4/17/15 Update: Hollywood Studios hours reduced to 9am-6pm from 9am-7pm and Fantasmic cancelled on Saturday October 24th.
This is the Free October 2015 Disney World Crowd Calendar that shows the Recommended Parks to Visit, Overall Crowd Level Estimation, Cost, Historic High/Low Temperature, Historic Chance of Precipitation, Extra Magic Hours Schedule, Fantasmic Show Times, Holidays, and Special Events.
Make sure you first read my month-by-month overview of visiting Disney World, located here. The overview will give you an idea of what to expect in terms of cost, crowds, weather, and special events on a broader scale. Once you figure out when you would like to visit, you can move on to this more detailed look.
Here’s a quick explanation of how to read the calendar and what the numbers mean. It may seem like it’s a little long, but you’ll only need to read the explanation once.
- The first line in each box is the date.
- The second line shows the cost to book a room at a Disney-owned resort. $ = Value Season, $$ = Regular Season, $$$ = Summer Season, $$$$ = Peak Season, and $$$$$ = Holiday Season. Occasionally there will be a + or – after the $$$ to show that the cost is slightly higher or lower than usual, but not by enough to raise it another $ notch.
- The third line is the average high and low temperature and the chance of precipitation. All data is based on the last 15 years. I wouldn’t read too much into the precipitation percentages for each day because just one or two additional days of rain in the last 15 years can raise the percentage substantially. I included it so you can look at the precipitation trends throughout the month(s) and take it into consideration when deciding when to book your vacation. For a broader overview of the month, read the month-by-month overview I linked to above.
- The fourth line is an estimation of the overall crowd level. A “5″ refers to average crowds. Numbers above 5 refer to a larger than average overall crowd level and numbers below 5 refer to lower than average overall crowds. A day with an overall crowd level of “1″ means that the crowds are expected to be the absolute lowest of the year and a “10″ means crowds are expected to be at their largest of the year. In other words, the overall crowd level estimation will give you an idea of how many people are in the four major theme parks. Individual theme parks can have smaller or larger crowds than the overall estimation, which is where the theme park recommendations come in.
- The fifth line shows the theme parks I recommend visiting in green and the theme parks I recommend avoiding in red. There is also a | sign that splits up the recommended and not recommended Parks for the color blind or those printing in black and white (the Parks to the left of the | sign are recommended). I use the usual abbreviations for the Parks; AK is the Animal Kingdom, EP is Epcot, HS is Hollywood Studios, and MK is the Magic Kingdom. In addition to the colors, the Park on the far left is the most recommended Park to visit that day. The Park second to the left is the second most recommended and so on. For example, if the line reads AK EP | HS MK then the Animal Kingdom is the most recommended and Epcot is the second most recommended. On the other side of the | sign, Hollywood Studios is not recommended and the Magic Kingdom is expressly not recommended even more. If possible, I would strongly recommend you visit the Park that is most recommended each day. Please read below the calendar for an overview of how I’ve selected the recommended Parks and also a day-by-day explanation.
- The sixth line lists which Parks have Extra Magic Hours and at what time they start. Morning Extra Magic Hour lasts one hour and usually starts at 8am. Evening Extra Magic Hours last two hours from the start time. For example, if you see AK:8am EP:9pm, that means the Animal Kingdom has a morning Extra Magic Hour from 8am-9am and Epcot has evening Extra Magic Hours from 9pm-11pm.
- The seventh line lists the Fantasmic show times at the Hollywood Studios.
- The eighth line lists the start time of Main Street Electrical Parade (MSEP:) and Wishes Fireworks at Magic Kingdom(W:). For example, if you see, MSEP: 9pm & 11pm W: 10pm, it would mean that Main Street Electrical Parade begins at 9pm and 11pm and Wishes begins at 10pm.
The Calendar is also available in an easy to view and print PDF file, Here.
Click the image to enlarge it.
Thursday October 1
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 5pm (Not Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Most Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7:30pm (Not Recommended)
Fantasmic: 8pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Tentatively Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am-9am
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: None, Wishes Fireworks: None
Animal Kingdom is not expressly recommended, though it won’t be a terrible day there. The morning Extra Magic Hour at Magic Kingdom won’t draw nearly the same number of people as usual with the short hours of operation and lack of evening entertainment during regular Park hours and casual vacationers will largely ignore it with the 7pm close. We also don’t have evening Extra Magic Hours scheduled anywhere and Animal Kingdom hasn’t offered a morning Extra Magic Hour since Sunday. You can still do well by arriving prior to Park opening and taking care of the main priorities first thing in the morning, but it will be busier than the many recommended days during the week. Most people will want to take advantage of the better days at Epcot or Magic Kingdom.
Epcot is our most recommended Park. We’re going into another busy weekend, thanks to the guaranteed higher crowds for the International Food and Wine Festival. Fantasmic and Magic Kingdom’s morning Extra Magic Hour will also help pull people away today. Plus, yesterday’s evening Extra Magic Hours will have been wildly popular with Disney resort guests and they won’t be looking to return today, especially in the morning. All in all, today and next Monday are your best days of the week at Epcot. Take full advantage by arriving by 8:15am and head straight for Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’. Head up to World Showcase beginning as close to 11am as possible to stay ahead of the incoming Food and Wine Festival crowds. Return to Future World after 5pm to find lower crowds there than the afternoon, keeping in mind that only Soarin’, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Mission: Space, Character Spot, and The Seas continue operating after 7pm. Hit the other Future World attractions from 5pm – 7pm and then return to Soarin’ and Test Track after 8pm to find shorter waits, use FastPass+, or take advantage of single rider at Test Track. It’s also an excellent night to stay for IllumiNations.
With no evening entertainment at Magic Kingdom, short hours at Magic Kingdom, no evening Extra Magic Hours anywhere, and nothing special happening at Epcot or Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios is going to be busier than recommended days during the week. Plus, it’s later in the week, which means most people on a weeklong vacation will already have visited Magic Kingdom and Epcot and they’ll be looking to spend a day at one of Disney World’s less popular theme parks. With nothing specific drawing people to the Studios, it’s not going to be crazy crowded, but it is going to be busier than other recommended days during the week and should be avoided if possible.
Magic Kingdom is tentatively recommended today, which is rare for a day with a morning Extra Magic Hour attached. However, the 9am to 7pm operating schedule and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in the evening make the Magic Kingdom significantly less crowded. While the Extra Magic Hours schedule is a major deciding factor for Disney resort guests because many of them feel like it’s Disney’s way of dictating where they belong each day, the short hours will be a bigger turn off. Over the past several years, Thursdays with a morning Extra Magic Hour and a 7pm close have not been much busier than other Mickey’s Party dates over the course of the week. Days with longer hours of operation and nighttime entertainment remain much more popular. In other words, the morning Extra Magic Hour will attract some Disney resort guests, but the short hours of operation and Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios will cause many of them to head elsewhere. Off-site visitors are much more likely to visit on a Monday, Wednesday, and/or Saturday. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible, you can have a huge amount of success if you arrive by 7:30am and head straight for Fantasyland or other priorities. You should have no trouble riding all priority Fantasyland rides in the first hour and you can move to the headlining Mountain rides or popular characters after that. If you aren’t Extra Magic Hours eligible or don’t arrive until after 9am, head straight for Fantasyland or Tomorrowland where you should find short standby waits at most attractions. Tomorrow will be slightly less crowded overall. If you’re not Extra Magic Hours eligible or don’t plan to arrive until after 9am, then Friday would be the better choice.
Friday October 2
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 5pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Epcot: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 10pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7:30pm (Recommended)
Fantasmic: 8pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: none, Wishes Fireworks: none
Animal Kingdom is not recommended today, thanks to the morning Extra Magic Hour that will attract Disney resort guests. It’s also late enough in the week that many Disney vacationers will already have had an opportunity to visit the other Parks and they’ll naturally save Animal Kingdom for later in the week. With no special evening entertainment scheduled and no evening Extra Magic Hours to speak of, a lot of people will have Animal Kingdom on their minds. With so many recommended days during the week, there’s really no reason to visit today. You can still make today work if you’re Extra Magic Hours eligible and arrive by 7:30am to take advantage of it. But you’ll probably want to be on your way by 1pm when crowds are heavier.
Epcot isn’t recommended, though it will be less busy than either of the next two days. If you’re trying to decide between today, tomorrow, and Sunday, then today would be best. However Fridays, particularly in World Showcase in the evening, are crowded. Most people will want to take advantage of the lower crowds at Magic Kingdom because it’s going to be much, much, much busier there tomorrow. If you are headed to Epcot today, you’ll want to arrive before Park opening and take care of Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’ first thing in the morning. Plan to move up through World Showcase right at 11am if you have business up there, whether it be the attractions and shopping or the Food and Wine Festival booths. Crowds in World Showcase are only going to get larger as it gets later in the day. Plan to return to Future World at or before 5pm to avoid the heavy congestion in World Showcase. Overall, there are going to be a lot of people in Epcot, but you can “beat” them by arriving early and touring efficiently. If possible, try to see IllumiNations on another night because crowds will be thick in World Showcase from 5pm through close.
Hollywood Studios is recommended, though most people will want to take advantage of some of the lowest crowds of the week at Magic Kingdom. Fortunately, Animal Kingdom will be pulling more Disney resort guests and Epcot will be incredibly popular for the International Food and Wine Festival and 10pm close. As always, it’s much more important to arrive by 8:15am and take care of Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster first thing than it is to simply “pick the right day” and show up at 11am. Even with the average overall crowd level and recommendation, Toy Story Mania will see 60+ minute waits in the afternoon and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster won’t be far behind. There’s no way around that with their limited capacities and the few number of rides in the Park. Arrive early and tour efficiently and you can do very well.
Magic Kingdom is our best choice as far as crowds are concerned. This may seem like an odd statement, considering that the operating hours are just 9am to 7pm, but that’s precisely why crowds will be so low. The great majority of Disney vacationers would prefer to visit the Parks when the hours are longer because it seems like more time in the Parks equates to higher value for your money. That seems logical considering the cost to enter the Parks is the same, regardless if Magic Kingdom is open from 8am to 1am or 9am to 7pm. However, crowds are so much lower on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party days that you’ll actually be able to get more done in a shorter amount of time. Most off-site vacationers will hold off until tomorrow for the longer hours, Main Street Electrical Parade, and Wishes and a lot of Disney resort guests will have visited yesterday for the morning Extra Magic Hour and the Electrical Parade. All of this leaves us with ample opportunity to get on the headlining and Fantasyland rides with minimal waits. As always, you’ll find the most success if you arrive prior to opening and head straight for Space/Big Thunder/Splash Mountains or Fantasyland. Use FastPass+ in the afternoon when wait times peak and you should be able to do just about every major ride and many of the secondary attractions as well. If you would also like to see the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes, consider spending a second day at the Magic Kingdom when those nighttime spectaculars are scheduled. Wednesday would be ideal because both days will be less crowded than a Monday or Saturday. Ideally, you would Park Hop over to the Magic Kingdom in the afternoon or evening on Wednesday, after spending the majority of your day at a Park with lower crowds. Either way, focus on getting the most popular attractions out of the way today and return to the Magic Kingdom for the nighttime spectaculars on another date. With only one day to spend at the Magic Kingdom, you’ll need to decide whether seeing Wishes and the Main Street Electrical Parade are worth spending the day in heavier crowds.
Saturday October 3
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 5pm (Most Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 10pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7:30pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Fantasmic: 8pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 10pm – 12am
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
Animal Kingdom is the most recommended Park. We don’t have Extra Magic Hours, special events, evening entertainment, or anything else to attract on-site or off-site visitors. Those leaving tomorrow after a traditional weeklong vacation are unlikely to visit Animal Kingdom on their last full day and most arriving today won’t head out to Animal Kingdom as their first destination. We’re also coming off a morning Extra Magic Hour yesterday that will be much more popular with resort guests. Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios will be attracting the bulk of the resort crowd and Epcot will be far more popular with locals for the Food and Wine Festival. As always, you’ll be best off if you arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. Wait times will only get shorter after 4pm, so stay through close if you have more you’d like to accomplish. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to enjoy much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Epcot will be considerably busier than usual due to the incredibly popular International Food and Wine Festival. The event attracts tons of locals, especially in the afternoon and evening in the World Showcase where the majority of the Food and Wine events take place. Although the effect on Future World and the headlining attractions isn’t as great, we’re still much better off waiting until Monday to visit. Expect incredibly heavy crowds from 1pm through IllumiNations. If you can’t visit Epcot any other day, make sure you arrive prior to Park opening and visit Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission Space, and Soarin’ immediately in the morning or follow a touring plan. Use FastPass+ in the late morning and afternoon when crowds and waits peak. Move up through the Mexico and Norway Pavilions in the World Showcase at 11am if you can’t get to the World Showcase on another day. The World Showcase will be buzzing from 1pm through close and it will be very difficult to move around with the heavier crowds, even if the attractions won’t necessarily be that much busier than usual. Try to move through World Showcase as quickly as possible and then return to Future World. If you’re trying to decide between visiting Epcot on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, I would recommend Friday and then Sunday over Saturday.
Hollywood Studios is not recommended. The sizable Disney resort contingent numbers 75,000+ people. Because Disney sells the Extra Magic Hour program so well in its marketing materials, many of these Disney resort guests follow the Extra Magic Hours schedule because they think it’s Disney telling them where they belong each day. While you can have success if you are Extra Magic Hours eligible and arrive by 7:15am, most people will want to visit another day. Avoid it unless you can’t visit any other day or are certain you’ll arrive by 7:15am and plan to hit Toy Story Midway Mania, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours first thing in the morning. Yesterday or Monday would be better.
Saturdays are naturally the busiest day of the week at the Magic Kingdom. We have longer hours of operation, visiting locals, and a lot of vacationers who will be visiting the Magic Kingdom for a second time before returning home tomorrow. On top of that, Disney added evening Extra Magic Hours, attracting even more resort guests. On top of that, Main Street Electrical Parade is only scheduled on a limited number of nights this week. Because the Parade is so popular, a lot of people will visit on a day that they can see it, like today. Yesterday will be much less crowded with the 7pm close and lack of nighttime entertainment and any other Mickey’s Party date would be significantly less crowded, but you can have a moderate amount of success today if you arrive prior to 8:30am and head straight for the headlining or Fantasyland attractions. You may elect to prioritize another low capacity attraction or character instead. The afternoon will be busier than any other day this week and you’ll either want to take a break and return for the Electrical Parade and Wishes or visit the less popular attractions from 2pm – 6pm. The relatively late night is also a good time to tour with short waits at most attractions after 9pm. If you’re planning to visit during evening Extra Magic Hours, begin in Adventureland or Frontierland because most people will head straight for Tomorrowland or Fantasyland. Visit Tomorrowland or Fantasyland in the final hour to find shorter waits. While it is possible to have a decent day here if you arrive early and tour efficiently, there are much less crowded days to visit during the week.
