Our information to September 2024 at Walt Disney World presents a free crowd calendar, when to go to, climate to keep away from, new attraction openings & closures, plus Halloween & fall occasions. We additionally cowl information & suggestions for what’s occurring at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. (Up to date August 22, 2024.)
Relative to summer season, September is an effective month to go to Walt Disney World on account of low crowds and seasonal occasions like Halloween. Faculty is again in session, and wait instances are low from Labor Day till crowds arrive in the direction of the tip of the month for the beginning of conference and group occasions seasons, plus early fall breaks. The September 2024 crowd calendar beneath makes this month a extremely engaging time to go to.
Whereas each park isn’t going to be “useless” daily of the week, should you plan nicely, you may actually keep away from crowds throughout a September Walt Disney World go to. That additionally means shorter September park hours, however you may’t actually argue with conducting extra in much less time. There’s solely actually one draw back to September at Walt Disney World, and it’s a fairly large one.
That one draw back is the climate, which is unhealthy for 2 distinct causes that we’ll cowl within the subsequent part. On steadiness, mid to late September can nonetheless be an excellent time to go to Walt Disney World, nevertheless it’s not for everybody. You’ve got to have the ability to tolerate (or gamble on) the climate to be able to be rewarded with extraordinarily low crowds.
Let’s check out what you may anticipate in September at WDW…
September Climate at Disney World
The draw back comes by way of climate. By way of temperatures, September is best than June by means of August, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a raffle. It’s lots like Could on this regard: it may be temperate and nice, or insanely scorching. Particularly early within the month, it may be fairly scorching and humid.
In the beginning of September, common excessive temperatures are 90°, with common lows of 75°. In direction of the tip of the month, the climate improves barely, with historic highs of “solely” 87° and lows of 72°. Add oppressive humidity that’ll fog your glasses the second you step out of your lodge room, and September remains to be a reasonably undesirable month by way of climate.
Suffice to say, should you’re visiting Walt Disney World in September, keep in mind to pack accordingly, bringing the Frogg Toggs for the humidity…and ponchos for the rain so that you don’t spend $179 on them at Walt Disney World. You may view day-by-day temperature and climate forecasts plus historic averages for Walt Disney World climate in September right here.
September can also be the peak of hurricane and storm season. For every of the final three years, hurricanes have impacted operations at Walt Disney World on the very finish of August or starting of September. (Add final yr to that record, as Hurricane Idalia provided a scare, however didn’t materially influence operations at Walt Disney World!) In recent times, Hurricanes Ian, Dorian and Irma have triggered the parks to shut.
You might need to seek the advice of our Visiting Walt Disney World Throughout Storm Season article to navigate the afternoon showers (or worse) with out them placing an excessive amount of of a damper in your journey. Issues get higher in the direction of the tip of the month each by way of humidity and storms, so your finest guess is unquestionably to carry off on visiting till later within the month should you can.
WDW Seasonal Occasions in September
To reply a typical query: sure, you will note Halloween decorations should you go to Walt Disney World in September. Any day in September. Nevertheless, the one park that will get decked out for Halloween is Magic Kingdom, and that’s true in any yr, not simply 2024.
The massive occasion for September is Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Social gathering. In September, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Social gathering begins occurring with growing frequency. By mid-month, Magic Kingdom is closing early for MNSSHP a couple of nights per week. As mentioned beneath, this actually throws a monkey wrench into attendance dynamics.
One other occasion that’ll happen all through September 2024 is the EPCOT Worldwide Meals & Wine Pageant. This can be a nice technique to graze and pattern completely different cuisines, or attend instructive seminars, or different foodie particular occasions. It’s additionally a good way to lighten your pockets, as it is vitally straightforward to spend some huge cash at Meals & Wine Pageant on these small samples.
Particularly should you purchase booze: not solely are you able to spend lots on the drinks, however the drinks may trigger you to loosen up your bank card swiping hand and use it extra freely on snacks. Not that we all know from expertise or something. Take a look at our Information to the EPCOT Worldwide Meals & Wine Pageant for extra suggestions and tips for this occasion.
