October Blackout weeks

[slacey99]

While I'm mildly disappointed that our week, 10/16-10/23, is blacked out for the free dining as it was for the 40% off before that, it has got me wondering why? I'm totally fine with the price we paid, but what specifically is it about the week of 10/16-10/23 that has caused the blackout? Some of the other blackout dates are easily explained...i.e. Cheerleader week, Thanksgiving, etc. But I can't figure out this week. Our thought for picking the week is that the crowds could be lower as that is most important to us because we are bringing our 2 year old who won't do well with crowds and really long lines. So, my main concern about the blackout is that it is being blacked out for a reason that means the folks at Disney are expecting high crowds that week anyway and don't need to offer the incentive. Any insight on this from anyone? The food and wine festival and NSSHP are happening the entire month, so I can't imagine that is it.

 

[TDC Nala]

Most likely, increased attendance surrounding school fall breaks.

 

[catne]

doesn't necessarily mean "high" crowds...could just mean "enough bookings already" to not need to offer extra incentives. After all, the reason for offering the special promos is to fill a specific number of rooms (they only set aside a percentage of rooms at the promo discount deals, not the entire set of hotels)

You could still have very medium-type crowds...after all, it IS during school year, and not all districts get Fall breaks. Even among those that do, a lot of kids have activities going on in the FAll so that their families don't want to travel then.

 

[aubriee]

We're wondering the same thing. We'll be there the week before (Oct 9th-17th) and those dates are blacked out too. I'll be back down there Dec 4th-12th and those dates are blacked out too, so we missed free dining for both trips.

 

[DCDisney]

October does have lots of blackouts now! Food and Wine is big. The week starting Oct 7 is Columbus Day. The week starting on the 14th is the big Fall vacation week in FL and GA and probably some other Southern states that start school in August. The week where there is free dining starting the 22nd is clearly the slow week. Starting after Oct 28 when it's blacked out again you get the Halloween crowds plus Jersey week starts and lost of other Northern schools that started after Labor Day have a few days off. I did the weeks starting on Thursday since that is how WDW structured the blackouts. At Universal they call that Oct 17th-23rd week Hell week but I've not heard much on any of the WDW boards about it being that bad. If free dining is blacked out that will probably help keep it that way too Clearly Oct is much lower crowds than many other times of year but it's not nearly as quiet as Sept. I wouldn't get overly worried over crowds.