Crowds- it's PACKED Middle of October!

We noticed the same thing at ICOT10 at the parks. Crazy busy. Pirates went down 2x when we were there as well. There isn't really a down time anymore especially for MK and now with the year round festivals at Epcot. Food and Wine was as uncomfortable as being there on New Years over the weekend.

It is fall break at schools all across the south. Many schools have a week long fall break in October. There are a number of families we know down there right now.

Lots of people rescheduled their vacations from September when Irma was in Orlando forecast and after the hurricane

Plus, Mondays are one of only 3 days each week from September through December (Wednesday and Saturday being the others) that do not have a Halloween or Christmas party. That means if you want to see fireworks at MK, or visit there after dark, it has to be one of those three days. The effect is to compress a whole lot of people into those three days.

Steve

Another thought is that Hollywood Studios and Epcot are absorbing less guests since they took down The Great Movie Ride, The Back Lot Tour, Ellen's Universe of Energy and exhibits (Innovations East and West). (although, we have been used to Back Lot Tour and Innovations being down for a while now)

So, instead of 4 fully operational parks, we have about 3 and a half (maybe)... guests are going to be more concentrated in the operational areas. As far as complete, fully operational parks we have Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom.

I also agree with the theory of MNSSHP taking up evenings so park goers will flood the parks on non-party days.

While attendance may be up, it is not the only factor influencing the crowd levels.

I'm looking forward to the day that Galaxy's Edge and the Toy Story areas open up so we can all feel some relief.

Monday October 16th was also a student holiday/teacher workday for all Orange county public schools so that probably provided a bump as well.

We were there from October 11th thru the 17th. Every park we went to every day was WAY busier than what we have experienced going for F+W time for the past number of years.

And was it ever HOT and HUMID too! Abnormally.

We too were wondering why so crowded.

best,

................john

We use to go every October and we have noticed the crowds get larger every year. The food and wine festival on a weekend is absolutely ridiculous.

A lot of schools and private schools have mid-October breaks, also the Columbus Day long weekend tends to add crowds. I've always found October to be moderate to high crowds, never low. Plus the F & W Fest brings in crowds, and October seems to the prime month for that.

We have been watching the crowds build every year since 2011 when we first started going to the Food & Wine Festival - The last Monday in October we were at the MK rope drop .... went to Big Thunder and literally stayed on for three straight rides as few people were around ..... I have a picture some where of my DW standing by the entrance of Splash Mountain and there is NO ONE around in any direction ....

As said previously, schools have fall breaks and a number of colleges have them know too ....

Were they all Americans?? It has been almost 2 decades, but the last time I was there in October, the parks were packed with British. One of the cast members told me that they always have an October "British invasion", becasue the schools in England have a Autumn Break.

People still go to WDW during a hurricane. There isn't a light season any more.

FW is so popular, rightfully so, holiday decorations up, etc.