My family and I have great memories of a trip in September of 2011. I don't know if what we experienced was typical of this time; we were very surprised! In 2011, the crowds were ridiculously low. The biggest wait time we saw was 30 minutes for Toy Story Mania; even then, we got in line and ended up only waiting 15 minutes. We immediately got in line again and walked right on. Other wait times were at 10-20 minutes, and they were basically walk-on. We went on Splash Mountain about 6 times in a row, walking on each time. We went on Thunder Mountain about 4 times, and Everest about 5 times. Overall, the "wait times" really came from however long it took you to walk through all the twists and turns of the queue. We thought the low crowd levels were really odd, because we went during a school fall break! Maybe Disney was having a bad year. Plus, we got amazing prices on our package with free dining. It was the first time we've ever been able to afford a Deluxe hotel (the Polynesian). Overall, it was an incredible trip. It didn't rain, the weather was in the low 70s and early 60s. Unfortunately, I doubt going back this September would yield the same results.
A couple years ago my mom and I went the second week of May. It was a bit rainy, but it was also cool and breezy. The crowds were low to medium, and the wait times were okay.
This year my brother and I got our annual passes and went down in mid-October. It was way too busy for our tastes. The downtown disney area was busier than I've ever seen it before and walking through main street in MK was awful! It was very hot too!
Next week, I'm off to try January out for the first time! I'm not too interested in riding Splash Mountain this time anyway, so the refurbs aren't a big deal to me. I'm excited to see what January weather and crowd levels are like. I can't imagine a lot of people would be taking time off work or school to go! I'm lucky enough that I'm taking mostly online classes this year at college!
