Super Busy after Irma and Crowd Tracker Accuracy

[oreocat]

Hi!

We planned our trip almost a year ago for 9/16 - 24th.

Someone mentioned to "expect peak summer type crowds after Irma" because of the many people moving their vacation etc. Does anyone know if this is true or likely to be true based on past experiences. Touring Plans and Undercover Tourist have not changed on those dates.

I do notice that Disneyworld's site shows no rooms available at any hotels any of those dates.

Obviously the first and foremost concern for everyone is to be safe but I have a child in my party that won't do well with peak crowds.

Thank you!!

 

[mom2rtk]

Nobody can tell you the answer to that. A lot of locals will be too busy cleaning up after the storm to visit the parks.

But honestly, it doesn't help one bit to worry. It will be what it is.

Hope you have a great trip.

 

[kumimama]

I was looking for a quick trip oct 4 to 8, but there is no room available at value resorts.

 

[anniemae]

Most likely it will be very busy. Many many folks rescheduled for later Sept and Oct. Expect heavy crowds and be happy for anything less. We went one Aug a couple of years ago and there was a hurricane heading for FL. Orlando was going to take a bad hit. A state of emergency was issued and many people canceled. The hurricane ended up falling apart, but people had already canceled. The following few weeks were very crowded in part due to all the people who pushed their trips out by a week or two.

 

[FCDub]

OP, I would not rely on crowd calendars right now. I'm not sure the crowd calendar people's first thought during this hurricane would be to update their calendars based on cancellations – especially if they're based in Florida themselves. As a previous poster said, there's probably no way to know in advance. But I'm sure you'll have a great trip regardless! Time in Disney is better than not being there!

 

[Klayfish]

Nobody can tell you the answer to that. A lot of locals will be too busy cleaning up after the storm to visit the parks.

But honestly, it doesn't help one bit to worry. It will be what it is.

Hope you have a great trip.

This.

The crowd calendars depend on your belief in how accurate they are (and your perception of what a "7" is or a "4" is). IMO, I give crowd calendars absolutely no accuracy value.

 

[emsstacey]

Last year, I had foolishly hoped that we would have low crowds after the hurricane and it was pretty much late June-ish crowds. It was ok most of the time, but Animal Kingdom last year was unbearably crowded (our favorite park). I imagine it will be terrible now with Pandora open.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I was looking for a quick trip oct 4 to 8, but there is no room available at value resorts.

Keep checking. I needed to move out Park days to pre cruise recently. Moved from 10/14-16 to 10/4-7. Had to call many times over the course of about 10 days but was finally able to do so without a split ressie, and kept the discount.

 

[lilbabyfroggie]

I was just thinking about this. We booked 10-16 because it was supposed to be the slowest week of the year. Now though, I'm thinking not, lol. I'm sitting here trying to decide if I should cancel (we rebooked 14-20) or go with the flow. I had to change resorts due to availability, so I sort of feel like I'm spending a lot of money to go at a time where crowd levels could be much higher than anticipated, and staying in a resort I didn't plan on. It's starting to feel a bit pieced together, if that makes sense. I'm not sure what to do..... Anyhow, I do feel your indecision!

 

[AngiTN]

I was looking for a quick trip oct 4 to 8, but there is no room available at value resorts.

This was the case months before Irma was even formed.

 

[Farro]

I was also thinking about this, but in the end I don't think enough people changed to October to make that much of a difference. I've heard from a few and they are all over the month.

If it's crowded, I don't think it's from September people! Although we will blame them.

 

[AngiTN]

I was also thinking about this, but in the end I don't think enough people changed to October to make that much of a difference. I've heard from a few and they are all over the month.

If it's crowded, I don't think it's from September people! Although we will blame them.

Right. From what I've seen a large portion changed a week or two out, not a month.
First week in October is fall break throughout the South. It's going to be crowded. Probably not far from Spring break.

