There are two things most everyone planning a trip to Disney World knows going in. First, it’s the most magical place on earth. Second, it’s the most expensive place on Earth. Well, not literally, but close.
Disney World is expensive, even if you have a handy list of ways to save money. One of the first things people to do try and save money is to pick the right time—the cheapest time—to go. In this post, we’ll discuss the cheapest times to go to Disney World and explain how you should think about timing trips around low prices.
The Bottom Line
Even before we get to the bottom line, we need to point you to the current Disney World offers page. This post focuses on rack rates, because those are fixed for the year. But Disney releases deals to bring guests into the park, and those may make a time with high rack rates more appealing. Be careful in analyzing these discounts.
Now, I’m happy to give you some key points before we get into more depth. I encourage you to read this entire post, because it contains some surprising points, but here’s some quick highlights.
The cheapest time to go to Disney World is January, with prices increasing from the end of January into Presidents Day weekend. Once that weekend passes, the cheapest times are July through mid-September and a few scattered dates—particularly at Value Hotels—in October through December.
Your hotel choice will impact which dates are cheapest. Prices at the Disney hotels do not all move in the same ways, as we discuss later. Deals, which are somewhat unpredictable, also make timing the absolute cheapest trip challenging.
There Are Other Things To Consider
Yes—your budget is a big part of planning your trip. But other factors matter, too. How will crowd levels impact your trip? Will your kids need to miss school? Will you need to miss work (and will that cost you money)? What will the weather be like?
It probably goes without saying, but the cheapest times are the cheapest times for a reason—they’re not as desirable as other times of the year. This could be because the weather is bad, or because most families have conflicts like school, or for some other reason.
If you come out of this post considering some specific months, you might next move onto our month-by-month posts, covering things like ride refurbishments, weather, and major events at the resort:
Prices Go Up Year After Year
It’s important to make sure you’re thinking about the months ahead of you, not just some calendars months. For example, let’s say it’s May and you’re starting to plan a trip. If you wanted to plan the cheapest trip in the next 12 months, late August / early September usually won’t be much more expensive than the following January.
Or, in table form, here’s a look at some lowest rack rates in 2023 to 2025:
| Lowest Rate | All Star Movies | Riverside | Contemporary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2023 | $ 128 | $ 278 | $ 550 |
| Aug 2023 | $ 148 | $ 299 | $ 559 |
| Jan 2024 | $ 133 | $ 289 | $ 572 |
| Aug 2024 | $ 153 | $ 314 | $ 585 |
| Jan 2025 | $ 133 | $ 289 | $ 609 |
| Aug 2025 | $ 153 | $ 314 | $ 609 |
At All Star Movies and Port Orleans Riverside, January prices are better than both the prior and future August. However, at Contemporary, prices tend to just go up, low season after low season. This brings up another interesting point…
Your Hotel Choice Matters, Too
You might think that prices will fluctuate the same across all Walt Disney World hotels, but that’s incorrect. Here’s a look at prices (forward 7-day averages), weighted by the average price for 2025 at Contemporary, Port Orleans Riverside, and All Star Movies (i.e. this shows difference over time, not between hotels):
For the most part, the pattern is what you’d expect—rise from January into March / April (spring break), drop a bit heading into summer, drop again once school starts, and then raise heading into the holiday season, peaking at the end of the year.
But there’s one big spot where hotels diverge. In early summer, All Star Movies prices go up, while other hotel prices go down. The most obvious explanation for this is probably the correct one—that families with kids in school and on a budget drive up demand in the summer, when kids are out of school, at value resorts.
Conversely, guests with more money (for moderate and deluxe resorts) tend to be more flexible in their travel dates, and thus avoid summer like the plague.
Deals Come and Deals Go
Finally, Disney often uses deals to bring guests to the resort when demand is lower than they expected. This means that what looks like the cheapest time right now might not wind up being the cheapest time when all is said and done. It also means that the cheapest times might be even cheaper than expected.
Deals typically range from 10% to 35% off. If you look at the chart above, you’ll see that prices pretty much bottom out at 25% below average for the year and—ignoring Christmas week—peak at about 30% above average. This means that discounts are at least as big a factor as choosing the dates with the lowest rack rates.
You can look at historical hotel deals over at MouseSavers, but the big caveat here is that these deals often have very specific availability, so it’s hard to really evaluate them in retrospect. A 35% off deal at a handful of hotels that sells out almost immediately isn’t necessarily going to be cheaper for you than a 15% off deal with wide open availability.
This holds true of deals from third parties, too. You’ve got places like Expedia and Undercover Tourist that routinely undercut Disney prices, and you’ve got even more extreme cases like Priceline’s secret deals where you basically have to hope you’re booking a Disney hotel.
Cheapest Months to Go to Disney World
You can see from the earlier chart that prices can vary wildly. For that reason, picking based on the “cheapest month” doesn’t really make sense. You can see that April sees a huge bump for Easter weekend, when prices are the year’s highest outside Christmas, but that the rest of the month is actually below average.
Nonetheless, calendar months are the most straightforward way to break down the year. So, with the important context in mind, here are the months ranked, at each of the three sample hotels, by average nightly rate, from cheapest to most expensive in 2025:
Disney World Hotel Cheapest Seasons
I highly encourage you do you your own research on this matter by consulting the MouseSavers Walt Disney World rack rate table. That’s a good, deep resource. It doesn’t provide daily prices, so if you want to build your own Excel analysis, you’re going to need a different data source. But here’s that 2025 chart again:
The chart is the average rate for a 7-night stay, by start date, divided by the average room rate at the hotel for the year. Again, it’s meant to show difference over time—not difference between hotels. Here are the key takeaways from this chart.
Prices spike at Presidents’ Day weekend and never come all the way back down. That first spike up is in the lead up to Presidents’ Day. Effectively, this is the start of a new year of pricing. Prices then ebb and flow, with a notable spike for Easter week, until summer starts with Memorial Day.
Summer is weird. Prices at All-Star Movies go up for the start of summer because that’s when demand from families with young kids and on a budget (along with athletic competitions) is highest. That bump in the middle of summer is July 4, and you see that prices at the deluxe resorts fall even further for the second half of the summer. Prices bottom from about mid-August to mid-September (hurricane season).
End of year is rough all around. Once you get to early November, prices pretty much only go up. There’s a small gap between Thanksgiving and early December where value and moderate resorts see a dip in prices, but for the most part holiday season is all around high season at Disney World.
Example Prices from Low Seasons
Finally, here are some specifics from the low seasons. These are average nightly rack rates for 7-night stays beginning on the given dates at All Star Movies / Port Orleans Riverside / Contemporary.
Average Night: $212 / $361 / $729
January 15 to January 30: $156 / $298 / $616
April 27 to May 16: $199 / $351 / $712
August 17 to August 22: $167 / $328 / $613
Disney World Ticket Cheapest Seasons
Here’s got a look at current prices through late 2025. These are subject to change, and this is another good time to remember that deals can impact how you evaluate the cheapest times, even for tickets.
Those low seasons are in January, August, and September, with increases or spikes around major holidays. Historically, ticket prices somewhat follow hotel prices, so these patterns aren’t surprising.
Notice that the difference between the lowest price ($120) and the highest price ($170) for the year is $50 per day. For a family of four, that’s $200 per day, or $800 (still pre-tax) over the course of a 4-day trip.
We recommend buying from an authorized discount Disney World ticket broker, but those prices are typically some consistent percentage off Disney’s rates, so the pattern of prices. should look roughly the same.
conclusions
The cheapest times to go to Disney World are before Presidents’ Day and during the low period of late August / early September when temperatures are high and kids are heading back to school, but you’ll always want to look closely at your specific plans because prices can do weird things throughout the year.
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.