Why was it so busy today? Oct 21

[Emrys]

We came this week, because I've here before this week... MK was hell yesterday. Like it was summer or something. I had enough of people by early afternoon. We didn't even stay for fireworks Hopefully today at DHS will be better, but yeah, this place is crazy for this time of year -- from my past experience.

 

[2binak]

MK was packed on 10/17 as well. We were staying on-site, but decided to drive to the park so that DD could ride the ferry for the 1st time. We've driven before and never had any wait for the monorail, but on 10/17, the line for the monorail was all the way down the ramp and weaving through tons of ropes. The line for the ferry wasn't any better. We've never seen crowds like that. The line for POTC was all the way out into Adventureland

I assumed it was crowded becasue Mon & Wed were the only days last week that MK was opened until 9pm and Mon was evening EMH. We didn't experience crowds like that again during the week until Friday night at Epcot - that was CRAZY, but we knew it would be because of F&W.

 

[Invisable89]

I find it so bizarre that it's been so busy this past week!

I think the secret has got out & now everyone's going in October because it's supposed to have low crowds/perfect weather.

& Btw in England it's half term now (since Saturday, where i live) which means ALOT of families will be flooding to WDW for a couple of weeks.

 

[JoshuaShaw]

Another thing to keep in mind that the words "busy" and "not busy" are being thrown around like they mean the same to everyone. These are not universally agreed upon definitions and without many qualifying wait times and examples, things could sound more dire than they really are.

 

[mesaboy2]

Another thing to keep in mind that the words "busy" and "not busy" are being thrown around like they mean the same to everyone. These are not universally agreed upon definitions and without many qualifying wait times and examples, things could sound more dire than they really are.

 

[brucerob62]

exactly..I have been to the world at xmas..now thats busy...180 minutes or more for test track..4 hrs for soarin..and so on. SO to say its busy now...umm not so much ..i think thats slow..and am looking forward to my visit in 17 days.

 

[2binak]

Another thing to keep in mind that the words "busy" and "not busy" are being thrown around like they mean the same to everyone. These are not universally agreed upon definitions and without many qualifying wait times and examples, things could sound more dire than they really are.

On 10/17, in the early afternoon, wait times were 50 mins for POTC, Buzz & Peter Pan. We've never had more than a 10 min wait for any of these rides in late Oct or early Nov so to us, it was definitely busy.

It took us 1.5 hours to get from our resort to the gates of MK using a car. It's never taken us more than 30-45 mins total in the past.

 

[GJF323]

I wondered too. I did Backstage Magic all day, but when we finished up at EPCOT I went inside while waiting to meet a friend at Boma for dinner. I thought WS was horribly crowded and no predictions indicated it would be that bad.

 

[n2mm]

I've been here for nearly 2 weeks now and on the end of my second week. We found last week to be a lighter week than this week. Ever since this week began (Oct. 22) we have seen an increase in crowds. Yesterday we spent the early part of the day at MK and you could see the difference in the crowds. By the time we left at 1;00PM it was very crowded and even a long wait for POTC. Last week is was mostly a walk on on Wednesday. Wed is often a slower day at MK and the predictors confirmed this. Since we are at the BWV we go to EPCOT in the evenings. While WS is nearly impossible on Fri/Sat, even last night it was hard to move and the lines were long. Last week M-Thur was great at EPCOT, not so good this week. We are off to the AK today, and calling for rain most of the day tomorrow. Overall the weather has been great. We have been using FP for many of the busier rides. BTMR was a 50 minute wait yesterday before noon. October gets busier and busier every year. Last week we had to deal with the large IT iconference and the golf tourie, but this week it's much busier. We visit WDW often, so crowds are not a big deal for us, we just notice the differences because we are here alot.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

October seems like a beautiful month weather wise, but there is a lot going on with many midwestern and southern schools' fall breaks, Food & Wine festival, MNSSHP, and the conference and golf tournament going on this month. It just seems that there isn't a "perfect" time to go to WDW. You are either going to have to deal with heavy crowds or high heat; or when there is neither crowds or heat, many rides/attractions are closed for refurbishment We are at the point where we are just going to pick our WDW trip dates based on when it is the most overall convenient time for us to go and just have a good plan for everything that comes along with that particular week of the year.

