When to Visit Disney World in 2025

In this post, we provide an outlook on the next one to two years at Disney World, with the goal of helping to pick when to visit during that time. Disney World is always changing—rides open, rides close, new “skip-the-line” systems debut and get changed…and changed again…and again. We’re here to help you navigate the upcoming major changes at the parks to make sure you can focus on planning the best trip possible. Let’s talk about the best times to visit Disney World in the next two years!

About This Post

This post gets updated every few months, though in the interim you may see updates near the top that provide some additional information we haven’t yet built into the rest of the post.

This post is specifically concerned with “when to visit.” As of this January 2025 update, we are focused on visits occurring in 2025. Because of relative emptiness in the calendar, 2026 gets covered only briefly (early May, early December are best, if you’re here for 2026). We’ll make updates periodically as specific dates for the many upcoming changes are announced.

We do our best to (1) collect important dates that Disney has confirmed, (2) mention rumored dates that make sense, (3) give our total guesses for things that might happen. It always should be clear which of these categories a given date / prediction falls into.

This post is not a planning guide. We have a Walt Disney World planning guide. If you want a more specific look at different months, we have a collection of Disney World Month-by-Month posts.

A Note About Dates

Throughout this post, we give specific dates where specific dates are known and more general time ranges where they are not. In all cases you should research specifics more before booking a trip. For example, when we say “November brings the start of holiday celebrations at Disney World”, we don’t mean “if you visit on November 1 the holiday celebrations will be in full swing.” Specific start and end dates of things within months vary and should be confirmed.

Other Factors to Consider

The bulk of this post is about major dates and changes at Disney World, but first—because I don’t want anyone to miss these—I want to mention some other factors that might impact when you want to visit Walt Disney World.

 

Is it [any holiday] weekend? This post doesn’t go into the minutia of every week of crowds at Walt Disney World. We’re focused mostly on major things specific to Walt Disney World (like ride openings or special events), with some discussion of generally high / low crowd seasons. We have posts that go into more detail about each month.

Should you wait and save for a better trip? Most of the time, if you can wait 6 months or a year and save enough to seriously upgrade your trip, I’d suggest doing it. Early May and early December are our favorite times to visit, and I’d happily push a trip from one to the other if it meant a serious upgrade (longer trip, upgrading to on-site hotel).

 

Are your kids growing? Check out our Disney World height requirements post. A kid who is on the cusp of 40 inches is set to gain nine rides including all stars like Rise of the Resistance and Tower of Terror. If you can wait until they hit that magic mark (for example) you’ll get more out of your trip.

Can you avoid being early adopter? In a broad sense, the worst time to go to Disney World is when anything changes. (This is sort of the theme of this entire post.) The first days or weeks that a ride debuts, or stops using a virtual queue, or goes between Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane—these are all difficult times to visit because we don’t yet know how it impacts touring strategy.

Major Dates and Changes at Disney World

This section is focused only on the most major events that we might plan trips around (mostly debuts of attractions or entertainment). It doesn’t include holidays unless something specific is debuting / changing on those dates. It also includes things I just don’t expect to impact planning that much, regardless of how “epic” they might feel.

We have a Refurbishment and Events Calendar that is somewhat more extensive. I also recommend glancing at the Epcot Festival Calendar and Tips post if festivals are going to be a big part of your trip. We discuss these dates/estimates more immediately below.

 

Recent Major Changes

  • June 17, 2024 - Test Track reimagining (retheme and refurbishment) begins (reopening 2025)

  • June 28, 2024 - Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens

  • September 9, 2024 - TRON switches from virtual queue to standby queue

  • October 8, 2024 - Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy permanently closed

  • January 6, 2025 - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad closes for yearlong refurbishment

  • January 13, 2025 - TriceraTop Spin (the aerial carousel ride), Fossil Fun Games (the carnival games), Chester & Hester’s Dinosaur Treasures (the store) close permanently at Animal Kingdom

Upcoming Changes

  • March 16, 2025 - Last day to experience It’s Tough to be a Bug (Animal Kingdom)

