Fall is true across the nook and, with that, Magic Kingdom enters a brand new part for the rest of 2024. Halloween and Christmas seasons deliver with them a curler coaster of crowds, with dramatic variations in wait occasions and attendance in selecting the perfect vs. worst days to do MK. This explains why, with lists of the least & most crowded dates in August by way of December, and a handful of crimson flag dates to keep away from in any respect prices.
At the same time as this summer season has been comparatively sluggish at Walt Disney World (see Summer season (Nonetheless) Is NOT Excessive Crowds Season at Walt Disney World), the parks are nonetheless about to get slower as faculties return into session. For all intents and functions, August is the top of summer season, and begin of the low season, Halloween-time, and “Get together Season.” (Earlier than individuals with a conventional idea of “seasons” get mad at me, I don’t make the foundations–Disney is the one which begins Halloween in early August, not me.)
Get together Season is a giant deal at Walt Disney World as a result of it disrupts attendance dynamics and creates a “porcupine sample” of wait occasions and crowd ranges. In a nutshell, the gang phenomenon is that each Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Get together and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Get together push attendance a lot greater on the dates they’re not occurring and decrease on days of the occasions.
That is nothing new–we’ve been banging the Get together Season drum the final decade, not less than. Magic Kingdom crowd patterns throughout Get together Season are a key dialogue factors of our August by way of December crowd calendars. It’s truly one of many best “predictions” we make–akin to forecasting longer strains for Seven Dwarfs Mine Practice than the Magic Carpets of Aladdin.
For our half, we’ve been strongly recommending that readers go to Magic Kingdom throughout the day on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Get together and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Get together nights, after which bouncing to a different park at round 4 pm. Park Hopping is important throughout celebration season. When you’re on the lookout for the brief and candy of this submit, that’s it.
The underlying rationale for that is that many day friends keep away from Magic Kingdom on days when MNSSHP or MVMCP is being held at night time as a result of the common park hours are shorter and Fortunately Ever After fireworks will not be proven to common friends. This ends in considerably lighter crowds on days of the vacation events when Magic Kingdom closes at 6 pm.
These similar friends then flock to non-party days in Magic Kingdom. For guests with out Park Hopper tickets (which is most friends), visiting Magic Kingdom on non-party nights is the plain, intuitive selection. For a similar admission value, they get a number of extra hours within the park and get to see the fireworks.
In spite of everything, Magic Kingdom closes at 10 pm or 11 pm on non-party nights. That quantities to staying an additional 4-5 hours later, seeing fireworks, and attending to benefit from the cooler night hours within the park. Only a few rational friends who base their visits on revealed park hours will select the 6 pm closing days. (Which is exactly why Disney places the above enroll on the park entrance, so friends complain on their manner into the park and may doubtlessly be accommodated fairly than appearing shocked on the finish of the day.)
In principle, it’s a no brainer! However that line of pondering is strictly why our zig once they zag advice has been to do Magic Kingdom on days of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Get together or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Get together and to Park Hop some other place at round 4 pm, which is when the mix-in begins for these exhausting ticket occasions.
Though Magic Kingdom has longer hours on non-party days, you’ll usually get much less finished than you can earlier than 4 pm on a celebration day–in 4-5 fewer hours! As long as you’re snug lacking the fireworks, we extremely advocate doing all of your days in Magic Kingdom on celebration dates as a result of considerably shorter strains and decrease wait occasions. It’s normally so sluggish on as of late that utilizing Lightning Lanes is pointless, which additionally means saving cash by not having to purchase Lightning Lane Multi Cross.
For friends with Park Hopper tickets, that is the actual no-brainer. You are able to do Magic Kingdom till 4 pm on the day of MNSSHP or MVMCP, after which bounce to EPCOT or Disney’s Hollywood Studios and have dinner and benefit from the nighttime spectaculars in a kind of two parks.
On a non-party day, you can begin out at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and/or EPCOT–our favourite choices as these usually see decrease crowd ranges on non-party days and have extra headliners benefiting from decrease waits. Then you may bounce again to Magic Kingdom within the night hours for the final couple of hours to catch Fortunately Ever After and nighttime within the park.
