We had settled into annual visits around Columbus Day, since that is when school Fall break falls. We missed 2019, though, so this is our first trip since 2018. We had been growing increasingly disappointed with the high crowds around this time. I guess the TouringPlans crowd calendar hadn't been taking into account fall breaks, so they would be estimating a crowd level of 4, but it was actually around 8 or 9.
We are going to mask up and try again this year, but we're a little worried about crowds. I'm a little bit comforted by the Labor Days crowds, from what I've seen online. Yes, it was crowded, yes there were some long waits, but it seems manageable. If we see a huge crowd or a long line, we'll just pivot and try something else. I saw many Labor Day weekend reports where a 45 minute wait at 1pm morphed into a 15 minute wait at 5pm.
Still worried, but still hopeful. If it's bad, we are staying at AKL, so we'll retreat to our balcony and watch some giraffes!