All signs point to a busy 2025 for Disney theme park fans. Disneyland Resort released a full-year calendar of seasonal events and new information regarding its highly-anticipated 70th Anniversary celebration. This announcement comes right off the heels of Walt Disney World unveiling new details about the opening timelines for several of its latest offerings coming in 2025.

One of the first choices families make when planning a Disney vacation revolves around deciding when to take the trip. Often, travelers choose the most convenient window of time that works with everyone’s schedules. Other considerations include crowds, weather, and the vacation budget. Traveling during peak season, for example, aligns easily with school breaks and time off from work but typically means busier parks.

In 2025, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort will offer guests new attractions, entertainment, and celebrations. Fan-favorite seasonal events return as well. Selecting the best week to visit Disney intimidates many, but experts agree the optimal vacation time varies from family to family. Rather than finding an idyllic needle in a haystack, families must choose the most convenient time and plan accordingly, even if it means dealing with crowds.

Saying Goodbye To Closing Rides? Visit Soon

With so many changes coming down the pipeline, a 2025 Disney vacation comes with a sense of urgency for fans. The year marks the beginning of several significant expansions on both coasts, creating new lands and rides for future generations to enjoy. Those additions, however, require many long-standing favorites to shutter.

In Magic Kingdom, the Liberty Square Riverboat and the Rivers of America section of Frontierland will close permanently in 2025 to make way for a new area themed to the Cars franchise. Disney assured fans plenty of time exists to enjoy the area again before the closure. However, the earlier travelers get to Disney World, the better the chances of seeing Rivers of America one final time.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom will receive more immediate changes with the phased closure of DinoLand U.S.A. Select rides and dining close in January, with the land’s flagship ride, DINOSAUR, remaining open throughout 2025 before its ultimate closure sometime in 2026. DinoLand’s location will transform into a brand-new land inspired by Central and South America, opening in 2027.

Permanent closures impact the West Coast, too. At Disney California Adventure Park, the classic Red Car Trolley ceases operation on Feb. 8 to make room for an expansion coming to Avengers Campus. Visiting Disney’s parks earlier in 2025 includes most of the aforementioned attractions still intact.

On the flip side, if experiencing new offerings matters more, then families need to wait until at least the second half of 2025 to visit. Disneyland Resort, for example, begins its 70th Anniversary celebration May 16. A new show featuring the first-ever Audio-Animatronic figure of Walt Disney opens in Disneyland Park the same day.

Magic Kingdom welcomes its first nighttime parade in years in the summer of 2025, which many travel experts look forward to the most. Theme park journalist Megan duBois shares that the parade, Disney Starlight, excites her more than any other addition coming to Walt Disney World in 2025. “The concept art reminds me of the nighttime parade at Tokyo Disneyland, which is so cute,” says duBois. “And it’s been a while since Magic Kingdom has had a nighttime parade, so I’m really looking forward to some new evening entertainment.”

The lineup of new offerings coming to Disney World in 2025 touches all four parks. Two new lounges, inspired by Spaceship Earth and Pirates of the Caribbean, open in 2025 at EPCOT and Magic Kingdom, respectively. A newly redesigned Test Track reopens at EPCOT in late summer. A live-action show starring Disney villains debuts in the summer at Hollywood Studios. And at Animal Kingdom, a brand-new Zootopia show opens in winter 2025 in the theater inside the Tree of Life.

Family Calendar > Crowd Calendar

Experts agree the best time to visit Disney theme parks differs by family and does not neatly fit into one mold. The “optimal” time to take a vacation depends on a myriad of factors, including school calendars, time off from work, and other prior obligations.

Families sometimes discover their calendar comes into conflict with busy seasons. Sarah Gilliland, founder of On The Road with Sarah and Travel Editor for Wealth of Geeks, encourages them to travel anyway. She states, “If you can only vacation when everyone else can, do not stress about long lines or busy destinations. Instead, focus on what you can do and enjoy that will help your vacation be enjoyable instead of one big headache.”

Popular school vacation periods like Spring Break provide Disney with some of its busiest days of the year, but it also comes with far more favorable conditions than summer. Alex Caspero, freelance travel and food writer at Delish Knowledge, advises, “Don’t let the idea of crowds stop you from visiting. It’s less hot in the spring and fall, which can be nice for families, especially young children who don’t enjoy the heat.”

If dodging crowds trumps all other considerations for when to take a trip, families will find it nearly impossible to choose the best time to visit Disney World or Disneyland. “The theme park landscape has changed dramatically over the last ten years, and so has the way most Americans vacation,” says Gilliland. “No one is concerned about pulling their children out of school for a few days for a family vacation, whether to go to a Disney theme park or not. Gone is the supposed ‘off-season’ at Disney theme parks.”

With that change, Gavin Doyle, the founder of MickeyVisit.com has worked to improve the way they rate crowds in the Mickey Visit Disneyland crowd calendar. “Everything changed after the theme park closures in 2020 and as Disney shifted to dynamic pricing and park reservations to spread demand,” says Doyle. “No other crowd calendar has changed their calculations to integrate the new factors that drive crowds the way we have in our Mickey Visit calendar.”

That said, losing the once-reliable off-season frees families from feeling beholden to specific months or weeks on the calendar. Instead, they gain new-found flexibility in choosing a time to visit that works with their schedule. No matter when a family decides to visit Disney in 2025, planning ahead and managing expectations will ensure a successful trip.

This article was produced by Media Decision and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.