Disney World Crowd Update: A Tale of Two Seasons
As you’ve probably gathered from the flurry of Walt Disney World construction updates, we just returned from a trip to Florida. Crowds and wait times were…interesting…and we thought we’d drop in here with our experiences, and some tips on ways to have the best experience possible if you’re visiting in October, November, or December.
At first, crowds were great. I had anticipated this as I monitored wait times from home (as one does). Nevertheless, I was a little apprehensive that the calendar changing to October would cause a spike. We arrived in early October, and the first several days of the trip, crowds were low.
Definitely not what I expected for October. We walked on to numerous popular attractions, from Soarin’ to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We didn’t need FastPass+ for Space Mountain or Expedition Everest during the middle of the day. I even began thinking up “clever” names for a sequel to our All Quiet on the Crowds at Disney World Front post, intent on coming up with something even more obscure that fewer people would get. Then the first weekend of October hit, and it was like flipping a switch.
The next several days were all intensely crowded, which is somewhat unsurprising given the Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day holidays. Even as we employed strategies we normally use to minimize the impact of crowds, it was pretty bad. Instead of experiencing the off-season lull we had enjoyed on our last trip to Walt Disney World and the beginning of this visit, we experienced the “new normal” for October–perhaps even slightly elevated from the norm.
As we’ve reiterated in our October at Walt Disney World and Best & Worst Months to Visit Walt Disney World posts, October is not off-season. There is still some outdated info floating around that it’s a good time to go for a good mix of weather, crowds, and seasonal events, and that’s simply not the case. It’s not just the Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day holidays, either–this pattern of elevated crowds continues throughout October.
I mean, October definitely has one of those things (seasonal events) and can have another (good weather), but the crowds part is inaccurate. It also didn’t help on this trip that the weather was not favorable. It was hot and humid the entire time, with temperatures in the 90s and “feels like” temps well over 100.
Florida weather in October can be a crapshoot, and we definitely got the crap part of that. When you compound the crowds and hot weather, it’s rough.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the park where this all is probably the most noteworthy. As I mentioned in our October 2018 DHS Update, the Bus Stop Half Marathon is absolutely miserable, and sets a really sour tone for visiting that park. It doesn’t help that there’s very little shade once you’re inside.
I spent maybe 10 minutes in Toy Story Land before saying “enough” to that and bouncing. We’ve heard from credible sources that a minor ‘re-tooling’ of this land is coming to install more shade and rain cover…but we heard that back in July. I have no idea when this will occur–perhaps when the Christmas decorations are installed? More shade can’t come soon enough.
When you couple the park-wide wait times (you cannot possibly FastPass+ it all) with the heat and Bus Stop Half Marathon, I think a strong case can be made for Walt Disney World regulars who have been to the park before and will go again in the future to sit out Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the next month or so. We’ll definitely be back to see the Christmas decorations, but I’m perfectly content waiting until temperatures cool a bit.
The situation is in some ways worse and in some ways better at Animal Kingdom. Pandora – World of Avatar remains a big hit that draws guests all day long. Crowds are huge throughout the land, and Avatar Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey often are the longest waits at Walt Disney World. (It doesn’t help that Flight of Passage is often operating at reduced capacity.)
Fortunately, there’s more shade in Pandora, and the payoff of these attractions–Flight of Passage in particular–is far better than Toy Story Land.
The restaurant there is also indoors and air conditioned. For us, the upsides far outweigh the downsides. Animal Kingdom is a must-do even with the crowds–you just need good strategy.
Circling back to our previous post about early fall crowds, there were a few things we noticed from reader comments, specifically those that disagreed with us. First, we have it on good authority that August and September attendance and hotel occupancy were markedly down year over year. Irrespective of what crowds felt like on any individual day, these were the overarching patterns.
Second, several people pointed out that the parks seemed busier in mid-September around the time of Hurricane Florence. We have no insight into this one way or the other, but it’s entirely plausible that there was a spike then as residents of the Carolinas headed to Florida.
Third, we still have no concrete explanation for the attendance spikes at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. After a couple lower-attendance parties in early September, we assumed things were back to normal. Not so. In addition to several parties selling out, crowds have been heavier this year.
There have been rumblings among Cast Members that Disney increased the attendance cap, but we don’t have credible confirmation of this. It’s surprising that even as prices spike for this event every year, so too does demand. (It’s also tough to reconcile lower daily attendance in September with higher party attendance.)
Finally, crowd levels can be very differently based upon the day of the week you visit each park. To that end, we have some easy ways to minimize your exposure to ‘peak’ crowds If you’re visiting between now and…pretty much the end of the year.
