How busy is October Half Term??

[richard3330]

Hi,

We have been trying to get flights for October half term but Virgin have already sold out completely and nearly every flight agent I call all say that the flights for October half term are virtually all full already and that there is little/no chance of getting a flight.

One travel agent, at Bon Voyage, said that they can probably get us seats, but not until 11 months before (this November). However, the lady said she can't guarantee anything. I really don't know what to do now, whether I should wait until November or just take any flights I can find!!! There will be 16 people in total so getting flights will be quite a problem.

I didn't think October was meant to be very busy!

Richard

 

[UKDEB]

Richard,

Although October is comparatively less busy at WDW, it's a popular time for Brits to visit for obvious reasons.

I'm assuming the Virgin flights you have been trying to get are through Virgin Holidays. Because they are selling a package, they get an allocation of seats from Virgin Atlantic which they are able to sell before the 11 month slot. That doesn't mean that the whole flight is booked, simply that their allocation is full. Once you reach the 11 month window (you can't book a scheduled flight with any airline more than 11 months out), you should be able to book flights only with Virgin Atlantic. I don't recommend booking with them directly - you should find the prices cheaper by booking through an agent. Try Virgin Travelstore, Expedia, Flightbookers, etc.

 

[richard3330]

Thanks Deb. I understand that I can't book until 11 months before, but what most agents and companies have been telling me is that there is little chance of getting a flight even dead on 11 months, as although they aren't allowed to sell seats until then they have apparently got a large number of seats reserved already to fill their allocation and we have to travel on a specific date (16th October).

 

[IAN5150]

Take the kids out of school a week earlier?

 

[BiGGy]

or for the 2 weeks after half term

teachers very understanding and have also arranged extra work for them to do during half term so they dont fall behind


rgds

BiGGy

 

[richard3330]

It will DS's first year at school and I know that at, what will be his school they really, really don't like you taking children on holiday during term time which I can understand. We have to stick to his half term which is from October 15th - November 1st.

Richard.

 

[marlouwrig]

We will have the same problem next year.

At the schools which both my DS's attend is heavily oversubscribed and parents have to sign an undertaking not to take children out for holidays.

They will not give permission under any circumstances in years 7, 10 or 11 and only in years 8 & 9 under very exceptional circumstances.

We only get one week for half term and are also looking to travel next October

 

[Mrs Dazzle]

Hi Richard. October half term . . . last year was brilliant, very quiet in the parks for the week we were in Orlando (15 - 22/10/02). This year - exactly same time - packed everywhere with the exception of Busch Gardens.

I don't want to put a spoke in the works for anyone going next October, it's a great time to do, but it WAS significantly busier this year compared to last, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, Disney were offering their Fairy Tale Package and, according to my agent at Dreams Unlimited, this was very well taken up to the extend that most resorts were booked for all of October.

Secondly, chatting with a guy from Alabama while we were down on Marco Island two weeks ago, his wife and children had visited Orlando the week before like we had, and some schools in the US have changed their term times and more were off for fall break, but he couldn't say how many that affected, just that his wife and kids go every year the same time and she said how busy it was. The week after we'd left Orlando, ie w/c 21/10 was significantly quieter as these schools has returned. Also, Columbus Day was the weekend before we arrived and I think there were quite a few people still around from their long weekend.

Universal was a huge disappointment for us. We'd gone to IOA for the first time last year and stayed at HRH so got FOTL access. This year we did the same, but the Qs were much too long even with FOTL access. Last year we literally walked on everything - even Spidey. This year we had to queue for 30 mins with FOTL.

Perhaps to some people this is "normal", but given our experience the year before, it was very disappointing.

The same for MNSSHP. We went on Sunday 19th, same weekend as last year - but obviously more tickets had been sold because the Qs were again bad. We had luck on Space Mountain because we went in early (6pm) before the 7pm start time of the party and we were sent over to Tomorrowland, so did Space Mountain walk on. Haunted Mansion wait time was 45 mins, but because I was in my ECV got ushered around the back entrance and went straight in with a bunch of other wheelchair bound buddies. Splash mountain was the best - at the end of the evening; we went on after a 5 min wait and straight around again without getting off because no-one was waiting (Darryl, waiting outside, must have thought Katie and I had disappeared ). It was a good atmosphere, though, and more people this year were in costumes which was great.

