Anyone there now or just back? Crowd levels?

[Tink#64]

Is anyone there now or just back? We are planning to visit this exact week next year as kids have a short fall break.
I heard that October was a great time to go, but now I keep reading that it will be crowded due to the holiday, but I'm wondering when the crowds come in. Is it just crowded over the weekend, or will we notice the crowds the entire week before the Columbus Day weekend? Thanks for any help!:wave:

[Strmchsr]

With fall breaks becoming quite popular across the country and the MNSSHP October has become a fairly popular month, so expect moderate crowds. That said, a truly "uncrowded" month does not seem to exist any longer as in the past.

[disneyfan328]

I know that I am going to be in the minority when I say this, but know that I have only been to Disney once before in March and that was about 10 1/2 years ago We were there 9/22 - 9/30 and although wait times were low for most things 5-20 mins (except for Big Thunder - 30 mins - splash mtn -10 min wait one day 45min wait the next - Soarin 30-60 mins and test track 30 mins - Peter Pan and snow white and pooh all hit 50-60 mins the one day we were there but we had been for loemh so we had already hit those.)

My personal opinion is that the parks were pretty crowded. Trying to shop in the stores was hard there was always a lot of people. DTD was crowded in the MK the sidewalks were always filled and the parades you needed a spot at LEAST an hour before - Now to ME thats crowded - I truly can't imagine what WDW must be like in the summer or during the Thanksgiving and xmas weeks which are said to be the highest capacity for crowds. You must not be able to move in the parks then. Don't get me wrong as I stated the wait times for the most part weren't horrible and we did use fast pass, but there still seemed to be a TON of people there, but since I have never been in September before I have no idea if this is the Norm or not. My DH ended up standing a lot on the buses to the parks from POR - mostly in the AM and if we stayed for parades and fireworks on the way back as well. I always put both the 5 & 7 year olds in mine and oldest dd lap and the buses were still pretty packed.

That being said we had our ADR's made and at those places ( not counter service) we never waited more than 5-10 mins for our table. most waits were only about 5 mins which I think it pretty good considering it was free dining. The only place that we waited longer was our 10:15 am bkfst ressie for Cinderella's Royal Table. Our table was ready in about 20 mins but we were STILL waiting in line to get our photo with Cinderella.

All that being said - I didn't expect it to be as crowded as it was. I had heard that Sept was a great time to go with low crowds. I don't know maybe we lucked out and a lot of people just weren't riding? Anyway there was a lot of people (and love bugs at the end of the week) so to me it was pretty crowded but I have never been in summer ect so maybe I just don't have enough knowledge to determine how truly uncrowded it may have been.

[murphy1]

I really like going back to FL in Fall and Winter and at least there are four parks to choose from rather than just one or two we had growing up!

[SimbaandNalasMama]

Just back and crowds weren't bad, imho. Epcot was busy on the weekend, but thats because it was opening weekend of F&W. when we went back over there on monday, it was very light crowds.

I am trying to think back on the waits we experienced, and i cant think of any really long lines we waited in. Soarin' , as usual, was a long wait, day or night, so we skip it.

I think the fact that we had rain at one point on all days helped out a little. We dont mind rain, just slap on a poncho and enjoy the parks. It seemed to clear people out a bit.

The closer you get to Halloween, and if there is a MNSSHP on any day you are there, it will probably get more crowded.

[ILoveLegos]

We just got back from a 9/30 to 10/6 trip to WDW. It rained a lot everyday, that may have kept crowds at bay somewhat. The longest wait time we had was for the Turtle Talk with Crush attraction - maybe that just felt long to us at 20 minutes because there really is no formal line there and people wonder around from tank to tank and then want to jump in front of everyone to be the first ones in the theatre so people kept squeezing in front of us - we left the "queue" moments before the theatre opened because it looked like a stampeed was about to happen, oh well - we had seen the show once before any way. Anywho we rode many attractions like Buzz Light Year (3 times in a row) The Great Movie Ride (twice to get both scenes). The crowds were pretty small, not quite as small as early January - but close. The crowds in EPCOT noticeably increased on the weekend during F&WF, the lines for festival tapas and vino were about 2-3 times longer on Saturday than during the week. We also used the strategy of visiting the park of the previous night's EMH - I think that was the key to the shorter lines! We found the same to be true during our last year visit during the first week of October. Next to the 2nd week of January it's our favorite time to visit WDW!