Our guide to September 2024 at Walt Disney World offers a free crowd calendar, when to visit, red flag dates to avoid, new attraction openings & closures, plus Halloween events & early fall weather. We also cover what’s happening at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. (Updated August 22, 2024.)
Relative to summer, September is a good month to visit Walt Disney World due to off-season crowds for most of the month and seasonal events like Halloween. School is back in session, and wait times are low from Labor Day until crowds arrive towards the end of the month for the start of convention and group events seasons, plus early fall breaks. The September 2024 crowd calendar below makes this month a really attractive time to visit.
While every park isn’t going to be “dead” every day of the week, if you plan well, you can really avoid crowds during a September Walt Disney World visit. That also means shorter September park hours, but you can’t really argue with accomplishing more in less time. There’s only really one downside to September at Walt Disney World, and it’s a fairly big one.
That one downside is the weather, which is bad for two distinct reasons that we’ll cover in the next section. On balance, mid to late September can still be a very good time to visit Walt Disney World, but it’s not for everyone. You have to be able to tolerate (or gamble on) the weather in order to be rewarded with extremely low crowds.
Let’s take a look at what you can expect in September at WDW…
September Weather at Disney World
The downside comes in terms of weather. In terms of temperatures, September is better than June through August, but it’s still a gamble. It’s a lot like May in this regard: it can be temperate and pleasant, or insanely hot. Especially early in the month, it can be pretty hot and humid.
At the beginning of September, average high temperatures are 90°, with average lows of 75°. Towards the end of the month, the weather improves slightly, with historical highs of “only” 87° and lows of 72°. Add oppressive humidity that’ll fog your glasses the second you step out of your hotel room, and September is still a pretty undesirable month in terms of weather.
Suffice to say, if you’re visiting Walt Disney World in September, remember to pack accordingly, bringing the Frogg Toggs for the humidity…and ponchos for the rain so you don’t spend $179 on them at Walt Disney World. You can view day-by-day temperature and weather forecasts plus historical averages for Walt Disney World weather in September here.
September is also the height of hurricane and storm season. For each of the last three years, hurricanes have impacted operations at Walt Disney World at the very end of August or beginning of September. (Add last year to that list, as Hurricane Idalia offered a scare, but didn’t materially impact operations at Walt Disney World!) In recent years, Hurricanes Ian, Dorian and Irma have caused the parks to close.
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. Things get better towards the end of the month both in terms of humidity and storms, so your best bet is definitely to hold off on visiting until later in the month if you can.
WDW Seasonal Events in September
To answer a common question: yes, you will see Halloween decorations if you visit Walt Disney World in September. Any day in September. However, the only park that gets decked out for Halloween is Magic Kingdom, and that’s true in any year, not just 2024.
The big event for September is Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. In September, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party starts happening with increasing frequency. By mid-month, Magic Kingdom is closing early for MNSSHP a few nights per week. As discussed below, this really throws a monkey wrench into attendance dynamics.
Another event that’ll occur throughout September 2024 is the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival. This is a great way to graze and sample different cuisines, or attend instructive seminars, or other foodie special events. It’s also a great way to lighten your wallet, as it is very easy to spend a lot of money at Food & Wine Festival on these small samples.
Especially if you buy booze: not only can you spend a lot on the drinks, but the drinks might cause you to relax your credit card swiping hand and use it more freely on snacks. Not that we know from experience or anything. Check out our Guide to the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival for more tips and tricks for this event.
The big change for 2024 is that the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival once again starts at the end of August, meaning it’ll still be fresh by the time September rolls around. This means weekends at EPCOT will be busier, as Floridians and Annual Passholders head to the park to eat and drink their way around the world.
SEPTEMBER REFURBISHMENTS & NEW ATTRACTIONS
For an idea of what’s going to be closed in September 2024, check the Walt Disney World Refurbishment Schedule. Just be warned that this doesn’t fully cover the construction all around Walt Disney World—just ride and entertainment closures.
The biggest ride that’s currently closed is Test Track, which is being reimagined. A reopening date has not yet been announced, but it’s already confirmed to be closed for the remainder of this year. We’re expecting it to reopen for Spring Break 2025 at the absolute earliest.
In addition to that, Jungle Cruise is closed for the duration of September 2024. On a couple of positive notes, Country Bear Musical Jamboree and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster have both reopened after lengthy downtime. Moreover, none of the big projects announced at D23 will start until sometime in 2025. So despite it being off-season, there are not that many refurbishments in September 2024!
Both of the newest major attractions at Walt Disney World are in Magic Kingdom, with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure now open as of late last month! This is the reimagining of Splash Mountain, and tells the story of “The Princess and the Frog” after the events of the movie. As discussed in Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Ride Review: Failure, Flawed or Fantastic?, the attraction is a mixed bag.
If you’re visiting in August 2024, there are two other things you should know about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. The first is that it uses a virtual queue…for now. See How to Ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure for everything you need to know about its (lack of) standby line, Lightning Lane, and virtual queue.
