January Just Ain't What it Used to Be

[SeanTomorrow]

If you add 10 rides/attractions to each park, you would see the average wait time at the majority of attractions drop.

True, until crowds increase to ride all the new rides and take advantage of lower wait times! The problem with attractions is they attract all these people to the park.

 

[yeheyprincex2]

We did MVMCP this year, early December on a Tuesday night, supposedly the least crowded time to attend. The party was a sell out and it was crazy crowded. Wait times were still crazy for the headliners.

Ill have to make sure to get FP+ for those headliners earlier in the day between 4-7.

 

[dan-tot]

Just got home a few days ago from 8 nights at Disneyworld with our daughter, her husband and their two children (ages 6 and 9) and the other set of grandparents. We were at Port Orleans Riverside and while we did have a wonderful trip and made some amazing memories I have discovered that "January just ain't what it used to be."

It's probably been 3 or 4 years since our last trip in January (it's our preferred month, we've gone several times at that time of the year) and normally everything is pretty much walk on or wait 5-10 minutes, maybe 20-30 minutes for the more popular rides. Never full buses (except when park closed), no "crowded feeling" in the parks, etc.

But this time? What a different experience. We felt it was quite crowded every day we went to the parks and if we didn't have FP for some of the rides we wouldn't have ridden as they most often times had 60+ minutes wait times, some even 2 hours!! There were some things that didn't have long wait times (under 30 minutes) but rarely were we able to "walk right on" like we used to do. Buses were generally quite crowded as well.

I guess it's not a secret anymore to go in January when the crowds are non existent, and with the special packages Disney has been offering I guess more people have taken advantage of it. Saw several tour groups too but generally didn't have any problems with them (except once when we were waiting for a bus and they completely filled it).

Anyone else miss the "less crowdedness" of going in January?

it is called harry potter. He is bringing a lot of people in. They opened Diagon Alley I think Nov 2014 so the ones who saw the first part were there for the new section. Most of the time I was in the disney park it was crowded. I did have one day that I was able to walk on. Dwarf mine ride was closed out fp+ and all of feb as well. I think it will always be that way until harry potter dies down. When that is who knows.

 

[Kristina4109]

Reading this with interest because we're considering January for our next trip. This would be years away since we just went this past June. The June crowds were not as horrific as I thought they'd be, although the MK was crowded. But the heat and humidity just about did us in. We were thinking that we'd actually rather have bigger crowds but nicer weather. With my daughter's school schedule, my husband's teaching schedule, and my singing schedule, probably the first or second week of January would be all right.