Walt Disney World is now over one month into the low season, and crowds have dropped to their lowest stage of 2025. This wait occasions report covers information for Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. It additionally covers how our predictions carried out, forward-looking forecast for Fall 2025, and why this weekend was in all probability a turning level.
To shortly recap, Walt Disney World has not been busy for the previous few months. It was a gradual summer season at Orlando’s theme parks, for causes mentioned in Why Summer time is the New Low Crowds Season at Disney World. That additionally discusses why this shouldn’t be an enormous shock, as this was a development first noticed in 2016-2018; it’s simply grow to be extra pronounced within the final two years.
August and September have been even much less busy than Might by July. That is neither stunning nor sudden. Summer time has grow to be like a protracted shoulder season, with only some slight spikes into average territory earlier than faculty goes again into session and the true low season arrives. Because of this, common wait occasions have fallen to their lowest ranges of the yr, surpassing even Fourth of July and different low factors of the summer season season.
Attendance has been largely unchanged year-over-year at Walt Disney World based on the corporate on the newest earnings name, which encompassed the primary half of summer season. Extra importantly to the corporate (however to not us), visitor spending and resort occupancy are each up, and Walt Disney World simply reported file quarterly income. So it’s not precisely as if the parks are hurting for enterprise!
As we ceaselessly level out, what’s lined in these “crowd” stories is definitely posted wait time information that’s pulled from My Disney Expertise and compiled into graphs. It’s precious for monitoring and evaluating wait occasions throughout days, weeks, months, and years. Lots may be gleaned from posted wait occasions, however they’re not essentially conclusive of in-park congestion or crowds.
Posted wait occasions supply perception into how busy Walt Disney World is, however they’re an imperfect measure. They’re virtually all the time inflated, some strains don’t put up wait occasions, they don’t account for Lightning Lane adjustments, EPCOT festivals, and so on. However, wait occasions are the one goal measure of crowds that now we have. On-the-ground observations may be helpful, however in addition they have shortcomings.
Suffice to say, attendance being flat year-over-year whereas wait occasions are down–two issues that may be true on the identical time–ought to underscore the above caveat. As for the why or how of this, we strongly suspect it’s a matter of Lightning Lane utilization. For a full clarification of this development, see Is Lightning Lane Multi Move Nonetheless “Price It” at Disney World?
The CliffNotes model is that standby strains are shorter and sooner shifting as a result of they’re being prioritized extra (versus Lightning Lanes), resulting in decrease wait occasions. Even when attendance is precisely the identical, crowd ranges can be decrease given this dynamic. Virtually throughout the board, wait occasions are down by a couple of minutes year-over-year, which implies crowds are 1-2 ranges beneath comparable dates final yr.
With that background out of the way in which, let’s check out crowd ranges for August by the primary half of September 2025. As all the time, all graphs and wait time stats are courtesy of Thrill-Information.com:
We’ll begin with the month-to-month numbers for Walt Disney World as a complete, relationship all the way in which again to 2019.
Month-to-month crowd ranges climbed from final October by this March, after which have been on a gentle decline since. That is in keeping with final yr, and akin to most different years. Essentially the most notable change is that Might was busier than June or July, when it was the shoulder season slowdown. Might continues to be a slower month relative to spring break, however then crowds simply saved dropping post-Memorial Day.
August has been the slowest full month of 2025 thus far, with a 28 minute common wait time and 1/10 crowd stage. These numbers are literally similar with final August, so on this case, flat attendance does correspond with flat wait occasions. Previous to that, July was the second slowest month of 2025, with a mean wait time of half-hour and a pair of/10 crowd stage. The third-slowest full month of the yr was June…and so forth and so forth.
Midway by the month, September 2025 is poised to take the “crown” from August. This month is at present sitting at a mean wait time of 24 minutes, which can be a 1/10 crowd stage. Only a decrease one. If this development holds, September 2025 can be the slowest month since September 2021. That was again earlier than the fiftieth Anniversary, amidst COVID cancellations because of the Delta wave and reinstated masks guidelines.
September will probably find yourself being the slowest month of 2025. It’s already bought a 4 minute “lead” on August, which is lots to beat midway by. The larger query is whether or not it’ll surpass final September and October, which bottomed out at 26 minute averages.
