Jersey week crowds this year (2017)

[dkrauss]

So who else will be at WDW during Jersey week 11/4 thru 11/12? My wife and I will be there for the second year in a row with a family vacation. This year looks to be interesting as it seems all the rooms at WDW are BOOKED! No availability.........unless you want to pay $700/night at the GF....LOL.

Reviewing our FP+ options..........with Splash Mtn being in refurb.....its gonna be tight Wondering if anyone else is doing the first MVMCP on 11/9.

Fun..Fun...Fun.

Doug

 

[Piglet77]

We are also going the 4th through the 11th. It's crazy that there is no availability at all. I tried to change my dates to arrive a day earlier to get a cheaper flight and there is nothing anywhere. Yet the odd thing is that Christmas seems wide open this year. Almost every hotel has rooms available then!

We are planning on the party on the 10th. So excited to make fast passes!! Getting close!

 

[dkrauss]

We are also going the 4th through the 11th. It's crazy that there is no availability at all. I tried to change my dates to arrive a day earlier to get a cheaper flight and there is nothing anywhere. Yet the odd thing is that Christmas seems wide open this year. Almost every hotel has rooms available then!

We are planning on the party on the 10th. So excited to make fast passes!! Getting close!

We're excited too! We're actually flying into Fort Lauderdale on Friday 11/3...........couldn't get reasonable flights for Saturday. We had previously booked a room for Friday night (just in case)............[drumroll.........] at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport! We've always talked about spending a night there and I booked it back in June just in case. Glad I did...........got it for under $200 That way Saturday morning we can sleep in and have a nice breakfast before DME

Flights back and forth to the NJ area during that time have just been unreasonable........with only 1 or 2 nonstops. I got a much better deal flying into Fort Lauderdale. Even with renting a car I'm still saving money on what a flight to Orlando would have been.

Its getting closer.........have a wonderful trip!

Doug

 

[disneyworldsk]

Same. We had difficulty booking for jersey week a few weeks back so to stay on property it required us to do a split stay, 3! The issue is a combination of food and wine, marathon weekend, jersey week and veterans weekend. The hardest dates to book on property were both weekends (specifically 11/4 and 11/10 nights) so we had to split the stays in addition the flights were crazy high in price so we booked a midnight arrival in order to save some. We went in August to akl and it was super quiet in the parks, so going in November that week I have a feeling will be much more crowded because as we see, there's no availability out there on property. I find caribbean beach pops up a lot for availability that week and if you watch dis podcast with tracy she recently had an episode with staying there, if that helps. good luck! it's tough, keep refreshing on the website everyday or stay off property. And yes, 11/9 first night MVMCP for us too. The first night, it will be crowded, as was this year's MNSSHP was too apparently (I had relatives there that night, it was packed). Fingers crossed, will avoid character lines I guess. We are going to HEA FW dessert party to help ease crowd at least for one night....oh, and I couldn't really get ADR's either so most are in resorts and yes, a 3:30 ADR for dinner in epcot italy! 3:30?!! All I could get , I guess we are 'late' in the game.....

 

[Gracie09]

We're excited too! We're actually flying into Fort Lauderdale on Friday 11/3...........couldn't get reasonable flights for Saturday. We had previously booked a room for Friday night (just in case)............[drumroll.........] at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport! We've always talked about spending a night there and I booked it back in June just in case. Glad I did...........got it for under $200 That way Saturday morning we can sleep in and have a nice breakfast before DME

Flights back and forth to the NJ area during that time have just been unreasonable........with only 1 or 2 nonstops. I got a much better deal flying into Fort Lauderdale. Even with renting a car I'm still saving money on what a flight to Orlando would have been.

Its getting closer.........have a wonderful trip!

Doug

I'm not sure where you fly out of but I have a bunch of non-stop choices from NJ/NY to Orlando. I had a choice - JFK, EWR, LGA, HPN all with more than one non-stop to Orlando a day. And others to Tampa which we briefly considered. The price is higher than I want to pay, but I expected it and oh darn we now are leaving Thursday November 2nd instead of Saturday, to keep costs down a bit and tacking on an extra 2 days to vacation.

I do think the hotel issue can be a lot of things - the marathon weekend, F&W (I think it closes the 18th so people getting the last bit) Veterans Day, the end of the Halloween Party and the beginning of Christmas.

