September or october?

[keltiesmom]

We are in the early stages of booking our next trip and looking at sept 24-30 or October 14-20. We will be a group of 10, 7 of us will be kids so lower crowds are important. We will be doing 5 days in the parks and trying to cover as much as we can. I know that these dates can be hit or miss sometimes but I'm hopping that one week is pretty much a guarantee to have lower crowds. Any feedback would be great

 

[jiminy14]

We just returned from a five day visit (10/11-10/16) and I can report that the parks were very busy during that time. The weekend was especially bad with crowd levels reported as 8/10. Crowds on Tuesday were a little better but they increased again on Wednesday. Try to avoid Columbus Day, the CHOC walk, and the Utah school fall break, all of which we encountered during our stay.

 

[dorchrislen]

Definitely September. Schools are back in session with minimal breaks.

 

[meggles]

Honestly, it seems like Halloweentime as a whole is just busy the whole way through. We went Sept 23-28 this year and a couple days were ok crowd wise (wouldn't call them low crowds, just more manageable) but two of our days were quite busy. One night was a MHP and another night they closed DCA early for a private event. Whenever one park closes or has an extra ticketed event the other seems to get quite busy. If your dates are flexible, I'd try to go after labour day until mid sept or maybe the last week of October. Hopefully the weather will be cooler, too...it hit the upper 90's into 100 degrees in late September/early October this year.

 

[scrapshappen]

Another vote for September. October can be very busy that week with Utah out for fall break.

 

[Sherry E]

There's no guarantee anymore. It's not that there are wall-to-wall, elbow-to-elbow people in the parks every single second of every day -- there are pockets of time in which the crowds are slightly lower. However, people try to find those pockets of time so they can go with lighter crowds, and the crowd dynamics shift. The formerly-less-crowded times suddenly get more crowded, and the formerly-more-crowded times get less crowded!

Everyone pretty much agrees that there is almost no slow time anymore, especially during popular seasons such as Halloween Time and the Holidays. Rain or any kind of extreme weather (a bad heat wave, heavy wind, etc.) would keep the crowds down a bit.

In 2015, there is a good chance that Mickey's Halloween Party will begin on Friday, September 25th, and there would probably be another party on Tues., 9/29. So the start of the MHP will attract crowds, and your 9/24-9/30 time frame includes a weekend, which will draw in crowds too.

Your October 14-20 dates (which also include a weekend) would probably fall right in the middle of or right around the UEA time frame -- the time when "Utah Escapes to Anaheim," as it is jokingly called, due to an educators' conference, and that means a lot of people in the parks.

It comes down to picking the lesser of two evils, I suppose. It depends on when UEA is happening in 2015. If it is over by mid-October, then October might be the better time to go (before Halloween week). If UEA is happening right during your October dates, then I guess the September time frame would be better -- but it won't be empty or uncrowded in the parks.

Keep in mind, also, that next year is the 60th anniversary of Disneyland, and it is highly possible that there could be random special events held on certain days/nights throughout the year in celebration of that. There could be pop-up events, hard ticket party-types of events (aside from the MHP), AP-only events, etc. No one knows exactly what is in store for the events of the 60th. Anything could happen, and any of those scenarios could affect crowds as well.

 

[keltiesmom]

Unfortunately early sept doesn't work for us, we have to plan around fall harvest for my friends family and typically sept it is in full swing. The last week is even pushing it to be honest. We want to be there for a weekend, due to fireworks not happening and I think fantasmic! too every night in the off season. I know early October can be crazy with gay days and school breaks which is why we were hoping the last week in sept might be better. My husbands work limits how late into October we can go as well so I'm not sure we could push it much later, although I would love to go the next week.

 

[Snowcats95]

Have you checked out a crowd tracker calendar? Isitpacked.com is our go-to guide (too new to post links, sorry). According to them the third week of October is the least crowded. Sorry to hear September is out, we just got back from our trip (Sept. 8-15) and the park was not that busy (despite the 90-100+ heat).

 

[keltiesmom]

I haven't yet, we used touring plans last year and quite liked them but I don't want to buy the subscription until I am late enough in October to get both weeks we are looking at. Just in case we take the later week I want it active when we go.

Have you checked out a crowd tracker calendar? Isitpacked.com is our go-to guide (too new to post links, sorry). According to them the third week of October is the least crowded. Sorry to hear September is out, we just got back from our trip (Sept. 8-15) and the park was not that busy (despite the 90-100+ heat).

 

[khippster]

UEA/Utah Fall Break is tentatively scheduled for 10/15-10/16 in 2015, I live in Utah, I would avoid that week as much as you possibly can.