January during Builders' Convention?

[M*2]

Hi Disney fans! Has anyone visited the World during the January International Builders' Convention (to be held this year from January 10 -14)? I was wondering how much it influenced the park crowds and whether there was anything special I should know. Our only other visit was in early October, and I thought it was uncrowded then and all-around wonderful. Any ideas on how it would compare? Thank you very much!

 

[LibertyLover]

My DH, DD2 and DSD24 visited WDW during Builders Convention this past January. We stayed at AKL. From what I could tell, the Builders Convention didn't do too much in the way of crowding the parks. It did take us over an hour to register at AKL because of the number of people attending the convention who were staying at AKL - and we got there around 11 pm. I did hear that rental cars were difficult to come by if you had not made your reservations early. A friend of mine who lives in Florida told me that her travel agent had heard they were bringing in cars to Orlando from as far away as Georgia, but I can't verify that. The restaurants were a bit more crowded than the last time I was in WDW in January (2 years previously and at roughly the same time, MLK weekend), but again, we had no trouble getting reservations that day for the restaurants we wanted to eat at. All in all, I have to say that as far as I could see, the Builders Convention didn't make much of a difference to us in our visit.

 

[safetymom]

During the day I doubt it would impact the parks but during the evening it probably does. I know restaurants loved them.

 

[disgal1]

we happened to be there this past jan.
the day before it began, it was beautiful, walked onto all the rides
After it started, it was just like being there in june!

I'll never go again when the builders convention is going on.
it is the largest Convention of the year.
Also is crowded for MLK.