Crowds Oct 28-30

[traci]

How are the crowds looking this weekend October 28-30 (Friday-Sunday)? Bought tix for Friday's party and planning on spending the weekend there as well....

I thought Oct crowds were typically more *mild*
That doesn't seem to be the case from what I've been reading recently

 

[skiingfast]

The main thing is people overstate how busy it is, they focus on the negative.

Statements about no offseason are mostly incorrect. October is a mild month. It's a calm month with a few busy days and a bunch of busy nights because of the Halloween parties. Every Saturday and Sunday all year long are busy, the last time the area wasn't busy on a Saturday was in the Spring of 1954 before Disneyland was open. There is one thing that can change a busy day to nothing, it can't be counted on, but it happens. Rain.

That weekend, unfortunately is one of the worst for the month. In October a few people stay overnight for the Halloween Parties. Not close to everyone does this but some people do. So of those some that do, some people spend Friday night and also visit on Saturday and Sunday. That weekend since the final party is Monday it will have some people come on Saturday and Sunday to stay for the Monday party. It makes an already busy weekend a little busier.

Make use of the early and late hours. Use FP.

 

[traci]

Thanks for the honest and positive approach!

 

[splashtastic!]

We just spent 7 days in DLR, from Oct 14 through the 20th.

I would agree that the crowd levels were higher than when we visited during the same timeframe in 2007, but I also thought that the CM's in both parks did a great job with crowd control and directions.

If your group is small, say 2-3 people, it is easier to navigate. We had an easy time when it was just 2-3 of us BUT when we traveled through the park, all 7-9 of us, whew! Exhausting! Adding to our "size" of group was the fact we had two wheelchairs.

The best advice we got, and you will hear this over and over again:
GO IN THE MORNING.
Get up early, spend the first few hours in either park and enjoy the short lines.
Some days we took a break, the other days we went straight through until the park closed.
If it wasn't for the short lines in the mornings, those evenings would have seemed overcrowed and (almost) unbearable. With a mellow morning under our belts and a stack of fast passes collected in the a.m. hours, the evenings were a fast pass adventure. I lost count how many times my daughter a niece road Big Thunder one evening.

You're going to have a wonderful trip!

 

[iKristin]

See there's a difference in crowds between mid October (14th-25th) and then what the crowds are like the last few days (Halloween time). Having spent MANY Octobers in Disneyland I noticed that during the days of and before Halloween to be a lot heavier than during the week before.

 

[OnTheRoadAgain]

Touring Plans website can be way off, but I checked those dates a month ago and they reported them to be a 5 and 6 (I think Friday was a 5 and Sat and Sun were 6s).

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

the last time the area wasn't busy on a Saturday was in the Spring of 1954 before Disneyland was open.

 

[taaren]

We go in October every year and it does seem to have been getting a little busier each year, but still nowhere near approaching summer crazy-busy levels. Non-holiday weekdays are always better than weekends.
This year in particular I think it seemed more crowded in DCA because of the construction which makes the pathways very difficult to navigate. Next year we're hopping coasts but I'd guess that it won't seem as bad with more attractions and walkways open compared to this year.