December or January/MLK week? Help me decide!

[100acreHiker]

Really having trouble deciding when our next trip should be. We usually go for 5 days that first week in December and love it then, but 12 year old DS frets about missing too much school as he's in the accelerated math program, so I'm now looking at January 10-15 (leaving MLK evening). My guess is that crowds are higher then, with the holiday weekend and post-marathon crowds? Anyone with experience going those two weeks and can compare? Any other considerations we should take note of? Upside for us is only that DS would miss one less day of school so I'm not sure how worth it changing our dates will prove, but every day does count.

 

[Lothlórien]

We have been that exact week in January and it was our favorite time out of all the visits we have made (many trips since 2001). The crowds were pretty much non-existent.
The weather during our trip was quite cool. We wore sweats/jeans and jackets even during the warmest part of the day. Of course, it is Florida so it could be 85 degrees on your trip.
The only downside was that the parks all closed early that year. The rest of the trip was fabulous!!!

 

[100acreHiker]

Thanks! Good to hear you like it then. Crowd calendar ("what we saw" in TP) shows that the weekend leading up to MLK was very crowded (level 8s, in general) so it gave me some concern.

 

[NJ Goofy]

We've been there done that with the school issue so I know how you feel. As our DS's got older it became harder and harder to take them out. We usually went Jersey week and left right from school (2:00 pm) so they only missed one or two days. With that said, I think the 1st week of December is a better time, the weather is usually warmer, the parks & resorts are decorated, the parks are open a little bit later and they are a little less crowded than MLK weekend.

 

[100acreHiker]

Yes--the Christmastime spirit, decorations and the likelihood of swimming are all big factors for us! Thank you for reminding me of that!