I'm confused and concerned. Disney claims this is a quiet time while burnbaum says its nuts and i really dont want that!! so, for anyone who has been there this time before have any good advice or opinions? thanks in advance!

It's not crazy/summer/Easter/Christmas busy - but it's not the quietest time of the year.

A big impact on that is "Jersey Week" - it moves around some each year, and is when the teachers' union convention (I think that's the driver - I am just amazed that any union has that much power to close down their workplace for a convention!) -

Add in the Food & Wine Festival and Halloween celebrations, usually decent weather, and you have a decent, but not wild crowd. Disney a few years back changed the resort season from 'Value' to 'Regular' (I may have that term off), indicating to me that October was gaining in popularity.

I still go in October, though.

I think the week leading up to Halloween would be quiet but that Halloween weekend itself would be busy.

Some FL schools are off on Monday October 27- a random "fall holiday" which will increase crowds somewhat.

Hopefully there will not be any more late season hurricanes!

I went in 2006 over Halloween week and the crowds were minimal. We never waited over 20 min. for any ride! Compared to being there over Thanksgiving it was very worth it! Great time to go.

My family was in Disney this past Halloween (2007) It was wonderful! The longest wait we had for rides or shows was 20 min. The weather was absolutly beautiful, and the Halloween party was great. We would surely go back at this time again. :)

I read the recent post inquiring about crowd levels in October and the responses thereto. My family is vacationing at Disney World during the 3rd week of October. And though it was my impression that crowd levels would be pretty low at that time, I was shocked at how difficult it was to book a campsite at Fort Wilderness. That place appears to be packed in October. When we were at Disney in May, the theme parks were relatively crowded (but really not bad), but there were plenty of empty campsites at Fort Wilderness. Is there some reason that the resorts are busier in October, and yet the parks are not? Or should we just expect larger crowds in the parks?

It could be that more people are camping in an effort to save a bit of money?

Sorry, I have never been in October so can't speak to crowd levels.

It also depends how you were trying to go about getting reservations. If you were going through the web site, I would recommend calling Disney directly. You might have better luck.

I'll be at FW in Oct but we're staying in a cabin! :P

First, of all, Welcome, Doug! I'm Tina. I'm not marginally addicted to Disney as you put it (in another post)--I'm in ALL the way! HA!

OK--I've been 3 times in October. The first time was EMPTY. The seond was moderate. The third (last October) was quite, quite busy. I was pretty shocked. I had to implement quite a bit of FastPass usage as well as keeping track of what park to visit on what day.

I think that the F&W Fest has morphed October and early Nov into a busier time than the books lead on. There's several states (MN, NJ) who have a fall break in October that adds to the crowds, IMHO. In fact, we saw more "MN" t-shirts at WDW than I saw at Mall of America right here in town!

Now with all of that negativity I just spewed, let me balance it. It's not NEARLY as bad as holidays or summer. It's a BEAUTIFUL time of year to be there. Warm but not out of the park hot (except last year when they had record-breaking heat!). It's my favorite time of year to go to the parks. I'm trying early December for MouseFest this year, so we'll see if I like that temp better. I do NOT do well in heat so my window is basically October through early March.

I agree that people are looking for less expensive lodging options. Let us know when/if you get a campsite!

Thanks Tina. I really appreciate your insights. Regarding the reservation of a campsite, we were ultimately able to get a spot for the dates we wanted. This will be our 3rd stay at Fort Wilderness (RV camping each time) and my wife, kids and I all love it. Our last two trips were both in May, so it will interesting to see how an October trip compares...it sounds like the kids will really like MNSCHP.

My husband and I have been down for the last 4 years in October. It is some what crowded depending on the park and the day. Some days and parks are empty while some are quite crowded. The weather is usually perfect although we hit Hurricane Wilma one year:). I would have to agree that F&W has definitely changed the crowd volumes. Epcot is always a zoo on the weekends because many of the locals come to enjoy it.

Epcot is always a zoo on the weekends because many of the locals come to enjoy it.
I just had to repeat this. If you go in October, and PARTICULARLY if you want to enjoy the F&W Festival, GO ON THE WEEK DAYS!!!

Oh yeah! I made the mistake of going to Epcot on a Saturday night and I thought I was in the 7th circle of you know where.:p

Congrats on your up coming vacation Doug! I'll be there myself from 10/18-10/27. I've been going to WDW now since 1997 and have never missed an October since. This time of year is my fav. time to visit WDW. One because of the fact I like the weather in October, two it's my wedding anniversary, and three hubby and I love love love the Food and Wine Festival. We go at other times of the year to Disney but October is our big trip of the year.

Since our first October trip in 1997, I have to say that each and every year October's become just a wee bit more busy due to the popularity of the Food and Wine Festival mainly. Also, October is when the British school system takes a break so October is a heavy time for UK tourists. Lastly, Disney I think overall has done a great marketing campaign in the past years to really do a good job at drumming up business period. I am finding that in the past few years I've had to at least secure a room reservation by March/April to get resorts open of my choice when years ago I never had to worry about that. If I see a room special come out after my initial reservation then I just fix it at that point with Disney reservations.

However, despite the increase in crowds, I still find the crowd level still very tolerable and enjoyable.