Same. We had difficulty booking for jersey week a few weeks back so to stay on property it required us to do a split stay, 3! The issue is a combination of food and wine, marathon weekend, jersey week and veterans weekend. The hardest dates to book on property were both weekends (specifically 11/4 and 11/10 nights) so we had to split the stays in addition the flights were crazy high in price so we booked a midnight arrival in order to save some. We went in August to akl and it was super quiet in the parks, so going in November that week I have a feeling will be much more crowded because as we see, there's no availability out there on property. I find caribbean beach pops up a lot for availability that week and if you watch dis podcast with tracy she recently had an episode with staying there, if that helps. good luck! it's tough, keep refreshing on the website everyday or stay off property. And yes, 11/9 first night MVMCP for us too. The first night, it will be crowded, as was this year's MNSSHP was too apparently (I had relatives there that night, it was packed). Fingers crossed, will avoid character lines I guess. We are going to HEA FW dessert party to help ease crowd at least for one night....oh, and I couldn't really get ADR's either so most are in resorts and yes, a 3:30 ADR for dinner in epcot italy! 3:30?!! All I could get , I guess we are 'late' in the game.....

I don't know the size of your party but I did a search for a party of 4 on Sunday, Nov. 5th and there were multiple choices of in park restaurants - 50s prime time, biergarten, the french restaurant, italy, rose and crown, mama melrose, garden grill, sci fi, tiffins, tonys, tusker house, liberty tree. Some of the times were earlier - 4:30, 4:45 but there were a bunch with times in the 5-7 range.

 

[emilyrachael]

F&W ends on the 13th.

We arrive on the 11th, so I'm hoping the crowds aren't bad that following week!

 

[jilldw]

We're going for the first time for Jersey week. Nov 4-11th. We usually go in August every 4 years or so, but this time we are also going in Nov since our schools are closed for Teachers' conventions and election day. I was able to get flights out of Philly (we are in central NJ) but I booked the minute Southwest's schedule opened. By the time I went back to check what prices I paid the WGA fares were gone. Also, ADRs were hard to come by the morning my window opened. We got CRT for lunch on a non-party day and that is the only time I could get for our whole trip. We are a party of 7 so that may have something to do with it. We may try to book a few more ADRs as time gets closer and people's plans change. Being a first time Nov. trip I have no idea on what to pack, do we carry a backpack with long pants in the park for the night weather change? Also, will the hours change or do the parks really close at 8 and 9? We didn't buy MVMCP due to sticker shock for a party of 7, but hope to at least get some of the holiday feeling while we are there. Any advice from those of you who have done Jersey week before?

 

[cmorris303]

We just got back from a 10 day vacation on Aug 26. Now of course we want to go back for a quick trip before our APs expire. We were looking to go 11/9-11/12 because that's when I'm off for NJ teacher's convention, but my goodness are we way too late to the game! There's no hotel availability anywhere on site and the flights are pretty high. I've looked flying out of Philly or Atlantic City and flying into MCO or Tampa. I'm not ready to give up on this yet, but I just don't now if it's going to happen.

 

[stinkpickle]

F&W ends on the 13th.

We arrive on the 11th, so I'm hoping the crowds aren't bad that following week!

The crowds should clear out by Monday. The Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of that week are usually decent. And then Thanksgiving crowds start trickling in...

 

[stinkpickle]

...Being a first time Nov. trip I have no idea on what to pack, do we carry a backpack with long pants in the park for the night weather change? ...

Pack for anything. It can be cold, hot, dry, rainy, and everything in between. Southwest allows two free checked bags...and we use 'em.

 

[JohnneeO]

We are traveling from NJ, arriving on Sat 11/4 and flying home on Wed 11/15.

We are flying into TPA, and were originally booked on the last flight of the day into TPA, which was the cheapest option at the time we booked it, arriving at 9:49 PM. I was able to leverage a 10 minute schedule change into a 1:50 PM arrival into TPA so we are much happier with that. We had hoped to return on Tues 11/14, but found the flights home from MCO to be cheaper on 11/15.

