Advice for managing the crowds in October?

[otten]

We are going to be at Disney World October 4-11 for our first real trip. The only time I've been to WDW previously was a one day visit in May 2015. We chose October thinking it would be more moderate crowds but I didn't think to factor in Columbus Day. Crowd Calendars are now showing it to be a very busy week.

We will be three thirty somethings and a five year old. What are the best strategies for dealing with 10 crowds?

 

[Disneymom1126]

- Rope drop
- Avoid MK on days without a MNSSHP and especially on Saturdays
- Avoid Epcot on the weekends
- Use FP+ wisely
- Have fun and laugh off others' stress and attitudes
- Eat a little early or a little late to avoid crowds at quick service restaurants (we usually have a light breakfast and eat lunch around 11:30)

 

[Atilley]

Which crowd calendar are you looking at that is showing 10s. I look at easywdw which show 7s for the weekend and 4-5 on the weekdays. Otherwise I agree with the previous poster.

 

[JennyDrake]

- Rope drop
- Avoid MK on days without a MNSSHP and especially on Saturdays
- Avoid Epcot on the weekends
- Use FP+ wisely
- Have fun and laugh off others' stress and attitudes
- Eat a little early or a little late to avoid crowds at quick service restaurants (we usually have a light breakfast and eat lunch around 11:30)

THIS!!! Plan for (almost) spring break level crowds. I will tweak that Epcot is usually OK even on the weekends until 1-2 pm. I strongly disagree with crowd level estimate of 4-5 even during the week.....

 

[otten]

Which crowd calendar are you looking at that is showing 10s. I look at easywdw which show 7s for the weekend and 4-5 on the weekdays. Otherwise I agree with the previous poster.

Touring Plans updates their predictions to have the Saturday and Sunday of Columbus Day weekend as 9/10 for Magic Kingdom. We are going to be in MK those days and due to appointments and reservations I don't want to change it. I'm not super concerned because we have 3.5 total days in MK (including one Halloween Party) and have fastpasses for our must dos but I don't want to miss any tips that would make navigating the heavy crowds easier.

Right now the plan for those two days is to rope drop the Saturday (which is an 8am open) and we have a ppo breakfast the Sunday. We'll go until early afternoon and then take a break until dinner.

 

[wonderland5]

Which crowd calendar are you looking at that is showing 10s. I look at easywdw which show 7s for the weekend and 4-5 on the weekdays. Otherwise I agree with the previous poster.

We will be there the 6-10 and originally chose that weekend because 1. My husband could actually get off but 2. There were predicted low crowds.
About a month or 2 ago touring plans changed their predicted crowd levels. Our MK day went from a 2 to a 5, our AK day (the day we plan on hitting late due to the party the night before) went to a 9! And so forth....Though my touring plans aren't reflecting that on wait times so I'm not sure

 

[Atilley]

Touring Plans updates their predictions to have the Saturday and Sunday of Columbus Day weekend as 9/10 for Magic Kingdom. We are going to be in MK those days and due to appointments and reservations I don't want to change it. I'm not super concerned because we have 3.5 total days in MK (including one Halloween Party) and have fastpasses for our must dos but I don't want to miss any tips that would make navigating the heavy crowds easier.

Thank you. I was looking at overall level not the level for particular parks. Even them touring plans has higher cross levels listed. We will be there October 1-8. So I might be re arranging stuff a bit.

 

[yulilin3]

- Rope drop
- Avoid MK on days without a MNSSHP and especially on Saturdays
- Avoid Epcot on the weekends
- Use FP+ wisely
- Have fun and laugh off others' stress and attitudes
- Eat a little early or a little late to avoid crowds at quick service restaurants (we usually have a light breakfast and eat lunch around 11:30)

great tips just adding
* have a plan but be flexible with it, be ready to change it and be ok with that
*remember to eat and drink water

 

[Nancyg56]

- Rope drop
- Avoid MK on days without a MNSSHP and especially on Saturdays
- Avoid Epcot on the weekends
- Use FP+ wisely
- Have fun and laugh off others' stress and attitudes
- Eat a little early or a little late to avoid crowds at quick service restaurants (we usually have a light breakfast and eat lunch around 11:30)

This.

