October crowds last year

[bella2117]

can anyone tell me if they remember the crowds for the first week of October last year? people who were there the week after me were saying the crowds were bad and i was the last week of september. I'm only asking because we are planning our next trip for around the first week of oct.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

can anyone tell me if they remember the crowds for the first week of October last year? people who were there the week after me were saying the crowds were bad and i was the last week of september. I'm only asking because we are planning our next trip for around the first week of oct.

I can't exactly answer your question but we were there from Oct 11th - 18th and were shocked at how crowded it was. We've done October in the past and this year was way more crowded ... like a long line for the People Mover on a Wednesday crowded

 

[bella2117]

I can't exactly answer your question but we were there from Oct 11th - 18th and were shocked at how crowded it was. We've done October in the past and this year was way more crowded ... like a long line for the People Mover on a Wednesday crowded

i remember reading about people saying that but i wasn't sure what time frame it was but your answer was very helpful thank you. something about a holiday for some schools i remember to people were saying but I'm not sure what schools.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

i remember reading about people saying that but i wasn't sure what time frame it was but your answer was very helpful thank you. something about a holiday for some schools i remember to people were saying but I'm not sure what schools.

That Monday was Columbus Day - so i was anticipating some crowds, especially on the weekend ... but was surprised how crowded it still was even the Wed and Thurs of that week as I don't think many schools got the whole week off (I know by us they didn't)

 

[bella2117]

That Monday was Columbus Day - so i was anticipating some crowds, especially on the weekend ... but was surprised how crowded it still was even the Wed and Thurs of that week as I don't think many schools got the whole week off (I know by us they didn't)

columbus day!! i totally forgot. i remember now how people were saying it wasn't suppose to be as busy as it was. thank you for you help! i remember now

 

[FLchick415]

If I'm not mistaken, I think a lot of schools now have a fall break that falls somewhere in the middle of October and that caused crowds to surge

 

[bella2117]

If I'm not misteken, I think a lot of schools now have a fall break that falls somewhere in the middle of October and that caused crowds to surge

yes i read that last year on a thread. I'm looking at the end of sept beginning of october so i think we will be okay crowd wise. i remember people were shocked at how crowded october was last year. i just forgot what the dates were.

 

[mmafan]

I was there it wasn't bad epcot was crazy it was opening week for food and wine but after the first weekend it was great..the last week of September and first week of oct are great times....

 

[Brocktoon]

I've been heading down for various weeks in Oct over the past 8 years or so. Here's my basic summary:

- 1st and last weeks of Oct are best
- middle 2 weeks ... not so much!

As more and more schools go year round and get fall breaks, we've watched the mid October crowds get worse over the years. I always though Halloween week would be more crowded, but after seeing the reduced crowds during late October last year, I'm not going back to mid October anytime soon. It's harder and harder to find any low crowd times at WDW, but if you're thinking you want lower Oct crowds, avoid the middle weeks.

 

[surferdave]

We went from October 8-13 and were surprised how crowded it was. We had fall break at DD9's school in Georgia, and found that many people had fall break that were coming from the midwest.

 

[herb102211]

We were at WDW Oct 9-12th last year. During the weekdays, we thought the crowds weren’t bad at all. However, MNSSHP were sold out that Thursday and Friday. Even with that said, we were able to see everything at MNSSHP that we wanted to. Epcot was packed Saturday night (Oct 11th), but I think that tends to be the case during all weekends of the F&WF.

Overall, we didn’t mind the crowds and would go back again that week. It seems that the week of Columbus Day is busier than the week leading into the holiday.

 

[DisMama5]

We always go the first week of October. We LOVE it. Crowds are always manageable, we never hit a wait time over 20minutes, we walk on plenty of rides also. It has picked up little by little over the years but it's still my favorite time to go because the crowds are so manageable. If you take a look at crowd calendars and work some of your park days off of those, you will be absolutely fine. I however don't work off the crowd calendars, I do my own plans and hope for the best and have never regretted that time frame but it is hot I will say that lol

 

[MacDalt]

We were there October 9-13 last year. Only crowds were Friday night at Epcot. Everything else was great but we are used to Spring Break crowds.

 

[Legendteri]

Remember, that the MK hosts the Halloween party a few days during the week in October. So the days that it doesn't host the party, MK will be very busy. In fact, Josh at easywdw did a post on how much the crowds in Oct can vary day by day due to the parties

http://www.easywdw.com/uncategorized/a-tale-of-two-magic-kingdoms-october-22nd-versus-october-23rd/

We went Oct 2012 and we didn't have problems with crowds, but again, we went to the MK on a day it hosted the party so we had to be out by 7. We also avoided EP on the weekends and days it had EMH, went to DHS on a day it closed at 6, and AK on a day it didn't have EMH.

I would say our average wait time was 10 minutes. The longest we waited was 30 minutes for Dumbo.

 

[whatisgoofy?]

We were there last year 10/5-10/12 and had a spectacular time! Our longest wait was around 30min, and that was for Kilimanjaro Safaris which is almost as long of a ride...and definitely worth it. We did rope drop everyday, went to easywdw recommended parks, and averaged 10-15min waits. We had several walk-ons early and late in the day as well (Toy Story, Soarin, EE, Pooh, etc), and were able to ride some of our favorites multiple times during the day. We did Epcot F&W during weekdays only, and only encountered waits of 1-3 people ahead of us on line. We didn't attend MNSSHP, but the crowds coming into MK at the end of the regularly scheduled day (as we were leaving) were a bit intense...but they had zero-impact for us during the day. Not sure how FP+ will affect these results, but during our experience, with a little planning, it was a super time to go!