The massive change for 2024 is that the EPCOT Meals & Wine Pageant as soon as once more begins on the finish of August, that means it’ll nonetheless be recent by the point September rolls round. This implies weekends at EPCOT will likely be busier, as Floridians and Annual Passholders head to the park to eat and drink their manner around the globe.
SEPTEMBER REFURBISHMENTS & NEW ATTRACTIONS
For an thought of what’s going to be closed in September 2024, test the Walt Disney World Refurbishment Schedule. Simply be warned that this doesn’t absolutely cowl the development throughout Walt Disney World—simply experience and leisure closures.
The largest experience that’s at the moment closed is Check Monitor, which is being reimagined. A reopening date has not but been introduced, nevertheless it’s already confirmed to be closed for the rest of this yr. We’re anticipating it to reopen for Spring Break 2025 on the absolute earliest.
Along with that, Jungle Cruise is closed during September 2024. On a few constructive notes, Nation Bear Musical Jamboree and Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster have each reopened after prolonged downtime. Furthermore, not one of the large initiatives introduced at D23 will begin till someday in 2025. So regardless of it being low season, there usually are not that many refurbishments in September 2024!
Each of the most recent main sights at Walt Disney World are in Magic Kingdom, with Tiana’s Bayou Journey now open as of late final month! That is the reimagining of Splash Mountain, and tells the story of “The Princess and the Frog” after the occasions of the film. As mentioned in Tiana’s Bayou Journey Trip Evaluate: Failure, Flawed or Improbable?, the attraction is a combined bag.
Should you’re visiting in August 2024, there are two different issues you must find out about Tiana’s Bayou Journey. The primary is that it makes use of a digital queue…for now. See Trip Tiana’s Bayou Journey for every little thing it’s essential find out about its (lack of) standby line, Lightning Lane, and digital queue.
The massive obstacle to ditching the digital queue and switching to standby is downtime and reliability points. As mentioned in You May Have Issues Using Tiana’s Bayou Journey at Magic Kingdom, the reimagined experience is having troubles proper now and continuously has a number of hours of downtime per day. It in all probability gained’t drop the digital queue till it’s working extra constantly, with out frequent breakdowns. It appears unlikely that’ll occur by September, however who is aware of.
Then there’s TRON Lightcycle Run, which is the latest brand-new (not reimagined) main attraction at Walt Disney World. See our Digital Queue Technique Information for TRON Lightcycle Run for particulars, suggestions & tips for achievement, and extra. Sadly, you can’t be part of each the digital queue for Tiana’s Bayou Journey and TRON Lightcycle Run on the similar time, so that you’ll must strategize to be able to expertise each in the identical day.
Bouncing again to EPCOT, there’s a bunch of different new stuff there. This consists of World Celebration, CommuniCore Corridor, Moana’s Journey of Water, and Luminous: Symphony of Us–all of which debuted throughout the final yr. That’s nonetheless fairly new within the grand scheme of issues! There’s additionally Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Area 220 Restaurant, Remy’s Ratatouille Journey, and a bunch of different stuff.
For an summary of what else is on the horizon, see What’s New & Subsequent at Walt Disney World in 2024 & 2025.
SEPTEMBER 2024 DISNEY WORLD CROWD CALENDAR
There’s no color-coded September 2024 crowd calendar for Walt Disney World on the prime of this part as a result of that’s reductionist and doesn’t provide the full image of Walt Disney World attendance tendencies. WDW crowd calendars are much less dependable on account of how Disney manipulates attendance patterns, staffing, closures, and experience capability. It’s higher to supply an evidence of what to anticipate crowd-wise this fall at Walt Disney World.
Since Disney doesn’t launch official attendance numbers, crowd calendars use issues like college schedules, airport visitors statistics, lodge pricing & occupancy, and many others., as proxies for crowds. For years, this strategy labored and made crowd calendars dependable. Walt Disney World attendance adopted an identifiable sample that tracked with the aforementioned proxies.
Sadly, wait instances now not mirror precise crowds due to the aforementioned manipulation. We are able to nonetheless forecast attendance, however not the ensuing wait instances. That is just like the distinction between the precise temperature and the “seems like” temperature, however with crowds. The latter are what most of you doubtless care about (the “seems like” crowds), nevertheless it’s harder to foretell wait instances by way of Walt Disney World crowd calendars. Hopefully that is sensible!
