Scared To Book Trip- Nov. People Help!

[mma]

I think we are taking my sister's family and my parents for there first Disney trip Oct. 29 thru Nov. 4 but I am scared of the crowd level at that time. From what I have read on these boards from trip reports this time last year this is the week before Jersey week. I know the F&W Festival and MNNSHP are going on at this time but are there any other special events or big conventions? The crowd blog has crowd levels at a 4 for this week but I don't think he is that accurate anymore since he changed his system. Did anyone go at this time last year and how were the crowds? Last year we went the last week of Sept. and we could ride rides over and over without getting off. What was this week like compared to what we encountered in Sept.? Noone in the parks or on the transportation systems either. Thanks for any info. you can give me.

 

[theostwalts]

We went during that time last year and had a great time. It was our first trip so I can not compare it to other times for you. As for as crowds, the weekends were much busier than the weekdays. We only used fastpass once on splash mountain. Other times the standby never said over 40 min. and the lines moved much faster than that. We are going to try a christmas trip this year, but we will probably do Oct/Nov again in the future. We did MNSSHP on haloween night and although it was sold out it was still very manageable. What struck me was when we were in lines waiting, I noticed how many more people it was set up for. I could not imagine being there when those lines were full. I thought it was a great time to go. Great weather and crowd levels.

 

[runner26.2]

The week before Jersey week will be relatively quiet. Overall a good time to go.

 

[nyfinfan]

In 2004 , we went the last week of September. In 2005, we went Oct 29 - Nov.5 . It was less crowded in September. It wasnt a huge difference but you could definately see the difference. Of course in 2004 we were there for Hurricane Jeanne and missed a day at the parks and had no electricity for 2 days at the house we rented. We thought that by going in November that we would lessen out chances for a Hurricane but we still were lucky to dodge them.

 

[mjh8955]

We went the exact same years and dates as nyfinfan. The end of September was fine although warmer than we exptected. The hurricane thing wasn't fun to sit through and I'm sure that is why the crowds were low. The end of October was perfect. We DO NOT like crowds, and we were with our brother-in-law and his family; it was their first trip to WDW or any real vacation for that matter. I think going the week before Jersey Week is ideal. We enjoy Epcot and the Food and Wine Festival and did not find it too crowded at all. We deliberately avoided MNSSHP by going to MGM and Epcot on Halloween. MGM was empty. The following day we did MK, starting with an early character breakfast at Crystal Palace. We had our 4-year-old nephew with us and went directly to Fantasyland right as the park opened and proceeded to walk on to every single ride. First time that has ever happened. We worked our way to Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear and then our families split up. Mid-afternoon we ran into each other at Aladdin; we went on to Epcot at that point and caught Fantasmic for the first time. AK was supposedly crowded on Thursday, but that was reported from our in-laws who had never been there before and are not at all tolerant. They also got a late start and didn't have a clue what was there or what they wanted to do. It was probably fine.

Our previous trips had been in late May/early June, early August and late August. We'll never go in the summer again. We also found that by avoiding the early or late magic hour parks we did great. We stayed off-site this time (because there were 7 of us) at our timeshare. That worked out great. Had 2 wonderfully relaxing pool days.

Have fun whenever you go!

 

[NC State]

We have picked this week also. We usally go the end of September; however, last year it was a little more crowded than before because of the free dinning. The reason why we changed dates this year is because of the weather, we're hopeing for cooler temps and less hurricanes! Plus we should be able to catch some of the CHRISTmas stuff going up!