Number of Days to Visit in October

Kestryl

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 29, 2019
We’re debating on taking a trip to Disneyland in October. We initially wanted to go for 6 days (4 full park days), but flight prices have made this more complicated.

We have a home airport (about 20 minutes away) as well as another major airport about 2.5 hours away. Obviously it would be easier to fly from home- flying from the farther airport will probably require a hotel stay near the airport before we leave (if not when we come back).

Our initial plan was to go from the home airport to SNA for Oct 5-10. However, it’s $600 cheaper to go from the farther airport to LAX.

It would be about $720 for us to fly from our home airport to SNA for Oct 5-12. Which is the most cost-effective option that doesn’t involve the airport farther from home. The problem is that it would involve two extra days of vacation time (which is a very precious resource).

We found other flights for around $800 that would be Oct 5-9 from our home airport to SNA. The flights are more expensive than the cheapest option from home to SNA Oct 5-12, but would involve taking two fewer vacation days and fewer hotel nights and would overall be much less expensive.

Would three full days (plus an evening for the day we arrive) be “enough” for a Disneyland trip? We’ve never been, but we just recently came back from Disney World so it’s not our first park. We mostly want to go for the history (it’s the first Disney Park) and rides that aren’t at WDW.

We’d like to get into SWGE, but won’t be heartbroken if we don’t since we could always get to Disney World for it eventually (it’s within driving distance for us).

What would you do? Oct 5-9 for 3 full days and keep the vacation days for a different trip later, or spend an extra $1000-ish and use two extra vacation days for Oct 5-12?
 
I think 3 full days in the parks would get you the experience you are looking for, as long as you go for park hopper tickets and don't mind a more aggressive pace. The longer vacation would allow for a more relaxed vacation, but if you would rather the more relaxed vacation be saved for a later date at WDW, then 3 days here is very doable.

I'm with you on the debating flights. Our closest airport is a 90 minute drive but its a tiny one that easily adds 4-10 hours on flight times plus an extra $400ish per ticket. Or we can drive 6 hours to the next nearest airport, add an overnight stay but be able to snag much cheaper and shorter flights.
 
Just a heads up on those days. Some of those will overlap with Gay Days. The parks can be very crowded that particular weekend.

That said, I'll be there at the same time :) we went at that time last year too and had a blast. Just prepare for crowds.
 
I think 3 full days in the parks would get you the experience you are looking for, as long as you go for park hopper tickets and don't mind a more aggressive pace. The longer vacation would allow for a more relaxed vacation, but if you would rather the more relaxed vacation be saved for a later date at WDW, then 3 days here is very doable.

I'm with you on the debating flights. Our closest airport is a 90 minute drive but its a tiny one that easily adds 4-10 hours on flight times plus an extra $400ish per ticket. Or we can drive 6 hours to the next nearest airport, add an overnight stay but be able to snag much cheaper and shorter flights.
I’m a pretty “aggressive” vacationer- vacationing with me is not a vacation for everyone else, ha. I’m not exactly one of those people who like to leave parks mid-day- I’d prefer to stick it out!

I feel for the flights. Our local airport is so much more convenient (and it’s international and relatively large)- it’s just so much more expensive than the major hubs.
 


Just a heads up on those days. Some of those will overlap with Gay Days. The parks can be very crowded that particular weekend.

That said, I'll be there at the same time :) we went at that time last year too and had a blast. Just prepare for crowds.
That’s good to know! Do you think Monday/Tuesday would be “slow” enough to sort of make up for the crowds on the weekend? I’m ok with crowds, especially when I’ll just be too excited to care anyways, ha.
 
That’s good to know! Do you think Monday/Tuesday would be “slow” enough to sort of make up for the crowds on the weekend? I’m ok with crowds, especially when I’ll just be too excited to care anyways, ha.

Airfare does get expensive.
I find airfare rates fluctuate depending on the day of the week I am checking. If I look at flight rates on a Tuesday they are usually lower than when I check the same flight dates on a Thursday or Friday. Not sure why.... But you might see if this is true for the dates.

Your dates include the Gay Days weekend and flows into Columbus Day. So I would expect the parks to be busy.
Do not plan for a Monday to be a "slow" day. From what the regulars say Monday's can be worse than a weekend day.

Plan for crowds and be flexible is how we plan a trip now a days.
 


Airfare does get expensive.
I find airfare rates fluctuate depending on the day of the week I am checking. If I look at flight rates on a Tuesday they are usually lower than when I check the same flight dates on a Thursday or Friday. Not sure why.... But you might see if this is true for the dates.

Your dates include the Gay Days weekend and flows into Columbus Day. So I would expect the parks to be busy.
Do not plan for a Monday to be a "slow" day. From what the regulars say Monday's can be worse than a weekend day.

