In this post, we provide an outlook on the next two years at Disney World, with the goal of helping to pick when to visit during that time. This post gets updated every few months, though in the interim you may see updates near the top that provide some additional information we haven’t yet built into the rest of the post.
We can’t see the future, but we do our best to (1) collect important dates that Disney has confirmed, (2) mention rumored dates that make sense, (3) give our total guesses for things that might happen. It always should be clear which of these categories a given date / prediction falls into.
This post is not a planning guide. We have a Walt Disney World planning guide. If you want a more specific look at different months, we have a collection of Disney World Month-by-Month posts.
This post is specifically concerned with “when to visit.” As of this March 2024 update, we are focused on visits occurring in 2024 and 2025. The next update will hopefully be in April, after the Annual Shareholder meeting, when we hope some date ranges for major projects will be announced.
April 18 Update on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Via BlogMickey, it’s looking as if Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will have media previews around June 9-11, potentially setting the ride up for a late June or July opening after media / Cast Member / annual passholder previews.
Disney will hopefully wind up confirming specific dates as the the rumor mill is now churning. We’ll update this post with official dates once they’re announced.
A Note About Dates
Throughout this post, we give specific dates where specific dates are known and more general time ranges where they are not. In all cases you should research specifics more before booking a trip. For example, when we say “November brings the start of holiday celebrations at Disney World”, we don’t mean “if you visit on November 1 the holiday celebrations will be in full swing.” Specific start and end dates of things within months vary and should be confirmed.
What is this post really about?
I just want to say—this is not a conventional “when to visit” post. Weather isn’t a major topic of discussion. I just link to some discussion of the Epcot festivals. And I don’t go into much detail about crowd levels. All of that is covering in more detail in other places we’ll link to.
This post is focused on major changes to attractions and entertainment, with a secondary focus on seasonal changes, like spring break crowds, summer peaks and valleys, fall lulls, and holiday awesomeness.
If you’re completely new to Walt Disney World, you’ll probably only care about what new rides are opening. If you’ve gone before or started your research, you’ll probably want to know more about the future of virtual queues and Lightning Lanes.
Other Factors to Consider
We’re going to do this backward. The bulk of this post is about major dates and changes at Disney World, but first—because I don’t want anyone to miss these—I want to mention some other factors that might impact when you want to visit Walt Disney World.
Is it [any holiday] weekend? This post doesn’t go into the minutia of every week of crowds at Walt Disney World. We’re focused mostly on major things specific to Walt Disney World (like ride openings or special events), with some discussion of generally high / low crowd times. We have posts that go into more detail about each month.
Should you wait and save for a better trip? Most of the time, if you can wait 6 months or a year and save enough to seriously upgrade your trip, I’d suggest doing it. Early May and early December are our favorite times to visit, and I’d happily push a trip from one to the other if it meant a serious upgrade (longer trip, upgrading to on-site hotel).
Are your kids growing? Check out our Disney World height requirements post. A kid who is on the cusp of 40 inches is set to gain nine rides including all stars like Rise of the Resistance and Tower of Terror. If you can wait until they hit that magic mark (for example) you’ll get more out of your trip.
Can you avoid being early adopter? In a broad sense, the worst time to go to Disney World is when anything changes. (This is sort of the theme of this entire post.) The first days or weeks that a ride debuts, or stops using a virtual queue, or goes between Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane—these are all difficult times to visit because we don’t yet know how it impacts touring strategy.
Major Dates at Disney World
This section is focused only on the most major events that we might plan trips around (mostly debuts of attractions or entertainment). It doesn’t include holidays unless something specific is debuting / changing on those dates. It also includes things I just don’t expect to impact planning that much, regardless of how “epic” they might feel.
We have a Refurbishment and Events Calendar that is somewhat more extensive. I also recommend glancing at the Epcot Festival Calendar and Tips post if festivals are going to be a big part of your trip. We discuss these dates/estimates more immediately below.
Recent Major Changes
April 4, 2023 - Debut of TRON coaster at Magic Kingdom
October 16, 2023 - Debut of Moana Journey of Water at Epcot
December 5, 2023 - “Luminous”, new Epcot nighttime show, debuts
January 9, 2024 - Disney Dining Plans return
Upcoming Changes
June 10, 2024 - Construction at Epcot finally done
June 17, 2024 - Test Track reimagining (retheme and refurbishment) begins (reopening date not set)
Summer 2024 - Splash Mountain reopens as Tiana's Bayou Adventure
(Non-Disney) 2025 - Epic Universe at Universal Orlando Resort opens
Announced but Undated
It’s Tough to be a Bug closing at Animal Kingdom, replaced by Zootopia show
Tropical Americas land replacing Dinoland USA at Animal Kingdom
New land opening at Magic Kingdom
Expected But Not Announced
TRON stops using virtual queue
Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind stops using virtual queue
The Bottom Line About the Current Calendar
The bottom line at the moment is that we’ve reached an uncomfortable stasis. We know Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open in summer 2024. It’s reasonable to expect some other changes at Magic Kingdom around that time, the most likely lineup being:
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure gets individual Lightning Lane and virtual queue
TRON loses virtual queue and gets standby queue
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train moves from individual Lightning Lane to Genie+
While I think each of these changes is more likely than not, that doesn’t mean all three are jointly likely to happen. The second and third are somewhat inevitable, but I’m less certain about the first.
