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

[ArielSRL]

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!

That's busy!

 

[Farro]

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.

We show up Wednesday. Crowds should definitely be lower than they are now, still crowds, but manageable.

But just be aware, ANY non-party night at MK will be packed!!! Party days during the day will be very nice!

 

[Roxyfire]

We show up Wednesday. Crowds should definitely be lower than they are now, still crowds, but manageable.

But just be aware, ANY non-party night at MK will be packed!!! Party days during the day will be very nice!

So very true. If you're wanting to go to MK go on a party night during the day, hop somewhere else (like Epcot) in the evening. MK was a literal ghost town on Tuesday the 3rd. I know it was a couple weeks ago, but easywdw just did a post about this and it's so true. Walking up main street at noon was just so surreal, very few people. Epcot on Wednesday night was mostly empty in Future World and mildly busy around some of the more popular F&W booths.

I think if people want to see fireworks at MK and they aren't interested in shelling out for a party, they should consider hopping over there from somewhere else or make that a resort day and go there in the evening with some fastpasses. Otherwise everything is just a monster wait, it seems.

 

[scrapquitler]

I was at WDW in August and everything was closed by 10pm...which was super annoying but I digress.

It seems like every time I look at the calendar for October the hours are extended more and more. There are now 12a-2a EMH some nights.

Yikes! Think this is the last Fall break trip we will have. I need to come up with a new preferred vacation month.

Hope everyone has fun in spite of the crowds!

I think that the extra evening hours at MK are not so much because of anticipated crowds, but as a means of making up hours at MK for when they close early due to MNSSHP or MVMCP.

 

[cel_disney]

I think that the extra evening hours at MK are not so much because of anticipated crowds, but as a means of making up hours at MK for when they close early due to MNSSHP or MVMCP.

I doubt that it is directly associated with the hours that they are closing for parties. They have had the same amount of parties for a while - the only change this year is that you can't enter after 6 without a party ticket. That wasn't a large amount of people doing that?

I'm sure that the Hours were extended because of the crowds. If you can keep people in the parks, they keep spending in the parks.

We went to universal after Disney and the night manager at the hotel pool restaurant told us that the past week has been MUCH busier than many weeks prior. They were actually running out of some food items!

 

[turtlechick6]

11 days from today for us... hope you have a great trip, let us know your thoughts on it all!

we are there Nov 6-9. Touring plans is optimistic but I am still nervous

 

[SarahC97]

I doubt that it is directly associated with the hours that they are closing for parties. They have had the same amount of parties for a while - the only change this year is that you can't enter after 6 without a party ticket. That wasn't a large amount of people doing that?

I'm sure that the Hours were extended because of the crowds. If you can keep people in the parks, they keep spending in the parks.

We went to universal after Disney and the night manager at the hotel pool restaurant told us that the past week has been MUCH busier than many weeks prior. They were actually running out of some food items!

I agree. October is simply becoming an incredibly busy month!

 

[turtlechick6]

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.

In all my 36 years of doing Disney even once at Christmas I have NEVER had to wait more than 15 minutes for Its a small world. Since those boats hold a billion people. I would probably be so mad I would just leave. I don't get what changed honestly. You used to go at certain times of the year and walk on everything

 

[turtlechick6]

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!

I feel like Safari is the one ride that you just never know. Since it is live animals don't they sometimes have issues with a rhino blocking the road or something? So if that happens well it is what it is-the line will back up. I can at least try to be understanding about that one

 

[kydisneyfans]

We were there 10/5 till 10/11
I thought the crowds were a bit higher, not significantly.
Where things got skewed were outages. Splash was down so that took 1 ride out right there. Then, Pirates was down for a huge portion of our day at MK, which skewed things even more
We had FP for several rides that got converted to anytime FP due to ride outages. More than during any of our other trips. Those things cause waits at lines at other rides to get off. So it was hard to look at waits and tell what crowds were like
We were able to get ADR easily
We even had success getting additional FP, for instance we used our 3 at MK, got 1 more, than got 3 more at HS

We were there the same exact dates.
The night of the 5th was quiet at Epcot, much more than I anticipated. Our kids reported it fairly quiet at DHS also.
We did MK on the 6th(EMH). It was dead, completely dead in the morning. We did the party that evening, also wasn't very busy.
Saturday was a rest day, DS and swimming.
Sunday was AK. It was busy but not impossible. We were able to FP all but the FOP ride a few days out.
Monday Epcot was busy, very busy. Long waits for the rides up front-SSE was an hour. We went back in the evening and it wasn't too bad.
Tuesday I returned to Epcot, the kids back to DHS. Both thought busy, but not crazy. Epcot was the late closing park and as I was leaving around 8:30, mobs of folks were entering.

It was overall what we expected.

