Parenting in the Parks: Planning a Disney Theme Park Vacation: When Do You Go?

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Planning a Disney Theme Park Vacation: When Do You Go? by Adrienne Krock

The Parenting Panel shares opinions on what time of year to schedule a Disney theme park vacation.

Read it here!

[mkelm44]

My favorite time of year... January. Yeah, I know, I know... but that's when it is. Because of how spread out my family is, we tend not to do much during the holiday season, plus going to work the last couple of the weeks of the year tends to be pretty low key. The rare Orlando cold spell (upper 30's/lower 40's) doesn't really phase me or my wife since we both grew up in colder climes (New England for me, Minnesota for her) so we know how to handle that temperature. There are no problems getting hotel rooms and rates are at their lowest for both airfare and hotels. The park themselves are not very busy, so in 4 or 5 days in the parks we might never wait more than 20 minutes but once or twice (oddly enough Peter Pan tends to have the longest line) so long as we are smart about park management and fast time usage. Because the parks aren't the busiest, I don't have to make dining reservations quite as far out either. Also, because the parks are less crowded we don't feel quite so rushed, so we can slow ourselves down and smell the flowers (literally and figuratively). Seriously, in 4 full days, we probably can get more done with less rushing than we would in a week in March... so I'd say offpeak January for me.

[fdcmp]

I think the rules vary widely and are based on the part of the world the park is in.

Disneyland, I'd visit anytime. The weather has the least-extremes of all of the Properties, and *every* Saturday/Sunday it's like summer as far as entertainment.

Florida--sometimes one doesn't have a choice because business or school schedules have pressed us to visit during the summer, but if I could choose, I wouldn't go anywhere near Central Florida except October-February for the weather, and within that range, I rule out the actual holiday days surrounding Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years. And I favor February over January as it can be unexpectedly busy in January for a variety of reasons.

Paris--July-September has pretty nice weather, but the entertainment calendar a Stateside guest might expect for "summer" only really exists in August and December, so if I had a choice, I'd say July-into-August: July for the weather and lesser crowds, and August for a full entertainment schedule but a crush-loaded park. December it's freezing; if one is used to that sort of weather it's probably fine, but I grew up in Aulani weather, so it's not for me, personally.

Tokyo--The rule I'd use would be to fit the visit time of year to how much you like Seattle weather in the same period.

[GusMan]

FDCMP - thanks for the additional insights for Paris and Tokyo. I liked the Tokyo-Seattle reference.