AM I kidding myself thinking the crowds will be...

[NeverSayNever]

...Not as bad in the middle of September?

I know it is free dining (ofcourse we missed the opportunity on this once we decided were to go) and other things, but I keep thinking hoping that the crowds will not be as bad and the lines and wait times becasue school is back in session.

We will be going on 9/14 for about 6 days.

Ok... so burst my bubble and please tell me what I should really expect! (btw, is it also going to be super hot?)

Thanks!

 

[txmomto1]

I hope not, I'll be there the 12th for 5 nights. From everything I've heard, even with free dining, it's still the slowest time of the year.

 

[lisaanddenny]

if this is the slowest time of year, i cant imagine the busy times.....we literally waited an hour for disney transportation to POFQ, that is why we are renting a car, the restaurants were insane, even with reservations, you had to wait, Sci Fi told us it was going to be an hour wait, WITH RESERVATIONS! dont fool yourself thinking its going to be quiet...

 

[Mousema]

I was there last September and the only thing that was crowded was the restaurants. The longest attraction line was 10 minutes.

 

[disprincessatheart]

I've gone the last 2 years and other than the restaurants, things were quiet. You'll even notice a lot of snack stands and things not open b/c it's so slow. If you go labor day week, the last week leading into F&W festival, or on a saturday, the parks will still be crowded with locals, but during the week mid month, you'll have nice crowd levels. Last year I think our longest wait all week was around 30 minutes - for SOARIN at lunchtime!

 

[LegoMom3]

I was there last September and the only thing that was crowded was the restaurants. The longest attraction line was 10 minutes.

Same here. We did not find it to be overly crowded at all. Never had a bus issue, either, and we stayed at POR. I think for the entire 7 day trip, we utilized Fast Pass 3 times! We love going in September.

 

[Epcot82Guy]

It is a different type of crowded. As people ahve noted, the Resorts are just as busy as in some of the higher seasons (not Holiday or July 4th crowds, but normal summer levels). But, the parks are usually pretty slow (and the hours are cut back). Just save some time for the busses and restaurants, and realize you won't be waiting as much to ride. It's a good time to go.

 

[byoung]

You will love the crowds! Low, low.

 

[themudd4]

On another thread someone was just talking about going in September and her dad decided to go and could only get a room at YC becasue everything else was SOLD OUT! Don't know if that helps or not, but I would not count on walking directly onto anything just in case.

 

[maxsdad18]

I recently booked to go Sept 15-22. All the good resturants are booked because of the free dining offer, which I also missed, but there are plenty of rooms at a variety of resorts.

 

[ziggybaby]

...Not as bad in the middle of September?

I know it is free dining (ofcourse we missed the opportunity on this once we decided were to go) and other things, but I keep thinking hoping that the crowds will not be as bad and the lines and wait times becasue school is back in session.

We will be going on 9/14 for about 6 days.

Ok... so burst my bubble and please tell me what I should really expect! (btw, is it also going to be super hot?)

Thanks!

I hope its quiet, we're there from Aug 30th - Sept 20th on our Disneymoon

​

 

[tcp0421]

On another thread someone was just talking about going in September and her dad decided to go and could only get a room at YC becasue everything else was SOLD OUT! Don't know if that helps or not, but I would not count on walking directly onto anything just in case.

I was shocked with all the talk about the resorts being full in Sept. My MIL and FIL just decieded to join us on vacation about 1 week ago. We are stying at POR (I thought for sure there would be no rooms). I called and yes they did have a room for them. I know last year we went in Sept. I didnt notice any crowds. Even at the resturants. The only resturant I did notice being busy was Chef Mickey's, but it wasnt too crazy! Hopefully it will be like that again this year.

 

[themudd4]

I was shocked with all the talk about the resorts being full in Sept. My MIL and FIL just decieded to join us on vacation about 1 week ago. We are stying at POR (I thought for sure there would be no rooms). I called and yes they did have a room for them. I know last year we went in Sept. I didnt notice any crowds. Even at the resturants. The only resturant I did notice being busy was Chef Mickey's, but it wasnt too crazy! Hopefully it will be like that again this year.

I do not know what the dates were I was just going off of what the poster said. I did not call to check on it or anything.

 

[ToInfinity]

I also believe that the crowd level will be lower in September. We've done this a couple times and the parks seem like there at half capacity (probably not true but it did feel that way).