That’s the unhealthy information. The superb information is that September 2024 is the most effective month of the yr to go to Walt Disney World from an goal perspective. (From a subjective perspective is a completely completely different story as a result of climate forecast!) Actually the complete month sees beneath common crowds. Even Labor Day weekend (September 1-2, 2024) attracts far smaller crowds than most different holidays.
Final yr, Labor Day was downright useless at Walt Disney World. Labor Day was a repeat of the Fourth of July vacation weekend, which was one of many slowest stretches of the complete yr at Walt Disney World. Historical past is not going to repeat itself to almost the identical diploma, however as we clarify within the following put up, Labor Day Weekend Isn’t Busy at Disney.
There’s actually no horrible time to go to so far as the September 2024 crowd calendar goes. The start of the month will likely be busier than August because of the vacation weekend, and the tip of the month will see one other spike on account of ticket offers and seasonal attendance tendencies (getting nearer to fall break; climate beginning to enhance from summer season).
The time in between, will function a few of the lowest crowds of the yr at Walt Disney World. By way of the group calendar, this is among the final bastions of the low season at Walt Disney World. Common weekly crowd ranges will likely be 1/10 to three/10 throughout this date vary.
Should you’re purely involved about crowds, we’d suggest going from September 3-13, 2024. Notice that at one time, we proactively really helpful visiting over Labor Day weekend. That was on account of aggressive blockouts on Annual Passes and (anticipated) exclusions on discounted tickets, in addition to the premium pricing for the vacation weekend, all of which is able to push individuals away.
Nevertheless, Walt Disney World wisened up and didn’t exclude Labor Day from ticket offers this yr. Whereas the entire different elements from final yr will nonetheless be in play, the discounted tickets being eligible is a possible gamechanger. It’s not that we’d suggest avoiding Labor Day, it ought to nonetheless be fantastic; it simply isn’t a prime decide.
Talking of the ticket offers, there are two of them and they’ll have a huge impact on crowds in September. The primary of those is the Florida Resident Uncover Disney Ticket, which is legitimate by means of September 28, 2024 with an advance park reservation. Second is the 4-Park, 4-Day Walt Disney World Magic Ticket, which is legitimate by means of September 22, 2024 and does not require reservations.
In combing by means of the wait instances knowledge, final yr’s variations of those offers (with completely different finish dates) triggered crowds to peak of their closing weekend. These are “use it or lose it” tickets, so there’s all the time a last-minute rush like that–particularly on Fridays by means of Sundays (weekdays aren’t impacted almost as badly). Throughout that closing weekend of validity final yr, crowd ranges had been 8/10 with a mean wait time of 44 minutes. Earlier that very same week and within the weeks earlier than, crowd ranges had been 1/10 with a mean of 27 minutes. That’s an enormous distinction.
Accordingly, we now anticipate September 20-22, 2024 and September 27-29, 2024 each being very busy (crowd ranges 7/10 or above). The weekend earlier than that might likewise be reasonably busy, as may the times main as much as the ticket offers ending. The distinction between these dates and the remainder of September–in any other case one of many slowest months of the yr–will likely be very stark. Crowds will really feel even worse consequently.
Talking of issues to which we must always name consideration, Rosh Hashanah just isn’t till October 3, 2024. This implies it’s in all probability barely much less doubtless that the final week of September will see a pronounced spike on account of early fall breaks. September 20-28, 2024 remains to be prone to be the busiest stretch of the month, however the final couple days of the month–and even the very starting of October–shouldn’t be too unhealthy.
The truth is, we’d be extra inclined to go to from September 29 to October 4, 2024 than we’d the week earlier than that. It’s not often the case that crowds get higher over the course of early fall, however that week specifically seems like one to focus on. Not less than, as contrasted with the one earlier than it. Once more, the expiration of these ticket offers are large drivers of attendance and crowds that catch a whole lot of followers without warning.
Along with the aforementioned weekends (which usually wouldn’t be busy, however for the ticket offers), we’d suggest avoiding Mondays at Magic Kingdom all through September. They’re prone to be the busiest days of the month, particularly September 16, 23, and 30 in Magic Kingdom.