 

[kittylady1972]

We just returned from a trip last week, arrived October 18th and departed the 23rd. Yes I will agree that it was busy.

Since our flight didn't land on Wed until 7:30pm, we didn't get to MK until after 10pm, which ended up being PERFECT since the park was open until 2am. Our friends arrived earlier and as I checked the Touring Plans lines I could see they didn't have much to ride, but they did say they got on Space Mountain during the fireworks with limited wait times. When we met them close to 10pm we were able to ride Space Mountain, Teacups, 7DMT, Winnie the Pooh and Haunted Mansion with little to no wait. We left the park close to 1:30am.

Thursday was EPCOT day. We arrived between 8am-9am on an EMH morning day. We rode Soarin' standby with limited wait, then had breakfast at Sunshine Seasons. We used FP for Test Track and the line around 11am was I think 70 minutes? We then walked over to ride Frozen on standby, which I think showed 40 minutes but in reality we moved continuously and were on in about 20-25 minutes. We did Mission: Space orange around 12:30pm...and I think Orange posted about 40 or 50 minutes, but Green was about 20 minutes. I think we did Spaceship Earth next around 1:30pm and that line without FP was also crazy. After that it was all Food and Wine booths for us for the most part, and at least that section of the park was okay. The kids wandered the parks and even waited in line to meet Baymax. I will see by the time we made it around to Mexico (we walked counter-clockwise around WS) we did walk right onto the boat ride in Mexico and the line for La Cava wasn't horrible. It was a different story when we went back to EPCOT on Saturday just for drinks in Mexico, but I would have expected that on a weekend during F&W Festival.

Friday was our Studios day. When we got in line for our 11:35am TOT Fastpass the wait time was 70 minutes. I was sure that was wrong, I've NEVER seen a wait time that high there, but it was correct. We did at least ride TSM Standby first thing on arrival, so close to 10am and that was about a 20 minute wait. I can't recall what RnRC was when we got in line with our 10:30am FP, but it was pretty long. Studios definitely felt extra crowded on Friday, which is what everybody had been reporting. We barely made it in for the Little Mermaid show after being in line for that about 5 minutes before it started. I didn't think that show got that crowded?

Saturday was a day at MK...so a weekend...and it was pure madness. We didn't arrive until after 10am and it was already wall to wall people. We stood in line for TTA/PeopleMover which at least moved quickly and then left to go have brunch at CM. By the time we returned for our 1:20pm FP at Mission: Space it was just crazy walking through there. We hung around all day, using our 3FPs and catching high-capacity things like CofP, Monsters, Country Bears. Our final FP was at 7:30pm for 7DMT and after that many of our group left. The girls stayed behind and we hit Little Mermaid with no wait (after 8pm now) and Dumbo. Around 8:45pm we figured we'd head to see HEA on Main Street and were told by CMs that Main Street was AT CAPACITY and our options were head to Tomorrowland (you couldn't head towards Main Street from Fantasyland at all, CMs were blocking those avenues) so we headed towards Liberty Square instead and found a small spot near the Christmas shop there to watch the show from the side of the castle. After that, we hit HM with little wait but tried to do Peter Pan at about 10pm and the line wasn't moving at ALL...so we gave up, used our last FP that we booked earlier for POC at 10:30pm (it also showed about a 40 minute standby wait and the line for that seemed accurate) and then we got ice cream on Main Street and left.

So clearly evening touring at MK is great if you do it on a weeknight right now. I will say we did ride FofP Standby on Friday night, during the last hour the park was open, getting in line around 8:30pm and only waiting an hour. On Saturday (also an EMH morning at AK), the same group returned around 8:30pm to try the same trick...and they waited over 2 hours to ride FofP that night.

We head back in early December, and can't wait to see what it's like then!

 

[DisneyFive]

We went in August last year (2016). The parks were open much later than what are used to. Our five previous trips have all been late Sept which sometimes dipped into October. Here's my take: WE LOVED THE LONGER HOURS. Since we are now self proclaimed WDW veterans, , we can manage crowds pretty well by proper use of FP and rope dropping.

I would take the higher crowds of August versus the shorter hours of Sept/Oct. It allowed for us to actually head back to the resort every day after lunch for a nap and downtime, and then head back the parks for dinner and plenty more park time. LOVED IT.

Here was the difference:
MK - 11pm or 12am instead of 9pm
Epcot - Same 9pm
HS - 9:30pm instead of 8pm
AK - 11pm instead of 5pm or 6pm

So, knowing how much longer hours benefit us, despite the crowds... I would take the longer hours with no hesitation.

Dan

 

[jaysmom4285]

We just returned from a trip last week, arrived October 18th and departed the 23rd. Yes I will agree that it was busy.