If at all possible, plan your day visits to Magic Kingdom on weekdays when there is a hard ticket party scheduled in the evening. Day crowds at Magic Kingdom are considerably more manageable when the park closes to regular guests at 6 p.m. Conversely, day crowds are significantly heavier when the park closes at 10 p.m. or, worse yet, has evening Extra Magic Hours. (Park Hopper tickets are your friend this time of year.)
Avoid Epcot on weekends and week nights when there are Extra Magic Hours. Weekends are when local Food & Wine crowds show up in full force, and EMH nights are a similar draw. In fairness, we do not follow the second half of this advice ourselves. We love evening Extra Magic Hours at Epcot; we just suck it up and deal with the crowds those nights. (However, we usually don’t show up until evening; crowds during the day are worse on EMH nights.)
Morning Extra Magic Hours remain the best option for resort guests wanting to experience Toy Story Land or Pandora – World of Avatar with minimal crowds. If you’re staying off-site, you should absolutely avoid these two parks on mornings with EMH–rope drop them a different day.
Alternatively, do either of these newer lands at the very end of the night and jump into the standby line right before park closing. Not only is this a solid approach for minimizing your wait, but it’s cooler at night and there’s (obviously) no sunlight to make the wait even more excruciating. We favor this same approach with Seven Dwarfs Mine Train–it’s typically the only way we do that ride.
This advice applies year-round, but it’s especially true in the fall and winter when new-ish offerings seem to be the most popular. We’re guessing this is because annual visitors favor these times of year, and also make more of a point of experiencing whatever’s new?
That’s really about it. The Magic Kingdom tip deserves the strongest emphasis, because the difference in daytime crowds between a party night and non-party night can be extreme.
It’s one of those things that’s self-evident when you think about it, but is easy to overlook. Visitors without Park Hopper tickets (which is a lot of people) plan around park hours, and a 6 p.m. closing is far less appealing than 9 or 10 p.m.
If you do have Park Hopper tickets, we’d strongly encourage you to do Magic Kingdom in the day on a party night, bounce to Epcot for the evening (or whichever park is open latest), and return another night for Happily Ever After and nighttime at Magic Kingdom.
If you don’t have another day on your tickets to return, you can always watch HalloWishes from the Ticket & Transportation Center, which is arguably the best viewing location to see those perimeter bursts in their full glory, anyway.
Overall, October has been one of the worst months of the year crowd-wise the last few years, and that trend would appear set to continue in 2018. What’s unclear is where crowds for November and December go from here. Given that several resorts appeared ‘sold out’ for select holiday dates months in advance, we’re guessing that the low crowds of August and September were a short-lived anomaly, but we’re holding out hope that they make a reprise…for early to mid-November, at the very least.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What has been your experience with Walt Disney World crowds over the course of the last three months? (If you share your experience, please also share your travel dates.) Do you agree or disagree with our assessment of crowds at WDW? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I love your blog! Thanks so much for keeping this Disney fan informed!
Question: we’re going to WDW Dec 9-15. The earliest FP I could get for any Toy Story ride was 1:30pm for Toy Story Mania.
Do you suggest rope dropping the other Toy Story rides (like every other person?) we’ve got four small children, so I don’t think we’ll still be at HS at closing. What’s your advice?
It really depends upon how important Slinky Dog Dash is to your family. You can either do that once with minimal wait, or head over to Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and do those multiple times with no wait.
Many southern states have a full week off for Columbus Day. Tennessee, Georgia, probably more.
We were on vacation at the Florida Panhandle and got evacuated day 2 because of Hurricane Michael. We looked into going to Disney but it was going to be so hot we decided not to. Just did a slow drive home/road trip back to the Midwest.
Booking a Disney Cruise this week for 2019. Our 2018 vacation was terrible!
We were in Disney Sept 15-22 and while I thought the daytime crowds were manageable (why I picked that week), Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party was over the top crowded (on a Tuesday night!) –crowded enough for me to lodge my first formal complaint with Disney in over 20 years. The lines for rides were more than double the daytime wait times. Lines for candy were super long and we didn’t even dare waste 2-3 hours for a character meeting. We could not see the Hocus Pocus show at all despite arriving an hour in advance and we just sat on the ground playing on our phones. We did manage to carve out a corner for the parade but only after blocking rude people trying to nudge their way in – my 9 year old granddaughter said it best, “this special event doesn’t feel at all special.” Disney is in my heart, but we won’t be buying any more hard ticket event tickets. It isn’t at all about the money, it’s about the experience and for us, it was supposed to be the highlight of our week, but instead it was the one disappointment. Disney is overselling the events so that they are more crowded than the daytime. It used to feel special to be at a Halloween or Christmas party but now I’d rather do something else that is actually fun. Hate to share a negative– but people expect the party to be less crowded and to feel exclusive but it’s not anymore. It really used to be like that….so special. PS – Tom, your blog is great. Thanks for sharing so many great tips.