However, crowds do decide up the nearer you get to October. That is largely on account of conventions and different group occasions, plus fall breaks for numerous college districts across the nation. Some colleges additionally do fall breaks across the final weekend of the month (roughly September 27-30, 2024), so anticipate greater crowd ranges then, too.
Nonetheless, busier is a relative time period. The final full week of September 2024 will likely be worse than the remainder of the month. Nevertheless, if crowd ranges hit 6/10, that’s technically true as the primary three weeks can have crowd ranges manner beneath that. That’s precisely what we’re predicting–crowd ranges averaging out at 6/10 or probably 7/10 within the final week of the month, however with a wider vary for Magic Kingdom (see beneath).
The excellent news is that the primary half of the month ought to largely have 1/10 to three/10 crowd ranges. Specifically, September 3-13 needs to be blissfully uncrowded–among the best stretches of the complete yr. (Objectively talking–subjectively, the climate may go away one thing to be desired!)
For Magic Kingdom, there’s an added wrinkle to the group calendar: Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Social gathering (MNSSHP). On nights this occasion is held, the park closes to common ticket holders at 6 pm. Consequently, Magic Kingdom is much less busy through the day time hours on dates when MNSSHP is held, and extra busy on days the Halloween occasion just isn’t occurring.
We’d strongly suggest visiting Magic Kingdom through the day on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Social gathering nights, after which bouncing to a different park at round 4 pm. Animal Kingdom will all the time be your best choice for lower-crowd evenings through the fall.
This might sound counter-intuitive, nevertheless it’s as a result of the celebration is separately-ticketed. Sometimes, the most important influence is felt nearer to Halloween, so the phenomenon isn’t unhealthy in any respect in September. We’ve reported on this phenomenon at size, seeing this play out each single day of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Social gathering season, as mentioned in Finest & Worst Days to Do Magic Kingdom in 2024.
You can too anticipate EPCOT to have worse “seems like” crowds on weekends. That is significantly true when native Florida schools like UCF have away soccer video games. Nevertheless, this doesn’t present up on crowd calendars, which measure wait instances. (These locals trigger congestion however usually don’t influence wait instances.)
EPCOT’s attendance will likely be lightest on weekdays through the day, with heavier crowds after work as locals end up to graze on the Meals & Wine cubicles. (That is one thing that’s powerful to convey by way of a standard numerical crowd calendar for Walt Disney World.)
SEPTEMBER PRICING & DISCOUNTS
Since it’s the low season, September can also be an awesome month to go to by way of each pricing and potential reductions. You may test accessible reductions by way of Disney right here. Disney isn’t the one place the place September is the low season, so anticipate cheaper airfare when touring in September–be sure to go to ITA Software program to seek for the most effective costs.
So far as pricing goes, early to mid-September is taken into account “worth” season and late September is “common” or “fall” season for resort room charges and park tickets (learn our Suggestions for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets put up for ticket suggestions to keep away from having to cope with seasonal pricing).
General, September is a one of many prime months of the yr to go to Walt Disney World, and we’d encourage you to go to should you can deal with the warmth and humidity. If it’s essential persuade a partner to make a spontaneous getaway, there’s actually no higher argument that I can consider than “that one dude on the web mentioned we must always!”
The truth is, mid-September is one in every of our favourite instances of the yr for our private visits to Walt Disney World. For some time, we took journeys to Walt Disney World throughout this time for 4 consecutive years, as these low crowds had been an excessive amount of to withstand. Like a fantastic wine, September will get higher because it “ages” with the most effective instances to go to being in the direction of the tip of the month–primarily on account of higher climate whilst crowds enhance barely.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Find out about accommodations on our Walt Disney World Inns Evaluations web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Evaluations. To save cash on tickets or decide which sort to purchase, learn our Suggestions for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets put up. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys put up takes a novel take a look at intelligent gadgets to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Trip Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the most effective place to begin is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for every little thing it’s essential know!
Your Ideas
Are you a fan of visiting Walt Disney World in September? Have you ever discovered the crowds to be gentle? Is the climate this month bearable to you? Are you planning on visiting in September 2024 or is the potential for a hurricane an excessive amount of of a raffle for you? If September just isn’t your most popular month to go to Walt Disney World, which month do you want? Listening to your suggestions about your experiences is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas or questions beneath within the feedback!
