Oh Oh..think I messed up!

[scotty s]

Just booked a room at the Swan arriving Tues Oct 11th (the day after Columbus Day) for 5 nights. My thought process being that the crowds would be thinned out after the weekend making the rest of the week lighter crowds. Just checked a crowd calendar and it shows that Entire week to be heavy crowds. Is that a week long "Holiday" for some areas or what??

 

[Accident]

Most people see "7 day vacation with only 4 vacation days at work" so yes, it's generally more crowded that shorter week. The crowd calendars aren't particularly useful lately and only a rough idea of what it might be. EasyWDW I find to be closest but it can be dramatically wrong but the nice thing about that site is it lists why they think it will be crowded or not so you can get a really good picture of what is happening in WDW and the world that brings more people in.

There is so much about to open and changing that nobody really knows how it's going to impact the crowds or how osbourne lights not being there is going to change them either.. I personally try to avoid the weekends surrounding a 3+day weekend, but also pay attention to things like rundisney and when they are doing any marathons as those dates for the fall have changed (which might indicate disney is expecting a packed october).

 

[loves to dive]

I wouldn't pay attention to the crowd calendars, they are a good guess at best. You will be there during Food and Wine at Epcot so that park at least will be more crowded in WS for sure. Crowd levels have pretty much increased across the board so I'm not sure there is really any less crowded time any more. Just get your 3 FPs and enjoy, go with it and don't stress.

 

[Sona99]

Some schools have fall break. That'll be why they are expecting crowds.

 

[minnie mum]

.

 

[Merx]

Just booked a room at the Swan arriving Tues Oct 11th (the day after Columbus Day) for 5 nights. My thought process being that the crowds would be thinned out after the weekend making the rest of the week lighter crowds. Just checked a crowd calendar and it shows that Entire week to be heavy crowds. Is that a week long "Holiday" for some areas or what??

I am in the same situation as you, thinking that the day after Columbus Day would thin out the crowds, the TouringPlans crowd calendar had that week as medium crowds, so I booked (back in January), and only a few weeks ago I checked the easywdw crowd calendar and they had it as high crowds, it was a big "blow" to me then, as originally I was very flexible on what dates I can choose, but by then I'd already booked my flights and my ADRs and stuff, so it wasn't possible for me to change without redoing everything.

At least now I try to convince myself that in Disney World I'll have to deal with crowds anyway in one form or another, and there's no such thing as "low" crowds, and with more and more visitors coming in year after year, there's no slow season.

 

[John Marecek]

Don't sweat the crowds. If you plan your FPs fore the big line attractions and rope drop the others for the second and third tier's you will be fine.

 

[Wood Nymph]

The entire month of October is busy. Many schools offer some sort of fall break and people want to travel when the weather is nice.

 

[a742246]

I wouldn't worry about the crowds but for the weather October is a wonderful weather month in Florida.

 

[Delirium]

I am in the same situation as you, thinking that the day after Columbus Day would thin out the crowds, the TouringPlans crowd calendar had that week as medium crowds, so I booked (back in January), and only a few weeks ago I checked the easywdw crowd calendar and they had it as high crowds, it was a big "blow" to me then, as originally I was very flexible on what dates I can choose, but by then I'd already booked my flights and my ADRs and stuff, so it wasn't possible for me to change without redoing everything.

At least now I try to convince myself that in Disney World I'll have to deal with crowds anyway in one form or another, and there's no such thing as "low" crowds, and with more and more visitors coming in year after year, there's no slow season.

EasyWDW has Monday through Thursday that week as a '5', and Friday of that week as a '6'. Not sure that would be considered 'high' when the scale goes up to 10.

That said, as other posters have mentioned, more and more schools have a fall break that week, so it has become a more popular time to visit.

 

[Mikie]

I would say the crowd calendars currently predict "moderate" crowds not terriblhigh. In my experience (I usually travel in Oct and tend to pay attention to Oct info even in my off years) the crowd predictions even increase closer to the date. My 4 and 5 days had their predictions upped to 6-8 a couple years ago. Because of Columbus Day weekend and many schools having some kind of fall break, expect "moderate plus" crowds. It definitely will not be LOW, but nowhere near holiday or peak summer levels.
Just be very aware of Food & Wine crowds and any other special events (personally I avoid World Showcase on weekends and probably pick AK or DHS over MK too)

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

A lot of people take that whole week to vacation because they get to use one less vacation day. And October is busy anyway. So it can be a fun trip, but it won't be low crowds.

 

[Anal Annie]

Just booked a room at the Swan arriving Tues Oct 11th (the day after Columbus Day) for 5 nights. My thought process being that the crowds would be thinned out after the weekend making the rest of the week lighter crowds. Just checked a crowd calendar and it shows that Entire week to be heavy crowds. Is that a week long "Holiday" for some areas or what??

The easywdw calendar only shows 5's & 6's for that week and 7's for the weekends. That's not really heavy although as already mentioned here the crowd calendars are only educated guesses. And with Disney not updating park hours until RIGHT BEFORE a month starts these days it's complicating predictions. Not sure what sort of a number you were looking to see but IMO anything below a 7 should be manageable. I know Oct. is a busy time for Epcot with F&W and of course the MNSSHP's but it shouldn't be unbearable with 5's & 6's.

 

[Oswin]

Don't worry, all of October was really busy last year. You should be fine as long as you plan accordingly!

 

[IrishNYC]

I know we considered going that week because DD has 2 days off of school (here in NYC) that week. We are off on 10/10 for Columbus day, and 10/12 for Yom Kippur.

 

[Mikie]

I know we considered going that week because DD has 2 days off of school (here in NYC) that week. We are off on 10/10 for Columbus day, and 10/12 for Yom Kippur.

And they don't just go ahead and stack in the 11th as well? I'm sensing there will be a ton of absences on that day from people taking the 5 day long weekend or a full week of vacation!

 

[IrishNYC]

And they don't just go ahead and stack in the 11th as well? I'm sensing there will be a ton of absences on that day from people taking the 5 day long weekend or a full week of vacation!

Nope. Fall in NYC schools tends to be riddled with weeks like that. September of 2015 had no full weeks of school, and I think all the days off were one off, one on, one off like that. There are too many holidays in our school calendar to stack an extra day in the middle of two legit holidays. As it is this year, we had no snow days and we're in school until June 28.