January or February

DisneyDad1257

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 16, 2012
My family and I are thinking of making a trip to WDW in either January or February of 2016. Partly because the rates are so cheap (we like renting points) and we live in the cold snowy Midwest and figured that would be a good time to go since we will probably be stir crazy by then. I know that I should avoid Presidents' Day weekend. I was looking at late January. I have never traveled to Disney at that time of year and wondered what everyone's thoughts were.

I am a pretty seasoned and knowledgeable Disney travel. We went in Oct of 2014 as our last trip and stayed at AKL. I liked it but wasn't overly happy with it. This time inwouldnlkke to stay at either BLT, WL, or BW. We enjoy spending most of our time at MK and Epcot. My plant is to drive down and arrive on a Saturday and we would leave the following Saturday to drive home.

I am really looking for any ideas or suggestions or things that I should be aware of when coming to WDW that time of year.

Thanks in Advance
 
By far our favorite time of the year to visit. We are in the Midwest too, so the weather is not an issue there for us with the cooler temps (still warmer than where we came from:) ). The crowds are lower and there are fewer tour groups there. Which is wasn't such a pain to pull the kids out of school to go that time of year or we would go then more often!

Enjoy your trip!
 
I don't think there's a ton of difference between January and February - except for the marathon and President's Day - both of which you already seem to be planning to avoid.

Weather can be 40 degrees or 85 degrees - and that could happen in the same week...... It WILL most likely be nicer than the Mid-west that time of year....... So - the tough part is packing for that trip - because you have to plan for a wide temperature range. Planning to layer items helps. While checking the weather forecast in advance is helpful, it's not terribly reliable for that area.

It's also hard to realize that when coming from a colder area - that 40 degrees at Disney can actually be colder than you think because you are spending SO much time outdoors and with any wind - that can be cold. So - while it's unlikely you'll need a full heavy Mid-West style winter coat - you are going to need some layers (long shirts, sweatwhirts, light jackets) - and maybe scarf, hat, lightweight gloves.

But then - you also need the shorts and swimsuits.......

I also love the days when I'm in shorts and a T-shirt because it's 67 degrees and some Florida native cast members are wearing their winter coats - its fun to see the cultural difference!
 
I love the advice as we are also planning our first January trip. We visited in November the week before thanksgiving during the "polar vortex" and we had temps in the 30's and had to buy gloves at MK!! So I would plan on layering. Also WL is planning a major project expanding the Villas so I would plan to stay away from that resort if at all possible.
 
We went Jan 31- February 7 last year and we had cold days and hot days that week LOL I am from Northern WI and was very surprised by how cold I felt in 60* in FL, especially since it was during a period where in WI we hadn't had a windchill above zero in weeks! Then again there were several days in the 80s that week that were more than warm enough.
One thing to be aware of, there will be rides down for refurbishment, possibly popular rides. Jan/Feb is a big time for them.
That said, we enjoyed it. We didn't have too much of an issue with crowds, there were some big loud ;) tour groups from South America. If you are staying at a value you may have an issue but we didn't notice them other than at the parks. We would stay at that time again :)
 
Make sure to have a "snow storm" plan. My friends went down in Feb this year. The night before their flight back to the NE, a huge storm was approaching. Needless to say, their flight was canceled. Flew in a day later and had to deal with 2ft of snow in their driveway :)
 
Thanks for all the advice everyone.

as I am trying to make this a more inexpensive trip then my last which we flew down from Chicago I was planning on making this a driving trip. I have not made the drive in a few years but I know this can save me a considerable amount of money. So in driving the snow is the only thing that bothers me. I have lived in Chicago my whole life and have no problem driving in the snow here but I know if it snows in Kentucky or Tennessee on the drive to or from we could be in some trouble as those states are not as well equipped to handle that weather.

I am figuring that with lower amounts of points (I plan on renting points to stay DVC), driving instead of flying, and a slower time of year at Disney I should be able to save a good amount of money by going at that time of year.

My wife and I want to make this a slower trip with the kids versus the last 2 times we were there I was in go go go mode
 


We always drive down and the winter trips do make it a bit more questionable. The only place we have ever had an issue really besides here in Missouri was in Georgia the year they had the HUGE ice storm. It was so weird driving thru Atlanta and being one of a handful of cars on the road and hardly any lights on. I think that drive took a few years off our lives, lol
Thankfully never really seen that much snow/ice in Kentucky or Tennessee.
 
The first time my husband and I went to WDW was during the last week of January. I loved it so much I'm not sure we can ever go any other time of year now! Weather was perfect that year - 50s in morning and mid-60s afternoon. We are from SE Missouri and the contrast to January weather at home was nice. But as PP have mentioned, it can be unpredictable!

We're not big crowd people (hubby despises big cities because of this), and the crowd levels were perfect for us. This was on the old FP system where you got the ticket and came back at whatever time it had on it, and we had no idea how that worked. I thought you had to pay extra for FP, and we weren't using it the first 1 1/2 days we were there. Even without using the FP, the longest we waited for anything was 20ish minutes (Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise). Don't know what its like other times of year, but in Jan, wait times were very inconsistent due to the fact that the parks weren't people-saturated. You'd go by a ride and standby would be 45 min, get in line for the next ride and do it, walk by again, and it would be 10-15 min.

Have fun! We are also going this January (2-9) - I am chomping at the bit waiting for the dates to come up on the website and park hours to come out!
 
We are look at the end of Jan too! Can't wait until they post the date....
In the past have they offered free dining during this time of year?
 
We've been twice in Feb. the first time it was perfect started the day in a sweatshirt and shorts by the the afternoon it was t-shirt and shorts weather and by the evening you needed the sweatshirt again. The second time it was freezing! I'm from the midwest as well. We are planning on going again in Feb. 2016. We know we are risking the weather but typically the crowd is less so that is an advantage. We are going 2/22-26. This is our first major vacation in 3 years so we are super excited!
 

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