Is January a no-line month??

[yeaitspootie]

Wow, thanks for the over-flowing responses!! You guys have been a HUGE help, seriously! I'm going to expect moderate to light crowds for most of the time, that way if there are crowds, I won't be crying my whole trip. Thanks again!

 

[ktbugsmom]

The best advice I can give to deal with the crowds is to go right when the parks open. We always get so much more done in the first couple hours than if we wait until later. Also, if you want to stay into the afternoon - use fast pass. however, we usually leave by lunch time... I just don't like the crowds. We have lunch at the resort, enjoy the pool, then go back a bit later. (And yes, we enjoy the pool in January!)

We have used this strategy at spring break times, summer and in January. Works well in all seasons.

 

[Aptor]

We went the end of January one year and a bunch of times we would finish a ride (Test Track and Rock and Roll Coaster) and the ride operaters were "do you want to go again" since there was zero lines and we were like "YES"!!!!!

 

[bytheblood]

I don't think a no-line exists anymore?

 

[aubriee]

I don't think a no-line exists anymore?

We were there this past Sept 17th-24th and I swear WDW looked like a ghost town for the most part. MGM, especially was dead. We had absolutely no lines all day and everything was a walk on. No one needed fast passes for anything.

As far as the OP question: We were also there last Jan 9th-15th and crowds weren't bad at all. They were worse than when we were there in Sept, but not as bad as when I was there in May. We even went to MK on Sat Jan 15th and crowds weren't that bad. I'm going back Jan 2nd-8th this year and am hoping for small crowds. For some reason I assumed the schools would be starting back on Mon Jan 2nd, so planned to start my vacation that day.

 

[monica31671]

I don't know if this will affect the parks, but there was a post awhile back with the dates kids go back to school. There are lots of schools not going back until January 9. I'm in Oklahoma and our schools start back January 4.
I'll be there January 5-10 - crowded or not crowded. It has to beat the end of June heat, rain and super crowds.

 

[afc104]

We are going to be there Jan 23-29 and we chose this time because my daughter has 4 days off due to regents exams, which she doesn't have any, and in reading how dead it was that time of the year. I certainly hope so. We used to go around Columbus Day and once October was pretty low crowds but after our third visit we realized how much more crowded it had become that time of year.

 

[Carrieberry]

We went this last Jan 22-30 and it was great!! We did a lot of the "want to ride again" things and the EMH at night were seriously empty. The best was the AK evening. We walked around Asia and Africa by ourselves! None of the rides were open but it was so cool to walk around a completely empty AK! Only Dinlonad had people in it. No waits for the rides and we did Splash mountain 6 times in a row just walking on over and over again! Next trip will be at the end of Jan again!

 

[ktbugsmom]

Carrieberry,
That is cool to hear about the low crowds at AK. My experience with extra evening hours last January at MGM was awful. It was SUPER crowded. We waited in line for the Great Movie Ride for 40 minutes. (Why? I am not sure, because during the day, the lines were only about 20 minutes! ) However, this was the first night of EMH and it was one of the last night for Osborne Lights - so I think it was extra crowded due to those things.

I think we might try AK for the evening hours this year just to be in the park in the late afternoon. I have never stayed there past 2pm... and I promised my husband we would do some different things this trip.

 

[Madi100]

We went in 2004 on the 16th of January. It was slower for the first two days, and then it got busy. It was so much busier than it had been for any of our other stays that I was very disappointed. We are going in a couple weeks, and I've decided that although I read the threads about crowds, I don't take them as gospel for how the crowds will be.

 

[NeilDrum]

The first year we went Jan 2004 was absolutely fantastic. The longest wait we had was 10 mins for Kilman Safari - everything else was walk on. This Jan was sooo different but still not too bad approx 20 mins some 10mins but so much busier than the year before. I think people are realising.

We also went over for a week in Sept 05 and this was less busy than January !!!

We are over 28 Jan to 11 Feb 2006 and are hoping for a nice people free park - lol!!!

Must admit every January we have seen hundreds of Cheerleaders !!!!!

Neil & Claire