October crowds

[decker96]

We are planning our next trip to the World in Oct. My kids have a break in mid-October. I really want to go this year, but DH doesn't as youngest DD will only be 1. He wants to wait until 2005 and has said then we will have more time to save $ and can stay at a deluxe resort instead of a moderate, so I will probably let him win this one! The dates will be Oct. 19 -24. What are the crowds typically like at that time? The last time we went was Jersey week and supersoap weekend and it was really crowded, especially MK. We also want to attend MNSSHP. Thanks for your help!

 

[dcmbshafe]

We were there two years ago around the time you're talking about and the crowds were pretty light. Of course, the park hours were a lot shorter than we were expecting as well.

 

[decker96]

Shorter hours won't really bother us. Our kids will be 8,5 and 2, so I'd rather get them in bed earlier and take advantage of EMH especially to MK and AK. Lst time we were there MK was only open past 6 one night. We just head over to Epcot at night if we want to do something else.

 

[dcmbshafe]

That's generally what we do too (DD4 & DS3) The only bummer was that there wasn't even one day that MK was open past 7, I think, so they didn't have a MK fireworks show at all while we were there. I think with Wishes, though, Disney seems to be committed to showing it on a regular basis.

At the end of the day, it was a great time to go. We didn't do MNSSHP, but it looked pretty cool. Also, the Epcot Food & Wine festival is during that time, which is pretty cool.

 

[kashkdz]

Originally posted by decker96
We are planning our next trip to the World in Oct. My kids have a break in mid-October. I really want to go this year, but DH doesn't as youngest DD will only be 1. He wants to wait until 2005 and has said then we will have more time to save $ and can stay at a deluxe resort instead of a moderate, so I will probably let him win this one! The dates will be Oct. 19 -24. What are the crowds typically like at that time? The last time we went was Jersey week and supersoap weekend and it was really crowded, especially MK. We also want to attend MNSSHP. Thanks for your help!

Hi--

We went last October because we wanted to celebrate mutiple birthdays in our family. Compared wo the other times we've been to Disney, it was very crowded. Then again there was MNSSHP, Food and Wine Festival, and FTP (which is what we booked) was coming to an end. After asking a CM about the crowds he stated that FTP added a lot to the crowds. I'd go again in Oct, no problem, because I'm sure crowds are nothing like during the summer. We also did MNSSHP and Blizzard Beach and had a great time. Temps were in the mid 80s. One thing to note is that this is still considered 'regular' season, as opposed to November which starts 'value' season rates.

 

[crisi]

We've gone over MEA weekend several years (and our kids are still preschoolers).

This last year (2003) it was much busier than its been in the past. Probably FTP - also the beginning of the week was Columbus day - so a lot of people took long weekends.
Next year, Food and Wine will begin earlier (it started the Saturday we left last year) and I'd anticipate more traffic - particularly weekends in Epcot.

Posted hours tend to be short, but the MK has been known to have hours extended on the fly.

We would have liked to go to MNSSHP, but it was too difficult. The party doesn't start until 7:00 or something - and our kids really wanted to be in bed by 8:30 (ok, wanted or needed, maybe needed is a better word). Wasn't worth it. We will try next time.

 

[decker96]

When you say crowded what kind of ride-wait times are you talking about? During our Nov trip all Fantasyland rides were 45 min. to an hour wait, except Small World and the Carousel. The Speedway was also an hour and Buzz was 20 minutes with our Fastpass, 1 hour and 15 min without and that was during Spectro.

 

[suemac]

We went this past October, Haloween week. Our longest wait (playing the Fast Pass game) was 10 minutes!
The only large crowd we ran into was at the No So Scarey party, but it was the actual Halloween night. I love October for touring.
Crowds seemed to have increased some in the past half doz. years but it is still pleasant.

BTW...I had planned my days around EE and found after the first day that we ran into lighter crowds staying away from the EE park.

 

[jtjarvis]

[Compared wo the other times we've been to Disney, it was very crowded. Then again there was MNSSHP, Food and Wine Festival, and FTP (which is what we booked) was coming to an end. After asking a CM about the crowds he stated that FTP added a lot to the crowds. ]

Sorry for my ignorance but what is FTP? Also another post mentioned MEA ? Is the latter a conference?

Thanks much! I'm considering Oct. so all this helps!

 

[decker96]

MEA is the Minnesota Teacher's conference. The whole state has school off on a Thurs. and Fri. in Oct. I thinks it's always the third week but my daughter's only in Kindergarten, so I'm not positive about that. It's called something else now, but we've all known it as MEA for so long that's what we still call it!

 

[edie w]

FTP was FairyTale Package. It was something like get 5 nights for the price of 3 onsite.

We were there last October (offsite), and the crowds were heavier than in previous years on some days, but very light on others. Does anyone know whether FTP will be on again this year?

 

[Disneycamper5]

We were there the first week of October last year. Our first day was a Saturday in Epcot. There was no wait on any ride we walked on to Mission:Space. Every thing else was equally as quick. The rest of the week was a different story. We never seen a wait of more than 30 to 45 minutes without fast pass.

MNSSHP is a must for us from now on. We went to MK for the whole day then had dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern. We were the first ones into the party. We went directly to Adventureland. Had our complementry picture taken. Then hit every ride with no wait at all. We rode Splash Mountian 4 times without getting out of our car. This was the same way all over the park except Fantasyland. FL was packed. There was only one ride with a 10 minute or less wait. (Small World) We headed over to Tomorrow land. And did not have a wait at all. Buzz was a walk on. This was the highlight of our whole trip. Our vacation will be totally built around this night next time.

We planned a day at Typhon Lagoon the next day to relax. We were at MK at 8:30am and didn't leave until midnight. My kids are 13, 9 and 7. They all did great with the walking.

 

[decker96]

Thanks for all the input! My two oldest are really excited about MNSSHP. They can't wait to see all the characters in costume! We'll have a better plan than the last time we were there I think (thanks to these boards ) so even if there are crowds, we should be able to do more. Plus we'll be there a day longer than last time!

 

[minniesota]

Hi Decker96!
We will also be going over MEA this year. We were at WDW during MEA in '98 and '02. Both years, the dates fell during Columbus Day weekend so we found the parks to be a bit crowded on the weekends. This year, we will be there Oct. 17'-24 and I am anticipating lighter crowds. All that said, we never waited more than 25-30 minutes for anything. And most attractions were like 10 minutes. We used early entry and were out of the parks after lunch. Back to the hotel for some pool time and then back for some evening time in the parks. In 2002, we attended MNSSHP on a Thursday and we walked on to almost everything. It was awesome and the kids really loved riding attractions in the dark! It just felt different somehow. I think you will really enjoy October - the weather was wonderful!