Our information to September 2024 at Walt Disney World presents a free crowd calendar, when to go to, crimson flag dates to keep away from, new attraction openings & closures, plus Halloween occasions & early fall climate. We additionally cowl what’s occurring at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. (Up to date August 22, 2024.)
Relative to summer time, September is an efficient month to go to Walt Disney World as a result of low season crowds for many of the month and seasonal occasions like Halloween. Faculty is again in session, and wait instances are low from Labor Day till crowds arrive in direction of the top of the month for the beginning of conference and group occasions seasons, plus early fall breaks. The September 2024 crowd calendar beneath makes this month a extremely engaging time to go to.
Whereas each park isn’t going to be “lifeless” each day of the week, should you plan properly, you’ll be able to actually keep away from crowds throughout a September Walt Disney World go to. That additionally means shorter September park hours, however you’ll be able to’t actually argue with undertaking extra in much less time. There’s solely actually one draw back to September at Walt Disney World, and it’s a reasonably large one.
That one draw back is the climate, which is unhealthy for 2 distinct causes that we’ll cowl within the subsequent part. On steadiness, mid to late September can nonetheless be an excellent time to go to Walt Disney World, nevertheless it’s not for everybody. You might have to have the ability to tolerate (or gamble on) the climate with a purpose to be rewarded with extraordinarily low crowds.
Let’s check out what you’ll be able to count on in September at WDW…
September Climate at Disney World
The draw back comes by way of climate. By way of temperatures, September is best than June by way of August, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a big gamble. It’s loads like Might on this regard: it may be temperate and nice, or insanely scorching. Particularly early within the month, it may be fairly scorching and humid.
At first of September, common excessive temperatures are 90°, with common lows of 75°. In direction of the top of the month, the climate improves barely, with historic highs of “solely” 87° and lows of 72°. Add oppressive humidity that’ll fog your glasses the second you step out of your resort room, and September continues to be a fairly undesirable month by way of climate.
Suffice to say, should you’re visiting Walt Disney World in September, keep in mind to pack accordingly, bringing the Frogg Toggs for the humidity…and ponchos for the rain so that you don’t spend $179 on them at Walt Disney World. You’ll be able to view day-by-day temperature and climate forecasts plus historic averages for Walt Disney World climate in September right here.
September can also be the peak of hurricane and storm season. For every of the final three years, hurricanes have impacted operations at Walt Disney World on the very finish of August or starting of September. (Add final 12 months to that checklist, as Hurricane Idalia provided a scare, however didn’t materially affect operations at Walt Disney World!) In recent times, Hurricanes Ian, Dorian and Irma have brought on the parks to shut.
It’s possible you’ll need to seek the advice of our Visiting Walt Disney World Throughout Storm Season article to navigate the afternoon showers (or worse) with out them placing an excessive amount of of a damper in your journey. Issues get higher in direction of the top of the month each by way of humidity and storms, so your greatest wager is unquestionably to carry off on visiting till later within the month should you can.
WDW Seasonal Occasions in September
To reply a standard query: sure, you will note Halloween decorations should you go to Walt Disney World in September. Any day in September. Nonetheless, the one park that will get decked out for Halloween is Magic Kingdom, and that’s true in any 12 months, not simply 2024.
The large occasion for September is Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion. In September, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion begins occurring with growing frequency. By mid-month, Magic Kingdom is closing early for MNSSHP a number of nights per week. As mentioned beneath, this actually throws a monkey wrench into attendance dynamics.
One other occasion that’ll happen all through September 2024 is the EPCOT Worldwide Meals & Wine Pageant. It is a nice approach to graze and pattern totally different cuisines, or attend instructive seminars, or different foodie particular occasions. It’s additionally a good way to lighten your pockets, as it is vitally straightforward to spend some huge cash at Meals & Wine Pageant on these small samples.
Particularly should you purchase booze: not solely are you able to spend loads on the drinks, however the drinks would possibly trigger you to calm down your bank card swiping hand and use it extra freely on snacks. Not that we all know from expertise or something. Take a look at our Information to the EPCOT Worldwide Meals & Wine Pageant for extra suggestions and tips for this occasion.
The large change for 2024 is that the EPCOT Meals & Wine Pageant as soon as once more begins on the finish of August, which means it’ll nonetheless be recent by the point September rolls round. This implies weekends at EPCOT will likely be busier, as Floridians and Annual Passholders head to the park to eat and drink their method all over the world.