Sunday October 4
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7:30pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Fantasmic: 8pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: none, Wishes Fireworks: none
Animal Kingdom is recommended. Disney resort guests are more likely to visit Wednesday for morning Extra Magic Hour and it’s unlikely anyone arriving over the weekend will begin their vacation with Disney’s least popular theme park. You should be able to do just about everything the Park has to offer if you arrive prior to Park opening. Focus on riding Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest as early as possible and/or use FastPass+. After getting those out of the way, move on to DinoLand USA or one of the more popular shows – either Finding Nemo the Musical or Festival of the Lion King and you’ll be set for the rest of the day. Keep in mind that crowds disperse in the afternoon around 3pm and the last hour of operation will only have diminishing waits. End the day in Asia with Kali River Rapids and Expedition Everest and waits will be nearly nonexistent.
Epcot will be busy again for the International Food and Wine Festival. Many locals know how busy Saturdays are and they wait until Sunday to visit. Others will wait until Sunday to visit because they’re more interested in the special events scheduled that day. Because the Food and Wine Festival runs every day during the week, there’s really no benefit to visiting over the weekend if you have flexibility in which day you visit, unless you’re planning to attend a special event or workshop that is only offered on the weekend. For most locals, visiting on the weekend is much more convenient than trying to swing a weekday visit. You can find success if you arrive by 8:15am and head straight for Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission Space, and Soarin’, but you would be much better off waiting until tomorrow to visit when you won’t need to worry as much about Food and Wine crowds. The World Showcase will be busier than usual in the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow is significantly better.
Hollywood Studios will be busy due to the evening Extra Magic Hours that are popular with Disney resort guests. It’s also more likely Disney will extend the close and add a second Fantasmic, which will make the Park more popular with off-site visitors. The morning will be an okay time to tour, but crowds will increase by 10am as more and more Disney resort guests arrive. Unfortunately, I’m not too fond of evening Extra Magic Hours at Hollywood Studios. There are only a few attractions open and the waits for Toy Story Mania, Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours will likely be just as long as they were during the day, at least until an hour before the Extra Magic Hours end. In addition, 9,000+ people will exit Fantasmic at 8:30pm, right as evening Extra Magic Hours gets underway. The Fantasmic Theater is located right on Sunset Boulevard, across from the entrances to Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. While not everyone seeing Fantasmic will be a Disney resort guest, many of them will be, and a ton will be headed to Tower of Tower and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster because they truly believe it’s the best time to get in line. Unfortunately, they’ll find themselves lined up with a few thousand of their new best friends. If you’re staying for evening Extra Magic Hours, your best bet is always to save these headlining attractions for the very end of the night and visit Toy Story Mania last. While you could theoretically have success if you arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for the headliners, the same will be true later in the week and you won’t have to deal with the significantly heavier afternoon and evening crowds. Monday, Wednesday, or Friday would be better if you can swing any of those dates.
Magic Kingdom is the most recommended Park. The short hours and lack of evening entertainment will cause a lot of casual vacationers to head elsewhere. We’re in between yesterday’s very popular longer hours of operation/both nighttime spectaculars and have a similar schedule tomorrow. On top of that, Sunday is a major travel day for those on a standard weeklong Disney vacation. With the early close, virtually none of them will start out with an abbreviated day at Magic Kingdom. Few people that arrived on Saturday will also visit a theme park with a seemingly short day and no nighttime spectaculars on their first full day. Tomorrow will be significantly more crowded. If you’re looking to visit Magic Kingdom over two days, then you may want to visit on a Mickey’s Party date and another day where you can enjoy the nighttime spectaculars. If you’re planning just one day at Magic Kingdom, then you’ll need to weigh whether you’re willing to put up with heavier crowds in order to enjoy both nighttime spectaculars. While the 7pm close may seem like a truncated day, I can assure you that ten hours is a long time to spend in a theme park. If you arrive by 8:30am, you’ll be able to accomplish an amazing number of attractions in a short period of time if you head straight for Fantasyland or other important attractions, use FastPass+ in the afternoon when crowds peak, and visit the less popular attractions in the afternoon. Crowds will only diminish from 4pm to 6pm as people leave for dining reservations and other activities. Around 6pm you will begin to see an influx of people arriving for the Halloween Party, but they tend to congregate on Main Street waiting for their Party to begin, rather than heading for the attractions. Stay through 7pm because wait times will only decrease from their afternoon highs as it gets closer to 7pm. One thing about staying through 7pm is that at exactly 7pm (and possibly a couple of minutes before), the special characters will begin appearing for the Party. If you’re not planning to do the Party and have kids, you may want to leave around 6:30pm. Otherwise, your children may encounter a bunch of characters that they won’t be allowed to visit because you must have a Party ticket to get in line. There are no exceptions. Other than those minor inconveniences, this is going to be one of the three least crowded days of the week at Magic Kingdom. Wednesday is the best day to see the nighttime spectaculars.
Monday October 5
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Highly Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Most Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7:30pm (Highly Recommended)
Fantasmic: 8pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am-9am
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
Animal Kingdom is highly recommended. Magic Kingdom will prove overwhelmingly popular with so much going on over there. Most people will want to take advantage of one of the two best days of the week to visit Epcot or a better day at Hollywood Studios. Animal Kingdom is easy enough to schedule otherwise. Wednesday and Friday will be busiest.
Epcot is the most recommended Park. We don’t have Extra Magic Hours, special evening entertainment, or anything else that will draw people toward Epcot specifically. Disney resort guests will be more likely to visit tomorrow or Thursday for Extra Magic Hours and off-site visitors on a weeklong vacation will be headed to the Magic Kingdom for their first full day at the world’s most popular theme park. Disney resort guests are more likely to head to Magic Kingdom for the Extra Magic Hours, later close, and nighttime entertainment. We’re also coming off a much busier weekend thanks to the Food and Wine Festival. To have the most success, arrive prior to Park opening and head to Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’ or follow one of the two-day compartmentalized touring plans. With the Food and Wine Festival, World Showcase will remain much busier than it would be otherwise. Head up immediately at 11am to dodge most of the crowds. The evening will be busier than usual in World Showcase. Plan to return to Future World after 5pm to avoid the congestion. Just keep in mind that a lot of the Future World attractions close at 7pm. Usually, just Soarin, Test Track, Mission: Space, Spaceship Earth, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush, and Character Spot continue to operate after 7pm. If Character Spot is on your itinerary, try to visit after 7pm when waits times are much lower than the afternoon. Overall, it’s a great day for Epcot and an excellent opportunity to spend time in both Future World and World Showcase.
Hollywood Studios is also highly recommended as we come off a busier day with Extra Magic Hours. It’s also early enough in the week that most guests just arriving will be intent on visiting Magic Kingdom with its nighttime entertainment and long hours of operation. As always, it’s imperative that you arrive by 8:15am and take care of Toy Story Mania first thing. The Studios has a severely limited number of rides and wait times rise quickly even on the most recommended days with the lowest crowds.
Magic Kingdom is going to be busy today. Mondays are usually the second busiest day of the week at the Magic Kingdom, second to only Saturdays, for a variety of reasons. First, a lot of people travel over the weekend and visit Magic Kingdom on their first full day. In most instances, that day is Monday. Second, Mondays often feature longer hours, Wishes Fireworks, and Main Street Electrical Parade, when other days during the week have shorter operating hours and don’t offer the Electrical Parade. Anyone who wants to see the evening entertainment will have to visit on a day when it’s offered, like most Saturdays and Mondays. Here in the heart of Mickey’s Party season, that means Magic Kingdom closes at 7pm on four days this week. Every day with a later close and nighttime entertainment will be overwhelmingly more popular. Finally, Disney added a morning Extra Magic Hour, which will only drive more Disney resort guests to the Park because they truly believe the Extra Magic Hours schedule is Disney’s way of telling them where they belong each day. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible, you can do well in the morning if you arrive prior to 7:30am and tour efficiently in the morning. But it’s going to be busier than any day other than Saturday from 11am-9pm. Wednesday is the best day of the week to see the Electrical Parade and Wishes.
Tuesday October 6
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7:30pm (Not Recommended)
Fantasmic: 8pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: None, Wishes Fireworks: None
Animal Kingdom is recommended. We don’t have special events, Extra Magic Hours, or anything specific drawing people toward it. Wednesday’s and Friday’s morning Extra Magic Hours will be more popular with Disney resort guests. It’s early enough in the week that many people on weeklong vacations will be saving Animal Kingdom for later in the week. To have the most success, arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. You’ll have no trouble riding both with very low waits before 10am. Once you get through these two attractions, you have little to worry about other than trying to get to the scheduled shows. Finding Nemo and Festival of the Lion King do get busy during the afternoon shows, so try to see the first or last show of the day. You’ll also want to get to DinoLand USA before 10:30am to ride Primeval Whirl and DINOSAUR because those two attractions are popular. Still, they aren’t necessarily your top morning priorities. You should have no trouble experiencing most everything Animal Kingdom has to offer in one day, provided you arrive early in the morning, tour efficiently, use FastPass+ intelligently, and keep an eye on the time in order to see the scheduled stage shows. Finally, crowds disperse in the early afternoon around 4pm. Plan to stay through close because waits will only get shorter as it gets later in the evening. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to find much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Epcot is not recommended. Disney is extremely good at selling the Extra Magic Hours program in its marketing materials. Even people that have no idea what “Soaring” is and think they’ll be riding the monorail from Animal Kingdom to Epcot know about Extra Magic Hours. Remember that well over 25,000 rooms resort-wide have access to Extra Magic Hours on any given day. And guess where a lot of those 75,000+ people are going to be headed? While Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios helps, it shouldn’t pull enough people away to make a discernible difference in wait times. With that in mind, this remains the third best day of the week to visit Epcot with much heavier crowds over the weekend due to the Food and Wine Festival. If you can’t visit on Monday or Wednesday, today is the third best day. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible, do everything you can to arrive by 7:30am and take care of Soarin’ and Test Track as soon as possible. Move up to World Showcase right at 11am to enjoy the lowest crowds possible in World Showcase. Then return to Future World after 5pm or 6pm after most people have moved up to the World Showcase. Still, Soarin’ and Test Track won’t see waits much lower than 60 minutes until after 8pm.
Hollywood Studios is not expressly recommended. The short hours at Magic Kingdom will be a big turn off for many and off-site visitors in particular will be looking toward Fantasmic and Toy Story Mania after spending yesterday at Magic Kingdom. With that said, there is nothing specific attracting people to the Studios and you can do well if you arrive by 8:15am and follow the usual advice. I’m looking towards tomorrow and Thursday as significantly better days to visit and I would hold off until then if possible.
Magic Kingdom is the best Park to visit, despite the truncated operating schedule and lack of both Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes. Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is scheduled tonight. It’s a separately ticketed event that begins at 7pm and runs through 12am. Because the hours are “so short” and there’s no evening entertainment during the regular day, most Disney vacationers will plan to visit on another day. Yesterday will have been busy and tomorrow will also be busier, thanks to longer hours and evening entertainment. Today is an excellent opportunity to visit the Fantasyland and headlining attractions with minimal waits as well as visit the popular characters and whatever else you’d like to experience. Because waits are shorter and the crowd level is so much lower, you’ll actually be able to accomplish more during the day today than either yesterday or tomorrow, despite the Park being open fewer hours. For maximum efficiency, arrive by 8:30am and use FastPass+ in the early afternoon when crowds and waits peak. Consider a second day at the Magic Kingdom to see the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes or ideally Park Hop over in the evening on a night that it’s available. Wednesday is the best day of the week to see the Main Street Electrical Parade at night, but that isn’t saying a whole lot when your other options are a busy Monday and Saturday. Finally, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party does feature the special HalloWishes fireworks spectacular at 9:30pm above Cinderella Castle. This show is viewable from a variety of locations around Disney property. My favorite is the Polynesian Resort’s beach, which is directly across from the Magic Kingdom. The 4th floor observatory at the Contemporary Resort is another excellent location. The boat launch and marina at the Grand Floridian also offer pretty good views, though less direct angles. The boat dock at the Transportation and Ticket Center also offers an underrated view and it makes for the easiest exit if you’re driving because you’re already at the parking lot. The soundtrack is easiest to hear at the Contemporary, Transportation and Ticket Center, and Polynesian in that order. You might consider taking the monorail or boat to one of the Monorail Deluxe resorts for dinner after the Magic Kingdom closes at 7pm and then get into position to enjoy the fireworks around 9:20pm at one of the previously mentioned locations. You can then transfer back to the Magic Kingdom and take a resort bus back to your resort or hop in your car and head wherever you like. Each of the Deluxe resorts have pretty good quick service locations too, so you can also eat on the cheap if you prefer and look around the resort(s) for a while until HalloWishes begins. In a perfect world, I would hit Kona Café for dinner and enjoy HalloWishes from the Polynesian’s beach.
Wednesday October 7
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Highly Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7:30pm (Most Recommended)
Fantasmic: 8pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 10pm – 12am
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
It’s the first or second busiest day of the week at Animal Kingdom. The morning Extra Magic Hour will attract a lot of Disney resort guests that spent Monday at Magic Kingdom and Tuesday at Epcot. Magic Kingdom will prove more popular with the long hours, nighttime entertainment, and more popular evening Extra Magic Hours. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible and able to arrive by 7:30am, you can have a tremendous amount of success from 8am – 10am. But most people will want to take advantage of one of the best days of the week for Epcot or Hollywood Studios, both of which are more difficult to schedule.
Epcot is highly recommended and one of the two best days of the week to visit the Park during the very popular Food and Wine Festival. We’re going into another busy weekend, thanks to the guaranteed higher crowds for the International Food and Wine Festival and we’re in between yesterday’s morning Extra Magic Hour and tomorrow’s evening Extra Magic Hours, both of which will be more popular with Disney resort guests. All in all, today and next Monday are your best days of the week at Epcot. Tuesday or Thursday would be better than a weekend date. Take full advantage by arriving by 8:15am and head straight for Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’. Head up to World Showcase beginning as close to 11am as possible to stay ahead of the incoming Food and Wine Festival crowds. Return to Future World after 5pm to find lower crowds there than the afternoon, keeping in mind that only Soarin’, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Mission: Space, Character Spot, Turtle Talk, and The Seas continue operating after 7pm. Hit the other Future World attractions from 5pm – 7pm and then return to Soarin’ and Test Track after 8pm to find shorter waits, use FastPass+, or take advantage of single rider at Test Track. It’s also an excellent night to stay for IllumiNations.
