SAFD:
With full acknowledgment that it is surface of the sun hot, I love the trips that I’ve done with my family in early (not Labor Day, some time after) September. It is a great period where kids everywhere have started school and most parents are hesitant to have them miss class for a couple days that early in the year.
I know that WDW is more than a kids park, but it does significantly cut down the traffic. Our recent trip, arguably affected by Dorian, our longest wait in line was ~50 minutes for Frozen Ever After (middle of the day, popular place to escape the sun, we were more than happy to wait in an air conditioned queue). FoP and Smuggler’s Run were both under 45 minutes at parts of the day when they should have been packed (about 9:30-10:30 AM, probably about the busiest times in the parks).
We also love
MNSSHP during this period. The party is cheaper and the crowds are not overwhelming. I’ve only done the party the last three years, but I’m befuddled when I hear people lament the good ol’ days. I realize the first party and the ones closer to Halloween get packed, but there are still a good number of parties where the price and amount you can do is simply no contest when compared to a full day MK park ticket. We rode everything in the park (most, including big hitters like 7DMT, more than once), had dinner at BoG, saw the parade, watched the fireworks show from the PeopleMover (we kept walking on while the show was in progress), and left at 11. If we wanted to close the doors we could have easily watched the second parade and did the late Sanderson Sisters show as well.
I do understand the lamenting of the good ol’ days with Food and Wine even if I never experienced them. During our trip it was really too hot to enjoy eating outdoors and it really seems the popularity of the fest has driven mass production over quality on a lot of the items and booths. Also, there are such good QS options all around world showcase that the fest somewhat cuts down the ability to take advantage of those. Still, I don’t mind that the fest is in one of its slower periods as well during that time frame.
Anyway, outside of the crazy Holiday-kids still on winter break-during the week of New Year’s Marathon Weekends we had for a couple years Marathon Weekend has always been a pretty darn good time to be at Disney as well. No Epcot festival and colder weather, but that’s not always the worst thing in the world.
ETA: I would love to do an mid-November trip sometime to catch the tail end of Food and Wine (when it's not so hot) and go to the Christmas Party. With my job being in agriculture, it's impossible to plan this sort of trip ahead of time so it would have to be a last minute whirlwind trip.