Columbus Day Crowds?

[Disney Doll]

We are in the beginning stages of planning our next trip for Oct 2011 and I'm considering the week of Columbus Day. My parents are taking a cruise in October and since my mom watches my kids a few days a week I thought it would be easy to plan our vacation the same week as hers so I don't have to find alternate childcare or take more time off. Their cruise is Oct 9-16. I have been conditioned to avoid all holidays so I'm wondering, how bad is it the week of Columbus Day? I searched old threads and saw lots of people asking about this last year and the advice was kind of mixed. So, did anybody go the week of Columbus Day and what did you think?

Otherwise I love Oct. We've been late Sept/ early Oct and we've been the 3rd week of Oct with fantastic experiences.

[nkereina]

I believe the weekend of Columbus Day is also the Canadian Thanksgiving so it could draw more Canadians than other times as well. I haven't been during this time so I can't speak to crowd levels, but would also consider that the Food & Wine Festival and MNSSHP are also going on during this time, which may add to the crowd. From what I have read, I think it's higher than other times that month but not as bad as 4th of July, or other holidays.

[BTM]

Our experience has been that the weekdays leading up and after are not too busy. The crowds are def heavy on the long weekend. We saw a steady build in crowd levels the week before when were were there in 09. The parks were all still very manageable during the week. We went to MK for a while on Saturday of that weekend and it was very busy.

[Disney Doll]

BTM, that really helps! We considered going Tues-Tues. arriving the day after Columbus Day and were wondering if that would really be any better. Sounds like it might be.

Any other experiences?