Hollywood Studios is the most recommended Park. Animal Kingdom will be popular with the morning Extra Magic Hour and Magic Kingdom will be overwhelmingly popular with the longer hours of operation, both nighttime spectaculars, and evening Extra Magic Hours. Although the Studios is the most recommended Park, it is also easier to schedule on a recommended day than Epcot. Those looking to spend two days at Epcot are best served visiting Monday and Wednesday and fitting in the Studios on another date. Friday would be a good choice. As always, what you do is more important than which day you do it. In order to find the shortest waits, you’ll need to arrive by 8:15am and head straight to Toy Story Mania. Because of its popularity and extremely limited capacity, Toy Story Mania almost always has afternoon waits of 60 or more minutes, even when crowds are relatively low and the Studios is recommended. There’s no way around that with its limited capacity and the even more limited number of things to do with kids. It’s always your top priority. The second attraction with the longest peak wait is Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, which should be ridden immediately after Toy Story Mania in the morning or with FastPass+. Other priorities are Tower of Terror and Star Tours, though FastPass+ are more plentiful at both attractions and standby waits are usually lower. After you get through these four headliners, it’s just a matter of arriving in time to see the various stage shows that run on a set schedule and getting over to the Studios’ high capacity attractions. You may also have characters to visit before lines get longer. While it’s officially a recommended day, arriving prior to Park opening and hitting the headliners first thing is more important than which day you pick. Arrive at 11am, no matter the recommendation or the overall crowd level, and you’ll be looking at long lines at Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
Magic Kingdom is going to be busy today with the long hours of operation, both nighttime spectaculars during regular Park hours, and the addition of evening Extra Magic Hours, which will attract even more Disney resort guests. Unfortunately, today also marks the best day this week to see the Electrical Parade and Wishes. Disney should end up adding a second Electrical Parade at 11pm as we get closer to October. That will make it easier for people who can stay out that late to see the fireworks and the later and less crowded Parade, ideally after park hopping from a Park that’s recommended higher. Guests that don’t care about the nighttime entertainment are much better off visiting on a recommended Mickey’s Party date. If you do visit today, your best plan of attack is arriving before 8:30am with plans to head to the priority attractions on your itinerary first thing. Take an afternoon break from 1pm to 5pm or so to rest up for the evening. This is the hottest and busiest part of the day and you’re better off relaxing at your resort than you are waiting 45 minutes to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Head back in the evening for dinner, some late night attractions, and the nighttime entertainment. The best place to see the Electrical Parade is in Liberty Square or Frontierland because they’re less popular than Main Street. If you’re planning to visit during evening Extra Magic Hours, begin in Adventureland or Frontierland because most people will head straight for Tomorrowland or Fantasyland. Visit Tomorrowland or Fantasyland in the final hour to find shorter waits. While it is possible to have a decent day here if you arrive early and tour efficiently, there are much less crowded days to visit during the week.
Thursday October 8
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 9pm – 11pm
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7:30pm (Not Recommended)
Fantasmic: 8pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: None, Wishes Fireworks: None
Animal Kingdom is recommended again as we come off a more popular morning Extra Magic Hour yesterday. We also have another one tomorrow, which will also guide attendance higher. Today, Disney resort guests are more likely to head to Epcot for its popular evening Extra Magic Hours. As always, arriving early and taking care of Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest is most important. Crowds also drop off in the afternoon with no nighttime entertainment to keep guests around and underrated dining. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to enjoy much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Most people will want to avoid Epcot today with the evening Extra Magic Hours that will lure the majority of Disney resort guests, which will lengthen waits times at the attractions for the entire afternoon and evening. The morning is still a good time to tour with an 8:15am arrival and you can have success if you move up to World Showcase right at 11am, but Monday or Wednesday would have been better. Note that today would actually be better than any of the next three days due to the popularity of the Food and Wine Festival with local visitors. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will see similar wait times and much heavier congestion in World Showcase. Evening Extra Magic Hours at Epcot are a lot of fun if you enjoy being in the Park late and don’t want to ride Test Track or Soarin’, which will continue to see 30+ minute wait times until around 10:15pm. After that is a decent time to ride either of the headliners – the later you go, the lower the wait will be. But walking around World Showcase can be fun with few people around at night, even if most things are closed.
Hollywood Studios is recommended, though yesterday would have been better with Magic Kingdom pulling a ton of people with the evening entertainment and Extra Magic Hours. Today, Magic Kingdom will be significantly less crowded with the early close due to the Halloween Party, which will in turn cause the Studios to be busier as more people are looking to visit another Park. Fortunately, Epcot’s evening Extra Magic Hours will prove more popular with resort guests and with the average overall crowd level, the Studios works with nothing specific attracting people towards it. As always, plan to arrive by 8:15am and head straight to sign up the kids for Jedi Training Academy or over to Toy Story Midway Mania first thing.
Magic Kingdom is the most recommended Park with the 7pm close and lack of nighttime spectaculars during regular Park hours causing most casual vacationers to head elsewhere. We’re also coming off a significantly busier day yesterday with Wishes and evening Extra Magic Hours scheduled and Epcot will prove more popular today with resort guests. Tomorrow is also a great day to visit in case you have other plans today.
Friday October 9
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Epcot: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 10pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7:30pm (Recommended)
Fantasmic: 8pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: none, Wishes Fireworks: none
Animal Kingdom is not recommended today, thanks to the morning Extra Magic Hour that will attract Disney resort guests. It’s also late enough in the week that many Disney vacationers will already have had an opportunity to visit the other Parks and they’ll naturally save Animal Kingdom for later in the week. With no special evening entertainment scheduled and no evening Extra Magic Hours to speak of, a lot of people will have Animal Kingdom on their minds. With so many recommended days during the week, there’s really no reason to visit today. You can still make today work if you’re Extra Magic Hours eligible and arrive by 7:30am to take advantage of it. But you’ll probably want to be on your way by 1pm when crowds are heavier.
Epcot isn’t recommended, though it will be less busy than either of the next two days. If you’re trying to decide between today, tomorrow, and Sunday, then today would be best. However Fridays, particularly in World Showcase in the evening, are crowded. Most people will want to take advantage of the lower crowds at Magic Kingdom because it’s going to be much, much, much busier there tomorrow. If you are headed to Epcot today, you’ll want to arrive before Park opening and take care of Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’ first thing in the morning. Plan to move up through World Showcase right at 11am if you have business up there, whether it be the attractions and shopping or the Food and Wine Festival booths. Crowds in World Showcase are only going to get larger as it gets later in the day. Plan to return to Future World at or before 5pm to avoid the heavy congestion in World Showcase. Overall, there are going to be a lot of people in Epcot, but you can “beat” them by arriving early and touring efficiently. If possible, try to see IllumiNations on another night because crowds will be thick in World Showcase from 5pm through close.
Hollywood Studios is recommended, though most people will want to take advantage of some of the lowest crowds of the week at Magic Kingdom. Fortunately, Animal Kingdom will be pulling more Disney resort guests and Epcot will be incredibly popular for the International Food and Wine Festival and 10pm close. As always, it’s much more important to arrive by 8:15am and take care of Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster first thing than it is to simply “pick the right day” and show up at 11am. Even with the average overall crowd level and recommendation, Toy Story Mania will see 60+ minute waits in the afternoon and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster won’t be far behind. There’s no way around that with their limited capacities and the few number of rides in the Park. Arrive early and tour efficiently and you can do very well.
Magic Kingdom is our best choice as far as crowds are concerned. This may seem like an odd statement, considering that the operating hours are just 9am to 7pm, but that’s precisely why crowds will be so low. The great majority of Disney vacationers would prefer to visit the Parks when the hours are longer because it seems like more time in the Parks equates to higher value for your money. That seems logical considering the cost to enter the Parks is the same, regardless if Magic Kingdom is open from 8am to 1am or 9am to 7pm. However, crowds are so much lower on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party days that you’ll actually be able to get more done in a shorter amount of time. Most off-site vacationers will hold off until tomorrow for the longer hours, Main Street Electrical Parade, and Wishes and a lot of Disney resort guests will have visited yesterday for the morning Extra Magic Hour and the Electrical Parade. All of this leaves us with ample opportunity to get on the headlining and Fantasyland rides with minimal waits. As always, you’ll find the most success if you arrive prior to opening and head straight for Space/Big Thunder/Splash Mountains or Fantasyland. Use FastPass+ in the afternoon when wait times peak and you should be able to do just about every major ride and many of the secondary attractions as well. If you would also like to see the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes, consider spending a second day at the Magic Kingdom when those nighttime spectaculars are scheduled. Wednesday would be ideal because both days will be less crowded than a Monday or Saturday. Ideally, you would Park Hop over to the Magic Kingdom in the afternoon or evening on Wednesday, after spending the majority of your day at a Park with lower crowds. Either way, focus on getting the most popular attractions out of the way today and return to the Magic Kingdom for the nighttime spectaculars on another date. With only one day to spend at the Magic Kingdom, you’ll need to decide whether seeing Wishes and the Main Street Electrical Parade are worth spending the day in heavier crowds.
Saturday October 10
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Most Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 10pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7:30pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Fantasmic: 8pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
Animal Kingdom is the most recommended Park. We don’t have Extra Magic Hours, special events, evening entertainment, or anything else to attract on-site or off-site visitors. Those leaving tomorrow after a traditional weeklong vacation are unlikely to visit Animal Kingdom on their last full day and most arriving today won’t head out to Animal Kingdom as their first destination. We’re also coming off a morning Extra Magic Hour yesterday that will be much more popular with resort guests. Hollywood Studios will be attracting the bulk of the resort crowd, Magic Kingdom will be incredibly popular with the long operating hours and both nighttime spectaculars, and Epcot will be far more popular with locals for the Food and Wine Festival. As always, you’ll be best off if you arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. Wait times will only get shorter after 4pm, so stay through close if you have more you’d like to accomplish. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to enjoy much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Epcot will be considerably busier than usual due to the incredibly popular International Food and Wine Festival. The event attracts tons of locals, especially in the afternoon and evening in the World Showcase where the majority of the Food and Wine events take place. Although the effect on Future World and the headlining attractions isn’t as great, we’re still much better off waiting until Monday to visit. Expect incredibly heavy crowds from 1pm through IllumiNations. If you can’t visit Epcot any other day, make sure you arrive prior to Park opening and visit Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission Space, and Soarin’ immediately in the morning or follow a touring plan. Use FastPass+ in the late morning and afternoon when crowds and waits peak. Move up through the Mexico and Norway Pavilions in the World Showcase at 11am if you can’t get to the World Showcase on another day. The World Showcase will be buzzing from 1pm through close and it will be very difficult to move around with the heavier crowds, even if the attractions won’t necessarily be that much busier than usual. Try to move through World Showcase as quickly as possible and then return to Future World. If you’re trying to decide between visiting Epcot on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, I would recommend Friday and then Sunday over Saturday.
Hollywood Studios is not recommended. The sizable Disney resort contingent numbers 75,000+ people. Because Disney sells the Extra Magic Hour program so well in its marketing materials, many of these Disney resort guests follow the Extra Magic Hours schedule because they think it’s Disney telling them where they belong each day. While you can have success if you are Extra Magic Hours eligible and arrive by 7:15am, most people will want to visit another day. Avoid it unless you can’t visit any other day or are certain you’ll arrive by 7:15am and plan to hit Toy Story Midway Mania, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours first thing in the morning. Yesterday or Monday would be better.
Saturdays are naturally the busiest day of the week at the Magic Kingdom. We have longer hours of operation, visiting locals, and a lot of vacationers who will be visiting the Magic Kingdom for a second time before returning home tomorrow. On top of that, Main Street Electrical Parade is only scheduled on a limited number of nights this week. Because the Parade is so popular, a lot of people will visit on a day that they can see it, like today. Yesterday will be much less crowded with the 7pm close and lack of nighttime entertainment and any other Mickey’s Party date would be significantly less crowded, but you can have a moderate amount of success today if you arrive prior to 8:30am and head straight for the headlining or Fantasyland attractions. You may elect to prioritize another low capacity attraction or character instead. The afternoon will be busier than any other day this week and you’ll either want to take a break and return for the Electrical Parade and Wishes or visit the less popular attractions from 2pm – 6pm. The relatively late night is also a good time to tour with short waits at most attractions after 9pm. While it is possible to have a decent day here if you arrive early and tour efficiently, there are much less crowded days to visit during the week.
Sunday October 11
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Most Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 7pm – 9pm
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
Animal Kingdom is the most recommended Park. Disney resort guests are more likely to visit Wednesday for morning Extra Magic Hour and it’s unlikely anyone arriving over the weekend will begin their vacation with Disney’s least popular theme park. You should be able to do just about everything the Park has to offer if you arrive prior to Park opening. Focus on riding Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest as early as possible and/or use FastPass+. After getting those out of the way, move on to DinoLand USA or one of the more popular shows – either Finding Nemo the Musical or Festival of the Lion King and you’ll be set for the rest of the day. Keep in mind that crowds disperse in the afternoon around 4pm and the last couple of hours of operation will only have diminishing waits. End the day in Asia with Kali River Rapids and Expedition Everest and waits will be nearly nonexistent.
Epcot will be busy again for the International Food and Wine Festival. Many locals know how busy Saturdays are and they wait until Sunday to visit. Others will wait until Sunday to visit because they’re more interested in the special events scheduled that day. Because the Food and Wine Festival runs every day during the week, there’s really no benefit to visiting over the weekend if you have flexibility in which day you visit, unless you’re planning to attend a special event or workshop that is only offered on the weekend. For most locals, visiting on the weekend is much more convenient than trying to swing a weekday visit. You can find success if you arrive by 8:15am and head straight for Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission Space, and Soarin’, but you would be much better off waiting until tomorrow to visit when you won’t need to worry as much about Food and Wine crowds. The World Showcase will be busier than usual in the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow is significantly better.
Hollywood Studios will be busy due to the evening Extra Magic Hours that are popular with Disney resort guests. It’s also more likely Disney will extend the close and add a second Fantasmic, which will make the Park more popular with off-site visitors. The morning will be an okay time to tour, but crowds will increase by 10am as more and more Disney resort guests arrive. Unfortunately, I’m not too fond of evening Extra Magic Hours at Hollywood Studios. There are only a few attractions open and the waits for Toy Story Mania, Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours will likely be just as long as they were during the day, at least until an hour before the Extra Magic Hours end. In addition, 9,000+ people will exit Fantasmic at 8pm, right as evening Extra Magic Hours gets underway. The Fantasmic Theater is located right on Sunset Boulevard, across from the entrances to Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. While not everyone seeing Fantasmic will be a Disney resort guest, many of them will be, and a ton will be headed to Tower of Tower and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster because they truly believe it’s the best time to get in line. Unfortunately, they’ll find themselves lined up with a few thousand of their new best friends. If you’re staying for evening Extra Magic Hours, your best bet is always to save these headlining attractions for the very end of the night and visit Toy Story Mania last. While you could theoretically have success if you arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for the headliners, the same will be true later in the week and you won’t have to deal with the significantly heavier afternoon and evening crowds. Wednesday or Friday would be better if you can swing any of those dates.
Magic Kingdom is not recommended. The long operating hours and both nighttime spectaculars will attract on-site and off-site visitors alike. With Magic Kingdom closing at 7pm on four nights this week, any day with a later close will be extremely popular. Tomorrow would actually be less crowded, even with the morning Extra Magic Hour and holiday due to the 7pm close, though today will be less busy than Saturday. Tuesday or Friday would be significantly less crowded. Today is the best day of the week to see the nighttime spectaculars though with complications on Wednesday with the evening Extra Magic Hours and Saturday proving more popular overall. You’d be best off if you could visit another Park during the day and park hop over to Magic Kingdom in the evening. Without Park Hopper, you can have very good success from Park open through 11am, though the afternoon is reliably busy.
Monday October 12
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Highly Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Most Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am-9am
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
Animal Kingdom is highly recommended. Resort guests are more likely wait for the Wednesday or Friday morning Extra Magic Hours. Most people will want to take advantage of one of the two best days of the week to visit Epcot with so many complications there due to the Food and Wine Festival boosting weekend crowds.
