What's It like in Disney (Orlando) in July and What Else Is There to Do?

I went to Disney World in July many, many years ago. It's hot -- very hot and humid. As you know, Orlando is inland, so you just don't get the ocean breezes that you would get, in say, Miami in July. As far as crowds -- I would imagine there are. I do have a suggestion -- get a hotel with a pool. After you can't take the heat and the crowds anymore, you can go back to the hotel and relax by the pool while the kids play.

That is exactly when I went a couple years ago (Disney World). I could have died from the heat. Especially when it bounces off the blacktop. UGH! I am anti-hot. It was like 97 degrees that day with a heat index of like 103 or something. It was miserable! The lines were pretty long as well. I can honestly say I didn't have a wonderful time at the happiest place on earth. :(

I don't know about July, but we did spend last August in Disney. While it was very hot and humid, it wasn't so bad because alot of the rides are indoors and a/c. There's always the FastPass option you can use if you purchase the Hopper tickets.

As for other things to do: There's the Serpentarium in Orlando or maybe it was Kissimmee? The girls loved it! We got to watch them milk poisonous snakes. A few weeks ago we were watching Animal Planet and it was the same guy on there...turns out he's one of only FOUR people in the entire country that does this for research/medical purposes.

There's also what used to be known as Old Towne. Can't remember the new name of it, but they have go-cart tracks and other rides and shops. If you google it, you should be able to find it.

The T-Rex Cafe at Downtown Disney is AWESOME! There's animatronic dinosaurs and all kinds of things.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me and I'll give you a bit more info.

Yes it is hot but it is the humdity that is the killer. I have been there in the summer, October, November, March, April and May. May is by far my favorite time. Spring break season is over, so way less crowds than April or summer months. It is still predictably hot but not humid where you wonder if there is enough air to breathe. I liked it in March too but coming from Phila. you are taking a chance your flight could get delayed due to ice or snow. The fall is nice but not as great for swimming and my family likes to spend the afternoons at the hotel pool. We also like to take advantage of late night "magic hours" and go back to the parks after a late dinner. ...way less crowds but the park closes much earlier during the fall months so even when they have magic hours the park still closes earlier than the spring.

We just went in August 2010. We were in Orlando for one week, but we drove so we had our own car. We went to St. Petersburg for lunch on Tue at a family Italian resturant (started with a "V"?) & went to the beach there & then continued to Siesta Keys. Wed we spent the day at Disney. Thur we hung out at our hotel pool. Fri we went to DeLeon Springs http://www.floridastateparks.org/deleonsprings/default.cfm
and we hit the Sugar Mill for those famed pancakes! They were yummy & that was fun- then we went swimming in the chilly clear water! Sat we went to the Central Zoo http://www.centralfloridazoo.org/zoomairadventurepark (one parent had to walk on the ground while the child was doing the rope course, so that's why we didn't do the adult one) then we walked the zoo and had a bonus splash pad at the end! =o)
There is a lot to do in Central Florida that isn't amusement park!!!! Search the State Parks web site & do a general google search of parks in the area, too! Have fun!

It's is HORRIBLY HOT in Orlando in July. And ALL the theme parks are terribly crowded. I have lots of family that live down there and they say the best time of year to visit is October - March. There are lots of other things you can do like Sea World, Universal Studios, the local zoo, the local water park, and more (I can't think of any right now). I wish you luck on your endeavor.

My family and I have been to Disney in July and August. We were surprised at how crowded it was. The heat is, well, hot and it rain/thunderstorms daily that time of year around 4pm. We found that the best plan of attack was to get an early start each day and do as much as we could before lunchtime. Get the fast pass for the most popular rides!!! Then back to the hotel during the hottest part of the day to rest and go in the pool. If we felt ambitious, we would go back to the parks at night when it had cooled down some. My kids tolerated the heat better than I did. It's important that everyone stay VERY hydrated, and stop when you've had enough. Actually, stop BEFORE you've had enough, or else everyone will be cranky! ( We also did Universal Studios and Sea World while there - I don't really know what else there is to do around there that is not theme-park related.) Overall, I thought Disney was a great vacation, but you must remember to pace yourself! Have fun!

Sea World is the best-and there are many water parks-like Blizzard Beach-I went with my children in the month of June after school was over-back in 1995-I was thinner and didn't mind the heat-but it wasn't in the 90's-how well do you handle heat? Inside the rides-it's cool and air conditioned-your children may be too old for those-it's fun-but plan to dress for it-and use hats and sunscreen.

We went in late September when I was in 7th grade and it was crazy hot and humid. We also got "chased" back home by a hurricane. We came back to our campground after a day at Disney to our pop-up camper with blown out windows. Then we had to deal with all the evacuation traffic. I'm from NC, so hurricanes were nothing new to me, but it really stunk having our vacation cut short.

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Are you sure about the Brazilians?? I go in Late Jan/Early Feb and there are busloads of Brazilian teens b/c it is summer for them and they are off of school.

If I were you I would try to plan it for an off time there. I can't imagine what it would be like standing in the heat. I think you will have a lot more fun that way. Check this out for more info on crowds:
http://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/crowd-calendar

The parks that you should go to are Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom with kids that young. If you can though I would try to get to Hollywood Studios as well.

