PLEASE explain the October crowds.

[MADnNOLA]

we were at WDW oct 5-7 and the crowds were horrible. Def higher than past trips around same time.

I blame it on Food and Wine alot, since that really drives crowds and keeps gaining in popularity.

We were there October 5-8. The parks were crowded. NOT Christmas or 4th of July crowded, but quite busy. Epcot on weekend afternoons and evenings was packed due to F&W. Downtown Disney was the most crowded I have ever seen it. And it was HOT, nasty humid, and rainy on top of it. I'm glad we went and got to see the decorations and MNSSHP, but we won't go again in October.

Keep in mind, these dates were Columbus day weekend, and a holiday that many people and schools have off. The parks were crowded for this reason. When I checked on a long weekend to make a trip, the hotel rates and airline rates were higher (double flyer miles!) for that weekend. I went the following weekend and saved a lot of $$ on my resort and flyer miles, with the bonus of low crowds.

 

[mdurette]

We typically go the week before thanksgiving, the week after thanksgiving 3rd week in Janauary. All low crowd times.

We have gone in Oct last 2 years now because friends wanted to go at this time. I told my husband yesterday....never again. We were at MK yesterday. I found it unbearable. Crowds everywhere. 45 minutes for barnstormer, 55 for dumbos, the cafe with inside seating actually had a line for tables! You got your food, then had to wait in line with your tray.

It could because no MNSSHP last night so more people. But, I felt it was so bad that we actually left after only 3 hours. (the heat yesterday didn't help).

Planning on going back Thursday and I HOPE it is better!!!

 

[GC&S]

We typically go the week before thanksgiving, the week after thanksgiving 3rd week in Janauary. All low crowd times.

We have gone in Oct last 2 years now because friends wanted to go at this time. I told my husband yesterday....never again. We were at MK yesterday. I found it unbearable. Crowds everywhere. 45 minutes for barnstormer, 55 for dumbos, the cafe with inside seating actually had a line for tables! You got your food, then had to wait in line with your tray.

It could because no MNSSHP last night so more people. But, I felt it was so bad that we actually left after only 3 hours. (the heat yesterday didn't help).

Planning on going back Thursday and I HOPE it is better!!!

We have been here since 10/10 and leave tomorrow. I told my DH no more Oct trips. We think the crowds have been horrible. We stayed late at MK twice
(11:30 and midnight) and the lowest crowds were after 10 pm. But during the day most wait times at MK (at least when we were there) avg around 40-60 minutes. We have always come in the fall and we noticed the last couple years, Oct just keeps getting more crowded. We have always come during F&W festival and several nights at Epcot we couldn't even get through the crowds. It was just a sea of people.

 

[softballmom3]

I think the word is out about October being nice crowdwise so more people are going then.

I also think that more people have schools that are on break in October which also contributes to the crowds since people are trying to avoid Christmas crowds and spring break.

It should be interesting to see how next October will be and if the trend of crowded Octobers continue.

We have had fall break on October for an entire week for the last 10 years and many more school systems seem to be following this trend. I have went October twice now and love it then but the second time we went it was definitely more crowded.

 

[Eosphotog]

I don't get it.

In the same week:

Crowds are very low
No - they are WALL TO WALL - PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!
But we walked right onto rides
What? The line was out the door just for tables!

Either the park is seeing some extreme swings in attendance, or folks are calibrated differently, or a little of both.

Of course this doesn't help our anxiety as we'll be in the parks in a couple of days. We have a plan with rope drop, skipping the heat of the day, avoiding parades (no interest from kids), etc. and I think I have a good idea of what the crowds are going to be like, but at the same time I really detest crowds.

 

[mdurette]

I don't get it.

In the same week:

Crowds are very low
No - they are WALL TO WALL - PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!
But we walked right onto rides
What? The line was out the door just for tables!

Either the park is seeing some extreme swings in attendance, or folks are calibrated differently, or a little of both.

Of course this doesn't help our anxiety as we'll be in the parks in a couple of days. We have a plan with rope drop, skipping the heat of the day, avoiding parades (no interest from kids), etc. and I think I have a good idea of what the crowds are going to be like, but at the same time I really detest crowds.

I think it could all be what you are use to. We have always stayed away from WDW during school vacations, holiday weeks, summer. We have always gone in the dead season. So for us....this week is simply NUTS! I recall last year in October MK actually closed down once for capacity.

