10 Times a Year When Crowds Are At their Worst at Disney World

5. Food and Wine Festival

This extremely popular EPCOT festival has grown from a handful of weekends to a three-month celebration. Visitors can delight in snack-sized portions and adult beverages at a variety of international-themed booths. And this festival has become so popular that many regular visitors have started to plan their annual trips around this culinary event! While the event hasn’t made the resort as a whole insanely crowded, it has made the weekends at EPCOT very busy indeed. I’d highly recommend avoiding the sea of humans and instead, stopping by on a Monday – Thursday. After all, shorter lines aren’t only less maddening. They also mean you’ll enjoy more goodies!

6. Halloween

Speaking of popular fall events, Halloween has also become quite a spooktacular time to travel to Orlando! The Magic Kingdom truly gets into the spirit with Main Street’s decorations, orange banners, and the countless jack-o-lanterns lining the shop windows. The crown jewel of the holiday is the hard-ticket event, Mickey’s-Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. Featuring special entertainment, merchandise, and food – this is also the only time where guests of all ages are encouraged and allowed to wear full costumes! This feature alone draws many guests to WDW to celebrate this candy-loving holiday. Halloween lovers beware though – The closer the calendar creeps to the 31st, the busier the parks become.

7. Thanksgiving

Once upon a time, the week including and following Thanksgiving used to be a golden time to enjoy WDW’s Christmas décor without the crowds. Well, the secret has gotten out. With many families being enticed to visit over Thanksgiving school breaks, you must be prepared to navigate through seas of people. On a positive note, the crowds will still be less insane than the week of Christmas and you’ll be able to enjoy all of the Christmas entertainment in full swing. Just don’t expect the crowds to be barren!