I would reconsider only going to 2 parks - we just came back from Disney World with our 4 1/2 year old son during the absolutely busiest time of the year - Christmas - and I have to say we had a GREAT time. If you plan well - stay at a Disney hotel, get to the park right when it opens the extra hour early, have a planned route, take advantage of the Fast Pass for the rides you want to do twice, you can do all the things you want to do with minimal wait times. We did all 12 rides we wanted to do on our first day at WDW with no wait time - but - we got there the extra magic hour early since we stayed at a Disney Hotel. We then came back to our hotel, relaxed, had lunch at hotel restaurant, took a nap and headed back to see a few shows and the parades. We had a GREAT time. We went to Walt Disney World one day, Epcot the next day then Downtown Disney in the afternoon where we made a race car, had fun building Mr. Potato Head and ate in a cool Dinosaur themed restaurant (not on the meal plan though :(, back to Walt Disney World the third day to do the rides we realized later we wanted to do then had breakfast with the characters. On the last day we had to decide between Disney Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom - tough choice but we went with Hollywood Studios because of the Toy Story theme. The park turned out to be a HUGE surprise - we saw a stunt show, did a few rides, and saw a bunch of the characters my son loves to watch...it was amazing.
Ultimately we could have stayed another 2 days and gone to Animal Kingdom and then probably Hollywood Studios again to re-do the things we enjoyed and see a different show. And we went when it was cold so we didn't even go to the water parks!
My short advice - there is plenty to do at Disney and have fun. Go to the parks EARLY - as soon as they open. Stay at a Disney hotel with a monorail if at possible and get the meal plan - it is well worth it and you can decide from a wide range of options - eating with characters, any of the restaurants in your hotel, room service or signature dining. Make your dining reservations as early as possible if you want to dine with the characters. And have fun! It's a great vacation.

Disney also has their water parks, if you want to consider that as an option while you are there.

Orlando in July is EXTREMELY hot, humid and very crowded! If you can go at a different time, you should do so. IF that's the only time you should go, you should prepare to visit Disney itself and use the options where you get a buzzer and can show back up to ride things instead of standing in line. Perhaps you could go to Disney for a few hours each day and then retire to the hotel pool or a water park for the rest of the day. Also plan on doing water rides and visiting a few of the exceptional water parks at Disney World. If you're only going to go to two parks, I would skip it until you can go at a different time, for longer and do more. It's really not the optimum time to visit inland Florida!

My hubby and I just spent a day at Magic Kingdom and a day shopping at Downtown Disney. We realized when we were there that our 5 yr old would have absolutely hated it. It was about 50* (which is really abnormal, but I wore a sweater with a tank top under it and was perfectly fine the whole day) but the nice thing was that we didn't get the humidity everyone hates in the summer. Also the lines weren't too bad. Most were about 40-60 minutes. Not bad for us, we joked around the whole time. Our son would have absolutely hated it. We were thinking though, that if we bought him a bunch of souveniers (t-shirts, hats, candy, etc) it would keep him preoccupied in line, but then whatever he wouldn't wear we'd be carrying around if we kept it with us (as opposed to sending it to the front for us to pick up on the way out). Just be ready to pay for the souveniers. Oh, and standing in line is not always easy on kids' bladders, so keep that in mind...

I've only been there in March and the weather was beautiful, but I've heard great things about the Disney water parks, which would be perfect for july.

I've been there in May, and in June and was MISERABLE with the heat. And July will be hotter. The humidity makes the heat index 100+. Please don't suffer through this, for you and for your kids. Plus the daily thunderstorms in the summer put a damper on things. Go during Thanksgiving, Christmas or Spring Break. You'll be much happier, even if it is busy, if you don't have heat stroke!

Yes it's very hot and very humid, and standing in the lines is miserable. When we went we also went to Universal Studios which was actually more fun because it wasn't packed. Plus they had misters that sprayed water while you were waiting in line. I have also gone to Sea World while down there and of course spend a day at the ocean. You may also enjoy "Old Town." I'm pretty sure that is what it is called. You can buy a bracelet and go on unlimited rides and the old cars "cruise" through there on the weekend nights. We went there and my girls got little henna tattoos that lasted the whole time we were there even though they went swimming everyday.

I have only done the Orlando Disney trip with my daughter once and that was late April. We live close enough to Disneyland that we have annual passes and use them frequently. When we walked in and saw how many people were crammed in Disney World, we took off back to the pool. We enjoyed Epcot, Blizzard' Beach (??) but our favorite two were Sea World and Adventure Cove. We have a Sea World in Southern California as well but Adventure Cove is really mellow and this was our first of many opportunities to swim with dolphins. One of our best experiences ever!! This led to many summer camps at Sea World San Diego where she met friends from all over the country.

My husband and I spent a week at Disney in July for our honeymoon and it was incredibly hot. I can't say that I wouldn't recommend it vs not going at all but if you have other options, I'd choose a different time. We had to go back to the room mid day for a nap each day because the heat really just gets to you and with 2 little ones it might not be as enjoyable as you'd hoped. We have also been to Disney over Thanksgiving, week before Christmas, October and February. October is our favorite time to go. Milder weather, but still very warm. Thanksgiving seemed to be hit and miss with the weather. Sometimes it was hot and others cold. The week before Christmas and mid February were both great. Few crowds but chilly (pants and a light jacket).

My family and I went in August 7 and it was very hot and rained a couple of times during our 8 day stay. We jumped on just about every ride just to get some air condition!! My three daughters are between the ages of 7-13 and they had a great time. There is a website that I love to use: www.mousesavers.com and www.undercovertourist.com. Mousesavers tells you everything you need to know about the park, wait times, food, and even gives you codes to the different car rentals you may use. Undercover tourist gives you discounted ticket prices that are certified by Disney.

I live in Orlando and July is very hot and humid. Also, it often rains in the afternoon. The summer months are usually crowded at Disney. I recommend checking out the website www.touringplans.com. It is extremely useful in planning a visit to Disney. They have a crowd calendar that predicts how crowded the parks are on every day of the year. It's very useful and well-worth the small subscription price. The beach is great with kids, its only about 1 hour away from Orlando.