May or October?

[jcmh71]

Hoping some of you WDW vets can help us decide on the best time to go to WDW in 2016.

We have two kids (twins) who will be 6 in May or 7 in October (July birthday). They are in a flexible school so we can vacation when it suits us.

We are considering either late April/early May or mid-to-late October for a WDW visit. We live near San Francisco in Northern California and are Disneyland annual pass holders.

Our primary concerns are availability of rides (ie, least amount of closures), low crowd levels, and weather. In terms of weather, we'd like it to be warm enough to still comfortably enjoy the pool in the afternoons but not so hot that we are sweating buckets while standing in line for rides. We are okay with it being chilly in the mornings/evenings, since that is our every day weather even in summer where we live. We are planning to stay at the Swan on Starwood points.

What are we missing when deciding between these two times of year? Anything that would sway you one way or another?

Thanks so much for any/all advice!

 

[Lee & Kerry]

October is a good time to go, lower crowds, cooler temps, somewhat shorter operating hours on certain days, but not bad.

 

[magicaldisney]

Both are relatively the same for all of your concerns. Personally I would go with October and take your children to MNSSHP!!

 

[tink9702]

May has Star Wars Weekends & Flower and Garden festival (first half of the month) and October has Food & Wine plus the Halloween party. In case any of those events make a difference to you!

 

[PlutoFan10]

October is nice. Opportunity for Halloween Party and nice decorations. EPCOT has Food and Wine Festival going on (more interesting for grown-ups). As mentioned, weather tends to be cooler in October. Spring has EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival, which is beautiful, but it does start to get hot.

 

[kimieko]

I've never been in May, but love the fall for the Halloween decorations and MnSSHP. By far my BEST experience!

 

[AshleeH]

We always go in October - the Halloween theme is fun, but don't go expecting cooler temperatures. Sure, it's better compared to August, but from everything I've learned over the years, May and October are really not that different in terms of weather. All of our trips, most days are in the high 80s and we have been there for multiple days when it was well into the 90s (even after dark). I could count on one hand the number of times the temperature dipped into the 70s. And that was always after dark.

We like October, but I would love to go in April/May (we can't because of school). It's on my list to see the Flower and Garden Festival some day.

 

[JennyDrake]

Having been during both time frames multiple times, IMHO you are looking at slightly lower crowds in early May--and to split hairs, MAY is better than late April. October could be great if you can go late in teh mother. Early-mid October get not only a federal holiday, but school fall breaks. Weather is about the same.

 

[Accident]

I love october and with children that age, I think the halloween aspect for them and the food and wine festival for you will work out really well. However you mentioned your annual passholders for california, never been there for the fall/winter holidays but it always sounded like it was a little more up to date where some of it at WDW is more "the way walt did it. This is the one thing I think WDL has over WDW, too much is tradition of WDW and not as well thought out or updated as WDL is.

I do plan to get around next year for the flower show though but never been there at that time to comment on it.

 

[jcmh71]

Thank you for all the replies! Keep them coming!

You guys are echoing what I've been thinking as well. Prior to kids, we visited WDW a number of times. We've been to WDW once in October, but it was right after a hurricane came through (literally... the day before. We got stuck in Dallas overnight because of it since flights couldn't get into Florida) and it was sooooo humid and just grossly hot. I realize that isn't the norm for late October, but it sticks in my head. We also went once in late April for Flower and Garden show. It was fantastic in all respects except for the pool -- it was hot outside of the pool, but too cold once in the pool. We were like Goldilocks trying to find the perfect pool time.

It sounds like weather is equal in that it is typically moderate, but prone to extremes any given year given the luck of the draw.

Any particular trend regarding ride closures/refurbishments we should be aware of?

 

[jcmh71]

@Accident - Yes, we went to DLand for Halloween last year and did the Halloween party. I haven't been to WDW for Halloween so I'm not able to compare the two specifically, but I will say that I think the theming in DLand would be hard to beat! Halloween is our family's favorite holiday, and it Disneyland was fantastic. I would say if a Halloween fan wanted to visit Disneyland at some point in time, October would be the perfect time to do it. It was extra magical.

That said, I don't think I would do the actual Halloween party again. The park was far more crowded than it was during the day at any point that week... so much so that at times I worried about losing my kids in the crowd even though we were holding hands. The ride lines were not shorter, either. It was fun to see everyone's costumes, but we would have done that for free in Downtown Disney prior to the party start time. We did collect so much candy that we ended up using it for trick or treating at our house on Halloween... way too much for 4 people to consume.

Unless you are a MAJOR candy fan, and you enjoy crowds that are Times Square on NYE level, the Halloween party at DLand is not that important. You can get all the Halloween experience during a regular park day at DLand during Halloween season.

 

[Accident]

@Accident - Yes, we went to DLand for Halloween last year and did the Halloween party. I haven't been to WDW for Halloween so I'm not able to compare the two specifically, but I will say that I think the theming in DLand would be hard to beat! Halloween is our family's favorite holiday, and it Disneyland was fantastic. I would say if a Halloween fan wanted to visit Disneyland at some point in time, October would be the perfect time to do it. It was extra magical.