If nighttime in Magic Kingdom is a should for you (and we do advocate it–nothing beats seeing the park illuminated within the evenings!) that is the optimum method for minimizing your publicity to crowds and congestion. Yeah, it’ll be chaos on Major Road and that post-fireworks night exodus is a nightmare. Fireworks crowds are already unhealthy sufficient on regular nights all year long–now think about compressing 7 nights of Fortunately Ever After crowds into solely 2-3 nights!
However you don’t have to observe Fortunately Ever After from Major Road–you may go to Fantasyland for a comparatively relaxed spot. You may as well wait out the post-fireworks crowd by taking a spin on the TTA PeopleMover or doing one of many many different rides which can be higher at night time. Because you’ll have (presumably) finished each essential attraction on the celebration day, the stakes are decrease for you than one thing who spends all of that crowded day in MK.
One of many added upsides to visiting the park on a celebration day is Magic Kingdom Early Entry at 7:30 am (on some dates). If park opening strikes ahead to eight am in your dates, that makes this method a double no-brainer (earlier than you get pedantic about “doubling nothing nonetheless being nothing,” simply needless to say this saying is sensible to these of us with out brains within the first place).
Sadly, Walt Disney World moved away from 8 am opening occasions on MNSSHP dates throughout the doldrums of the low season. They largely returned to eight am opening occasions for MVMCP, but it surely wasn’t each single date.
Our hope is that they revert again to eight am openings for 2024, however we’re not optimistic. Park hours have already been extending for early to mid-August, and the primary MNSSHP reveals 9 am to six pm hours. Granted, that’ll be an extremely sluggish day and isn’t essentially consultant of what’ll occur for dates the following couple of months, but it surely’s most likely protected to say that August by way of mid-to-late September aren’t getting 8 am openings.
Now that we’ve defined the why and the way of this, right here’s the record of least-crowded dates at Magic Kingdom for the rest of the 12 months.
Finest Days at Magic Kingdom in August 2024
- August 9, 2024
- August 13, 2024
- August 16, 2024
- August 20, 2024
- August 23, 2024
- August 27, 2024
- August 30, 2024
Finest Days at Magic Kingdom in September 2024
- September 2, 2024
- September 6, 2024
- September 8, 2024
- September 10, 2024
- September 13, 2024
- September 15, 2024
- September 17, 2024
- September 20, 2024
- September 22, 2024
- September 24, 2024
- September 26, 2024
- September 27, 2024
- September 29, 2024
Finest Days at Magic Kingdom in October 2024
- October 1, 2024
- October 3, 2024
- October 4, 2024
- October 6, 2024
- October 8, 2024
- October 10, 2024
- October 11, 2024
- October 14, 2024
- October 15, 2024
- October 17, 2024
- October 18, 2024
- October 20, 2024
- October 21, 2024
- October 24, 2024
- October 25, 2024
- October 27, 2024
- October 29, 2024
- October 31, 2024
Finest Days at Magic Kingdom in November 2024
- November 8, 2024
- November 11, 2024
- November 12, 2024
- November 14, 2024
- November 15 2024
- November 17, 2024
- November 19, 2024
- November 21, 2024
- November 22, 2024
- November 24, 2024
- November 26, 2024
- November 27, 2024
- November 29, 2024
Finest Days at Magic Kingdom in December 2024
- December 1, 2024
- December 3, 2024
- December 5, 2024
- December 6, 2024
- December 8, 2024
- December 10, 2024
- December 12, 2024
- December 13, 2024
- December 15, 2024
- December 17, 2024
- December 19, 2024
- December 20, 2024
As for probably the most crowded dates, it’s principally simply the other of the above–the dates which can be not listed.
The schedule can fluctuate round vacation weeks, however days which can be usually going to be worst are Mondays and Wednesdays. Monday as a result of it’s all the time been the busiest day in Magic Kingdom–and since there are normally events on Sunday and Tuesday. It’s an analogous story with Wednesday–there are sometimes events on Tuesday in addition to Thursday and Friday. Earlier within the Get together Season (all dates earlier than September 25), Wednesday can be the night time that Magic Kingdom hosts Prolonged Night Hours, which additionally exacerbates daytime crowds beginning within the afternoon.
In earlier years, it was once the case that Saturdays had been the worst day of the week at Magic Kingdom throughout Get together Season. That might find yourself being true once more throughout the coronary heart of the vacation season, however weekends haven’t been as unhealthy the final couple of years. It stays to be seen how this adjustments (or doesn’t) for Get together Season, particularly October by way of December.