SEPTEMBER REFURBISHMENTS & NEW ATTRACTIONS
For an concept of what’s going to be closed in September 2024, examine the Walt Disney World Refurbishment Schedule. Simply be warned that this doesn’t absolutely cowl the development throughout Walt Disney World—simply trip and leisure closures.
The largest trip that’s at present closed is Take a look at Observe, which is being reimagined. A reopening date has not but been introduced, nevertheless it’s already confirmed to be closed for the rest of this 12 months. We’re anticipating it to reopen for Spring Break 2025 on the absolute earliest.
Along with that, Jungle Cruise is closed at some stage in September 2024. On a few constructive notes, Nation Bear Musical Jamboree and Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster have each reopened after prolonged downtime. Furthermore, not one of the massive initiatives introduced at D23 will begin till someday in 2025. So regardless of it being low season, there aren’t that many refurbishments in September 2024!
Each of the latest main points of interest at Walt Disney World are in Magic Kingdom, with Tiana’s Bayou Journey now open as of late final month! That is the reimagining of Splash Mountain, and tells the story of “The Princess and the Frog” after the occasions of the film. As mentioned in Tiana’s Bayou Journey Journey Assessment: Failure, Flawed or Incredible?, the attraction is a combined bag.
When you’re visiting in August 2024, there are two different issues you need to learn about Tiana’s Bayou Journey. The primary is that it makes use of a digital queue…for now. See Methods to Journey Tiana’s Bayou Journey for all the pieces that you must learn about its (lack of) standby line, Lightning Lane, and digital queue.
The large obstacle to ditching the digital queue and switching to standby is downtime and reliability points. As mentioned in You May Have Issues Using Tiana’s Bayou Journey at Magic Kingdom, the reimagined trip is having troubles proper now and ceaselessly has a number of hours of downtime per day. It most likely gained’t drop the digital queue till it’s working extra constantly, with out frequent breakdowns. It appears unlikely that’ll occur by September, however who is aware of.
Then there’s TRON Lightcycle Run, which is the latest brand-new (not reimagined) main attraction at Walt Disney World. See our Digital Queue Technique Information for TRON Lightcycle Run for particulars, suggestions & tips for achievement, and extra. Sadly, you can not be part of each the digital queue for Tiana’s Bayou Journey and TRON Lightcycle Run on the identical time, so that you’ll must strategize with a purpose to expertise each in the identical day.
Bouncing again to EPCOT, there’s a bunch of different new stuff there. This contains World Celebration, CommuniCore Corridor, Moana’s Journey of Water, and Luminous: Symphony of Us–all of which debuted throughout the final 12 months. That’s nonetheless fairly new within the grand scheme of issues! There’s additionally Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Area 220 Restaurant, Remy’s Ratatouille Journey, and a bunch of different stuff.
For an outline of what else is on the horizon, see What’s New & Subsequent at Walt Disney World in 2024 & 2025.
SEPTEMBER 2024 DISNEY WORLD CROWD CALENDAR
There’s no color-coded September 2024 crowd calendar for Walt Disney World on the high of this part as a result of that’s reductionist and doesn’t provide the full image of Walt Disney World attendance traits. WDW crowd calendars are much less dependable as a result of how Disney manipulates attendance patterns, staffing, closures, and trip capability. It’s higher to supply an evidence of what to anticipate crowd-wise this fall at Walt Disney World.
Since Disney doesn’t launch official attendance numbers, crowd calendars use issues like faculty schedules, airport visitors statistics, resort pricing & occupancy, and so forth., as proxies for crowds. For years, this method labored and made crowd calendars dependable. Walt Disney World attendance adopted an identifiable sample that tracked with the aforementioned proxies.
Sadly, wait instances not mirror precise crowds due to the aforementioned manipulation. We are able to nonetheless forecast attendance, however not the ensuing wait instances. That is just like the distinction between the precise temperature and the “appears like” temperature, however with crowds. The latter are what most of you possible care about (the “appears like” crowds), nevertheless it’s tougher to foretell wait instances by way of Walt Disney World crowd calendars. Hopefully that is sensible!
That’s the unhealthy information. The superb information is that September 2024 is the perfect month of the 12 months to go to Walt Disney World from an goal perspective. (From a subjective perspective is a wholly totally different story because of the climate forecast!) Actually all the month sees beneath common crowds. Even Labor Day weekend (September 1-2, 2024) attracts far smaller crowds than most different holidays.
