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival is in full swing, as is Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. The parks typically have longer hours, and the weather is usually better than June through September. Assuming you don’t get unlucky with a hurricane scare!
5. Fourth of July
Objectively, the week around Fourth of July is one of the best weeks to visit, not one of the worst. Due to aggressive Annual Pass blockouts, higher travel costs, and erroneous assumptions about crowds, this week has been the slowest of summer for the last 3 consecutive years.
Independence Day is also a fantastic time to visit from a subjective perspective, thanks to special fireworks at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, as well as distinctly patriotic entertainment. The parks have a great energy, and we’re big fans of the Fourth of July.
So why is it even on the least-bad list? Technically, it qualifies by virtue of being a school break. And it’s one of the few that actually offers low crowds. Beyond that, weather. The entirety of summer is storm season, and it can be oppressively hot and humid from early morning until well past sunset.
Weather is also why this week doesn’t rank #1 on the list, even though it is (easily) the top pick from an objective perspective. To each their own, but we’ll take 5/10 or 6/10 crowds and comfort over 1/10 or 2/10 crowds and triple-digit feels like temperatures.
Beyond this, the good news is that neither June or July are particularly busy. Two more weeks for low wait times are in mid-June. See Why Summer is the New Low Crowds Season for more insight.
4. Presidents’ Day, Winter Break & Ski Week
The week of Presidents’ Day is one of the worst weeks as measured by average wait times. This isn’t just that holiday alone, but also school districts that use it as a proxy for mid-winter break or their “ski weeks.”
This particular week is even worse when it coincides with Mardi Gras, making it more likely that schools in the South will also have winter breaks. In 2026, Mardi Gras is back to occurring during this same week. That will mean it’ll almost certainly be one of the 10 worst weeks–and possibly top 5.
In 2027, Mardi Gras will not coincide with Presidents’ Day, effectively diluting the crowds. It’s thus possible that this week won’t end up being among the worst 10 in 2027 from the objective perspective of wait times.
Subjectively, there’s a lot to love about mid-winter break. The weather tends to be milder, it no longer feels like the post-holiday hangover from Christmas (as is the case with too much of January as decorations languish), and it’s the culmination of the EPCOT Festival of the Arts. Speaking of which, the park will already be getting ready for the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival, with flowers and gardens coming into bloom.
3. Spring Break (Not Easter)
If you have a Spring Break that is not anchored to Easter, it ranks higher than the lead-up to that holiday. This one is difficult because it’s not a fixed week, so it could move up or down the rankings slightly–or perhaps significantly, if you’re a major outlier.
Which of these weeks end up being good and bad bounces around each year based on the timing of Easter, as well as whatever Walt Disney World changes with discount ticket and Annual Pass blockouts. Central Florida breaks are also a big contributing factor. In 2025, the worst dates of ‘early’ Spring Break season were March 17-29, with March 17-24 being especially bad.
One thing to keep in mind is that there are hundreds of schools around the United States that are out every week between mid-March and mid-April. In aggregate, they have a big impact on crowds. Unless there’s a freak anomaly, all of these weeks are going to be some degree of very busy. The only safe rule of thumb here is that when Easter falls especially late, there’s usually a lull in the week or two before Easter week.
2. Jersey Week & MLK Weekend
Despite being months apart, I’m consolidating Jersey Week and Martin Luther King Jr. Day into a single entry because they’re pretty similar in nature. One is right before Thanksgiving break starts, the other is shortly after Christmas break ends. Neither are breaks for a majority of U.S. school districts.
For those who aren’t familiar with it, Jersey Week is when approximately 73% of the Garden State descends upon Walt Disney World. The real holiday there is Veterans Day, which is always a “sleeper” holiday for crowds–a surprisingly high amount of government workers, students, and others do have the day off. We’ve been warning about Veterans Day crowds for years, as it’s almost on par with Thanksgiving some years.
Pretty much the same is true for MLK Day, just in January instead of November. Both are long weekends that can have an outsized impact on crowd levels. But both also occur during great times of year with nicer weather and fantastic seasonal events. This ranking reflects the reality that MLK Day is better than Presidents’ Day, whereas it’s worse than the least-bad week of the holiday season. Drum roll…
1. Thanksgiving Week
Conventional wisdom about Thanksgiving is all over the map. Non-Disney fans get it wrong, thanks to persistent urban legends that the holiday is quiet because “everyone is at home with their families.” Disney diehards know that’s hogwash. (Same goes for misconceptions about the Super Bowl and every other major event that people “stay home” and avoid the parks to experience. It’s never true!)
However, Walt Disney World diehards also get Thanksgiving wrong in the other direction, over-indexing the holiday. Thanksgiving week is busy, there’s no denying that. But it is not even remotely on par with Christmas or New Year’s. In fact, it is barely worse than Jersey Week and approximately on par with an average week of Spring Break. It’s below the peak week of Easter and usually not as bad as Presidents’ Day!
Thanksgiving week crowds are also more beatable. They tend to be worst the Sunday through Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The holiday itself tends not to be too bad, at least not compared to the few days beforehand. Those time frames are still busy, just not the threat level midnight crowds of the prior 3 days. (As of publication, Thanksgiving 2025 is half over and looks like it’ll peak at an 8/10 or 41 minute average on Monday. That’s less busy than Columbus Day weekend!)
Then there’s Friday through Sunday, which have trended towards lower crowd levels in each of the last 3 years. If you took a trip from Wednesday (Thanksgiving Eve) through Sunday, you’d actually experience below-average crowds and a portion of our absolute favorite week of the year at Walt Disney World.
The icing on the cake is that Thanksgiving is the start of “full” Christmas at Walt Disney World. All of the resort hotels will be decorated and the EPCOT Festival of the Holidays always starts on Black Friday (that’s a double-edged sword, as EPCOT crowds will be bad that weekend).
Considering the totality of the circumstances, Thanksgiving week is our easy favorite for the best of the worst weeks at Walt Disney World. It’ll still be (very) busy, but it’s nothing like Christmas, New Year’s, or even smaller holidays throughout the year.
Ultimately, that’s a rundown of the top 10 least-bad weeks of the year at Walt Disney World for families with small children or anyone else limited to holiday weeks and school breaks for whatever reason. As you might’ve gathered by reading the entries, there are actually selling points to several of these “worst” weeks to visit.
As for other tools, utilizing Lightning Lanes, Early Entry, Extended Evening Hours, rope drop, etc. will help immensely. We cover the best & worst approach for each park in Best Time-Saving Strategies for Walt Disney World. Seriously, don’t despair if you can only visit during one of the worst weeks, as using savvy strategy can always help you beat the crowds–and is more important than visiting during the “right” dates. Unless we’re talking about Hell Week. All bets are off then!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Do you agree or disagree with our Walt Disney World week rankings? Any specific ideal weeks that you’d recommend families with kids visit Walt Disney World? Other school break dates to avoid the parks? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!