Fall is right around the corner and, with that, Magic Kingdom enters a new phase for the remainder of 2024. Halloween and Christmas seasons bring with them a roller coaster of crowds, with dramatic differences in wait times and attendance in choosing the best vs. worst days to do MK. This explains why, with lists of the least & most crowded dates in August through December, and a handful of red flag dates to avoid at all costs.
Even as this summer has been relatively slow at Walt Disney World (see Summer (Still) Is NOT High Crowds Season at Walt Disney World), the parks are still about to get slower as schools go back into session. For all intents and purposes, August is the end of summer, and start of the off-season, Halloween-time, and “Party Season.” (Before people with a traditional concept of “seasons” get mad at me, I don’t make the rules–Disney is the one that starts Halloween in early August, not me.)
Party Season is a big deal at Walt Disney World because it disrupts attendance dynamics and creates a “porcupine pattern” of wait times and crowd levels. In a nutshell, the crowd phenomenon is that both Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party push attendance much higher on the dates they’re not occurring and lower on days of the events.
This is nothing new–we’ve been banging the Party Season drum the last decade, at least. Magic Kingdom crowd patterns during Party Season are a key discussion points of our August through December crowd calendars. It’s actually one of the easiest “predictions” we make–akin to forecasting longer lines for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train than the Magic Carpets of Aladdin.
For our part, we’ve been strongly recommending that readers visit Magic Kingdom during the day on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party nights, and then bouncing to another park at around 4 pm. Park Hopping is essential during party season. If you’re looking for the short and sweet of this post, that’s it.
The underlying rationale for this is that many day guests avoid Magic Kingdom on days when MNSSHP or MVMCP is being held at night because the regular park hours are shorter and Happily Ever After fireworks are not shown to regular guests. This results in significantly lighter crowds on days of the holiday parties when Magic Kingdom closes at 6 pm.
These same guests then flock to non-party days in Magic Kingdom. For visitors without Park Hopper tickets (which is most guests), visiting Magic Kingdom on non-party nights is the obvious, intuitive choice. For the same admission price, they get several more hours in the park and get to see the fireworks.
After all, Magic Kingdom closes at 10 pm or 11 pm on non-party nights. That amounts to staying an extra 4-5 hours later, seeing fireworks, and getting to enjoy the cooler evening hours in the park. Very few rational guests who base their visits on published park hours will choose the 6 pm closing days. (Which is precisely why Disney puts the above sign up at the park entrance, so guests complain on their way into the park and can potentially be accommodated rather than acting surprised at the end of the day.)
In theory, it’s a no-brainer! But that line of thinking is exactly why our zig when they zag recommendation has been to do Magic Kingdom on days of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and to Park Hop somewhere else at around 4 pm, which is when the mix-in starts for those hard ticket events.
Even though Magic Kingdom has longer hours on non-party days, you will often get less done than you could before 4 pm on a party day–in 4-5 fewer hours! So long as you’re comfortable missing the fireworks, we highly recommend doing your days in Magic Kingdom on party dates due to the significantly shorter lines and lower wait times. It’s usually so slow on these days that using Lightning Lanes is unnecessary, which also means saving money by not having to buy Lightning Lane Multi Pass.
For guests with Park Hopper tickets, this is the real no-brainer. You can do Magic Kingdom until 4 pm on the day of MNSSHP or MVMCP, and then bounce to EPCOT or Disney’s Hollywood Studios and have dinner and enjoy the nighttime spectaculars in one of those two parks.
On a non-party day, you can start out at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and/or EPCOT–our favorite options as those typically see lower crowd levels on non-party days and have more headliners benefiting from lower waits. Then you can bounce back to Magic Kingdom in the evening hours for the last couple of hours to catch Happily Ever After and nighttime in the park.
