Oct. trip crowds

[magic kingdom park]

We are planning a trip for Oct. 15 thru the 23 I am wondering what the crowds will be like and the weather, they say columbus day is crowded but that falls on the 12 so does that mean the weekend I am going would be crowded, and with moving the food and wine up to Oct. 1 does that add to the crowd?

 

[WDWisTheBest]

In a word, YES.

It will probably be crowded then.

 

[campinggal]

I think it all depends on what you call 'crowded'.

We went last year from Oct 19-27 and had a great time. I didn't think crowds were bad at all. A few rides at MK and AK had 30 min waits (Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Kali River Rapids) posted but you could grab a fast pass and then walk on. Other rides either had no wait or a 15 minute posted time that was actually faster.

I did hear that last year the week before Columbus Day and Columbus Day weekend were totally crazy (nothing like Christmas week crazy) but that was due to the big press event opening Mickey's Philharmagic, Mission Space and the debut of 'Wishes' fireworks.

There may be a bit of a press event in Oct 2004 when they open the new 'Stitch' ride- but that is the only 'new' thing for that month.

We went to MNSSHP on Sunday, Oct 26 and walked on to all rides, showed up for the first parade just 15 minutes before and had a rope side seat and stood in the middle of a very empty Main Street for the 9 pm fireworks.

Weather was great- low humidity, sun and mid eighties. Loved it!!

I would totally go again in October- after Columbus Day.

 

[magic kingdom park]

okay campingal you are sounding good, we were there last year for the press events for misson space and philharmagic, this was our first ever trip to disney, I did not think it was to crowded that we couldn't enjoy ourselves the only part that was to crowded was the parades and the fireworks show, you could not move for all the people so our view was not to good, and it was like a stampede at the fireworks show, I would love to go when you could actually get a view of these without the stampede of the crowds, now maybe you can answer the question of columbus day, falls on the 12th which is tuesday, now when are the crowds there the weekend before or the weekend following? I never knew that this was a big holiday for people to be traveling on vacation, especially to disney, we are to arrive on fri oct. 15 and staying to oct. 23 I hope this will be less crowded than last year.

 

[campinggal]

Hmmm...tough question to answer without the actual experience of having been there the week of Columbus Day.

I just looked at the calendar and Columbus Day will be celebrated (no work/school) on Oct 11th. I would guess that people would travel from Sat to Sat so that would be Oct 9 to Oct 16. So you might encounter crowds on the first two days of your trip but then they would hopfully thin out a bit.

I would avoid the MK on the Saturday you arrive as from what I read, the MK is always crowded on Saturday. We went on Sat night just to see the Spectro and Fireworks and it was crowded but not crazy. We got a front row spot for Spectro about 45 minutes before the parade. We went back to the MK on Sunday morning and walked on to all the rides we wanted to do. It was great.

The week we were there last October (which was the week after you are thinking of going), I did run into a few North Carolina families whose kids were on a three week break in October because their school is on a year round schedule so that might be adding to increased attendance. Slightly anyway.

The other factor from Oct 2003 was the 'Fairy Tale Package'- the stay for 4 get three more free deal. I think that helped increase attendance in October. Who knows what deal they will offer this October- I think they announced the FTP in April or May of last year.

OK, enough blabbering- tough call really to say if it will be less crowded than last year but I would think you have a chance of it being slightly less crowded.

You will have a great time no matter what! I can't wait to go again!

 

[Dznypal]

I just made ressies for OCt 9-16 (out 25th is the 13 )

so I was wondering how the crowds are then with Columbus day in there.

We were there once in Oct other then our honeymoon but that was the 5th through 11th so I think we missed columbus day

any input would be great!!

thanks