Our guide to June 2024 at Walt Disney World includes a free crowd calendar, when to visit & avoid, weather, new attraction openings & closures, and summer events. Plus info & tips for vacation season at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. (Updated May 23, 2024.)
June is the first month of summer vacation and storm season at Walt Disney World. It’s not exactly our favorite month of the year for visiting, but for those who are limited to traveling during the times school is out of session, early June isn’t that bad. It’s certainly better than the entire month of July, and August until late in the month. Let’s cover both the good and the bad here.
Typically, Walt Disney World parks stay open later during the height of summer than May or August through September. That was not the case last year, but extensions have already started for every park except EPCOT during the first half of June 2024. We’re expecting more of the same for the rest of the month and July.
The opening times at EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom make it easier to beat crowds at those parks than it has been in a long time. There’s a huge advantage to early risers, and savvy strategy or advanced-level know-how with Genie+ and Lightning Lanes can be a gamechanger.
To that end, we (once again) recommend checking out Genie+ v. Savvy Strategy at Walt Disney World, which is the result of extensive ‘testing’ to determine the best and worst ways to beat the crowds. You can also do pretty well in the evenings at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Frankly, that strategy is far more useful than our June 2024 crowd calendar for Walt Disney World.
June Weather at Disney World
The biggest downside to June from our perspective isn’t the crowds–it’s the rain and the heat. June receives the highest amount of average monthly rainfall (8+ inches) out of any month of the year. As such, you may want to consult our Visiting Walt Disney World During Storm Season article to navigate the afternoon showers (or worse) without them putting too much of a damper on your trip.
You’ll want to pack a cheap 10-pack of ponchos so you aren’t one of the guests who line up to purchase Disney’s overpriced ponchos when the rain hits. (While the cheap, disposable ponchos are good, given how much it’ll rain in June, this rainsuit is a better option, and one I recommend. I have it, and find myself less concerned about the rain because I stay dry regardless.)
The good news is that despite the rain, June does not fall within the heart of hurricane season at Walt Disney World. Summer heat is a bigger concern during June, with average temperatures ranging from 70 degrees to 90 degrees. In terms of the comfort level, on average, 35% is comfortable (65-75 degrees), 56% is warm (75-85 degrees), and 23% of the month is hot (85-100 degrees).
The most unpleasant times of the day are going to be around noon until 5 p.m., so booking a Walt Disney World hotel with a nice pool (it’s the perfect time for Yacht and Beach Club!) and planning daily midday breaks with park time primarily in the mornings and evenings can be a sound strategy. If you don’t want to spend your entire day hiding in the air conditioning, read our Strategies for Beating Summer Heat & Humidity at Walt Disney World.
Setting aside the weather, June at Walt Disney World has some upside. That’s sort of like saying, “setting aside their man-eating tendencies, sharks make great pets.” Pretty big things to just set aside. But, let’s try to be somewhat optimistic…
June Special Events at WDW
As for special events, there’s normally not much for the summer season. There are no runDisney events due to the heat, little happens at the ESPN Wide World of Sports for the same reason, and there are no major holidays in June that are celebrated in the parks. All in all, it’s a pretty slow month on the seasonal front.
For the last several years, EPCOT has had overlapping festivals in summer, with both Flower & Garden Festival running through early July and Food & Wine Festival starting shortly thereafter. Not so in 2024. Both events have been scaled back to “2019 normal” and now either will run in June or July. It’s two-plus months of Diet EPCOT!
With that said, plenty is coming for Summer 2024, starting outside the parks with the “Disney Dreams That Soar” drone show at Disney Springs. This takes to the sky starting May 24 and will run for the entire month of June. If the sneak peek previews are any indication, this is destination-worthy nighttime entertainment that’s worth the detour to Disney Springs to see. We highly recommend it!
