This guide to August 2022 at Walt Disney World features a free crowd calendar, when to visit & avoid, weather, new attraction openings & closures, and summer events. We also cover info & tips for what’s happening at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. (Updated July 18, 2022.)
August is the light at the end of the tunnel for summer season at Walt Disney World. It’s still one of the worst months of the year to visit thanks to the weather, and somewhat unpredictable crowd patterns, but at least there are seasonal events towards the end of August. We’ll stress the same thing here that we did in our July Crowd Calendar for Walt Disney World: “a rainy, crowded day at Walt Disney World is better than a perfect day at home.”
To underscore that point, and help relieve those of you who have already planned vacations for August: this used to be our go-to month to visit Walt Disney World. Back when we were still in school, we took our annual WDW trip in late August. There was about a two week “secret window” when we visited…
During this week, most K-12 students were back in school, but college classes had not yet resumed. Park hours were still long, and crowds were low. Some of my fondest memories of Walt Disney World are from those Extra Magic Hours closings in Magic Kingdom, strolling through a virtually deserted park. Now that we’re locals and visit all the time, August is far from our favorite month.
Walt Disney World has gotten better (or worse, from our perspective) and more sophisticated with its crowd forecasting models, and this “secret window” isn’t quite as good as it once was. Every park aside from Animal Kingdom opens later and closes earlier than it used to. Worst of all, the end of August is now worse from a crowd perspective, due to Walt Disney World’s date-based ticket pricing.
Late August can still be a decent time to visit Walt Disney World, but it’s not for everyone. Here’s what else you can expect from August at Walt Disney World…
August Weather at Disney World
In terms of weather, it’s still sweltering, intense back-sweat heat and humidity. It’s right there with August in terms of the worst weather of the year, with comfortable weather only 15% of the time–and that 15% occurs between like 2:13 and 5:49 a.m., so it doesn’t do you any good unless you’re nocturnal.
Temperatures are pretty consistent throughout August, but consistent is not synonymous with “good.” Daily lows are around 74°F everyday, and highs are around 90°F most of the month, going above 94°F or dropping below 87°F only one day in ten. Read our Tips for Beating Summer Heat & Humidity post for ways to minimize the affect of unpleasant summer weather on your vacation.
The good news? It’s in the mid-70s year round at Walt Disney World’s indoor attractions thanks to the true Disney magic: air conditioning. The bad news? Poor weather in August is exacerbated by high humidity and rain. Humidity levels exceed 94% for the majority of the month, and it rains 70% of days. August is the heart of hurricane and storm season in Florida, so you should be prepared for that.
We already blathered on about La Nina in the July at Walt Disney World post. Suffice to say, there’s still the “strong probability” of that in August, since it’s the worst month of the year for tropical storms. In addition to our standard Unique Items to Pack for Disney, you’ll want to pack the cheap 10-packs of ponchos; we’d recommend ordering 1 per person per day. Alternatively, you might just pick up some high-quality, reusable Frogg Toggs Rainsuits. Those might look dorky, but you will be thanking me by the end of the trip. Really.
AUGUST SPECIAL EVENTS AT WDW
August is basically two different months in terms of Walt Disney World’s “seasons.” The beginning of the month is summer, which means not much of anything anywhere else.
The exception to that is the ever-expanding EPCOT festival season, which will be in full swing. This event started in July, and will expand on August 11, 2022. See our Guide to the 2022 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival for everything you need to know, from beating the crowds to cuisine recommendations, best booths, and more.
The second half of August 2022 is the start of fall. Well, not technically by any real world season standards, but things are different in Central Florida. Halloween actually begins in the first half of the month (yes, you read that correctly) and really gets going by mid-month. See When Do Halloween Decorations Go Up at Walt Disney World? for info on that.
On a positive note, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party returns in 2022! The first party night will be held on August 12, 2022. Dates are scattered at first, but really pick up in frequency during the last couple weeks of the month.
Additionally, the World’s Most Magical Celebration continues in August, running through April 2023. See our Ultimate Guide to Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary for more details.
AUGUST REFURBISHMENTS & NEW ATTRACTIONS
For an idea of what’s going to be closed in August, check the Walt Disney World Refurbishment Schedule. Not everything will be listed on that until a few months before August. However, even after that’s updated, it doesn’t fully cover the construction all around Walt Disney World—just attraction closures.
Epcot is starting to look fairly good as of Summer 2022. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Space 220 Restaurant, Creations Shop, Club Cool, and Harmonious all already debuted last year. In addition to those, it’s likely significant progress will be made on World Celebration, with more walkways opening back up and Connections Cafe & Eatery also now open.
Walt Disney World’s blockbuster addition for Summer 2022 was Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which is now open (hence the past tense). Experiencing the new ride is a bit complicated, so be sure to check out our How to Ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind & Virtual Queue Speed Strategy to improve your chances of success for joining the free virtual queue. (Note: this virtual queue might be retired by mid-August 2022.)
