October hours- They have officially scared me off from Fall trips

[anniemae]

Exactly my opinion as well. No one seems to have considered that they've listened to complaints and extended hours

this was my thought as well. People complained. They listened.

 

[Farro]

Here's why I don't think things are going to be nearly as dire as some folks think it is going to be.
I'm looking to move park days around, switching up and heading to MK on Saturday, 10/7 (not typically recommended day for MK)
Checking FP for this day, I can get FP for every single ride (for 3) right now, including Mine Train.
Don't know about you but that doesn't sound like a slammed busy park to me

I noticed that too. Hopefully a good sign.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I'd be glad if they'd had that kind of late hours over the summer. It was a big disappointment to have the summer MK fireworks at 9pm, and MK closed at 10pm. On top of the that, what they called AK EMH was only the Avatar rides.

I did a girls only trip with dd18 this summer. It would have been a great opportunity for us to stay out til 1-2am for emh since I have 3 much younger kiddos in tow normally. Well no late hours was a big bummer! Now they will have late hours but I will have a 1 yr old with me. Boo.

Here's why I don't think things are going to be nearly as dire as some folks think it is going to be.
I'm looking to move park days around, switching up and heading to MK on Saturday, 10/7 (not typically recommended day for MK)
Checking FP for this day, I can get FP for every single ride (for 3) right now, including Mine Train.
Don't know about you but that doesn't sound like a slammed busy park to me

Interesting. I check multiple times a day for mine train and can't get it.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

Some of you may be back so I was wondering how the crowd levels were?

Right. I think what people are forgetting that the original October hours for 2017 were not the norm. I'm talking the MK closing at 9 ? I havent seen October hours like that for the last 5 years. Disney is just extending their hours and making them what they were supposed to be. I imagine they got tons of complaints this summer and realized their little experiment didn't work.

I'd be glad if they'd had that kind of late hours over the summer. It was a big disappointment to have the summer MK fireworks at 9pm, and MK closed at 10pm. On top of the that, what they called AK EMH was only the Avatar rides.

Count me in as some one who complained. Maybe they listened to me as they did call me back. The weekend after 4th of July and MK closed at 10 PM! We were there pre and post cruise and the only thing that was open after 10 was Pandora and who the heck wants to stand in line for 2 hours? There was not a single morning that MK was open at 8AM. You need those extra hours in the summer if not for crowds at least to escape the heat.

It was so bad that I almost decided to not go this October, especially when I found out that all the the Epcot resorts were sold out for the 5 nights I will be there. I did decide to go but I shot them an email with a warning. "You know it is going to be crowded so DO NOT CUT HOURS!"

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I'm just back. We did 10/5 at mnsshp and 10/6 at ak. We did 10/14 as a resort day and 10/16 at MK in the morning.
We had a cruise inbetween.

I am done with parties. It was packed to the gills. Mnsshp used to be so much fun and not being packed was a big part of that. I didn't enjoy it at all. It felt like a normal MK day with a crowd level 7 or so.
The parade seemed much less wonderful than normal too. Even my DS9 asked if it was shorter than normal. We didn't even stay for fireworks because we were just over it.

Our MK day on 10/16 was much better. Things got quite busy around 12-1pm but still didn't feel like I was packed in too much. Once all rides were 30+ mins we called it a day and headed back to relax at the pool until DME came to pick us up. That was probably 2:30.

AK day all I did was pandora because DD spiked a fever. DH and the boys stayed and did some more rides but I don't have a good assessment of how it was to share.

All in all, my August trip was less crowded than my October so I am done with fall. Between the uptick in popularity over the last few years, not wanting to attend mnsshp anymore, and the hurricane risk, it isn't worth it to me.

 

[Wackdawg]

We went from 10/1-10/8 and have decided that in the future that early November is our new October.

 

[AngiTN]

We were there 10/5 till 10/11
I thought the crowds were a bit higher, not significantly.
Where things got skewed were outages. Splash was down so that took 1 ride out right there. Then, Pirates was down for a huge portion of our day at MK, which skewed things even more
We had FP for several rides that got converted to anytime FP due to ride outages. More than during any of our other trips. Those things cause waits at lines at other rides to get off. So it was hard to look at waits and tell what crowds were like
We were able to get ADR easily
We even had success getting additional FP, for instance we used our 3 at MK, got 1 more, than got 3 more at HS

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

We went from 10/1-10/8 and have decided that in the future that early November is our new October.

