January-Marathon and MLK Day Crowds?

[TerraLil]

We have a few options of when to plan our trip for January. Are the marathon crowds usually just there for the weekend or do a lot of people stay the entire week before or after? Are the weeks before and after MLK day usually busy, or just the holiday?

 

[Accident]

I wasn't at wdw during this years but I remember the posts here of how packed it was for MLK weekend. My experience is any long weekend holiday brings in a lot of people that weekend. More people tend to be there the short week (whatever week has the extra day off from school/work for make a week with less work days needed off) but the opposite week is also noticably larger.

but to be clear, it's always crowded, just a little more crowded then. Come to WDW when you can, there will be crowds any dates you pick so go with what works for your family.

 

[rteetz]

Marathon weekend is a 4 day event. However with that said I don't find crowds that bad.

 

[missangelalexis]

I was there MLK weekend this year and did not find it that bad at all. I was at MK on the Sunday and Epcot/DHS on the Monday and felt I was able to get a lot done.

 

[TerraLil]

Marathon weekend is a 4 day event. However with that said I don't find crowds that bad.

Which days?

 

[rteetz]

Which days?

January 4-8.

 

[sunflare]

This year Marathon weekend may be a bit more packed because of the way the holidays fall. I know I had planned to do Dopey solo until I realized that my kids had that entire week off school. Now we're making it an entire 9 night vacation.

 

[Accident]

What @sunflare said, this year with many schools not back in until Jan 9th, it's going to keep a larger crowd at WDW for longer and then add the races on top of it.

I do want to add with the races, I do find MK the last race day and sometimes the day after to be a little more crowded. You can tell it's racers because they are sporting their medals and getting their WDW fix in just before they leave. They don't stay all day so it's a great day to sleep in and then hit mk, or hop to mk after doing another park you don't want to spend the whole day at.