October - If not a Halloween fan

[spgoad]

Due to some circumstances beyond our control, the August trip my DW and I were planning is having a change of dates. We are looking at sometime in the middle of October, which looks to be a great time weather and crowd wise. The Epcot F&W festival looks interesting as well. My only slight hesitation is that neither my DW or I are real big fans of Halloween. The MNSSHP doesn't interest us at all, and so far I've seen it more as an annoyance that takes away from the hours our favorite park is open.

The party aside - How prevalent is the Halloween atmosphere during normal hours? On nights when there is no MNSSHP, does regular Wishes show, or is it HalloWishes? Is the Halloween theming in the other parks as well, or just MK?

I'm not of the opinion that this could ruin a trip (very little could cause that at Disney IMO), but I'm more just curious what the atmosphere is like. I love Fall, just not a huge fan of Halloween. Any thoughts? Anyone swear by going in October?

 

[DizMagic]

I could care less about Halloween and October has always been one of my most favorite times to visit the World. that being said, this past year we did do MNSSHP for the first time, just to try it. And i must say, even not caring about Halloween we had a blast. the parade really was spectacular and the Hallowishes are an improvement. the only thing really "Hallloween-y" is the trick or treating and dressing up (which we didnt do). I confess, i did trick or treat - come on, free candy

I think you will have a great time in October, with or without Halloween festivities.

 

[kaligal]

The party aside - How prevalent is the Halloween atmosphere during normal hours? On nights when there is no MNSSHP, does regular Wishes show, or is it HalloWishes? Is the Halloween theming in the other parks as well, or just MK?

I'm not of the opinion that this could ruin a trip (very little could cause that at Disney IMO), but I'm more just curious what the atmosphere is like. I love Fall, just not a huge fan of Halloween. Any thoughts? Anyone swear by going in October?

Party aside, there isn't much. Just a few decorations, mostly right when you enter the MK.

There are no parades/fireworks prior to the party.

October is a fine time to go. Aside from MNSSHP, there is no particular reason to choose it over, say, November or December.

Well, Food and Wine lovers must hit F&W while that is going!

 

[hakepb]

MK is more fall decor than Halloween so you will definitely notice the pumpkins, etc.

F&W is very busy so be prepared for crowds and paying a lot for bits of food and running across people that have a bit too much "W"

I am also not a halloween fan but MNSSHP was a blast and much more fun than I expected. I still like MVMCP more because I like Christmas more.
If MNSSHP fits in the budget it is worth doing once.

 

[JoshuaShaw]

Unless you're at MNSSHP the Halloween theme isn't very apparent. There are a few Mickey jack-o-lanterns, but for the most part it's just generic Fall/Harvest decorations.

The Food & Wine Festival is amazing; highly recommended.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

The few decorations they do have are pumpkins, cornstalks, mums and maybe stuffed animals or pictures of the fab five dressed in their costumes. You won't see anything scary or disturbing. I have taken my children when they were younger and there was nothing at the parks that would scare kids.

 

[figment_jii]

The party aside - How prevalent is the Halloween atmosphere during normal hours? On nights when there is no MNSSHP, does regular Wishes show, or is it HalloWishes? Is the Halloween theming in the other parks as well, or just MK?

On nights when there is no MNSSHP, regular Wishes runs. That being said, HalloWishes is my favorite fireworks shows. There are some Halloween influences, but it is also heavy into villains and has some really neat fireworks.

As the PPs have said, the Halloween theme is pretty much confined to MK and DTD. (Unless you count the Halloween merchandise, which will be available in all parks and resorts.)

The F&W festival is a lot of fun and not at all related to Halloween. I've been to several festivals and it's one of my favorite events at WDW.

Overall, I would happily go in October. Unless you have a very strong aversion to Halloween, it shouldn't really matter.

 

[DisneyFive]

Ageed with all the others. We've been to Disney the last two years when MNSSHP is offered, but we haven't gone to MNSSHP. It's only a few nights a week, so you can schedule around it very easily. The decorations in the front of MK for Halloween are more "fall" oriented than Halloween IMO. The general feel of MK is not Halloweenish at all.

You should have no worries whatsoever.

Dan

 

[CdnKayDee]

October is the best time to go.Good weather,F&W is the best,MNSSHP fireworks from the POLY awesome and nice crowd levels.
Its like this you may not be a halloween fan but you will be a fan of halloween at Disney.The halloween theme is more like a orange fall pumpkin theme and really halloween at the MNSSHP.Besides MK I cant really remember a big halloween theme anywere else.We are trying to go all thru out the year so no Oct is not something we swear by however October is the time of year we miss the most.

 

[tndisneyfan]

I'm not a big Halloween fan, I don't put up Halloween decorations, and my preference would be to shut of the porch light so I don't have to deal with trick-or-treaters. Now having said that, I love WDW in October and even love going to MNSSHP. MK is the only park that's decorated and it's more fall festival than Halloween.We do go to MNSSHP but we don't wear costumes.

On non party nights they show the regular wishes. But it is crowded on those nights. The week we went last year had 4 parties in the 8 nights we were there. We decided to go to MK one night to see the regular fireworks and just be at MK after dark. It was very busy. I told DH that if I didn't know better I would think it was the second week in june instead of the second week in October. I guess everyone who doesn't want to pay for the party has only a few nights to see the fireworks. We did go during the busiest week in October though, it was the week of Columbus day.

 

[spgoad]

Thanks all. That is kind of what I expected, but it is reassuring to hear from folks who have been that time of year. I'm still not sold on spending the extra $$ for the party, but we may try and catch the fireworks from the Poly beach some evening. Although I have to admit, I love late nights in the MK (1:00AM EMH was our friend last time), so the open till midnight bit of the MNSSHP is probably the most appealing factor (plus lower crowds).

 

[stitch34]

Not a fan of Halloween either. Only fall decorations we saw were in MK - and actually they were really nice and were FALL decorations, didn't scream halloween to me at all. We enjoyed seeing MK decorated for the fall!