Busiest days of the week for parks

[debpeduz]

Hello All! We are going Disney the end of Sept/early October. This is by no means our first trip. But, I wanted to get others opinions - what are the busiest days and at which parks? I know during the Food and Wine Festival that Epcot is busy, particularly during the weekends with locals. And we are worried about the crowds at HS because of SWGE. We know we will eventually see it but do not have to rush to be there this trip - but we may still want to see the rest of HS. What about the other parks? Do people do a typical Sat-Sat when they travel? We were able to squeeze in an extra day for our week and are going a Friday-through the following Saturday. Before with our planning, I didn't usually bother with this. I just wasn't sure if there were some better thoughts!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Hello All! We are going Disney the end of Sept/early October. This is by no means our first trip. But, I wanted to get others opinions - what are the busiest days and at which parks? I know during the Food and Wine Festival that Epcot is busy, particularly during the weekends with locals. And we are worried about the crowds at HS because of SWGE. We know we will eventually see it but do not have to rush to be there this trip - but we may still want to see the rest of HS. What about the other parks? Do people do a typical Sat-Sat when they travel? We were able to squeeze in an extra day for our week and are going a Friday-through the following Saturday. Before with our planning, I didn't usually bother with this. I just wasn't sure if there were some better thoughts!

I always google “walt Disney world crowd calendar” and the month and year, and read two or three different ones. They give you some idea of what is expected at each park each day.

There is concern they may be less accurate this year because of the sudden announcement of SW opening sooner than expected.

Generally, naturally, weekends are busier. Epcot is busier at night for Food & Wine, and we’ve learned to avoid parks that have extra magic hours because they tend to be more crowded for the whole day with folks who don’t have parkhoppers.

 

[JIMINYCR]

We typically do a 2 week trip, mid week to mid week stay. I dont have any facts and figures but it always seems like any park weve hit on a Saturday has been buzier than other park days. I always thought the increase was from arriving Friday guests who hit the parks the next day and the locals who are hitting the parks on their days off from work or school.

 

[Worldlover71]

We are looking at taking a trip during that same period. If we go, It would be Tuesday to Tuesday with Saturday as our no-park day. Saturday usually seems to be just a little busier than the other days. Avoid Epcot on the weekends during F&W if at all possible. Made that mistake once!

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

A lot of intangibles here:

Sept/Oct - DHS will be nuts - MK is closed a handful of nights for MNSSHP, so the nights it is open will be nuts. - F&W at Epcot (especially over the weekend) will be nuts. Early October you may run into the Gartner Conference over at Boardwalk which will be nuts.

I wouldn't stress about it. Just plan based on what you want to do but keep your plans flexible.

 

[aliceismad]

I've always heard/read that Mondays are busy at Magic Kingdom, because everyone likes to start their vacation at MK, but doesn't that assume most people travel Sunday rather than Saturday?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

We are looking at taking a trip during that same period. If we go, It would be Tuesday to Tuesday with Saturday as our no-park day. Saturday usually seems to be just a little busier than the other days. Avoid Epcot on the weekends during F&W if at all possible. Made that mistake once!

I sound like a broken record at this point because I say this every time someone asks, but I'd suggest not having any days that are 100% no parks because then you miss out on pre-booking FPs for that day.

I'd suggest taking a half day off on Thursday and another half day off on Sunday. Gives you the same break, but adds 3 FP+ to your arsenal.

Aside from that, you can mess around with crowd calendars all you want but my biggest key is to avoid the parks with EMH unless you plan to actually USE the EMH in its entirety.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Hello All! We are going Disney the end of Sept/early October. This is by no means our first trip. But, I wanted to get others opinions - what are the busiest days and at which parks? I know during the Food and Wine Festival that Epcot is busy, particularly during the weekends with locals. And we are worried about the crowds at HS because of SWGE. We know we will eventually see it but do not have to rush to be there this trip - but we may still want to see the rest of HS. What about the other parks? Do people do a typical Sat-Sat when they travel? We were able to squeeze in an extra day for our week and are going a Friday-through the following Saturday. Before with our planning, I didn't usually bother with this. I just wasn't sure if there were some better thoughts!

Friday through Saturday is my absolute favorite itinerary. It allows you to take it nice and slow while still getting to everything, and you get to book FPs for the upcoming week before the bulk of that week's crowds check in on Saturday and Sunday. We're doing the following:

Friday - Travel / Animal Kingdom
Saturday - Studios / Break / Epcot
Sunday - Church / Magic Kingdom
Monday - Epcot / Break / Hollywood Studios
Tuesday - Magic Kingdom
Wednesday - Animal Kingdom / Break / Epcot
Thursday - Animal Kingdom / Break / Disney Springs
Friday - Hollywood Studios / Hoop Dee Doo Revue
Saturday - Magic Kingdom / Travel

 

[Rsj88]

I always spend hours checking all the crowd calendars. I try to plan our MK days not on a Saturday. I have also always heard Monday’s at MK are crowded for whatever reason. BUT usually we just end up doing our normal order with MK always first (and last), then followed by Epcot, AK, and HS. Then we park hop around whatever days we have left. We also hop around if it gets crazy busy in one park and we run out of FPs. The most important thing to plan really is just how to manage the crowds as it’s seems to be crowded all the time now.

 

[mouse_luv]

Hello All! We are going Disney the end of Sept/early October. This is by no means our first trip. But, I wanted to get others opinions - what are the busiest days and at which parks? I know during the Food and Wine Festival that Epcot is busy, particularly during the weekends with locals. And we are worried about the crowds at HS because of SWGE. We know we will eventually see it but do not have to rush to be there this trip - but we may still want to see the rest of HS. What about the other parks? Do people do a typical Sat-Sat when they travel? We were able to squeeze in an extra day for our week and are going a Friday-through the following Saturday. Before with our planning, I didn't usually bother with this. I just wasn't sure if there were some better thoughts!

This past September EPCOT was crazy every single day of the week and even worse on weekends.