January - Need help planning

[Gabriel&Nana]

Hello !

We are going to DW Jan. 18-Feb 04 and we are planning to visit MK, AK, MGM, Epcot , USF, IoA, SW and maybe BGT.

I'd like you to tell me what are the best days of the week to go to each park in order to avoid lines...

Any help wouldbe very appreciated !

Thanks!

 

[nativetxn]

Welcome to the DIS, <b>Gabriel&Nana</b>! I'm very glad you found us and I hope you can visit often.

I've never toured during the month of January so I'm just going to bump this back to page one for you.

Katholyn

 

[bjakmom]

You can use last year's hours as a guide when planning until this year's are posted: http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/jan.html

We do one of two things when touring - we either go to the EMH park at the early opening and leave that park at lunch time when it really starts to get crowded and hop to a non-EMH park;
or we go to the park that was EMH the day before - IMHO the key is to definitely be at the EMH at opening or don't bother - I think that the biggest crowds entering from 9-11 on EMH day are people who 'intended' to be there at opening but didn't quite make it up or were delayed at breakfast/buses, etc. - the crowds at the EMH park can become quite large by late morning (especially MK) - we have always been able to do many of the major rides without lines and move on to a quieter park by then. Somewhere there was a list as to the best days of the week for each park based on attendance, but search is down...anyone?

I do remember that Sat and Mon are two of the busiest days at MK, but that was before EMH was on Sun at MK, so I would assume that Sun also becomes quite busy now.

 

[pjlla]

I cannot quite remember where I got this information... maybe from the Passporter book, but here goes....

Early Entry days are as follows (subject to change of course!)
Magic Kingdom - Thurs and Sun.
Epcot - Wed.
MGM Studios - Tues and Sat.
Animal King. - Mon and Fri.

Unless you are staying on site and planning to attend the Early Entry, avoid the parks on those days if possible (or so they say!). The days stated to GO TO the parks in the book are as follow:
Magic Kingdom - Fri and Wed.
MGM Studios - Thurs and Fri.
Epcot - Mon and Tues.
Animal King. - Tues, Thurs, and Sat.

As I stated, I got this information from a 2004 edition guide book, probably Passporter. I haven't tried it out, but we are also going in January (a bit later than you), and have scheduled our days according to this. I hope for both of our sakes it is true!

 

[kermittheturtle]

I have never been to WDW but I can tell you that these boards give you soooo much info!!!

Do you know how many days you will be spending at WDW? One thing is that Saturday is the only day for spectro and wishes at MK. (according to last years January hours) Are you staying onsite where you may want to use EE ?(early entry). If not I would avoid that park for that day. We're going in January too and I hear that it's a great time to go, (lower crowds) but the weather can be very unpredictable so watch the forecast and dress in layers but most of all Happy Planning!! Have a great trip!


~Kermit~

 

[pjlla]

Wow... if that is true it will real bum me out... I was assuming that Spectro would be going on Fri night during our upcoming Jan trip, as it was Jan 2002... we aren't planning on being anywhere at WDW on the only Sat of our trip... we will be at SeaWorld. I will be really unhappy if we miss Spectro.... guess I will have to wait until November when they post the park hours and schedules for January to know for sure!

 

[kermittheturtle]

I was looking at the hours for January 2003. I had my itinerary all planned (which park for each day ) and then I noticed the spectro times were only on Saturday. I had not planned on going to MK at all until Tuesday. Hopefully they post those hours soon!!

 

[Gabriel&Nana]

First of all, I’d like to thank all of you .I like this forum very much, and it’s helping me a lot (as it did last time I went WDW – 2000).

I agree with pjlla and kermittheturtle, we’ll have to wait the park hours for January to finish our plan.

One thing is sure I’m planning one day at Epcot with Illuminations at the end , one day at Animal Kingdom (maybe at the end of this day I’ll go to MGM Fantasmic or MK Wishes), onde day at MGM , onde day at MK and the 5th day AK or Epcot and MK afternoon (probably I’m gonna leave this to the last day, ‘cause my children love MK ans AK).

Then I’l get an Orlando Flex Ticket (14 consecutive days) so I could go to SW twice , USF twice, IoA twice and maybe BGT.

Well, I think I’m gonna need another vacatin to rest after all these parks !!

For those of you who went before in January : Is it tolerable going to wet attractions as Splash Mountain and KRR ?

 

[pjlla]

Can't say about SM, as it was closed during our 1/2002 visit, but we all did KRR (myself and DS once, DH and DD twice) and got quite wet... I had brought a change along for the kids, which they really needed. It was borderline shorts and t-shirt weather mid afternoon, but cool in the mornings and evenings. Wet clothes were too cold. DH suffered the rest of the day with the wet t-shirt that refused to dry. It did get warm enough later in the week to swim in the hotel pool comfortably. We also had one full day of rain (going back and forth between pretty heavy and light mist), but it certainly kept the crowds down at the MK! We are scheduling a day for a water park this coming January, but not sure if it will be warm enough. Anyhow, I would plan on bringing a change of clothes or at least a ponch if you plan to do a wet ride during the day!...pjlla

 

[Gabriel&Nana]

Nice to hear that we can consider going to wet attractions !

I'm gonna take your advice, and pack a change of clothes everyday and a light coat, also.

I hope that the rain don't come to bore us !