Final 12 months, Labor Day was downright lifeless at Walt Disney World. Labor Day was a repeat of the Fourth of July vacation weekend, which was one of many slowest stretches of all the 12 months at Walt Disney World. Historical past won’t repeat itself to almost the identical diploma, however as we clarify within the following publish, Labor Day Weekend Isn’t Busy at Disney.
There’s actually no horrible time to go to so far as the September 2024 crowd calendar goes. The start of the month will likely be busier than August on account of the vacation weekend, and the top of the month will see one other spike as a result of ticket offers and seasonal attendance traits (getting nearer to fall break; climate beginning to enhance from summer time).
The time in between, will characteristic a number of the lowest crowds of the 12 months at Walt Disney World. By way of the gang calendar, this is likely one of the final bastions of the low season at Walt Disney World. Common weekly crowd ranges will likely be 1/10 to three/10 throughout this date vary.
When you’re purely involved about crowds, we’d suggest going from September 3-13, 2024. Notice that at one time, we proactively really useful visiting over Labor Day weekend. That was as a result of aggressive blockouts on Annual Passes and (anticipated) exclusions on discounted tickets, in addition to the premium pricing for the vacation weekend, all of which is able to push folks away.
Nonetheless, Walt Disney World wisened up and didn’t exclude Labor Day from ticket offers this 12 months. Whereas all the different elements from final 12 months will nonetheless be in play, the discounted tickets being eligible is a possible gamechanger. It’s not that we’d suggest avoiding Labor Day, it ought to nonetheless be high-quality; it simply isn’t a high decide.
Talking of the ticket offers, there are two of them and they’re going to have a huge impact on crowds in September. The primary of those is the Florida Resident Uncover Disney Ticket, which is legitimate by way of September 28, 2024 with an advance park reservation. Second is the 4-Park, 4-Day Walt Disney World Magic Ticket, which is legitimate by way of September 22, 2024 and does not require reservations.
In combing by way of the wait instances knowledge, final 12 months’s variations of those offers (with totally different finish dates) brought on crowds to peak of their last weekend. These are “use it or lose it” tickets, so there’s all the time a last-minute rush like that–particularly on Fridays by way of Sundays (weekdays aren’t impacted practically as badly).
Throughout that last weekend of validity final 12 months, crowd ranges had been 8/10 with a median wait time of 44 minutes. Earlier that very same week and within the weeks earlier than, crowd ranges had been 1/10 with a median of 27 minutes. That’s an enormous distinction.
Accordingly, we now anticipate September 20-22, 2024 and September 27-29, 2024 each being very busy (crowd ranges 7/10 or above). The weekend earlier than that would likewise be reasonably busy, as might the times main as much as the ticket offers ending. You probably have the choice to go to within the first half of September or the second half, you need to undoubtedly select the primary.
The distinction between these dates in direction of the top of the ticket offers expiring and the remainder of September–in any other case one of many slowest months of the 12 months–will likely be very stark. Crowds will really feel even worse consequently. Whereas these wouldn’t essentially be ‘crimson flag’ dates to keep away from throughout peak season timeframes like Spring Break or round Christmas, they’ll be about as unhealthy because it will get throughout what’s in any other case the low season.
Talking of issues to which we must always name consideration, Rosh Hashanah just isn’t till October 3, 2024. This implies it’s most likely barely much less possible that the final week of September will see a pronounced spike as a result of early fall breaks. September 20-28, 2024 continues to be more likely to be the busiest stretch of the month, however the final couple days of the month–and even the very starting of October–shouldn’t be too unhealthy.
Actually, we’d be extra inclined to go to from September 29 to October 4, 2024 than we’d the week earlier than that. It’s not normally the case that crowds get higher over the course of early fall, however that week specifically seems like one to focus on. No less than, as contrasted with the one earlier than it. Once more, the expiration of these ticket offers are massive drivers of attendance and crowds that catch a whole lot of followers unexpectedly.
Along with the aforementioned weekends (which usually wouldn’t be busy, however for the ticket offers), we’d suggest avoiding Mondays at Magic Kingdom all through September. They’re more likely to be the busiest days of the month, particularly September 16, 23, and 30 in Magic Kingdom. Two extra crimson flag dates for Magic Kingdom are September 25 and 28. Though these aren’t Mondays, they’re the dates which are nestled amongst a number of MNSSHP dates.
