Anyone else an insane person?

[AndrewC]

All in good fun of course...

I'm planning an October trip... I've been ~5 times in the last 7 years... usually late October, somewhere between the 20th and 29th for between 4 and 7 days.

This year I have coworkers that were excited to go for Halloween and got a little jump on planning and for whatever personal or work reasons they locked in around the 8th to 13th. I'm going to extend my trip a little longer than them (8th to 13th also counts their flying days) and have an annual pass that expires on the 16th. So good and bad... good I have coworkers excited to go instead of me going solo or "desperate" to find a travel buddy to join me for at least part of it. Also good that I have an annual pass and this will essentially be free entry into the parks for me. BAD in that it's earlier than I normally go... partly I miss on some of the very late October Halloween feel but also I go as late as possible for the best weather...

So I find myself with an excel sheet with the last ten years of daily temperatures for the area for Oct 5th to 15th and Oct 20th to 29th.... a graph that examines all the data points so I can see how they trend with each other or what diverges and by how much... that gave me some information, but most the temperature data was pretty equal with a couple extremes on both periods.

So then I looked at min/max daily temperatures over a shorter period (~7 years) and late Oct saw a 106 degree day in 2017, but 2015 saw a 103 degree spike in early Oct. Early October ultimately had a day with a lower min temperature... Ok, clearly I'm not getting a strong answer one way or another...

So then I looked at the *average* temperature over the ~7 year early Oct period and late Oct period... yes I know temperatures don't really work that way, I don't "feel" the average over a week, especially when it's an average of the average daily temperature of each day in that week over the last seven years..... they're the same... so let's check the max... they're the same... OK OK, something different with the min! Early Oct was 1 degree hotter...

So like I said... anyone else actually an insane person?

(I started trying to correlate El Nino/La Nina years but I decided to give up for tonight... I've got months left to try and determine if my coworkers are "ruining" my perfect late October travel period just so I can actually be social and go with people I know, lol)

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

The weather is a crap shoot all year but especially in October. I live here and I’m telling you it’s best to not think about it until less than a week before your trip. Could be cold, could be hot. My money would be on hot but you just cannot predict it at this time.

 

[mom2rtk]

I’d be more concerned about the fact that the earlier week has a holiday and might have more crowds.

 

[godfather927]

I'm going in July, and also am dreading the possibility of triple digit temps on our park days. Would basically give us just a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours late at night to work with each day. Really hope that doesn't happen but only one way to find out.

 

[joseph821]

I'm going in July, and also am dreading the possibility of triple digit temps on our park days. Would basically give us just a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours late at night to work with each day. Really hope that doesn't happen but only one way to find out.

According to Accuweather right now, highs look like in the upper 80s.

I monitor all the weather websites for my August Disneyland/GCH trip, the DL website and this website, yes I am insane, aware of it and proud!

 

[KPeterso]

I’d be more concerned about the fact that the earlier week has a holiday and might have more crowds.

Me too! Columbus Day weekend (Indigenous People Day) is a very busy time. Lots of people get that as a long weekend or a fall break. You should expect much larger crowds that week! And the weekend to be absolutely insane!

 

[AndrewC]

I'm kind of hoping a little that inflation might settle the "extra" crowds down a little bit... I'm aware of the Columbus Day but I'm not sure how much it will spill over into my Disney issues.

If I get down there before them, 5th/6th, I'll mainly be focused on a Universal Day (usually do VIP tour so crowds never are really an issue) and then Halloween Horror Nights (again VIP so I don't "care" about crowds). Then Either half a day at Disney the next day and then over to Knott's (front of line tix) or something like that. Sunday will likely be a all on Disney day and that probably will suck... but Halloween party in the evening, and that has capped attendance which usually always sells out, so unless Disney plays with the numbers and some days have more tickets than the other, I'm used to that crowd. Monday will be the real "suck" day because I'll be used to that being a very mellow Disney day and this year it likely won't. That will be the first day my friends will be there (Sunday is their travel day).

I'm curious how much spill over Tue/Wed might have because of the holiday... I would imagine not *too* much? Most people probably will do a Fri-Mon type thing or maybe a Sat-Tue thing if they're taking an extra day from work for a four day weekend? Or do you think a lot of people plan like 5+ day vacations over that holiday weekend?

I'm hoping Tue/Wed full Disney days are fairly normal (Halloween crowd but nothing extra) and will be doing the party again Tue night with my friends. Then Universal Thur again which I can make use of VIP to avoid crowds and more Halloween Horror Nights... if I return to the Disney side of things it would be 13th/14th (possibly one night again at Knott's Scary Farm) with my travel day Sunday the 15th...

So unless the holiday keeps the whole week extra busy, I think it might only affect me by a day or two at Disney.


This year will be very interesting... people should be back in the groove with paying student loan which might make a dent in some wallets and/or create a ripple event (less money being spent by those people might mean less hours worked for other people). Hotel prices still seem very high, flights actually still seem expensive too... fuel has been trending upwards. I don't think it will be empty, but even just a small percentage decline would make these busy holiday/school break periods feel more like "normal" busy Halloween time.

 

[AndrewC]

I'll also say, I'm going to pay (not happy about it) for Genie Plus and probably ILL's, which will help some as well. When I'm doing 5 or 6 days at Disney I tend to go with the flow a bit more as long as I do some "must do's" at least a couple times across those days (like I might just try to do Haunted Mansion twice during the whole trip but Falcon 10 times if the line tends to be short certain times).

I am a little annoyed by "You can make selections, one at a time, all day up to regular park closing, subject to availability and limited to one Lightning Lane selection per attraction per day."

I totally used to be one of those people that would just look to see what had the soonest return time and pick that attraction just because I hated waiting in lines. Sometimes I would ride Big Thunder Mountain four or five times in a single day just because every time I opened the app I saw it had a 20-30 minute return window and if I was in DCA or near Space Mountain it would practical take that amount of time to get over to it. I really feel like when return times start to drop in the day to less than half an hour they should let Genie Plus people redo stuff... but I also forget that any queue jumping drastically slows down standby lines...

I just will miss going from a few "less popular" attractions but only spending like 5 to 10 minutes in line max... a couple hours can disappear fast and while I'll have only done like 3 different attractions, I'll have done them a total of like 7 times in two or three hours or something.

The big worry for me honestly is dining... like usual. I'll really stress once it gets close to the booking windows for those. Even more so with the Chef's counter at Napa Rose... I've fallen in love with that and really really hope I can snag that.