October 2019 at Disney World
October 2019 is when we expect the crowds to start materializing for the fall, with there being a bit of a lag after Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens. Despite this, it’s still a good time to visit thanks to the weather and Halloween festivities, plus lower crowds than Christmas-time. (Updated August 12, 2019.)
In the not-too-distant past, October was a “best kept secret” when it came to the best months to visit Walt Disney World. Temperate weather, low crowds, value season pricing, and seasonal events all made it a good time to visit. Add Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival to the mix and it’s easy to see why it was the favorite month to visit for many WDW fans.
Unfortunately, even before Star Wars Land, October crowds have ballooned at Walt Disney World. This is due to a combination of the secret getting out, people postponing summer vacations for better pricing, more schools having longer fall breaks, and Walt Disney World doing more convention business. Now, October is one of Walt Disney World’s busiest months of the year.
The opening of Star Wars Land is a good news, bad news situation. The bad news is that Galaxy’s Edge is undoubtedly going to draw some fans of that to Florida. To beat these crowds, read our Star Wars Land Info & Galaxy’s Edge Guide for everything you need to know. Additionally, consult our Reservations Now Available for Star Wars Land at Disney World post in order to book experiences within Galaxy’s Edge.
The good news (part one) is that crowds might not be as bad as you’re expecting. As we covered in our Why Are Star Wars Land Crowds So Low? post, crowds following the opening of Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland were abnormally low. Moreover, as we explain in our 2019 Walt Disney World Crowd Predictions: When to Go & Avoiding Star Wars Land Lines, October is unlikely to be nearly as bad as Christmas-time.
The other good news is that Walt Disney World is offering Extra, Extra Magic Hours for the entire month of September in Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. Extra, Extra Magic Hours will offer a huge advantage to early risers–even if the daytime and evening hours are busier than normal, you should be able to get a ton done first thing in the morning if you arrive early.
We recommend utilizing our 1-Day Disney Park Itineraries & Touring Plans to make the most of these longer operating hours. In addition to offering a strategic advantage, Extra, Extra Magic Hours will be flat out awesome to be inside the parks for sunrise. As you can read in our “Before Sunrise at Magic Kingdom” post, we’ve done this before, and it’s incredible!
Suffice to say, October is no longer an off-season month at Walt Disney World. If someone is still advising you that October is a “quiet” month at Walt Disney World, ignore their advice, as they are offering outdated information. Now, October is consistently one of the year’s busiest months. We’re talking an entire month of crowds that rival Spring Break. On top of that, due to the month’s newfound popularity, discounts are much more difficult to find, making it more expensive than it used to be, as well.
As for crowds, they drop off after Labor Day and remain light for most of September before really ramping up towards the beginning of October. Throughout October, these high crowd levels remain. It should be noted that this is not as bad as Thanksgiving week, Christmas, or New Year’s. Those are all brief spikes surrounded by weeks that are less busy.
Rather, October is a sustained month-long time of heavy to very crowds. Worse than even what summer used to have. On top of that, weekends at Epcot will be packed for the Food & Wine Festival and the Magic Kingdom’s Halloween Parties will get busier closer to Halloween. Still, with a little planning, you can beat the crowds during October in Walt Disney World.
If you can get past the crowds, October is still a moderately good month to visit. The weather is improving, and the seasonal events are in full swing. Because of that, October still does reasonably well on our Best and Worst Months at Walt Disney World post. Keep in mind that park hours are often short in October, which compounds the impact of those larger crowds, too.
Weather at Walt Disney World continues to improve in October, with temperatures cooling even further from September, humidity dropping, and the tail end of hurricane and storm season concluding. Afternoon showers and torrential downpours are still possible, as is really hot and really cool weather, so remember to pack for a wide range of weather conditions.
You can view day-by-day temperature and weather forecasts plus historical averages for Walt Disney World weather in October here. As you can see, average highs are still in the 80s every day of the month, so it’s not that much cooler…although those 60 degree lows can make a big difference.
That’s the crowd and weather forecast in Walt Disney World’s neck of the woods, now let’s take a look at the events going on around the Resort!
