We were there October 14-21 and I thought it was less crowded than when we went 2 years ago the week before Columbus Day. Fast passed everything!!! Can't wait to go back in 3 yrs

Many school districts are adopting a balanced calendar instead of a traditional calendar. This allows families to plan trips during the fall instead of the extremely hot summer months. That coupled with the excellent deals that Disney offers in the fall increases crowd levels in a huge way. If you want low crowds and good deals, January is the way to go.

We were there Columbus Day and the rest of that week. It was unreal how long the lines were. We figured with it being right after the dining plan package ended and school in session, it would be less crowded. Come to find out, families were there due to fall break (we don't have that where we live) and due to the holiday on that Monday and the Jewish holiday on that Wednesday which also meant a lot of schools were out. We will be steering clear of going back at this time for future trips.

A lot of schools have Fall Breaks that last a week or even 2 weeks now. Several families from my town go to Disney on Fall Break. If other states have a long Fall Break, I bet that may have something to do with the larger crowds.

Of our 20 trips to Disney World most have been September, October, January, February and early December all for the smaller crowds, and we have noticed that the crowds have gotten bigger and bigger. Sadly are secret is out, going to try another trip in mid-January. There's always Disney Cruises we love them.

We visited Epcot during F&WF on a Thursday and it was shockingly quiet. I think the day of the week still impacts what type of crowd you may see in the fall. It looks like the discounted guest tickets for Annual Passholders were only valid for a short period of time. I wish that Disney did this more often or at least advertised it better to their passholders! I didn't know about it until reading this blog, and the promotion ended last month.

We're just leaving Disney after 6 days and we're absolutely floored at how busy it was. We expected moderate crowds but there were times that it was close to Peak. Add into all of this the fact that so many school districts across the country have also instituted these fall breaks in mid-october because there were plenty of school-aged kids around the parks. Well we had a good time the lines really held us back. Next time we're going to look at options like January September and the beginning of December when hopefully the crowds are still small.

My wife and I usually travel to Orlando for 6 weeks September and beginning of October. This year we came for 8 weeks extending our October visit. The first 6 weeks were absolutely fantastic with very comfortable numbers at the Parks. However the last two were quite ridiculous, even with fastpass we were still in lines that stretched a long way just to get to the fastpass entrance In the Magic Kingdom,it was chaotic and very uncomfortable.

I was there at the end of June and the beginning of October. It was my first time ever being there not in the summer, and I was looking forward to the park being less crowded. MK was absolutely insane. It was more crowded than I have ever seen it during the summer. My family kept commenting in June that we could not believe how light the crowds were. The crowds were so think in October, I could hardly push my stroller.

Over the past decade more and more schools (at least in the Midwest) have moved to a week long Fall Break. Some schools have even opted for July start dates and then take 2 weeks off in October and 2 weeks off in March/April. I know a LOT of families who traveled over 1,000 miles to Florida last week since their kids were out of school a full week. At some point, Fall Break crowds will rival Spring Break crowds. Perhaps that time is now.

My family and I have traveled to WDW the last 4 years over the Columbus Day weekend, and we were shocked by the size of the crowd at MK on Wed the 12th. Waits for most rides surpassed 45-60 minutes and Seven dwarfs mine train was at 210 minutes. Peter Pan was an hour and a half and space mountain was 2 hours. Counter service restaurants were jammed. We take the kids out of school for a couple of days to enjoy the smaller crowds fall use to offer, but will be forced to rethink our plans again. We use to travel in January before we switched. Maybe we will look at that option again or skip the parks and enjoy other things the area offers. I don't blame Disney as they had to do something to thin the summer crowds, but it seems the days of slower times at Disney may be a thing of the past. I lament that Disney will someday become a victim of its own success, and think the more these large crowds may have a negative effect in the long term.

Yes! My family and I visit Disney world every 2 years in October and were down last week. We've never ever seen the crowds like we did this week. I mean, there was a 40 minute wait for Small World on a Wednesday. I think that proves my point :)

I was there this past Saturday. MK was fine in the morning. We headed over to Epcot around noon and it was an absolute mess. I have never seen Epcot so crowded, even on a Saturday. We made it halfway around World Showcase and turned around and left to HS. All of the lines for the FW kiosks were insane, so there was no point in staying.

This is exactly what I was fearing with the surge pricing that they made the usually pleasant time in the Fall to visit WDW as unbearably busy. I visited WDW a couple weeks ago and could not believe the crowds, especially at Epcot. The wait times didn't make much sense at all with the MK having moderate level wait times (20 mins for space mountain) and HS having insane wait times like the tower of terror having a 300 min wait time. That is probably a combination of a surge in crowds as well as there being little to do there now. It was a very strange visit in terms of crowds.