Need planning help on best time to go, please help :)

[mickeymule]

Let me first thank all of you ahead of time. Here is my situation, currently we have planned to go to Disney the week after Thanksgiving 2006, maybe driving from Massachusetts, may be flying, depends on costs. However; there are thoughts about going the week of October 8-14 or October 22 - 28. I know we used to go the week after Thanksgiving due to the lower crowds, but it seems to have picked up in the past and December will not work out. Ultimatly, here are my questions.

1) In your opinion, when is the least crowded of those times?
2) I know Disneys hours adjust daily, but is there a difference in the 3 week as to hours?
3) I know of Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween, when does that start and end?
4) Flights, I don't do a lot of flying, so I don;t know if there would be a major price difference in the timeframes for JetBlue or SouthWest.

Right now it stands as leaving the day after Thanksgiving, but would like to try to do it in October if the crowds are acceptable.

Thanks again,

 

[wdwgoofeeee]

How about a BUMP for some responses.

 

[Karnak]

I will be very interested in the responses to this question as well because I have three possible time periods for an upcoming solo visit to WDW and am trying to determine which of the three would be less crowded in the parks.

The week before Thanksgiving: Nov 13 - Nov 17.
The week after Thanksgiving: Nov 27 - Dec 2.
The following week: Dec. 4 - Dec 8.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Enjoy.

 

[Hopefully]

Last October we went from October 16 to October 23. We have been several different times in October and each year it has been more crowded than the past. October has become a busy time of year with many special events happening. There is the Food & Wine Fest in Epcot, MNSSHP at the MK, Super Soaps weekend at MGM, Funai Golf Classic over one weekend and I believe the Festival of the Masters Art show is in this timeframe in DTD. Some years Jersey Week also falls in this time frame. That said, I felt it was crowded, but manageable.
MNSSHP will be held several different nights during the weeks you are looking at. It starts at the very end of September or the very beginning of October. It is on select nights, not every night. The schedule is published about 6 months in advance.
I can not compare October to the week after Thanksgiving, as I have never been at that time of year. The park hours were already somewhat limited in October (MK 9 - 7), and may be even more so in November.
As far as flying, I fly a lot for work. (But since I am not paying for those flights, I do not pay a lot of attention to the fares). In vacation planning, the only times I have noticed significant fare changes is over a school vacation week. There fares are definintly higher on those weeks.
HTH