Bouncing back to the parks, the ¡Celebración Encanto! Sing-Along at EPCOT opens on June 10, 2024. Along with this, CommuniCore Hall will finally open and greet guests on that same date.
Then there’s the Lion King 30th Anniversary Celebration Coming to Animal Kingdom in Summer 2024. As announced, this isn’t really anything. Merchandise, food, characters, and maybe some photo ops.
Next up is Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where you’ll be able to get into your feels with Joy herself! She’s headed to Pixar Plaza starting June 10, where she joins other Pixar stars. She’ll be in her new home just in time for Disney Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” which premieres in theaters June 14, 2024.
Of the four parks, the last and biggest stop is Magic Kingdom, where Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is opening on June 28, 2024. Prior to that, there will be a couple weeks of previews with the possibility of soft openings in the week or so before the ride officially openings. (While possible, we do not expect soft openings–they’re unlikely due to timing.)
June REFURBISHMENTS & NEW ATTRACTIONS
In terms of other attractions, check the Walt Disney World Refurbishment Schedule. Just a heads up: that might be a bit deceptive in terms of actual construction work. There’s going to be a lot of ongoing construction throughout Walt Disney World that is not reflected there.
The biggest thing on the horizon is Test Track closing for a multi-month reimagining on June 17, 2024. A reopening date has not yet been announced, but it’s unlikely to return any time this year. We’re expecting it to reopen for Spring Break 2025 at the earliest.
And as noted above, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens on June 28, meaning that it’s closed for the majority of June.
On the plus side, EPCOT is home to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which is now a couple years old but still incredibly popular. Other even more recent additions to EPCOT include Moana’s Journey of Water (water exploration trail) and Luminous: The Symphony of Us (nighttime spectacular). Both are worth checking out.
Then there’s the biggest new attraction at Magic Kingdom: TRON Lightcycle Run. This is still the newest major attraction at Walt Disney World (for now), and is now one year old. See our Virtual Queue Strategy Guide for TRON Lightcycle Run for details, tips & tricks for success, and more (Cosmic Rewind also uses a VQ–apply the same advice to both rides).
Another alternative for Cosmic Rewind or TRON Lightcycle Run is buying line-skipping access via the Individual Lightning Lanes. Those posts explain each option, their pros & cons, and everything else you need to know. Suffice to say, do not just show up expecting to join the standby line–as there isn’t one for either ride.
For an overview of what’s on the horizon, see What’s New & Next at Walt Disney World in 2024 & Beyond. All in all, June is a pretty big month for Walt Disney World, with lots of new or recent additions.
June 2024 DISNEY WORLD CROWD CALENDAR
There’s no color-coded crowd calendar for June 2024 because you cannot put much stock in them anymore. Crowd calendars are less and less reliable due to how Walt Disney World manipulates attendance patterns, staffing, closures, and ride capacity. This has been increasingly true for the last several years.
It also doesn’t help that there isn’t really reliable data or consistent trends for the summer months. To be sure, some days and weeks are busier than others–but there are no dates in June that are akin to spring break or other peak season dates–or even off-season dates. It’s a fairly consistent timeframe. As a result, it better serves readers to offer an explanation of what to expect in terms of crowd trends in Summer 2024 at Walt Disney World.
In the last several normal years (2016-2019), summer crowds had trended downward at Walt Disney World (see “Summer Isn’t Peak Season at Walt Disney World” for more on that). That happened once again last year, and we’d expect it again in Summer 2024.
Pent-up demand has been fizzling out and Americans are no longer “making up for lost time” when it comes to travel. International demand has also slowed down, so that won’t make June 2024 atypically busy. It’s unlikely it’ll be as slow as several years ago, but also unlikely to be as bad as 2022. Somewhere in between is the most likely scenario.
What to know for crowd calendar purposes is that attendance builds over the course of the summer as vacation season kicks into high gear, peaking around mid-July, and slowly subsiding from there. This means that early June 2024 and mid-August 2024 are the best times to go from a crowd calendar perspective during what’s traditionally considered summer vacation season.
