October hours- They have officially scared me off from Fall trips

[emilyrachael]

They moved the opening on party days to 8am in November as well....and I'm even going on a week that's supposed to be not as crowded (between Veterans Day and Thanksgiving.)

 

[cel_disney]

We are here now - currently at MK. We have been here since 8:45 - watched he castle show and then headed off to rides. Touring Plans updated and told us to head to 7DMT instead of fantasy land when we were at the morning show so we did / but the line was insane so we bailed and went to Buzz. Got in line for Buzz with a 5 min wait. Next went to Space. Touring Plans predicted a 15 min wait or so - posted was 30. We are no where near riding and have been here for 48 minutes now. At 9:55 or so they finally opened up the second track.

I don't mind crowds so much but I believe these waits are artificially inflated by Disney choices to save labor $$...that's going to make me write a letter if this keeps up for our entire trip. They know how crowded things are going to be and could definitely do more.

 

[stinkpickle]

They moved the opening on party days to 8am in November as well....and I'm even going on a week that's supposed to be not as crowded (between Veterans Day and Thanksgiving.)

Yeah, I imagine there were some complaints because the Christmas parties start at 6pm instead 7pm this year. I don't think it's crowd related, because the non-party days retain the 9am opening.

 

[stinkpickle]

We are here now - currently at MK. We have been here since 8:45 - watched he castle show and then headed off to rides. Touring Plans updated and told us to head to 7DMT instead of fantasy land when we were at the morning show so we did / but the line was insane so we bailed and went to Buzz. Got in line for Buzz with a 5 min wait. Next went to Space. Touring Plans predicted a 15 min wait or so - posted was 30. We are no where near riding and have been here for 48 minutes now. At 9:55 or so they finally opened up the second track.

I don't mind crowds so much but I believe these waits are artificially inflated by Disney choices to save labor $$...that's going to make me write a letter if this keeps up for our entire trip. They know how crowded things are going to be and could definitely do more.

Could be. As of 10:25am, the Lines app shows Space Mtn with 70min posted and 42min expected.

 

[Dakota731]

Easier to get restaurants too. Harder in the winter with shortened hours

 

[stinkpickle]

Easier to get restaurants too. Harder in the winter with shortened hours

Even worse with free dining offers.

 

[tlmadden73]

DHS today Monday 10/16 was beyond packed. We called it quits after 4 hours. Too many issues all around. It just wasn’t worth it.

I just feel that DHS is going to be awful (and getting worse) until Toy Story Land opens. That will at least give two more attractions, another restaurant and more LAND for the guests to spread out into.

With only 4 true "rides" and a very small area that guests are packed into, DHS is just awful right now.

As for the October thing .. I've gone 4 times since 2010 at different times of years. I found early October (2014) to be the busiest of all the other times (late Jan, late March, late August). We still had a fun time thanks to Fast passes and it being my son's first trip (2yo), but it just "felt" crowded.

I am hoping to go on another trip in 2018, and I am looking at early/mid November right now, feeling that it is an nice time between those wanting the Halloween festivities, but slightly too early for those wnting the Christmas festivities. It looks like as long as you avoid the holidays (Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving week), it should be better than most of October.

 

[stinkpickle]

I just feel that DHS is going to be awful (and getting worse) until Toy Story Land opens. That will at least give two more attractions, another restaurant and more LAND for the guests to spread out into.

With only 4 true "rides" and a very small area that guests are packed into, DHS is just awful right now...

But...but...but there's a new bar.

 

[firefly_ris]

Could be. As of 10:25am, the Lines app shows Space Mtn with 70min posted and 42min expected.

On 10/11, Space was an almost consistent 140 - 160 minutes from 2pm until we left at 10:30, that was crazytown. If I didn't know what FP+ was (sounded like several people around us were not aware), I would have been soooo defeated that day.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

JUst chatted with a friend who was at he world last week too. She was there 7th-10th. It was their first trip. She said they basically did their FPs and then left everyday. I warned her ahead to get there for rope drop but they didn't. So by the time they rolled in mid morning it was too packed to ride anything without a FP.

She did have a positive experience at the mnsshp that Monday night.

 

[Snyders22000]

We were there last week. That Wednesday Oct 11th was especially insane. We slept in (after going to the party the night before) and had scheduled our fast passes starting that evening. I mean, when you see the wait for the carousel is 40 min you know there are going to be issues lol. The only non FP ride we did was the Philharmagic and it was a 40 min wait. We had a FP for Its a small world and the FP line was so long it stretched around the corner down towards Rapunzel's castle. It took us 10-15 min just to get up to the FP scanner and then we waited another 25 min to get in the ride (so basically ended up taking 30-45 min in line with a FP). Other FP lines were taking a long time too. On Saturday Oct 7 we went to AK about 30 min before rope drop for EMH. They let people in about 15 min early. We walked briskly straight to Pandora to ride Navi River. Luckily we had a FP for FOP later in the day because the wait was already 210 min within minutes of EMH rope drop. Luckily we got on Navi with only a 15 min wait because it was up to 70 min when we got off. We did have some better luck during rope drop a few other days at MK and Epcot but by 10:00/11:00 each day crowds were pretty crazy and we would head back to swim and enjoy the resort. We did have great luck at Typhoon Lagoon on Sunday - hot with very low crowds and low wait times.