Since our flight didn't land on Wed until 7:30pm, we didn't get to MK until after 10pm, which ended up being PERFECT since the park was open until 2am. Our friends arrived earlier and as I checked the Touring Plans lines I could see they didn't have much to ride, but they did say they got on Space Mountain during the fireworks with limited wait times. When we met them close to 10pm we were able to ride Space Mountain, Teacups, 7DMT, Winnie the Pooh and Haunted Mansion with little to no wait. We left the park close to 1:30am.

Thursday was EPCOT day. We arrived between 8am-9am on an EMH morning day. We rode Soarin' standby with limited wait, then had breakfast at Sunshine Seasons. We used FP for Test Track and the line around 11am was I think 70 minutes? We then walked over to ride Frozen on standby, which I think showed 40 minutes but in reality we moved continuously and were on in about 20-25 minutes. We did Mission: Space orange around 12:30pm...and I think Orange posted about 40 or 50 minutes, but Green was about 20 minutes. I think we did Spaceship Earth next around 1:30pm and that line without FP was also crazy. After that it was all Food and Wine booths for us for the most part, and at least that section of the park was okay. The kids wandered the parks and even waited in line to meet Baymax. I will see by the time we made it around to Mexico (we walked counter-clockwise around WS) we did walk right onto the boat ride in Mexico and the line for La Cava wasn't horrible. It was a different story when we went back to EPCOT on Saturday just for drinks in Mexico, but I would have expected that on a weekend during F&W Festival.

Friday was our Studios day. When we got in line for our 11:35am TOT Fastpass the wait time was 70 minutes. I was sure that was wrong, I've NEVER seen a wait time that high there, but it was correct. We did at least ride TSM Standby first thing on arrival, so close to 10am and that was about a 20 minute wait. I can't recall what RnRC was when we got in line with our 10:30am FP, but it was pretty long. Studios definitely felt extra crowded on Friday, which is what everybody had been reporting. We barely made it in for the Little Mermaid show after being in line for that about 5 minutes before it started. I didn't think that show got that crowded?

Saturday was a day at MK...so a weekend...and it was pure madness. We didn't arrive until after 10am and it was already wall to wall people. We stood in line for TTA/PeopleMover which at least moved quickly and then left to go have brunch at CM. By the time we returned for our 1:20pm FP at Mission: Space it was just crazy walking through there. We hung around all day, using our 3FPs and catching high-capacity things like CofP, Monsters, Country Bears. Our final FP was at 7:30pm for 7DMT and after that many of our group left. The girls stayed behind and we hit Little Mermaid with no wait (after 8pm now) and Dumbo. Around 8:45pm we figured we'd head to see HEA on Main Street and were told by CMs that Main Street was AT CAPACITY and our options were head to Tomorrowland (you couldn't head towards Main Street from Fantasyland at all, CMs were blocking those avenues) so we headed towards Liberty Square instead and found a small spot near the Christmas shop there to watch the show from the side of the castle. After that, we hit HM with little wait but tried to do Peter Pan at about 10pm and the line wasn't moving at ALL...so we gave up, used our last FP that we booked earlier for POC at 10:30pm (it also showed about a 40 minute standby wait and the line for that seemed accurate) and then we got ice cream on Main Street and left.

So clearly evening touring at MK is great if you do it on a weeknight right now. I will say we did ride FofP Standby on Friday night, during the last hour the park was open, getting in line around 8:30pm and only waiting an hour. On Saturday (also an EMH morning at AK), the same group returned around 8:30pm to try the same trick...and they waited over 2 hours to ride FofP that night.

We head back in early December, and can't wait to see what it's like then!

I think part of the issue at MK on Saturday night was that it was one of only three nights a week when the general ticketed public can see HEA, because of MNSSHP on the other four nights. We've experienced the same thing in December when MVMCP runs four nights a week, leaving only three for non-party goers to see the fireworks. MK is always super jam packed on the non-party nights for the fireworks.

 

[kittylady1972]

I think part of the issue at MK on Saturday night was that it was one of only three nights a week when the general ticketed public can see HEA, because of MNSSHP on the other four nights. We've experienced the same thing in December when MVMCP runs four nights a week, leaving only three for non-party goers to see the fireworks. MK is always super jam packed on the non-party nights for the fireworks.

I agree completely...and we had planned to see it Wednesday night but thanks to the rental car company taking an HOUR to find us our van we were delayed. I'm sure December will be the same way because of the MVMCP.

 

[TheJRock300]

delete

 

[TheJRock300]

I think part of the issue at MK on Saturday night was that it was one of only three nights a week when the general ticketed public can see HEA, because of MNSSHP on the other four nights. We've experienced the same thing in December when MVMCP runs four nights a week, leaving only three for non-party goers to see the fireworks. MK is always super jam packed on the non-party nights for the fireworks.

based on that, do you think this Saturday is going to be crazy??