HELP!! Need advice on possible dates!!

[NCDisneyPlanner]

We can either go to Disney World the 1st week of October, 2008 or the week before Thanksgiving (Nov. 16th - 21st) 2008. Which would be best for "lowest crowds"?? We already booked our trip but due to a wedding...plans are changing!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[tiggerfan1]

If I were you, I would go to WDW the week before Thanksgiving. Someone told me that it can still be really hot in Florida in early October and that it gets pretty crowded. My family and I went to WDW 2 weeks before Thanksgiving this year. The weather was perfect and the wait times for many of the rides were short. I've read that the crowd level is still low the week before Thanksgiving (but gets crowded toward the weekend). By this time, the Christmas decorations are up, too! I hope this helps. Happy trip planning!

 

[Rochmom]

Lucky you, planning your next trip! My guide says both of those weeks are typically low attendance times. Temps in the mid 80s in October, around 80 in November.

If you go the week before Thanksgiving, all of the Christmas stuff will definitely be happening, which is a great bonus if you like the holiday activities and decorations. If you like doing water parks and swimming, you might want the October dates when it's a little warmer.

 

[NCDisneyPlanner]

Thanks for the quick replies!! The weather is not that important as we will not be going to the water parks this time. We have an impatient 4 year old and an adventerous 8 year old so all we care about is crowd level. I was worried that the week before Thanksgiving would be crowded. Is this not the case?

 

[MagiKitty]

I just got back from a week's stay Nov. 10-17. The 17th was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. In terms of crowds, the were very low and quite manageable in MK, EPCOT, and MGM (we didn't go to AK). We even went to MVMCP and the crowds were not as bad as we expected.

We like to go this time of year because its low season and the parks are fairly empty. We walked on to most rides. You get the benefit of having the holiday decorations and MVMCP. The only downside we're encountered is that the parks close early, about 6 or 7, depending on which one. We've always rented a car and used the evening hours to go out to dinner or do some holiday shopping.

That time of year is also Super Soap weekend, Food and Wine festival, and Jersey week, so you may want to check out those dates before you commit to yours.

Temps not being an issue, but packing may be. We had warm days, but chilly evenings, so we ended up carrying a sweatshirt around most of the day and putting it on at night. We also packed jeans and shorts, so it made packing a bit trickier.

Another downside was the Saturday we left, MCO was CRAZY. Lots of people going out of town. But if you give yourself some extra time, that's really the only minus to travelling to WDW the week before Thanksgiving.

Good luck with the planning!