Will Epcot each capacity and close on Sat, Oct 6?

[vinotinto]

My Onion Magic Answer ball says....

Ignorance is indeed bliss.

 

[bzzelady]

Of course it will reach capacity and close that day...it's my birthday

 

[herb102211]

My friend went on her HM that week last year and said the crowds at the parks were really low. We were there for the F&W at the end of October last year and the crowds were some of the lowest we've seen. We did notice an increase in the crowds at Epcot on the weekends, but it was never anything close to a "10". Epcot is so spread out you don't even realize how many people are actually there.

 

[vinotinto]

Of course it will reach capacity and close that day...it's my birthday

Well, happy birthday! My mom's is on the 9th. I'm going to make her wear the pin.

We did notice an increase in the crowds at Epcot on the weekends, but it was never anything close to a "10".

I also thought a "10" in October seems a bit much, even with it being a long weekend for the southeast and F&W. I hope you are right!

 

[wings91]

Columbus Day weekend. Was there in 2010, VERY busy. Capacity, never, but it will be packed, like almost every weekend during F&W + holiday weekend crowds.

Either do F&W early in the day or skip it. We just steaked out our spot of Illuminations, way to many people to walk around World Showcase.

Love doing F&W for lunch during the week, very easy walking.

 

[Day-Day]

A "10" seems extreme but I seem to recall that TouringPlans bases this number (or did at one time) on the expected wait times for major attractions. Anyone reviewed TouringPlans explanations lately?

If that is the case, with the limited number of major attractions at EPCOT, I can see that the park could reach a 10 while the capacity of the park itself would have plenty of room to spare. FW & WS are massive. Are there really that many people going there in October?

 

[cruisingkat]

Here's my take on what I would do in your situation. The crowd numbers for DHS look to be in the 7-8 range that day. Yes, TSM FPs will be gone by mid-morning. But there likely will still be FPs for ToT and RnR into the early afternoon. So I think an afternoon into evening trip to DHS could be worthwhile.

And yes, since that is shaping up to be a ridiculously crowded day no matter which park anyone chooses. So you could also take the day to relax. Arrive, check in, unpack. Then grab a late lunch at Beaches and Cream and spend the afternoon at Storm Along Bay. Then maybe make an ADR at one of the restaurants at BC or BW for dinner.

I agree.
We also drive to Disney and go around that same time each year for my birthday(Oct. 8). We avoid Epcot on Friday early evening to nights and Saturdays during F&W fest. We usually do F&W fest mid-week. We have also noticed that over the past 4 years all the parks have gotten more crowded each year.
We like to spend a leisurely day on arrival day - spend some time at the resort, have a leisurely dinner, maybe play some minigolf or go to DTD and get our shopping out of the way (having our packages delivered to our resort). That way we are rested up and ready to go the next morning.
Since you will be driving - have you thought about driving to AK. When we stay at resort that shares buses, we drive to all parks except those where there is direct transport from our resort to a park (boat, monorail). We also don't drive to MK as you have to take either the ferry or monorail from the parking area.

 

[keith-atl]

Will Epcot reach capacity and close on Sat, Oct 6?

TP is putting crowds on Sat, Oct 6 at a 10, mainly because of Epcot's F&W. I've never seen a prediction of 10 in October before. We are arriving that day and staying at BC. We normally just walk over to EP. Do ya'll think this is an accurate prediction? Were there folks turned away on that Saturday before Columbus last year? We would arrive in the middle of the afternoon, and I would make ADRs at Epcot, so I need to figure out if I need an alternative plan. I normally would think this would be an 8-9, but a 10 just makes me nervous about even being able to make it into the park!

It won't close, if it doesn't close on the 4th of July then it won't close during F&W. We have been there for both times many times.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I've been to F&W several times, including the weekend that PI was closing, which was F&W opening- I think. There was a considerable crowd that came to Epcot for a while before heading to PI. We were there a few years ago for the closing weekend.

My experience has been that much of the crowd for F&W is concentrated in the WS area, and mainly around dinner time.

My experience is also that the attractions were quite reasonable as a whole. I suggest you do Test Track and Soarin' early in the day, or maybe TT very late.

I'll also grant there have a been a few F&W events where we looked at the line and and dedcided against, but that's kind of my general touring stategy. Some years ago, Australia had a free wine tasting, but the line looked about an hour long. I'm not going to wait an hour of Disney time to get $5 worth of wine...but mostly we've been able to enjoy the booths we wanted. I've been on all WDW with little wait at some point, and all attractions many times, so I avoid lines over 20 minutes for attractions too (unless it's something very special), and use fastpass + single rider.

Lunch, in my experience is not nearly as crowded as dinner, but there could be a few things you look at like we did and dedcide maybe they aren't worth the wait.

The other thing we notice is that the F&W crowd is a little different from the usual WDW crowd. (sometimes this gets hotly contested on the DIS, but this is our observation) Attire on the PI closing weekend trip I mentioned was especially crazy- as was the conduct. It was an odd mix of families and folks wearing nightclub outfits/being a tad rowdy.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I should add, I would not trust the crowd prediction!

My experience has beenthat the crowd predcitions are not very accurate from the websites I've seen. for starters, there's no way to predict the weather that far in advance. On any given day, the weather is a BIG variable that dramatically shapes crowds.

The F&W crowds I've seen have been no where near the crowds we saw during Thanksgiving when the economy was better.