We are doing a 4-way split stay across two hotels on property, and two hotels off. It sounds crazy, but our plans evolved over time, adding days new hotels each time. We are taking one day off from parks while off property to avoid parking fees. On 11/14, we have only a BV breakfast scheduled, but I am thinking that MVMCP on the evening of the 14th would be a nice to way end the trip.

We were in Orlando last year at the same time, spending three days at Universal before heading to WDW. We did MVMCP last year, so that is why we may skip it this year. We are also not Park Hopping to save money and time. Finally, we are not going to Epcot on a Saturday or Sunday hoping to avoid crowds there.

 

[dkrauss]

I'm not sure where you fly out of but I have a bunch of non-stop choices from NJ/NY to Orlando. I had a choice - JFK, EWR, LGA, HPN all with more than one non-stop to Orlando a day. And others to Tampa which we briefly considered. The price is higher than I want to pay, but I expected it and oh darn we now are leaving Thursday November 2nd instead of Saturday, to keep costs down a bit and tacking on an extra 2 days to vacation.

We fly out of EWR or Philly..........can't do JFK or LGA . Pricing was a big issue for us $300+ per ticket for 1 person depending on the airline is just way to much............Saturday the 4th was bad..............It was a mess. In the end we worked it out by going to FLL

Doug

 

[JEZeimer99]

We are not from NJ but are doing a "girls" week with my sister, mom and myself arriving 11/5. It is a "spoil ourselves" trip so we booked hotels we've wanted to stay at, but couldn't really afford with family, got a limo from the airport, booked the xmas party, the dessert party, and an Illuminations Cruise. We did have to split rooms to stay the entire week - at the Poly for 4 nights and last night at the Boardwalk. ADR's we wanted were not to be found (BOG and SciFi), but managed to get some decent ones. We were hoping it was not going to be a crazy week, but from what I'm reading, sounds like it's going to be crowded!

 

[disneyworldsk]

Weather last year jersey week was chilly in the morning and beautiful 80 degrees approximately each day with no rain

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I would love to do jersey week but there are so many parties that week and we like to do MK at night so it turns us off. Plus flights out of Philly are crazy high but Baltimore isn't too bad. It's a 2 hour drive for us. We're gonna stick with end of August for now. Hoping MNSSHP doesn't invade August.

 

[disneyworldsk]

Also, last year Jersey week , I recommend if you can and want to, avoid food and wine. That was probably the most crowded; epcot, the last weekend in the world showcase, it was weekend too, packed. avoid if you can. And i'm assuming this year with pandora being new the jersey tradition crowd for november will want to go and see it for the first time as well. Last year we did club villain Jersey Week !! Not with us anymore. But crowds will surely be there and food and wine. We brought lightweight long sleeves for morning and most people tied it around their waists or brought small bags for it for the cool mornings and chilly evenings. Day was great weather last year. But November can be unpredictable. We used to do very late august too but schedules in our family have changed and we are now in november vacation tradition.

 

[acln]

We will be in FL 10/28 to 11/7. We are spending the last full day of our trip at MK on Monday 11/6. I had no idea it would be Jersey week and with our schedule we won't be able to hit MK another day (other than our mnsshp on 10/31) We'll be staying off site so I've already prepared myself for very slim FP choices but nervous about how crazy crowds will be. Of course the two days we have at Magic Kingdom are some of the most crowded. Oh well!

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

We are heading down for 2 weeks - the first being Jersey week. It'll be nice not having to deal with early party closing at MK until the Friday of that week.

We've been relegated to October for the past few years due to my DDs post secondary school schedule (fall break). The October crowds are out of control now so I figure we can handle whatever Nov has to throw at us.

I will say our last November trip there were 2 or 3 days where the weather got cold - and we're Canadian so that's saying a lot. Bring layers people! You just never know what Mother Nature will hit you with.

While WDW fall is nice, it's nothing like the real thing up here in Canada. We much prefer Christmas in the World. And since we have Thanksgiving in October we don't have any guilt about starting the holiday celebrations in early November.

 

[planningjollyholiday]

I am very nervous. We are there 5 nights and have to do a split stay since there is no availability for all 5 nights. Even thanksgiving week has more availability.

 

[rubyslippers06]

We are from Jersey and will be there 11/3-11. Flights home to PHL are high. We went the same week three years ago and while busy it was very manageable.