Thanks. We were thinking of late October but thought it would be more crowded.
We also had the same experience when we went years ago but our friends said all the lines were huge. Candy line was 45 mins, meet and great with Sally was 2 hours...
Maybe they oversell the Halloween Party now. If that's the case, you have two options for short waits to headliner attractions: rope drop/EMH, or getting in line shortly before closing time. We used the latter strategy, and it worked beautifully. We breezed into TSMM, Na'vi River, and had a relatively short wait for 7DMT, by getting in line in the last hour or half hour of park operation. In the case of TSMM, we rode three times in the last hour before closing time. FEA at Epcot took about 30-35 min., but this was during the Food and Wine Festival, and that's a short wait for that ride. I got in line around 8:30, and got out just when Illuminations was wrapping up.
Also, as you may know, the Magic Kingdom is normally much quieter on Party days. When the party starts, we either call it a night or hop to another park.
According to crowd calendars, the first week of November is a quiet time at Disney. We would have included that week, but were initially planning to do a Halloween Party.
Early October may be less crowded, but it will probably be hotter, and you also have to avoid the weekend of Columbus Day, which falls on Monday, Oct. 8 this year.
P.S.: Avoid visiting AK and MK on Mondays. We went to AK on a Monday, and it was a zoo (so to speak). Most people arrive at WDW on Monday, and AK seems to be a top choice now for the first park to visit, because of Pandora.
Everything had a long line, not just Pandora rides. We got stuck in an endless switchback for Safaris, missed our Dinosaur FP, and went straight to Guest Services to request restitution. They gave us new FPs at AK and for Epcot, our second park of the day.