Epcot is the most recommended Park. We don’t have Extra Magic Hours, special evening entertainment, or anything else that will draw people toward Epcot specifically. Disney resort guests will be more likely to visit tomorrow or Thursday for Extra Magic Hours and off-site visitors on a weeklong vacation will be headed to the Magic Kingdom for their first full day at the world’s most popular theme park. We’re also coming off a much busier weekend thanks to the Food and Wine Festival. To have the most success, arrive prior to Park opening and head to Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’ or follow one of the two-day compartmentalized touring plans. With the Food and Wine Festival, World Showcase will remain much busier than it would be otherwise. Head up immediately at 11am to dodge most of the crowds. The evening will be busier than usual in World Showcase. Plan to return to Future World after 5pm to avoid the congestion. Just keep in mind that a lot of the Future World attractions close at 7pm. Usually, just Soarin, Test Track, Mission: Space, Spaceship Earth, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush, and Character Spot continue to operate after 7pm. If Character Spot is on your itinerary, try to visit after 7pm when waits times are much lower than the afternoon. Overall, it’s a great day for Epcot and an excellent opportunity to spend time in both Future World and World Showcase.
Hollywood Studios is recommended as we come off a busier day with Extra Magic Hours. It’s also early enough in the week that most guests just arriving will be intent on visiting Magic Kingdom, even with the 7pm close. As always, it’s imperative that you arrive by 8:15am and take care of Toy Story Mania first thing. The Studios has a severely limited number of rides and wait times rise quickly even on the most recommended days with the lowest crowds.
Magic Kingdom is not expressly recommended, though it won’t be a terrible day there, even with the holiday and the fact that it’s a Monday. The 7pm close and lack of nighttime entertainment will turn a lot of casual vacationers off. Still, you would only want to visit Magic Kingdom today if you’re Extra Hours eligible and truly able to arrive no later than 7:35am. You’ll be able to have a lot of success in Tomorrowland or Fantasyland and then have the ability to head over to Adventureland and Frontierland attractions when they open at 9am. Tomorrow or Friday would be the best days of the week for most people though without the Extra Magic Hour complication.
Tuesday October 13
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Not Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: None, Wishes Fireworks: None
Animal Kingdom is recommended. We don’t have special events, Extra Magic Hours, or anything specific drawing people toward it. Wednesday’s and Friday’s morning Extra Magic Hours will be more popular with Disney resort guests. It’s early enough in the week that many people on weeklong vacations will be saving Animal Kingdom for later in the week. To have the most success, arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. You’ll have no trouble riding both with very low waits before 10am. Once you get through these two attractions, you have little to worry about other than trying to get to the scheduled shows. Finding Nemo and Festival of the Lion King do get busy during the afternoon shows, so try to see the first or last show of the day. You’ll also want to get to DinoLand USA before 10:30am to ride Primeval Whirl and DINOSAUR because those two attractions are popular. Still, they aren’t necessarily your top morning priorities. You should have no trouble experiencing most everything Animal Kingdom has to offer in one day, provided you arrive early in the morning, tour efficiently, use FastPass+ intelligently, and keep an eye on the time in order to see the scheduled stage shows. Finally, crowds disperse in the early afternoon around 4pm. Plan to stay through close because waits will only get shorter as it gets later in the evening. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to find much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Epcot is not recommended. Disney is extremely good at selling the Extra Magic Hours program in its marketing materials. Even people that have no idea what “Soaring” is and think they’ll be riding the monorail from Animal Kingdom to Epcot know about Extra Magic Hours. Remember that well over 25,000 rooms resort-wide have access to Extra Magic Hours on any given day. And guess where a lot of those 75,000+ people are going to be headed? While Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios helps, it shouldn’t pull enough people away to make a discernible difference in wait times. With that in mind, this remains the third best day of the week to visit Epcot with much heavier crowds over the weekend due to the Food and Wine Festival. If you can’t visit on Monday or Wednesday, today is the third best day. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible, do everything you can to arrive by 7:30am and take care of Soarin’ and Test Track as soon as possible. Move up to World Showcase right at 11am to enjoy the lowest crowds possible in World Showcase. Then return to Future World after 5pm or 6pm after most people have moved up to the World Showcase. Still, Soarin’ and Test Track won’t see waits much lower than 60 minutes until after 8pm.
Hollywood Studios is not expressly recommended. The short hours at Magic Kingdom will be a big turn off for many and off-site visitors in particular will be looking toward Fantasmic and Toy Story Mania after spending yesterday at Magic Kingdom. With that said, there is nothing specific attracting people to the Studios and you can do well if you arrive by 8:15am and follow the usual advice. I’m looking towards tomorrow and Thursday as significantly better days to visit and I would hold off until then if possible.
Magic Kingdom is the best Park to visit, despite the truncated operating schedule and lack of both Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes. Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is scheduled tonight. It’s a separately ticketed event that begins at 7pm and runs through 12am. Because the hours are “so short” and there’s no evening entertainment during the regular day, most Disney vacationers will plan to visit on another day. Sunday and Wednesday will be much busier, thanks to longer hours and evening entertainment. Today is an excellent opportunity to visit the Fantasyland and headlining attractions with minimal waits as well as visit the popular characters and whatever else you’d like to experience. Because waits are shorter and the crowd level is so much lower, you’ll actually be able to accomplish more during the day today than either yesterday or tomorrow, despite the Park being open fewer hours. For maximum efficiency, arrive by 8:30am and use FastPass+ in the early afternoon when crowds and waits peak. Consider a second day at the Magic Kingdom to see the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes or ideally Park Hop over in the evening on a night that it’s available. Sunday was the best day of the week to see the Main Street Electrical Parade at night, but that isn’t saying a whole lot when your other options are a busy Wednesday with evening Extra Magic Hours and Saturday. Finally, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party does feature the special HalloWishes fireworks spectacular at 9:30pm above Cinderella Castle. This show is viewable from a variety of locations around Disney property. My favorite is the Polynesian Resort’s beach, which is directly across from the Magic Kingdom. The 4th floor observatory at the Contemporary Resort is another excellent location. The boat launch and marina at the Grand Floridian also offer pretty good views, though less direct angles. The boat dock at the Transportation and Ticket Center also offers an underrated view and it makes for the easiest exit if you’re driving because you’re already at the parking lot. The soundtrack is easiest to hear at the Contemporary, Transportation and Ticket Center, and Polynesian in that order. You might consider taking the monorail or boat to one of the Monorail Deluxe resorts for dinner after the Magic Kingdom closes at 7pm and then get into position to enjoy the fireworks around 9:20pm at one of the previously mentioned locations. You can then transfer back to the Magic Kingdom and take a resort bus back to your resort or hop in your car and head wherever you like. Each of the Deluxe resorts have pretty good quick service locations too, so you can also eat on the cheap if you prefer and look around the resort(s) for a while until HalloWishes begins. In a perfect world, I would hit Kona Café for dinner and enjoy HalloWishes from the Polynesian’s beach.
Wednesday October 14
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Highly Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 10pm – 12am
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
It’s the first or second busiest day of the week at Animal Kingdom. The morning Extra Magic Hour will attract a lot of Disney resort guests that spent Monday at Magic Kingdom and Tuesday at Epcot. Magic Kingdom will prove more popular with the long hours, nighttime entertainment, and more popular evening Extra Magic Hours. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible and able to arrive by 7:30am, you can have a tremendous amount of success from 8am – 10am. But most people will want to take advantage of one of the best days of the week for Epcot or Hollywood Studios, both of which are more difficult to schedule.
Epcot is highly recommended and one of the two best days of the week to visit the Park during the very popular Food and Wine Festival. We’re going into another busy weekend, thanks to the guaranteed higher crowds for the International Food and Wine Festival and we’re in between yesterday’s morning Extra Magic Hour and tomorrow’s evening Extra Magic Hours, both of which will be more popular with Disney resort guests. All in all, today and next Monday are your best days of the week at Epcot. Tuesday or Thursday would be better than a weekend date. Take full advantage by arriving by 8:15am and head straight for Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’. Head up to World Showcase beginning as close to 11am as possible to stay ahead of the incoming Food and Wine Festival crowds. Return to Future World after 5pm to find lower crowds there than the afternoon, keeping in mind that only Soarin’, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Mission: Space, Character Spot, Turtle Talk, and The Seas continue operating after 7pm. Hit the other Future World attractions from 5pm – 7pm and then return to Soarin’ and Test Track after 8pm to find shorter waits, use FastPass+, or take advantage of single rider at Test Track. It’s also an excellent night to stay for IllumiNations.
Hollywood Studios is the most recommended Park. Animal Kingdom will be popular with the morning Extra Magic Hour and Magic Kingdom will be overwhelmingly popular with the longer hours of operation, both nighttime spectaculars, and evening Extra Magic Hours. Although the Studios is the most recommended Park, it is also easier to schedule on a recommended day than Epcot. Those looking to spend two days at Epcot are best served visiting Monday and Wednesday and fitting in the Studios on another date. Friday would be a good choice. As always, what you do is more important than which day you do it. In order to find the shortest waits, you’ll need to arrive by 8:15am and head straight to Toy Story Mania. Because of its popularity and extremely limited capacity, Toy Story Mania almost always has afternoon waits of 60 or more minutes, even when crowds are relatively low and the Studios is recommended. There’s no way around that with its limited capacity and the even more limited number of things to do with kids. It’s always your top priority. The second attraction with the longest peak wait is Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, which should be ridden immediately after Toy Story Mania in the morning or with FastPass+. Other priorities are Tower of Terror and Star Tours, though FastPass+ are more plentiful at both attractions and standby waits are usually lower. After you get through these four headliners, it’s just a matter of arriving in time to see the various stage shows that run on a set schedule and getting over to the Studios’ high capacity attractions. You may also have characters to visit before lines get longer. While it’s officially a recommended day, arriving prior to Park opening and hitting the headliners first thing is more important than which day you pick. Arrive at 11am, no matter the recommendation or the overall crowd level, and you’ll be looking at long lines at Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
Magic Kingdom is going to be busy today with the long hours of operation, both nighttime spectaculars during regular Park hours, and the addition of evening Extra Magic Hours, which will attract even more Disney resort guests. Unfortunately, today also marks the second best day this week to see the Electrical Parade and Wishes. Disney should end up adding a second Electrical Parade at 11pm as we get closer to October. That will make it easier for people who can stay out that late to see the fireworks and the later and less crowded Parade, ideally after park hopping from a Park that’s recommended higher. Guests that don’t care about the nighttime entertainment are much better off visiting on a recommended Mickey’s Party date. If you do visit today, your best plan of attack is arriving before 8:30am with plans to head to the priority attractions on your itinerary first thing. Take an afternoon break from 1pm to 5pm or so to rest up for the evening. This is the hottest and busiest part of the day and you’re better off relaxing at your resort than you are waiting 45 minutes to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Head back in the evening for dinner, some late night attractions, and the nighttime entertainment. The best place to see the Electrical Parade is in Liberty Square or Frontierland because they’re less popular than Main Street. If you’re planning to visit during evening Extra Magic Hours, begin in Adventureland or Frontierland because most people will head straight for Tomorrowland or Fantasyland. Visit Tomorrowland or Fantasyland in the final hour to find shorter waits. While it is possible to have a decent day here if you arrive early and tour efficiently, there are much less crowded days to visit during the week.
Thursday October 15
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 9pm – 11pm
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Not Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: None, Wishes Fireworks: None
Animal Kingdom is recommended again as we come off a more popular morning Extra Magic Hour yesterday. We also have another one tomorrow, which will also guide attendance higher. Today, Disney resort guests are more likely to head to Epcot for its popular evening Extra Magic Hours. As always, arriving early and taking care of Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest is most important. Crowds also drop off in the afternoon with no nighttime entertainment to keep guests around and underrated dining. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to enjoy much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Most people will want to avoid Epcot today with the evening Extra Magic Hours that will lure the majority of Disney resort guests, which will lengthen waits times at the attractions for the entire afternoon and evening. The morning is still a good time to tour with an 8:15am arrival and you can have success if you move up to World Showcase right at 11am, but Monday or Wednesday would have been better. Note that today would actually be better than any of the next three days due to the popularity of the Food and Wine Festival with local visitors. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will see similar wait times and much heavier congestion in World Showcase. Evening Extra Magic Hours at Epcot are a lot of fun if you enjoy being in the Park late and don’t want to ride Test Track or Soarin’, which will continue to see 30+ minute wait times until around 10:15pm. After that is a decent time to ride either of the headliners – the later you go, the lower the wait will be. But walking around World Showcase can be fun with few people around at night, even if most things are closed.
Hollywood Studios is recommended, though yesterday would have been better with Magic Kingdom pulling a ton of people with the evening entertainment and Extra Magic Hours. Today, Magic Kingdom will be significantly less crowded with the early close due to the Halloween Party, which will in turn cause the Studios to be busier as more people are looking to visit another Park. Fortunately, Epcot’s evening Extra Magic Hours will prove more popular with resort guests and with the average overall crowd level, the Studios works with nothing specific attracting people towards it. As always, plan to arrive by 8:15am and head straight to sign up the kids for Jedi Training Academy or over to Toy Story Midway Mania first thing.
Magic Kingdom is the most recommended Park with the 7pm close and lack of nighttime spectaculars during regular Park hours causing most casual vacationers to head elsewhere. We’re also coming off a significantly busier day yesterday with Wishes and evening Extra Magic Hours scheduled and Epcot will prove more popular today with resort guests. Tomorrow is also a great day to visit in case you have other plans today.
Friday October 16
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Epcot: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 10pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: none, Wishes Fireworks: none
Animal Kingdom is not recommended today, thanks to the morning Extra Magic Hour that will attract Disney resort guests. It’s also late enough in the week that many Disney vacationers will already have had an opportunity to visit the other Parks and they’ll naturally save Animal Kingdom for later in the week. With no special evening entertainment scheduled and no evening Extra Magic Hours to speak of, a lot of people will have Animal Kingdom on their minds. With so many recommended days during the week, there’s really no reason to visit today. You can still make today work if you’re Extra Magic Hours eligible and arrive by 7:30am to take advantage of it. But you’ll probably want to be on your way by 1pm when crowds are heavier.
Epcot isn’t recommended, though it will be less busy than either of the next two days. If you’re trying to decide between today, tomorrow, and Sunday, then today would be best. However Fridays, particularly in World Showcase in the evening, are crowded. Most people will want to take advantage of the lower crowds at Magic Kingdom because it’s going to be much, much, much busier there tomorrow. If you are headed to Epcot today, you’ll want to arrive before Park opening and take care of Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’ first thing in the morning. Plan to move up through World Showcase right at 11am if you have business up there, whether it be the attractions and shopping or the Food and Wine Festival booths. Crowds in World Showcase are only going to get larger as it gets later in the day. Plan to return to Future World at or before 5pm to avoid the heavy congestion in World Showcase. Overall, there are going to be a lot of people in Epcot, but you can “beat” them by arriving early and touring efficiently. If possible, try to see IllumiNations on another night because crowds will be thick in World Showcase from 5pm through close.
Hollywood Studios is recommended, though most people will want to take advantage of some of the lowest crowds of the week at Magic Kingdom. Fortunately, Animal Kingdom will be pulling more Disney resort guests and Epcot will be incredibly popular for the International Food and Wine Festival and 10pm close. As always, it’s much more important to arrive by 8:15am and take care of Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster first thing than it is to simply “pick the right day” and show up at 11am. Even with the average overall crowd level and recommendation, Toy Story Mania will see 60+ minute waits in the afternoon and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster won’t be far behind. There’s no way around that with their limited capacities and the few number of rides in the Park. Arrive early and tour efficiently and you can do very well.