I’m right there with you.

I’m so glad my DD has completed all her schooling and we are not relegated to October anymore. I just found it too busy for my liking. Back to November for us as well.

 

[neverlandsky]

Here now since 10/14 to 10/21. Our first visit.

EP on Sunday 10/15 was crowded, yet very doable with FPs and a rd with mid-day break along with an evening return plan.

DHS today Monday 10/16 was beyond packed. We called it quits after 4 hours. Too many issues all around. It just wasn’t worth it.

On the plus side though, we’re loving our resort down time. After all it’s indeed a vacation.

 

[DisneyOma]

I was at WDW in August and everything was closed by 10pm...which was super annoying but I digress.

It seems like every time I look at the calendar for October the hours are extended more and more. There are now 12a-2a EMH some nights.

Yikes! Think this is the last Fall break trip we will have. I need to come up with a new preferred vacation month.

Hope everyone has fun in spite of the crowds!

So, you're complaining that they close early, then complaining that they are open later?

 

[100acreHiker]

We've gone the week after Thanksgiving for 6 or 7 years now. I have never seen 8 am opening hours at MK short of EMH. I'm anticipating record crowds, but I'd love to be wrong!

 

[kittylady1972]

Here now since 10/14 to 10/21. Our first visit.

EP on Sunday 10/15 was crowded, yet very doable with FPs and a rd with mid-day break along with an evening return plan.

DHS today Monday 10/16 was beyond packed. We called it quits after 4 hours. Too many issues all around. It just wasn’t worth it.

On the plus side though, we’re loving our resort down time. After all it’s indeed a vacation.

Yikes...we arrive tomorrow with a LARGE group of people. Since we are used to dealing with Thanksgiving Week crowds, hopefully this won't be too insane for us to navigate...and to help navigate our crowd of 14+ people with us!

We are hoping to take advantage of evening hours as often as possible, as we will have a group of adults and older kids with us. I'm sure the older kids will be able to hang and will do better with evenings than mornings.

Debating MNSSHP but recent posts here have me concerned that it's not as fun as it used to be for us. I'd hate to spend $500 for tickets and not get much out of it. We used to LOVE the parade and the evening entertainment, not so much characters.

 

[firefly_ris]

We were just there 10/10 - 10/13, I made a small trip report over in the Trip Report forum ("Just Back 10/10-10/13").

I felt it was more crowded than our last trip (the 5 days after Thanksgiving 2015). We were well prepared so it was all still manageable however. The only day that was borderline not enjoyable was our 10/11 MK day, which I knew ahead of time was going to be a gamble with a 2AM closing on one of the only non-party nights, so I'm completely aware of that decision. Like AngiTN mentioned there were a lot of technical problems at MK and I think that really added to the mess -- Pirates was down almost the entire day, so I missed it, and PeopleMover was down at night for a time....and Splash is down for refurb which is a big one. Also it was hot. We waited 45 minutes for the railroad! We made it until about 10:30 and decided to call it a night. Our other park times at the other 3 parks were also crowded but nothing at all like that day at MK -- on our last day we returned to AK and even though it was pretty crowded I managed to get FPs for Na'vi River and FoP on that same day, both before 4pm.

So overall yes it was busy, yes I knew the MK day would probably be busy and I still chose it so I could be in MK at night anyway, and I think if it wasn't so hot, even that wouldn't have been so bothersome. To me it was still all doable, but personally I'll plan to be returning at cooler times of the year again like January and February.

 

[SarahC97]

We went in October 2013 and it was awesome. Low crowds, great weather. Went last October - never again. There are lower crowd times to go, so we won't be going back in October, unfortunately.

 

[stinkpickle]

We've gone the week after Thanksgiving for 6 or 7 years now. I have never seen 8 am opening hours at MK short of EMH. I'm anticipating record crowds, but I'd love to be wrong!

I think they're just shifting the opening to 8am, because they kick non-party goers out at 6pm instead of 7pm this year.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

So, you're complaining that they close early, then complaining that they are open later?

