End of January vacationing

[wld]

We have been to WDW once in June, once in May and many times in December. We are thinking of late January, just Dh and myself. How's the weather, crowds, flight costs, hotel costs this time of year? Thanks for the input.

 

[Disney1-30-98]

A great time to go. Crowds are small and hotels are in their value season until presidents weekend in feb. The weather is give and take. I've been and its 60 and i've been and its 80. We love it, even if it is a little cooler we always have a great time.

 

[Micca]

January is a good time to go. MLK weekend get busy, but the rest of the month is good(you might not be able to do waterparks depending on the weather).

 

[tinaluis]

We' ve been to WDW in September, October, November, January, February and May and, by far, the parks were the least crowded in January. That said, however, we've decided on October for our upcoming trip because the weather this past January was a little too cold for us. We were only able to go to Typhoon Lagoon 1x -- just barely. If you're willing to forego the water parks and/or swimming at your resort/hotel, then it is a great time to go. If swimming and/or water parks are really important, you may want to try another month.

We've always made our reservations through Priceline so I'm not able to help you out with value season vs. regular season. If you're willing to try Priceline, you can get some amazing deals no matter what the time of year.

Good luck planning your trip.

 

[tricia]

When is President's Day weekend in 2004? Being from Canada that is not a holiday on our calendars. Also, what does MLK weekend stand for. I am just having a brain cramp I think.

 

[catwho]

January is a great time to go. The weather can be iffy (ask the people who went last year and froze their ears off in the unexpected frigid temperatures!) but we have lucked out in it being beautiful enough for swimming everytime we have been. The crowds are so small and we were able to ride BTMRR 4 times in a row without getting off 2 years ago because there was NO ONE waiting in line (this was in the evening.) We were able to get seatings to almost any restaurant saves Cindy's for breakfast (although if we had wanted we could have gotten seatings for lunch or dinner) It was almost eerie the morning we went to AK and there was hardly anyone waiting to get into the park 15 minutes prior to opening. When we went in it was more peaceful and serene than it already was and we walked right onto the safari.

You can always bring layers with you and peel off and put on as you need, but we found shorts were just fine and I did wear a long sleeved t-shirt one evening.

 

[Jillpie]

Catwho, we are going in January. I do wonder (we've always been in April with heavy crowds)..is it a little strange to not have anybody around in the parks? I mean, isn't it more fun to have people around you enjoying the rides too? Now I am one that hates when its really crowded, but some people are nice. Is it really a ghost town? Not that I'm complaining, I can't even imagine DW with hardly any people around, but just wondering if it takes away from some of the fun?

 

[catwho]

Originally posted by Jillpie
Catwho, we are going in January. I do wonder (we've always been in April with heavy crowds)..is it a little strange to not have anybody around in the parks? <snip> Is it really a ghost town?

LOL! Ghost town no and the crowds do pick up some. But we have also been when it was HOT and VERY CROWDED and in comparison it isn't as bad. It is nice to be able to practically walk on to every ride (the only ride that we find we have to wait much on has been Test Track and only my xh and oldest are interested in it, we FP it and go do other things.) FP's are nicer then too because you have usually a full hour in which to show up for your ride. We've been during the really crowded times and had as little as a 20 minute window to show up! Wow!! (Is it still that way during the summer?)

There are people there, but I think they tend to be less stressed out because there aren't hoards of people. We overheard a family saying one year, "I can't believe they want us to wait 20 minutes to ride Peter Pan!!!!" We just about died laughing. And in actuality it wasn't even a 20 minute wait. We asked them if they had ever been before and they said it was their first trip. We said that 20 minutes was nothing and they should try coming during July when the FP machine runs out before noon and the wait is over an hour. They were amazed.

We have been on a pracitcally empty Mainstreet (really cool for pictures and people always ask us how we got everyone to get out of our way) walked for over 5 minutes without running into anyone at Epcot, seen the TOL with no one under it and LOVE it. It does seem eerie at first but the people come and fill in the spaces. It's just nice to be able to walk down the street and not feel like you are in a herd of cattle!