I guess I should also mention that we are no stranger to crowds at WDW and have been at peak times like mid July and the week leading up to Christmas- this definitely felt as crowded at times. We will most likely not return during October again and either choose late spring after Easter or early summer.

 

[firefly_ris]

We were there last week. That Wednesday Oct 11th was especially insane. We slept in (after going to the party the night before) and had scheduled our fast passes starting that evening. I mean, when you see the wait for the carousel is 40 min you know there are going to be issues lol.

I was there with you... Yeah that was unreal for me. 55 minute wait for Small World, 115 for Peter Pan... you, me, and everyone else on the planet all had the same idea to go to MK that day. We spent the morning at DHS and our first FP was for MK at 3pm.... woo boy. Lucky I at least had those lined up because I never would have convinced DH to wait for any of the coaster lines.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I was there with you... Yeah that was unreal for me. 55 minute wait for Small World, 115 for Peter Pan... you, me, and everyone else on the planet all had the same idea to go to MK that day. We spent the morning at DHS and our first FP was for MK at 3pm.... woo boy. Lucky I at least had those lined up because I never would have convinced DH to wait for any of the coaster lines.

My DH and ss7 were golfing the afternoon we got off our cruise....sat 10/14.
I was considering taking ds9 and dd1 to MK to ride a couple things and see HEA. Well I checked the wait times and we decided to do dtd. Lol. Waits were like Christmas week. It was unreal. I knew it would be bad b/c a sat during party season but I thought we could at least do IASW and a couple others without a major wait. Nope, they were 40+ mins. The major rides were hours long. PP was like 115 if I recall.

 

[jimandami]

We just returned from our trip Oct 10-18, and yes, I'm officially done with October (which makes me sad bc it was our 3rd October trip). We rope dropped almost every day and use FP wisely, so we did get to experience all the major rides (did FOP twice, it is really fantastic), but just the sea of humanity everywhere, combined with the hotter than normal temps made it unpleasant. Of course we had fun (it's Disney World!), but I just wouldn't choose to go again at this time of year. When the 3 caballeros has a 25-30 min wait time, you know something is wrong.

 

[laenfante]

W-O-W!!!! We arrive late Saturday with our first park day Sunday at MK. I'm officially nervous now. Even with the scheduled rain I'm worried that the park will be too crowded for me to handle.

 

[ArielSRL]

We just returned from our trip Oct 10-18, and yes, I'm officially done with October (which makes me sad bc it was our 3rd October trip). We rope dropped almost every day and use FP wisely, so we did get to experience all the major rides (did FOP twice, it is really fantastic), but just the sea of humanity everywhere, combined with the hotter than normal temps made it unpleasant. Of course we had fun (it's Disney World!), but I just wouldn't choose to go again at this time of year. When the 3 caballeros has a 25-30 min wait time, you know something is wrong.

Wowza! We went in June (granted it was the beginning but still) and 3 Caballeros had zero wait and we actually just stayed in the boat and rode again!

 

[quandrea]

We are here now and the crowds are high. We are managing due to a long trip and lots of fast pass opportunities. I find that the fast pass lines are longer than I've ever seen. Today at 12:15 we hopped in the fast pass lane at the Safari. It snaked out into Harambe and was going to be a significant wait. We bailed and will try again next week. Our flight of Passage fast pass had us wait about 20 min. Still having fun, but it's not like October trips of past years. We were here the first week of August and it was dead compared to this. Didn't wait in any lines that week.

 

[Gentry2004]

Wowza! We went in June (granted it was the beginning but still) and 3 Caballeros had zero wait and we actually just stayed in the boat and rode again!

Agree! We went mid July 2016 (but not July 4th week) and had great crowds. The heat was another story but the crowds were no problem!

 

[jimandami]

We are here now and the crowds are high. We are managing due to a long trip and lots of fast pass opportunities. I find that the fast pass lines are longer than I've ever seen. Today at 12:15 we hopped in the fast pass lane at the Safari. It snaked out into Harambe and was going to be a significant wait. We bailed and will try again next week. Our flight of Passage fast pass had us wait about 20 min. Still having fun, but it's not like October trips of past years. We were here the first week of August and it was dead compared to this. Didn't wait in any lines that week.

Yes that happened with our Safari FP as well, although I think it probably took about 20 min total...felt like it would be more. Yesterday, before leaving on ME, we had a Spaceship Earth FB and that line went out and all the way around the side by the queue...we skipped it bc I was afraid we would miss ME!

 

[jimandami]

Wowza! We went in June (granted it was the beginning but still) and 3 Caballeros had zero wait and we actually just stayed in the boat and rode again!

For reference, DM and I made it through the long line at La Cava de Tequila, got our margaritas, and drank them before DH and kids made it off that ride!