Be significantly aware of non-party dates which can be sandwiched between or amongst celebration dates. That is the most important crimson flag from mid-October by way of December, when Get together Season “expands” from 2-3 days per week to 3-4 days per week.
There are some 4-5 days stretches when Magic Kingdom is just one till 10 pm or 11 pm as soon as. This creates main issues, as there are a number of days of crowds consolidated right into a single date by advantage of these concentrated 6 pm closings.
Crimson Flag Late 2024 Dates at Magic Kingdom
- September 25, 2024
- September 28, 2024
- October 2, 2024
- October 5, 2024
- October 9, 2024
- October 16, 2024
- October 19, 2024
- October 26, 2024
- November 13, 2024
- November 16, 2024
- November 20, 2024
- November 23, 2024
- November 25, 2024
- November 28, 2024
- December 4, 2024
- December 7, 2024
- December 11, 2024
- December 14, 2024
- December 18, 2024
We’d extremely advocate avoiding Magic Kingdom in any respect prices on the dates above, if in any respect attainable.
If it’s not attainable for no matter motive, you’ll completely need to benefit from Early Entry and buy Lightning Lane Multi-Cross. Take a noon break, keep late, use savvy technique, and so forth. These are the dates you’re almost definitely to come across 7/10 to 10/10 crowd ranges at Magic Kingdom. That’s nonetheless “beatable” however provided that you’re correctly ready!
One particular date we need to draw your consideration to is December 18, 2024.
December 17 and 19-20 are Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Get together nights, and Saturday, December 21 is the beginning of Christmas week. It was the very same dynamic final 12 months with December 20.
That date ended up having a 9/10 crowd degree with 48 minute common wait time. Against this, Dec. 19 was 28 minutes on common and a 3/10 crowd degree; Dec. 21 was 31 minutes and 4/10. Related story for the opposite MVMCP days in that neighborhood. December 20 truly ended up being the busiest day of Christmas or New 12 months’s weeks at Magic Kingdom–all different parks had been a lot, a lot worse within the lead-up to NYE.
Including insult to damage, Magic Kingdom was solely open from 9 am to 10 pm on December 20. This 12 months will probably be barely completely different as a result of timing of Christmas, however we’re nonetheless anticipating December 18, 2024 to be uniquely terrible, even amongst these crimson flag dates.
My hope a technique Walt Disney World has realized from its errors is making each a kind of crimson flag dates have working hours of not less than 9 am to 11 pm and, ideally, 8 am to midnight. The early October and mid-November dates won’t want 8 am to midnight hours, however the remainder of the record virtually actually will.
If Walt Disney World goes to promote Magic Kingdom twice on so many dates from August by way of December and create these nightmarish crowd dynamics, the least they’ll do is 8 am openings and midnight closings. That is one thing that Disneyland is doing proper now each day, and can all through the low season. And that’s with no sea of 6 pm closings on the calendar!
One other factor to notice is that the above least crowded record is relative to the dates inside every week or basic date vary.
As a basic matter, the Get together Season begins out slower on all dates from August by way of mid-September, after which has a slight spike on the finish of September. Attendance slows down to begin October, however ramps up for fall break and continues that pattern till later within the month. November and December have excessive highs and low lows based mostly on vacation breaks, however are nonetheless, as a basic matter, busier than August and September.
In different phrases, for those who’re an area who has a large open calendar and needs to select an assortment of dates based mostly upon absolute crowd ranges and nothing else, intention for the sooner dates in August and September. There’s a powerful chance that these will find yourself having the bottom wait occasions of all dates on the record when the mud settles.
Nobody truly thinks or behaves this was, so the level is that crowd ranges will not be static on the aforementioned record of the least crowded dates. Magic Kingdom tends to get progressively busier over the course of Get together Season, however even that may be a generalization.
Nevertheless, whilst celebration days get progressively busier (relative to dates earlier within the Get together Season), the rise tends to be even larger for non-party dates. Acknowledged otherwise, the hole in wait occasions truly will increase on non-party vs. celebration days in October by way of December. That’s attributable to a mixture of greater crowd ranges as a complete throughout these months and extra celebration nights every week–thus consolidating crowds on fewer non-party days.
