Helps me pick dates for Jan 2022 please!

[KMP12]

Hello! We want to plan our next trip around Xmas break or first week of January. Thinking January 2nd-9th. Crowds i assume are lower because everyone is back in school? We have to do early Jan our daughter starts college mid January. I also debated flying in Dec 31st to take advantage of the free transportation to the resorts..how busy do you think the parks would be Jan 1st and 2nd? Wortb it for free transportation?

 

[GBRforWDW]

Hello! We want to plan our next trip around Xmas break or first week of January. Thinking January 2nd-9th. Crowds i assume are lower because everyone is back in school? We have to do early Jan our daughter starts college mid January. I also debated flying in Dec 31st to take advantage of the free transportation to the resorts..how busy do you think the parks would be Jan 1st and 2nd? Wortb it for free transportation?

If marathon weekend happens in person, you’ll start your trip with end of winter break and end it with marathoners. But the the following weekend is MLK weekend which is usually worse then marathon crowds.

However, this time period this year, 2021, is also what started a very uncrowded 6 weeks. We went the Thursday after new year’s and was there for a week. Friday and Saturday in the parks were ok crowd wise, but Monday and Tuesday, the 11th and 12th were especially ghost town feels. We were in Animal Kingdom and other than Pandora, could walk onto every single ride if we had wanted to. We were at MK on Tuesday, but my DW was not interested in rides, or being there, so we really didn’t do much other than a handful of small rides all with almost no wait.

I don’t think it’s going to be like this next year though. I think we’ll see international travel open soon and more out of country guests will be returning to WDW and with the 50th Anniversary celebration in full swing, parks will be full regardless. So as mentioned earlier regarding marathon weekend, just plan around it. And the rest just do the dates that best matchup with everyone’s schedule.

 

[::danielle::]

As the previous poster mentioned, Jan 6-9 is Marathon weekend. If you’re planning to stay at WDW, many of the value and Moderate hotels are already booked. The parks will be busy but nothing like Christmas through New Years.

 

[Obi-J Kenobi]

My DW and I could have used DME for free transportation this year for our June trip. However, we decided to spend the extra money on a private transport and used FL Tours (which sponsors the Transportation board). We were extremely satisfied and pleased with our experience. The driver communicated quite well with us by text message. He was courteous. He was prompt. We had a suburban, so plenty of space for a family of 4. It was far, far faster than DME. Not only did we go straight from MCO to the resort (without any stops in between), but I believe our private car drove faster than the buses of DME. It was no more than 20 minutes from MCO to BC, and it was probably less than 20 minutes. Even though you have to pay for this transport service, I felt it was worth the money for the time savings and service we received.