Disney World in July

I would not recommend July as the first choice of when to visit Disney, but it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. It helped that every afternoon we left the parks to cool off at the hotel and/or pool. Lightning Lane was a must to shorten wait times out in the heat. Other things that helped with the heat were water bottles, cooling towels, and fans. We brought one hand held fan and a spray bottle with fan attached that we had previously purchased on another Disney trip.

The first four nights we spent at Marriott Cypress Harbor Villas. We stayed in a two bedroom villa/condo with a full kitchen and laundry room. It was so nice to be able to wash our laundry most afternoons when getting back for our midday park break. The kitchen was also useful so we could make our own meals and keep our drinks cold in the full size refrigerator. The location was close enough to the parks, but not right at the parks. It was about a 20 minute drive to get into most of the parks. We drove to Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom while staying here.

The last two nights we spent at Walt Disney World’s Swan. While we didn’t have a kitchen or separate space for the kids to sleep, we did have close proximity to the parks, as well as, early entry into the parks. We were able to walk or take the friendship boats to Hollywood Studios and Epcot from the Swan. Other options that are in the same area are the Dolphin and the Swan Reserve. The Swan Reserve appeared to be much newer and had a much larger pool than the Swan.