January- how crowded??

[mom2val]

I am trying to plan our next trip to WDW. We have gone in the December (11th -17th) the past 2 years. I am wondering how crowded it would be in 2012 to go from Tues Jan 3 - Sun Jan 8? Would it be crazy busy or would most of the crowds have left?

 

[Disuser]

We were there Jan 2-9 this year. The crowds were moderate and actually light at times. The Christmas decorations were all still up as far as I know. It was cold enough for coats everyday but I only remember getting cold twice. Watching Fantasmic and once riding an open boat from wilderness lodge over to
Hoop-dee-doo. We had a fantastic Christmas without the crowds. Loved-loved-loved it and recommend it.

 

[TXHauntedMansionFan]

We are heading down Jan 4th and last I checked the crowd calendar there was nothing but 2's, 3's and 4's through the 9th. I think that it bumped to the 4's during the marathon weekend.

So the crowds should be great!

 

[aixia]

The last time I was there in January 2009, crowds were very low. It was awesome! Everything in every park was walk-on. We'll be going again next week, and since we're sticking to non-EMH parks mostly, we're expecting super light crowds again. The only day I'm concerned about is next Monday, we're planning to head to DHS in the evening to see the last night of Osborne Lights, but they added Fantasmic that night. Not sure what that'll do to the crowds. Good thing we weren't planning to see Fantasmic though (seen it- and the DL version), we should have lighter crowds at the lights and possibly rides too.

 

[hkeller27]

Oh, very, very crowded. Nobody in their right mind would want to go in January. Especially from the 6th to the 12th.....

All kidding aside, crowds in January are very light. It perks up Marathon weekend, and also MLK weekend, but very manageable.

Do keep in mind though, park hours are shorter in January, and there are also generally a lot of refurbs going on (ie, Splash Mountain is closed most of the month.)

 

[GovieMom]

We were there this year from the 1st to the 9th. The crowds were not low by any means; I would say they were moderate at the minimum. Tons of the visitors were from South America, lots from Britain, and the rest were families like ours (with college kids). I think there would have been even more people there if it hadn't been FREEZING cold the entire week!

 

[blondietink]

I agree that it can get somewhat crowded. We went one January and we found the large tour groups from South America to be bothersome. Mixed in were a lot of families from Australia, college kids and families from Britain. The weather also wasn't that great. However, if that was the only time I could go, I would do it in a heartbeat.

 

[mom2val]

We were there this year from the 1st to the 9th. The crowds were not low by any means; I would say they were moderate at the minimum. Tons of the visitors were from South America, lots from Britain, and the rest were families like ours (with college kids). I think there would have been even more people there if it hadn't been FREEZING cold the entire week!

What do you mean by moderate? We are used to going that 2nd week in December and we either use fastpasses or find most waits to be @ 20 mins (soarin, test track, toy story 60 min wait).

 

[klmall]

For those reading this thread about January in general, I went in late January (I think Jan 28 to Feb 2) several years ago and the parks were nearly deserted.

Yes, it was cold and I wore long pants, long sleeves and a sweatshirt each day but I practically walked onto everything. Yes, the parks closed early but I was exhausted because I did so much each day. I made sure that I had a good TS meal to end the day and sometimes shopped in the evenings.

The first 2/3s of the week before Thanksgiving week and the last week of January are prime weeks to go for low crowds in my opinion if you don't need to do Halloween or Christmas parties. I've done both and our next trip will probably be one of these two.