  • May 22, 2025 - Epic Universe at Universal Orlando Resort opens

Other announced Changes

  • 2025 (Expected) - Tom Sawyer Island and Liberty Square Riverboat close permanently at Magic Kingdom

  • June 7, 2025 - Last day to experience MuppetVision 3D

  • Summer 2025 - Hollywood Studios Villains Show debuts

  • Summer 2025 - Hollywood Studios new Little Mermaid show debuts

  • Summer 2025 - Disney Starlight Nighttime Parade debuts at Magic Kingdom

  • Late 2025 - Updated version of Test Track debuts

  • Late 2025 - Zootopia show—replacement for It’s Tough To Be A Bug—opens at Animal Kingdom

  • (Expected) Early 2026 - DINOSAUR / rest of Dinoland USA closes permanently at Animal Kingdom

  • (Expected) Early 2026 - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopens after yearlong refurbishment

  • 2027 - Pueblo Esperanza (Dinoland USA replacement) opens at Animal Kingdom

  • Unknown / Expected After 2026 - Monsters Inc. Land opens at Hollywood Studios

  • Unknown / Expected After 2026 - Cars expansion to Frontierland opens at Magic Kingdom

  • Unknown / Expected After 2026 - Villains land opens at Magic Kingdom

The Bottom Line About the Current Calendar

While we all love to get hyped about major Disney World changes, the process actually takes quite a long time. To that end, there are basically three blocks of time to focus on.

Visit earlier in 2025 only if you have to, or if you’re willing to miss out on some new stuff. If you really need to lock in Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Square Riverboat at Magic Kingdom, or “It’s Tough to be a Bug” at Animal Kingdom, then you might visit ASAP because we have no idea when those will close. But the remainder of Dinoland USA at Animal Kingdom is expected to be open until 2026. Basically, we’re all waiting for the Epic summer to arrive.

Visit later in 2025 or in 2026 if you want to chance to see the new Test Track (Epcot), Villains show (at Hollywood Studios), nighttime parade (Magic Kingdom), and Zootopia show (at Animal Kingdom).

Visit…sometime after 2026 if you want to experience all the new stuff—the Pueblo Esperanza land (with three new attractions) at Animal Kingdom, the Cars expansion to Frontierland at Magic Kingdom, the new Villains land at Magic Kingdom, and the Monsters Inc. land at Hollywood Studios. These won’t all open at once—Disney will keep them spaced out to spread crowds and expenditures. With Pueblo Esperanza set for 2027, it’s likely the other lands will debut later than that.

 

So late 2025 and all of 2026 actually look to be a relatively stable but fresh time at Walt Disney World. Of course we’ll see some yet-unannounced changes, but the major shakeups (the new lands) are still a ways down the road.

Before we move onto specific times to visit, we’ve got some minor (er, minor-ish) things to flag, too…

 

The Epic Universe Opening

Epic Universe is a new theme park that will open at Disney World’s biggest competitor, right down the road, Universal Orlando Resort. While it isn’t a Disney park, this will be the biggest theme park opening in years. Epic Universe will open May 22, 2025.

On the Disney end of things, I think the Epic Universe is shaping up to be a great excuse to book a Disney World trip that includes a day set aside to see just Epic Universe. (Note: As of this update, you can’t yet buy a single day ticket for Epic Universe.) As a result, Epic Universe comes up a lot in the rest of this post. While we’re expecting some mid-2025 debuts from Disney, we should all be honest that Epic Universe will be stealing the show this year.

Touring Changes

There are two expected changes that will impact touring strategy at the parks but that haven’t been announced yet. Unfortunately, these are changes that could be announced at any moment and will probably be announced on short enough notice that you won’t be able to plan around them if they conflict with your trip.

Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind will eventually drop its virtual queue. Most people are surprised this hasn’t happened already, so I’d call this one “imminent” insofar as I’m always aware it’s a possibility. This will have major impacts on how you spend your morning at Epcot, and we briefly discuss the issue in our Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind page.

 

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will drop its virtual queue. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure presumably uses a virtual queue because of ongoing reliability issues with the ride. Disney originally was clear they didn’t expect the virtual queue to be a longterm thing, but it has stuck around. But unlike with Cosmic Rewind, Tiana’s switching from virtual queue to standby won’t make your day much harder. It’ll actually probably make it easier.