Saying all that - and if you can get the flights you want - with some careful planning that first few days (in other words the start of the following week you arrive) should be much better. One chappy in our hotel at Marco was telling us the day we left on Friday that they'd just come down from a very quiet Orlando and most of the people in the parks were Brits. It's getting very, very popular over here. That explains why I can get flights to the US for July, but not October next year

 

[Madjock]

I have to say I found exactly the same experience as Mrs. Dazzle. We found it very busy this year. We were at MNSSHP on the same date, the 19th and we also found US a total nightmare as we didn't have FOTL passes and the queues for everything were just way too long even using Express.

Annmarie

 

[Enright78]

Just to confuse!
We are just back from our half term week, 25/10 to 2/11.
Very quiet, almost everything a walk on, no PS needed anywhere!
No help at all, I know!!

 

[richard3330]

Thanks Annie for all that information.

We were mainly really wanting October for MNSSHP and for (what we believed would be) small crowds with little queue's.

I think we're still going to try for October, but getting flights is a real problem at the moment.

Thanks again for all the information though, at leat we have some advance warning of how busy it may be and will make sure we plan accordingly.

Richard.

 

[edie w]

You should still be able to get Virgin flights. We pre-booked this time last year for Oct 16-30 this year, and the travel agent got us seats.

Not that I'd recommend Thomas Cook Signature to anyone (attempted to get £125 pp out of us extra saying Virgin had increased their prices - AFTER we had had firm confirmation , and completely messed up hire cars), but it can be done. I'd keep trying an online specialist every day until the seats become available. It's worth the risk I think. You could always then default to a charter airline if you are unlucky.

How about taking your DS out of school just for a day or two and travel on Thursday or Friday? Availability should be better.

We found the crowds OK. Saturdays and Sundays were heavy, but with judicious use of fastpass/express pass and buying Universal Express just once (Saturday), we saw and did everything we wanted to and more. It was much less crowded than I had feared it would be.

 

[Celestine]

Having only ever been in Jan & Feb previously, October was a real eye opener. It was very busy, with a good 45min even for things like IASW & PP! Lines for characters took forever (i know as DD & DN wanted to meet each & every one of them). MNSSHP was comparably better, but we still used FP for PP as was posting 45min wait. On the day we went to Epcot, FP was out by 12noon for both TT & MS, although Maelstom was only 10min without FP. I guess it just depended on what it was you wanted to see. The day we went to MK was particularly warm & humid & I'm sure the parade was abbreviated as characters did not seem to stop & interact as they did in jan & there was a globe missing. We had PS at CP for 1130 & the lady was saying without PS, earliest dining was 1945! Way too busy, so probably won't go at this time of year again. We too were only there for a week. Personally I think 10 days would have been better as I just felt we were constantly rushing (& we are now fairly experienced DISers!)

 

[KEH]

We were at WDW from October 18th to 24th and had no problems with crowds at all! I guess it just depends what day you go to what park. Also it was our 7th trip so we didn't want to ride everything and made good use of Fastpass.

We went to MNSSHP on the 19th and walked on to Splash twice in a row, Space 3 times, Haunted Mansion twice; we didn't ride much in Fantasyland as my kids are older buit only waited 10 minutes foir Winnie the Pooh.

Universal Studios and IofA were also walk ons (with FOTL access) for everything but one ride on Men in Black when the system seemed to break down and we waited 20 minutes.

We must just have been lucky I guess.

 

[Dawn disneyholic]

We went Oct 17 - 31 and the wait times in the parks were the longest i have ever known them to be in all my visits. 1 hour to 90 min for tower of terror, 45 min for haunted mansion. so we did'nt get on TOT year. Not sure if i would pick Oct again, but the crowds could have been just a one off this year maybe, i don't know if anything has changed with the U.S school holidays, but most people were american, Did'nt hear that many english around us.

Dawn

 

[edie w]

We were there Oct 16-30 this year. If I remember rightly it went like this:

Fri 17 - MK. As busy as 2001, but did Buzz, Teacups, POTC, HM, Space Mountain, saw parade, had tea and watched Wishes between 4 and 10.

