May 1 - May 8 - still busy in the Parks?

There are two competitions in May. One is from May 4-6 and the other is May 11-13. Hotels are All Star Sports, Pop, and CSR.

Thank you for this helpful info. :wave2:

I've been during this time frame the last 5 years and going back this year. The weather is LOVELY! Crowds are manageable, especially in the mornings. Rope drop remains your best friend. Expect headliners to have waits of 55-70 minutes by lunch time.

Epcot will be more crowded on Fridays and Saturdays with school end of the year day trips. MK is always a nightmare on Saturdays, no matter when you go.

I hope I picked my park days right, we are doing rope drop at MK on Sunday and eve. emh on Monday, Epcot on Thursday at 3pm-close with FPs (that's our arrival day) and a couple of hours there Saturday morning before park hopping to AK with our FP's. We are doing HS on Friday because it is May the Fourth and my son requested we be in that park that day. We have a open morning and an open day that will either be pool or park days.
 
Do cheer competitions add a noticeable amount of people to the parks vs. a non-cheer weekend when any number of other things are taking place? Aren't they busy competing somewhere else?

We saw them around the parks. There were quite a few on Sat evening in MK last year (I assume a lot of them were out of the competition at that point). You'll see them stunting. I'm told they're not supposed to in the parks, but ... let's just say my kids enjoyed the extra entertainment. It's annoying when a large group of them starts a cheer while you're a captive audience in line, but that only happened to us once. In general, I don't think they drive up the crowds that much or cause any real inconvenience (but we did not stay at a Value last year).
 
Better days may be May 14 - May 23 with an 8 day park pass.
Our flight would arrive late on May 14 and we would depart on May 23.
On the weekend we could do a 1/2 day at AK then go to Disney Springs and a
full day at EPCOT, which could handle better crowds.

Sound like a better palm ?
 


Better days may be May 14 - May 23 with an 8 day park pass.
Our flight would arrive late on May 14 and we would depart on May 23.
On the weekend we could do a 1/2 day at AK then go to Disney Springs and a
full day at EPCOT, which could handle better crowds.

Sound like a better palm ?

You'd be getting out of there before Memorial weekend which would be good but I honestly haven't heard a ton of bad things about early May - in fact more good than bad. Any time you choose, there are sure to be multiple tour groups, sports teams, convention groups, etc. etc. I'd go with what works best for you or when you can get best airfare if flying or best resort prices. We chose May 4-13 since we wanted to be ahead of the summer family crowds (though we know it is always crowded at WDW!) But a lot of schools in the Midwest get out in mid-May since they start so early in August so we thought we might be a little ahead and possibly cooler, drier weather (ha!).
 
Please post your likes and dislikes about your May dates
We go next year in May and still deciding on our dates to arrive and depart.
We look forward to your May 2018 reports :)
 


We will be in the parks May 1st-4th and the 8th-9th. I have had zero issue getting ADRs and FPs and got FOP for 7 people on our 2nd park day. Hopeful for low crowds but ready to have a blast no matter what
:ccat:
 
We will be there April 28 - May 5, @ POFQ. Our first time to go this time of year. Usually, we go in October but it has gotten too crazy for us. As others have mentioned, the parties really make things difficult that time of year. We just started homeschooling (not so we can go to Disney anytime, but it's definitely a perk LOL) and I hope I picked a good week!
 

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