Which week in October?

[jakenjess]

We're planning a trip to OKW in October and will be bringing along my parents for their first stay with us at DVC. We'll have to make it a Sun-Fri trip, as my DD will have Nutcracker ballet rehearsals on Saturdays. I've narrowed it down to either Sept. 30-Oct. 5 or Oct. 7-12. I'm leaning towards the second week because of Columbus Day and teacher workshops, the kids will only miss two full days of school and two half days, as opposed to five full days the week before.

However, I'm concerned about crowds because of the Columbus Day holiday. Do any of you have any first-hand experience with this week? I'd love to hear what you all think. Thanks!

 

[CapeCodFam]

Due to the food & wine festival and Mickeys halloween party, I think both weeks could be difficult depending upon the resort. Book early!!!!

Having said that, we've been to the world 2 or 3 times during Columbus day week and we are already booked again for this year. (same school argument for us too!) Crowds are all relative and WDW is busy all year long now. Columbus day week is less busy than the summer and more busy than January. The week prior should be lighter. But, it won't be alot lighter. The worst we ever encountered was 1 hour waits at peak times. But, we didn't find it miserable. All in all, Oct. + Nov are our favorite times to go.

 

[byoung]

Get's crowded on columbus day weekend.

 

[BWVNUT]

We went this past Columbus Day (Sun - Wed) and we were pleasantly surprised at the low crowd level - we thought it was going to be much worse!

 

[jakenjess]

Thanks! I was hoping to go Columbus Day week so as not to miss so much school, but not if the crowds were going to be huge! I think we'll try for that week.

 

[Hibernians]

Just a thought -

You may want to consider MNSSHP (Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party). Its a special event at Magic Kingdom that starts during late Seprtember and runs up until Halloween on various nights - there tend to be more of these nights as the calendar gets closer to Halloween.

You can probably refer to the 2006 calendar to get some idea how often it will occur during your targeted weeks. You should be able to find it here on this site under a simple search query.

My kids really enjoyed MNSSHP and I think if you get a chance to do it you should; its really a unique event. The parade is out of this world, lots of characters show up; great trick or treat candy being passed out, people dressed up in costumes, etc. Its really a fun event !


- Joe