Magic Kingdom is our best choice as far as crowds are concerned. This may seem like an odd statement, considering that the operating hours are just 9am to 7pm, but that’s precisely why crowds will be so low. The great majority of Disney vacationers would prefer to visit the Parks when the hours are longer because it seems like more time in the Parks equates to higher value for your money. That seems logical considering the cost to enter the Parks is the same, regardless if Magic Kingdom is open from 8am to 1am or 9am to 7pm. However, crowds are so much lower on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party days that you’ll actually be able to get more done in a shorter amount of time. Most off-site vacationers will hold off until tomorrow for the longer hours, Main Street Electrical Parade, and Wishes and a lot of Disney resort guests will have visited yesterday for the morning Extra Magic Hour and the Electrical Parade. All of this leaves us with ample opportunity to get on the headlining and Fantasyland rides with minimal waits. As always, you’ll find the most success if you arrive prior to opening and head straight for Space/Big Thunder/Splash Mountains or Fantasyland. Use FastPass+ in the afternoon when wait times peak and you should be able to do just about every major ride and many of the secondary attractions as well. If you would also like to see the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes, consider spending a second day at the Magic Kingdom when those nighttime spectaculars are scheduled. Either way, focus on getting the most popular attractions out of the way today and return to the Magic Kingdom for the nighttime spectaculars on another date. With only one day to spend at the Magic Kingdom, you’ll need to decide whether seeing Wishes and the Main Street Electrical Parade are worth spending the day in heavier crowds.
Saturday October 17
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Most Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 10pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
Animal Kingdom is the most recommended Park. We don’t have Extra Magic Hours, special events, evening entertainment, or anything else to attract on-site or off-site visitors. Those leaving tomorrow after a traditional weeklong vacation are unlikely to visit Animal Kingdom on their last full day and most arriving today won’t head out to Animal Kingdom as their first destination. We’re also coming off a morning Extra Magic Hour yesterday that will be much more popular with resort guests. Hollywood Studios will be attracting the bulk of the resort crowd, Magic Kingdom will be incredibly popular with the long operating hours and both nighttime spectaculars, and Epcot will be far more popular with locals for the Food and Wine Festival. As always, you’ll be best off if you arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. Wait times will only get shorter after 4pm, so stay through close if you have more you’d like to accomplish. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to enjoy much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Epcot will be considerably busier than usual due to the incredibly popular International Food and Wine Festival. The event attracts tons of locals, especially in the afternoon and evening in the World Showcase where the majority of the Food and Wine events take place. Although the effect on Future World and the headlining attractions isn’t as great, we’re still much better off waiting until Monday to visit. Expect incredibly heavy crowds from 1pm through IllumiNations. If you can’t visit Epcot any other day, make sure you arrive prior to Park opening and visit Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission Space, and Soarin’ immediately in the morning or follow a touring plan. Use FastPass+ in the late morning and afternoon when crowds and waits peak. Move up through the Mexico and Norway Pavilions in the World Showcase at 11am if you can’t get to the World Showcase on another day. The World Showcase will be buzzing from 1pm through close and it will be very difficult to move around with the heavier crowds, even if the attractions won’t necessarily be that much busier than usual. Try to move through World Showcase as quickly as possible and then return to Future World. If you’re trying to decide between visiting Epcot on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, I would recommend Friday and then Sunday over Saturday.
Hollywood Studios is not recommended. The sizable Disney resort contingent numbers 75,000+ people. Because Disney sells the Extra Magic Hour program so well in its marketing materials, many of these Disney resort guests follow the Extra Magic Hours schedule because they think it’s Disney telling them where they belong each day. While you can have success if you are Extra Magic Hours eligible and arrive by 7:15am, most people will want to visit another day. Avoid it unless you can’t visit any other day or are certain you’ll arrive by 7:15am and plan to hit Toy Story Midway Mania, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours first thing in the morning. Yesterday or Monday would be better.
Saturdays are naturally the busiest day of the week at the Magic Kingdom. We have longer hours of operation, visiting locals, and a lot of vacationers who will be visiting the Magic Kingdom for a second time before returning home tomorrow. On top of that, Main Street Electrical Parade is only scheduled on a limited number of nights this week. Because the Parade is so popular, a lot of people will visit on a day that they can see it, like today. Yesterday will be much less crowded with the 7pm close and lack of nighttime entertainment and any other Mickey’s Party date would be significantly less crowded, but you can have a moderate amount of success today if you arrive prior to 8:30am and head straight for the headlining or Fantasyland attractions. You may elect to prioritize another low capacity attraction or character instead. The afternoon will be busier than any other day this week and you’ll either want to take a break and return for the Electrical Parade and Wishes or visit the less popular attractions from 2pm – 6pm. The relatively late night is also a good time to tour with short waits at most attractions after 9pm. While it is possible to have a decent day here if you arrive early and tour efficiently, there are much less crowded days to visit during the week.
Sunday October 18
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 7pm – 9pm
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: none, Wishes Fireworks: none
Animal Kingdom is recommended. Disney resort guests are more likely to visit Wednesday for morning Extra Magic Hour and it’s unlikely anyone arriving over the weekend will begin their vacation with Disney’s least popular theme park. You should be able to do just about everything the Park has to offer if you arrive prior to Park opening. Focus on riding Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest as early as possible and/or use FastPass+. After getting those out of the way, move on to DinoLand USA or one of the more popular shows – either Finding Nemo the Musical or Festival of the Lion King and you’ll be set for the rest of the day. Keep in mind that crowds disperse in the afternoon around 3pm and the last hour of operation will only have diminishing waits. End the day in Asia with Kali River Rapids and Expedition Everest and waits will be nearly nonexistent.
Epcot will be busy again for the International Food and Wine Festival. Many locals know how busy Saturdays are and they wait until Sunday to visit. Others will wait until Sunday to visit because they’re more interested in the special events scheduled that day. Because the Food and Wine Festival runs every day during the week, there’s really no benefit to visiting over the weekend if you have flexibility in which day you visit, unless you’re planning to attend a special event or workshop that is only offered on the weekend. For most locals, visiting on the weekend is much more convenient than trying to swing a weekday visit. You can find success if you arrive by 8:15am and head straight for Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission Space, and Soarin’, but you would be much better off waiting until tomorrow to visit when you won’t need to worry as much about Food and Wine crowds. The World Showcase will be busier than usual in the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow is significantly better.
Hollywood Studios will be busy due to the evening Extra Magic Hours that are popular with Disney resort guests. It’s also more likely Disney will extend the close and add a second Fantasmic, which will make the Park more popular with off-site visitors. The morning will be an okay time to tour, but crowds will increase by 10am as more and more Disney resort guests arrive. Unfortunately, I’m not too fond of evening Extra Magic Hours at Hollywood Studios. There are only a few attractions open and the waits for Toy Story Mania, Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours will likely be just as long as they were during the day, at least until an hour before the Extra Magic Hours end. In addition, 9,000+ people will exit Fantasmic at 8pm, right as evening Extra Magic Hours gets underway. The Fantasmic Theater is located right on Sunset Boulevard, across from the entrances to Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. While not everyone seeing Fantasmic will be a Disney resort guest, many of them will be, and a ton will be headed to Tower of Tower and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster because they truly believe it’s the best time to get in line. Unfortunately, they’ll find themselves lined up with a few thousand of their new best friends. If you’re staying for evening Extra Magic Hours, your best bet is always to save these headlining attractions for the very end of the night and visit Toy Story Mania last. While you could theoretically have success if you arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for the headliners, the same will be true later in the week and you won’t have to deal with the significantly heavier afternoon and evening crowds. Monday, Wednesday, or Friday would be better if you can swing any of those dates.
Magic Kingdom is the most recommended Park. The short hours and lack of evening entertainment will cause a lot of casual vacationers to head elsewhere. We’re in between yesterday’s very popular longer hours of operation/both nighttime spectaculars and have a similar schedule tomorrow. On top of that, Sunday is a major travel day for those on a standard weeklong Disney vacation. With the early close, virtually none of them will start out with an abbreviated day at Magic Kingdom. Few people that arrived on Saturday will also visit a theme park with a seemingly short day and no nighttime spectaculars on their first full day. Tomorrow will be significantly more crowded. If you’re looking to visit Magic Kingdom over two days, then you may want to visit on a Mickey’s Party date and another day where you can enjoy the nighttime spectaculars. If you’re planning just one day at Magic Kingdom, then you’ll need to weigh whether you’re willing to put up with heavier crowds in order to enjoy both nighttime spectaculars. While the 7pm close may seem like a truncated day, I can assure you that ten hours is a long time to spend in a theme park. If you arrive by 8:30am, you’ll be able to accomplish an amazing number of attractions in a short period of time if you head straight for Fantasyland or other important attractions, use FastPass+ in the afternoon when crowds peak, and visit the less popular attractions in the afternoon. Crowds will only diminish from 4pm to 6pm as people leave for dining reservations and other activities. Around 6pm you will begin to see an influx of people arriving for the Halloween Party, but they tend to congregate on Main Street waiting for their Party to begin, rather than heading for the attractions. Stay through 7pm because wait times will only decrease from their afternoon highs as it gets closer to 7pm. One thing about staying through 7pm is that at exactly 7pm (and possibly a couple of minutes before), the special characters will begin appearing for the Party. If you’re not planning to do the Party and have kids, you may want to leave around 6:30pm. Otherwise, your children may encounter a bunch of characters that they won’t be allowed to visit because you must have a Party ticket to get in line. There are no exceptions. Other than those minor inconveniences, this is going to be one of the three least crowded days of the week at Magic Kingdom. Wednesday is the best day to see the nighttime spectaculars.
Monday October 19
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Highly Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Most Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Highly Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am-9am
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
Animal Kingdom is highly recommended. Magic Kingdom will prove overwhelmingly popular with so much going on over there. Most people will want to take advantage of one of the two best days of the week to visit Epcot or a better day at Hollywood Studios. Animal Kingdom is easy enough to schedule otherwise. Wednesday and Friday will be busiest.
Epcot is the most recommended Park. We don’t have Extra Magic Hours, special evening entertainment, or anything else that will draw people toward Epcot specifically. Disney resort guests will be more likely to visit tomorrow or Thursday for Extra Magic Hours and off-site visitors on a weeklong vacation will be headed to the Magic Kingdom for their first full day at the world’s most popular theme park. Disney resort guests are more likely to head to Magic Kingdom for the Extra Magic Hours, later close, and nighttime entertainment. We’re also coming off a much busier weekend thanks to the Food and Wine Festival. To have the most success, arrive prior to Park opening and head to Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’ or follow one of the two-day compartmentalized touring plans. With the Food and Wine Festival, World Showcase will remain much busier than it would be otherwise. Head up immediately at 11am to dodge most of the crowds. The evening will be busier than usual in World Showcase. Plan to return to Future World after 5pm to avoid the congestion. Just keep in mind that a lot of the Future World attractions close at 7pm. Usually, just Soarin, Test Track, Mission: Space, Spaceship Earth, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush, and Character Spot continue to operate after 7pm. If Character Spot is on your itinerary, try to visit after 7pm when waits times are much lower than the afternoon. Overall, it’s a great day for Epcot and an excellent opportunity to spend time in both Future World and World Showcase.
Hollywood Studios is also highly recommended as we come off a busier day with Extra Magic Hours. It’s also early enough in the week that most guests just arriving will be intent on visiting Magic Kingdom with its nighttime entertainment and long hours of operation. As always, it’s imperative that you arrive by 8:15am and take care of Toy Story Mania first thing. The Studios has a severely limited number of rides and wait times rise quickly even on the most recommended days with the lowest crowds.
Magic Kingdom is going to be busy today. Mondays are usually the second busiest day of the week at the Magic Kingdom, second to only Saturdays, for a variety of reasons. First, a lot of people travel over the weekend and visit Magic Kingdom on their first full day. In most instances, that day is Monday. Second, Mondays often feature longer hours, Wishes Fireworks, and Main Street Electrical Parade, when other days during the week have shorter operating hours and don’t offer the Electrical Parade. Anyone who wants to see the evening entertainment will have to visit on a day when it’s offered, like most Saturdays and Mondays. Here in the heart of Mickey’s Party season, that means Magic Kingdom closes at 7pm on four days this week. Every day with a later close and nighttime entertainment will be overwhelmingly more popular. Finally, Disney added a morning Extra Magic Hour, which will only drive more Disney resort guests to the Park because they truly believe the Extra Magic Hours schedule is Disney’s way of telling them where they belong each day. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible, you can do well in the morning if you arrive prior to 7:30am and tour efficiently in the morning. But it’s going to be busier than any day other than Saturday from 11am-9pm. Wednesday is the best day of the week to see the Electrical Parade and Wishes.
Tuesday October 20
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Not Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: None, Wishes Fireworks: None
Animal Kingdom is recommended. We don’t have special events, Extra Magic Hours, or anything specific drawing people toward it. Wednesday’s and Friday’s morning Extra Magic Hours will be more popular with Disney resort guests. It’s early enough in the week that many people on weeklong vacations will be saving Animal Kingdom for later in the week. To have the most success, arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. You’ll have no trouble riding both with very low waits before 10am. Once you get through these two attractions, you have little to worry about other than trying to get to the scheduled shows. Finding Nemo and Festival of the Lion King do get busy during the afternoon shows, so try to see the first or last show of the day. You’ll also want to get to DinoLand USA before 10:30am to ride Primeval Whirl and DINOSAUR because those two attractions are popular. Still, they aren’t necessarily your top morning priorities. You should have no trouble experiencing most everything Animal Kingdom has to offer in one day, provided you arrive early in the morning, tour efficiently, use FastPass+ intelligently, and keep an eye on the time in order to see the scheduled stage shows. Finally, crowds disperse in the early afternoon around 4pm. Plan to stay through close because waits will only get shorter as it gets later in the evening. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to find much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Epcot is not recommended. Disney is extremely good at selling the Extra Magic Hours program in its marketing materials. Even people that have no idea what “Soaring” is and think they’ll be riding the monorail from Animal Kingdom to Epcot know about Extra Magic Hours. Remember that well over 25,000 rooms resort-wide have access to Extra Magic Hours on any given day. And guess where a lot of those 75,000+ people are going to be headed? While Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios helps, it shouldn’t pull enough people away to make a discernible difference in wait times. With that in mind, this remains the third best day of the week to visit Epcot with much heavier crowds over the weekend due to the Food and Wine Festival. If you can’t visit on Monday or Wednesday, today is the third best day. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible, do everything you can to arrive by 7:30am and take care of Soarin’ and Test Track as soon as possible. Move up to World Showcase right at 11am to enjoy the lowest crowds possible in World Showcase. Then return to Future World after 5pm or 6pm after most people have moved up to the World Showcase. Still, Soarin’ and Test Track won’t see waits much lower than 60 minutes until after 8pm.
Hollywood Studios is not expressly recommended. The short hours at Magic Kingdom will be a big turn off for many and off-site visitors in particular will be looking toward Fantasmic and Toy Story Mania after spending yesterday at Magic Kingdom. With that said, there is nothing specific attracting people to the Studios and you can do well if you arrive by 8:15am and follow the usual advice. I’m looking towards tomorrow and Thursday as significantly better days to visit and I would hold off until then if possible.