It’s going to be a extremely shut name. The second half of September is nearly all the time busier than the primary half, and we anticipate an uptick in crowds for the following couple of weeks for a wide range of causes mentioned beneath. My guess is that September finally ends up coming inside one minute of final September and October.
August was on par with July for wait occasions by the center of the month. As anticipated, the previous few weeks went downhill quick as soon as extra faculties began going again into session.
The final week of August, heading into Labor Day weekend, had a mean wait time of 25 minutes. Popping out of the vacation, the primary week of September was even decrease at 23 minutes. Suffice to say, there’s a purpose why we wrote about this being One of many Greatest Weeks at Walt Disney World and referred to as it to your consideration late final yr. And why we’ve been stating for some time that Labor Day Weekend Isn’t Busy at Disney.
This previous week, crowds ticked up a bit to a mean wait time of 26 minutes. That’s nonetheless a 1/10 crowd stage and higher than any week through the coronary heart of summer season season, save for Fourth of July. However as you’ll see after we delve into every day information, it was actually a “story of two weeks” by way of wait occasions.
Wanting on the every day information for the final yr, it ought to be pretty straightforward to identify two lulls round mid-June and the Independence Day vacation weekend, plus spikes in each late June and late July by early August.
Submit summer season, August tenth was the day with the massive drop-off. Since then, the dailies have been up and down, with spikes over the weekends–particularly on Saturdays–whereas weekdays have been constantly low. That is really an atypical dynamic. For many of the previous few years, weekends have had decrease wait occasions (however usually not decrease “looks like” crowds or attendance).
Even so, we’re taking a look at spikes to crowd ranges of three/10 to five/10. These haven’t precisely been peak season numbers, however it nonetheless may be fairly jarring–particularly for guests going from (fairly actually) the slowest days of your entire yr from Wednesdays by Fridays to average numbers (plus even larger “looks like” crowds).
The distinction in wait occasions from this previous Wednesday to Saturday was +12 minutes. That’s an enormous bounce, particularly for this time of yr.
And that may very well be even worse relying on the park, misfortune with upkeep & breakdowns, and so forth. It’s thus straightforward to see why varied Walt Disney World guests report dramatically completely different experiences with crowds.
I converse from firsthand expertise right here. I used to be within the parks every day within the lead-up to Labor Day when a number of dates had a mean wait time of 20-22 minutes. While you’re taking a look at resort-wide numbers for a multi-day stretch, these are insanely low. A number of sights backside out at 10 minute wait occasions even once they’re stroll ons.
For the stats to be this low, meaning the headliners additionally needed to have far decrease wait occasions than regular. They usually did! It was unbelievable. I lastly noticed the elusive 7 minute posted wait time for Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare!
I used to be not within the parks as a lot over the vacation weekend till the afternoons and evenings (resulting from Vacation spot D23), however what I did see was noticeably busier. Nonetheless not even remotely unhealthy as in comparison with Spring Break or perhaps a couple months in the past, but when your body of reference is the low season low factors, it’s fairly the distinction.
As all the time, all of those numbers are averages, which nonetheless implies that hour-plus waits are potential for the headliners at peak occasions. They’re simply offset by 5-10 minute waits for decrease profile sights, or well-liked rides originally of the morning and finish of night. I additionally noticed 70+ minute waits for Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare throughout the identical span.
For park by park evaluation, we’ll begin with Magic Kingdom.
Magic Kingdom has already began its “porcupine sample” of crowds for Occasion Season, with full working days being noticeably busier than days of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion. That is mirrored within the wait time information, and it’s much more evident from the in-park expertise.
On the times when the park closes at 6 pm Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion, it’s been nothing however 1/10 days at Magic Kingdom. That is one thing we’ve mentioned at size, most notably in Greatest & Worst 2025 Crowd Days at Magic Kingdom. Suffice to say, these predictions have confirmed true to this point and all of Magic Kingdom’s slowest days of the yr have come because the begin of August.
The flip aspect has additionally been correct with regards to congestion on non-party nights, which is not measured by the above graph (once more, it’s completely journey wait occasions). I can converse to this from private expertise, as there’s been a noticeable uptick for Starlight and Fortunately Ever After, which is sensible provided that there are fewer nights per week to expertise each.
We anticipate this to worsen within the second half of September and past. To this point, non-party dates haven’t been that unhealthy at Magic Kingdom. They are going to be deeper into Occasion Season, particularly because the weekly variety of occasions will increase and round peak weeks.
