We visited October 8-13, 2012, and I'd recommend that time of year to anyone. The weather was beautiful (not a drop of rain, and unseasonably warm -- mid-80s every day). The crowds were "low to moderate," which meant that with strategic use of fastpasses and arriving at rope drop (and with a single exception, when BTMRR broke down one afternoon), we were able to cover all 4 parks in 5 days and never waited more than 10 minutes for anything. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and bus service was fantastic -- again, except for a couple of anomalous occasions, we never even had to wait for a bus more than 10 minutes. We only saw a couple of large teenage touring groups -- they happened to be from Ecuador -- but we just stayed out of their way and they didn't appear to be chanting or doing anything obnoxious anyway.
We visited the Food and Wine Festival twice. It was great during the day, and we enjoyed sampling from the booths. At night, though, the "adult crowd" dominated and a few folks were staggering around from too much "high octane liquid pixie dust" and nearly stepping on our two small children, so we learned to stay away from it in the evening. Had it been just DH and I, we'd have loved it, and probably would have wanted to attend one or more of the Food and Wine Festival concerts.
Also, keep in mind that Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party will be going on, and the Magic Kingdom will be closing early multiple days every week. You'll either want to shell out more money and purchase tickets to attend the party, or adjust your itinerary to avoid the Magic Kingdom on the days it will be closing early for the party. (Or if you have Park hoppers, take advantage of the lower crowds in the MK on those days, and then hop somewhere else as closing time approaches.)
