picking travel dates for Oct/04

[Sauble]

Hello:
My husband and I are planning our first drive from Toronto to Disney (Florida) in October 2004. We are trying to decide which would be the best week to travel. Our choices are departing Sat. Oct. 2 and returning on Tues. Oct. 12 or departing Sat. Oct. 9 and returning on Tues. Oct. 19. The reason we shose those weeks is the Canadian Thanksgiving falls on Mon. Oct. 11, therefore it would be one less vacation day from work. Also, the American Columbus Day falls on Mon. Oct. 11 and we are not sure if that would be a busy day.

Does anyone have any reccomendations on which week would be better? Which week will have less visitors to Disney?

Any other advice would be great. Thanks for your help.

 

[DisneyLisa]

Hi and welcome to the DIS. You've found the best place to learn about WDW.

Columbus Day is a busy day at WDW from what I've read. Both of your dates involve Columbus day but I think it's less crowded earlier in the month. TimNDans Mom was there the first week of October last year & we were there from the 17th - 26th. From our discussions, I think it was definitely more crowded when we were there. You might also want to consider getting tickets for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) which is held on certain nights in October...it's really fun and quite an experience. You can read more about it here if you're not familiar with it.

 

[cabmom]

Welcome to the Dis!
We went from Sept 26th to Oct 5th last year. It was a great time to go, as there was hardly a wait to do rides and we got to do MNSSHP. It was worth the extra money to go to it. We stayed onsite at All Star Movies. We did not rent a vehicle we took Disney Transport everywhere.
Enjoy your trip.
Marilynn

 

[hockey mom]

We went last year over our Thanksgiving and plan on doing it again this year. To be honest we did not notice any more crowd on columbus day than usual.

 

[pumpkinboy]

We were there over US Columbus Day/ Canadian Thanksgiving last year (a whole week at AKL savannah view, magnificent!). The crowds were not at all bad for the most part, tho over the holiday weekend they were a bit tight, tho nowhere near as bad as the Summertime, American Thxgiving or Christmas/ Easter / February break. Interestingly, the weakness of the US Dollar and UK school holidays brought tons of Brits into WDW then, all in their "football" jerseys. They mostly gravitated towards MK tho, and the other parks were easy going. I expect the week before Cdn Thxgvg should be even less crowded.

Notably, the Epcot Food & Wine festival has been expanded to the beginning of October now, so you will be in for a treat. Also, do not miss MNSSHP, especially in the uncrowded early part of the month!