Animal Kingdom has seen its crowd ranges in every single place this month. The low was 11 minutes on September third, with a excessive of 36 minutes on September thirteenth. That’s an enormous unfold–an over three-fold improve–and one with out an apparent clarification.
Clearly, avoiding weekends proper now’s the important thing. That’s true with each park, and shall be for just about the remainder of the month. When you’re capable of go to solely on weekdays, you’ll be forward of the curve.
If that’s not potential, the excellent news is that, as all the time, early mornings and late afternoons stay undefeated at DAK and precise wait occasions are minimal throughout these timeframes even on a busier day.
Over at EPCOT, wait occasions are beginning to present indicators of life after a gradual summer season.
EPCOT is all the time a wildcard, however I’ll admit that this one caught me unexpectedly. We all the time level out that EPCOT is the locals’ park, and Floridians usually tend to go to for festivals and ambiance than rides. This summer season was Weight-reduction plan EPCOT, explaining the decrease crowds as soon as Flower & Backyard ended.
Nonetheless, the 2025 EPCOT Meals & Wine Competition is now underway. In trying on the information, you is likely to be inclined to imagine that is the reason for larger crowd ranges on weekends. I’m not so positive about that. Meals & Wine is positively spiking weekend attendance. However usually, that doesn’t translate to larger posted wait occasions or crowd ranges. It’s like a mirage within the information. However for the final 3 weeks, it seemingly has been mirrored within the numbers. Extra on this in a minute.
Lastly, there’s Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
As all the time, that is the park with the very best common wait occasions in all of Walt Disney World, owing to its disproportionate variety of headliners. Disney’s Hollywood Studios didn’t see a lot of a summer season slowdown, probably resulting from Little Mermaid ~ A Musical Journey and Disney Villains Unfairly Ever After. A surprisingly robust displaying for Cool Child Summer time may’ve helped, too.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios has nonetheless seen a September slowdown, however not as pronounced as the opposite parks. And it’s seen the identical weekend uptick as the opposite parks during the last couple weekends. As soon as once more, we’ll level out that Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the #1 park for Lightning Lane Multi-Move. When you’re going to purchase LLMP wherever, make it DHS.
Our Prediction Efficiency
Within the final crowd report and crowd calendars, we shared that our expectation was that “September 2-12, 2025 would see the bottom crowds of the month, whole yr, and fairly probably the bottom ranges in a number of years.” We identified that this identical adjusted timeframe has seen the bottom common posted wait occasions since October 2021 in every of the final two years.
Surely, September 1-11, 2025 noticed the bottom crowds of 2025, and tied the identical timeframe final yr together with the hurricane scare in October (though that’s an outlier as a result of it could have been a lot busier however for the hurricane) because the slowest stretch since October 2021. August 24-29 was not far behind, and that whole week at present ranks because the second-slowest of 2025.
We additionally stated that “turning level” for larger crowds can be Saturday, September 13, 2025. It appears to be like like that’ll be correct, though we’d anticipate extra midweek lulls, simply not with the identical low lows as during the last 3 weeks.
Notice that the September 1-11, 2025 stretch was low regardless of September sixth “spiking” to a excessive 2/10 crowd stage. Frankly, I’m glad I don’t do every day predictions, as I’d’ve missed the mark on that one. (That is a part of the explanation why we wish to zoom out a bit when making predictions. It’s simpler to be correct when taking a look at wider home windows, however whereas one-off anomalies occur on a regular basis!)
Late August and the primary half-ish of September 2025 nonetheless weren’t even near being as gradual as August and September 2021. That stretch nonetheless holds the crown for the bottom crowds within the final 5 years. That was such a singular set of circumstances that it’ll in all probability take a hurricane scare through the low season to ever beat that month-plus stretch. And whilst a lot as I like low crowds, I frankly don’t need to see that occur. Belief me–there’s such a factor as too low of crowds.
Fall 2025 Crowd Predictions
As we’ve been stressing on this web site for over a decade, September is the perfect month of the yr to go to from a wait occasions perspective. With solely a few exceptions, your entire month sees beneath common attendance. These exceptions are fast-arriving.
