Planning a trip to Disney World is a dream come true for many, but let’s face it – it can get pretty expensive, even if you know how of some savvy ways to save money.
However, here’s the good news: there are certain times of the year when you can snag some incredible deals and make your Disney World vacation more affordable.
In this article, we will analyze the most cost-effective times to visit Walt Disney World. And by carefully choosing these optimal periods, you can strike a balance between enjoying yourself on vacation and keeping your wallet happy.
Everything You Need to Know
To save you some time, here are all of the key points you need to know:
- Cheapest Time to Visit Disney World = early January until Presidents Day weekend in February
- Second Cheapest Time to visit Disney World = early November through mid-December
- Cheapest Month for Park Tickets = September
- Cheapest Month to Stay at a Disney Resort = early January to February
The Cheapest Time to go to Disney World
The cheapest time to go to Disney World is from early January until Presidents Day weekend. After that, the next cheapest time to visit is from late-July through September. The only exception during this time period will be Labor Day weekend.
There will also be low prices in early November through mid-December, but those dates can be quite sporadic.
During the periods, you can expect to find multiple special promotions offered by Disney to entice people to visit during those times as the year. Most people will be busy with school or work, so the demand to visit Disney World is generally lower during this period.
That said, when visiting from January to Presidents Weekend (February), you can expect cooler weather, lots of sunshine, and low crowds.
Jump to:
- The Cheapest Time to go to Disney World
- How is 2024 looking?
- What are the most expensive dates to go to Disney World?
- Disney World Ticket Prices by Time of the Year
- Cheapest Times to Stay at Disney World Hotels
- Disney World Promotions and Special Offers Calendar
- When Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party the cheapest?
- When are Disney World restaurants the cheapest?
- When’s the cheapest day to buy Genie+?
- One Last Thing
How is 2024 looking?
When looking at the data and prices for 2024, the trend for the lowest prices at Disney World remains consistent with previous years. Typically, January and late July through early September offer the best value. During this time, you’ll find the most deals/offers to visit the park as well as significantly cheaper hotel rates (on and off-property).
Although I won’t be able to give you my full pricing analysis at this moment, my preliminary expectations suggest that the pricing patterns and charts will closely resemble the ones for 2023.
What are the most expensive dates to go to Disney World?
Here are the most expensive days to visit Disney World in 2023:
- 1/1 – (New Year’s Day)
- 1/13 – 1/16 (Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend)
- 2/18 – 2/26 (Presidents Day Week)
- 4/1 – 4/16 (Easter and Spring Break Week)
- 5/26 – 5/29 (Memorial Day Weekend)
- 7/1 – 7/9 (4th of July Week)
- 9/1 – 9/4 (Labor Day weekend)
- 11/20 – 11/26 (Thanksgiving Week)
- 12/18 – 12/31 (Christmas Week and New Year’s Eve)
Easter and Spring Break: From St. Patricks Day in March through Easter in April, Disney World is consistently packed thanks to Easter and Spring Break. Although there is no official Spring Break Week, late March to early April has some of the most expensive room rates and ticket prices of the year.
Thanksgiving Week: Thanksgiving Week, just like Christmas is an expensive time at Disney World. Statistically, it’s the second most expensive week for park tickets and hotel rooms. Not to mention the premiums on airfare and transportation.
Christmas and New Years: Disney World is the most expensive (and most crowded) during Christmas Week all the way to New Year’s Day. It’s insanely busy and nightly hotel rates are at its highest during the year.
Other Holidays and Notable Dates: Popular and expensive days include Columbus Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Veterans Day. Also, marathon or RunDisney weeks are also very pricey. Generally, if there’s a possibility of a long weekend, just expect Disney World to be busy and ticket prices to be near their average highs.
Here are the most expensive days to visit Disney World in 2024:
- 1/1 – (New Year’s Day)
- 1/13 – 1/15 (Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend)
- 2/17 – 2/24 (Presidents Day Week)
- 3/29 – 4/7 (Easter and Spring Break Week)
- 3/31 – (Easter)
- 5/24 – 5/27 (Memorial Day Weekend)
- 7/1 – 7/7 (4th of July Week)
- 8/30 -9/3 (Labor Day Weekend)
- 11/25 – 12/1 (Thanksgiving Week)
- 12/16 -12/31 (Christmas Week and New Year’s Eve)
So if the goal is to visit Disney World on a budget, I would avoid these dates at all costs. You can expect extremely high nightly hotel rates, high Genie+ prices, and even some of the the highest park ticket prices.
The last thing you’d want to do is go into debt after a Disney World vacation, so please be sure to never stretch beyond your means. And for a start, I would aim to visit during the cheaper times of the year.
Disney World Ticket Prices by Time of the Year
Here are the average ticket prices for a 4-day ticket to Disney World throughout the year. Disney uses variable pricing for their park tickets, meaning that the ticket prices adjust based on anticipated crowds, season, holidays, and time of the year.