 

[mom2aandj]

Perspectives really can be different!! We went to Epcot Thursday, the night of October 20th. I knew that next day, being a Food & Wine Friday, would be mobbed according to everything I read online. So seeing the number of people in the World Showcase on Thursday night made me nervous, but we decided to go Friday night and take our chances. From some accounts here, I feel like we were in an alternate universe! I found the crowds managable, and the amount of people in the World Showcase seemed very similar Thur and Fri nights. We hit up 4 booths in the Food and Wine Festival and NONE of them had very long lines, maybe 10 people in the longest (Mexico) and we were in and out with our food very quickly, matter of minutes at each booth. I've been to WDW in the summer and over spring break---the crowds were not anywhere close to those levels. I would have called the crowds medium, at most.

 

[AmberHeartsDisney]

The food and wine festival is going on at Epcot. So that might be why there crowded.

 

[mom2rtk]

Was last week the blackout week for free dining?

I think that moves the crowds more than anything else. In fact I'm thinking of booking one of the blackout weeks myself next time.

 

[goofy4tink]

Another thing to keep in mind that the words "busy" and "not busy" are being thrown around like they mean the same to everyone. These are not universally agreed upon definitions and without many qualifying wait times and examples, things could sound more dire than they really are.

Like I said, I've been at this time of year, almost the exact same week, at least 3 times now...so I figure I have pretty good perspective on what the crowds have been like before. And I have to tell you.....any wait of more than 10 mins for Small World is totally unexpected. But, that's what we saw almost every time we passed by. There was one time period we must have hit it just right...we did PoC, Haunted Mansion and Hall of Presidents fairly quickly. But, I have to tell you...I have never, ever seen either Hall of Presidents or Country Bear Jamboree as crowded as they were. There was actually SRO at Country Bears...someone must have miscounted!!!

Was it horribly crowded? No. But, there were much larger crowds than I had expected having been there at that time in the past. Like I said...it's all relative. Someone may have only been at the July 4th time...so last week is going to seem pretty uncrowded to them.

 

[Brocktoon]

Like I said, I've been at this time of year, almost the exact same week, at least 3 times now...so I figure I have pretty good perspective on what the crowds have been like before. And I have to tell you.....any wait of more than 10 mins for Small World is totally unexpected. But, that's what we saw almost every time we passed by. There was one time period we must have hit it just right...we did PoC, Haunted Mansion and Hall of Presidents fairly quickly. But, I have to tell you...I have never, ever seen either Hall of Presidents or Country Bear Jamboree as crowded as they were. There was actually SRO at Country Bears...someone must have miscounted!!!

Was it horribly crowded? No. But, there were much larger crowds than I had expected having been there at that time in the past. Like I said...it's all relative. Someone may have only been at the July 4th time...so last week is going to seem pretty uncrowded to them.

I agree. We were down Oct 15-22nd. We've basically done this same week during '06, '07, '09, and now '11. We've seen this week during free dining, free dining blackout, and with the IT Convention and PGA event at the same time. We toured the parks at similar times and days matching what we've done in previous years

This year was much more crowded than previous years. It wasn't packed, but the waits and observed crowds were way higher than what I've seen in years. Parks were still pretty empty in the morning, but it seemed like around 10:30 AM or so the parks would just start filling up more rapidly then I've seen during October in the past.

A great trip with moderate crowds in my opinion, but now I'm upping late Oct from light-to-moderate crowds firmly into the moderate area

 

[Bellamouse]

Right. I'm basing my "definition" of crowded on comparisons to the same time period in years past. I have only ever been to Disney in late Sep/early Oct. The only time I remember a big crowd was at AK one year when we mistakenly went on Columbus Day weekend. A zillion kids there. Other than that, the parks have always been fairly empty, even with F/W festival. Weekends are always more crowded because of the locals, so we switched to planning our Disney vacations for weekdays only. Now those are jam packed anyway I think because of the huge influx of European visitors, and also the new "year round" school schedules where kids have these "Fall breaks" that didn't used to exist.

I agree there probably isn't a slow time to go to Disney anymore. Nothing will ever beat my days there right after 9/11 (not that I wish for that of course), but we literally had the entire WDW to ourselves. I admit I loved it

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

We were at WDW from 10/14 to 10/24 and I felt it was very busy. We go several times a year. We stayed the 3rd week of March-spring break- and it was as busy but better hours. We went 2 times in May-2nd week and Mem Day wkend- early May was not as bad but Mem Day wkend was the same...and that was a holiday weekend! I admit we have been spoiled from yrs of lower levels of crowds. We opted not to do th MNSSHP due to crowded reports on here and how bad the parks were. We are not planning for next Oct but we will be back probably in March and May.