Just Back (10/1-10/8) - seemed really crowded why?

[hucifer]

Just back from 9/30 to 10/9. I have never experienced crowds like this before. Ever.

We tried doing non-EMH parks, but it made no difference. The waits in the afternoon were unbearable. Getting PS for dinner was near impossible.

I will never, ever do WDW the first week of MNSSHP and Food & Wine Festival again. I have been spoiled going in mid September!

 

[latuders]

What is a VoG online???

QUOTE=Candicno]If you check the updates to UoG online, you will see that they predicted it to be crowd level 5 and 6 during your stay, depending on the days. It sounds like UoG was absolutly right in your case. A 5 = Peak waits of 45 - 54 minutes, and a 6 = Peak waits of 55 - 64 minutes.

You absolutly CANNOT go by the numbers in the book when the book was printed a year ago. This isn't static--things change. It sounds like you don't know about the website-I can never remember, are we allowed to post it here?

The UoG does take into account the holidays and special events. But, the free dining package really made the difference this year. The numbers of people taking advantage of it here on the Dis alone were outstanding. I'm sure they did take the dining into account as well.

No, this is not normal for Octobers of the past. But, it may very well be normal for the future.[/QUOTE]

 

[Candicno]

UoG or UG or UOG refers to The Unofficial Guide to DisneyWorld (a book pubished yearly). They have updates on their website touringplans.com.

 

[zizzyx]

I was at the parks Sept.29-Oct.5. I usually go in July and I found the crowds to be about the same. Crowded! Sourin" was 90 min wait most of the time. We caught it a few times at 30 min and waited. We got a fass pass at 1:30 for 6:30. Test track was 50-60 min but if you did single rider, it was 5-10 min. It was very crowded but with a little stragegy, we got to do alot and had a great time. MK was crowded as well, but during parade times, the ride times went down alot. Early EMH was well worth it but the late 3 hours had longer lines than in the daytime. The bus lines at the end of the day were unbelievable. We waited over an hour but made friends with whoever was in front or back of us. The line for Pop Century was the worst. The line went pass 3 different other hotel spots. I think it was a combination of things. People in front of us said they come this time every year and it never was like this. It seems the week after us is back to normal. Other than the crowds, we had lots of great meals and lots of fun. We love Soarin'. It's now my 17 year olds favorite.

 

[chip91]

This was my 1st trip ever but it seemed CROWDED! And stand by wait times were horrible, thank goodness for FAST PASS!

 

[Skroops]

I have to agree that I've never seen October busier. We went in July this year too, and that was definately busier than last week, but not by that much. I think the unusual heat and humidity for this time of year took us off guard, and there was lots of rain as usual which added to my perspective. I have to agree that it was the combination of free dining, kids off of school, Columbus day weekend. Where ever we ate, most people were getting the deserts which is usually a sign of the free dining!
We still had lots of fun, but I was disappointed that we didn't get in more attractions!

 

[DrTomorrow]

What is a VoG online???

For a minute, I thought that the question was "What is a Vogon?"

 

[tinkernelllec]

Hi all

I've been to WDW every year since 1997 in October and it has gotten busier and busier. We used to go around the Columbus Day week (my DH likes to go to Daytona Beach for Biketoberfest around the same time) and noticed the crowd level increase every year. We now go around Halloween, last week of october/1st week of November and have noticed a difference in the crowd levels. Still crowded but not like around Columbus day. Plus I hear that kids in Florida have off around that time, and lots of conventions and usually a big PGA tornament is going on around that time too.

Sorry it was so crowded. Hope you still had fun.

 

[pandamom]

We were there 10/1 - 10/9 and found the crowd levels to be great -- almost all rides walk ons or less than 10 minute waits -- soarin and the land were only ones we saw with long lines. I think what park you go to on what day makes the most difference.

 

[mommykds]

We just got home last night & we thought it was crowded..(we have always gone in Nov & early Dec) so this was a shock for us. We got in the parks at opening, used fast pass, & a good touring plan & never waited for more than 10 minutes or so for a ride. We also did many rides/attractions 4-5 times (like soarin, test track, buzz, peter pan, philharmagic, & pooh) We ate at "off" times & did alot during the parade times. We had alot of fun but boy we all came home pooped!

