Who's been in November?

[Mambo Junkie]

We have been many times, all times of the year. My absolute favorite time to go is the 3rd week in September - low crowds and just plain nice. We have had to deal with hurricanes twice now, but nothing major. (1 time we left a day early and the 2nd, we drove down so were on the road when they resort called us to tell us not to come because a hurricane was predicted to come straight through Orlando. We showed up anyway and it was wonderful because no one else did. The hurricane ended up turning toward the panhandle).
I have been in November 1 time, the week after Thanksgiving. The weekend was very busy, but the next week was great! We were there on a special also. We had the room discount with the free dining (courtesy of the Disney Visa and a pin code). I have chosen to go again at that time and I'm hoping for the same luck. It really helps (with the crowds) that they didn't offer the free dining this time. The weather is usually great. Not too hot, not too cold. It's kind of fun watching the Christmas parade being filmed.

 

[68earlybay]

Reading the comments I'm feeling happy, looks like I chose a good time to go for our first visit were there 26th oct til 13th nov

 

[SEA333]

In 2013, we spent a week at Disney in September. Crowd levels were PERFECT, but it was blazing hot. We were thinking that for 2015, we'd go the second week of November, 8th - 14th. We were looking forward to cooler weather and Christmas lights.

Now that I look at crowd calendar in earnest, I'm concerned by what I'm seeing. (I'm having to go by 2014 crowd calendars, as 2015 is still a long way off!) We'll have a 4 year-old and an 8 year-old then. In September, we never waited more than 10 minutes, and had no wait for most things. We were spoiled. From what I'm seeing on the crowd calendars, waits could be significantly more in November, even though it's a relatively low crowd time. I think one thing that's contributing to this is that the Wine & Dine Half is the weekend we'd be arriving. (We wouldn't hit the parks until Monday.)

Who has been in November and can actually speak to crowd levels during that time? We're trying to decide if we should stay with our original plan, go a week later (the week before Thanksgiving), or switch back to September. I really hate to go back to the heat and miss the Christmas lights, but I'd rather do that than have to deal with lots of long lines. Some lines aren't a big deal, but the 4 year-old isn't going to hang with long lines for everything. (And of course, fingers are crossed for Free Dining.)

Thanks everyone!

We went last year Nov 14-18th. It was perfect. Beautiful weather, not hot and sticky at all. Christmas décor was about 1/2 up and there was Christmas music piped into the main areas of the parks. Kids swam every day. Temps hovered at about 80 degrees and sunny except one day that rained in the morning and one day that it got up to about 85, which was perfect because it was our scheduled "pool" day

Crowds were so low...DS14 and DS8 rode Star Tours about 8 times at DHS and I think the most I waited for them was about 30 minutes from the time they got in line to the time they met me at the end of the ride. I don't think we waited more than 20-30 minutes for anything.

We would go back in November in a heartbeat!

 

[Jessica14]

I'm so glad to hear all this! We are going the 16th-23rd. My son will be celebrating his birthday at AK with his "friends" at Tusker House! And he has no idea! Great to hear all these wonderful reports!
Jessica