“Hate to share a negative– but people expect the party to be less crowded and to feel exclusive but it’s not anymore.”
First of all, thanks for sharing your experience. We’d go broke attending every single party, so these kind of anecdotal accounts are very important to us in assessing crowd levels at the hard ticket events. We’re currently debating doing a dedicated post about crowd woes this year at MNSSHP as something of a ‘warning’ for people thinking of buying MVMCP tickets, so reports like yours are actually very helpful.
Second, don’t ever apologize for being honest. This blog is not DisneyCanDoNoWrong.com. We are a site for consumers who want to plan the best Disney trip possible and get the most bang for their buck. Not everything Disney does is perfect, and we feel it’s important to draw attention to missteps like this.
Hi Lea,
We were at Disney World the same week and attended our first Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, and the crowds were ridiculous. My wife and I agreed that we will no longer be spending the money on parties to be disappointed like that. Unfortunately, I don’t think anything will change as there are too many first timers / once-in-a-lifetime people that will buy the oversold tickets; therefore, Disney won’t change or stop cramming people in. I guess we’ll just go to other parks during Hard Ticket events from now on.
Hi Tom,
We were there from 9/22 to 9/28 and experienced at best…..low/moderate crowds. We’re talking 10 min wait for ToT and RnR and a 25 min wait for Slinky on 9/26 @ around 6:30-8:00PM to a 50 min wait for FoP on 9/27 @ around 4:30.
We went to the Halloween Party on 9/25 and really the only things that had signifcant lines were the unique character meet and greets.
I’m taking my girlfriend to WDW in mid December. Typically the crowds are pretty reasonable save for the last few days before Christmas.
It’s becoming clearer and clearer from what I’ve been hearing that Disney is going to need a 5th gate in the next 5-7 years.
I’m hoping it’ll be somewhat lower crowds when my husband and I are there in November. (12-16) such a short trip, it’ll still be great even if it’s a bit crowded. But hoping for the best!
We just got back from our trip October 1st – 10th. It was crazy busy, especially the 10th. We were at HS in the morning then hopped to MK about 1:00. MK was wall to wall people. Not fun at all. We finally left about 6:00. I checked wait times about 11:00pm and they were still over an hour +.
Several things contributed to this: 1) the hurricane brought in people from the panhandle, 2) heavy rains closed the outside rides so lines were way backed up when they did open, and 3) it was the only MK day in a long time that didn’t have extra morning hours or extra evening hours or any hard ticket events. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid or control these things other than not to go that day. My bad in not realizing it.
I thought 10/10/18 had extra evening hours at MK until 1am? That’s what my calendar said so I told my friends to avoid it. Maybe I was wrong but I guess it was good that they avoided it anyway by your report.
Yes, it was open until 1:00am. When I first made my plans, it wasn’t open that late. I think Disney anticipated the crowds and changed the timrs.
We have a trip planned Jan 8th-16th 2019. Any suggestions to visit parks around the marathon races? Also I noticed the HS EMH is evening hours. I assumed because of the marathon races. Any suggestions to utilize the evening EMH. We do have park hoppers.
Original plans were to hit EMH parks with am EMH and return to the resort to rest the afternoons and HOP to another park with our EMH to enjoy the evenings at a hopefully slower park and stay at that park until close. But the PM EMH at HS is throwing me for a loop. any thoughts would be appreciated.
We have an upcoming trip in December (11th-16th). We are staying on site, so we hit our 60 day window for fast passes last Friday. We are going to AK on Wednesday the 12th. No EMH, middle of the week…no holidays and kids are in school. Seems like that’s about as slow as it should get. Lo and behold all Flight of Passage Fast Passes were gone for our family as soon as I logged in promptly at 7:00am. That’s insanity to me, and coupled with this post makes me a little nervous. I’m hopeful it will all work out and not be overly crowded.
