Question about Epcot..

[rance]

My daughter will be turning 3 on sat Oct. 30th and I booked the princess breakfast at epcot.
I have been reading on here that epcot is a park to avoid on saturdays during the F&W festival.

I guess my question is whether or not we should avoid epcot on this day or will it not be too bad crowd wise.

Thanks

 

[mickeyhunter]

My daughter will be turning 3 on sat Oct. 30th and I booked the princess breakfast at epcot.
I have been reading on here that epcot is a park to avoid on saturdays during the F&W festival.

I guess my question is whether or not we should avoid epcot on this day or will it not be too bad crowd wise.

Thanks

Crowds are usually pretty high on Saturdays during the f&w fest. The locals (like me) can get a little roudy. The f&w fest turns the world showcase into a more adult environment than it already is.

For a 3 yr old birthday (imho) I would go to the princess breakfast but head over to mk for the rest of the day.

 

[g-dad66]

According to touringplans.com, wait times for rides in Epcot on weekends should be very low during the F&W Festival.

So we are going to give it a try on a Saturday in November and stick just to the attractions in Future World. We won't even venture into World Showcase.

 

[nytimez]

Your daughter will be interested in very different things than the F&W crowd. You should be fine.

Oct. 30 is in the "free" preview for TouringPlans.com's crowd calendar, so I advise you to check that. You might like what you see.

(And even if it wasn't, the subscription is very worthwhile.)

 

[Robert P]

My daughter will be turning 3 on sat Oct. 30th and I booked the princess breakfast at epcot.
I have been reading on here that epcot is a park to avoid on saturdays during the F&W festival.

I guess my question is whether or not we should avoid epcot on this day or will it not be too bad crowd wise.

Thanks

Go for it. The a.m. access into WS for the breakfast is a treat in itself. Once WS opens officially at 11:00, that area tends to draw in a lot of the traffic from the front of the park.
Yes, w/e's tend to be more crowded during F&WF, but they tend to migrate to WS. That's where most of the rowdiness reports seem to be located.

 

[TDC Nala]

Do you plan to spend the day there or just drop in for the breakfast?

If you have a park hopper, do the breakfast, then hop to another park.

If you plan to spend the day there, do the breakfast (WS doesn't open until 11 so you wont have crowds there yet) and then do WS early and spend the late afternoon/evening in Future World. The Saturday crowds for F&W in World Showcase are generally concentrated in the later afternoon and especially the evening. The better the weather is on that Saturday, the more crowded you should expect WS to be - good weather will bring the locals out. If it's nice enough out, it's possible you will get crowds in WS that are so thick it's difficult to walk through them (anyone there October 17 last year?), so get anything you want to do in WS done as early as you can.

 

[rance]

Thanks for the advise. We do not have hoppers so we were planning on spending the day there.

Do you think the fireworks will be a bit of a rowdy crowd?

 

[lighthouse206]

The thing to remember about EPCOT is that it is H-U-G-E... Even on the most crowded days your going to find lots of room to walk around and lots of attractions with minimal wait times. Check out ones like Imagination, Energy, Mexico (boat ride), and even SpaceShip Earth. I doubt you'll wait more than 20 minutes for any of those even on the most crowded days...

 

[grimley1968]

Keep in mind you're talking about late October, which is one of the least crowded times of the year. I can imagine MK might be crowded during MNSSHP on Halloween night itself, but other than that I don't think anyplace will be all that crowded.

I'd just stay in EPCOT if you don't have park hopping on your tickets. You'll be fine.

 

[Chelley00]

Thanks for the advise. We do not have hoppers so we were planning on spending the day there.

Do you think the fireworks will be a bit of a rowdy crowd?

It will be busy for Illuminations. The mornings are usually okay on a Saturday, but it fills up as the afternoon and evening goes on. If nothing, you could make it a short Epcot day, and spend the rest of the evening swimming or something, but we avoid Saturday evenings at Epcot during F&W

 

[nytimez]

Thanks for the advise. We do not have hoppers so we were planning on spending the day there.

Do you think the fireworks will be a bit of a rowdy crowd?

You'll find a lot of different opinions here. Play it by ear, odds are you'll be fine and you will be able to find a place to enjoy the fireworks, even if it's not a prime spot. People manage to do so in much bigger crowds than what you'll see during F&W.

You might see some rowdies here and there but you shouldn't see too much of that.

I'm sure someone will chime in with a horror story now about drunk Brazilian dressed as Muppets or whatever, but that's not the typical experience.

 

[tony67]

Saturdays during the F&W are very busy and very rowdy IMO.

There will be far more locals than during a typical weekend in the off season making it busier.
You can expect several large groups of locals all in the same t-shirt drinking and having a good time.

You will have many more of the 21 and 22 year olds there just to drink than normal.

Lots of adults will over indulge.

Part of the problem is they go and eat the small samples of food and drink a lot.
The combination of not a lot of food in their stomach, the heat and lots of drink can be a problem even for an experienced drinker.
I am talking from experience.

I would expect the fireworks to be crazy.

The lines for some of the food items are 40 or 50 long.

I go solo and I avoid Saturday during the F&W, it's just too busy to enjoy it.

I would try to find some way to go for the meal and visit another park for the day.

 

[TDC Nala]

Do you think the fireworks will be a bit of a rowdy crowd?

It could very possibly be that way. I can't tell you about any specific days. If it is nice weather and a crowded day I think it is much more likely that you will encounter large crowds at fireworks time (many of whom have been drinking alcohol all day).

 

[nytimez]

My experience is that the drinkers stay close to the drinks (I know I do). Watch from the Future World side of the lagoon to minimize this.

 

[jmb2676]

Do you plan to spend the day there or just drop in for the breakfast?

If you have a park hopper, do the breakfast, then hop to another park.

If you plan to spend the day there, do the breakfast (WS doesn't open until 11 so you wont have crowds there yet) and then do WS early and spend the late afternoon/evening in Future World. The Saturday crowds for F&W in World Showcase are generally concentrated in the later afternoon and especially the evening. The better the weather is on that Saturday, the more crowded you should expect WS to be - good weather will bring the locals out. If it's nice enough out, it's possible you will get crowds in WS that are so thick it's difficult to walk through them (anyone there October 17 last year?), so get anything you want to do in WS done as early as you can.

I was there on October 17 last year. Pure madness but still managed to have a great time.