Another planning question

[cinderella78]

So I'm a west coast girl and primarily have gone to DL. I've been to WDW twice when I was a kid but what kid pays attention to crowds. So my question is is there a slow season at WDW? I am totally not a crowd person and try to do things when I know fewer people will be there. We were thinking that Oct would be a pretty good time to go, but I hear there is a food and wine festival at Epcot then and I'm guessing that brings in bigger crowds??

Heidi

 

[MAO]

I've heard good things about easywdw(.com) -- he has a calendar for each month that gives a numerical assessment of what level he expects the crowds to be. I would expect that many of the "slow" seasons based on the DVC point charts also translate into lower crowds, though you are correct in that October during Food and Wine -- particularly on the weekends -- can mean an increase in the crowds at Epcot. I'm not sure that this increase at Epcot necessarily translates to an increase in the other parks, though, and my experience during a few F&W trips has been that, if I get there around 11 when the World Showcase opens, I can get through pretty much all of the countries and be done before the late afternoon/evening crowds show up. If you're willing to forgo the music concerts and/or fireworks, a lot of crowd avoidance can be done simply by leaving the parks by 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I think a great deal depends on how much you want to do and how long you can stay -- a three day trip, by necessity, means you'll probably have to spend more time in the parks during the latter part of the day when more people are showing up than a ten day trip where you can go to the parks in the morning and early afternoon and then leave to go relax or shop at DTD (or the resorts themselves.)

 

[MiramarQE]

Most of September is still quite slow with good availability in all the hotels and good park hours - the kids are in school so the weekday crowds are low, but, unfortunately (we're south Florida residents) the weather is still quite risky as you're in the peak of hurricane season, you'll have daily thunderstorms and it's quite hot and humid.

 

[EEGRAM]

We were there the week before Christmas last year and it was great. Very low crowds until towards the end of the stay. We were able to get right on most rides/attractions within 5 to 10 minutes. Just the real new and popular rides had a long wait. Loved it.

 

[Deb & Bill]

October used to be a very slow time. We went the end of October for our first trip in 1997. There were two Halloween parties, one on Oct 30 and one of Oct 31. That was all. Now they start in mid-September and go through early Nov followed almost immediately by the Christmas parties. October is very busy for WDW now.

And the Flower and Garden Festival takes care of the slower times in late April and May.

So there might be a week or two, here and there where crowds are less. But it seems Disney gets smarter all the time, filling in those times with different events to draw guests.

It used to only be the Marathon for the one weekend in January to draw runners. Now they have the Princess Half Marathon, the expanded marathon in January (with the Dopey Run, the Goofy Run, the Full and Half marathons, plus the family races), the Tower of Terror 10 Miler and the Wine and Dine Half marathon.