Timing Your Next Visit to Disney World

Okay, let’s end by going through the next two-ish years block by block to discuss the pros and cons of visiting during these times…

When to Visit Disney World Through May 2025

Dates for upcoming closures at Disney World will be released in due time. But a good benchmark date to work with is Memorial Day 2025—May 26, 2025. This is the traditional start of the “summer” in the United States, and just after Epic Universe’s May 22 debut.

With the first Dinoland USA closures behind us, Disney has said that DINOSAUR (the remaining ride) will be open through 2025. This leaves us with three TBD closures: Tom Sawyer Island and Liberty Square Riverboat at Magic Kingdom, and It’s Tough to be a Big at Animal Kingdom. So, if I had to catch those things, I’d be looking at visiting sooner rather than later.

Conversely, the earlier you visit the less likely you are to catch the new Test Track (Epcot, Late 2025), Villains show (at Hollywood Studios, summer 2025), nighttime parade (Magic Kingdom, summer 2025), Little Mermaid show (at Hollywood Studios, summer 2025), and Zootopia show (at Animal Kingdom, Late 2025)

February crowds—holidays excepted—tend to be more pleasant than spring crowds, just pack an extra layer. A late Easter means you need to be prepared for high crowds throughout March and April. Personally, I wouldn’t plan a visit during this time. My plan would be to wait out the May 22 opening of Universal’s Epic Universe, hoping to put together a plan that allows me to visit that brand new park as a part of my trip to central Florida.

Generally, early May is one of our two favorite times to visit Walt Disney World. The weather is perfect and you’re getting in before summer crowds. The problem with early May 2025 is it’s a complete tossup when it comes to all the “summer” closures/debuts at this point. You can’t know what you’re getting until more details are announced.

Visiting Disney World June Through September 2025

June is the peak of summer crowds as people try and beat July and August weather. July and August tend to bring a dip in crowds as heat and hurricanes enter the picture. By September, most kids are back in school and crowds dip for the fall (the major exception being and holiday weekends).

But the real issue for summer 2025 is simply the collection of new things debuting that season:

  • Summer 2025 - Hollywood Studios Villains Show debuts

  • Summer 2025 - Hollywood Studios new Little Mermaid show debuts

  • Summer 2025 - Disney Starlight Nighttime Parade debuts at Magic Kingdom

I don’t think these will seriously impact crowds resort-wide. The Villains show will be very popular. The nighttime parade will be very popular. The popularity will probably spill over into the rest of the park, particularly impacting Magic Kingdom’s afternoon and nighttime crowds.

While I don’t want to be around for the first week that these things debut, I’d much rather have a trip that includes them than one that misses out. To that end, later is better, but the later you get into summer, the worse the weather will be. We don’t typically worry about weather, but we’re also not once-in-a-lifetime visitors.

August also brings the start of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, held on select nights August through October. While that event is definitely worth attending, Halloween is not as big an event at Walt Disney World as Christmas is. Besides some small decorations on Main Street, along with special food and merchandise, you shouldn’t expect much Halloween spirit.

 

The biggest downside to summer/fall visit is that it isn’t yet the holidays. If you wait until mid-November, you’ll have a chance to catch Walt Disney World in its holiday best. Specific dates for the start of holidays are usually announced in mid-June.

Visiting Late 2025

We assume that by Labor Day, September 1, 2025, all the “summer” debuts will be done. That moves us into “late 2025” territory, when we’re expecting the updated version of Test Track to debut, as well as the Zootopia show—thenreplacement for It’s Tough To Be A Bug—to open at Animal Kingdom. We don’t have dates on these yet.

The holiday season at Disney World typically begins about one week into November and continues through the end of December. This is when you’ll see holiday decorations go up at all the hotels and parks, along with special food and merchandise around the resort. Here are the key dates from 2024 (current year dates are typically announced in June):

Each park gets its own special holiday treatment (Epcot’s holiday festival usually starts later than the rest of the holiday celebrations). Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is the flagship holiday event and definitely worth attending if you visit during this time. Jollywood Nights was a new event in 2023 that debuted to mixed reviews. It returned in 2024.

