Sept 9-11 crowds?

[Cptcatz]

I'm planning on doing a 3-day trip with my wife and two daughters (2 and 4) September 9, 10, and 11 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday). We're planning on doing Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom and have a couple questions:

- First off, we chose these days since it's after all schools are back in session and figured it would be some of the lightest crowds of the year. Is this accurate? Should we be good without having to buy lightning lane?

- I just realized the Halloween party is at MK on Tuesday the 10th which was the day we were planning on going there but we have no intention on going to the party (no way our 2 year old us staying up for that). Is that still a good day to go to MK? The only issue I see there is the park closes at 6pm. Will the rest of the day still be light crowds? Assuming we get there at opening, think we'll still fit everything in?

This is our first time going with kids and my personal first time in about 10 years. Thanks for the help!

 

[focusondisney]

I'm planning on doing a 3-day trip with my wife and two daughters (2 and 4) September 9, 10, and 11 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday). We're planning on doing Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom and have a couple questions:

- First off, we chose these days since it's after all schools are back in session and figured it would be some of the lightest crowds of the year. Is this accurate? Should we be good without having to buy lightning lane?

- I just realized the Halloween party is at MK on Tuesday the 10th which was the day we were planning on going there but we have no intention on going to the party (no way our 2 year old us staying up for that). Is that still a good day to go to MK? The only issue I see there is the park closes at 6pm. Will the rest of the day still be light crowds? Assuming we get there at opening, think we'll still fit everything in?

This is our first time going with kids and my personal first time in about 10 years. Thanks for the help!

We’re going to be there from the 2nd to the 12th. We’ve gone the first week or 2 in September many times. The weather is extremely hot with afternoon or evening rain & thunderstorms most days. It is a low crowd time relatively speaking. But parks are not empty, they never are anymore. Headline rides will still have long waits in the late morning & afternoons. There are less school age kids than other times of the year, but there are still plenty of them plus adults & preschoolers.

I will be probably buy LLs for at least some of our days. We don’t do any of the rides with VQs, but I will definitely buy LLs for ROTR & 7 Dwarfs. Those are favorite rides which always have longer lines than we are willing to wait in. We’re in our late 60s & come to WDW a few times a year. We don’t do full park days, usually mornings & lunch in the park, then back to the resort for naps & cooling off. We like after hours events or deluxe extra hours, but other than that will have a nice signature restaurant dinner in the evening instead of more park time. I’m watching the plan ahead thread for real reports of how things are working before I decide for sure how many days or which parks & rides to buy for.

MK on party days is generally less crowded in the morning & early afternoon than on non party days. A lot of people don’t want to pay for shorter hours if they have no park hoppers so avoid MK on those days. It can be a good day to go with somewhat shorter lines early in the day but the trade off is you have to leave the park at 6 & don’t get to see the fireworks that day. If you’re OK with those things, it’s a good day to be there. If you have park hoppers, you could always go to MK the evening of your AK day if you want to see the fireworks.

I have a family member who took her kids for the first time last month. They were just about to turn 3 & 5. Travel day was just hang out at the hotel, day 1 pool day, day 2 all day at MK, day 3 sleep in & pool day, day 4 all day at MK, day 5 sleep in & pool day & traveled home day 6. I was surprised that was gonna be the plan & they weren’t doing other parks since the dad is a big WDW fan & has gone many times. But the kids had an absolute blast, loved it & never knew they missed anything. They were so excited & can’t wait to go back. All that to say, don’t worry about what you do or don’t get to do. Pushing hard to get it all done doesn’t always make the best vacations.

 

[katyjeka]

We've visited several times during early September and have always lucked out crowd wise. Yes, there are people around and the park is far from empty but based on our experience we've been able to ride three times the amount of rides than any other month we've visited. Yes, its HOT but there are so many places to grab a few minutes of air conditioning that we never mind. Magic Kingdom on party days are awesome. We hop so the short days are not an issue but even if you don't have park hoppers with the ages of your kids you'll welcome the evening break. We are starting the count down for our September trip and I'm honestly hoping for rain. We've enjoyed several rainy afternoons walking around an empty park as a lot of people tend to leave with the rain. Have a great time.