I will be able to compare this Thursday to days with and without MNSSHP at MK to see if that could be the issue.

 

[kendzee94]

Over the past 10 years, it has been increasingly crowded in my opinion. Of course, we also went to MK when they had the EMH until 3am (stayed until 2) and Space Mountain was walk on. I was surprised how full Fantasyland still was though.

I think the gig is up. October is no longer slow.

I also noticed that since everyone has the touring plan apps for their phones, the best park/worst park also seems to be skewed, but that's a whole other thread

 

[Legendteri]

Actually Josh at easywdw.com did a story on this last year about the huge swings in attendence at the MK during October. It is all due to the Halloween party. He said that days without the party can be as high as a 9, but on days that do have the party, the attendence drops off significantly. It was a really interesting post to read.

http://www.easywdw.com/uncategorized/a-tale-of-two-magic-kingdoms-october-22nd-versus-october-23rd/

Let me just say that after reading that post, it was enough to convince me to go to the MK on a day without the nightime festivities. I am ok with not seeing the nightime parade and Wishes if it means we don't have to deal with those crowds.

 

[gris gris]

We were there 9/29 - 10/8 this year and the same week 2 years ago and thought the parks were the same both times. The only difference for us was no love bugs this time

Earlier in the week it was less crowded. Closer to Columbus Day weekend it was crowded. The entire week it was hot and humid, thunder, lightning and rain. We had 8 days of passes so we left the park early when it was too crowded for us.

But there were times when we were the only ones on a ride, the only ones on a bus and the only ones in a bathroom!

I'd say there were lots of people in the parks walking around but they weren't necessarily on the rides. Same for 2010.

We are going to try end of November next year, we did this once before and thought it was great. Just trying to avoid the super hot weather again.

I've only been there once in February, and I thought those crowds were unbearable. This October trip was okay!

I think our only disappointment this time was we wanted to eat at Wild Bill's and the line was out the door (Sat 10/6). So we just left and went back to CBR to eat.

 

[RachaelA]

This past Saturday was REALLY crowded at MK. Probably an 8 or a 9 on the crowd scale. But Friday and Sunday were party nights so Saturday was the only night that weekend for fireworks.

The crowds have decreased a lot starting yesterday. Tonight's MNSSHP was empty.

 

[elleherself]

I thought it was a little more crowded around this time than it's been in the past.

It seems that Disney has been busy making this time of year enticing to guests, and it's showing results. Food & Wine, Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (sold out parties! In SEPTEMBER!), plus all the races seem to be increasing the crowd levels for this time of year.

The 20 minute wait for Expedition Everest just proves it, a few years ago that ride was a walk-on for me in September/October. It loads fast and runs quick, and not all guests want to ride it, fun as it is.

What I want to know is what is the NEW secret time? I have to say the lowest crowd levels I ever saw were the first week of December, it was a dead zone. Maybe with my annual pass this year I can suss it out.

 

[DOOM1001]

We were at the parks 10/10-10/12 and didn't find the crowds and waits bad at all,the only exception being after the Eat to the Beat concerts let out in Epcot.We even did the dress rehearsal for the new Fantasy Land area and it wasn't too bad either.I'll be there again this weekend and hope the crowds stay reasonable.

 

[aubriee]

It's funny how how different people perceive things so differently. I just return on Sunday from a Wednesday 10th - Sunday 14th stay. I thought the crowds were low!

I was last in the parks in November of last year, and that was a PACKED House time. Compared to that visit last week we a breeze!

So true! As an AP holder I normally go to WDW 4-6 times a year. I always go sometime in Sept, the first or second week of Dec, and the first or second week of May, then sometimes throw in trips in Oct, Jan, or Feb. Last year I went on a solo trip the weekend after Thanksgiving through the first few days of Dec (Nov 26th-Dec 4th I think). Anyway, I was in shock all week. Crowds were the lightest I have ever seen them. I swear the parks were almost empty and just about everything was a walk on. One morning I snapped a picture of Frontierland from the top of Splash Mountain and texted it to my husband, just to show him how empty it was. Toward the end of the week, I was in line to get into Epcot one morning when the couple in front of me started talking about how crowded it had been all week. I was thinking what crowds? The parks had been like ghost towns all week. We walked straight onto Soarin that morning , then as soon as we got off was able to walk straight back on. I had also planned on spending two days over at Universal that trip, but only spent one because their parks were just as empty and I was easily able to do both parks riding all the rides as many times as I wanted.