Plan for crowds and be flexible is how we plan a trip now a days.
I’ve been tracking prices for almost a week now and haven’t noticed much change for my main flights. I guess the routes are pretty stable, price-wise? Good and bad, I suppose.

We’re tied to a school schedule- husband is a teacher, so it’s not like he can just take days off for a vacation. For us, it’s this week in October for fall break or spring break in March or the summer. So we can’t win and we’ll definitely be there for at least one weekend in October (if we take the plunge and go). Do you think it would be better to go on Gay Day weekend or Columbus Day weekend?

It’s weird- in all the places I’ve lived, Columbus Day was not something the schools had off. My husband apparently had it off when he was a student. I didn’t even know it was a thing til we met in college.
 
For me, the more time in the parks, the better. What ever you decide, have a great time! October is a wonderful time to visit the parks. There will be special Halloween treats and goodies to try, decorations up and halloween party. The weather is warm to even hot during the day and it does cool down at night.
 
Another thought...look for a flight home-CA. Then separately flights CA home. Different airline? Or fly in or out of lax once to manage cost.
 
My two cents? I would go during Gay Days. They usually have a park picked per day, and you could probably find that info easily on the interwebs. You could then plan to attend the opposite park for that day and hope the crowds are a bit lighter. Columbus Day seems to be one of those weekends that has been appropriated by the masses as an excuse for a break. It's going to be busy everywhere you go that weekend. Good luck and have an awesome vacay either way.
 
Skip the 3 day. 3 days is not enough to fly all the way across the country and run smack into Gay Days (event gets good reviews but like Dapper Days the reviews also say it is extremely crowded, think one step down from Holiday insanity) and then your other park day is Monday- the busiest day of the week. Hard pass on those 3 days as your once in a lifetime/decade type trip unless you want to be there specifically for Gay Days.

5-12 would give you the 5 full park days that would make this trip so you could enjoy everything DLR has to offer despite the crowds, plus one extra day to do something in the area that appeals to your group. If you don’t want to take the vacay time/spend the money for this option wait until a better flight pops up.
 
For me, the more time in the parks, the better. What ever you decide, have a great time! October is a wonderful time to visit the parks. There will be special Halloween treats and goodies to try, decorations up and halloween party. The weather is warm to even hot during the day and it does cool down at night.
Thank you! I love Halloween, and it would give me a chance to go a little over-the-too with some Disneybounding. I saw average temps were like 50 to 80, so I’m prepared for layers and going with the flow!


Another thought...look for a flight home-CA. Then separately flights CA home. Different airline? Or fly in or out of lax once to manage cost.
Oh, I forgot that multi-City was an option! Bizarrely, I just checked and flying out of LAX is about the same cost as SNA for most of the dates I’m considering, and more expensive than the potential Oct 5-9 option. It’s weird.


My two cents? I would go during Gay Days. They usually have a park picked per day, and you could probably find that info easily on the interwebs. You could then plan to attend the opposite park for that day and hope the crowds are a bit lighter. Columbus Day seems to be one of those weekends that has been appropriated by the masses as an excuse for a break. It's going to be busy everywhere you go that weekend. Good luck and have an awesome vacay either way.
Thanks for the feedback! To be fair, I’m also of the mindset to make any excuse right now to go to DL- hey, I’m turning 30 soon, we should go in October. Ha.
 
You could attend gay days events and get the on site hotel discount.

If you do this, Gay Days asks that you support the convention by attending at least one event. This prevents abuse of the convention discount rates.
This is all good to know. I’m not planning this trip to go to Gay Days, so I won’t do a discount, but I do have a friend who is very into Disney and didn’t know about this. I’ll be passing along the info to him!
 
Skip the 3 day. 3 days is not enough to fly all the way across the country and run smack into Gay Days (event gets good reviews but like Dapper Days the reviews also say it is extremely crowded, think one step down from Holiday insanity) and then your other park day is Monday- the busiest day of the week. Hard pass on those 3 days as your once in a lifetime/decade type trip unless you want to be there specifically for Gay Days.

5-12 would give you the 5 full park days that would make this trip so you could enjoy everything DLR has to offer despite the crowds, plus one extra day to do something in the area that appeals to your group. If you don’t want to take the vacay time/spend the money for this option wait until a better flight pops up.
Does your opinion change if the three full days would be Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday? We would fly in Saturday pretty early- based on the flight, we’d probably get to the parks around 2 or 3, so not early enough for morning stuff, but it would be a fair chunk of time.

The extra day seems nice, but we looked into some options and didn’t really find any we wanted to do, other than maybe stick our feet in the Pacific. It isn’t enough on its own to justify the $1000 minimum we’d have to spend on extra hotel nights and park tickets, so it’s hard to swallow.

I would have liked to see an Angels game, but I don’t think they’ll be playing then, ha.

ETA: Is it common for better flights to be added? My impression of our home airport is that it’s not very popular (12 gates total, I think), not to mention it doesn’t even service some airlines
 
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