Disney World In August (2024)

In this post, we discuss visiting Disney World in August. We cover weather, crowds, holidays, events, refurbishments, and anything else you’d like to know if you were planning a visit to Walt Disney World Resort in this summer month. Read on to learn all about visiting Walt Disney World in August!

Quick Thoughts on August 2024

We’ll start with quick thoughts on August 2024 before we dive into details like pricing, holidays, events, weather, and so on.

Below average crowds, below average prices, above average heat. With its heat, risk of hurricanes, and proximity to the start of school years, August is low season at Walt Disney World.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will probably be open. The new ride, taking the place of old Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom, is now set to open in summer 2024. In the US, Memorial Day weekend (May 27) is the kickoff of the unofficial “summer” season. This puts all of June and July in play for an opening, but “summer” could also mean as late as September. That said, it’s hard to imagine Disney advertising a “summer” opening and then missing out on the entire summer travel season. I expect a debut by the end of July.

August NOTABLE DATES IN DISNEY WORLD

If you’re thinking about these dates for your visit, keep in mind that normal rules might not apply.

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (along with the Main Street Halloween decorations and Halloween merchandise and snacks) typically debuts in early-mid August (August 11 in 2023).

Disney World Crowds In August

Our position on Walt Disney World crowd calendars is that people often put too much weight into them, but that’s it’s still good to know general trends as well as specific events that impact crowds.

We estimate August to be one of the slower months of the year—only the tenth most crowded. It’s the least crowded of the summer months (June, July, August) but slightly busier than September (except for Labor Day)

August has no major holidays. One “holiday” can occur in late August if Labor Day (the first Monday in September) is close to the end of August. You might see Labor Day crowds trickle in a bit early. This could be a significant issue in 2024 and 2025 when Labor Day occurs on September 1 and 2.

August is part of North American summer. Most students in the United States are not in school during the bulk of August, but they begin returning later in the month. Like July, August is also incredibly hot, which keeps crowds from getting too excessive.

The net result of these two effects is that August crowds tend to be average to low. For families with kids in school, August is one of the best options for visiting if you’re looking for tolerable crowd levels.

If you must see a crowd calendar, the one we trust most is over at WDW Prep School.

Disney World Events In August

ESPN Wide World of Sports hosts a few athletic events in August, but fewer than July, and none bring crowds that need to be avoided. If you’re visiting in summer, some measure of these athletic crowds is unavoidable (you might want to avoid staying at the All-Star hotels, though).

At Epcot, August historically was a “Diet Epcot” month with no festival (see the Epcot Festival Calendar here). While we had a few years of an August festival, in 2024 we’re back to a late—August 29—start for the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. Unless a surprise summer festival is announced, the bulk of August will be festival-free.

At Magic Kingdom, August includes the start of Halloween festivities, primarily the debut of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

Halloween in August is a little awkward, but if you’re a family with kids in school this might be your best opportunity to experience the Halloween party. Personally, we find it a good way to kick off the Halloween season, though it does require Zoe’s costume to be ready pretty early.

Disney World Prices In August

Disney World’s hotel and ticket prices vary throughout the year. For a more comprehensive look for pricing throughout the year, check out our post on the cheapest time of the calendar year to visit Walt Disney World. You can also visit the 2024 hotel rate table at MouseSavers. Here’s a table showing how hotel prices at All Star Movies, Port Orleans Riverside, Wilderness Lodge, and Yacht Club fluctuate throughout the year:

Mid-August through Mid-September makes high season for hurricanes and heat, and thus low season for crowds and prices at Walt Disney World. Generally these prices are going to be competitive with the prior and future January lows, making this period one of the cheapest times to visit Disney World.

August prices see more variance than other months, but there’s little to complain about since they’re so low relative to the rest of the year. Here’s a graph of pricing within the month at All Star Movies, Port Orleans Riverside, Wilderness Lodge, and Yacht Club:

Disney World August Deals and Discounts

Summer, including most of August, typically sees a discount offer announced during the beginning of the year. It’s usually around 20% off room rates, but can vary. In 2024, August is a part of the Free Dining for Disney+ Subscribers offer, along with a room-only discount offer.