But besides those Magic Kingdom changes, the rest of the resort is a mystery. When will this big Animal Kingdom work begin? When will the Test Track reimagining begin? (Update: June 17) And is this new land at Magic Kingdom going to happen in the next five years, even?
The upshot is that besides trying to avoid the weekend Tiana’s Bayou Adventure debuts (best guess is Memorial Day), I don’t think there’s any time to avoid in the future. All we can say is that the sooner you visit, the more likely you’ll have Animal Kingdom, Test Track, and Magic Kingdom in their current state. The later you visit, the more likely you’ll come up against the start of major work.
Let’s talk about some of the upcoming changes and how they’ll impact your trip. Then we’ll move onto a date-by-date (well, date range by date range) discussion.
Splash Mountain to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Conversion
The last date of operations for Splash Mountain was January 22, 2023, with the ride closed beginning January 23, 2023. As for the opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, summer 2024 is still somewhat vague. It could be as early as May (a common month for “summer” openings at Disney) or as late as September.
If this ride is important to you at this point, we recommend planning a trip in October 2024 or later. If you’re looking to avoid opening weekend—when chaos will rule the day—we’d recommend avoid Memorial Day weekend, which is currently our best guess for when the ride will open.
The Epic Universe Opening
Epic Universe is a new theme park that will open at Disney World’s biggest competitor, right down the road, Universal Orlando Resort. While it isn’t a Disney park, this will be the biggest theme park opening in years. Epic Universe is currently set to open sometime in 2025.
About all those Undated Major Changes…
Disney has gotten into what I think is a pretty poor habit of making “announcements” about the future of the parks that contain basically no useful information for people planning trips. We know they’re planning an expansion to Magic Kingdom and a reworking of Dinoland USA at Animal Kingdom, but we know nothing about when these will occur.
These projects should take years, so they don’t impact our advice at this time. If you’re planning an actual “once in a lifetime” trip, you have to come to terms with the fact that there’s always something new on the horizon. If you plan to visit once every, say, 5 years, then I’d say go ahead and visit now, expecting that none of these undated changes will be completed within 5 years.
Touring Changes That Aren’t Announced Yet
There are three expected changes that will impact touring strategy at the parks but that haven’t been announced yet. Unfortunately, these are changes that could be announced at any moment and will probably be announced on short enough notice that you won’t be able to plan around them if they conflict with your trip.
Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind will eventually drop its virtual queue. Most people are surprised this hasn’t happened already, so I’d call this one “imminent” insofar as I’m always aware it’s a possibility. This will have major impacts on how you spend your morning at Epcot, and we briefly discuss the issue in our Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind page.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train will probably move to Genie+. Disney realized between 2021 and 2023 that having two Individual Lightning Lanes for sale in a park usually doesn’t make sense. As of this update, Magic Kingdom has two—TRON and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We assume at some point they’ll move Seven Dwarfs Mine Train to Genie+. That ride will probably become the top Genie+ pick at that point.
A reasonable guess for the timing of this would be that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will debut with an individual Lightning Lane, pushing Seven Dwarfs Mine Train to Genie+.
TRON Lightcycle Run at Shanghai Disneyland
TRON will drop its virtual queue…eventually. This one could easily be a year away, but at some point TRON will switch from a virtual queue to a regular standby line. We expect at that point it will be the most popular place to start the day at Magic Kingdom.
Timing Your Next Visit to Disney World
Okay, let’s end by going through the next two-ish years block by block to discuss the pros and cons of visiting during these times…
Visiting Disney World Through May 2024
Memorial Day is Monday, May 27, 2024. This is the symbolic kickoff of “summer” in the United States, and the most likely date (well, the weekend prior) for the opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. With Easter on March 31, 2024, we can expect March crowds to be very high, with April crowds a little lower than usual, but probably still high.
Generally, early May is one of our two favorite times to visit Walt Disney World. The weather is perfect and you’re getting in before summer crowds. Of course Disney could throw a curveball and make some changes—or even debut Tiana’s Bayou Adventure—before Memorial Day, but we’re assuming there won’t be any big changes until then.
Bottom line—the pros are that nothing significant looks to change between now and Memorial Day. The con is that if you’re looking for Tiana’s (or any changes to youring, like the end of a virtual queue), you probably need to be waiting until at least Memorial Day.