If nighttime in Magic Kingdom is a must for you (and we do recommend it–nothing beats seeing the park illuminated in the evenings!) this is the optimal approach for minimizing your exposure to crowds and congestion. Yeah, it’ll be chaos on Main Street and that post-fireworks evening exodus is a nightmare. Fireworks crowds are already bad enough on normal nights throughout the year–now imagine compressing 7 nights of Happily Ever After crowds into only 2-3 nights!
But you don’t have to watch Happily Ever After from Main Street–you can go to Fantasyland for a relatively relaxed spot. You can also wait out the post-fireworks crowd by taking a spin on the TTA PeopleMover or doing one of the many other rides that are better at night. Since you’ll have (presumably) done every important attraction on the party day, the stakes are lower for you than something who spends all of that crowded day in MK.
One of the added upsides to visiting the park on a party day is Magic Kingdom Early Entry at 7:30 am (on some dates). If park opening moves forward to 8 am on your dates, that makes this approach a double no-brainer (before you get pedantic about “doubling nothing still being nothing,” just keep in mind that this saying makes sense to those of us without brains in the first place).
Sadly, Walt Disney World moved away from 8 am opening times on MNSSHP dates during the doldrums of the off-season. They mostly returned to 8 am opening times for MVMCP, but it wasn’t every single date.
Our hope is that they revert back to 8 am openings for 2024, but we’re not optimistic. Park hours have already been extending for early to mid-August, and the first MNSSHP shows 9 am to 6 pm hours. Granted, that’ll be an incredibly slow day and isn’t necessarily representative of what’ll happen for dates the following few months, but it’s probably safe to say that August through mid-to-late September aren’t getting 8 am openings.
Now that we’ve explained the why and how of this, here’s the list of least-crowded dates at Magic Kingdom for the remainder of the year.
Best Days at Magic Kingdom in August 2024
- August 9, 2024
- August 13, 2024
- August 16, 2024
- August 20, 2024
- August 23, 2024
- August 27, 2024
- August 30, 2024
Best Days at Magic Kingdom in September 2024
- September 2, 2024
- September 6, 2024
- September 8, 2024
- September 10, 2024
- September 13, 2024
- September 15, 2024
- September 17, 2024
- September 20, 2024
- September 22, 2024
- September 24, 2024
- September 26, 2024
- September 27, 2024
- September 29, 2024
Best Days at Magic Kingdom in October 2024
- October 1, 2024
- October 3, 2024
- October 4, 2024
- October 6, 2024
- October 8, 2024
- October 10, 2024
- October 11, 2024
- October 14, 2024
- October 15, 2024
- October 17, 2024
- October 18, 2024
- October 20, 2024
- October 21, 2024
- October 24, 2024
- October 25, 2024
- October 27, 2024
- October 29, 2024
- October 31, 2024
Best Days at Magic Kingdom in November 2024
- November 8, 2024
- November 11, 2024
- November 12, 2024
- November 14, 2024
- November 15 2024
- November 17, 2024
- November 19, 2024
- November 21, 2024
- November 22, 2024
- November 24, 2024
- November 26, 2024
- November 27, 2024
- November 29, 2024
Best Days at Magic Kingdom in December 2024
- December 1, 2024
- December 3, 2024
- December 5, 2024
- December 6, 2024
- December 8, 2024
- December 10, 2024
- December 12, 2024
- December 13, 2024
- December 15, 2024
- December 17, 2024
- December 19, 2024
- December 20, 2024
As for the most crowded dates, it’s basically just the opposite of the above–the dates that are not listed.
The schedule can vary around holiday weeks, but days that are typically going to be worst are Mondays and Wednesdays. Monday because it’s always been the busiest day in Magic Kingdom–and because there are usually parties on Sunday and Tuesday. It’s a similar story with Wednesday–there are often parties on Tuesday as well as Thursday and Friday. Earlier in the Party Season (all dates before September 25), Wednesday is also the night that Magic Kingdom hosts Extended Evening Hours, which also exacerbates daytime crowds starting in the afternoon.
