Will FP+ be necessary in October

[Tink0102]

We will be there October 4-11 and while I still have a while before I need to make FP+ decisions, I was just wondering if they would even be needed that time of the year. Most days we plan to be at the parks at opening, so at Epcot we could run right for Soarin and at HS, TSM. We have never been in October so I have no idea how busy it is or how long estimated wait times are. Touringplans show estimated crowds of 4 for each park on the day we plan to be there....with the exception of AK which is a 3 and a 5 at MK on our arrival day.
Thoughts/opinions please.

 

[JohnD]

Earlier in the week you might be fine but as you get to later in the week, you're bumping up against Columbus Day weekend. You'll be checking out Saturday but you could still see crowds build as it gets closer to the weekend. Are FP+ needed? Maybe not. But couldn't hurt.

You may also want to do Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. I highly recommend it. It's separately ticketed and there are no FP+'s during that time. Just walk up and ride, along with other activities like meet-and-greets, special parade/fireworks, trick-or-treating, etc. Then there's the Epcot Food and Wine Festival at the same time. This is included with park admission. But you'll be spending more money, especially if you want to sample food/drinks at the various booths.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

We will be there October 4-11 and while I still have a while before I need to make FP+ decisions, I was just wondering if they would even be needed that time of the year. Most days we plan to be at the parks at opening, so at Epcot we could run right for Soarin and at HS, TSM. We have never been in October so I have no idea how busy it is or how long estimated wait times are. Touringplans show estimated crowds of 4 for each park on the day we plan to be there....with the exception of AK which is a 3 and a 5 at MK on our arrival day.
Thoughts/opinions please.

Even in low season E-tickets can get hour waits. So even if you run to Soarin, you may get stuck waiting for Test Track. I would use both, maybe even use fp+ to re-ride favorites.

 

[Redhawk]

I've gone to the the parks on low-crowd days and TSM can still have a stand-by wait of 45 mins or more. You don't pay extra to make FP+ selections, and you can change them or simply not use them later. Why not give yourself a second ride on TSM without a long wait or a rope-drop dash?

 

[lilclerk]

I'll be there around the same time. I'm planning on making FP+ reservations, and hoping to be able to change them day of if we want to go to a different park or something. If not, we'll deal. But I've been during some super quiet weeks, and still used FP. They're almost a necessity for things like Soarin' and TSMM.

 

[Weather_Lady]

We visited during October 8-13, 2012, and although the crowds were waaaaay more manageable than during more popular times of year, headliner waits still got high. We arrived at rope drop and hit headliners then... and then used Fastpasses in order to: (1) revisit headliners later in the day, once the lines were long; and (2) visit headliners that are distant from the others, making it impossible to do them all at rope drop (e.g., Soarin' and Test Track, Splash/BTMRR and Space Mountain). That was under the "old" FP system, but the same uses apply to the new one.

 

[Tink0102]

Thanks y'all! This will be our second trip...our first one was this past June and we swore we would never go that time of the year again. Just too hot, too rainy and too crowded for us. Just didn't know what to expect in October. You have helped a lot!

 

[71dsp]

We visited during October 8-13, 2012, and although the crowds were waaaaay more manageable than during more popular times of year, headliner waits still got high. We arrived at rope drop and hit headliners then... and then used Fastpasses in order to: (1) revisit headliners later in the day, once the lines were long; and (2) visit headliners that are distant from the others, making it impossible to do them all at rope drop (e.g., Soarin' and Test Track, Splash/BTMRR and Space Mountain). That was under the "old" FP system, but the same uses apply to the new one.

On each trip we've went, even when the crowds were very low, the popular rides (Soarin and Toy Story Midway Mania come to mind) had waits, and sometimes the waits were over an hour. FP+ is definitely needed regardless of when you visit!

 

[luv]

If you have the ability, make the reservations. You might decide not to use them, after all, but it can't hurt to have them.

I'm so not a fan of scheduled ride times. It leaves you spending so much time debating if you should attempt to do this or that before you go to it and just makes the time spent in a park more focused on scheduling than on fun. But it really doesn't hurt anything to have those appointments available. You don't have to keep them if you don't want to.

October isn't empty, but it's better than July.