Crowd levels

[Scallywag]

We usually 2nd week of June when the kids are out of school. We heard that we might see lower crowd levels if we went the 1st week of June. Any truth to that?

I also heard that the 1st week of June is Gay Pride week. Does this increase the crowd levels? Would it defeat the purpose of going a week earlier to avoid more crowded parks?

Thanks.

[Disneycouple23]

We were just there from the 4th-8th. The 4th at the Magic Kingdom was not to bad. Friday at Epcot was crowded and Sat at Hollywood Studios was absolutely packed because of Star Wars weekend, then that evening and night at The Magic Kingdom it was also packed. It was open til 2 am. Sunday at Animal Kingdom was crowded.
We were surprised by how crowded it was and how many school age kids were there on the weekday being school is still in session. We thought we would have beat the crowds. Using Fast Pass made it so much more enjoyable.

[Pirate Granny]

I agree, we were at MK on Saturday and it was a zoo...and the Gay Pride folks were out in force, although our two 8 year olds didn't seem to notice so that really wasn't an issue for us. We left at 9:30pm and were on the boat back to WLV just as the fireworks started. There were many people just coming in the gates, and a fairly large crowd waiting for the WLV boat to the MK at 10pm.

We've gone the last two years the first week of June, and some schools are already out this year was the hottest though.

[AgentC]

The first week may or may not be better based on the Florida school schedule. This year school in my district got out on June 3rd and all 3 days in the week were early release with mainly fun activites. Seasonal passes were blocked out starting the 7th or 8th which means a lot of Florida residents with kids will take their last trip for the year before block out.

Next year most FL schools are starting a week later which means that they will be done the second week of June so the first week could be better but there could also be field trip groups.

[eandrsmom]

We just returned from a trip. We were there June 2-8. It was crowded, but I did find it to be less crowded than later in the summer. Saturday at HS was extremely crowded, but we purchased the Feel the Force package, which helped enormously. I did talk to a few families with seasonal passes, and they were there to take advantage of the last few days that they could use their passes before the blackout dates began. As far as Gay Days, I didn't find that it made any difference as far as crowds. On the Gay Day website, they list which park the group would be attending each day. To avoid extra crowds, I tried to avoid the park that they chose each day. Also, we would do morning fastpasses then have lunch. After lunch we would head back to the hotel to swim and rest. We would have dinner then return to the parks. For the most part, the crowds were much less crowded at night. And, it was MUCH cooler.

[Scallywag]

Thanks everyone. This will help my planning for next year.

[gottaluvtink]

All the schools I know of, being from the Midwest, get out of school in mid May. Lots of people head to Disney end of May, first of June.