Another alternative is buying line-skipping access via the Individual Lightning Lanes. Those posts explain each option, their pros & cons, and everything else you need to know. Suffice to say, do not just show up to EPCOT expecting to join the standby line–as there isn’t one.
Beyond that, there are several attractions that have not yet opened and likely won’t until Fall 2022 or later. These include the Play Pavilion and Moana’s Journey of Water at Epcot, and TRON Lightcycle Run roller coaster at Magic Kingdom. All three may not open until 2023.
AUGUST 2022 DISNEY WORLD CROWD CALENDAR
We don’t offer a color-coded August 2022 crowd calendar to start this because that’s reductionist and doesn’t give you the full picture of Walt Disney World attendance trends. Moreover, WDW crowd calendars are less reliable due to how Disney manipulates attendance patterns, staffing, closures, and ride capacity. Suffice to say, it better serves readers to offer an explanation in terms of what to expect crowd-wise this summer 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!
Essentially, the distribution of summer crowds at Walt Disney World is like a Bell Curve. This means that early June and mid-August are the best times to go from a crowd calendar perspective during what’s traditionally considered summer vacation season.
As more and more school districts go back into session, August crowd levels should decrease. This will be most noticeable beginning August 10, 2022. While that might seem like a random Wednesday, it’s the date that both Orange County Public Schools and Osceola County Public Schools start their first day of classes.
These districts have the biggest impact on crowds at Walt Disney World, and going back into session will result in immediate attendance drops. As other districts around the South, Midwest, and Northeast start their academic years, crowds will continue dropping for the remainder of the month.
From a crowd calendar perspective, you can basically split the month in half in terms of overarching attendance patterns. There are the dates before August 10, 2022 that will be above average. Then there are the dates after August 14, 2022, that are all among the best times to visit Walt Disney World.
In numerical terms, the first week of August 2022 is about 6/10 to 7/10 on the crowd calendar (depending upon the park and whether it’s a weekday), with subsequent weeks in the 4/10 to 5/10 range. If you can get past the weather, August is a decent time to visit. Note that these are for Walt Disney World as a whole. Individual parks will vary, especially Magic Kingdom.
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.
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 August, but you should still consider avoiding Magic Kingdom on Saturdays. That’s always good advice, anyway.
As such, here are the August 2022 dates that Magic Kingdom will be MOST crowded:
- August 13-15, 2022
- August 17, 2022
- August 20-22, 2022
- August 24-25, 2022
- August 27, 2022
Typically, Saturdays are the worst of these days, so if you must do Magic Kingdom during one of the dates above, try to make it a weeknight. We’d expect these dates to have crowd levels of 6/10 to 8/10, perhaps hitting 9/10 on Saturdays later in the month.
Here are the August 2022 dates that Magic Kingdom will be LEAST crowded:
- August 12, 2022
- August 16, 2022
- August 19, 2022
- August 23, 2022
- August 26, 2022
In cross-referencing this with a park hours calendar, you’ll note that all of these are earlier closing times. This is exactly why the crowds are (significantly) lower–most guests avoid them, wanting the most bang for their buck and more hours in the park. We’d expect these days to have crowd levels around 3/10 to 4/10.
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. If, for some reason, Fantasmic still hasn’t returned, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be another great option.
Finally, there’s Epcot Food & Wine Festival dates. Expect Epcot to be busier over the weekends due to Food & Wine Festival, which will probably occur during the entire month of August 2022. During festival season, it’s always a good rule of thumb to avoid Epcot on weekends.
If you’re looking for more day of week recommendations, consult Best & Worst Days to Visit Every Park at Disney World. As intimated here, crowds fluctuate for each park based upon the day of the week.
In any case, both of these events will have minimal impact on overall crowd levels at Walt Disney World, and both are easy enough to plan around, especially in August when these event dates are limited.
AUGUST PRICING & DISCOUNTS
In a normal year, the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion offers limited availability in August, but this promotion is not being offered for Fall 2022 travel dates.
Fortunately, you still won’t have to pay full price, because there are room-only discounts available for August 2022. There are always some restrictions on dates, but you can save 20-30% at many resorts (with even better offers if you’re an Annual Passholder, Florida Resident, or Disney+ subscriber).
As far as pricing goes, early to mid-August is considered “regular” season and late August is “value” season for one-day 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). As far as room rates go, August is among the lower seasons.
Overall, early August is a lot like July–arguably worse due to the weather–which we consider the worst month of the year to visit Walt Disney World (you’ll want an itinerary for touring the parks). By contrast, late August is a lot like September, which is in the middle of the pack in terms of best and worst months to visit. If the heat, humidity, and storms don’t bother you, late August is a potential time to consider, but we’d recommend anyone with a slightly flexible schedule choose a different time to visit.
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
Do you like August at Walt Disney World? Do you think there should be a special event themed to Big Al? If you’ve visited in August, do you have any tips to add? 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!