Our Mid-October Trip! Are we doing it right?

[UpstateDisney]

Hello Everyone!


Family trip planned for mid-October – getting very excited now! Time to really finalize our plans. We will be going from October 10th – 18th. Out flight lands late on the 10th, so everything starts Wednesday the 11th. This is currently our plan and we were looking to see if anyone had any different thoughts or ideas. Please, please, Please point out any glaring mistakes we may be making!! J We will be staying offsite with a car, so that may change some of the items below and are getting 5 tickets without park hoppers.


Oct 10th – Arrival

Oct 11th – MK all day

Oct 12th – (Thursday) Epcot

Oct 13th – HS

Oct 14th – rest day

Oct 15th – Seaworld (daughter REALLY loves sea creatures – so we have to do one day here)

Oct 16th – AK

Oct 17th – MK

Oct 18th – Departure


One of our big concerns is doing Food and Wine. We chose Thursday as we figured Friday and the weekends would be much more crowded. Should we maybe switch days with AK on the 16th? We tentatively have a dinner at Sanaa that day, but I am sure we could swap it. Any other thoughts? We kind of planned on first and last at MK, but not sure how Not so frightful night would affect this (we are not going to this as we have already decided we are maxed $$$ and our daughter will probably be ready for bed by 9:30…)


Basically – anything that you all can think of to tweak this would be helpful. Thanks!!

 

[GillianP1301]

First off, there is no right or wrong way to do Disney because everyone is different, so don't stress too much over the planning.

For what it's worth, I think your plan looks pretty good to me. I love ending at MK and try to start there when I can, so you've done that the same as me. I'm personally not big on rest days, but I know a lot of people are and you will definitely have no shortage of things to do around the resort or maybe throw in some Disney Springs time in the evening for dinner.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[AaronInWI]

My one initial observation is that October 17 is a Mickey's No So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) night in Magic Kingdom. You would have be out of the park by 7:00 pm. In addition, party guests can typically start to enter the parks at 4:00 pm, so you could potentially see an uptick in the volume of people at that time. I'm not saying this should deter you from ending your trip there, but it is something to consider.

 

[AaronInWI]

Thinking about it a little more, if it was me, I might consider doing MK on the 16th, and AK on the 17th. The 16th is an Extra Magic Hour in the morning at AK, which again could cause an increase in the number of people in the park, especially considering there is no PM EMH that day and people with non-park hoppers will be looking to maximize their time in the parks. As a non-park hopper yourself, if you are not morning people and don't plan on taking advantage of the AM EMH that day, avoiding AK might not be a terrible idea. Of course, if you planned AK that day specifically for the EMH, my point is completely moot.

Although, come to think of it, AK closes at 7:00 pm, too. So either way, you are ending your Tuesday night at 7:00 pm.

Anyway, like the PP said, there really is no "wrong" way to plan a WDW trip. Just go and enjoy yourself!

 

[UpstateDisney]

Thanks for the replies!
I thought Not so scary was from 7 pm-midnight? I saw 4 pm on, but then saw 7 pm and thought they changed something. Shoot! Had I known, I might have changed to 4 tickets and 1 not so scary
Anyway, thanks for info on AK - I did not think about that. SO much to think about!!

 

[Jays2013]

The party starts at 7 p.m., but they start letting people in for it at 4 p.m.

 

[Nstigator]

I agree about moving your MK day to be a full day, just in case your daughter is handling the day fine and can stay up later. That change alone could open up many potential changes. I also agree with the Disney Springs suggestion. Definitely try to get over there on your rest day. Depending on where you are staying, there might be some other non-Disney things that you might find interesting that are close. Epcot on a Thursday is probably going to be better during the week than on the weekend. I'd leave that. Seaworld is a lot of fun also.

 

[sharonabe]

Oct 10th – Arrival

Oct 11th – MK all day

Oct 12th – (Thursday) Epcot

Oct 13th – HS

Oct 14th – rest day

Oct 15th – Seaworld (daughter REALLY loves sea creatures – so we have to do one day here)

Oct 16th – AK

Oct 17th – MK

Oct 18th – Departure

You are staying OFFSITE which means you cannot take advantage of any of the extra magic hours. Morning extra hours, you will not be allowed in the park. Evening ones, you can stay in the park, but you can't enter any of the attractions. EMH tend to make the park a little busier than a day without those hours. You're also in a place of needing to navigate the MNSSHP at MK.

I know you want to start and end with MK, but you've got a late EMH on the 11th and a party on the 17th. I would make the 12th and 16th my MK days. The 16th is the only non-party MK day during your trip that doesn't have an EMH, and I just think it will be less busy than the ones that do.

That leaves EP in a bit of a mess since I agree with you about staying away from the weekends. So you either start with it on the 11th or end with it on the 17th, both of which have an EMH. I would choose the 17th in your case, because the late EMH isn't going to affect you as much as an early one will.

So then you start your trip with AK, HS or Sea World. In truth, I might put Sea World at the beginning. I don't know what their hours are, but a weekday sounds better than a weekend for some reason. Then you leave HS on the 13th and do AK on the 15th.

That's my (much more than) two cents' worth.

 

[heather13]

We're looking at similar October dates and also doing Seaworld and Universal. I've learned from the Seaworld thread down below that they have a costume party / Halloween party on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the month and sounds like it gets very crowded those days. Have you looked at TouringPlans.com for the crowd calendar? That's helped me so much with every Disney trip sort out which dates might be least crowded.

 

[tlmadden73]

You are going. Period.

Yep . .you are doing it right!