Nonetheless, crowds do decide up the nearer you get to October. That is largely as a result of conventions and different group occasions, plus fall breaks for numerous faculty districts across the nation. Some faculties additionally do fall breaks across the final weekend of the month (roughly September 27-30, 2024), so count on increased crowd ranges then, too.
Nonetheless, busier is a relative time period. The final full week of September 2024 will likely be worse than the remainder of the month. Nonetheless, if crowd ranges hit 6/10, that’s technically true as the primary three weeks could have crowd ranges method beneath that. That’s precisely what we’re predicting–crowd ranges averaging out at 6/10 or presumably 7/10 within the final week of the month, however with a wider vary for Magic Kingdom (see beneath).
The excellent news is that the primary half of the month ought to largely have 1/10 to three/10 crowd ranges. Specifically, September 3-13 ought to be blissfully uncrowded–top-of-the-line stretches of all the 12 months. (Objectively talking–subjectively, the climate would possibly depart one thing to be desired!)
For Magic Kingdom, there’s an added wrinkle to the gang calendar: Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion (MNSSHP). On nights this occasion is held, the park closes to common ticket holders at 6 pm. Consequently, Magic Kingdom is much less busy through the day time hours on dates when MNSSHP is held, and extra busy on days the Halloween occasion just isn’t occurring.
We’d strongly suggest visiting Magic Kingdom through the day on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion nights, after which bouncing to a different park at round 4 pm. Animal Kingdom will all the time be the best choice for lower-crowd evenings through the fall.
This may appear counter-intuitive, nevertheless it’s as a result of the celebration is separately-ticketed. Usually, the most important affect is felt nearer to Halloween, so the phenomenon isn’t unhealthy in any respect in September. We’ve reported on this phenomenon at size, seeing this play out each single day of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion season, as mentioned in Greatest & Worst Days to Do Magic Kingdom in 2024. (When you’re questioning why a number of the dates above are crimson flags for Magic Kingdom, that publish explains it.)
You too can count on EPCOT to have worse “appears like” crowds on weekends. That is notably true when native Florida faculties like UCF have away soccer video games. Nonetheless, this doesn’t present up on crowd calendars, which measure wait instances. (These locals trigger congestion however sometimes don’t affect wait instances.)
EPCOT’s attendance will likely be lightest on weekdays through the day, with heavier crowds after work as locals end up to graze on the Meals & Wine cubicles. (That is one thing that’s robust to convey by way of a standard numerical crowd calendar for Walt Disney World.)
SEPTEMBER PRICING & DISCOUNTS
Since it’s the low season, September can also be an excellent month to go to by way of each pricing and potential reductions. You’ll be able to examine obtainable reductions by way of Disney right here. Disney isn’t the one place the place September is the low season, so count on cheaper airfare when touring in September–ensure that to go to ITA Software program to seek for the perfect costs.
So far as pricing goes, early to mid-September is taken into account “worth” season and late September is “common” or “fall” season for resort room charges and park tickets (learn our Ideas for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets publish for ticket suggestions to keep away from having to take care of seasonal pricing).
Total, September is a one of many high months of the 12 months to go to Walt Disney World, and we’d encourage you to go to should you can deal with the warmth and humidity. If that you must persuade a partner to make a spontaneous getaway, there’s actually no higher argument that I can consider than “that one dude on the web mentioned we must always!”
Actually, mid-September is certainly one of our favourite instances of the 12 months for our private visits to Walt Disney World. For some time, we took journeys to Walt Disney World throughout this time for 4 consecutive years, as these low crowds had been an excessive amount of to withstand. Like a high-quality wine, September will get higher because it “ages” with the perfect instances to go to being in direction of the top of the month–primarily as a result of higher climate at the same time as crowds improve barely.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Find out about motels on our Walt Disney World Accommodations Evaluations web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Evaluations. To save cash on tickets or decide which sort to purchase, learn our Ideas for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets publish. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys publish takes a singular take a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Journey Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the perfect place to start out is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for all the pieces that you must know!
Your Ideas
Are you a fan of visiting Walt Disney World in September? Have you ever discovered the crowds to be mild? Is the climate this month bearable to you? Are you planning on visiting in September 2024 or is the potential for a hurricane an excessive amount of of a big gamble for you? If September just isn’t your most popular month to go to Walt Disney World, which month do you want? Listening to your suggestions about your experiences is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas or questions beneath within the feedback!