Busy October

[Tony Bush]

Why has October become so busy ? It can't just be the food and wine festival, thats been running for years. When we've been in October the crowds have been ok.

Any ideas ? We've booked for Oct 2014 and are becoming a little worried !!

Tony

 

[Funky_dino]

When we were in Epcot about 3 weeks ago it was rammed, never known it so busy in October, we did go on a Saturday though so that could of explained it. On the other hand, we were at the horror nights on the Sunday and it was so much quieter than when we went on the following Thursday, literally 40 minute waits for houses became 90!

 

[2Tiggies]

Tony,

We've done a couple of Octobers, 2 Septembers and twice over Easter and October has without a doubt been our favorite time to go for a variety of reasons. It has never really been 'off season' although our first October experiences on the back of Easter crowds made it feel dead quiet by comparison. However compared to September and other quieter times it is not low season.

I think crowds in general have been on the up and nobody seems to be able to isolate a single factor, but among the reasons are F&W, NFL, improved economy and Disney promotions, more schools purportedly having a week off in October, which has not always been the case ..... Tour group attendance seem to be ever on the rise as well.

I do wonder if some of the increased crowding is perception though. Not all of it; there is no doubt that crowd levels are up on previous years, but I think adding in all the changes (and glitches) at the moment has made increased crowd levels be felt even more.

 

[Funky_dino]

We noticed a huge amount of tour groups, esp South American groups. Epcot itself seemed ok, it was mostly the showcase that was rammed with people. AK, IOA, etc seemed as busy as most other Octobers I,ve been. Luckily not as bad as August but not as nice as April or november

 

[2Tiggies]

We noticed a huge amount of tour groups, esp South American groups. Epcot itself seemed ok, it was mostly the showcase that was rammed with people. AK, IOA, etc seemed as busy as most other Octobers I,ve been. Luckily not as bad as August but not as nice as April or november

Yeah I think it depends what you compare it with as well. We also noticed a lot more tour groups last year than we have ever seen. Most of the time we managed to zig when they zagged and keep out of the way. The only inconvenience we had, to be fair, was if we arrived at an attraction SB or FP entrance and a few had arrived just in front of us .... only took one experience to realize it was better to leave and come back in a while because they will want to be together and even if none of them jumped in front of us (they don't all do it), did we really want to be sandwiched between a mass of them? Nah!!

Hopefully much of this chaos will have settled down somewhat by next year and there will be more official information on the new systems and procedures and less speculation, all of which is very unhelpful to the additional crowds. I speak hopefully in this regard, particularly considering we are there for 4th of July next year

 

[Tony Bush]

Thanks guys....

When we went in July we were inundated with South American school groups.. They stayed at ASM as did we and it was so noisy , and we kept running in to them in the parks despite trying to avoid. !

 

[Mightybee987]

WDW offers some homeschool days promotions in October. I have homeschool friends that went the second week of Oct. And we went on a Y.E.S. Program trip with our homeschool group the 3 rd week of Oct. This was our first visit so I have no idea about crowd comparisons.

 

[foxxxy83]

Disney advertise it as the quietest time to go so people wanting to avoid crowds all book thinking it will be quiet and then get there and find a crowd of people who all had the same idea! lol! We went a few weeks back and were lucky to have planned according to crowd planners which were mainly right. Dinoland in AK was heaving but I think that was about it. We were first timers though so won't have noticed it anywhere near as much as families who do Florida year upon year. It's also coming up to the end of hurricane season and isn't as hot as mid Summer so all could be deciding factors as they were for us when I was thinking of booking it for the first time. Didn't think the crowd levels were too bad considering the size of the parks. Only thing I did notice was the rides at the MNSSHP seemed VERY busy when we went but again, it all depends on what people are wanting on the night. Didn't stop us having a good time though! We've booked again for Oct so see you there!

 

[2Tiggies]

October has never been the quietest time to go so I'm not sure where Disney is advertising that (?)

It has lower crowd levels compared to some of the other months but it is by no means quiet. Hard ticket events, school breaks, Columbus Day and the Food & Wine Festival are all contributing factors. It's certainly going to be quieter than your July/August trip so you will appreciate the lower crowds by comparison, but expectations have a heavy bearing on perceptions so 'quiet' is a very subjective term.

 

[foxxxy83]

Yes, I get what you're saying about the word "quiet" being a very subjective term. Especially given that everybody has their own opinions and perceptions of things. Will see if I can find where I read it was the quietest month. I'm 99% sure it was in a Disney affiliated brochure/book though.

 

[wayneg]

I agree, its never been the quietest month, in the past we have had 30-40 mins lines for the popular rides, this year we had 80-90 min lines, what surprised me more was FP lines, rides like Big Thunder FP line we had to wait upto 10 mins.
It was definitely busier than our August trip, unless we hit the wrong parks on the wrong days.

I am sure it will be many factors like free DDP, F&W was busiest I have ever seen, lots of tour groups including many large ones consisting of 60-70 people, Disney doing deals on hotels(we could have stayed onsite in a value under £50/nt).... lots more reasons.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Here's another theory I came up...have no idea if it holds water or not!

Disney always used to offer free dining to the public starting in mid-to-late August. This year, it didn't start until September but did continue through parts of October (with some blackouts, I know). A lot of people used to sneak in that free dining trip in August, before school started. This year, they didn't want to pull kids from school right at the beginning, so a lot less early September trips. But then come October, kids are settled in, feeling a little more comfortable. Now it's okay to pull them for a week. Could that have added to the October crowds? I mean, Disney usually only offers Free Dining at times it expects crowds to be low and they need to fill up the resorts. So they wouldn't have offered it if they were expecting huge crowds to begin with.

Just another thought...

 

[DarkLady]

Yes, I get what you're saying about the word "quiet" being a very subjective term. Especially given that everybody has their own opinions and perceptions of things. Will see if I can find where I read it was the quietest month. I'm 99% sure it was in a Disney affiliated brochure/book though.

They are very naughty if they are saying that. We have also never found it to be quiet. Certainly beats the summer crowds though and the weather is lovely

 

[irenep]

I've heard that a lot more US schools now have Fall breaks, add to that all the FD offers, events, great weather etc and you can see why it's becoming more popular.

I haven't actually seen it advertised as the quietest time to go and it was definitely busier this year than previous than previous Octobers we've been. I wouldn't say it was rammed or anything and maybe I go around with my eyes shut but I only saw a handful of BTGs

I still think it's one of the best times to go. We had a great time and apart from the big headliners of TT, Soarin' and TSMM everything was basically walk-on (especially in the mornings) or had pretty good FP return times.

If I had to pick one time of year to go during school holidays, I would still choose October even if I was off-site without FP+

 

[Rach78]

A lot of US schools have now moved to a balanced calendar starting in phases beginning last year, which means a 'fall break' in October which can be 1-2 weeks. As more schools continue to adopt this I would imagine it will only continue to get busier.