Disney World In July (2024)

In this post, we discuss visiting Disney World in July. 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 July!

QUICK THOUGHTS ON July 2024

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

Average crowds, average prices, above average heat. Once July 4 passes, July has average crowds and average prices. Summer heat arrives, though, and long days at the park get a bit tougher.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure might 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.

July Notable Dates in Disney World

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

July 4 - July 8. This is July 4th and the following weekend. Expect increased crowds during this time, specifically July 4, a Thursday in 2024. The parks can hit capacity during these days. We discuss July 4 in more detail below.

Disney World Crowds In July

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.

July is a particularly simple month—there’s a peak around the July 4th holiday and the rest of the month you should just expect average crowds. We estimate July to be the fifth or sixth busiest month of the year, with June third and August tenth.

July is part of North American summer. Most students in the United States are not in school during July, which makes it a popular month for family vacations, including to Disney World.

But July is also incredibly hot, which keeps crowds from getting too excessive (July 4 being a notable exception, discussed more below).

The net result of these two effects is that July crowds—outside the dates around July 4—aren’t usually anything to worry about. The month tends to be about average overall.

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

Disney World Events In July

ESPN Wide World of Sports hosts a variety of athletic events throughout July, including the AAU Summer Basketball July 4 to 16 (2023 dates). We don’t think these dates need to be specifically avoided.

If you’re visiting in summer, some measure of these athletic crowds—indeed, all family crowds—is unavoidable. These groups tend to stay at the All Star Hotels, so you may want to avoid booking stays at those hotels during athletic events.

At Epcot, July was historically a “Diet Epcot” month with no festival (see the Epcot Festival Calendar here). Since 2021, though, the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival was extended into early-July and Food & Wine Festival begins in mid-July.

But in 2024, things have shifted back, though, with Food and Wine starting August 29, 2024 and Flower and Garden ending May 27 in 2024.

So far, then, we’re expecting July to be festival-free. However, there has been speculation that a new festival could debut in June / July. Nothing has been announced or hinted at by Disney yet, though.

Disney World Prices In July

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:

July marks the start of low season at the deluxe resorts as more flexible travelers avoid the summer heat. The value resorts don’t see a dip until mid-August, when kids return to school.

Within July, prices are roughly stable outside the July 4 bump. Here’s a graph of pricing within the month at All Star Movies, Port Orleans Riverside, Wilderness Lodge, and Yacht Club:

Disney World July Deals and Discounts

Summer, including July, 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, July 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.

July 4th

Update: BlogMickey has specifics on the Disney World July 4 offerings in 2023.

The big event at Walt Disney World in July is July 4th (American Independence Day). Because a significant portion of Americans have July 4th (or a nearby weekday, if it’s a weekend) off of work, and because most American students are not in school for the summer, July 4th is one of the busiest times at Walt Disney World.

With July 4 on a Thursday in 2024, you should prepare for high crowds from Thursday July 4 through Monday July 8, but hope that the middle-of-the-week holiday winds up drawing fewer people than usual. You should prepare for the parks to potentially hit capacity some dates, particularly July 4. While 2023 was pretty slow, you never know how a holiday weekend will shape up.

There’s no secret way to “beat” July 4 crowds. All you can do is remember the fundamentals, do your best, and accept that it’s crowded. The fundamentals include: arrive early for rope drop (and come with a plan), prepare to spend some money on Lightning Lanes, and know the other ways to get on Disney World rides.

Magic Kingdom typically offers special fireworks on July 3 and July 4 (same show, two nights). Magic Kingdom is also usually the most crowded park on July 4. A common strategy is to avoid it July 3 and 4 except for a few hours solely to catch the firework show. Because the park can hit capacity, you’ll usually want to first try to catch the July 3 fireworks.

Epcot has historically offered special fireworks on July 4. Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom typically do not do anything special for July 4.

Refurbishments & New Constructions

July is a popular month at the parks. It’s summer, so water rides will usually all be operational. Lengthy ride refurbishments are uncommon during the summer months.

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 July.

Disney World Weather In July

Along with August, July is the hottest month at Disney World, with an average high of 92F (33C) and an average low of 73F (23C). July is also one of the wettest months, with an average of 17 rainy days (one less than June). (We have a post that talks more broadly about weather at Walt Disney World.)

Heat

Of the July weather issues, heat is the only one we take seriously. July 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.

Hurricanes

July is a part of hurricane season, but not the heart of it (that’s August, September, October), in Florida. Hurricanes are rarely a matter of mere inconvenience at Walt Disney World. While nearby hurricanes may bring more rain and wind than usual, the risk isn’t “bad weather”, it’s 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. None were in July. The closures ranged from 0.5 days to 2.5 days.

July doesn’t have a meaningful risk of a park closure due to hurricane. It’s possible, of course, but not a significant enough risk to enter into your calculus, in our opinion.

All About Rain

(This section is more or less the same in each of these posts, so feel free to scroll past it if you’ve read it.)

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.

June / July / August

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

Should I visit Disney World in June or July?

Comparing these two months is pretty straightforward. June typically has the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival and since the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival is back to a late-July start, July mostly doesn’t have a festival. (As noted above, the status of the Festival calendar is a bit more ambiguous than usual.)

Beyond that, the tradeoff is straightforward—July has slightly lighter crowds but slightly worse weather. Besides July 4 weekend, we don’t see too much to distinguish these.

Should I visit Disney World In July or August?

Choosing between July and August is a little more complicated. 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 Walt Disney World In July?

The bottom line is simple enough—if you can stand the heat, July is a great month to visit outside of the July 4 crowds. You’ll have moderate crowds and few surprises as long as you keep your distance from that holiday.

Have you visiting Walt Disney World in July? 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.

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