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is offered many nights in October, which can be a good or bad thing depending upon how you look at it. In the “good” camp, this means more opportunities to get in the Halloween spirit and attend. In the “bad” camp, this means more 6 p.m. closings, which have to be carefully planned around on the days of your vacation that you aren’t attending the Halloween Party.
As for when to attend, we highly recommend attending as early in the month as possible, on a school night. If you’re unfamiliar with the event, read our Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Guide to learn more. It’s a fun hard-ticket event (that means it costs extra) with a special Halloween parade, Halloween fireworks, special character meet & greets, trick or treating, and more.
In terms of attractions, consult our Walt Disney World Refurbishment Schedule to see what’s scheduled for October. That might be a bit deceptive, as there’s a lot of ongoing construction throughout Walt Disney World, and will be for the next several years. There are big construction projects at Magic Kingdom and Epcot won’t be finished until early 2021.
In addition to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, there are two other new-ish lands at Walt Disney World. The first is Toy Story Land, also at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Second, Pandora – World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Flight of Passage remains incredibly popular, and ~2 hour waits are not outside the realm of possibilities. Read our Ultimate Guide to Pandora – World of Avatar for tips and tricks on avoiding lengthy waits, and doing this new section of Walt Disney World.
October tends to be much more popular than September, but midday waits under an hour aren’t outside the realm of possibilities for Slinky Dog Dash. That’s not too bad for a brand new roller coaster! (Nevertheless, we recommend doing it during Morning Extra Magic Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios or the very end of the night–you won’t wait nearly that long in either scenario!)
Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival is also in high gear during the month of October. This event has expanded significantly in recent years, both in terms of popularity and what’s offered. There’s no two ways about it: Food & Wine Festival is expensive.
Yes, there are some free and low cost events, but just about everything at the event is costly, and at an elevated price even by Disney standards. Most people stick to the kiosks around World Showcase offering small snacks that are about $4-8 each, on average. That doesn’t seem like much, but costs add up quickly. Read our Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival Guide for what’s offered this year at the event, plus tips and tricks, and what we recommend doing (and not doing).
October is actually one of the bigger months of the year for special events at Walt Disney World. However, aside from the ones we’ve already mentioned, most won’t be of interest to anyone reading this. There are several events on the ESPN Wide World of Sports October Calendar, but those will only appeal to attendees (who should already know about them). At the end of the month, there’s the Swan and Dolphin Food & Wine Classic, which is their own weekend food and wine festival that compliments the one in Epcot (but is a standalone event).
Besides the events, October is a great month to visit in terms of what you’ll pay to visit. There tend to be decent room-only discount offers, and we typically prefer this discount to the uber-popular Free Disney Dining Plan promotion (which blocks out the entire month of October, anyway). You can see why in our Walt Disney World Discount Comparisons post. If you’re booking a room-only discount, you can decide for yourself which hotel might be best by reading our Walt Disney World Hotel Reviews.
Overall, October is a mixed bag. There are great events and the weather is starting to get nicer, but there has been a surge in crowds the last few Octobers, and we’d expect that trend to continue. Still, we really like October, and if it ever returns to being a normal month crowd-wise, it’d be among our absolute favorite times to visit Walt Disney World.
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
Are you a fan of visiting Walt Disney World in October? Have you experienced the heavier October crowds the last couple of years? Which month do you like to visit WDW? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
We’re here now, October 9-12, and the crowd level is insane! 95 minute waits for anything in Toyland. ForgetFastPasses. They were not even available 60 days out when we first had access to book them. That’s because “special guests” like Disney Vacation Club visitors could book Fast Passes 90 days out. Since the Not So Scary Halloween Party and the Food and Wine Festival coincide October is NOT the month to be here unless you’re here for the special events. Just be aware the crowd level is also crazy for the Halloween Party and the lines for the free candy can be overwhelming and exceptionally long for little ones. All the costumes and decorations are lots of fun but overall it can be overwhelming just like Christmas season.
“Keep in mind that lower crowds also means park hours are short in October, which compounds the impact of those larger crowds. .”
This sentence seems to contradict itself.