The big impediment to ditching the virtual queue and switching to standby is downtime and reliability issues. As discussed in You Might Have Problems Riding Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom, the reimagined ride is having troubles right now and frequently has multiple hours of downtime per day. It probably won’t drop the virtual queue until it’s operating more consistently, without frequent breakdowns. It seems unlikely that’ll happen by September, but who knows.
Then there’s TRON Lightcycle Run, which is the most recent brand-new (not reimagined) major attraction at Walt Disney World. See our Virtual Queue Strategy Guide for TRON Lightcycle Run for details, tips & tricks for success, and more. Unfortunately, you cannot join both the virtual queue for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and TRON Lightcycle Run at the same time, so you’ll need to strategize in order to experience both in the same day.
Bouncing back to EPCOT, there’s a bunch of other new stuff there. This includes World Celebration, CommuniCore Hall, Moana’s Journey of Water, and Luminous: Symphony of Us–all of which debuted within the last year. That’s still pretty new in the grand scheme of things! There’s also Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Space 220 Restaurant, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and a bunch of other stuff.
For an overview of what else is on the horizon, see What’s New & Next 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 at the top of this section because that’s reductionist and doesn’t give you the full picture of Walt Disney World attendance trends. WDW crowd calendars are less reliable due to how Disney manipulates attendance patterns, staffing, closures, and ride capacity. It’s better to offer an explanation of what to expect crowd-wise this fall at Walt Disney World.
Since Disney doesn’t release official attendance numbers, crowd calendars use things like school schedules, airport traffic statistics, hotel pricing & occupancy, etc., as proxies for crowds. For years, this approach worked and made crowd calendars reliable. Walt Disney World attendance followed an identifiable pattern that tracked with the aforementioned proxies.
Unfortunately, wait times no longer reflect actual crowds because of the aforementioned manipulation. We can still forecast attendance, but not the resulting wait times. This is like the difference between the actual temperature and the “feels like” temperature, but with crowds. The latter are what most of you likely care about (the “feels like” crowds), but it’s more difficult to predict wait times via Walt Disney World crowd calendars. Hopefully that makes sense!
That’s the bad news. The very good news is that September 2024 is the best month of the year to visit Walt Disney World from an objective perspective. (From a subjective perspective is an entirely different story due to the weather forecast!) Literally the entire month sees below average crowds. Even Labor Day weekend (September 1-2, 2024) draws far smaller crowds than most other holidays.
Last year, Labor Day was downright dead at Walt Disney World. Labor Day was a repeat of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, which was one of the slowest stretches of the entire year at Walt Disney World. History will not repeat itself to nearly the same degree, but as we explain in the following post, Labor Day Weekend Isn’t Busy at Disney.
There’s really no terrible time to visit as far as the September 2024 crowd calendar goes. The beginning of the month will be busier than August as a result of the holiday weekend, and the end of the month will see another spike due to ticket deals and seasonal attendance trends (getting closer to fall break; weather starting to improve from summer).
The time in between, will feature some of the lowest crowds of the year at Walt Disney World. In terms of the crowd calendar, this is one of the last bastions of the off-season at Walt Disney World. Average weekly crowd levels will be 1/10 to 3/10 during this date range.
If you’re purely concerned about crowds, we’d recommend going from September 3-13, 2024. Note that at one time, we proactively recommended visiting over Labor Day weekend. That was due to aggressive blockouts on Annual Passes and (anticipated) exclusions on discounted tickets, as well as the premium pricing for the holiday weekend, all of which will push people away.
However, Walt Disney World wisened up and did not exclude Labor Day from ticket deals this year. While all of the other factors from last year will still be in play, the discounted tickets being eligible is a potential gamechanger. It’s not that we’d recommend avoiding Labor Day, it should still be fine; it just isn’t a top pick.
Speaking of the ticket deals, there are two of them and they will have a big impact on crowds in September. The first of these is the Florida Resident Discover Disney Ticket, which is valid through September 28, 2024 with an advance park reservation. Second is the 4-Park, 4-Day Walt Disney World Magic Ticket, which is valid through September 22, 2024 and does not require reservations.
In combing through the wait times data, last year’s versions of these deals (with different end dates) caused crowds to peak in their final weekend. These are “use it or lose it” tickets, so there’s always a last-minute rush like that–especially on Fridays through Sundays (weekdays aren’t impacted nearly as badly).
During that final weekend of validity last year, crowd levels were 8/10 with an average wait time of 44 minutes. Earlier that same week and in the weeks before, crowd levels were 1/10 with an average of 27 minutes. That’s a huge difference.
Accordingly, we now anticipate September 20-22, 2024 and September 27-29, 2024 both being very busy (crowd levels 7/10 or above). The weekend before that could likewise be moderately busy, as could the days leading up to the ticket deals ending. If you have the option to visit in the first half of September or the second half, you should definitely choose the first.