In previous years, it used to be the case that Saturdays were the worst day of the week at Magic Kingdom during Party Season. That may end up being true again during the heart of the holiday season, but weekends haven’t been as bad the last couple of years. It remains to be seen how this changes (or doesn’t) for Party Season, especially October through December.
Be particularly mindful of non-party dates that are sandwiched between or among party dates. This is the biggest red flag from mid-October through December, when Party Season “expands” from 2-3 days per week to 3-4 days per week.
There are some 4-5 days stretches when Magic Kingdom is only one until 10 pm or 11 pm once. This creates major problems, as there are several days of crowds consolidated into a single date by virtue of those concentrated 6 pm closings.
Red Flag Late 2024 Dates at Magic Kingdom
- September 25, 2024
- September 28, 2024
- October 2, 2024
- October 5, 2024
- October 9, 2024
- October 16, 2024
- October 19, 2024
- October 26, 2024
- November 13, 2024
- November 16, 2024
- November 20, 2024
- November 23, 2024
- November 25, 2024
- November 28, 2024
- December 4, 2024
- December 7, 2024
- December 11, 2024
- December 14, 2024
- December 18, 2024
We would highly recommend avoiding Magic Kingdom at all costs on the dates above, if at all possible.
If it’s not possible for whatever reason, you will absolutely want to take advantage of Early Entry and purchase Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. Take a midday break, stay late, use savvy strategy, etc. These are the dates you’re most likely to encounter 7/10 to 10/10 crowd levels at Magic Kingdom. That’s still “beatable” but only if you’re properly prepared!
One specific date we want to draw your attention to is December 18, 2024.
December 17 and 19-20 are Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party nights, and Saturday, December 21 is the start of Christmas week. It was the exact same dynamic last year with December 20.
That date ended up having a 9/10 crowd level with 48 minute average wait time. By contrast, Dec. 19 was 28 minutes on average and a 3/10 crowd level; Dec. 21 was 31 minutes and 4/10. Similar story for the other MVMCP days in that vicinity. December 20 actually ended up being the busiest day of Christmas or New Year’s weeks at Magic Kingdom–all other parks were much, much worse in the lead-up to NYE.
Adding insult to injury, Magic Kingdom was only open from 9 am to 10 pm on December 20. This year will be slightly different due to the timing of Christmas, but we’re still expecting December 18, 2024 to be uniquely awful, even among those red flag dates.
My hope one way Walt Disney World has learned from its mistakes is making every one of those red flag dates have operating hours of at least 9 am to 11 pm and, ideally, 8 am to midnight. The early October and mid-November dates might not need 8 am to midnight hours, but the rest of the list almost certainly will.
If Walt Disney World is going to sell Magic Kingdom twice on so many dates from August through December and create these nightmarish crowd dynamics, the least they can do is 8 am openings and midnight closings. This is something that Disneyland is doing right now on a daily basis, and will throughout the off-season. And that’s without a sea of 6 pm closings on the calendar!
Another thing to note is that the above least crowded list is relative to the dates within each week or general date range.
As a general matter, the Party Season starts out slower on all dates from August through mid-September, and then has a slight spike at the end of September. Attendance slows down to start October, but ramps up for fall break and continues that trend until later in the month. November and December have high highs and low lows based on holiday breaks, but are still, as a general matter, busier than August and September.
In other words, if you’re a local who has a wide open calendar and wants to pick an assortment of dates based upon absolute crowd levels and nothing else, aim for the earlier dates in August and September. There’s a strong probability that those will end up having the lowest wait times of all dates on the list when the dust settles.
No one actually thinks or behaves this was, so the point is that crowd levels are not static on the aforementioned list of the least crowded dates. Magic Kingdom tends to get progressively busier over the course of Party Season, but even that is a generalization.
However, even as party days get progressively busier (relative to dates earlier in the Party Season), the increase tends to be even greater for non-party dates. Stated differently, the gap in wait times actually increases on non-party vs. party days in October through December. That’s due to a mix of higher crowd levels as a whole during those months and more party nights each week–thus consolidating crowds on fewer non-party days.