Drew, that could be because your FoP attempt was only on your second day there. The strategy lately has been to put the high-demand FP towards the end of your stay for higher odds of getting them. It’s because people whose trip dates fell slightly before yours already had dibs on your 12/12 FastPasses for up to 10days. The later in your stay, the less people had access to your dates. Don’t feel discouraged though, I hear people talking about barely getting FoP on their EIGHTH day!!! Wut??! I’m coming in the week after you and I don’t even have an EIGHTH day!! 🙁
Thanks Lisa. Yes, when we went last year we had FoP on the last day and were able to get a FastPass for it. The flip side was we are going to HS on the last day of our trip, and were able to get a FastPass for Slinky Dog Dash. In my head, I think I can tolerate the Rope Drop for FoP more than Slinky Dog Dash.
Not getting it on the eighth day is insane. It just seems like if you are staying at a resort and one of the perks is 60+ days out, and at 68 days prior you can’t make a ride reservation? I’d argue the system needs improvement/change.
Hi Drew:
My DH and I are going to WDW Dec 10th to 19th, and our AK day is also the 12th. I logged on early and there wasn’t much left in AK. We are probably the only 2 people who don’t really care to ride FOP again. It’s one and done for us. We go t Navvi River Ride and EE. Hopefully it will be a good day for AK! Keep checking back for the FOP, as we got Slinky dog at HS by rechecking.. Hope it works out for you.
Hi Ruth,
I hope you have a great trip. I think it will be a good day at AK. If a Wednesday the second week in December is overly crowded I think all hope is lost.
Staying at Port Orleans Riverside for the last 5 days (Oct 11-16). It’s our 10th visit in 12 years. Crowds feel to have doubled this year. It’s been difficult getting a bus at the hotel and have had to Uber to dinners due to extended transportation wait times. The unseasonably hot/humid temps have compounded the frustrating visit. We’ve still had fun, but Plan on changing when we come next time to a different time of year.
We went to the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot on Saturday 10/13 and it was SO CROWDED. Very disappointing, it was our first time visiting during this event and we were only able to try 2-3 booths. You couldn’t even walk around world showcase there were so many people.
We just returned from our trip as well. We went Sept. 27-Oct. 11 and saw the same thing. Crowds were low to begin, but over Columbus Day weekend got bad (and stayed bad).
We found it worked out best for us to go early morning and leave around noon. We’d hang out at the hotel pool or water parks. Then go back after (or for) dinner in the evenings.
I also thought Hollywood studios was best in the morning. We rode rockin roller coaster after rope drop, then high tailed it to Tower of Terror.
We got on the first train at RR and rode Tower of terror ALONE! Then we went around again.
EVERYONE made a mad dash to Toy story land, leaving the best rides empty!
We did go to toy story land after those rides, but the lines were longer than they normally would be because everyone rushed over there. I say fast pass those rides, and do the old rides first thing in the morning. Then call it day, unless you’re up for long lines and heat. I also like doing the shows, because you’ll get in and sitting down quickly. We never waste a fast pass for them. Honestly, after years of going to Disney, it’s not even about the rides anymore. We’re more content relaxing in the lazy river on a tube!
We were virtually alone at the water parks after a thunderstorm. Not a soul to be seen floating around us.
We stuck out the brief storm under an umbrella and the boys and I built sand creatures while it rained. 🙂
Plus, we found the cast to be far more pleasant at the water parks. I don’t know if it was the heat or the crowds, but the cast members in the theme parks were awful!!
Rude and not courteous. I had one lady actually yell at my boy for lowering a rope, so his grandmother could get in the line with her wheelchair. He was simply trying to help. My husband went back and talked with her about it after we were in line. I found this to be an ongoing problem this trip. Lazy workers, not wanting to be there. It made the magic of Disney nonexistent.
After forking our over 10,000, it makes me wonder if Disney is in the cards for future vacations.
I put this here to see if anyone else had noticed this change?
Not everyone was like this, but the majority were. Also, I never remembered the grounds looking so bad. Paint chipping and animatronics not working. Hopefully changing or educating the staff is in the cards with all the “reimagining” going on. Maybe it’s just me being a school bus driver and around children a lot, but there are certainly better ways to talk with kids. I heard this going on with a lot of people.
Tom,
I am taking my 3 children to Disney December 11th – 13th 2018. Staying at the Art of Animation Lion King suite.
I’ve been following all these articles and just wanted to say it’s much appreciated! We are doing Magic Kingdom on the 12th and hope that crowds and weather aren’t do bad.
Wondering if it was extra busy because of Hurricane Michael??
Hi Tom, we were in Disney World from Sept 28 thru Oct 9th. We are from humidity free California. To say it was extremely humid and hot during our visit is an understatement. We didn’t think it was extremely crowded, except for MNSSHP. We were able to experience very doable wait times on the majority of the rides.