Magic Kingdom is the best Park to visit, despite the truncated operating schedule and lack of both Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes. Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is scheduled tonight. It’s a separately ticketed event that begins at 7pm and runs through 12am. Because the hours are “so short” and there’s no evening entertainment during the regular day, most Disney vacationers will plan to visit on another day. Yesterday will have been busy and tomorrow will also be busier, thanks to longer hours and evening entertainment. Today is an excellent opportunity to visit the Fantasyland and headlining attractions with minimal waits as well as visit the popular characters and whatever else you’d like to experience. Because waits are shorter and the crowd level is so much lower, you’ll actually be able to accomplish more during the day today than either yesterday or tomorrow, despite the Park being open fewer hours. For maximum efficiency, arrive by 8:30am and use FastPass+ in the early afternoon when crowds and waits peak. Consider a second day at the Magic Kingdom to see the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes or ideally Park Hop over in the evening on a night that it’s available. Wednesday is the best day of the week to see the Main Street Electrical Parade at night, but that isn’t saying a whole lot when your other options are a busy Monday and Saturday. Finally, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party does feature the special HalloWishes fireworks spectacular at 9:30pm above Cinderella Castle. This show is viewable from a variety of locations around Disney property. My favorite is the Polynesian Resort’s beach, which is directly across from the Magic Kingdom. The 4th floor observatory at the Contemporary Resort is another excellent location. The boat launch and marina at the Grand Floridian also offer pretty good views, though less direct angles. The boat dock at the Transportation and Ticket Center also offers an underrated view and it makes for the easiest exit if you’re driving because you’re already at the parking lot. The soundtrack is easiest to hear at the Contemporary, Transportation and Ticket Center, and Polynesian in that order. You might consider taking the monorail or boat to one of the Monorail Deluxe resorts for dinner after the Magic Kingdom closes at 7pm and then get into position to enjoy the fireworks around 9:20pm at one of the previously mentioned locations. You can then transfer back to the Magic Kingdom and take a resort bus back to your resort or hop in your car and head wherever you like. Each of the Deluxe resorts have pretty good quick service locations too, so you can also eat on the cheap if you prefer and look around the resort(s) for a while until HalloWishes begins. In a perfect world, I would hit Kona Café for dinner and enjoy HalloWishes from the Polynesian’s beach.
Wednesday October 21
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Highly Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 10pm – 12am
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
It’s the first or second busiest day of the week at Animal Kingdom. The morning Extra Magic Hour will attract a lot of Disney resort guests that spent Monday at Magic Kingdom and Tuesday at Epcot. Magic Kingdom will prove more popular with the long hours, nighttime entertainment, and more popular evening Extra Magic Hours. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible and able to arrive by 7:30am, you can have a tremendous amount of success from 8am – 10am. But most people will want to take advantage of one of the best days of the week for Epcot or Hollywood Studios, both of which are more difficult to schedule.
Epcot is highly recommended and one of the two best days of the week to visit the Park during the very popular Food and Wine Festival. We’re going into another busy weekend, thanks to the guaranteed higher crowds for the International Food and Wine Festival and we’re in between yesterday’s morning Extra Magic Hour and tomorrow’s evening Extra Magic Hours, both of which will be more popular with Disney resort guests. All in all, today and next Monday are your best days of the week at Epcot. Tuesday or Thursday would be better than a weekend date. Take full advantage by arriving by 8:15am and head straight for Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’. Head up to World Showcase beginning as close to 11am as possible to stay ahead of the incoming Food and Wine Festival crowds. Return to Future World after 5pm to find lower crowds there than the afternoon, keeping in mind that only Soarin’, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Mission: Space, Character Spot, Turtle Talk, and The Seas continue operating after 7pm. Hit the other Future World attractions from 5pm – 7pm and then return to Soarin’ and Test Track after 8pm to find shorter waits, use FastPass+, or take advantage of single rider at Test Track. It’s also an excellent night to stay for IllumiNations.
Hollywood Studios is the most recommended Park. Animal Kingdom will be popular with the morning Extra Magic Hour and Magic Kingdom will be overwhelmingly popular with the longer hours of operation, both nighttime spectaculars, and evening Extra Magic Hours. Although the Studios is the most recommended Park, it is also easier to schedule on a recommended day than Epcot. Those looking to spend two days at Epcot are best served visiting Monday and Wednesday and fitting in the Studios on another date. Friday would be a good choice. As always, what you do is more important than which day you do it. In order to find the shortest waits, you’ll need to arrive by 8:15am and head straight to Toy Story Mania. Because of its popularity and extremely limited capacity, Toy Story Mania almost always has afternoon waits of 60 or more minutes, even when crowds are relatively low and the Studios is recommended. There’s no way around that with its limited capacity and the even more limited number of things to do with kids. It’s always your top priority. The second attraction with the longest peak wait is Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, which should be ridden immediately after Toy Story Mania in the morning or with FastPass+. Other priorities are Tower of Terror and Star Tours, though FastPass+ are more plentiful at both attractions and standby waits are usually lower. After you get through these four headliners, it’s just a matter of arriving in time to see the various stage shows that run on a set schedule and getting over to the Studios’ high capacity attractions. You may also have characters to visit before lines get longer. While it’s officially a recommended day, arriving prior to Park opening and hitting the headliners first thing is more important than which day you pick. Arrive at 11am, no matter the recommendation or the overall crowd level, and you’ll be looking at long lines at Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
Magic Kingdom is going to be busy today with the long hours of operation, both nighttime spectaculars during regular Park hours, and the addition of evening Extra Magic Hours, which will attract even more Disney resort guests. Unfortunately, today also marks the best day this week to see the Electrical Parade and Wishes. Disney should end up adding a second Electrical Parade at 11pm as we get closer to October. That will make it easier for people who can stay out that late to see the fireworks and the later and less crowded Parade, ideally after park hopping from a Park that’s recommended higher. Guests that don’t care about the nighttime entertainment are much better off visiting on a recommended Mickey’s Party date. If you do visit today, your best plan of attack is arriving before 8:30am with plans to head to the priority attractions on your itinerary first thing. Take an afternoon break from 1pm to 5pm or so to rest up for the evening. This is the hottest and busiest part of the day and you’re better off relaxing at your resort than you are waiting 45 minutes to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Head back in the evening for dinner, some late night attractions, and the nighttime entertainment. The best place to see the Electrical Parade is in Liberty Square or Frontierland because they’re less popular than Main Street. If you’re planning to visit during evening Extra Magic Hours, begin in Adventureland or Frontierland because most people will head straight for Tomorrowland or Fantasyland. Visit Tomorrowland or Fantasyland in the final hour to find shorter waits. While it is possible to have a decent day here if you arrive early and tour efficiently, there are much less crowded days to visit during the week.
Thursday October 22
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 9pm – 11pm
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Not Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: None, Wishes Fireworks: None
Animal Kingdom is recommended again as we come off a more popular morning Extra Magic Hour yesterday. We also have another one tomorrow, which will also guide attendance higher. Today, Disney resort guests are more likely to head to Epcot for its popular evening Extra Magic Hours. As always, arriving early and taking care of Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest is most important. Crowds also drop off in the afternoon with no nighttime entertainment to keep guests around and underrated dining. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to enjoy much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Most people will want to avoid Epcot today with the evening Extra Magic Hours that will lure the majority of Disney resort guests, which will lengthen waits times at the attractions for the entire afternoon and evening. The morning is still a good time to tour with an 8:15am arrival and you can have success if you move up to World Showcase right at 11am, but Monday or Wednesday would have been better. Note that today would actually be better than any of the next three days due to the popularity of the Food and Wine Festival with local visitors. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will see similar wait times and much heavier congestion in World Showcase. Evening Extra Magic Hours at Epcot are a lot of fun if you enjoy being in the Park late and don’t want to ride Test Track or Soarin’, which will continue to see 30+ minute wait times until around 10:15pm. After that is a decent time to ride either of the headliners – the later you go, the lower the wait will be. But walking around World Showcase can be fun with few people around at night, even if most things are closed.
Hollywood Studios is recommended, though yesterday would have been better with Magic Kingdom pulling a ton of people with the evening entertainment and Extra Magic Hours. Today, Magic Kingdom will be significantly less crowded with the early close due to the Halloween Party, which will in turn cause the Studios to be busier as more people are looking to visit another Park. Fortunately, Epcot’s evening Extra Magic Hours will prove more popular with resort guests and with the average overall crowd level, the Studios works with nothing specific attracting people towards it. As always, plan to arrive by 8:15am and head straight to sign up the kids for Jedi Training Academy or over to Toy Story Midway Mania first thing.
Magic Kingdom is the most recommended Park with the 7pm close and lack of nighttime spectaculars during regular Park hours causing most casual vacationers to head elsewhere. We’re also coming off a significantly busier day yesterday with Wishes and evening Extra Magic Hours scheduled and Epcot will prove more popular today with resort guests. Tomorrow is also a great day to visit in case you have other plans today.
Friday October 23
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Epcot: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 10pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: none, Wishes Fireworks: none
Animal Kingdom is not recommended today, thanks to the morning Extra Magic Hour that will attract Disney resort guests. It’s also late enough in the week that many Disney vacationers will already have had an opportunity to visit the other Parks and they’ll naturally save Animal Kingdom for later in the week. With no special evening entertainment scheduled and no evening Extra Magic Hours to speak of, a lot of people will have Animal Kingdom on their minds. With so many recommended days during the week, there’s really no reason to visit today. You can still make today work if you’re Extra Magic Hours eligible and arrive by 7:30am to take advantage of it. But you’ll probably want to be on your way by 1pm when crowds are heavier.
Epcot isn’t recommended, though it will be less busy than either of the next two days. If you’re trying to decide between today, tomorrow, and Sunday, then today would be best. However Fridays, particularly in World Showcase in the evening, are crowded. Most people will want to take advantage of the lower crowds at Magic Kingdom because it’s going to be much, much, much busier there tomorrow. If you are headed to Epcot today, you’ll want to arrive before Park opening and take care of Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’ first thing in the morning. Plan to move up through World Showcase right at 11am if you have business up there, whether it be the attractions and shopping or the Food and Wine Festival booths. Crowds in World Showcase are only going to get larger as it gets later in the day. Plan to return to Future World at or before 5pm to avoid the heavy congestion in World Showcase. Overall, there are going to be a lot of people in Epcot, but you can “beat” them by arriving early and touring efficiently. If possible, try to see IllumiNations on another night because crowds will be thick in World Showcase from 5pm through close.
Hollywood Studios is recommended, though most people will want to take advantage of some of the lowest crowds of the week at Magic Kingdom. Fortunately, Animal Kingdom will be pulling more Disney resort guests and Epcot will be incredibly popular for the International Food and Wine Festival and 10pm close. As always, it’s much more important to arrive by 8:15am and take care of Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster first thing than it is to simply “pick the right day” and show up at 11am. Even with the average overall crowd level and recommendation, Toy Story Mania will see 60+ minute waits in the afternoon and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster won’t be far behind. There’s no way around that with their limited capacities and the few number of rides in the Park. Arrive early and tour efficiently and you can do very well.
Magic Kingdom is our best choice as far as crowds are concerned. This may seem like an odd statement, considering that the operating hours are just 9am to 7pm, but that’s precisely why crowds will be so low. The great majority of Disney vacationers would prefer to visit the Parks when the hours are longer because it seems like more time in the Parks equates to higher value for your money. That seems logical considering the cost to enter the Parks is the same, regardless if Magic Kingdom is open from 8am to 1am or 9am to 7pm. However, crowds are so much lower on Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party days that you’ll actually be able to get more done in a shorter amount of time. Most off-site vacationers will hold off until tomorrow for the longer hours, Main Street Electrical Parade, and Wishes and a lot of Disney resort guests will have visited yesterday for the morning Extra Magic Hour and the Electrical Parade. All of this leaves us with ample opportunity to get on the headlining and Fantasyland rides with minimal waits. As always, you’ll find the most success if you arrive prior to opening and head straight for Space/Big Thunder/Splash Mountains or Fantasyland. Use FastPass+ in the afternoon when wait times peak and you should be able to do just about every major ride and many of the secondary attractions as well. If you would also like to see the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes, consider spending a second day at the Magic Kingdom when those nighttime spectaculars are scheduled. Wednesday would be ideal because both days will be less crowded than a Monday or Saturday. Ideally, you would Park Hop over to the Magic Kingdom in the afternoon or evening on Wednesday, after spending the majority of your day at a Park with lower crowds. Either way, focus on getting the most popular attractions out of the way today and return to the Magic Kingdom for the nighttime spectaculars on another date. With only one day to spend at the Magic Kingdom, you’ll need to decide whether seeing Wishes and the Main Street Electrical Parade are worth spending the day in heavier crowds.
Saturday October 24
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Most Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 10pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 6pm (Tentatively Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Fantasmic: None
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
Animal Kingdom is the most recommended Park. We don’t have Extra Magic Hours, special events, evening entertainment, or anything else to attract on-site or off-site visitors. Those leaving tomorrow after a traditional weeklong vacation are unlikely to visit Animal Kingdom on their last full day and most arriving today won’t head out to Animal Kingdom as their first destination. We’re also coming off a morning Extra Magic Hour yesterday that will be much more popular with resort guests. Magic Kingdom will be incredibly popular with the long operating hours and both nighttime spectaculars, aEpcot will be far more popular with locals for the Food and Wine Festival, and Hollywood Studios will be attracting a modest number of people with the morning Extra Magic Hour. As always, you’ll be best off if you arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. Wait times will only get shorter after 4pm, so stay through close if you have more you’d like to accomplish. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to enjoy much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Epcot will be considerably busier than usual due to the incredibly popular International Food and Wine Festival. The event attracts tons of locals, especially in the afternoon and evening in the World Showcase where the majority of the Food and Wine events take place. Although the effect on Future World and the headlining attractions isn’t as great, we’re still much better off waiting until Monday to visit. Expect incredibly heavy crowds from 1pm through IllumiNations. If you can’t visit Epcot any other day, make sure you arrive prior to Park opening and visit Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission Space, and Soarin’ immediately in the morning or follow a touring plan. Use FastPass+ in the late morning and afternoon when crowds and waits peak. Move up through the Mexico and Norway Pavilions in the World Showcase at 11am if you can’t get to the World Showcase on another day. The World Showcase will be buzzing from 1pm through close and it will be very difficult to move around with the heavier crowds, even if the attractions won’t necessarily be that much busier than usual. Try to move through World Showcase as quickly as possible and then return to Future World. If you’re trying to decide between visiting Epcot on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, I would recommend Friday and then Sunday over Saturday.
Hollywood Studios is tentatively recommended if you’re Extra Magic Hours eligible, able to arrive by 7:25am to take advantage of it, and don’t mind not being able to see Fantasmic. The early close and lack of Fantasmic will turn off the majority of casual vacationers, who prefer to visit on a day that they can see Fantasmic and stay well into the evening. The lack of nighttime entertainment also means few people park hopping over and staying through close for Fantasmic. Stay through 6pm and end the day with Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and Toy Story Mania if you like because waits will only decrease after 4pm. Most people that either aren’t Extra Magic Hours eligible or won’t arrive until after 9am are better served visiting Animal Kingdom today and Hollywood Studios on another, more-recommended day.
