September Surprise! Need some reassurance...

[DisneyGirl3820]

I wanted to go to WDW at a time of year when there are fewer crowds, since every other time we've gone, it's been crazy. I'm even taking the youngsters out of school. I went to make dining reservations and airline reservations and to my shock, many places/attractions were booked for the middle of September! PLEASE someone out there tell me that this is not going to be a nightmare going at this time??

 

[ELG13]

I'm from the south and we don't have a fall break until November. We are scheduled to go 17-22 and we are pulling the kids out and surprising them also!!! We we're thinking about Oct but when I went to add a few days to the trip there was no available rooms anywhere unless we wanted to spend $1500 a night! We had no problem with the Florida resident availability in September but I havent look at the other packages since we booked. I hope it's not crazy!!!

 

[ELG13]

17-22 of September I should say!

 

[crxbrett]

I'm kind of curious why there's so much disagreement about whether September is busy or not. Some people are claiming that it's the lowest crowd of the year and others are insisting it's as bad a summer. Is there someone we can find solid numbers showing how many people visited WDW in September last year compared to other months? That would probably help answer OP's question.

Using TouringPlans statistics and info, here are what the avg crowds (scale of 1 - 10, 1 being empty, 10 being insanely packed) were per month last year and up thru yesterday for this year:

2017
5.70 - January
6.00 - February
7.55 - March
7.13 - April
6.50 - May
6.77 - June
6.65 - July
6.48 - August
4.14 - September
6.16 - October
6.37 - November
7.61 - December
(6.42 - Avg crowd for 2018)

2018
6.67 - January
6.79 - February
6.90 - March
5.10 - April
5.45 - May
7.33 - June
5.35 - July
5.00 - August
(6.07 - Avg crowd for 2017)

Using those statistics, and if this most recent July and August were any indication of what crowds we see this upcoming September (assuming we see the same type of drop-off that we saw from 2017-2018 occur), crowd levels this Sep will probably be around a daily avg of about 3.23 this year for the month compared to last year's 4.14.

Anyways, it's clear as day if someone looks at 2017 that September is by far the slowest month of the year still at WDW and by a pretty fair amount. And it only makes sense, since that is when school starts for pretty much everyone all over.

 

[DryerLintFan]

Something to consider about crowd calendar numbers.... they're also adjusted to crowd levels for the year. So a crowd level one five years ago is not the same as a crowd level one this year. The parks are more crowded in general, so crowd level one is more crowded than it used to be. If that makes sense.

 

[Shouldigo12]

Using TouringPlans statistics and info, here are what the avg crowds (scale of 1 - 10, 1 being empty, 10 being insanely packed) were per month last year and up thru yesterday for this year:

2017
5.70 - January
6.00 - February
7.55 - March
7.13 - April
6.50 - May
6.77 - June
6.65 - July
6.48 - August
4.14 - September
6.16 - October
6.37 - November
7.61 - December
(6.42 - Avg crowd for 2018)

2018
6.67 - January
6.79 - February
6.90 - March
5.10 - April
5.45 - May
7.33 - June
5.35 - July
5.00 - August
(6.07 - Avg crowd for 2017)

Using those statistics, and if this most recent July and August were any indication of what crowds we see this upcoming September (assuming we see the same type of drop-off that we saw from 2017-2018 occur), crowd levels this Sep will probably be around a daily avg of about 3.23 this year for the month compared to last year's 4.14.

Anyways, it's clear as day if someone looks at 2017 that September is by far the slowest month of the year still at WDW and by a pretty fair amount. And it only makes sense, since that is when school starts for pretty much everyone all over.

Something to consider about crowd calendar numbers.... they're also adjusted to crowd levels for the year. So a crowd level one five years ago is not the same as a crowd level one this year. The parks are more crowded in general, so crowd level one is more crowded than it used to be. If that makes sense.

Awesome, thanks guys! OP, I think this pretty much answers your question. September may be more crowded than previous years but it's still slower than any other time.

 

[DisneyGirl3820]

Thanks everyone!