September vs October

[jhaig]

In general, as far as crowds and weather, is there much of a difference going to Disneyland in mid to late September or early To mid October?

 

[SMD]

Not really anymore. There's Gay Days at the beginning of October and CHOC Walk in mid-October, you might want to avoid that Sunday. Otherwise Halloween has become so popular it's sort of creeped further and further in September.

 

[tarheelalum]

The crowds are pretty bad in October but its just about the most awesome time of the year there IMHO. The crowds may be a hair lower in September but not that much to where you want to go there with temps in the upper 90s every day. September is usually terribly hot. But also consider, sometimes October can be really hot as well but usually not as bad as September. If I had to pick one month per year to go to Disneyland, I would always go in October.

 

[figment_jii]

HydroGuy has a weather thread.
http://www.disboards.com/threads/detailed-weather-data-for-dlr.1711391/#post-23004158

Personally, I think it's hit-or-miss whether September or October is hotter. It can be nice in September or October and it can also be brutally hot in either month. I don't think there is really any way to know in advance whether you'll be there when it's nice or when it's blazing hot (I was there in both periods this year and it was hot both times).

In terms of crowds, I think you stand a better chance of experiencing slightly lower crowds on the weekdays in September than you do in October. As mentioned, the early October weekends tend to be packed due to Gay Days and CHOC walk and the weekdays crowds can also be high because a number of school districts are out for Fall Break at some point in October. The weekends in September are busy, as locals come to see the HalloweenTime offerings, but the weekdays may be better. Crowds were high throughout HalloweenTime this year, but that was partially due to the 60th Celebration, so no one knows what 2016 will be like yet.

 

[Girimama33]

September would be better crowd wise. They both could suck weather wise though. I was there at the end of September this year, and crowds were great, but weather was brutal.

 

[jhaig]

September would be better crowd wise. They both could suck weather wise though. I was there at the end of September this year, and crowds were great, but weather was brutal.

We usually go to WDW in September so the temps wouldn't bother us that much. The lower humidity would be a blessing. The plan would be to get to CA on Sunday then do the parks Mon-Thurs. Sept is usually pretty low crowd-wise in FL and I was hoping CA would be similar.

 

[figment_jii]

We really don't know what things will be like next year, but if DLR goes back to the historical entertainment schedule there is a chance you'll miss out on seeing fireworks. WoC is usually offered nightly (and it seems likely that PtN will also be presented nightly), but fireworks and Mad T Party are usually only presented on weekends (Fri to Sun) during September and October (not counting MHP nights when fireworks are presented during the party).

 

[Girimama33]

We usually go to WDW in September so the temps wouldn't bother us that much. The lower humidity would be a blessing. The plan would be to get to CA on Sunday then do the parks Mon-Thurs. Sept is usually pretty low crowd-wise in FL and I was hoping CA would be similar.

So Cal has a humid heat as well...not a dry heat. That's why anything over 90 degrees here is pretty miserable...at least for me.

 

[jhaig]

Have AP blackouts affected crowd evels during Sept and Oct? Is that something I even need to worry about as a non-AP holder?

 

[SMD]

Have AP blackouts affected crowd evels during Sept and Oct? Is that something I even need to worry about as a non-AP holder?

After Labor day there are no extra blockouts for APs, so So Cals can go every Sunday and Deluxe can go every day forth both months. And after being restricted into August and the start of Halloween, they do go.

 

[figment_jii]

Have AP blackouts affected crowd evels during Sept and Oct? Is that something I even need to worry about as a non-AP holder?

I don't really think the AP block outs in Sept and Oct will make a huge difference. In general, the SoCal is blocked on all Saturdays and the SoCal Select is blocked on Saturdays and Sundays, but those are the days when DLR figures that there are enough higher level-APs and non-APs to make up for any SoCal/SoCal Select AP holders that are blocked out. There is some thought that Saturdays might be the least busy because there are the most APs blocked out, but personally, I think weekends are busy regardless of which APs are blocked or not.

 

[jhaig]

Crowd levels at WDW post-Labor Day tend to hover around the 1-3 out of 10 range. How does this compare to DL?

 

[jhaig]

I don't really think the AP block outs in Sept and Oct will make a huge difference. In general, the SoCal is blocked on all Saturdays and the SoCal Select is blocked on Saturdays and Sundays, but those are the days when DLR figures that there are enough higher level-APs and non-APs to make up for any SoCal/SoCal Select AP holders that are blocked out. There is some thought that Saturdays might be the least busy because there are the most APs blocked out, but personally, I think weekends are busy regardless of which APs are blocked or not.

Our plan would be to do the parks M-F. Not too worried about missing fireworks or parades.

 

[figment_jii]

At this point, it's hard to say what September/October 2016 is going to look like. In general, weekends have been pretty busy in DLR in the fall because of HalloweenTime, which usually starts in early-to-mid September and runs through Halloween. The weekdays are more of a mixed bag with September being generally calm, but October can be busy due to fall breaks and other events. This year, September and October were both very busy in DLR; more than what was normally expected.

Do you use Touring Plans (I was guessing because of the "1-3" scale)? They have their historic calendars posted so you can see how much 2015 differed from 2014. Overall, I would expect 2016 to be less busy than 2015, but busier than 2014.

 

[jhaig]

Do you use Touring Plans (I was guessing because of the "1-3" scale)? They have their historic calendars posted so you can see how much 2015 differed from 2014. Overall, I would expect 2016 to be less busy than 2015, but busier than 2014.

Yes I use TP and it's been pretty accurate so far. With the 60th celebration this year I would suspect that next year would be less busy as well.

 

[figment_jii]

Yes I use TP and it's been pretty accurate so far. With the 60th celebration this year I would suspect that next year would be less busy as well.

I know they recently updated their statistical model because they were significantly under predicting crowds (on average, they were about two levels below). Only time will tell if their new model will continue to predict crowds well or it'll drift significantly after the holidays.

 

[tlovesdis]

In a "normal" year I would say September is definitely slower than October, but this year wasn't normal at all! We went in September and it was crazy busy!!

 

[figment_jii]

I think it's a matter of relative crowd levels. I went in both September (last week) and October (second week) this year and it seemed to me that October was busier than September, but both were busier than in previous years. So it seems like it's still accurate to say that September is generally less busy than October, but that doesn't mean September is uncrowded. In using Touring Plans parlance the average crowd was a 5 in September and a 7 in October, but neither meant the parks were empty.