Which would you pick? 2 potential dates for September trip

[aroundtheriverbend]

Hey all, having a debate on what days to go to WDW in September. My kids (11 and 13) have 2 different long weekends, so we were going to take them out of school for a few days either way. Would you lean towards:

9/1-9/7 - start of Food and Wine, Labor Day weekend, Moonlight Magic at AK on 9/6
or
9/16-9/23 - continuation of F&W, Rosh Hashanah holiday, no Moonlight Magic

Weather should be about the same, what do you think about crowds given that F&W is starting earlier this year? All the sites I found pretty much agree the first time frame should be pretty low crowds, but that was probably before they knew F&W was starting that early. And how big of a perk do you think Moonlight Magic will be, particularly around Pandora?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Murron]

We are September people. I usually find Labor day to be crowded -- the last hurrah for some before school begins. So we always go after Labor day. That being said, you have kids and they really might enjoy the Moonlight Magic at AK. If crowds don't bother you, that would be a cool thing to attend at AK. Otherwise, I suggest 9/16-23.

 

[jsrowdon]

I would probably go with 9/16-9/23 to avoid the Labor Day crowds unless you just really really want to do Moonlight Magic.

 

[CarolMN]

I'd go with dates that include AK Moonlight Magic. Rivers of Light and Pandora and night time safari and Tree of Life with limited crowd of DVC night will make that extra special, IMO.

Complimentary DVC event might be worth a few extra people the rest of the trip. FWIW, I don't think crowd-wise it will be that much different from the following September weeks.

Plus F&W in early September won't make that much difference (if any) to parks other than EPCOT. And even for EPCOT, eating in heat and humidity probably not a big draw for locals who can go during cooler weekends.

I'm sure you'll have fun no matter which you choose.

 

[bobbiwoz]

It poured rivers for our after hours AKV night last year, and 2 friends gave up after Tiffans, but 3 of us stayed for the moonlit safari and 1 other attraction with no lines, so I would definitely pick the time with the Moonlight Magic. We extended our post DVC Member Cruise stay to include the date!

 

[aroundtheriverbend]

Thanks all! We're leaning towards Labor Day I think, don't love the higher crowds but I've got to admit the MM sounds very intriguing.... aside from one Merry Mixer we never seem to be able to hit the DVC special events because we plan trips so early (I've had a placeholder for Labor Day booked for awhile now). Perfect world would have been their days off being the following week when there's also a MM but beggars can't be choosers . Just going to have to make sure the troops are willing to stay the course that night rain or shine. Good point also on maybe bringing a few extra family with us, what a great experience.

Hopefully we don't all melt in September, we usually go in October but last year October was busier than we like, and started off with us losing the first two days to a hurricane. Fingers crossed if we hit the odds with hurricanes 2 years in a row after WDW has only closed 4 times in 46 years I should load up on some Powerball tickets...

 

[chicagoshannon]

We've been over Labor Day several times. It's a great week to go. So many schools start back in mid August now that you don't really have to worry about school crowds. We attended the AK party last year and it was a lot of fun. My kids loved the free game tickets (and we won quite a few dinosaurs at the whack a mole game). The longest line we stood in all night was the ice cream line.

The later you go in September the busier it is.