No I was complaining that they closed early when it was just myself and my 18-year-old in summertime and we could have taken advantage of late hours. Instead, everything was closed by 10 PM except Pandora. I wasn't complaining at all that they were open later in October. I was just saying since they were open so much later they must have been expecting crowds. I was unable to use late hours in October because I was traveling with my small children who can't stay out that late. I don't mind at all that they were open late for those that could stay out late though. I wish I had been one of them.

Eta: we have been many years in oct and it used to be amazing. I booked the beach for next fall break. Not sure when we will do wdw. I will probably just grab a last minute deal when I find one like I got in august this year.

 

[River Country]

I am going 10/30-11/5. while normally this would be a good week and with the exception of Halloween and yes I am going to MNSSHP on Halloween and yes its sold out I really don't mind crowds, I plan the FP make my ADR's and tra la la la la my way around F&W happy as a clam. There really is no low crowd season anymore. If I were to venture a guess the lowest crowds are January and September maybe the first 2 weeks of December.

As far as the hours go, my week has only 1 EMH in the evening MK 9-11 on 10/30 then there are 2 parties 10/31 and 11/1. the rest of the week all the parks are done by 9 until Friday and Saturday and MK and Epcot are open until 10. you would think the crowds will be low but try and book a room that week SLIM Pickens!!!! I couldn't get a DVC reservation but I did snag POP with a Passholder discount.

 

[Tess]

We were there from 10/6-13/17 and spent 2.5 days prior to Disney at Universal/IOA.

MK hours were switched to 8:00 a.m. openings a short time before our trip. We only went to MK on 10/12 for the morning. We arrived at 8:15 a.m. or so and had FP for POC and 7DMT. Knowing we wanted to head to EPCOT at 11:00ish, I didn't bother with a third FP. We headed directly to BTMRR and it was a walk on. We could have ridden again, but opted to move along given our short time. On to HM with a 5-10 minute wait. We did Jungle Cruise with a 15 minute wait (only waited because a boat had to be cleaned due to an ill guest). Then on to our FP at POC followed by Monster's Inc and then hit 7DMT prior to leaving at 11:15a.m. The key is to get there early because by 11:15 a.m., the throngs descended (as we have typically found to be the case).

DHS was ridiculously busy both days we were there. Within minutes of opening, wait times for the major rides exceeded an hour. We found the same to be true for AK and the rides at EPCOT. F&W kiosks were not an issue although the WS was hugely crowded most nights and we were there every night of our stay.

FOP and Navi River were loooooonnnnnnggggggg waits--exceeding 210 minutes on Sunday. We had a FP for Navi River on Sunday and one for FOP on Tuesday. We rope drop and utilize FP, so our waits were not crazy. While MK didn't see huge crowds (at least on our day) until late morning, the other parks were packed at opening.

I maintain the parks are as crowded now in October as the busier summer months when we used to visit, but not nearly as bad as the holidays. Manageable with a plan and early start.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I think they're just shifting the opening to 8am, because they kick non-party goers out at 6pm instead of 7pm this year.

That makes sense. Did oct have 8am non-emh hours previously? They were added to our trip dates this year somewhat last minute. Non-mnsshp guests weren't booted out til 7 though.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I maintain the parks are as crowded now in October as the busier summer months when we used to visit, but not nearly as bad as the holidays. Manageable with a plan and early start.

Yes completely agree, not as bad as holidays but as popular now as summer.

I find that now with FP+ we are basically finished with parks at lunch time. Used to be once the crowds rolled in we could hop on things that never really had a wait. Things that were people movers, such as haunted mansion, pirates things like that. So if you rope dropped and use your fast passes you knocked a lot of things out by lunch time. Then you could still help on those other rides that didn't have more than a 10 minute, maybe 15 minute wait.

Now those rides have waits 30+ minutes on these type of busy days. Both in August and October we got there and rope dropped as many things as we could and then used our fast passes when mine started getting busier. But once we were out of fast passes there weren't any extras available except for things like monsters Inc. comedy club which we didn't need a fast pass for. the waits for everything else were 30+ minutes, even small world. So we found ourselves exiting by about 1 o'clock because there's nothing there that we are interested in waiting over 30 minutes to ride. I love tomorrowland transit authority, but I'm not waiting in a long line to get on it.