***Official Jan 2018 Thread****

[Twilight Sparkle]

We’re driving back from WDW now. We were there 8 days. The crowds were higher than we’ve previously experienced in January. Lots of tour groups, mostly from Brazil I think. Epcot and AK crowds were the worst for us, but MK was pretty packed, too. Our HS day was the best as far as crowds went. I guess people are still not hitting that park as much.

We had a horrible time getting extra fast passes for the popular rides this time and that has not been the case for us on past trips in January.

We saw them testing empty boats on Splash. So sad it didn’t open up while we were at MK. Maybe it will open sooner than expected, though.

FOP is incredible! I rode it three times and would have ridden it more if the wait times had not been so long. It’s my new favorite ride. Pandora at night is spectacular.

My brain is too tired to type much more, but i’ll look forward to hearing from those of you there this week. I hope the crowds are lower and the weather is still beautiful. No rain at all for us and the temps were pretty good. If you guys have good stuff to report, I think we’ll consider delaying our next trip to a week later than we usually go.

 

[tinabina919]

At the airport! Can’t believe it’s here plus I got news of getting promoted just a few days ago so I added a day on to our trip! Time to celebrate!

 

[caribbeandream]

We’re driving back from WDW now. We were there 8 days. The crowds were higher than we’ve previously experienced in January. Lots of tour groups, mostly from Brazil I think.

Those Brazilian tour groups drove me bananas in AK! They seem to be older HS kids and, honestly, well behaved, but there were SO MANY of them.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Those Brazilian tour groups drove me bananas in AK! They seem to be older HS kids and, honestly, well behaved, but there were SO MANY of them.

You're right. They were very well-behaved. I was impressed. We've encountered some of the loud, chanting groups in the past, and these tour groups were not like that. I think the sheer number of these large groups combined with locals getting out to enjoy the weather, Epcot festival crowds, and pro bowl people (though we saw fewer lanyard wearing families this year; I wonder if that's due to having the Disney Springs pep rally rather than having a parade at MK) just created the perfect storm of increased crowds versus what we've seen the past few years. Pandora seems to be increasing AK's popularity. Great for AK. Not so great for those of us who prefer more personal space. It was difficult at times to get around.

 

[tinabina919]

I agree, we spent the afternoon at AK yesterday and it was definitely the most crowded I’ve seen it there. Hoping it dies down for the week now!

 

[DisneyObsessed87]

We got back yesterday.

We stayed at All Star Movies. My kids loved the theming. We had a preferred room in the 101 Dalmations building and had a short walk to the bus and main building. We ate breakfast at the food court one morning and it was decent. Overall, as far as value resorts go I prefer it to All Star Music and Pop Century.

Magic Kingdom on Thursday was way more chilly than I had expected and busy, but we still got to do everything we wanted for the most part. We got two additional FPs after our 3. We had lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern for the first time and it was AMAZING. Hubby and I loved the pot roast. We will probably be back next trip. Happily After Ever was awesome. Even though I had seen videos, nothing compares to watching it in person!

We went to Sea World on Friday and could not believe how crowded it was. We went in November 2014 and it was empty. We still enjoyed it. The sea lion show was hilarious and my family's favorite. We also loved the Mako coaster.

Saturday we went to Animal Kingdom. It had magic hours at 8am, but were letting people in at 7:30am when we got in line. The line for FOP was already across the bridge to Pandora. We walked right on Navi River, though. We did that, Dinosaur twice and Everest twice all before 9am. We had lunch at Tusker House which was good as usual but the service was kinda lacking. Not terrible, but not what we are use to at Disney. We got to see a lot of baby animals on the safari and the tiger cubs walking through jungle trek. Pandora is amazing and FOP is definitely worth the hype! My non Disney loving hubby said it is the best ride he has ever ridden.

Hope everyone who is there now or leaving soon enjoys their trips! It goes by too fast. I will be back to WDW in 37 days for training but not sure when our next family trip will be since we are doing Disneyland (for the first time!) in September.

 

[MinMou]

Me too. They have been quite a bit off all week. 4's and 5's up to 7!

