Should I change my dates?

[Pickles516]

Hey everyone!

We’re in the process of booking a trip for 10/7/23 - 10/14/23. There will be three adults and four kids, and my wife and I will be celebrating our wedding anniversary on the 9th.

Here’s my dilemma - all of the crowd calendars I’m seeing(which I should’ve checked prior) are saying WDW is going to be swamped that week because of Columbus/Indigenous Peoples day. Do you think it would be worth pushing the trip back a week to avoid crowds even if it means not having our actual anniversary in the world?

 

[Chupaca bruh]

I would choose a different date for lower crowds but that is just me. I am not super sentimental about anniversaries and birthdays. If you really want your special day to be in the parks go for it and just plan for the crowds and that you may not see as much. Prioritize what you want to do on that day and try tomake it happen.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Holiday weekends lead to kids having a short school week - and can lead to busier times at a place like Disney. We avoid that weekend. BTW - you won't avoid the crowds by moving the date! It'll just be a little better - hopefully!

 

[nw6675]

Fall break for some school systems that week, too.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

Disney doesn’t really have a slow period anymore. If it were me, I wouldn’t change the date. I may choose Ak or Epcot on the actual holiday. But I don’t think it will as crowded as the following week when a lot of schools have fall break.

 

[Pickles516]

Disney doesn’t really have a slow period anymore. If it were me, I wouldn’t change the date. I may choose Ak or Epcot on the actual holiday. But I don’t think it will as crowded as the following week when a lot of schools have fall break.

Fall break isn’t a thing for us so I didn’t take that into consideration

 

[sponica]

I probably wouldn't change them. Lets say for the sake of argument that the crowd levels are pegged at 8s and 9s every day of your trip, but the week before or after is mostly 7s. I don't think most of us can tell the difference between a 7 and an 8.

Now if the crowd levels are pegged at 4s and 5s, that might be worth while.

Of course moving the trip forward a week, you probably run into Gartner IT. Moving it back a week, it might be a little less crowded but I don't think it will be as dramatic a difference that it would be worthwhile...

 

[cjlong88]

If you can move as early as the last week of September, I would say that is a great time to visit. My very first trip was the last week of September in 2018. Super low crowds! That's not a popular vacation week, I guess. Now, that could have changed, but I think September is historically one of the lowest crowd months.

But if your original dates work best for you and your family, keep them. Like others have said, there really aren't any more slow times to visit sans a few weeks here and there. If you have a great touring strategy, then all will be well!

 

[CarolynFH]

I'd keep the dates and budget for G+ and some ILL$, especially for MK.

 

[Nabas]

Hey everyone!

We’re in the process of booking a trip for 10/7/23 - 10/14/23. There will be three adults and four kids, and my wife and I will be celebrating our wedding anniversary on the 9th.

Here’s my dilemma - all of the crowd calendars I’m seeing(which I should’ve checked prior) are saying WDW is going to be swamped that week because of Columbus/Indigenous Peoples day. Do you think it would be worth pushing the trip back a week to avoid crowds even if it means not having our actual anniversary in the world?

Touringplans shows a crowded weekend, dropping to a 5 on Tuesday (10/11). That still gives you 3 days of modest crowds.

Where do you really want to be on your anniversary on the 9th?

 

[cjlong88]

As a follow up, I would be wary to put too much stock in crowd calendars when planning my trip. With the way Disney has their park reservations determining staffing throughout the property, it's nearly impossible to predict the crowd levels on a given day or a given park, or even how the crowds will feel. They now control how many reservations they allow in each park and therefore create the capacity, which may not necessarily be based on the real physical capacity of the park. So we never can know how many people will be there, even with park reservations completely full. What the crowd calendar says and what we experience can often not be even close to the same...

Just another thing to consider.

 

[Mom2Anna&Elsa]

That’s school fall break week for many schools in Indiana. We’ve been there during that week in the past & it’s always busy, but again, I don’t think there’s many times where it’s NOT busy anymore.

There’s also a lot of schools around here they have two week fall break (balanced schedule), so I’m not sure that switching a week will make a substantial difference.

Keep in mind that MNSSHP is going on multiple nights that week, which will mean early closures for MK

 

[Pickles516]

Touringplans shows a crowded weekend, dropping to a 5 on Tuesday (10/11). That still gives you 3 days of modest crowds.

Where do you really want to be on your anniversary on the 9th?

I’m not really “married” to the idea of spending our actual anniversary in the world. I’ll have to see how my wife feels about it.

Thank you to everyone for the thoughts and input!

 

[Nabas]

I’m not really “married” to the idea of spending our actual anniversary in the world. I’ll have to see how my wife feels about it.

Thank you to everyone for the thoughts and input!

If you are not "married" to the idea of being there on your anniversary, then pushing your trip back by one week gets you days with crowd levels of 3 and 4.

Please keep in mind that even with a crowd level of 3, the Magic Kingdom is still crowded.

You're never going to see this in the middle of the day, which is what it was like during the months immediately after WDW reopened in July 2020: