January Crowds - YIKES!

[PratersloveDW]

We are booked for a week in early January (7-13). My cousins decided to join us for DS's birthday celebration and were going to stay at one of the All Star resorts. They called last week and were told that ALL value and moderate resorts are booked solid!!! They got a room somewhere else so that isn't a big deal but I am now a little concerned about the crowd levels.

Has anyone else heard anything about the crowds for January?!

 

[mtdevine615]

I'm not sure who they talked to but I just got quots for every resort on property. I wouldn't worry it's never at capcity in January. That's why we go then.

 

[mainewmn]

I just ran your dates on line to see for myself and every one of the value resort came up as having availabilities. I would tell your cousin to try again.

 

[PratersloveDW]

Well, I am REALLY glad to hear that y'all were able to get quotes. mtdevine615, did you talk with someone at Disney or just go online? I hope that y'all are right. I am not sure why they would have been told that but I wouldn't have any problem if they were just mis-informed!!!

See all the January travelers soon!!!

 

[mtdevine615]

Nope just got quotes on-line, every resort came up as I would expect in January. We've gone every January since 2001 and it's a great time to go. The weather may be a little cool but being from Maine that still may mean shorts. Most of the time we wear jeans and maybe a sweatshirt or light jacket. While the CM's are in their parkas. They must think we're crazy.

 

[HANDYMOM]

The first two weekends after New Years day have two special events; the Disney Marathon and some Cheerleading Finals competition. While both of these events will use up a lot of the hotel space, I don't think they will cause much of a headache at the parks as neither of the events actually take place in a park.

We were originally scheduled for the 7-11th then the 14-18 and we pushed back to the 20-24 to avoid any chance of large groups.

 

[HugsForEeyore]

There is a "bad" night in there - Saturday January 7th. That is the night before the Marathon, and Disney is always packed that night. About three years ago, I also had to go off-site to find anything for that one night before the Marathon. But the next day, there was tons of availability. If your cousins drop Jan 7th and checks in on the 8th, they will probably find far more availability.

I doubt the crowds during the week will be anything too overwhelming. I have gone that 2nd week of January three times, and never found the crowds bad

 

[branv]

FYI: from Disney site, when you ask for available resorts from the first screen where you choose your dates, it always pulls up every resort irregardless of availability. You may see every resort, but that doesn't mean they're available. You can only find true availability by actually trying to select one of those resorts. I just checked your dates, and while All Star and Pop comes up as available, it really does show no availability for Moderates.

The above poster is so right about the Marathon weekend. I've been monitering moderates and budget levels for weeks now, and they're pretty much booked solid.

They might also try funjet.com. They are a travel agency that offers room only bookings, I think they're one of those that buy blocks from Disney.

 

[tinkertastic]

I'm arriving on the the 12th and had one heck of a time trying to get a ressie. I wanted to stay at a moderate but there was no availability (and I must have called for 7 days straight trying to see if there had been any cancellations) The only thing available when I called was a suite at the GF or a savanah room in AKL.I finally booked AKL but reservation agent did suggest that I continue to call back if I was really interested in a moderate, she explained that as the reservation date gets closer there tend to be quite a few cancellations.

 

[eeyoreiscool]

Since the marathon is the 7th and 8th this year, I would expect those nights to be busy. They have about 29,000 people total participating in the races. There are some charity groups that have large blocks of rooms reserved for their members as well. They may release some of these rooms closer to the time but I heard the past couple of years that they were actually short of rooms.

 

[bicker]

FYI: from Disney site, when you ask for available resorts from the first screen where you choose your dates, it always pulls up every resort irregardless of availability.

At this moment, Travelocity is showing the following resorts available for those dates: AKL, AS-S, YC, SSR, FtW, WL, POP, Contemporary, BWV. The following resorts are showing as not available: BC, PO-FQ, CBR, AS-M, GF, CSR, PO-R, Poly. However, these might be available through WDW directly. I didn't check the rest.