 

[Jillpie]

Sounds just wonderful. Thank you for that response! I can't wait to not have to deal with crowds for the first time.

 

[Puggs]

tricia

MLK Weekend is Martin Luther King weekend January 17-19, 2004

Presidents week is Feb 14-21, 2004

 

[tink44]

We were there the end of Jan 2002 and the weather was the best! 75-80 degrees. Definitely warm enough to swim. The parks (except for Magic Kingdom) were kind of empty in the morning but not a ghost town by any stretch of the imagination.

The first day in the park I overdressed, but after that it was shorts all the way.

It was value season so the resort prices were good. DD8 is getting too old to take out of school for a week, otherwise that would be our annual time.

Enjoy!!

 

[katrina1122]

We went Jan 4-10 in 99 and found that mk was always pretty crowded, especially in the mornings...an hour wait for space mountain, but we'd just do the rides that we wanted and hop to another park, come back and hop back again since there was no wait for transportation. We got everything in severeral times. Epcot was by far the emptiest (this was pre ak so I can't speak to that). It was warm enough that we swam every night and hit the water parks with no problem. The only place that was disappointly empty was pleasure island, we had dance floors to ourselves on fri night, but i'm not letting that stop our up coming jan 10-18th trip...jan is a wonderful time to go. I hate going to any type of park and waiting in line let alone disney where you are spending so much money, i want to walk right on.

 

[jcemom]

I'll be there Feb 3-12. President's weekend starts (officially) Feb 14. Will it be getting crowded towards the end of my trip, or will I be skipping out before the crowds descend? (the 12th is a Thursday)

 

[tjkraz]

Pros:

No Crowds
Low room prices
No Crowds
No problem getting PS
Did I mention No Crowds?!?!


Cons:

Uncertain Weather - We arrived just after a terrible cold snap this past January. The day before our arrival the HIGH in Orlando did not hit 50 degrees.

Cheerleaders / Dancers - Wide World of Sports holds competitions most weekends in January and February. They tend to hit town Friday thru Monday. We noticed quite a few groups in the MK on Friday. I've read that some less well-behaved groups can make the Value resorts (and some moderates) a real nightmare. It's just kids being kids, but I imagine some of the antics can make for a less-than-relaxing vacation.

Rehabs - You're much more likely to see a ride rehab in the off season. Last January we missed Little Mermaid and Blizzard Beach. Also minor things like the Fountain at Epcot was being rehabbed. Seasonal attractions like COP will not be running.

Short Hours - MK closing at 6:30pm can be the norm for a weekday.

Nightime Activities Reduced - Enights are nonexistent (and unnecessary) and you may have few options for things like FITS and Spectromagic.

Seriously, it's a great time to visit if you can handle the above. Weather WILL be cold at night and MAY be warm during the day. Basically you'll have to pack at least 2 outfits for each day and change clothes accordingly. Except for the weekends, crowds were virtually non-existent. We walked into Space Mountain around noon to find all of 15 people in line ahead of us. We still used Fastpass when convenient, but its use was to avoid waiting 20 minutes in Standby as opposed to and hour. Longest wait we had over 6 days (Sunday to Friday) was Sundy afternoon at the Great Movie Ride--we waited a maximum of 15 minutes for that one.

 

[catwho]

Originally posted by tjkraz

Seriously, it's a great time to visit if you can handle the above. Weather WILL be cold at night and MAY be warm during the day.

Uh, depends on the year, week, day or hour! Weather down here in Florida is so unpredictable anytime except summer (hot hot hot and with a lot of humid thrown in) We've had January be freezing (like this year) or down right hot (high's in the upper 80's) Same with February. By March things settle down a bit and are fairly moderate. With December, January and February it is a crap shoot as to what is going to happen. And don't trust Accu-weather or Weather.com They have been wrong so many times (especially anything further out than 3 days!) Right all you people who left for a sunny vacation to arrive to lows in the teens?