However, almost all dates in summer are going to be above average on the crowd calendar, with spikes around Independence Day, weekends, and other events that draw crowds to Orlando. In other words, pretty much all dates are close to the same on the crowd calendar.
What we can say is that crowds peaked last year the week of June 25 and the year before that the week of June 13. There’s been very little consistency with crowds for the last 5 summers–2018 was the last normal one. The worst of the crowds last year were actually June 19-22, a stretch with 6/10 to 8/10 crowd levels. Before and after that, crowd levels were mostly 3/10 to 5/10.
Previously, the peak of summer is typically around Independence Day. Usually, crowds increase until then and decrease after that. There’s also often a ‘last hurrah’ at the end of July, as families scramble to take summer vacations before schools go back into session. That actually is something that’s continued to occur in the last few years.
Due to all of the additions on June 10, our expectation is that 2024 will peak later–towards the end of June or even in early July. There are also ticket deals that don’t have aggressive blockout dates, so it’s highly unlikely that this summer will be a repeat of last year when Independence Day was a ghost town (partly due to weather–mostly due to blockouts).
As such, we’d expect to see the lowest crowd levels from June 1-9, 2024. There should be a slight spike following that for the start of the new additions, but there’s nothing of sufficient scale to really draw people to the parks. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will be the big thing at the end of June, but the opening date was announced too late for that to have an immediate impact on summer attendance.
There will be a rush of Floridians and Disney diehards rushing to see it, but that will be localized to Magic Kingdom and won’t be sustained. (Meaning it’s not tourists who booked last-minute vacations and will spend multiple days in each of the parks.)
Speaking of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, we also do not expect the Annual Passholder or Disney Vacation Club previews to have much of an impact on crowd levels. Those seldom do, and in this case, APs can try from home to join the virtual queue. So they’re only likely to head to Magic Kingdom if they succeed. Many will do that and maybe another ride or two and leave.
For daily park recommendations, we’d direct you to Best & Worst Days to Do All Parks at Walt Disney World. Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT typically follow patterns and picking the right (and avoiding the wrong) days can make a big difference, no matter what time of year (uncrowded or crowded) that you visit. Beyond that, we shall see what June and July 2024 hold!
June Pricing & Discounts
Discount offers for Walt Disney World vacation packages used to be meager throughout the entire summer. Due to school being out of session, Walt Disney World had something of a captive audience during the summer months as many families can only visit then. However, at some point, Disney raised rack rates too much and now needs special offers to make prices more palatable for the average family. You can check out the available options in Current Walt Disney World Discounts.
To that point, June is near peak season for most pricing purposes. One-day park tickets are expensive during this month–read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post for multi-day ticket recommendations. Hotels aren’t quite as bad, as it’s the “Summer” pricing season for them, which is about average, and not nearly as bad as peak holiday rates.
Overall, the month of June at Walt Disney World is certainly not a favorite for us. If after reading this, you have an uneasy “what have I gotten myself into?!” feeling, don’t. If you go into the trip prepared for what you’re likely to encounter in terms of heat & humidity, have a positive attitude, and with a good strategy that enables you to roll with the punches, you’ll still have a great trip.
We visit Walt Disney World every single month of the year, and I cannot say we’ve ever had a bad experience. Sure, we’d rather go in November than June, but if our choices were June or nothing (or July or August), we’d choose June. The weather isn’t as bad and crowds are more manageable than they used to be during the summer.
It’s all about mind over matter, adapting to the circumstances, and planning ahead. Part of what these month-by-month guides are about is not just assisting you choose a month, but also being (over)prepared for that month. To that end, hopefully we are being helpful rather than scary!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Do you agree or disagree with our take on June 2024 at Walt Disney World? If you’ve visited in June, do you have any tips to add? Anything to pack or way to prepare to help the trip go smoother? 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!