Saturdays are naturally the busiest day of the week at the Magic Kingdom. We have longer hours of operation, visiting locals, and a lot of vacationers who will be visiting the Magic Kingdom for a second time before returning home tomorrow. On top of that, Main Street Electrical Parade is only scheduled on a limited number of nights this week. Because the Parade is so popular, a lot of people will visit on a day that they can see it, like today. Yesterday will be much less crowded with the 7pm close and lack of nighttime entertainment and any other Mickey’s Party date would be significantly less crowded, but you can have a moderate amount of success today if you arrive prior to 8:30am and head straight for the headlining or Fantasyland attractions. You may elect to prioritize another low capacity attraction or character instead. The afternoon will be busier than any other day this week and you’ll either want to take a break and return for the Electrical Parade and Wishes or visit the less popular attractions from 2pm – 6pm. The relatively late night is also a good time to tour with short waits at most attractions after 9pm. While it is possible to have a decent day here if you arrive early and tour efficiently, there are much less crowded days to visit during the week.
Sunday October 25
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 7pm – 9pm
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: none, Wishes Fireworks: none
Animal Kingdom is recommended. Disney resort guests are more likely to visit Wednesday for morning Extra Magic Hour and it’s unlikely anyone arriving over the weekend will begin their vacation with Disney’s least popular theme park. You should be able to do just about everything the Park has to offer if you arrive prior to Park opening. Focus on riding Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest as early as possible and/or use FastPass+. After getting those out of the way, move on to DinoLand USA or one of the more popular shows – either Finding Nemo the Musical or Festival of the Lion King and you’ll be set for the rest of the day. Keep in mind that crowds disperse in the afternoon around 3pm and the last hour of operation will only have diminishing waits. End the day in Asia with Kali River Rapids and Expedition Everest and waits will be nearly nonexistent.
Epcot will be busy again for the International Food and Wine Festival. Many locals know how busy Saturdays are and they wait until Sunday to visit. Others will wait until Sunday to visit because they’re more interested in the special events scheduled that day. Because the Food and Wine Festival runs every day during the week, there’s really no benefit to visiting over the weekend if you have flexibility in which day you visit, unless you’re planning to attend a special event or workshop that is only offered on the weekend. For most locals, visiting on the weekend is much more convenient than trying to swing a weekday visit. You can find success if you arrive by 8:15am and head straight for Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission Space, and Soarin’, but you would be much better off waiting until tomorrow to visit when you won’t need to worry as much about Food and Wine crowds. The World Showcase will be busier than usual in the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow is significantly better.
Hollywood Studios will be busy due to the evening Extra Magic Hours that are popular with Disney resort guests. It’s also more likely Disney will extend the close and add a second Fantasmic, which will make the Park more popular with off-site visitors. The morning will be an okay time to tour, but crowds will increase by 10am as more and more Disney resort guests arrive. Unfortunately, I’m not too fond of evening Extra Magic Hours at Hollywood Studios. There are only a few attractions open and the waits for Toy Story Mania, Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours will likely be just as long as they were during the day, at least until an hour before the Extra Magic Hours end. In addition, 9,000+ people will exit Fantasmic at 8pm, right as evening Extra Magic Hours gets underway. The Fantasmic Theater is located right on Sunset Boulevard, across from the entrances to Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. While not everyone seeing Fantasmic will be a Disney resort guest, many of them will be, and a ton will be headed to Tower of Tower and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster because they truly believe it’s the best time to get in line. Unfortunately, they’ll find themselves lined up with a few thousand of their new best friends. If you’re staying for evening Extra Magic Hours, your best bet is always to save these headlining attractions for the very end of the night and visit Toy Story Mania last. While you could theoretically have success if you arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for the headliners, the same will be true later in the week and you won’t have to deal with the significantly heavier afternoon and evening crowds. Monday, Wednesday, or Friday would be better if you can swing any of those dates.
Magic Kingdom is the most recommended Park. The short hours and lack of evening entertainment will cause a lot of casual vacationers to head elsewhere. We’re in between yesterday’s very popular longer hours of operation/both nighttime spectaculars and have a similar schedule tomorrow. On top of that, Sunday is a major travel day for those on a standard weeklong Disney vacation. With the early close, virtually none of them will start out with an abbreviated day at Magic Kingdom. Few people that arrived on Saturday will also visit a theme park with a seemingly short day and no nighttime spectaculars on their first full day. Tomorrow will be significantly more crowded. If you’re looking to visit Magic Kingdom over two days, then you may want to visit on a Mickey’s Party date and another day where you can enjoy the nighttime spectaculars. If you’re planning just one day at Magic Kingdom, then you’ll need to weigh whether you’re willing to put up with heavier crowds in order to enjoy both nighttime spectaculars. While the 7pm close may seem like a truncated day, I can assure you that ten hours is a long time to spend in a theme park. If you arrive by 8:30am, you’ll be able to accomplish an amazing number of attractions in a short period of time if you head straight for Fantasyland or other important attractions, use FastPass+ in the afternoon when crowds peak, and visit the less popular attractions in the afternoon. Crowds will only diminish from 4pm to 6pm as people leave for dining reservations and other activities. Around 6pm you will begin to see an influx of people arriving for the Halloween Party, but they tend to congregate on Main Street waiting for their Party to begin, rather than heading for the attractions. Stay through 7pm because wait times will only decrease from their afternoon highs as it gets closer to 7pm. One thing about staying through 7pm is that at exactly 7pm (and possibly a couple of minutes before), the special characters will begin appearing for the Party. If you’re not planning to do the Party and have kids, you may want to leave around 6:30pm. Otherwise, your children may encounter a bunch of characters that they won’t be allowed to visit because you must have a Party ticket to get in line. There are no exceptions. Other than those minor inconveniences, this is going to be one of the three least crowded days of the week at Magic Kingdom. Friday is the best day to see the nighttime spectaculars.
Monday October 26
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 5pm (Highly Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Most Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Highly Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am-9am
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
Animal Kingdom is highly recommended. Magic Kingdom will prove overwhelmingly popular with so much going on over there. Most people will want to take advantage of one of the two best days of the week to visit Epcot or a better day at Hollywood Studios. Animal Kingdom is easy enough to schedule otherwise. Wednesday and Friday will be busiest.
Epcot is the most recommended Park. We don’t have Extra Magic Hours, special evening entertainment, or anything else that will draw people toward Epcot specifically. Disney resort guests will be more likely to visit tomorrow or Thursday for Extra Magic Hours and off-site visitors on a weeklong vacation will be headed to the Magic Kingdom for their first full day at the world’s most popular theme park. Disney resort guests are more likely to head to Magic Kingdom for the Extra Magic Hours, later close, and nighttime entertainment. We’re also coming off a much busier weekend thanks to the Food and Wine Festival. To have the most success, arrive prior to Park opening and head to Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’ or follow one of the two-day compartmentalized touring plans. With the Food and Wine Festival, World Showcase will remain much busier than it would be otherwise. Head up immediately at 11am to dodge most of the crowds. The evening will be busier than usual in World Showcase. Plan to return to Future World after 5pm to avoid the congestion. Just keep in mind that a lot of the Future World attractions close at 7pm. Usually, just Soarin, Test Track, Mission: Space, Spaceship Earth, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush, and Character Spot continue to operate after 7pm. If Character Spot is on your itinerary, try to visit after 7pm when waits times are much lower than the afternoon. Overall, it’s a great day for Epcot and an excellent opportunity to spend time in both Future World and World Showcase.
Hollywood Studios is also highly recommended as we come off a busier day with Extra Magic Hours. It’s also early enough in the week that most guests just arriving will be intent on visiting Magic Kingdom with its nighttime entertainment and long hours of operation. As always, it’s imperative that you arrive by 8:15am and take care of Toy Story Mania first thing. The Studios has a severely limited number of rides and wait times rise quickly even on the most recommended days with the lowest crowds.
Magic Kingdom is going to be busy today. Mondays are usually the second busiest day of the week at the Magic Kingdom, second to only Saturdays, for a variety of reasons. With the Halloween Party and 7pm close on Saturday this week, today may end up being the busiest day of the week. First, a lot of people travel over the weekend and visit Magic Kingdom on their first full day. In most instances, that day is Monday. Second, Mondays often feature longer hours, Wishes Fireworks, and Main Street Electrical Parade, when other days during the week have shorter operating hours and don’t offer the Electrical Parade. Anyone who wants to see the evening entertainment will have to visit on a day when it’s offered. Here in the heart of Mickey’s Party season, that means Magic Kingdom closes at 7pm on four days this week. Every day with a later close and nighttime entertainment will be overwhelmingly more popular. Finally, Disney added a morning Extra Magic Hour, which will only drive more Disney resort guests to the Park because they truly believe the Extra Magic Hours schedule is Disney’s way of telling them where they belong each day. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible, you can do well in the morning if you arrive prior to 7:30am and tour efficiently in the morning. But it’s going to be busier than any other day from 11am-9pm, barring bad weather. Friday is the best day of the week to see the Electrical Parade and Wishes.
Tuesday October 27
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 5pm (Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Not Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: None, Wishes Fireworks: None
Animal Kingdom is recommended. We don’t have special events, Extra Magic Hours, or anything specific drawing people toward it. Wednesday’s and Friday’s morning Extra Magic Hours will be more popular with Disney resort guests. It’s early enough in the week that many people on weeklong vacations will be saving Animal Kingdom for later in the week. To have the most success, arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. You’ll have no trouble riding both with very low waits before 10am. Once you get through these two attractions, you have little to worry about other than trying to get to the scheduled shows. Finding Nemo and Festival of the Lion King do get busy during the afternoon shows, so try to see the first or last show of the day. You’ll also want to get to DinoLand USA before 10:30am to ride Primeval Whirl and DINOSAUR because those two attractions are popular. Still, they aren’t necessarily your top morning priorities. You should have no trouble experiencing most everything Animal Kingdom has to offer in one day, provided you arrive early in the morning, tour efficiently, use FastPass+ intelligently, and keep an eye on the time in order to see the scheduled stage shows. Finally, crowds disperse in the early afternoon around 4pm. Plan to stay through close because waits will only get shorter as it gets later in the evening. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to find much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Epcot is not recommended. Disney is extremely good at selling the Extra Magic Hours program in its marketing materials. Even people that have no idea what “Soaring” is and think they’ll be riding the monorail from Animal Kingdom to Epcot know about Extra Magic Hours. Remember that well over 25,000 rooms resort-wide have access to Extra Magic Hours on any given day. And guess where a lot of those 75,000+ people are going to be headed? While Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios helps, it shouldn’t pull enough people away to make a discernible difference in wait times. With that in mind, this remains the third best day of the week to visit Epcot with much heavier crowds over the weekend due to the Food and Wine Festival. If you can’t visit on Monday or Wednesday, today is the third best day. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible, do everything you can to arrive by 7:30am and take care of Soarin’ and Test Track as soon as possible. Move up to World Showcase right at 11am to enjoy the lowest crowds possible in World Showcase. Then return to Future World after 5pm or 6pm after most people have moved up to the World Showcase. Still, Soarin’ and Test Track won’t see waits much lower than 60 minutes until after 8pm.
Hollywood Studios is not expressly recommended. The short hours at Magic Kingdom will be a big turn off for many and off-site visitors in particular will be looking toward Fantasmic and Toy Story Mania after spending yesterday at Magic Kingdom. With that said, there is nothing specific attracting people to the Studios and you can do well if you arrive by 8:15am and follow the usual advice. I’m looking towards tomorrow and Thursday as significantly better days to visit and I would hold off until then if possible.
Magic Kingdom is the best Park to visit, despite the truncated operating schedule and lack of both Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes. Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party is scheduled tonight. It’s a separately ticketed event that begins at 7pm and runs through 12am. Because the hours are “so short” and there’s no evening entertainment during the regular day, most Disney vacationers will plan to visit on another day. Yesterday will have been busy and tomorrow will also be busier, thanks to longer hours and evening entertainment. Today is an excellent opportunity to visit the Fantasyland and headlining attractions with minimal waits as well as visit the popular characters and whatever else you’d like to experience. Because waits are shorter and the crowd level is so much lower, you’ll actually be able to accomplish more during the day today than either yesterday or tomorrow, despite the Park being open fewer hours. For maximum efficiency, arrive by 8:30am and use FastPass+ in the early afternoon when crowds and waits peak. Consider a second day at the Magic Kingdom to see the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes or ideally Park Hop over in the evening on a night that it’s available. Friday is the best day of the week to see the Main Street Electrical Parade at night, but that isn’t saying a whole lot when your other options are a busy Monday or today. Finally, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party does feature the special HalloWishes fireworks spectacular at 9:30pm above Cinderella Castle. This show is viewable from a variety of locations around Disney property. My favorite is the Polynesian Resort’s beach, which is directly across from the Magic Kingdom. The 4th floor observatory at the Contemporary Resort is another excellent location. The boat launch and marina at the Grand Floridian also offer pretty good views, though less direct angles. The boat dock at the Transportation and Ticket Center also offers an underrated view and it makes for the easiest exit if you’re driving because you’re already at the parking lot. The soundtrack is easiest to hear at the Contemporary, Transportation and Ticket Center, and Polynesian in that order. You might consider taking the monorail or boat to one of the Monorail Deluxe resorts for dinner after the Magic Kingdom closes at 7pm and then get into position to enjoy the fireworks around 9:20pm at one of the previously mentioned locations. You can then transfer back to the Magic Kingdom and take a resort bus back to your resort or hop in your car and head wherever you like. Each of the Deluxe resorts have pretty good quick service locations too, so you can also eat on the cheap if you prefer and look around the resort(s) for a while until HalloWishes begins. In a perfect world, I would hit Kona Café for dinner and enjoy HalloWishes from the Polynesian’s beach.
Wednesday October 28
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 5pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Highly Recommended)
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 10pm – 12am
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
It’s the first or second busiest day of the week at Animal Kingdom. The morning Extra Magic Hour will attract a lot of Disney resort guests that spent Monday at Magic Kingdom and Tuesday at Epcot. Magic Kingdom will prove more popular with the long hours, nighttime entertainment, and more popular evening Extra Magic Hours. If you are Extra Magic Hours eligible and able to arrive by 7:30am, you can have a tremendous amount of success from 8am – 10am. But most people will want to take advantage of one of the best days of the week for Epcot or Hollywood Studios, both of which are more difficult to schedule.
Epcot is highly recommended and one of the two best days of the week to visit the Park during the very popular Food and Wine Festival. We’re going into another busy weekend, thanks to the guaranteed higher crowds for the International Food and Wine Festival and we’re in between yesterday’s morning Extra Magic Hour and tomorrow’s evening Extra Magic Hours, both of which will be more popular with Disney resort guests. All in all, today and next Monday are your best days of the week at Epcot. Tuesday or Thursday would be better than a weekend date. Take full advantage by arriving by 8:15am and head straight for Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’. Head up to World Showcase beginning as close to 11am as possible to stay ahead of the incoming Food and Wine Festival crowds. Return to Future World after 5pm to find lower crowds there than the afternoon, keeping in mind that only Soarin’, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Mission: Space, Character Spot, Turtle Talk, and The Seas continue operating after 7pm. Hit the other Future World attractions from 5pm – 7pm and then return to Soarin’ and Test Track after 8pm to find shorter waits, use FastPass+, or take advantage of single rider at Test Track. It’s also an excellent night to stay for IllumiNations.