If you want to see Wishes, try to go to the MK on an evening that is earlier in the week, rather than Saturday night. It is a madhouse.

If you want a TS meal, make sure you have it booked. If not, avoid traditional mealtimes, if possible.

Enjoy, it is fun, but hectic.

 

[Mflowers92]

Some of touringplans crowd predictions don't make sense to me. For example, the first week of October, they list Hollywood studios as consistently a 7-9 park, every single day, with crowd levels as low as 4 listed for Epctor and Animal Kingdom - EVEN on October 6th, when HS closes at 6pm for a private event. It makes no sense that that day would have crowd level of 7, while Epcot, which has morning EMH would only be a crowd level of 4. I'm using other crowd calendars as my guide. I only wish Easywdw would update theirs.

 

[Nancyg56]

Some of touringplans crowd predictions don't make sense to me. For example, the first week of October, they list Hollywood studios as consistently a 7-9 park, every single day, with crowd levels as low as 4 listed for Epctor and Animal Kingdom - EVEN on October 6th, when HS closes at 6pm for a private event. It makes no sense that that day would have crowd level of 7, while Epcot, which has morning EMH would only be a crowd level of 4. I'm using other crowd calendars as my guide. I only wish Easywdw would update theirs.

I've been waiting for Easywdw as well. I think that because of all the changes no one can really predict the crowds other than that MK on nonparty nights are going to be bad.

 

[Mflowers92]

I've been waiting for Easywdw as well. I think that because of all the changes no one can really predict the crowds other than that MK on nonparty nights are going to be bad.

And we're all waiting with bated breath for Disney to stop being wishy washy on evening entertainment for October.

 

[Nancyg56]

And we're all waiting with bated breath for Disney to stop being wishy washy on evening entertainment for October.

I know! I am planning my December trip and this is a nightmare. I have been eating my words when others posted the difficulty they were facing and I told them to use the previous year's schedule. Oh my .... my planning strategy has never been so up in the air for so many evenings.

 

[otten]

Regardless of which calendars are right, it's a given that two of our MK days (the Saturday and Sunday) are going to be packed. Oh well, it is what it is. I do have one more question, on the Saturday October 8th we have a reservation that takes us out of the park in the late morning. How worried should I be about Magic Kingdom closing to capacity?

 

[Mflowers92]

Magic Kingdom rarely closes to capacity outside of New Years Eve and Christmas. There will likely be a lot of extra people packing in for the last Electrical Parade, but I cannot imagine that it would be enough people to reach a Phase 4 closure (which I think has only happened once). A Phase 3 closure has never happened in October. I would expect any of the nights in which the Electric Parade is running to be crowded, but I would be shocked if people are planning sudden last minute trips in droves to see this parade one more time.
I think if you're coming back in the early afternoon, it should be okay. I imagine many people will hop over in the evening to catch the parade (which is my plan for earlier in the week )

I've had to look up the phased closures because I'm not familiar with it. Apparently during a Phase 3 closure, you can still enter the park if you're staying in a Disney hotel.

 

[DisneyFive]

- Avoid MK on days without a MNSSHP and especially on Saturdays

I agree with most of what you said, but not necessarily about this one. If you go to MK on a day with MNSSHP, you will not be able to see Wishes or the Main Street Electrical Parade. You will also be asked to leave at 7pm.

...if you are ONLY concerned with crowds, then going to MK on a MNSSHP day might be a good idea, but you need to know what you will miss out on.

Dan

 

[otten]

We'd be returning around 12:30. (We're doing the Princess Tea at the Grand Floridian for my daughter's birthday).

I assume that since MSEP's last day is October 9th (the day we were originally going to watch), I should move that to our first MK day on the 5th?

That's good to know about the capacity closure thing. I'm not overly concerned about crowds except for the possibility of getting shut out.

 

[Mflowers92]

I don't anticipate you would have problems getting back into the park around noon. The parade would likely be less crowded on that Wednesday night just due to being on a weeknight, so I would recommend that.