Times are a'changin'

We just got back, and I kept saying "If this is the slow time, we're in trouble once DS starts school!" It seemed like every time I turned around there was a group of Brazilian teenagers wearing Tia Penha tshirts being led around by someone with a sign. We were in Epcot on a Friday, and while we did see a stage, art booths, and the living statues for the Arts Festival, there didn't seem to be larger crowds because of them.

 

[BK2014]

As January 2018 is coming to a close, I want to thank everyone for the help and advice that was given on this thread. It really helped us plan our 1/20-1/27 trip! And thank you to @k8Davies for starting this thread, maintaining the roll call and contributing so much to the discussion!

 

[MinMou]

As January 2018 is coming to a close, I want to thank everyone for the help and advice that was given on this thread. It really helped us plan our 1/20-1/27 trip! And thank you to @k8Davies for starting this thread, maintaining the roll call and contributing so much to the discussion!

Ditto!!!

 

[han22735]

As January 2018 is coming to a close, I want to thank everyone for the help and advice that was given on this thread. It really helped us plan our 1/20-1/27 trip! And thank you to @k8Davies for starting this thread, maintaining the roll call and contributing so much to the discussion!

Agreed!! Todays our first day back to reality Going to be even worse back to work tomorrow.

We did have an amazing trip. Although busier than prior January's the amazing weather made up for the crowds. We also saw the large tour groups but they were always quiet and well behaved. I think January will be our new time to go... the 70-80 degree weather with zero humidity was just so much better than our May or September trips.

 

[BurTam]

We just got back on Wednesday as well and had a fantastic time! It was definitely busier than we expected and a bit cooler on some days but still lots of fun. I agree with the others who said FOP was the best ride. It was AMAZING! Loved every second of it. We had a fastpass for FOP for our AK day and we loved AK so much that I actually switched one of our MK days for another day at AK park. It was a great decision and probably one of our best days.

It was a bit rainy (although still pretty busy considering) and luckily it was warm out. Since I didn't have any fast passes booked for that day in advance, we did FOP at rope drop. What a crazy experience! We arrived shortly after 7:00am (park opened at 9:00am) and luckily we were near the front at the entrance to the park. The crowd behind us only got bigger as time went one. Finally just after 8:00am, they let everyone into the park and let us in up to the entrance of Pandora. This was mass chaos. People running to get to the front. We saw people budding and pushing their way through once we got there. My girls are a bit older so we weren't worried but I felt bad for those families with tiny kids in tow. We were in about the 5th row from the front and the crowd behind us was unbelievable! Wall to wall people as far as the eye could see. At around 8:40am they let us in to Pandora and walked us all to FOP. We were in and out by 9:10am which was perfect as the wait behind us was already 2 1/2 hours long. We spent the remainder of the day in the rest of the park and rode Expedition Everest 10 times (using one fastpass after another). Since it rained on and off during the day, the animals were very active during the safari so we got to see quite a few of them. So fun.

Our last day there was at MK and we purchased the tickets to the After Hours event that evening. Best purchase and definitely worth the money. It was pretty busy during the day and Fastpasses were few and far between so early afternoon we went back to our resort for a little nap and headed back to the parks at around 4:30pm. We had dinner reservations at CRT that evening which was delicious and by 8:00pm, we had the whole park to ourselves. We hopped on every ride with no wait. Rode BTMR 10 times, Space Mountain we rode around 5 times only because the queue for the ride is so long. 7DMT was the longest wait at around 5 minutes. Plus we had free drinks, and an unlimited supply of free popcorn and mickey bars throughout the evening. It was a chilly night but we're used to the cold and we were prepared so it was lots of fun.

All in all it was a fantastic trip and neither of us wanted to come home. (Especially considering it's -4 here today!) I'm not sure I would do another January trip though since it was a lot busier than we thought it would be. So far our best time was in November and we would definitely go back at that time of year. We still enjoyed it though and now I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with myself!! We booked a Disney cruise for next May so I guess I will start to plan that now.

Hope everyone else had an amazing trip and thanks again for letting me be a part of such a great group.

 

[StageTek]

So nice to be part of this Jan 2018 group. Loved reading the anticipation and the trip reports.