There is so many international traveler favorites in WDW that things like closing down Haunted mansion to make it more halloween can't and doesn't happen. It's really the halloween/fall decorations, cast members dressed up for the party (if you go), and special fireworks and parade of villians that WDW has. You're probably going to say I think we like WDL better, but your not going to say you didn't like WDW since halloween is a family favorite holiday.

That said, I don't think I would do the actual Halloween party again. The park was far more crowded than it was during the day at any point that week... so much so that at times I worried about losing my kids in the crowd even though we were holding hands. The ride lines were not shorter, either. It was fun to see everyone's costumes, but we would have done that for free in Downtown Disney prior to the party start time. We did collect so much candy that we ended up using it for trick or treating at our house on Halloween... way too much for 4 people to consume.

I found the opposite at WDW. It was a really swamped week and it was really nice to have a limited ticket event to close out a lot of people from it. We bought the ticket while there not head of time as it looked like a good way to knock down the crowds one night. We didn't go nuts with trick or treating but really took in the rides while lines were shorter and if we happened to pass a trick or treating spot, we did stop if we wanted to carry more candy.

Unless you are a MAJOR candy fan, and you enjoy crowds that are Times Square on NYE level, the Halloween party at DLand is not that important. You can get all the Halloween experience during a regular park day at DLand during Halloween season.

Good to know for when we finally take the trip out toe WDL for the fall/winter holidays. In the case of WDW, it's just fall/halloween decorations outside of the party. Outside of MK, it's just fall decorations with some resorts being the exception. The one plus is more people do dress up daily for the day and not just because they plan to do the party that night.

 

[seelyt2]

Never been in May, but I loooooove October! Food and Wine, less crowds, weather is nice. It's all good

 

[theostwalts]

We've done MNSSHP on Halloween night and the crowd was much more manageable than I expected. If you are big Halloween fans, I think you would enjoy that time of year in WDW. We usually have gone during the Oct/Nov time periods for either Halloween or Christmas decorations. The parks and hotels are all great that time of year. I can't really speak to Spring, but a lot of folks really enjoy the Flower and Garden festival in Epcot.

We are actually considering a trip to DL for the 60th in November, the week after Thanksgiving. However I am considering doing food and wine in WDW and moving DL to early May. Since you are a DL vet what are your thoughts on that?

 

[theostwalts]

I found the opposite at WDW. It was a really swamped week and it was really nice to have a limited ticket event to close out a lot of people from it. We bought the ticket while there not head of time as it looked like a good way to knock down the crowds one night. We didn't go nuts with trick or treating but really took in the rides while lines were shorter and if we happened to pass a trick or treating spot, we did stop if we wanted to carry more candy.

This was our experience as well. Although Halloween night was a sold out event, the limited tickets really made it seem like the crowd was less than in the day. Ride times were not long at all and the kids had plenty of time to trick or treat and enjoy the party.

 

[Luckybee]

Hoping some of you WDW vets can help us decide on the best time to go to WDW in 2016.

We have two kids (twins) who will be 6 in May or 7 in October (July birthday). They are in a flexible school so we can vacation when it suits us.

We are considering either late April/early May or mid-to-late October for a WDW visit. We live near San Francisco in Northern California and are Disneyland annual pass holders.

Our primary concerns are availability of rides (ie, least amount of closures), low crowd levels, and weather. In terms of weather, we'd like it to be warm enough to still comfortably enjoy the pool in the afternoons but not so hot that we are sweating buckets while standing in line for rides. We are okay with it being chilly in the mornings/evenings, since that is our every day weather even in summer where we live. We are planning to stay at the Swan on Starwood points.

What are we missing when deciding between these two times of year? Anything that would sway you one way or another?

Thanks so much for any/all advice!

We've been both times, even as recently as this past Sept/Oct and just this May. If you would have asked me before these past two trips I would have said October but during these past two visits May definitely was better in terms of crowds and weather. Although the crowds were relatively similar in Sep/Oct as in past years we found the lines esp the stand by lines to be horrific. On the other hand we found during our May visit that the crowds were much lower than in the past yrs we visited in May that meant that although things were not walk ons as they had been pre fp+ the stand by lines were more tolerable. It may have been simply a matter of the days we were at Dis parks(we did far more at Universal than we did Disney in May), and perhaps we got lucky but for us May was better for Dis.

In terms of weather while both times can get hot, the humidity is never as bad in May so less "sweating buckets"

 

[Russell Ochoa]

Both are relatively the same for all of your concerns.

 

[Disneyliscious]

People have now flocked to the once serene October. May now seems to be the "it" month to visit in.

 

[CMNJ]

We went last year in late oct and again this year in mid may-it was significantly hotter/more humid for our may trip (mid 90s every day) but perhaps early May would be a little cooler. We thought crowds were a little larger in May than Oct and we especially found that true at MK on MNSSHP days-it really does seem that some people avoid MK on those days due to the early closure

 

[Hopefully]

We have done both and for your criteria I would choose earl y May. I think it will be cooler and the crowds will be less. October has now become very busy with fairly long lines and it can still be hot and humid, especially earlier in the month
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