 

[linzjane88]

I was just thinking about this. We booked 10-16 because it was supposed to be the slowest week of the year. Now though, I'm thinking not, lol. I'm sitting here trying to decide if I should cancel (we rebooked 14-20) or go with the flow. I had to change resorts due to availability, so I sort of feel like I'm spending a lot of money to go at a time where crowd levels could be much higher than anticipated, and staying in a resort I didn't plan on. It's starting to feel a bit pieced together, if that makes sense. I'm not sure what to do..... Anyhow, I do feel your indecision!

My cousins invited me down for a last minute trip right before the news of hurricanes started. I booked the 14th through the 19th. I will be without husband and kids for this trip(their work/school schedules wouldn't allow them to go). I booked at Sports because it was the cheapest since I feel guilty doing this trip solo.
Anyway, I'm a little anxious myself not knowing what the crowds will bring in the days immediately after. Well, and also nervous/guilty about a mom only WDW trip across the country. Ha ha.

 

[lilbabyfroggie]

My cousins invited me down for a last minute trip right before the news of hurricanes started. I booked the 14th through the 19th. I will be without husband and kids for this trip(their work/school schedules wouldn't allow them to go). I booked at Sports because it was the cheapest since I feel guilty doing this trip solo.
Anyway, I'm a little anxious myself not knowing what the crowds will bring in the days immediately after. Well, and also nervous/guilty about a mom only WDW trip across the country. Ha ha.

We're staying nearby, and it's just a "mom and me" trip, me being 40 years old, mom being 62, lol. We've been planning it for a year, so excited! I just called her and asked what she thought about the bigger crowds, she says she doesn't care, so we're just going to roll with it, and be flexible.

 

[linzjane88]

We're staying nearby, and it's just a "mom and me" trip, me being 40 years old, mom being 62, lol. We've been planning it for a year, so excited! I just called her and asked what she thought about the bigger crowds, she says she doesn't care, so we're just going to roll with it, and be flexible.

My extended family meeting me there is also kid free so we are planning on being laid back and rolling with it too. I think it's a whole lot easier to accomplish that when I don't have kids to worry about being inconvenienced, hangry, crabby etc. It will all be good. We're in Disney after all, right?

 

[neverlandsky]

Oct. was pretty booked up back in Apr. Everyone in our party can't deal with the peak crowds for different reasons. So I built our schedule to be flexible with mandatory carved out decompression time that suits all our needs. Of course this means we may not tackle everything we want to do since this is our first visit, yet that's okay. No matter what happens just being at Walt Disney World is awesome in itself so I'm sure you'll have a great trip OP.

 

[Spencer Wright]

Last year, I had foolishly hoped that we would have low crowds after the hurricane and it was pretty much late June-ish crowds. It was ok most of the time, but Animal Kingdom last year was unbearably crowded (our favorite park). I imagine it will be terrible now with Pandora open.

This is somewhat unrelated but we were just in AK when crowds are stil higher and because of pandora crowds are very light in the rest of the park for a few hours

 

[JerseyJanice]

The first week of this October is the Gartner Symposium. Thousands of IT professionals will be in Disney for that.

 

[Staarr11]

Just from what I've seen people post it seems they just pushed back their trips as opposed to cancelling it. I'm afraid the rest of Sept. is going to be busy.

 

[kandb]

I was just thinking about this. We booked 10-16 because it was supposed to be the slowest week of the year. Now though, I'm thinking not, lol. I'm sitting here trying to decide if I should cancel (we rebooked 14-20) or go with the flow. I had to change resorts due to availability, so I sort of feel like I'm spending a lot of money to go at a time where crowd levels could be much higher than anticipated, and staying in a resort I didn't plan on. It's starting to feel a bit pieced together, if that makes sense. I'm not sure what to do..... Anyhow, I do feel your indecision!

I don't know who said mid-October is slow now. Maybe in the past it has been low crowds but not anymore. With the Halloween party and many schools having "fall breaks" in October, October is very popular now.