I was down there last month, the week of Labor Day, which is the exact same week I was down there last year. Crowds seemed to be exactly the same as last year. Same thing for last May. Two years in a row I was down there the first week of May. Both years the crowds seemed exactly the same (more crowded than Sept, but not as crowded as Dec). When I got home, I was reading here on the DIS about how horrible the crowds were, compared to the year before. Saying all that, we'll be back down there in 10 days (Oct 27th-Nov 4th) and are hoping for low crowds.

 

[rex008]

We do our two week trip from this Saturday, as it's UK half term; I suspect there will be a lot of British people over the next 2 weeks from this weekend, but we're hoping for generally low crowds of course. Touring Plans ratings for the next couple of weeks are massively variable ranging from 1.1 at MK on most party days to 9.0 at EPCOT for F&W Fri/Sat. We're planning around the ratings and hoping they're reasonably accurate.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

We were there 9/27-10/7 and didn't think the crowds were bad at all. Most of the rides were a 5-10 minute wait except for headliners, but they almost always have a by the afternoon and we were always able to either ride those in the morning or use fastpass. There were also some bottleneck areas in Fantasyland that were made worse by the construction. Now that they are working on the area that used to house the skyway, there is no place to put the strollers.

 

[ppony]

We've been here since Sat. and we've not had any short waits. But no hour or more ones either. Mist have been about 20 minutes.
We're usually Dec. folk, but wanted to try Food & Wine. I think the popularity of the festival is drawing more and more, exponentially. It did us.

 

[ppony]

We do our two week trip from this Saturday, as it's UK half term; I suspect there will be a lot of British people over the next 2 weeks from this weekend, but we're hoping for generally low crowds of course. Touring Plans ratings for the next couple of weeks are massively variable ranging from 1.1 at MK on most party days to 9.0 at EPCOT for F&W Fri/Sat. We're planning around the ratings and hoping they're reasonably accurate.

We've noticed a lot of Brits. You guys are so AWESOME. so many guests have been , well jerks. Not a single Brit though. That we've met.

 

[Kristine316]

I think it could all be what you are use to. We have always stayed away from WDW during school vacations, holiday weeks, summer. We have always gone in the dead season. So for us....this week is simply NUTS! I recall last year in October MK actually closed down once for capacity.

I will be able to compare this Thursday to days with and without MNSSHP at MK to see if that could be the issue.

I absolutely agree with this. We have only been to Disney during the slowest months of the year.. January, February... and then this past September.

I was expecting September to be like our other trips and it wasn't... it was much busier than what we were used to. That January 2010 trip was like a ghost town compared to what we experienced last month.
The hotel was packed with people.. the pools were packed.. DTD was packed.. wall to wall people. The restaurants were packed and the walk ways at the parks.. especially Animal Kingdom were just jam packed with people.
It did seem however the actual ride wait times weren't so bad but, getting around was pretty frustrating at times.

However... while we were waiting at MK for the IASW ride, a family behind us was commenting to each other how quiet it was and how normally in July the line for the ride was way back there.. and today its like 8 people deep.. that's it. So for them September was quiet and slow.. compared to the craziness of summertime.

I did make a promise to myself though, that I will never see a summer crowd because September crowds were bad enough.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I remember reading threads just like this last year. I really don't think there is a low crowd or "slow" month at WDW anymore. I think there are certain weeks that are better than others in terms of crowd levels; but I have learned it is best to just assume it is going to be crowded whenever you go to the Disney parks and have a plan (such as getting to the parks as early as possible and following the recommended parks for the day). I think October is going to become even more popular now because more and more schools in the midwest and south have fall breaks in October. I have relatives in the midwest whose children get anywhere from 1-2 weeks off in October for fall break; and add to that the popularity of the Food & Wine Festival, MNSSHP, and other events that draw large crowds.

 

[KNovacovschi]

Here now & the crowds aren't that bad. Ride wait times have been really good as well, except Soarin that was a 70 min line. Haven't used a single fastpass yet. It's been great.