{Booking Series}
Welcome to today's topic: Dates & Tickets! Today I'll be mentioning a few tips about choosing dates to go to Disney as well as explaining Disney park ticket pricing. Granted, even if you don't have options for when to go, it might be fun to see if there's anything special happening while you're visiting! That way you could book additional tickets for a special event or know ahead of time that the parks may be a bit crowded. It could help you better plan out what to expect during your trip :)Tickets
Disney has what's called "Magic Your Way" tickets, because you can customize the tickets that you purchase. You can purchase everything from a one-day park ticket to a 10-day Park-Hopper Water-Park-Fun No-Expiration ticket! I'll explain the various options that you can add onto your ticket. Each option adds a bit to the base price, so keep that in mind. Tickets expire 14-days after initial use (unless they're No Expiration tickets).
- Park-Hopper Option:: allows you to freely hop from park to park throughout the length of your ticketed days. We tend to get this so we can say spend the early half of the day at Animal Kingdom (which closes earlier than the other parks) then finish out the day at Magic Kingdom (usually open the latest out of all the parks).
- Water Park Fun & More Option:: allows you access to the two water parks, the mini golf courses, DisneyQuest, Disney's Wide World of Sports complex, and Disney's Oak Trail Golf Course
- No Expiration Option:: if you don't use up all of the days on your ticket, this allows you to return anytime and use the remainder of your ticket.
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| Cinderella's Castle during the annual Night of Joy event |
Dates
Some of you may have a choice as to when to go- ie. President's Day weekend vs. spring break. It might be useful to know what's going on at WDW during different times of the year, in order to choose the best time for you and your family to visit and have the best trip possible! When there's no special events, the crowds are smaller. Weekends during the summer bring bigger crowds, as do the weeks that Florida schools have spring break. Of course, special events will bring the larger crowds, Christmas time having the most crowds the entire year!
The prices of Disney property resorts (and many surrounding hotels and resorts) vary throughout the year based on the events, holidays, and seasons. Here is a short summary of some of the crowd levels throughout the year, as per AllEars...
Peak Crowd Levels
- February's Presidents' Day week
- Mid-March through Late April (spring break for many schools)
- Memorial Day weekend
- Mid-June through Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day through the weekend
- Christmas week through New Year's Day
Moderate Crowd Levels
- After February's Presidents' Day week through early March
- Late April through early June (except Memorial Day weekend)
- October's Columbus Day Weekend
- The early part of Thanksgiving week
Lower Crowd Levels
- January (after New Year's Day) up until February's Presidents' Day week
- The week after Labor Day through the week before to Thanksgiving (we often go the last week in August/first week in September!)
- The week after Thanksgiving through mid-December
Additionally, here is an overview of some events that occur though out the year that will bring varying larger crowd levels. Some special events require an additional ticket that you have to purchase (for an additional cost, of course), and the hosting park may close early to hold the event- Night of Joy, Mickey's Halloween Party, and Mickey's Christmas Party are some examples. To learn more about an individual event, check out Disney's {Special Events Page here}. Additionally, AllEars has various reviews and tips about various events, which you can check out on their {website here}.
January
- WDW Marathon Weekend
- The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights: in Hollywood Studios, an entire street decked out in Christmas lights from sidewalk to rooftops, a light snow all set to music
February
- Disney Princess Half Marathon
Spring Months
- Star Wars Weekends
- Atlanta Braves Spring Training at Disney's Wide World of Sports
- Gay Days- not Disney sponsored but it occurs every year throughout the Orlando park areas, do a quick Google search and you'll find the official website for it so you can find out when it is in the event that your family would prefer not to visit that particular week
March
- Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
April
- Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
- Easter- various restaurants will have special menus
- Earth Day- some special events and displays can be found around the World, particularly at Animal Kingdom
May
- Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Summer Months
- Sounds Like Summer concert series: in Epcot, various musical artists play on evenings throughout the month, some are cover bands and some are big name artists!
July
- Independence Day- special festivities are held at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios
September
- Night of Joy- two night Christian music event! We went two years ago and had a great time, just be prepared for lots of screaming tween/teen youth groups on the rides ;)
- Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
- Epcot International Food & Wine Festival: experience foods and drinks from around the world, big big crowds
October
- Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
- Epcot International Food & Wine Festival: experience foods and drinks from around the world, big big crowds
November
- Epcot International Food & Wine Festival: experience foods and drinks from around the world, big big crowds
- Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon
- Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic golfing tournament
- Festival of the Masters- an open air art festival at Downtown Disney
- Old Spice Classic basketball tournament
- Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
- The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights: in Hollywood Studios, an entire street decked out in Christmas lights from sidewalk to rooftops, a light snow all set to music
- Holidays Around the World- Candlelight Processional: a high demand ticket, the story of Christmas told by a celebrity narrator accompanied by an orchestra and choir
- Festival of the Seasons- Downtown Disney decked out for the holidays and a photo spot with Santa
December
- Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
- Holidays Around the World- Candlelight Processional: a high demand ticket, the story of Christmas told by a celebrity narrator accompanied by an orchestra and choir
- Festival of the Seasons- Downtown Disney decked out for the holidays and a photo spot with Santa
- The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights: in Hollywood Studios, an entire street decked out in Christmas lights from sidewalk to rooftops, a light snow all set to music
- New Year's Eve Party at Disney Quest in Downtown Disney
So I hope that helps you plan when you might want to go and/or gives you some ideas of events to participate in whilst you're there!! We're going during a peak season this year- so even though we know that we'll face some huge crowds, we're excited to take advantage of some fun events going on at that time!! Tomorrow we'll be talking about Locations- the ups and downs of staying on Disney property vs. off-property! Hope to see you then ;)
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