For example, Magic Kingdom’s crowd level might end up being 1/10 with an average wait time of 25 minutes on the party day of September 15. On the non-party Monday of September 16, it could be 4/10 with an average wait time of 32 minutes and crowd level of 3/10. That’s a difference of 7 minutes.
On the party day of November 8, Magic Kingdom’s average wait time could be 35 minutes or a 6/10 crowd level. However, the non-party day of November 13 likely will spike significantly (it’s the only date in a 5 day stretch without an early closing), possibly to a crowd level of 8/10 or 9/10 and an average wait time of around 45 minutes. Even though the crowd levels and average waits are significantly higher than their September counterparts, the benefit of choosing the least-crowded date actually increased, as the gap in wait times grew to 10 minutes. This is exactly what happened last year on the equivalent dates.
All of that might be hard to follow, but the bottom line is that you’ll enjoy 1/10 to 3/10 crowd levels by doing Magic Kingdom on party days for about the next month. After that, crowd levels will increase–but despite that, you stand to gain even more by visiting on party days since crowd levels will spike even worse on non-party days. So simply stick to party days for the lowest possible crowds in Magic Kingdom from August through late December!
One final note is that Walt Disney World has thrown a monkey wrench into all of the above with the Free Park Hopper Deal. Honestly, it’s really difficult to assess the impact this promo will have. For one thing, there’s been almost no buzz about it–we haven’t heard from many people who are eligible and plan on taking advantage (mostly the opposite).
In theory, offering free Park Hoppers would normalize crowd levels to some degree. If you read the above, you’d know the optimal strategy for leveraging Park Hoppers during Party Season. But the thing is, that’s counterintuitive zig when they zag strategy. Most people won’t read this or review historical wait times data. Who really wants to leave Magic Kingdom at 6 pm and miss fireworks? There’s limited appeal, even for guests with Park Hoppers.
Accordingly, I think it’s just as likely–if not more so–that this gambit backfires and is counterproductive. It’ll absolutely redistribute crowds to some degree, but in what direction? This may not result in higher attendance on 6 pm park closing days at all. If I had to bet, I’d wager that more people having Park Hoppers will mean even more guests crammed into Magic Kingdom for those exceedingly rare and extremely enticing 11 pm closings.
As such, I’m mentioning the free Park Hopper promo as something that should be on your radar as impacting crowd levels…but there’s a good chance that won’t normalize attendance in the way that Walt Disney World hopes, and instead will cause even more crowding on late nights in Magic Kingdom.
Ultimately, that’s why we strongly recommend visiting Magic Kingdom during the daytime hours of both Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Hopefully “showing our work” on some of this helps you make more sense of this dynamic, and why it’ll almost certainly be true for August through December 2024.
There’s no reason to believe days when the Magic Kingdom closes at 6 pm will be busier than days the park closes at 10 pm or 11 pm (or hopefully midnight on those red flag dates). Crowd levels and average wait times from Party Seasons past are pretty conclusive on this–the data is indisputable. And that’s just from a numbers perspective, which does not measure “feels like” crowds. From heaps of anecdotal experience, we can assure you that the gap is even greater there–especially on Main Street before and after Happily Ever After.
Of course, this is just the objective angle. There are still compelling subjective arguments in favor of doing Magic Kingdom on non-party days, especially if you value evenings in the park and use savvy strategy. And that’s totally understandable! Our focus here is primarily on the numbers, as many guests see the calendar and draw the entirely logical conclusion that they’re better off with ~4 extra hours of the day in MK. The problem is that this is the thought process of most guests, and you can come out ahead by zigging when they zag! But ideally, you’ll have a Park Hopper for a “best of both worlds” approach.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Does this convince you that you can, from an objective perspective, come out ahead by doing party shortened days during Party Season at Magic Kingdom? Or, are you still unpersuaded, favoring the longer day and subjective superiority of nighttime in Magic Kingdom and getting to see Happily Ever After? Did you visit on any of the ‘red flag’ dates last year? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
