October very crowded this year?

[dor1]

Have been in orlando for the last 2 weeks and have been shocked by how busy the parks are.We have been 5 times before in october and ive never seen it this packed.Epcot at the weekend was amazingly busy and yesterday we struggled to do much at MK.
Seems like the october secret is out?

[Rach78]

Hi,
We arrived back yesterday from a 17 night trip and although the parks seemed quite busy we never waited more than 10 mins for a ride. Do you follow recommended days? I found that by going to MK on a party night it was fairly quiet and staying away from epcot at weekends due to food and wine also made epcot quiet. In saying this it was my first time there so I ave no comparison. However as I said we never waited more than 10 mins for anything and rode toy story mania 3 times in one day!
Rach x

[dor1]

We generally try and avoid the EMH parks and usually have a good plan for what will be busy or not.Regarding toy story mania we got fastpasses early and when we returned the standby was 90 minutes!
Maybe the crowds are just following us!

[Mr Stoat]

Just back on Sunday and have the same feeling. Harry Potter has made IOA a very busy place now, even at half nine in the morning the wait for the main ride was around 60 mins. We followed the busy day guide and still things were more crowded than in years past in all the parks.

[Rach78]

From what I read before I went it seems that a lot of American schools have now gone to a balanced calendar which means they now have a week to 2 week break in October whereas before they didn't have school hols in October. I think this was predicted to make a difference to the amount of American families going at this time of year.

[queendisney]

we thought this about September this year. We found it tobe awful although others didn't. Normally we don't plan what parks we visit and just decide on the day by what ever bus turns up..but we did end up looking at WDW Touring plans..but it still seemed extremely busy even doing this.
Never mind....back to Novembers from now on.

[2Tiggies]

Originally Posted by queendisney

we thought this about September this year. We found it tobe awful although others didn't. Normally we don't plan what parks we visit and just decide on the day by what ever bus turns up..but we did end up looking at WDW Touring plans..but it still seemed extremely busy even doing this.
Never mind....back to Novembers from now on.

This is often the primary reason for such varied reports by different guests over the same time period. This, and simply comparing apples with apples. We started off going over Easter a couple of times and didn't know any better to think it was busy or not as we had nothing to compare it to. I used touringplans and followed them to the letter the first year and added more flexibility the second year. Then we went in October and first thing I wondered was whether I had missed some emergency evacuation alarm .... WHERE were all the people?! The following year we went late September and stayed through the first week and a half of October and thought it significantly quieter than going mid October. This year we did the beginning of September and again found ourselves in the quietest parks we'd ever experienced.

However reports are fairly consistent that it has been busier this year (and last year in fact) than in previous years. I think a number of factors contributed to this:

The Epcot 30th Anniversary this year
(Last year was the MK's 40th)

More Disney discount and free dining promotions. Although relatively consistent with offers for UK guests, there seem to have been far fewer blackout dates for those booking through the Disney in the US.

Add to this the ever increasing flight prices, I do think more and more guests are taking advantage of the better flight deals.

I think the OP made a valid point in wondering if the "October secret is out" In my opinion, yes it is and even Disney is onto this now and using it as a major marketing tool.

As a side note on the subject, I doubt we'll be rushing to do September again. Quieter parks are lovely, but with fewer parades, shows and reduced hours and fewer guests in the parks I found it actually harder to get things done and there just wasn't the same atmosphere

[Elise79]

We didn't do September/October this year but had most years from 2006 up to last year and in that time it has got considerably busier.

First year was only the 2nd year of free dining for the US and the parks were dead and we walked on to everything nearly all day.

One year later and it was still quite quiet and up to lunch most things were still walk ons. Party's were not sold out.

Last year we could not believe the people MNSSHP was sold out the night went and everything was just busy.