Discounts will vary by hotel, room type, and availability. You can see current Disney World offers here. If nothing is available yet, you might also want to check out historical Disney World discount information here.

Refurbishments & New Constructions

Lengthy ride refurbishments are uncommon during the summer months, but can happen in the heart of summer and are more common as peak travel season wraps up in late August.

Splash Mountain (Magic Kingdom) closed permanently beginning January 23, 2023. The ride is slated to reopen as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in summer 2024, which could reasonably be anytime between late May and late September.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (Hollywood Studios) will close for refurbishment beginning January 8, 2024. It’s expected to be closed until “summer” 2024.

Country Bear Jamboree (Magic Kingdom) will close for refurbishment beginning January 27, 2024. It’s expected to be closed until “summer” 2024.

Test Track (Epcot) will close for a large refurbishment / reimagining beginning June 17. A reopening date has not yet been yet. The last major reimagining of Test Track took 8 months.

Check our Walt Disney World construction / refurbishment calendar for the latest.

Water Park Operations

Disney World has two water parks, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, neither of which is open the entire year. After some years of uncertainty, the schedule has seemingly settled down so that each year we have:

Typhoon Lagoon opens / Blizzard Beach closes mid-March
Blizzard Beach opens / Typhoon Lagoon closes early November

This schedule is subject to change (and Disney only announces specific dates about a month in advance, in any case). Most recently, Disney confirmed that Typhoon Lagoon will reopen on March 17, 2024. Blizzard Beach will begin its annual refurbishment closure on that same day. This means we expect Typhoon Lagoon will be the only water park open for the entirety of August.

Disney World Weather In August

Along with July, August is the hottest month at Disney World, with an average high of 92F (33C) and an average low of 73F (23C). August is also one of the wettest months, with an average of 15 rainy days (two less than July). (We have a post that talks more broadly about weather at Walt Disney World.)

Hurricanes

August is the start of the core of hurricane season in Florida. Whenever you’re planning an August trip, you need to accept there’s a risk of the parks closing.

Since 1985, the Walt Disney World parks have had to close nine times due to Hurricanes. Two closures were in August, six were in September, and one was in October. The closures ranged from 0.5 days to 2.5 days.

Two August closures in over 20 years isn’t huge, but we’ve seen non-August closures in 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2022. If these things become more common, we might see an August closure soon. The earlier in August you visit, the lower the risk of hurricane closure you’ll face.

Typically the hurricane won’t be a safety issue for you, and it shouldn’t have significant financial implications.

On the safety front, hurricanes are predicted in advance, and Orlando is relatively inland on Florida. The weather might not be safe enough for theme parks to operate, but the structures at Walt Disney World will rarely be significantly threatened.

But there are several reasons you still don’t want to be in Walt Disney World during a hurricane. First of all, it probably isn’t as safe as, say, your home not during a hurricane. There is also very little to do if parks and restaurants are closed—you’ll be eating very simple meals for a few days and maybe enjoying some lobby activities.

You don’t get refunded if you don’t leave the resorts. Our last August trip was cut short by a hurricane and it was an easy decision for us to leave because we had been planning to stay at Wilderness Lodge. We didn’t want to pay $500 / night to sit in a room and eat boxed lunches.

The other big reason to leave Walt Disney World is that inland Florida is an escape for coastal floridians during the hurricane. Generally, they need the room (and the boxed lunches) more than you do.

On the financial front, Disney and airlines tends to do a good job of making sure people aren’t financially ruined escaping a hurricane. Airlines tend to be worse—when our trip was cut short by the hurricane, but our flight was too far in the future to be covered by the airline’s change policies. You might look into some form of travel insurance for this, but read the terms carefully.

When our trip was cut short, we had booked (as we almost always do) through our travel advisor, Lauren Quirk. Lauren handled all our cancellations and refunds, which allowed us to focus on our (reduced) time on vacation.

