The best time to visit Orlando, month by month
Weather, crowds and prices through the year, with the two windows we would pick.
There is no bad time to visit Orlando, but there are much better and much worse ones, and the difference is weather, crowds and price. Here is the year as we see it from the UK.
January and February
Cool, dry, quiet after the first week of January. Some rides and water parks close for refurbishment and a Disney water park is usually shut. Pleasant days in the low twenties, chilly evenings. The cheapest tickets and flights of the year. The second half of February gets busier with US school breaks.
March and April
Spring break season. Warm and lovely, but the parks are busy from mid-March until after Easter, and Easter week itself is one of the worst of the year. Prices rise accordingly. EPCOT's Flower and Garden Festival runs through this period and is included with admission.
May
Our favourite month. Hot but not yet brutal, crowds fall after the first week, the water parks are open, and school holiday pricing has not started. The only catch is the UK May half-term at the end of the month.
June, July and August
Hot, humid, with a thunderstorm most afternoons that clears within an hour. The busiest period for UK families because of school holidays, and priced to match. The parks are open late, which helps. Go early, leave after lunch, return in the evening. This is when a water park ticket and a hotel pool matter most.
September and early October
The quietest time of year after Labor Day, still hot, and the best value if you can travel outside school terms. Hurricane season peaks in September; in practice Orlando is far inland and disruption is rare, but travel insurance matters. Halloween events start in August and run through October.
Late October and November
Cooling down, comfortable, moderate crowds except Thanksgiving week at the end of November. Christmas decorations go up at Disney in early November. A very good time for a first visit.
December
Beautiful and busy. The first two weeks are manageable and the parks look their best. Christmas to New Year is the single busiest week of the year; Magic Kingdom regularly reaches capacity. Only go then if you have no choice, and buy Lightning Lane.
Our shortlist
For the best trip: the first half of May, or late September into October. For families tied to school holidays: the last week of August is quieter and cheaper than July, and February half-term beats Easter.