Visiting Disney World June 2024 through October 2024
Assuming Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens Memorial Day, we’re considering Memorial Day through the first two weeks of June to be a tough time to visit. June traditionally has high crowds, and the added bonus of a new ride will only bring even more crowds.
On top of that, we expect Disney could use the opportunity of Tiana’s launch to reorganize the virtual queue and Lightning Lane situations at Magic Kingdom, meaning it will take everyone a few weeks to sort out exactly how to make the most of rope drop and Lightning Lane strategy under the new order.
July and August tend to bring a dip in crowds as heat and hurricanes enter the picture. By September, most kids are back in school and crowds dip for the fall (the major exception being and holiday weekends).
August also brings the start of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, held on select nights August through October. While that event is definitely worth attending, Halloween is not as big an event at Walt Disney World as Christmas is. Besides some small decorations on Main Street, along with special food and merchandise, you shouldn’t expect much Halloween spirit.
The biggest downside to summer/fall visit is that it isn’t yet the holidays. If you wait until mid-November, you’ll have a chance to catch Walt Disney World in its holiday best. Specific dates for the start of holidays are usually announced in mid-June.
Visiting Disney World for Holidays 2024
The holiday season at Disney World typically begins about one week into November and continues through the end of December. This is when you’ll see holiday decorations go up at all the hotels and parks, along with special food and merchandise around the resort. Here were the dates in 2023 (2024 dates expected to be announced in mid-June):
November 9 2023 - First date of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
November 11 2023 - Official first date of holiday season at Walt Disney World
November 11 2023 - First date of Jollywood Nights at Hollywood Studios
November 18 2023 - Last date of Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival
November 24 2023 - Epcot’s Festival of the Holidays starts
Each park gets its own special holiday treatment (Epcot’s holiday festival usually starts later than the rest of the holiday celebrations). Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is the flagship holiday event and definitely worth attending if you visit during this time. Jollywood Nights was a new event in 2023 that debuted to mixed reviews.
Our other favorite time to visit Disney World (the first being early May), is early December—after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. Crowds are low as people don’t usually vacation between the two holidays, but Christmas celebrations are in full swing.
If you can’t time your visit to avoid crowds, you’ll be dealing with holiday crowds. We’ve long been in the camp that holiday crowds are “worth it”, at least if this isn’t a one-in-a-lifetime trip where you have to get on every ride. These crowds, along with higher prices, are really the only downside to visiting at this time.
Visiting Disney World in 2025 and Beyond
Somehow it feels like Disney keeps announcing more and more but this section of the post gets shorter and shorter. As a reminder, here’s what we know about the future of the parks right now:
Summer 2024 - Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is set to open
June 17, 2024 - Test Track reimagining (retheme and refurbishment) begins (reopening date unknown)
(Not Disney) 2025 - Universal’s new Epic Universe theme park opens
(Unknown Date) It’s Tough to be a Bug closing at Animal Kingdom, replaced by Zootopia show
(Unknown Date) Tropical Americas land replacing Dinoland USA at Animal Kingdom
(Unknown Date) New land opening at Magic Kingdom
I’d guess that we’ll see It’s Tough to be a Bug close in 2024. I expect the new version of Test Track to debut in late 2024 or early 2025 and the Zootopia show to debut at Animal Kingdom in 2025.
As for the Dinoland reimagining at Animal Kingdom, that’s somewhat tougher. Theoretically we could see DINOSAUR and TriceraTop Spin close in 2024, but then we’re looking at a year or more of Animal Kingdom having effectively 5 rides. The alternative, Disney beginning work on the two land while keeping at least DINOSAUR open as long as possible seems clunky, but perhaps the best of bad options.
The Magic Kingdom land is probably at least 5 years away from opening, and construction shouldn’t impact the day-to-day at the park since it is a new land, not a replacement for anything.
In any case, we really have no guidance for when any of this is going to happen. On the plus side, none of it is anything that would impact our upcoming trip recommendations anyway. Yes, I’d like to tell you to get on DINOSAUR before it closes, but if having your schedule locked down has any value to you, then I think you’re fine risking that DINOSAUR, Test Track, and It’s Tough to be a Bug are more likely to be closed the later in 2024 you plan a trip.
If I’m looking at a 2024 or 2025 trip, I’ve got those same weeks I mentioned above on my mind—first week of May, first week of December. First week of May guarantees Tiana’s Bayou Adventure won’t be open, but you’ve got a decent chance of catching some combination of DINOSAUR, Test Track, and It’s Tough to be a Bug before they close. We’d say it’s 50/50 (i.e. we have no idea) that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is open by December 2024. “Late 2024” is just too speculative and too far away at this point. It’s possible that the reimaginings of Test Track and It’s Tough to be a Bug might even be done by December 2024 (the last major retheme of Test Track took 8 months, from April to December 2012).
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.