does value resorts being sold out=OK crowds, large crowds, or what?

[TigerLaw]

Everyone has been postig how great the crowds are right now, yet for my trip (sept. 23rd/oct. 1) all the value resorts appear to be sold out (but there are lots of rooms available at the moderates and deluxes - we're staying at the beach club).

given this, does anyone have an idea what that means for crowd levels at the parks? will they all of sudden go from dead to super crowded, something in between or what?

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

The resorts may not be sold out. If there are no rooms for even one day of your time frame it will show no availablity. That doesn't mean that everyday the resort is booked though.

Case in point: I wwanted to book POP from 11/23- 12/03, but I could only do 11/24- 12/03 and had to do a room only for 11/23.

Did that make any sense at all? Maybe someone else can explain it better.

As for the crowds levels, I don't think it will be packed just because a value is full. Now, if every resort was booked, then yes crowds would probably be bad.

 

[flortlebap]

We asked at POP in 2004 (Sept 29th - Oct 13th) and were told the resort was nearly at full capacity. It certainly was busy.

But the parks were virtually empty. I don't think it's much of an indicator about hotel crowd levels - but you're going off season, I'd be VERY suprised if you encountered many (or ANY) waits. ToT/RnR for instance were a walk on that time in 2004. Epcot we had to ourselves. We have several pics of MK with nobody else around!!

I think you'll be absolutely fine!

 

[QueenGoblin]

Someone else posted that they had talked to a CM about the crowd levels they expexted during the free dining period. The CM said that they thought free dining had enticed some travelers who would have typically stayed off-site to book the value resorts, and even though the values were pretty full, the off site hotels were not booked up at all and the mods and deluxes were less busy too. That makes sense to me, since a family of 4, for example, could probably stay offsite for 40-60 a night, but might be tempted to stay onsite for 80 if they didn't have to worry about the cost of food which could easily run 20-40 bucks a day (depending on how frugal they tried to be).
That being said, for an unbusy time I think you are going during a busier part of it. It seems like quite a few people on this board at least are heading for the last bit of Sept, early Ocotober window to take advantage of free dining and F&W, and MNSSHP. I think this past week was probaby the least busy, due to post-labor day school stuff and 9/11, and crowds will probably go up slightly. But everything I have heard says that crowds are totally manageable this time of the year, so you should have a wonderful time.

 

[Rowlf]

I think you'd just have to expect the values to be booked during free dining, but even with the values at full capacity, that's really only a drop in the bucket as far as park capacity goes. If off-site hotels are empty? Then the parks will be empty as well.

 

[Faerie]

I asked my TA to add one additional night to my upcoming trip (9/29-10/7, adding the night of the 7th) and she could not get a room at any cost at any value for that night. It's a Saturday. She did say that all of the values during that time are sold out since she tried to move our entire stay to add the night.

 

[ntsammy5]

I think you'd just have to expect the values to be booked during free dining, but even with the values at full capacity, that's really only a drop in the bucket as far as park capacity goes. If off-site hotels are empty? Then the parks will be empty as well.

That sounds right to me too. I hope you're right. I leave next Friday for 9 days of pigging out, beer and rides!

​

 

[dicdover]

You also have to consider what is going on the Wide World Sports Complex. For example, I'm going the 1st week of December. Crowds at the park will be fairly light but the Values will be booked solid because of the Pop Warner Football/Cheerleading going on at WWoS.

 

[dicdover]

They also shut down certain parts on the resorts during off-season. Last year I stayed at All Star Music during the free dining period and they had Country Fair shut down.

 

[MinnieGirl33]

Don't forget that alot of FL residents will come in for an overnight or 2 for MNSSHP & Food & Wine over the weekends particularly.

 

[lkjasd]

If you check the crowd calendar at the Unofficial Guide web site (http://www.touringplans.com/tp2/UG2_index.php?PageID=14), they actually check the hotel capacity in the local area and use other factors to determine their crowd calendar (the the crowd blog, etc. for the explanation). If you look at that, you should be able to get a pretty "scientific" prediction of your crowds.