I truly believe the secret it is out now - not that it will affect us for another 14 years

[crabbie1]

Even going november mid I found it busier than previous years at this time. Trying mid april next year so will see how it goes. Like others have said I tend to avoid the park with evening EMH but do take advantage of the mornings. Getting there early as well is the key do the main rides and fast pass then have a more relaxed day. As not doing universal next time we have 14 days of just disney so plan to do half days ; some hotel exploring water parks and of course the odd shopping trip!!!!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

[igk]

We've been here since Friday, and I was expecting things to be busier but have had no problem. Yesterday MK was a non-MNSSHP + EMH day so least recommended according to Easywdw. We were at MK today and found it very manageable. I think it does pay to look at the recommendations as to which park to visit, but most important - get there early!
Last night we were in Epcot for dinner at Coral Reef, and afterwards (at about 9:15) we went into The Land and were literally the only people on Living With The Land (cool by night), and then walked straight on to Soarin'
There was a really chilly wind today though...

[~Piglet~]

Originally Posted by Rach78

we never waited more than 10 mins for anything and rode toy story mania 3 times in one day!

Wow - you must have been lucky with Toy Story Mania! even after getting to HS for opening and heading straight to TSM the fast pass queue was tailing back to One Man and his Dream and the wait time was 60 mins! We got our fast pass at 9.15am to return at 1pm we also queued for ride right away and timed the wait time at 35 mins so not too bad.

Regarding the crowds, we were there from 8th to 25th October and it was busier than we had expected it to be (after reading about crowd levels generally in October). We never had any long wait times (apart from TS) as we were always in the parks for opening or using the morning EMH, heading back to resort by 1-2pm but the crowds were definitely busier than on both our previous visits in May.

I imagine this is due in part to the food and wine festival at Epcot and of course MNSSHP etc. We wanted to come and experience the parks around this time of year and see the Halloween decor, but with reduced park hours and limited time in MK due to MNSSHP I think for our next visit we will stick to early May if at all possible

[chmurf]

we're here since the 19th
crowds have been fairly large (much larger than the crowds we had in feb/march)
still it was very managable with a bit of planning and sensible use of fastpasses
rides (except tsm and soarin) were walk on (or 5 minutes tops) until 11:30 most days
between noon and 4pm it was very crowded, but then crowds began to thin down (for example 3 days ago we rode star tours 12 times in a row at 3pm, walking straight to the boarding gates)

today the crowds seemed to have thinned even more
we were in animal kingdom and it was quite a light crowd
even the resorts seemed slow. we visited port orleans in the afternoon and it was soooo quiet (even more than usual) even pop century was quiet (the exception was aoa which was hell on earth)
maybe it's because of the weather, quite cold today, the brazilians had donned hat, scarves and even gloves (coming from cold northern france, I was in a t-shirt and cargo shorts, lol)

a lot more europeans now that holidays have officially started, but definitely less people in the parksand at the resorts

[dixonsontour]

We are here now. Used touring plans busy day guide and found it spot on - some days crowds v low - I usually try to do the park with the lowest crowd. Mk on sat night was busy as you would expect. Have avoided Epcot at weekend as well due to f and wine.

Have also been at parks for opening or before virtually all days x

[dixonsontour]

Originally Posted by chmurf

we're here since the 19th
crowds have been fairly large (much larger than the crowds we had in feb/march)
still it was very managable with a bit of planning and sensible use of fastpasses
rides (except tsm and soarin) were walk on (or 5 minutes tops) until 11:30 most days
between noon and 4pm it was very crowded, but then crowds began to thin down (for example 3 days ago we rode star tours 12 times in a row at 3pm, walking straight to the boarding gates)

today the crowds seemed to have thinned even more
we were in animal kingdom and it was quite a light crowd
even the resorts seemed slow. we visited port orleans in the afternoon and it was soooo quiet (even more than usual) even pop century was quiet (the exception was aoa which was hell on earth)
maybe it's because of the weather, quite cold today, the brazilians had donned hat, scarves and even gloves (coming from cold northern france, I was in a t-shirt and cargo shorts, lol)

a lot more europeans now that holidays have officially started, but definitely less people in the parksand at the resorts

We are also in shorts coming from Lancashire - dh can't believe the people in wooly hats.

[2Tiggies]

Originally Posted by dixonsontour

We are also in shorts coming from Lancashire - dh can't believe the people in wooly hats.

Hey, I'm from Scotland and you would probably find me there in a woolly hat ... I really feel the slightest bit of cold

Sounds like you're having a great time