As mentioned within the newest replace to the September 2025 Crowd Calendar, the explanation why weekends are busier in September is the multi-month Florida resident ticket deal is winding down. These are “use it or lose it” tickets, they usually expire on September 27, 2025. Locals are likely to work on weekdays, so the final couple weekends of validity are likely to spike in consequence. Meaning the development of busier weekends is just going to speed up, and we’re additionally going to see this bleed into some weekdays (particularly Fridays and Mondays), too.
This isn’t the one ticket deal winding down in September. There’s additionally the Children 50% Off and 3-Park Magic Ticket, which finish on September twentieth and twenty second. These are aimed toward a unique viewers, in order that they don’t have the identical influence on crowds. However the level stays that crowds spike in late September 2025 as individuals rush to make use of ticket offers earlier than they finish.
However, there’s no “unhealthy” time to go to in September, save for upcoming Saturdays and Sundays. What caught me unexpectedly is just not that weekends spiked in September–we predicted it could–however that it began sooner than regular. Usually, the final minute “use it or lose it” rush is actually evident 2 weeks earlier than the deal ends.
That is additionally why we’re not assured September 2025 will find yourself being the slowest month since October 2021 as soon as the mud settles. With a 4 minute lead midway by the month, it’s probably cemented victory over August 2025. However solely 2 minutes versus final September and October isn’t insurmountable, particularly if crowds improve from the final couple of weekends, which is what we’re anticipating. If that occurs, September 2025 may very well be busier than September 2024. Nonetheless, “busier” is a relative time period, as each months ought to be actually gentle in comparison with everything of October 2025 (which can virtually definitely beat October 2024 absent one other hurricane scare).
Regardless, mid-August by mid-September stays the final bastion of the low season at Walt Disney World. This has been constantly true whilst attendance has spiked throughout different beforehand low season months. Whereas different low season months have gotten busier, September has stayed the identical–and (knock on wooden) all the time ought to stay that means resulting from faculty schedules and fewer fascinating climate. Even when Disney will get aggressive with pulling extra “levers” sooner or later to entice demand, there’s solely a lot they will do; we noticed this again in 2019 when not even the launch of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Additional, Additional Magic Hours might overcome the low season slowdown.
When you’re trying ahead to 2026, 2027, and so on., you may safely ebook a visit throughout this stretch and anticipate low crowds. This is applicable to each the week earlier than Labor Day, two weeks after, and even the vacation itself. Whether or not avoiding weekends shall be advisable relies upon fully about when the Florida resident ticket deal ends. There was nothing stunning or unprecedented about the previous few weeks, even when they had been the slowest of 2025 and among the many lowest since October 2021.
Wanting ahead previous the expiration of the outgoing ticket offers, the massive query marks are group occasions and conference crowds. There’s an out of doors likelihood that the final week of September sees an outsized spike due the arrival of those, plus early fall breaks for varied faculty districts across the nation. However for probably the most half, it ought to nonetheless be too early for all of that to meaningfully influence crowds.
Our expectation is that the arrival of fall crowds in “full power” coincides with Columbus Day weekend. It probably received’t let up a lot after that. One other large query mark is future ticket offers. Disney has been getting extra aggressive in making an attempt to place extra bandwidth within the parks to make use of, and we’re attending to the purpose that we’re form of anticipating a ticket deal for mid-October by mid-December 2025. That will additionally increase crowd ranges within the remaining few months of the yr.
Even absent such a ticket deal, indicators already level to the final three months of the yr being busy. When you solely care about numbers–and never climate or Christmas–the following few weeks adopted by the late October lull is the time to go to Walt Disney World. When you do care about these issues, there are a handful of different gradual home windows amidst the height weeks–all of that are flagged in Greatest & Worst Weeks to Go to Disney World in 2025, 2026 & 2027.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Study inns on our Walt Disney World Inns Critiques web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Critiques. To save cash on tickets or decide which kind to purchase, learn our Ideas for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets put up. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys put up takes a singular take a look at intelligent gadgets 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 begin is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for every little thing it’s essential know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Ideas on low season crowds at Walt Disney World? Predictions for the remainder of the month or October? Suppose September will find yourself being the slowest month since Fall 2021? When you’ve visited throughout the final month, what did you consider wait occasions? Have you ever finished Magic Kingdom through the day of a MNSSHP evening? Do you agree or disagree with something in our report? Any questions we can assist you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