One of our favorite times to visit Disney World is early December—after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. Crowds are low as people don’t usually vacation between the two holidays, but Christmas celebrations are in full swing.

If you can’t time your visit to avoid crowds, you’ll be dealing with holiday crowds. We’ve long been in the camp that holiday crowds are “worth it”, at least if this isn’t a one-in-a-lifetime trip where you have to get on every ride. These crowds, along with higher prices, are really the only downside to visiting at this time.

And then the calendar repeats itself, but with fewer small details announced so far for 2026.

Visiting Disney World in 2026

There are three things we’ll say right now about 2026.

Big Thunder Mountain will probably return in the first quarter of the year. This isn’t confirmed by Disney. We know the ride will be closed through 2025, but we don’t expect it to remain closed much beyond that.

DINOSAUR and the rest of Dinoland will probably close early in the year. It’s been confirmed DINOSAUR will be open through 2025. I’d guess a mid-January closure (a year after Dino-Rama’s closure) is most likely, with a post-Easter closure less likely.

It’ll be a pretty stable (great) year to visit. I’m thrilled about 2026. I expect 2025 to be bumpy, and while I always expect and hope Disney will announce new things, I’m expecting 2026 to be pretty calm while we await a busy few years after that.

If it’s the MAJOR changes you’re waiting on, remember what our projected “calendar” looks like right now:

  • 2027 - Pueblo Esperanza (Dinoland USA replacement) opens at Animal Kingdom

  • Unknown / Expected After 2026 - Monsters Inc. Land opens at Hollywood Studios

  • Unknown / Expected After 2026 - Cars expansion to Frontierland opens at Magic Kingdom

  • Unknown / Expected After 2026 - Villains land opens at Magic Kingdom

We’re all eager for the new and exciting things, but a “boring” 2026 would give you a great chance to see all the new stuff that debuted in 2025 without the stress of navigating huge new worlds.

My Favorite Weeks to Visit Disney World

If I’m planning a trip in the next two years (let’s say through 2026), here’s how I’d rank my options.

1. December 6 to 14, 2025

I like holidays. I like lower crowds. I love the chances to maybe see some new things, and I’m not too concerned about the old things that are about to disappear. This date should let me catch:

  • the new villains show and Little Mermaid show at Hollywood Studios

  • the new nighttime parade at Magic Kingdom

  • the new Test Track at Epcot

  • Universal’s Epic Universe (if I’m okay leaving the Disney bubble)

 

2. January 25 to February 2, 2025

Personally, I’m not averse to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day crowds, or to the minor disruptions from the Walt Disney World Marathon. That said, I selected these dates to avoid those times.

Crowds aren’t often a huge problem between Christmas and Presidents’ Day. Early 2025 gives you the best chance at catching DINOSAUR, Tom Sawyer Island, and Liberty Square Riverboat before they close. If I knew these would be open into May, I’d rank my first week of May higher.

If you like the sound of this timeframe and are willing to take slightly higher crowds for the perk of experiencing the holidays, then instead consider early December 2024.

3. May 3 to 11, 2025

We started with “I want new stuff”, then “I want to see the old stuff”. Early May is “I just want a nice trip, I don’t care about those details.”

Early May typically has very manageable crowds and perfect weather. Basically all of our “sometime 2025” changes may have happened, or not, by this week.

If I could lock in the new villains show, the nighttime parade, the updated Test Track, and Universal’s Epic Universe by visiting in late June or early July—yes, I’d do that instead of this early May week. I think the early summer crowds and later summer weather are worth those two new things. (Note: Epic Universe debut now confirmed for May 22, 2025)

But, as of this update, we just don’t know enough to say for sure that June/July will have enough new things to be preferable to early May.

4. (Tie) Early May and Early December, 2026

With little to go on when it comes to 2026, we’re left with our default—early May and early December. I prefer the holiday touches of early December, but if you’re itching to plan a visit sooner, early May is practically just as good.

All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered

Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.

Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.

When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!

Don't forget to master your Disney World Lightning Lane Guide and Strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, Epcot Lightning Lane Strategy, Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, and Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Strategy.

Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.

Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.