Intercot's "Best Time to Visit" question

[Gregandmel]

Hello! We have an upcoming trip scheduled from Oct. 5 - 11th and our decision on this time-frame was based largely on this website's "Best Time to Visit" information, stating early October as being a good time. I'm getting conflicting reports on crowd levels during this time. Is this still considered a good time to go, or are we in for large crowds regardless? I need to be "mentally" prepared before we arrive. I'd hate to think of the parks being somewhat quiet, only to find something completely different. any thoughts on this time of year? Thanks so much!

[Sunshine1010]

In my opinion, there are no slow periods anymore.

Best time to go? ANY day during the morning when they first open.

[faline]

We were there last year at the beginning of October and found the crowds to be quite manageable. Was it deserted? Not at all but wait times for rides were low or quite manageable with fast pass.

[brownie]

It's all relative; there will always be crowds. It can change from day-to-day and from park-to-park. October should still be less crowded than some other times of the year.

[DDuck66]

We have generally found that early October is one of the better times in which to visit the "World". Crowds are generally less than at other times. This DOES NOT mean that the park will be empty....just less crowded than saw July or August. Use yoor Fast Passes and take advantage of EMH times at the various parks and you should be fine. In fact we are going October 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Have fun and try and go see MNSSHP. It is the best!!!!!

[mousetrapper]

We've been during "slow" times where the crowds were pretty thin - used to be much thinner when we first started going to WDW. Our last trip was during Thanksgiving week and it was much more crowded.

What I realized is that while the crowds may be thinner during off-peak times, the parks close earlier. We had some of the best times during Thanksgiving week, staying out late and enjoying the rides as others went back to their rooms or to go to dinner. One night we stayed at MK until after 2 a.m. (it was an evening EMH).

Of course, when our kids were younger, the off-peak hours worked best, since we weren't able to stay up as late.