 

[ainmama2001]

We were there 9/29 - 10/5 and it was crowded, but not unmanageable. If you had your ADR's set up and utilized the fastpasses, you did okay. It was much busier than I've seen it this time of year though. Also, since when did they switch the fireworks to "Happy Hallowishes"? I was all set to see "Wishes" and then this spooky stuff was going on. I thought that was only happening the days of MNNSHP. I was so disappointed!

 

[uofl]

We were there Oct. 1 to Oct. 8 and found the parks to be extremely packed we ususally go the last week of September but since my son is in PreK this year and our schools get 2 weeks off the first of Oct. for Fall break we decided not to take him out of school but from now on he will just miss school and we will go the last of September. I live in a VERY small town and there we at least 20 families there last week from Campbellsville. Every where we went we were running into someone we knew. We had a good time this year but I have to admitt we had a much better time last year and we were even stuck in a hurricane. I think we saw more rain this year than we did last year in the hurricane.

 

[madge]

We were there Oct. 1 to Oct. 8 and found the parks to be extremely packed we ususally go the last week of September but since my son is in PreK this year and our schools get 2 weeks off the first of Oct. for Fall break we decided not to take him out of school but from now on he will just miss school and we will go the last of September. I live in a VERY small town and there we at least 20 families there last week from Campbellsville. Every where we went we were running into someone we knew. We had a good time this year but I have to admitt we had a much better time last year and we were even stuck in a hurricane. I think we saw more rain this year than we did last year in the hurricane.

We ran into several people from E'town last week, too!

 

[ainmama2001]

The rain was TERRIBLE! Speaking of E-Town, I went to college in E-Town PA, and the school is incredibly small...like only 1500 people. I ran into two alums on the bus on the way home from MK one night! The people you run into. Only goes to prove EVERYONE was there! The rain plus the crowds and the heat...thank GOODNESS we had a villa and it was so comfortable or I might have had a horrible time.

 

[cobbler]

Yep we were there 10/1 - 10/8 and we found it much busier than we are used to when we normally go after Thanksgiving. I think free dining had a huge impact. I notice the restaurants were very crowded and MNSSHP on the 6th was sooooooo busy!!! We didn't even try to get on any of the rides and waited in pretty decent size lines just to see some characters. Even though we had ADR's we still waited almost 20 minutes at each restaurant to sit down.

 

[cobbler]

We were there 9/29 - 10/5 and it was crowded, but not unmanageable. If you had your ADR's set up and utilized the fastpasses, you did okay. It was much busier than I've seen it this time of year though. Also, since when did they switch the fireworks to "Happy Hallowishes"? I was all set to see "Wishes" and then this spooky stuff was going on. I thought that was only happening the days of MNNSHP. I was so disappointed!

We saw regular Wishes on 10/4 so I don't know I thought it was only during the party too because we saw the Hallowishes on our party night of 10/6.

 

[ainmama2001]

I asked a CM at the Emporium if all the Wishes fireworks were Happy Hallowishes and he said yes...all through October. Now I'm MAD!

 

[kaddjr]

I asked a CM at the Emporium if all the Wishes fireworks were Happy Hallowishes and he said yes...all through October. Now I'm MAD!

That's odd...we were at MK on Oct 5 and saw Wishes.

 

[lacy1101]

We were at MK on 10/01 and also saw Wishes. Watched them on 10/04 from Narcoossee's, too! I think there's some misinformation floating around.

 

[i like stitch]

We were there 9/29 - 10/5 and it was crowded, but not unmanageable. If you had your ADR's set up and utilized the fastpasses, you did okay. It was much busier than I've seen it this time of year though. Also, since when did they switch the fireworks to "Happy Hallowishes"? I was all set to see "Wishes" and then this spooky stuff was going on. I thought that was only happening the days of MNNSHP. I was so disappointed!

Where you at Hallowishes just on the last few days of Sept? They did Hallowishes a couple of nights before the first MNSSHP---I thought it was a "dry run" of the show before the MNSSHPs started.