Yeah…I think that was an edit gone wrong. I have no idea why it reads like that, but I’ll fix it. Thanks for the heads up!
Heading down October 29-November 3rd…how do you think the crowds will be?
Agreed, the October crowds are indeed staggering. I was there Oct 22-25 mostly for the food & wine festival and it was unreal compared to previous years.
How bad would you say compared to like December? I have only been to Disney World once and that was this last year, early December, crowds weren’t bad and Undercover Tourist gives most of the week in October a 4-6, My dad is disabled and in an electric scooter so trying to make sure I really think ahead and have everything planned out so it’s a great and easy day for him. We are going Oct 20- Oct 28th
That week is basically Halloween so the crowds will be considerably larger than early December. A good option is always to arrive very early to the parks
I am leaving today and since last thursday (oct 5th) the parks are really crowded. We were able to enjoy everything because we arrived on Sept 27th. I believe Columbus Day is the reason why. Magic Kingdom was so full and hot (3 digits wait times in several attractions) that we left early and went back by the end of the day to catch Happily Ever After. In Animal Kingdom, wait times for Pandora’s attractions reached 220 minutes! We were lucky to get fastpass+! Even Hollywood Studios was crowded yesterday.
We just returned from DisneyWorld. The crowds were near summer like. Staggering. Since you have to plan your magic kingdom visit around the holloween trick or treat days (which are about 3 out of every 5) when the crowd is kicked out of the park at 7:00PM, you need to visit the park when it is actually open until 11:00PM. That makes days when it is open late have the highest attendance. The only time I have seem larger crowds than this past week was during spring break. When we were at animal kingdom, we arrived at Avatar Flight of Passage at 9:10AM (no fast passes available) and we waited for 2-1/2 hours to get on this attraction. Never again will I go in October.
Why can’t I book early morning magic the second week of October. i can book any other week. It just happens I’m going the second week of Octoberr
Will Disney be running a fall special soon? Looking to come in October put we were quoted over $6,000 to come for 5 nights!
Yes, they should be offering the FREE dining plan. Follow http://www.mousesavers.com for up to date promotions, including the free dining.
I’m looking to take my family to Disney the last week of October. We would like to take one day to visit Typhoon Lagoon, but I know it closes in the fall alternating with Blizzard Beach. Since typhoon lagoon closed this past dec-march for Miss Adventure Falls, will it be open this year in oct-nov? Is there a way to find out the closing schedule?
Typhoon Lagoon isn’t currently scheduled to close for maintenance in Oct/Nov. Blizzard Beach will be closed from 29th Oct to 1st Nov. https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/closures
Blizzard Beach is closed from Oct 30th thru winter. Typhoon Lagoon will be open. I only know this because we will be visiting the last week of October as well, and we have the Water Park Fun & More tickets.
Our favourite time to visit is for the last 10 days or so of October along with the first 10 days or so if November so we not only get all that you mention above but we pack some Christmas cheer in as well and then we return home to the UK all Christmassy!!
Tom, we have been trying to book a moderate hotel the last several weeks. The dates were not even on the free dining plan. The only rooms available were the pirates room at Caribbean Beach for the month of October. How can this be that every room is sold out at every hotel. Any advice?
Typically, the rooms that show available are only associated with the deal selected. So if you opt for the free dining plan deal – there may be limited options in the moderate with specific room types. A way to test availability is to select a standard package with no discount and see if the rooms you desire are available. Then the choice will be yours: different room/hotel with dining plan free or the room/hotel you want with a paid for dining plan.
In your case, was there a different discount associated? Creating different blocks? Good luck!
Sucks to be you
I just booked a room at the Coronado Springs Resort (moderate) for the last week in October. I, too, was only given the option of the pirate rooms at the Caribbean. We go using the military discount which really limits room options, but I did get a preferred room at Coronado, so not sure why you were told the pirate rooms were the only available room. Were you trying to get the dining plan with your reservation?
October is our favorite month to visit heading down the 2nd for the week. We are blessed with a Fall Break so the kids only miss a single day of school. This is btw the best Disney Blog, great work.