 

[_19disnA]

I can recall perhaps 15-20 yrs ago we used to enjoy going to Disney in September since schools were back in session and crowds much lighter along with cooler weather. More recently it seems like Disney is always crowded no matter what time of the year. Apparently some parents don't seem to have an issue taking their kids out of school even if the year has just started. If you haven't been in over 10 yrs you will mostly be surprised at how expensive and crowded everything is. Disney has never done a good job over the years adapting the parks to the ever increasing numbers who go there. Far too many narrow congested walkways making it hard to walk around at times. Newer rides also don't seem to be designed with adequate capacity which is hard to believe based on all of the data available to them. To me the number 1 issue Disney has never addressed is how to handle larger crowds. I doubt anyone wants to stand in line for 2 hrs to go on some popular ride.

If you have young children, chances are you aren't the type of people to show up at dawn when the park first opens and stay until it closes. Likely they will need a nap/break during the day. Parks tend to be less crowded either early or late in the day so that is the way to plan regardless of when you go.

There are some other threads where people talk about their experience on days when a specific park has some evening event. As I recall, opinions were mixed on whether it was/wasn't a good idea to go that day.

 

[gottalovepluto]

It’s lowish- but you still need to rope drop. Because you haven’t been in recent times you should go in expecting moderate crowds. Crowds seem lowish now so look at the app over the next few days and see if the times are acceptable to you bearing in mind they are sometimes accurate but often inflated by at least 10 mins.

You need to go in with a plan, read up on the everything rope drop sticky. You may decide to book LL for only a couple days of your trip, it’s not an all or nothing situation.

MK on party days is awesome- but again you need to rope drop it.

 

[steve_rob]

Historically, MNSSHP days tend to have lower crowds than non-party days in the same week. The assumption is that people look at the park hours and assume that they won't be able to get as much done when the park closes at 6pm, compared to it closing at 9 or 10, but of course that drives the crowd numbers down, meaning that if you get into the park for opening and have a reasonable touring plan, you might find you actually end up being able to ride/see/experience MORE attractions because of shorter queues. Now you can get unlucky and it won't work out that way for you, but I certainly have had some positive experiences in the past going to a park during the day that had an evening event on which I wasn't going to.

 

[Kooks and Bay Bay]

You've chosen what has historically been the PEAK week for hurricane season just so you're aware.

Yes crowds should be pretty low since you are going one full week after Labor Day.
Personally I'm all for making the lines as short as possible so even with the lower crowds with a short trip I'd still look into the Lightning Lane Multi/Single passes.

If you don't mind ending your MK day at 6pm then yes its a good option still but if you want maximum hours int he park you may want to switch days.

 

[beccasmom]

We will be visiting the week of 9/15 and have often visited in the August-September timeframe. It is quite hot and humid (as you might have
expected ). Hurricanes are something to keep in mind. We ended up staying an extra day last year due to the threat of one arriving the morning of our scheduled departure. It did not strike the area after all, thankfully. The parks always seem somewhat crowded these days. In early May it was very busy (if folks were hoping to avoid the heat, they lost that bet, although some days were not too bad).

I would add that the Food & Wine Festival will be taking place at Epcot during your trip. It does make things busier, although you won’t be there on a weekend, which will help. Enjoy your trip!

 

[Ladyfish77]

I was just looking at those dates. What is going on that week? So many resorts are booked??? Just wondering why.

 

[katyjeka]

I was just looking at those dates. What is going on that week? So many resorts are booked??? Just wondering why.

I just checked the 6th throught the 14th and there is a ton of rooms available. Not sure what resort you wanted but the the only two that I was unable to get was Music and limited at Sports. It's strange as Pop is usually sold out before them and it isn't.

 

[focusondisney]

I was just looking at those dates. What is going on that week? So many resorts are booked??? Just wondering why.

Make sure you’re on rack rate rooms. Often the website reverts automatically to a discount. Those have been out for awhile & are getting limited.

Edit to add: I just checked September 15-20. With the 30% off promo, there are 5 resorts available. Switch to rack rates & 24 resorts plus the campground show available rooms.

 

[Ladyfish77]

I just checked the 6th throught the 14th and there is a ton of rooms available. Not sure what resort you wanted but the the only two that I was unable to get was Music and limited at Sports. It's strange as Pop is usually sold out before them and it isn't.

Interesting. I'll search on a cleared browser. I saw no values available and only Coronado or Cabins at FW available in the moderate category. Thanks!

 

[katyjeka]

I just entered again and music was sold out. AoA is available with the exception of the mermaid rooms.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Interesting. I'll search on a cleared browser. I saw no values available and only Coronado or Cabins at FW available in the moderate category. Thanks!

Nobody likes calling but if you don’t see what you’re after it’s worth a call. It could be IT errors preventing you from seeing availability, it’s been known to happen.