Late August Crowd levels?

[mom2morgan]

We've gone early December in the past, but we want to go next year without my daughter (who will be a senior) missing any class time. We've heard that late August isn't as bad as the rest of the summer since many American kids are back in school by then (in Alberta, we go September till the end of June; I understand much of the USA goes August to May). Does this, in fact, decrease the crowds? And can anyone who has gone at both times, give me a comparison between August crowds and week-before-Christmas crowds? We always heard mid December was so slow, but it sure wasn't last year!

[CanadianWDWFan]

We were there this past August 23 until Sept. 5. What we found is that the crowds were high until the week before Labour Day. Then the crowds dropded off substantially until the Friday before the Labour Day weekend.

Ontario schools are the same as Alberta schools, which is why we did this time for this trip.

[Disney4us2]

I haven't been there the end of August to know what the crowd levels are like. We have been the middle of July and the first week of December.

I would go the end of August since my DD starts in Sept. right after Labor day. A lot just depends on the area of the USA and the individual school districts as to when they start school. I have a friend in Nebraska and her DD starts the second week in Aug. Another school district in our area starts early too. A lot of schools in the USA do start early because of snow days. Southern California doesn't count on snow days unless you live in the mountain areas:D

[faline]

While many school in the U.S. are back in session by late August, many are not. Typically, in the Northeast, many schools do not start their fall session until September.

We've been in August the last couple of years. We went late August through early September last year and the crowds were not bad at all. This year, we wanted to get in another trip before our annual passes expire so went a bit earlier than we did last year. We found it to be quite crowded - enough so that we often left the parks mid-day as I was tired of threading my way through groups of people. Still, overall, it was manageable.

[bruin1344]

Went late August 2008 but never in Dec. The crowds were manageable. Average attraction wait time was about 15 minutes except for Toy Story and Soarin were the only ones that had lines over an hour consistently. Blizzard Beach was very crowded since a lot of UK people went there. The major negative about that time of year is the very hot weather and daily chance of thunderstorms. Luckily there is enough indoor attractions at most of the parks to stay cool.