The main thing that we always worried about was that this is probably the highest point of hurricane season. The week before our trip we were glued to the weather channel constantly checking to see if something was coming in. So far Florida hasn't had any major storms (besides the daily rain systems that go by) that have reached a tropical storm level. I remember that they predicted a pretty bad season for this year but so far nothing.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed since we will be going the third week in August. Good luck with your trip and I would say that the crowds shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Disney71]

From what I keep hearing crowds are not as low as they use to be... but they are much lower than they could be. We are heading off to WDW on Sept 23 for our Disneymoon - so I am keeping my fingers crossed that crowds will be low....

 

[NeverSayNever]

Thanks everyone!

 

[Princess_Michelle]

We went last year from Sept. 24 till Oct. 1st and I was NOT impressed. We stayed at POP and bus lines in the morning were (I thought) prettty long; we usually waited for about 20 minutes. At the end of the night it was HORRIBLE, we waited about an hour (or more) for a bus to get home, and I am NOT exaggerating. Some attractions had long lines, others had no wait at "some" times, but mostly the wait was anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. We only road soarin' once the whole trip b/c the Fastpass' were gone in a few hours and the line was always about an hour wait........I felt it was way more crowded than it usually is in the fall; due to free dining and the Food & Wine Festival. We accidently ended up at EPCOT on the opening day of F&W, and it was SOOOOO crowded. And it was very hot for the first part of our time there; that hot & humid, sticky heat, with no breeze at all, a few times. It didn't start to cool down until our last two days there. So yeah, don't wanna be a downer, we just did not have a good time at all last year. I think a big part of that is b/c of our expectations; we really thought it would be hardly crowded and have really mild weather, so we were SEVERELY let down. This time we are going Oct. 6-15, and if it isn't any better, we might not go back for a long time....

 

[Dizneydaz]

This will be our 4th Sept. in a row and even with free DDP two of the years, we were very happy with the crowd levels. Last year we were there from 9-9 to 9-19 and it was great. Smallish crowds. The year before we were there from to 9/13 to 9/23 (about). Again, crowds were extremely manageable. This year we will be there from 9/6 to 9/16 and we are looking forward to about the same crowds.

As far as how hot is it? It can be very hot, or just hot, or humid and hot. But we like it since it means we can spend time in the water. We love TL and BB.

Luckily for us, we don't use Disney Transportation. We always rent a vehicle and so waiting for the bus is never an issue. Plus we can go off property whenever we (mostly my DM!) wants. She insists we check out the "Real Florida"

 

[disprincessatheart]

We went last year from Sept. 24 till Oct. 1st and I was NOT impressed. We stayed at POP and bus lines in the morning were (I thought) prettty long; we usually waited for about 20 minutes. At the end of the night it was HORRIBLE, we waited about an hour (or more) for a bus to get home, and I am NOT exaggerating. Some attractions had long lines, others had no wait at "some" times, but mostly the wait was anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. We only road soarin' once the whole trip b/c the Fastpass' were gone in a few hours and the line was always about an hour wait........I felt it was way more crowded than it usually is in the fall; due to free dining and the Food & Wine Festival. We accidently ended up at EPCOT on the opening day of F&W, and it was SOOOOO crowded. And it was very hot for the first part of our time there; that hot & humid, sticky heat, with no breeze at all, a few times. It didn't start to cool down until our last two days there. So yeah, don't wanna be a downer, we just did not have a good time at all last year. I think a big part of that is b/c of our expectations; we really thought it would be hardly crowded and have really mild weather, so we were SEVERELY let down. This time we are going Oct. 6-15, and if it isn't any better, we might not go back for a long time....

I was there the same week last year. Believe me - compared to high season the parks were EMPTY that week. We were there in APril this year and we were DYING for Sept crowds!
Soarin runs out of fast passes every day of the year - it's just the nature of that ride. Over the summer, many people weren't able to ride it atll all b/c of 2 hour waits and no fast passes, so that's to be expected. Definitely the first and last weeks of free dining are the most crowded - the first because people are trying to get it in before some schools start back, and the last because people want to get in a couple of days of food and wine, and the crowds for the weekends of food and dine from locals are MUCH higher. That's probably why the promo ends a week earlier this year.

Oh, and we had bus delays too - we were at AS Music. But it wasn't bad enough to keep us from going back, just made us decide to upgrade to a Moderate this year as we noticed those bus lines were much shorter.

 

[Fish Almighty]

We went the middle of September last year, and there were times when the parks were virtually empty. POR seemed deserted. We rarely had to use fastpasses as the lines were almost always short, even for the popular MK rides. But be forewarned...

LOVE BUGS!!!


They were everywhere... covering cars, bus stops, and our shorts and shoes. It was funny to see thousands of them covering the seats and the ground at the bus stops. Do a search and you'll find some good photos from last year.