week after new years

[minniegirl19]

How busy do you think it will be? since the new year falls on that friday do you think the following week will be less busy before the marathon week begins?

 

[scoobygrl79]

My experience visiting 1/3-1/9 in 2013 was very nice, low crowds.

 

[danny1649]

Never been at that time but have heard after New Years Day park attendance really drops off.Hope someone who has stay ed at that time will post their experience.

 

[Dimaline312000]

I've never been at that time but I have heard that is when they do most of the ride repairs, maintenance, and upgrades. Have often thought about going at that time but because of what we heard about the rides it turned us off. Not sure if it's true or not but would love to know for sure. Enjoy Disney!!

 

[scoobygrl79]

I've never been at that time but I have heard that is when they do most of the ride repairs, maintenance, and upgrades. Have often thought about going at that time but because of what we heard about the rides it turned us off. Not sure if it's true or not but would love to know for sure. Enjoy Disney!!

Good point about that because at the time, I had a DD 6, DS 4, and DD 2, so we didn't even pay attention to headliners as we knew we were too little to get on them. I did notice they closed shop on Splash, but I guess I figured it had more to do with a water ride in winter issue more than maintenance. I can speak for December, everything seems close to full operation. Thats when we frequent.

 

[DemonLlama]

Every trip we've taken as a family has been leading up to Christmas except for 2014 when we went January 1 -7. We didn't go into the parks until the 2nd.

All the Christmas stuff is still up, and the Christmas music continues to play. That was a little "off" for us.

Splash Mountain, one of our favorites, went down a day or two into our trip, which is pretty standard for January. We managed to squeeze in one ride the first day.

Crowds were lighter than Christmas, of course, but the parks are not empty except for the early early morning hours. Our first day was an MK Extra Magic that opened at 7, pretty much before sunrise. If you're willing and able to do it, that time is magical.

We were also used to enjoying our time during very, very late EMHs (sometimes until 2 or 3 a.m. at the MK) on our Christmas trips. That doesn't happen in January. Our last night, the MK closed at 10:00.

Between the shorter park hours, refurbs, and that odd "It's not supposed to still be Christmas" feeling, it wasn't quite our cup of tea. The trip report is linked below with lots of details that show how much fun we still had!

But the next trip? We're going Dec. 15 - 22.

 

[Turtlesoup820]

We went last year January 2-11. The weekend was still very busy as folks were finishing up their holiday vacations. Mon/Tues were still a little crowded, but manageable. Wed-Fri were great and Sat/Sun were a little busy but still manageable. All in all, it wasn't bad! We took advantage of the extended hours at MK as much as we could. We loved that the Christmas decorations were still up, it was one of our motivations for going at this time, we were also able to see the Osborne Lights, the Holiday themed parade, Santa Goofy, and Elsa lighting the castle. It was fun to experience those things at WDW, even if it was after Christmas.

The weather was kind of crazy. High 80's and swimming weather one day, in jeans/hats/gloves another. You kind of have to pack for everything but we're from Michigan so we're used to that

 

[ejdmomma]

Every trip we've taken as a family has been leading up to Christmas except for 2014 when we went January 1 -7. We didn't go into the parks until the 2nd.

All the Christmas stuff is still up, and the Christmas music continues to play. That was a little "off" for us.

Splash Mountain, one of our favorites, went down a day or two into our trip, which is pretty standard for January. We managed to squeeze in one ride the first day.

Crowds were lighter than Christmas, of course, but the parks are not empty except for the early early morning hours. Our first day was an MK Extra Magic that opened at 7, pretty much before sunrise. If you're willing and able to do it, that time is magical.

We were also used to enjoying our time during very, very late EMHs (sometimes until 2 or 3 a.m. at the MK) on our Christmas trips. That doesn't happen in January. Our last night, the MK closed at 10:00.

Between the shorter park hours, refurbs, and that odd "It's not supposed to still be Christmas" feeling, it wasn't quite our cup of tea. The trip report is linked below with lots of details that show how much fun we still had!

But the next trip? We're going Dec. 15 - 22.

We're considering a trip the week after New Year's for the benefit of seeing the Christmas decorations without the crowds. My question to you is were there a lot of rides/show down for refurb? Not something I have considered until I just read your post. TIA!

 

[DemonLlama]

We're considering a trip the week after New Year's for the benefit of seeing the Christmas decorations without the crowds. My question to you is were there a lot of rides/show down for refurb? Not something I have considered until I just read your post. TIA!

There weren't too many down, mainly for us the important one was Splash Mtn. Googling the refurb schedule by month is always a good idea, a couple of months ahead of time, just to avoid any surprises.

The only trip we took to Disneyland I didn't do this, and we showed up at Indiana Jones all stoked to try one of the "only in DL" rides to find walls.

 

[ejdmomma]

There weren't too many down, mainly for us the important one was Splash Mtn. Googling the refurb schedule by month is always a good idea, a couple of months ahead of time, just to avoid any surprises.

The only trip we took to Disneyland I didn't do this, and we showed up at Indiana Jones all stoked to try one of the "only in DL" rides to find walls.

That's terrible! I can just imagine how disappointed you were. We're going to DL for the first time this fall and that's one of the rides on our must do list!

Thanks for the tip! Will watch the refurbs as we get closer.