Hi guys. We just returned from 10 BEAUTIFUL days in WDW. (I'll post a full trip report later.) Because of my business, the only time I can go is October and the crowds are usually the same (light) each year. Because we had another child (and gave up an income) we haven't been back since 2007. With the economy being less than stellar, I expected smaller-than-usual crowds. Boy was I wrong!!!

On our first full day at the Magic Kingdom, which I stupidly scheduled for a Saturday, the crowds were overwhelming. 45 minute waits for It's A Small World. (I guess Stacy's MUST SEEs are working.) 100+ minute waits for Space Mountain. We were there all day and did very little. Same at Animal Kingdom the next day. (I can never remember Animal Kingdom being crowded in October.)

We went to Hollywood Studios three times and it was PACKED each time. Toy Story Mania FastPasses were usually gone by 11:00. The second showing of Fantasmic was filled to capacity.

One night, we thought we'd escape the Hollywood Studio crowd and take the Friendship boat to Epcot. It was a Saturday during the Food & Wine Festival. Huge Mistake!!! Epcot was shoulder to shoulder around the entire World Showcase. And it was not a family-friendly crowd either. It was a slightly intoxicated, boisterous, staggering, loud, having-a-great-time crowd. Not many families with strollers. Very, very few in fact. We just went from the International Gateway around to the exit, stopping only to snack on food, which was great by the way. On the bus ride back, others expressed the same feelings about the crowd and as the reason they were leaving, too.

The next day, we were relaying our experience to another guest when a Cast Member overheard us. She said, "Magic Kingdom had 56,000 in attendance yesterday." i didn't know it held that many people.

The truth is: even though we visited each park at least twice, we never made it to many attractions. And we're not WDW rookies. We know how to plan, utilize FastPass, etc. It was just PACKED!!!I'm glad to see Disney is doing well, but it did damper an otherwise perfect vacation.

Bear in mind, I've never gone during peak season (July, Christmas week) so that may be the norm. But for the Octobers I remember, attendance was unusually high.