It's Over! Dissers Oct Secret Is No More!

[opal]

We were there 10/20-10/25. We went to AK in the a.m. and rode EE twice, once on stand-by with a 10 min wait and then later in the morning with a FP. Also rode the Safari with a FP and Kali and Countdown to Extinction with 10-20 min waits. The park seemed crowded but the lines didn't seem bad.

We went to F & W in the p.m. with the sole expectation of eating and drinking. We found it to be crowded but we expected it be. We did ride Figment.....never a line!!! In the evening we went to DTD.

Sunday thru Wednesday we hopped quite a bit and found the crowds to be fairly light. At MGM we rode ToT 3 times in a row because there were no lines. We had a FP but the CM wouldn't take it so we saved it for later.

Funny how everyone has a different perception of crowd size. Our first trip was in Dec.......16 years ago........it has never been that empty since!!!

 

[aviva5675]

Sounds like things are getting busy--we leave Tues, first day at the parks Weds (EPCOT). Were trying TGM advice for this, our second, trip. My only main worry is were doing MK on Sat 11/4 (my bday!), and tho we plan to be out by about 3pm, am worried cause its a Saturday. Should I remain calm and not try to change things now or will I be sorry??? I know it'll all start getting more crowded that weekend cause of Jersey week, but Sat shouldnt be too bad????

 

[dsneygirl]

We were there Sept 30-Oct 7. The only time we noticed crowds was if we did the EMH morning park that day. By the 2nd day we learned our lesson. Other than that we found the crowds minimal. We only waited 10min in the standby line for EE one morning.

 

[goofy4tink]

We arrived on Sat, the 21st, left on the 26th. I didn't think it was bad at all. Sat was a bit chaotic but that was it. We did Universal on Sunday and it was incredible how few people were over there. From Mon-Wed night we didn't experience any long waits for the attractions..perhaps the line for Soarin' was the worst at 30 minutes, but for the most part the waits for us were about 10 minutes.

 

[sticker231]

Having just gotten back yesterday, we experienced little to no wait on most rides. 60 minute wait on Soarin'. Mission space was quoted at 20 and I was in and out in 15 without FP. Even the character waits were pretty fast. In the airport DW and I said October is the way to go.

We did:
MK-Saturday, Wednesday, Friday
MGM-Tuesday
Epcot-Monday & Thursday and Tuesday night

 

[flortlebap]

Sounds like things are getting busy--we leave Tues, first day at the parks Weds (EPCOT). Were trying TGM advice for this, our second, trip. My only main worry is were doing MK on Sat 11/4 (my bday!), and tho we plan to be out by about 3pm, am worried cause its a Saturday. Should I remain calm and not try to change things now or will I be sorry??? I know it'll all start getting more crowded that weekend cause of Jersey week, but Sat shouldnt be too bad????

We made the mistake of going on the Sunday a couple of weeks ago (my birthday, predicted to be fairly low crowds, much less busy than Saturday....) but it was hell on earth. Never again will I make the mistake of going to MK on a weekend, birthday or no birthday!!!

 

[shellyfive]

i was there from oct 22-25 and the crowds weren't really bad at all-----we walked onto Tot......were lots of british accented people-----i asked one of them -----the exchange rate is good for them now(1.8-1.9??) and we had a great time meeting alot of them----we even developed our own "accent' by the end of our stay... Cheerio!!

 

[Poohbear123]

We made the mistake of going on the Sunday a couple of weeks ago (my birthday, predicted to be fairly low crowds, much less busy than Saturday....) but it was hell on earth. Never again will I make the mistake of going to MK on a weekend, birthday or no birthday!!!

Friday, Sat and Sunday and Monday are VERY busy days at ANY of the theme Parks, so expect it to be crowded EVERY weekend!

 

[beccawes7471]

we were there 10/21-10/26 and we thought it was better than January (when we've gone the past two years). We used TGM and planned our park days accordingly. We were at MNSSHP on Tuesday nite and walked on EVERY ride! Rode space mountain three times in a row! We get to each park 1/2 hr before it opens, we are usually done with major attractions by lunch time, then spend the rest wandering around until we are tired We don't do any parks on Saturdays due to crowds, plus it is our travel day and we just like to check in, eat out, and chill We did AK on 10/22 and rode EE twice in a row, once with a 5 minute wait and right after with a FP. We did Epcot on Monday and it was empty until after lunch. Walked on Soarin, rode again about 45 minutes later with FP. We walked on Nemo. Only wait was Living with the Land, 10 minutes. Wed was Sea World, short waits there too for Krakin and Journey to Atlantis. Thurs 10/26 we did MGM, rode Rock-N-Roll and TOT twice by 0950. Loved it, this was our first time doing any parks beside MK, we thought it was amazing! I had a couple ADR's planned but we got lunch ADR at LeCellier for 12:15pm the night before and Flying Fish same day for 7:30pm. W were also back to OKW each night in time to see our World Champion Cardinals play)))))-YAY CARDINALS!!
So we say, what crowds-We'll def be back this time of year again! (and maybe get another World Series win

 

[momoflizandains]

Wow! Thanks for sharing. We are going Dec 9-13 this year and early April and mid-October next year. I don't mind crowds. The heat probably bothers me more because it can make the long days exhausting (we do afternoon breaks, though). I am anxious to compare crowds to the summers (when we've typically been).