We had a great time. Terrific weather, crowds weren't bad and on a personal level the three Old Guys who hadn't seen each other in several years had a great time smokin' cigars on the porch of the Wilderness Cabins. A perfect choice for us and the first time any of us had stayed there:

I had requested a cabin through Touring Plans in the 2300 loop (specifically 2320) based on Touring Plans "Hotel Room Views". When we arrived at about 10AM we were told a cabin was available right away but 2320 would be ready later in the day. We chose to wait. Took the boat to MK and got the text around 3:15PM. But we spent the day there eating dinner at Liberty Tree. Did you know they serve beer there now?

Loved the Cabins! Full kitchen (we only used it for breakfast) and enough room for the three of us.
[url=https://imgur.com/5Ax5w9A]

The 2300 loop is great. We really felt we were out in the Wilderness:

Just behind us was a little creek


Day Two was EPCOT. Lunch at Biergarten and Illuminations at night. "Living With The Land" and "Spaceship Earth" are favorites. Another evening of cigars and bourbon and good conversation.

Day Three was Animal Kingdom. We got there early and as everyone charged to FOP we hit the River Journey three times in half an hour. Then on to the Safari. None of us had ever done it in the morning and we had a 3PM FP. But WOW! Loved the morning safari. Lots and lots of animals out and running around. The baby hippo was frolicking, the giraffes were active, all the lions were on the rocks enjoying the morning sun, a baby elephant was nursing. Did FOP via FP at 4PM. Drove over to Fudruckers and brought back a bunch of burgers, onion rings, fries and shakes for dinner. Then (you'll never guess); stayed yo 'till 2AM talking and smokin' cigars.

Back to MK for CoP, Country Bears and People Mover. All three of us once worked at Disneyland in the 1970's and really miss those attractions. And we finished the trip at Hollywood Studios with a great meal at Prime Time.


That's me Rik a stagehand and camera operator for reality shows, Peter the Adequate a magician and Steve a writer/director of low budget movies focusing on the LGBT community.

Thanks for reading and letting me be part of this Official Jan 2018 thread![/url]

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

So nice to be part of this Jan 2018 group. Loved reading the anticipation and the trip reports.

We had a great time. Terrific weather, crowds weren't bad and on a personal level the three Old Guys who hadn't seen each other in several years had a great time smokin' cigars on the porch of the Wilderness Cabins. A perfect choice for us and the first time any of us had stayed there:

I had requested a cabin through Touring Plans in the 2300 loop (specifically 2320) based on Touring Plans "Hotel Room Views". When we arrived at about 10AM we were told a cabin was available right away but 2320 would be ready later in the day. We chose to wait. Took the boat to MK and got the text around 3:15PM. But we spent the day there eating dinner at Liberty Tree. Did you know they serve beer there now?

Loved the Cabins! Full kitchen (we only used it for breakfast) and enough room for the three of us.


The 2300 loop is great. We really felt we were out in the Wilderness:

Just behind us was a little creek


Day Two was EPCOT. Lunch at Biergarten and Illuminations at night. "Living With The Land" and "Spaceship Earth" are favorites. Another evening of cigars and bourbon and good conversation.

Day Three was Animal Kingdom. We got there early and as everyone charged to FOP we hit the River Journey three times in half an hour. Then on to the Safari. None of us had ever done it in the morning and we had a 3PM FP. But WOW! Loved the morning safari. Lots and lots of animals out and running around. The baby hippo was frolicking, the giraffes were active, all the lions were on the rocks enjoying the morning sun, a baby elephant was nursing. Did FOP via FP at 4PM. Drove over to Fudruckers and brought back a bunch of burgers, onion rings, fries and shakes for dinner. Then (you'll never guess); stayed yo 'till 2AM talking and smokin' cigars.

Back to MK for CoP, Country Bears and People Mover. All three of us once worked at Disneyland in the 1970's and really miss those attractions. And we finished the trip at Hollywood Studios with a great meal at Prime Time.


That's me Rik a stagehand and camera operator for reality shows, Peter the Adequate a magician and Steve a writer/director of low budget movies focusing on the LGBT community.

Thanks for reading and letting me be part of this Official Jan 2018 thread!

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I enjoyed hearing all about it. Sounds like you all had a wonderful trip.