By Amanda.
Fall. Leaves start dropping out of the trees, footballs are flying through the air again, and kids everywhere have begrudgingly snatched up their backpacks and headed back to school. What does this signal? The crowds are suddenly lighter at Walt Disney World. Does this mean fall a good time for you to go to Disney? Well…
You should not go in the fall because…
- Kids have gone back to school and could fall behind in their studies.
- It’s still hot. It’s not as hot as summer, but it’s warmer than winter.
- Hours are shorter in the fall than other times a year, because there are fewer people. Every park except Epcot can close as early as 5 p.m.
- If the parks close early, they may not show some of their night-time entertainment, or these shows may only run on the weekends. Crowds are heavier on the weekend.
- Because fall is the time for Mickey’s-Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival, crowds can be higher during these specific times.
- If you do vacation during MNSSHP, the park will close early on those days. You paid for a full day, but you’ll feel like you’re being kicked out early.
- With crowds being lower, some of your favorite rides may be closed for refurbishment. This makes sense from a Disney stand point – less people in the park is a better time to spruce up the ride. I can still hear my sons wails of heart-ache when we showed up one year to find Space Mountain closed for refurbishment.
You should definitely go because…
- Kids have gone back to school, and thus there are fewer people in the parks.
- The weather is cooler than the summer.
- If some of the parks close early at 5 p.m., this gives you time to go to Downtown Disney, visit the other resorts, or have a nice dinner without feeling stressed to ride rides.
- In the fall, you can attend Epcot’s International Food & Wine Festival. Kid’s probably won’t love this so much but you will.
- In the late fall, Christmas decorations start popping up, and they are spectacular.
- There are fall “free dining” dates, and everybody loves free. To qualify for the free dining, you must check in to a Disney resort during one of the available dates. If your stay extends outside of the available dates, you will still receive the free dining for your entire stay. As you would expect, availability is extremely limited, and not all the resorts may be available.
- In the fall, you can make plans to see Mickey’s-Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. (MNSSHP) Kids and adults love this.
If you do take the kids out of school, there are some activities to avoid, if you want to keep the little Mickey fans happy.
Fall can be an excellent time of year to visit the Mouse. You just have to decide what you are willing to give up (longer park hours, perfect school attendance) to enjoy the perks of a fall Disney vacation (shorter lines, cooler weather.)
Keep on clipping those coupons and dreaming about Disney.
Amanda
angie says
Fall used to be our favorite time to go, but the Free Dining offer seems to have increased the crowds in a big way…and much harder to get reservations for our favorite restaurants. And Epcot, our favorite park, gets so crowded now that the Food and Wine Festival has gotten so big. Last year we even experienced more than one group of drunk adults acting inappropriately while we were weaving our kids through the intense evening crowds. (I was a little shocked by that!) For those 2 reasons, we scheduled in December this year- but then the free dining offer came out, with dates extending all the way through our vacation (I believe the last few years it ended in Oct!). As soon as I found out, I started working more diligently on getting our ADRs and already can’t get into many restaurants that we wanted to get into. Bummer! Well, all that being said – I still can’t wait to go and our visit, as always, will be magical and memorable!
Danielle O says
We are planning on homeschooling (the kids are currently 3 & 1) — & plan on going to DL in September. I must must MUST see the Haunted Holiday Mansion. Nightmare before Christmas is my ultimate favorite movie :] So for our first trip, I told DH there is absolutely no negotiating that we are going in fall.
Jiya says
We are going in November this year, since our kids have a lot of days off school then. Warning to anyone not from NJ — Nov. 6 – 12 is called “Jersey Week” at the parks and it will be crowded, since schools in NJ are closed for teachers’ conferences. We expect to see half our town at Disney that week.
Andrea says
Just found out about this. I am from N.C. and moved up my week til Nov 1, due to this.
amanda says
Fall rocks! The ONLY time I go, is every year in April (not spring break or easter) and late September/early October, because you just can’t beat the prices on resort rooms/crowds/weather combo. It’s amazing. I think I would feel like I was getting ripped off if I went at any other time. Fall is also great if you have small kids that aren’t in school yet because its not nearly so humid and kids in strollers cant deal with the heat and humidity as well (unless they are used to it I suppose- but living in Idaho, most kids here have no idea what the word humidity means! lol)
VB says
We went last October 18th thru the 26th and it was colder than the norm. We had 75 degree temps during the day and cooled down at night so remember to layer so you can undress and redress depending on temps. We did not have to wait more than 20 minutes for most rides.
Cindy says
Fall is our favorite time to go! We love the food and wine fest. We love the MNSSHP (we always dress up, even Nana and Papa get in on the fun) But it can be HOT! LAst time we went the end of sept begining of oct and it was mid 90s every day. SO keep that in mind if you are dressing up for teh halloween party. Those cute disney store outfits can be sooo hot for little ones! They are great for cold northern halloweens but not so much for FLorida