Realistically, how bad will it be? We're there for 5 days with Halloween in the middle (and we're going to the soirée) but are the levels of crowds going to make it less enjoyable? What about queue times?
Any experiences would be great.
I tend to use a ride like Indy as benchmark of how busy it is. On REALLY quiet days it can be as low as 10 mins max. On a typical day it's 30mins ish max. Halloween last year it got up to 80 mins. Buzz was up to 90 mins. Space Mountain 80 mins. I'd expect BtM to be 2hrs+ Even PM got to 90mins which is unsurprising on Halloween!
Basically expect it to be really busy on the day itself and the couple of days before. It may be quieter the days after Halloween though.
Honestly Halloween is the one season I've never been for. I will do it one day but the crowds put me off.
It will be really busy. If you're staying at a Disney Hotel or have annual passes make use of the Extra Magic Hours each morning. We do this and ride most rides before breakfast and then make use of the fast pass system for the rest
We are staying at santa fe so will definutly be at rope drop for things like crush and space mountain! we're hoping that it'ss get quieter towards late evening too with little ones going to bed (we hope!) so we can do the usual pirates, HM, buzz.
With the new 9am EMH I HOPE this weill mean we can hit the studios and go straight to crush and rockin with an acceptable wait, but with the later start more people may be inclined to use it so who knows!
As long as my partner can do his roller coasters I think he'll cope. Halloween has always been a goal of mine to visit, but maybe not th best choice for his virst trip!
As you're staying onsite then make the most of EMH. Rides like Buzz Lightyear that tend to get busy later in the day are good to do early.
Also, grab a fastpass as early as you can, better to queue 20 mins for a fastpass machine than 2hours later on for the ride.
Additionally, you can have a fastpass in each park - I have several times had a fastpass for Peter Pan or BTM and my hubby has run over to the Studios and got ones for us for Ratatouille later on.
Also, Indiana Jones has fastpass system and sometimes you can get these whilst still having a fastpass ticket for another ride in the park. We have done this twice, but again, I don't know if this was just a fluke or if this is the way it is supposed to work.
If you don't mind foregoing watching the parades one of the days - or even Illusions - this can be a great time to get on the rides that have been busy all day. Sometimes the queue for BTM drops down to be quite short when Illusions is starting soon as everyone heads to Central Plaza.
Oh and Phantom Manor is a must when its dark - Frontierland is so atmospheric at night - plus its usually 5min queue / walk straight in later at night.