EMH or not in October...

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

This will be our first ever onsite trip. I have everything planned so far using Josh's calendar. That being said since we are night owls I have considered using EMH. Our trip is Oct. 3-11 and the crowds aren't predicted to be high, so I'm wondering how much it of a difference it would be to go on EMH days?
Dh and I just got back from the week of July 4th and we never waited for anything with utilizing our FP+ and going on recommended days so I don't want to chance that not happening again this time. Any thoughts? And I know no one can actually tell me..I'm just wanting some experiences with that time of year/using/not using EMH.

 

[rdearth]

We are going around that same time (10/3 - 10/10) and we've been there this time before and I wouldn't completely trust the crowd calendars if they are saying anything less than moderate to (near) high. It won't be swarming with people like in the summer, but it won't exactly be low crowds either.


Because of this, I think utilizing EMH in the Fall actually makes sense. You're also dealing with shorter operating hours, so an extra hour here and there makes a pretty big difference.

In my experience, there just isn't that much of a difference in crowds during the fall when a park has EMH like most unofficial books and others claim. I think that is a definite concern in the busy months, but not October. It's especially advantageous to do evening EMH whenever possible because you feel like you pretty much have the park to yourself....Just don't expect many food places to be open.

The bigger strategy to think about is scheduling parks around special events like MNSSHP. For example, if MNSSHP is scheduled for a Thursday night, Friday at MK is probably going to see bigger crowds regardless of EMH because people would prefer a full day at MK instead of having to leave at 7 pm. It could also be busier the day before, but it seems like most people go the day after a shortened day instead of the day before for whatever reason.

October crowds are also very dependent on the weather forecasts. If the weatherman is calling for clear skies, you better believe the locals and near locals will be scheduling a day trip to the parks, making it nearly impossible to predict crowds, but you can't do anything about any of that.

 

[lilpooh108]

For example, if MNSSHP is scheduled for a Thursday night, Friday at MK is probably going to see bigger crowds regardless of EMH because people would prefer a full day at MK instead of having to leave at 7 pm. It could also be busier the day before, but it seems like most people go the day after a shortened day instead of the day before for whatever reason.

I've found this to be true, and since we're repeat goers we now just go on a party day and leave around 6pm. You can alot done on that day. We accidentally went the day after a party and never again

 

[Kalea]

We'll be there at the same time (Oct 3-10) and are following Josh's calendar.

We visited last Oct (19-26), and we did quite well going to the recommended parks.

The crowd predictions are slightly higher this week compared to the week we were there last year.

There are a ton of people, but you won't notice it if you follow his suggested touring plans. For us last year, the only time the parks 'felt' crowded were: 1) Leaving MK after MSEP & Wishes; 2) Queueing for TSMM after doing Jedi signups (so 30 mins after RD); and 3) Queueing for Soarin' midday because my 8-yo reallllllly wanted to ride again.

 

[grimley1968]

We usually go that week, because that is our fall break. It is also fall break for many other schools around the country. A combo of this, Food & Wine Festival at EPCOT, a huge convention going on at one of the EPCOT area resorts, and Columbus Day weekend for the last few days of that period, make for slightly higher crowds than other weeks of October.

We normally use EasyWDW's predictions of which parks have EMH evenings and avoid those parks those days. The other 3 parks were uncrowded enough for most of the week that we didn't need to follow the advice of going to the least crowded park; just made sure not to go to the EMH evening park.

Over Columbus Day weekend we tried to follow EasyWDW's crowd predictions a little more closely, because there tended to be a lot more locals there that weekend.

EPCOT's World Showcase is going to be pretty crowded any evening in October due to F&W, and especially on weekends. One thing we did that greatly eased our days at EPCOT was to do as much of WS as possible in the early afternoon, and then get back into Future World with FP+'s for the headliner rides. That got us out of WS before the heaviest of the F&W crowds arrived, and in our experience most of those F&W crowds didn't venture over to the Future World section of EPCOT, unless they were there earlier in the day.

 

[rdearth]

EPCOT's World Showcase is going to be pretty crowded any evening in October due to F&W, and especially on weekends. One thing we did that greatly eased our days at EPCOT was to do as much of WS as possible in the early afternoon, and then get back into Future World with FP+'s for the headliner rides. That got us out of WS before the heaviest of the F&W crowds arrived, and in our experience most of those F&W crowds didn't venture over to the Future World section of EPCOT, unless they were there earlier in the day.

This is very good advice. I kind of forgot how crazy WS can get in the evening during F&W.

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

We have been in October before but they changed our fall break so now we are one week earlier than last time. Anyway, even though we have been to WDW multiple times believe it or not this is our first onsite trip..so I have no experience with EMH except noticing MK starting to get more crowded once as we left during the summer. We have just always stayed offsite and followed the crowd calendars
Maybe I should just leave things as I have them since the only ones we would do are pm anyway..ugh..only like 5 days until I make FP+ so I want this in stone! lol