Sat 18 - IoA - busier than 2001, but we we arrived late. Bought Express booklet and did everything we wanted to, some twice.

More soon.... my tea is ready!

 

[edie w]

.......

Sunday 19 - Busch Gardens. Very quiet, no queues for anything.

Monday 20 - MGM - quite quiet, like 2001. No lines at all for ToT and RnR after 6pm as everyone had gone to Fantasmic.

Tuesday 21 - Typhoon Lagoon. Busy - like 1996 and 1999. Didn't go in 2001. Got a peaceful spec in out of the way cay, though.

Wed 22 - Universal. Very quiet. Walked on to most things. Only used Express pass for Shrek.

Thurs 23 - Sea World. Quiet. No lines for the rides. Easy access to dolphins. Walked into Shamu at last minute and were 4 rows back from the splash zone.

Fri 24 - MK for the morning. Quiet. Fastpassed Peter Pan but walked onto IASAW, Splash and Space Mountains & Philharmagic. DTD in evening. Insanely busy!

Sat 25 - Epcot for afternoon and evening. Very busy. FPd Test Track but had only come to do WS anyway, so not bad.

Sun 26 - MGM. Madly busy. Walked on to Backlot Tour, shopped, Startours, Fantasmic (standing room only but we did leave it very late)

Mon 27 - 1900 Park Fayre for breakfast. Lovely. MGM pm just to do TOT (my first time!). Line was supposed to be 60 mins, but 45 mins after joining it we were buying Tshirts in the gift shop. Walked on to Star Tours.

Tues 28 - IoA. Rained - park empty! Fantastic. Stayed to Scream with Express passes, which we didn't need for most things. Outstanding.

Wed 29 - Epcot for morning and afternoon. Very quiet. FPd MS twice in 2 hours. Head still reeling....

So all in all not too busy except at weekends.

I wonder how our schedule compared to those who found it busy and those who didn't?

 

[richard3330]

Thanks, edie W, that's a great help. Isn't it weird that some days the parks were empty and other days packed! The luck of the draw I guess. Thanks again.

Richard

 

[stal]

Hi, we were there from the 23rd October - 1st November.

We mostly heard british people around, especially at Sea World.

The parks were quite busy, but the ques were short. Tower of Terror only had one side operating due to a rehab and so the line was always long for that. We only went on it once, with no wait, but that was because fantasmic was about to start.

Most shows we turned up at the last minute and were able to get seats. Shamu show had whole side sections empty. For the lion king show and tarzan rocks we got there just as the music was starting. Sat right near the front for Tarzan and middleish for Lion King. Turned up 15 minutes before Fantasmic was due to start and got seats in about the 10th row.

MNSSHP - there were seemingly alot of people, but no waits at all. walked onto everything, including everything in fantasyland.

US and IoA - was not at all busy. We bought the Universal Express pass things, but wasnt really worth it as the wait times were about 10 minutes anyway. Did everything In IoA by about 4pm (got there at 11) including Hulk, Dueling Dragons and Spiderman 3 times each, Jurassic Park 2 times and everything else once.

 

[ford family]

On the question of October half term and flights.

We were at BWV 24/10 - 31/10 and found everything reasonably accessible except for a very busy MK on the Sunday.

We flew with Delta, their Gatwick to Cinncinnati to MCO route. We had booked these flights through Trailfinders 11 months earlier at a cost of £448 each.

The time on the ground in Cinncinnati on the way out was about 75 minutes but we went through immigration and the very stringent domestic security during that time. However, leaving the plane at MCO, picking up the luggage and jumping into the limo took a mere 10 minutes.

On the return flight the luggage goes straight through and we simply walked off at gate B8 and immediately loaded at gate B2 without any wait. Incidentally, I overheard a desk clerk saying they had 60 people off the flight from Orlando switching to the London one.

We have now done the Delta thing four times, either through Cinncinnati or Atlanta, and each time it has been very straightforward and much cheaper than the direct route. One added advantage is that you can start the return journey from somehere like Fort Myers if you are visiting Naples or Marco and thus avoid the trek back to Orlando.

ford family