The contrast between those dates towards the end of the ticket deals expiring and the rest of September–otherwise one of the slowest months of the year–will be very stark. Crowds will feel even worse as a result. While these wouldn’t necessarily be ‘red flag’ dates to avoid during peak season timeframes like Spring Break or around Christmas, they’ll be about as bad as it gets during what’s otherwise the off-season.
Speaking of things to which we should call attention, Rosh Hashanah is not until October 3, 2024. This means it’s probably slightly less likely that the last week of September will see a pronounced spike due to early fall breaks. September 20-28, 2024 is still likely to be the busiest stretch of the month, but the last couple days of the month–or even the very beginning of October–shouldn’t be too bad.
In fact, we’d be more inclined to visit from September 29 to October 4, 2024 than we would the week before that. It’s not usually the case that crowds get better over the course of early fall, but that week in particular looks like one to target. At least, as contrasted with the one before it. Again, the expiration of those ticket deals are big drivers of attendance and crowds that catch a lot of fans by surprise.
In addition to the aforementioned weekends (which normally wouldn’t be busy, but for the ticket deals), we’d recommend avoiding Mondays at Magic Kingdom throughout September. They’re likely to be the busiest days of the month, especially September 16, 23, and 30 in Magic Kingdom. Two more red flag dates for Magic Kingdom are September 25 and 28. Although those aren’t Mondays, they are the dates that are nestled among multiple MNSSHP dates.
Nevertheless, crowds do pick up the closer you get to October. This is largely due to conventions and other group events, plus fall breaks for various school districts around the country. Some schools also do fall breaks around the last weekend of the month (roughly September 27-30, 2024), so expect higher crowd levels then, too.
Still, busier is a relative term. The last full week of September 2024 will be worse than the rest of the month. However, if crowd levels hit 6/10, that’s technically true as the first three weeks will have crowd levels way below that. That’s exactly what we’re predicting–crowd levels averaging out at 6/10 or possibly 7/10 in the last week of the month, but with a wider range for Magic Kingdom (see below).
The good news is that the first half of the month should largely have 1/10 to 3/10 crowd levels. In particular, September 3-13 should be blissfully uncrowded–one of the best stretches of the entire year. (Objectively speaking–subjectively, the weather might leave something to be desired!)
For Magic Kingdom, there’s an added wrinkle to the crowd calendar: Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP). On nights this event is held, the park closes to regular ticket holders at 6 pm. Consequently, Magic Kingdom is less busy during the day time hours on dates when MNSSHP is held, and more busy on days the Halloween event is not occurring.
We’d strongly recommend visiting Magic Kingdom during the day on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party nights, and then bouncing to another park at around 4 pm. Animal Kingdom will always be your best option for lower-crowd evenings during the fall.
This might seem counter-intuitive, but it’s because the party is separately-ticketed. Typically, the biggest impact is felt closer to Halloween, so the phenomenon isn’t bad at all in September. We’ve reported on this phenomenon at length, seeing this play out every single day of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party season, as discussed in Best & Worst Days to Do Magic Kingdom in 2024. (If you’re wondering why some of the dates above are red flags for Magic Kingdom, that post explains it.)
You can also expect EPCOT to have worse “feels like” crowds on weekends. This is particularly true when local Florida colleges like UCF have away football games. However, this does not show up on crowd calendars, which measure wait times. (These locals cause congestion but typically don’t impact wait times.)
EPCOT’s attendance will be lightest on weekdays during the day, with heavier crowds after work as locals turn out to graze at the Food & Wine booths. (This is something that is tough to convey via a traditional numerical crowd calendar for Walt Disney World.)
SEPTEMBER PRICING & DISCOUNTS
Since it is the off-season, September is also a great month to visit in terms of both pricing and potential discounts. You can check available discounts via Disney here. Disney isn’t the only place where September is the off-season, so expect cheaper airfare when traveling in September–make sure to visit ITA Software to search for the best prices.
As far as pricing goes, early to mid-September is considered “value” season and late September is “regular” or “fall” season for resort room rates and park tickets (read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post for ticket recommendations to avoid having to deal with seasonal pricing).
Overall, September is a one of the top months of the year to visit Walt Disney World, and we’d encourage you to visit if you can handle the heat and humidity. If you need to convince a spouse to make a spontaneous getaway, there’s really no better argument that I can think of than “that one dude on the internet said we should!”
In fact, mid-September is one of our favorite times of the year for our personal visits to Walt Disney World. For a while, we took trips to Walt Disney World during this time for 4 consecutive years, as those low crowds were too much to resist. Like a fine wine, September gets better as it “ages” with the best times to visit being towards the end of the month–mainly due to better weather even as crowds increase slightly.
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
Are you a fan of visiting Walt Disney World in September? Have you found the crowds to be light? Is the weather this month bearable to you? Are you planning on visiting in September 2024 or is the potential for a hurricane too much of a gamble for you? If September is not your preferred month to visit Walt Disney World, which month do you like? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