The prices displayed are for one day (not the total cost of a 4-day ticket).
Prices reflected below are from June 2023 to June 2024.
As you can see, Disney World park tickets are the cheapest from mid-August to mid-September.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the pricing graph:
- The ticket cost per day is significantly cheaper from mid-August to mid-September
- The prices are quite low after New Years and continue until Valentine’s Day.
- July to September have some of the lowest ticket prices during the entire year
- From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve, the prices are at its highest
Also, here’s the ticket prices for the entire year of 2024:
Regardless of the time of year that you choose, you’ll find the cheapest park tickets on Monday through Thursday. These are also the best days of the week to visit for lower wait times.
Cheapest Times to Stay at Disney World Hotels
If you’re looking to stay at a Disney World hotel, then I recommend that you check out this handy resource by MouseSavers that lists the average nightly hotel rate at every single Disney World hotel for every single multi-day period throughout the year. It’s insane how useful it is when planning your visit!
Below, you’ll find a chart of average nightly rate for every month at four resorts from 4 different hotel categories at Disney World:
As you can see, the cheapest times to stay at a Disney World hotel is early January to February. The second cheapest time is from mid-August to September.
That said, every resort is different so the average nightly rate as well as room type availability can affect these numbers.
Looking at the data, I can only assume that these are times when schools across the country start back up or Winter Break is officially over.
All Dates for the Cheapest Disney World Hotel Room Rates
Here are all of the dates where you can find the cheapest room rates for most Disney World hotels in 2023, according to MouseSavers. The dates bolded are the cheapest periods.
- 1/2 – 1/4
- 1/8 – 1/12
- 1/16 – 2/8
- 8/18 – 8/30
- 9/4 – 9/5
- 9/7 -9/14
- 10/1 – 10/5
Just be sure to book as soon as possible just in case a certain room type is sold out. From personal experience, the Standard View rooms are always the first to go.
Disney World Promotions and Special Offers Calendar
According to Disney World’s official special offers page, you’ll find the most discounts between late September through early December (right before Christmas week).
Annual Passholders will also have access to special pricing and hotel discounts from October up until Christmas.
As busy as the parks appear to be during the summer, you’ll surprisingly find some of the best deals and steepest discounts for Florida residents between mid-May through September. These discounts can be anything from insanely cheap 4-Day Park Hopper Tickets to 30% discounts on select Disney Resort Hotels.
But the most consistent discount will be for U.S. military members where they can take advantage of great rates and steep hotel discounts during most nights from January 1st to mid-December.
When Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party the cheapest?
Every year, Disney World hosts several specially ticketed events and parties.
The cheapest time to go to one of those events is generally on a weekday during the first month of the event. The first day will be significantly more expensive than the rest of the month, so I would skip that day. As time progresses, the ticket prices gradually get more and more expensive.
This is especially the case for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.
For Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, the tickets cost $109 per adult in August, $119 to $149 in September, and $169 to $199 in October, with Halloween week being the most expensive.
The pattern is the same with Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
When visiting Mickey’s Ferry Merry Christmas Party, be sure to try to go during the first few weekdays of November. As you get closer to Christmas Week, the prices will become more expensive.
When are Disney World restaurants the cheapest?
Thankfully, Disney World restaurants do not adjust their prices based on crowd levels, holidays, or events. That would be insane if they did. That said, they can and have raised prices on their food and drinks at all of their dining locations, so there’s always a chance they they do it again in the near future without any heads up.
But if you are looking to plan your visit around when restaurants may be the cheapest, then visiting during Orlando’s Magical Dining is your best bet. Although none of the Disney-owned restaurants participate in this event, you can find some spots on-property inside the Swan and Dolphin, like Todd English bluezoo.
Lastly, if you want to get a general idea of how much you’d have to spend on food at Disney World, I got you covered in this in-depth guide.
When’s the cheapest day to buy Genie+?
The cheapest day to buy Genie+ is Thursday with an average price of $19.92. The most expensive day to buy it is Saturday.
Just know that Genie+ will be on the higher side during holidays or crowded park days. It may even sell out.
But, if you time your trip right, you might even be able to visit all four parks during your vacation without having to buy Genie+.
One Last Thing
Although the day and age of predictable crowds and unofficial offseason has slowly started to disappear, you can still find some pockets of dates throughout the year that offer affordable hotel rates, park tickets, and transportation costs.
When planning your vacation, just remember one important thing – if schools are out, the crowds and higher prices are in session.
If you’re able to visit during a time when you can avoid the crowds, you’ll also be able to avoid the worst of the prices. The cheapest tickets and the cheapest hotels don’t necessarily line up during the same days of the year, but you should be able to find a sort of “sweet spot” that works for you.
Whether if you’re a family of 6 first-timers or just a couple of seasoned adults looking for a weekend getaway, you can for sure find some dates throughout the year to make your vacation a little bit more affordable.
Thanks for reading and I hope this will help you plan an affordable Disney World vacation!
Leave a Reply