Hollywood Studios is the most recommended Park. Animal Kingdom will be popular with the morning Extra Magic Hour and Magic Kingdom will be overwhelmingly popular with the longer hours of operation, both nighttime spectaculars, and evening Extra Magic Hours. Although the Studios is the most recommended Park, it is also easier to schedule on a recommended day than Epcot. Those looking to spend two days at Epcot are best served visiting Monday and Wednesday and fitting in the Studios on another date. Friday would be a good choice. As always, what you do is more important than which day you do it. In order to find the shortest waits, you’ll need to arrive by 8:15am and head straight to Toy Story Mania. Because of its popularity and extremely limited capacity, Toy Story Mania almost always has afternoon waits of 60 or more minutes, even when crowds are relatively low and the Studios is recommended. There’s no way around that with its limited capacity and the even more limited number of things to do with kids. It’s always your top priority. The second attraction with the longest peak wait is Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, which should be ridden immediately after Toy Story Mania in the morning or with FastPass+. Other priorities are Tower of Terror and Star Tours, though FastPass+ are more plentiful at both attractions and standby waits are usually lower. After you get through these four headliners, it’s just a matter of arriving in time to see the various stage shows that run on a set schedule and getting over to the Studios’ high capacity attractions. You may also have characters to visit before lines get longer. While it’s officially a recommended day, arriving prior to Park opening and hitting the headliners first thing is more important than which day you pick. Arrive at 11am, no matter the recommendation or the overall crowd level, and you’ll be looking at long lines at Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
Magic Kingdom is going to be busy today with the long hours of operation, both nighttime spectaculars during regular Park hours, and the addition of evening Extra Magic Hours, which will attract even more Disney resort guests. Unfortunately, today also marks the second best day this week to see the Electrical Parade and Wishes. Disney should end up adding a second Electrical Parade at 11pm as we get closer to October. That will make it easier for people who can stay out that late to see the fireworks and the later and less crowded Parade, ideally after park hopping from a Park that’s recommended higher. Guests that don’t care about the nighttime entertainment are much better off visiting on a recommended Mickey’s Party date. Friday is the best day to see the Electrical Parade and Wishes. If you do visit today, your best plan of attack is arriving before 8:30am with plans to head to the priority attractions on your itinerary first thing. Take an afternoon break from 1pm to 5pm or so to rest up for the evening. This is the hottest and busiest part of the day and you’re better off relaxing at your resort than you are waiting 45 minutes to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Head back in the evening for dinner, some late night attractions, and the nighttime entertainment. The best place to see the Electrical Parade is in Liberty Square or Frontierland because they’re less popular than Main Street. If you’re planning to visit during evening Extra Magic Hours, begin in Adventureland or Frontierland because most people will head straight for Tomorrowland or Fantasyland. Visit Tomorrowland or Fantasyland in the final hour to find shorter waits. While it is possible to have a decent day here if you arrive early and tour efficiently, there are much less crowded days to visit during the week.
Thursday October 29
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 9pm (Not Recommended)
Evening Extra Magic Hours: 9pm – 11pm
Illuminations: 9pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Not Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: None, Wishes Fireworks: None
Animal Kingdom is recommended again as we come off a more popular morning Extra Magic Hour yesterday. We also have another one tomorrow, which will also guide attendance higher. Today, Disney resort guests are more likely to head to Epcot for its popular evening Extra Magic Hours. As always, arriving early and taking care of Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest is most important. Crowds also drop off in the afternoon with no nighttime entertainment to keep guests around and underrated dining. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to enjoy much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Most people will want to avoid Epcot today with the evening Extra Magic Hours that will lure the majority of Disney resort guests, which will lengthen waits times at the attractions for the entire afternoon and evening. The morning is still a good time to tour with an 8:15am arrival and you can have success if you move up to World Showcase right at 11am, but Monday or Wednesday would have been better. Note that today would actually be better than any of the next three days due to the popularity of the Food and Wine Festival with local visitors. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will see similar wait times and much heavier congestion in World Showcase. Evening Extra Magic Hours at Epcot are a lot of fun if you enjoy being in the Park late and don’t want to ride Test Track or Soarin’, which will continue to see 30+ minute wait times until around 10:15pm. After that is a decent time to ride either of the headliners – the later you go, the lower the wait will be. But walking around World Showcase can be fun with few people around at night, even if most things are closed.
Hollywood Studios is recommended, though yesterday or tomorrow would be better with Magic Kingdom pulling a ton of people with the evening entertainment and Extra Magic Hours. Today, Magic Kingdom will be significantly less crowded with the early close due to the Halloween Party, which will in turn cause the Studios to be busier as more people are looking to visit another Park. Fortunately, Epcot’s evening Extra Magic Hours will prove more popular with resort guests and with the average overall crowd level, the Studios works with nothing specific attracting people towards it. As always, plan to arrive by 8:15am and head straight to sign up the kids for Jedi Training Academy or over to Toy Story Midway Mania first thing.
Magic Kingdom is the most recommended Park with the 7pm close and lack of nighttime spectaculars during regular Park hours causing most casual vacationers to head elsewhere. We’re also coming off a significantly busier day yesterday with Wishes and evening Extra Magic Hours scheduled and Epcot will prove more popular today with resort guests. Tomorrow is the best day of the week to see the Electrical Parade and Wishes, but crowds will be significantly heavier than today.
Friday October 30
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Epcot: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 10pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Most Recommended)
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 10pm (Tentatively Recommended for Nighttime Entertainment)
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: 9pm, Wishes Fireworks: 10pm
Animal Kingdom is not recommended today, thanks to the morning Extra Magic Hour that will attract Disney resort guests. It’s also late enough in the week that many Disney vacationers will already have had an opportunity to visit the other Parks and they’ll naturally save Animal Kingdom for later in the week. With no special evening entertainment scheduled and no evening Extra Magic Hours to speak of, a lot of people will have Animal Kingdom on their minds. With so many recommended days during the week, there’s really no reason to visit today. You can still make today work if you’re Extra Magic Hours eligible and arrive by 7:30am to take advantage of it. But you’ll probably want to be on your way by 1pm when crowds are heavier.
Epcot isn’t recommended, though it will be less busy than either of the next two days. If you’re trying to decide between today, tomorrow, and Sunday, then today would be best. However Fridays, particularly in World Showcase in the evening, are crowded. Most people will want to take advantage of the lower crowds at Magic Kingdom because it’s going to be much, much, much busier there tomorrow. If you are headed to Epcot today, you’ll want to arrive before Park opening and take care of Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission: Space, and Soarin’ first thing in the morning. Plan to move up through World Showcase right at 11am if you have business up there, whether it be the attractions and shopping or the Food and Wine Festival booths. Crowds in World Showcase are only going to get larger as it gets later in the day. Plan to return to Future World at or before 5pm to avoid the heavy congestion in World Showcase. Overall, there are going to be a lot of people in Epcot, but you can “beat” them by arriving early and touring efficiently. If possible, try to see IllumiNations on another night because crowds will be thick in World Showcase from 5pm through close.
Hollywood Studios is the most recommended Park. Animal Kingdom will be pulling more Disney resort guests and Epcot will be incredibly popular for the International Food and Wine Festival and 10pm close. Magic Kingdom will be popular with the extended close and both nighttime spectaculars. As always, it’s much more important to arrive by 8:15am and take care of Toy Story Mania and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster first thing than it is to simply “pick the right day” and show up at 11am. Even with the average overall crowd level and recommendation, Toy Story Mania will see 60+ minute waits in the afternoon and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster won’t be far behind. There’s no way around that with their limited capacities and the few number of rides in the Park. Arrive early and tour efficiently and you can do very well.
Magic Kingdom is tentatively recommended, though this will be the third busiest day of the week there with the longer hours of operation and nighttime entertainment luring more casual vacationers in than usual. With no Electrical Parade yesterday or tomorrow, today will be more popular than either date. Anyone who wants to see Main Street Electrical Parade and doesn’t have Park Hopper (and many that do) will have to spend most of their day at the Magic Kingdom in order to see the Parade at night. While the Magic Kingdom may be busier than other days this week, many people do want to see the Parade and Wishes Fireworks show and this is your best opportunity to do both. Ideally, you would Park Hop over to Magic Kingdom in the late afternoon or early evening, after spending the majority of your day at a Park that’s recommended higher. This way, you can enjoy short lines and low crowds and still see the Magic Kingdom’s nighttime spectaculars. Without Park Hopper, you’ll want to arrive prior to 9am and head straight for the priorities on your itinerary. The 9am to 11am timeframe is always the best time to tour, regardless of overall crowd level or what day you visit. You’ll be able to get a lot done in those first two or three hours, but crowds will begin to build around 11am and will continue to be moderately heavy through Wishes. Plan to move on to some of the less popular attractions in the afternoon and/or take a lengthy afternoon break when crowds are at their highest. You can then return to the Magic Kingdom around 6pm for dinner, Main Street Electrical Parade, and Wishes. This is always the second best plan of attack (second to only the evening Park Hop) when you’re trying to see evening shows that aren’t scheduled often enough. Overall, Magic Kingdom is recommended if you tour during the recommended times and make efficient use of the morning and FastPass+ in the afternoon when waits peak. It will be more crowded in the afternoon than several other days this week. You’ll want to visit on a Mickey’s Party date if all you care about is low crowds.
Saturday October 31
Animal Kingdom: 9am – 6pm (Most Recommended)
Epcot: 9am – 10pm (Not Recommended)
Illuminations: 10pm
Hollywood Studios: 9am – 7pm (Not Recommended)
Morning Extra Magic Hour: 8am – 9am
Fantasmic: 7:30pm
Magic Kingdom: 9am – 7pm (Recommended)
Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Festival of Fantasy Parade: 3pm, Main Street Electrical Parade: None, Wishes Fireworks: None
Animal Kingdom is the most recommended Park. We don’t have Extra Magic Hours, special events, evening entertainment, or anything else to attract on-site or off-site visitors. Those leaving tomorrow after a traditional weeklong vacation are unlikely to visit Animal Kingdom on their last full day and most arriving today won’t head out to Animal Kingdom as their first destination. We’re also coming off a morning Extra Magic Hour yesterday that will be much more popular with resort guests. Hollywood Studios will be attracting the bulk of the resort crowd and Epcot will be far more popular with locals for the Food and Wine Festival. As always, you’ll be best off if you arrive prior to Park opening and head straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. Wait times will only get shorter after 4pm, so stay through close if you have more you’d like to accomplish. Visit DinoLand with two hours to close and Asia in the final hour to enjoy much shorter waits than the afternoon.
Epcot will be considerably busier than usual due to the incredibly popular International Food and Wine Festival. The event attracts tons of locals, especially in the afternoon and evening in the World Showcase where the majority of the Food and Wine events take place. Although the effect on Future World and the headlining attractions isn’t as great, we’re still much better off waiting until Monday to visit. Expect incredibly heavy crowds from 1pm through IllumiNations. If you can’t visit Epcot any other day, make sure you arrive prior to Park opening and visit Test Track, Sum of All Thrills, Mission Space, and Soarin’ immediately in the morning or follow a touring plan. Use FastPass+ in the late morning and afternoon when crowds and waits peak. Move up through the Mexico and Norway Pavilions in the World Showcase at 11am if you can’t get to the World Showcase on another day. The World Showcase will be buzzing from 1pm through close and it will be very difficult to move around with the heavier crowds, even if the attractions won’t necessarily be that much busier than usual. Try to move through World Showcase as quickly as possible and then return to Future World. If you’re trying to decide between visiting Epcot on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, I would recommend Friday and then Sunday over Saturday.
Hollywood Studios is not recommended. The sizable Disney resort contingent numbers 75,000+ people. Because Disney sells the Extra Magic Hour program so well in its marketing materials, many of these Disney resort guests follow the Extra Magic Hours schedule because they think it’s Disney telling them where they belong each day. While you can have success if you are Extra Magic Hours eligible and arrive by 7:15am, most people will want to visit another day. Avoid it unless you can’t visit any other day or are certain you’ll arrive by 7:15am and plan to hit Toy Story Midway Mania, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours first thing in the morning. Yesterday or Monday would be better.
Saturday is recommended with the 7pm close turning off most casual vacationers and causing them to visit another Park. The only problem is the fact that it’s a Saturday, which will see a boost in attendance from locals. Fortunately, most of them will be intent on visiting Epcot for the extremely popular Food and Wine Festival, rather than visiting Magic Kingdom on a day when it closes so early and doesn’t offer the nighttime spectaculars during regular Park hours. The fact that it’s Halloween should not affect crowds – Magic Kingdom will operate just like any other Mickey’s Party night during the day with the festivities only starting after 7pm. Overall, today will be less crowded than yesterday or tomorrow and is thus recommended, though this past Thursday would have been even less crowded.
You just made my day!
You are awesome Josh! Thanks so much for all your help.
Thank You for this! Question, Disney’s site does not have EMH hours listed for October 1-3, but you do. Is that an informed guess on your part or are those hours concrete? (I’m new to this) Love your site!
This is AMAZING.
Thanks so so much Josh for taking the time to make this.
You made my week!
Thank you so much!! I’ve been waiting for this. We are visiting Columbus Day week Oct. 11-17. Which MNSSHP would you suggest would be the least crowded for that week? Thank you again for all this great info.
I’ve been waiting for this. Thank you so much for posting! Also interested in which MNSSHP you would recommend for Columbus Day week like Stephanie, too. Thanks for all your hard work. Love this site!
Yey! Thanks Josh I’ve been waiting eagerly for this. Can’t wait til you do this for the nov hours then I’ll be all set. Thank you so much.
When can we expect to see the November crowd forecast? Visiting the first week of November. Can’t wait!!
I too am wanting to know about EMH on Sat, Oct 3rd. Disney’s website does not have it listed.
Thank you!!!!!
Between the Food and Wine Festival and the ubiquitous presence of MNSSHP you have managed to crafted us an elegant plan of attack. Thank you.
Can’t wait for Nov! You really are the best Hands Down!,,
This comment for Hollywood Studios on Mondays doesn’t seem to be correct based on the Tuesday schedule where Fantasmic is listed — unless I am misunderstanding something: “Keep in mind that tomorrow will be significantly less crowded with the early close and lack of Fantasmic, but you won’t have an opportunity to see the show.”
When will be November be out?
I have a question about Tuesday, 10/6. That date is “grayed out” to make Fantasmic dining reservations on Disney’s web site. Do you think Fantasmic will be cancelled that night?
Hi Josh, I have an operating hours question. On the Travel Agent Operating hours calendar, which is usually the one that is correct! I see the Typhoon Lagoon Refurbishment starting October 4th. On the regular Disney world calendar available to the public, I see the TL refurbishment starting Oct 25th, which is more in line with the yearly refurbishment closure. What are your thoughts on which one is correct? I’m really hoping TL is open for the busy Columbus Day weekend.
was wondering how crowded you think the mickey no so scary party would be on Halloween night?
THIS IS THE BEST INFO I HAVE FOUND IN 6MONTHS!!! Thank you!!!
Do you think the times and info will pretty much hold true for the same weeks in 2016? For example, I used Oct 21 through 27, 2015 information to plan for Oct 19-25, 2016 trip.