We were there October 6-10 because it lined up with or oldest daughters fall break from college. We paced ourselves and made it work even with the crowds. We attended MNSSHP for the first time on October 9th and loved it. It didn’t feel like lower crowds than a day in the park at all but we had a great time. We didn’t do anything character meets during the party but focused on rides, trick or treating, the parade, fireworks and stage show. We live in the south and a lot of schools have fall break Columbus week which will lead to higher crowds. It is a gamble though being that it isn’t during hurricane season. We were camping at the Fort and Disney wanted to move us on our last night due to wind gusts from Michael. We were already over at the party and declined as we would have had to leave and take our tent down and move.
Running FoP at reduced capacity shouldn’t probably fill me with rage. And yet.
If it makes you feel better, it’s not a cost-cutting measure. There have been a range of technical issues that have caused this. I’m not sure where things currently stand in terms of operations at Flight of Passage, but there were/are a number of persistent problems.
Thank you for that clarification! I assumed it was cost-cutting. Technical problems happen. I get that.
Tom,
You are right that crowd levels increased dramatically in early October. One reason for that was the early arrival of Columbus Day/Indigenous People’s Day on October 8. As a CM, I spoke with many guests who came down that weekend due to fall break at colleges and schools in Tennessee and a few other states. Additionally, the increasing numbers of MNSSHP dates tends to push more guests to visit on non-party dates, especially the Magic Kingdom. We now have four parties a week and non-party nights are very crowded.
Yes, we did see a large influx of guests in September during Florence. I spoke with dozens of guests from that area who booked last-minute trips to get away from the hurricane. We also had quite a few down from the panhandle avoiding Hurricane Michael last week. All that adds up to a busier than normal October, though we are usually busy from the 15th to the end of the month. A good week to visit is usually November 1-7 for low crowds plus you get to see the transformation from Halloween one day to Christmas the next. I can’t wait!
Brent
“We also had quite a few down from the panhandle avoiding Hurricane Michael last week.”
No surprise there, and that was definitely reflected in higher wait times last week and into the weekend.
“A good week to visit is usually November 1-7 for low crowds plus you get to see the transformation from Halloween one day to Christmas the next.”
Definitely a great recommendation in terms of crowds, but the transition is a bit slow for my tastes. It’d be one thing if it were truly overnight, but you don’t really get the full dose of Christmas until about a week before Thanksgiving (especially in the resorts).
What about the week after Thanksgiving? We are more into xmas
Thanks Tom for the update! We are going Dec 9-19th for the first time and got free dining. All value resorts are sold out for most of the duration and limited on other hotels so it is quite concerning 🙂 I found out after we booked that I’m pregnant and although we had thought this would be our only trip, we’re considering upgrading to AP while there and doing another trip after baby in 2019. I don’t mind pulling my kids from school for 5 days, but we live in AZ and with 2 basically full travel days we like to back our trips up to a school holiday so we can go longer. They have columbus week off for fall break so we were thinking the week before and ending in columbus week or the week after. We could also do the week before or after Thanksgiving but I’m nervous Star Wars will be open and crowds will be unbearable – insight to either? We start school in early August and with a new baby I don’t think we can manage the summer 🙁 Starting to think maybe we just enjoy this year and go back in a few years if we can swing it. We just have free flights in 2019 and with upgrading 9-day hopper tickets it would be much cheaper to take advantage! Thanks again for the great articles – you’ve helped so much in the planning of our first trip!
“They have columbus week off for fall break so we were thinking the week before and ending in columbus week or the week after.”
Definitely the week before.
Galaxy’s Edge is a huge wildcard. The exteriors are coming along nicely, but it really depends upon how Imagineering does in getting those complicated ride systems installed and working. Could be open before Thanksgiving…could slip into early 2020. The internal target date and challenges posed by the land are two different things, so it’s really too early to say.
we have noticed crowds are higher now than when we went in June or Aug when the blackout was lifted for passholders…Oct used to be when we enjoyed going..not so much anymore
Ha, this post makes me nervous about my upcoming trip!
My fiance and will be at WDW October 26-29. We also have tickets to the Halloween party for that Sunday.
Fingers crossed the weather and crowd-levels are not too bad!
Zachary,
Welcome…the weather will be great when you come. The rainy season ends any day now…it hasn’t rained in four days actually…and the cool down is expected October 22 (highs low 80’s, lows in the 60’s). Of course, us CMs will all be freezing. LOL!
Brent
Thanks Brent! We live in NY, so we will gladly endure your “cold” October weather :).
We typically go the week before Thanksgiving, so October is uncharted territory for us. Fingers crossed!