For instance, Magic Kingdom’s crowd degree would possibly find yourself being 1/10 with a median wait time of 25 minutes on the celebration day of September 15. On the non-party Monday of September 16, it could possibly be 4/10 with a median wait time of 32 minutes and crowd degree of three/10. That’s a distinction of seven minutes.
On the celebration day of November 8, Magic Kingdom’s common wait time could possibly be 35 minutes or a 6/10 crowd degree. Nevertheless, the non-party day of November 13 probably will spike considerably (it’s the one date in a 5 day stretch with out an early closing), presumably to a crowd degree of 8/10 or 9/10 and a median wait time of round 45 minutes. Though the gang ranges and common waits are considerably greater than their September counterparts, the profit of selecting the least-crowded date truly elevated, because the hole in wait occasions grew to 10 minutes. That is precisely what occurred final 12 months on the equal dates.
All of that is perhaps exhausting to observe, however the backside line is that you simply’ll get pleasure from 1/10 to three/10 crowd ranges by doing Magic Kingdom on celebration days for concerning the subsequent month. After that, crowd ranges will enhance–however regardless of that, you stand to achieve much more by visiting on celebration days since crowd ranges will spike even worse on non-party days. So merely follow celebration days for the bottom attainable crowds in Magic Kingdom from August by way of late December!
One remaining notice is that Walt Disney World has thrown a monkey wrench into all the above with the Free Park Hopper Deal. Actually, it’s actually troublesome to evaluate the impression this promo could have. For one factor, there’s been virtually no buzz about it–we haven’t heard from many people who find themselves eligible and plan on taking benefit (largely the other).
In principle, providing free Park Hoppers would normalize crowd ranges to some extent. When you learn the above, you’d know the optimum technique for leveraging Park Hoppers throughout Get together Season. However the factor is, that’s counterintuitive zig once they zag technique. Most individuals gained’t learn this or evaluation historic wait occasions information. Who actually desires to depart Magic Kingdom at 6 pm and miss fireworks? There’s restricted enchantment, even for friends with Park Hoppers.
Accordingly, I believe it’s simply as probably–if no more so–that this gambit backfires and is counterproductive. It’ll completely redistribute crowds to some extent, however in what course? This may occasionally not end in greater attendance on 6 pm park closing days in any respect. If I needed to wager, I’d wager that extra individuals having Park Hoppers will imply much more friends crammed into Magic Kingdom for these exceedingly uncommon and intensely engaging 11 pm closings.
As such, I’m mentioning the free Park Hopper promo as one thing that needs to be in your radar as impacting crowd ranges…however there’s a very good probability that gained’t normalize attendance in the way in which that Walt Disney World hopes, and as a substitute will trigger much more crowding on late nights in Magic Kingdom.
In the end, that’s why we strongly advocate visiting Magic Kingdom throughout the daytime hours of each Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Get together and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Get together. Hopefully “exhibiting our work” on a few of this helps you make extra sense of this dynamic, and why it’ll virtually actually be true for August by way of December 2024.
There’s no motive to imagine days when the Magic Kingdom closes at 6 pm will probably be busier than days the park closes at 10 pm or 11 pm (or hopefully midnight on these crimson flag dates). Crowd ranges and common wait occasions from Get together Seasons previous are fairly conclusive on this–the info is indeniable. And that’s simply from a numbers perspective, which doesn’t measure “appears like” crowds. From heaps of anecdotal expertise, we will guarantee you that the hole is even larger there–particularly on Major Road earlier than and after Fortunately Ever After.
After all, that is simply the target angle. There are nonetheless compelling subjective arguments in favor of doing Magic Kingdom on non-party days, particularly for those who worth evenings within the park and use savvy technique. And that’s completely comprehensible! Our focus right here is totally on the numbers, as many friends see the calendar and draw the completely logical conclusion that they’re higher off with ~4 further hours of the day in MK. The issue is that that is the thought technique of most friends, and you’ll come out forward by zigging once they zag! However ideally, you’ll have a Park Hopper for a “better of each worlds” method.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Does this persuade you that you would be able to, from an goal perspective, come out forward by doing celebration shortened days throughout Get together Season at Magic Kingdom? Or, are you continue to unpersuaded, favoring the longer day and subjective superiority of nighttime in Magic Kingdom and attending to see Fortunately Ever After? Did you go to on any of the ‘crimson flag’ dates final 12 months? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions—even once you disagree with us—is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