 

[BurkeTribe]

It's all relative of course-- if one has gone recently in July before (not us), I am sure October still seems empty.

But we are spoiled. It's not just about ride wait times, because we can almost always(see below) handle that with FP, it's about being able to sit on a bench and see sights on the other side of the path every once and a while. It's about finding a table to sit at and eat at Cosmic Ray's... at 2pm. After this last trip, we are now considering January or skipping school in September for the next trip. But we are really, really spoiled.

We don't mind crowds of British people, because they usually go as families, it's the crowds of non-English speaking folks who go in tour groups of 30-80 or so (okay, prob 40-50 max, but seemd like 80 ) all following behind the tour leader/ translator holding a flag... ughhh. Five or six groups like this in a park can cause massive waits on non-FP rides or in counter service restaurants. Thank goodness it is usually impossible for such a group to FP.

So January is starting to look good. October now seems to be up and down depending on foreign tour group masses and school fall break correlation (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1065923). But again, we are really spoiled.

The rundown on our trip--

Sat Oct. 7-- MK (yeah I know, Saturday before a Monday holiday is a foolish day for that, it just worked out that way)-- Crowds relative to previous October: extremely high. Heat: higher also. But we always have a plan (and a clue) so, arriving a little late (9:45am) we stayed all day (left around 11pm) and did absolutely everything but Bears, Prezs, Riverboat, Space Mtn., and Dumbo. And we could have done those, but did Buzz twice, Goofy's BSt 5 times, and spent over an hour on TS Island to get away from the flag-following tour groups (FFTGs). Longest waits-- 30 minutes Cosmic Ray's (at 1:30-2pm--midwest Fall breakers'/western-SouthAmericans' lunch?), Speedway 10-15minutes at 10:am, and POTC 15 minutes at 10:30pm or so. Clearly wasn't the ride waits that bothered us a little, it was things like the congestion in certain bottlenecks and the lack of calm sitdown areas (except for the Tomorrowland Back Path, but it was pretty hot there. But we still had an awesome time and no meltdowns even though we were there over 12 hours ... the TS Island break helped
Tip/learnin' of the day: TS Island and PeopleMover can be relaxing places to prevent meltdowns on hot crowded days .

Sun Oct. 8 -- DMGM -- Crowds relative to previous October: same. Heat: higher. Other than the usual nightmare for those silly enough not to FP RNRC (even our fp wait was 15-20 minutes, which is looong for our spoiled selves) and the bottlenecks of the LightsMotors show, there was never a time we felt really crowded at DMGM. Didn't notice any FFTGs (flag-following tour groups).
Tip/learnin' of the day: as everyone here already knows, RNRC is FP mandatory. And Pizza Planet is still lamely themed.


Mon Oct. 9 -- ride the monorail circuit to explore resorts, boat to Ft. Wilderness, etc. No crowds in these places, of course.

Tuesday Oct. 10 -- Epcot --Crowds relative to previous October: same early, higher later. Heat: higher. Went straight to Soarin' to get FPs instead of TTr. LivingLand line looong, no FP, skipped. Crush line huge by 10:30, we skip til later. Had a fun day, with crowds not coming into play except at lunch (FFTG went into Electric Umbrella just as we were headed there, so no EU for lunch). McDs fries for lunch, mooching ducks for entertainment. First meltdown of trip (d*** those Thomas toys in UK section-- crack to our spoiled Thomas addict). Fun day continued after settling. Lines at food/wine booths not long in mid afternoon. Kidcot/International-kidcot stops not crowded. TTr FP return time several hours (got ours around 11am for 3 or 4pm, if I'm remembering). Mission space walk-on. Just as we are walking by Nemo entrance they open for testrun. Ride stops when we are 90% through. They walk us out 10 minutes later. Crush line minimal (one show wait), so we hit it. SpaceEarth (best thing there IMO, they should have headsets to translate narration into other languages for non-English-speaking folks) as leaving.
Tip/learnin' of the day: if you decide not to rush to do Crush at first show (10am?), best other time is late in the day.

Wedn Oct. 11 -- AK --Crowds relative to previous October: same early, higher mid afternoon, (around EE, as always probably), nigh empty EMH. Heat: lower (cloudy). Got EE FP, hit Safari, see Africa animals, hit Kali, etc. Easy FP on everything available. EMH at AK , aka Soaking Wet Kids Hours ( rode Kali again, saw a kid who had stayed on 4-5 times ), not crowded AT ALL, 3 hours of awesomeness.
Tip/learnin' of the day: this is the late EMH to hit.


We will probably go again in October, but are so spoiled that the MK day did scare us a little.