How busy is Martin Luther King day in January?

[AussieAngel]

Yayyyyyy!!! My DH and I booked our January 2009 Disney World vacation last night - 12 nights at Wilderness Lodge! Yayyyyyy!! So excited!!

But... our very nice Disney man on the phone told us that Martin Luther King Day falls on Monday January 19 next year - our second last day at Disney! He said it normally gets very busy during that long weekend... booooo.

We're from Australia, so we really have no idea when USA's long weekends are, and how busy they might be...

So who's been on that long weekend in January before? Is it really bad!? Hope not!!

 

[Dan Murphy]

MLK day/weekend is one of the busier times at WDW. I personally have not been there then, but it is up there with the busy ones. You might subscribe to TGM http://www.tourguidemike.com/index.asp?promoCode=AG9MF-AQ#TGM-home (banner at top of the board here) to assist you with how to best enjoy the time there. You'll do fine.

 

[OKW Lover]

Don't worry. While MLK day may be busier than the weekends before/after, its certainly not anything major. You'll be fine.

 

[goofy4tink]

It is very busy...lots of people take it as a long weekend, so the parks will be more crowded than usual for that time of year.
We were there for Marathon Weekend this past January (Jan 11-12)..the parks were crowded, as were the resorts. Then, by Tuesday, the crowds started to dissapate. Well, by Thursday night, the crowds were back up again. We left early on Friday morning, but there were a lot of people checking in at the resort that morning. That was MLK weekend. Add all the foreign tour groups to the crowds and well, I won't be down then again any time soon!

 

[RubySlippers]

I have been on this weekend a few times and have found the crowds not to be an issue. I can't remember waiting for anything more than 15-20mins. And I know some things were walk ons! We missed this year so things may have changed.

Ruby

 

[jcb]

You might also look at the discussion at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1769537

and http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1768473

These discuss the fact that in 2009, the Martin Luther King holiday is the day before the inauguration of the us president. What that means is that 100,000 government employees in the Washington D.C. area have the day off. The area schools do as well. Federal employees rarely get 2 days off in a row so some significant number will likely come to WDW instead.

I arrived at WDW on MLK day this year. AK was crowded in the afternoon; the standy lines were so long we just left after walking around. Others posts have said it wasn't so bad at other parks.

Don't let this put you off at all. Even if park attendance picks up significantly during MLK weekend through Tuesday, you'll have the first part of your trip to ride all the attractions you want. I follow others advice and get to the theme parks when they open, do the rides, and then relax when it gets crowded. While wait times will probably increase (especially in the afternoons) due to the heavier crowds over MLK weekend, it won't prevent you from being able to do the many other things that WDW has to offer. After all, WDW is a lot more than just rides.

 

[aquaticmom]

MLK 2008 weekend was super crowded. We did rope drops almost everyday of our 7 park days, got our FP's right away and still had return times early afternoon. Waited 90 minutes for Rocknroller coaster. And the tour group numbers were massive.

 

[AussieAngel]

Oh noooo!! I didn't realise the Marathon was on while we were there too!!!!

I really will have to join Tour Guide Mike now!!!

Where does the Marathon happen?

The marathon weekend might not be so bad, because we were planning to visit SeaWorld and Universal around that time anyway. Looks like we'll have to escape Disney that weekend!

Thanks for all the info about MLK weekend.... eeeeek!