Heat

While hurricanes might sound scarier, heat is a significantly bigger actual risk. August in Florida is miserable. The heat and humidity make mid afternoons unbearable. There are two aspects of this to consider. First, take note of the health risks and be prepared for them. Read up on heatstroke and dehydration.

You can stay hydrated at Disney World easily. There are plenty of drinking fountains, and any quick service restaurant will happily provide you a free cup of water. There are also water bottle refilling stations in all four parks.

The second part of this analysis is how heat will impact your touring strategy. There are a few things to keep in mind.

Rope drop (the start of your day) and Lightning Lanes are more important in the heat because you really don’t want to find yourself standing in an outdoor queue at 2PM. At that hour, you want to either be inside or seated in the shade at an outdoor show.

If you have to wait in line, you prefer to do it at an attraction with a mostly inside queue. Space Mountain, Toy Story Mania, Soarin’, and DINOSAUR are probably the best options in each park.

If you’re staying hydrated (you should be), don’t get into line for a ride with a two-hour wait without confirming with a Cast Member that there’s a restroom in the queue.

Our places to escape the Disney World crowds post might be of interest, because many of those places are also shaded and indoors.

All About Rain

We don’t let rain forecasts bother us at Disney World anymore. We prepare for rain—bringing the right shoes and maybe a poncho—but we don’t plan trips around it.

The chief reason for this is that rain in Florida usually comes in short bursts. Anything substantial for longer than 30 minutes is pretty surprising.

The other big thing is that forecasts change constantly. We’ve had trips with forecasted five days of rain that amounted to a total of rain on two days that didn’t at all interrupt our trip.

Rain definitely can impact your trip though. We were at Fort Wilderness during a severe thunderstorm that kept us inside all day (though people who braved the parks got tremendously short waits).

We also were on hand for the first Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party of 2019, which had almost every show rained out. The fireworks (the debut of a brand new show) went off as planned but were completely unwatchable because the rain / humidity held down the smoke.

That Christmas party was in November. The Fort Wilderness day was in February. Both those months average only six days of rain, tied for driest months of the year.

You will face less risk of rain in drier months, but the bottom line is that most rain in Florida—whenever it occurs—will be short-lived and won’t significantly impact your trip. The odds of weather that seriously impacts your trip—outside peak hurricane season—is small and more or less consistent across months.

July / August / September

As a closing note, let’s compare August to its neighboring months.

Should I visit Disney World In July or August?

Historically, August does see lower crowds than July, in part due to the similar weather, lack of a major holiday, and schools starting at the end of August.

August also typically marks the beginning of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Halloween in August is a little strange, but if you have kids you might not have a better chance to celebrate Halloween at a Disney park since they’ll be in school during the autumn months.

The downside of August is the hurricane risk. Two Augusts since 1985 have seen park closures due to Hurricanes, but the September 2019 closure was quite early in September, too. If you’re looking at the middle of the month, your hurricane risk is probably still negligible.

Should I visit Disney World in August or September?

If you have kids, they’re probably back in school by the end of August or early September. In that case, the choice is probably made for you—visit in August. (We don’t recommend Labor Day or any holiday weekends.)

If you have a choice in the matter, September is typically the better month to visit Walt Disney World. But that’s a big if. If it’s a hassle to take the kids out of school in September, August is a fine alternative.

The biggest downside to September is that there’s a slightly increased hurricane risk. September saw hurricane closures in both 2017 and 2019. But August has some risk of hurricane closures, too, so you’re not completely avoiding it by going in August.

Other than that, September has lower crowds than August (among the lowest of the year, actually), more Halloween party dates, and cooler temperatures (still 90F/72F). You’ll also be more likely to catch Food & Wine Festival in September.

Should I visit Walt Disney World In August?

If you can stand the heat, August is a great month to visit Walt Disney World. As you get deeper into the month, you’ll see lower crowds and a slightly increased hurricane risk, but end of August tends to be a good time to visit.

Have you visiting Walt Disney World in August? What did you think?

All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered

Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.

Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.

When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!

Don't forget to master your Disney World Genie+ and Lightning Lane strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Animal Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.

Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.

Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.

Related Posts