Which JANUARY Week?

[Tootles]

Planning a trip for January!!!

Hoping for LOW crowd levels....which week should we pick???
If anyone has any pictures of January crowd levels, that would be fantastic too

 

[elizablake]

I voted for the 2nd week since that's when we went. You going to love the small crowds and cooler weather. Here's my trip report from Jan 2009 in case it is helpful: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2078444&page=2

 

[MickeyNicki]

We went Jan 20-25 this year and it was awesome, despite the cold cold weather...the only negative thing was our HS day...it was overrun with Brazillian tour groups and drove us mad

 

[Tootles]

I WAS thinking towards the end of the month.....depends on my poll results I suppose! I may have a change of heart

Thanks for the replies so far....

 

[Nickimouse]

The marathon,1/2 marathon and other events are going on Jan. 7-10. Something to consider.

Have fun!

 

[Belleandtinker]

2009 weather was unseasonably cold. We went Jan 26 to Feb 2 - it was mostly short weather during the day. Some of those days were rainy and colder - capris and pants. Too cold to swim for us, but our family from MN thought it was perfect and went swimming twice.

We had no problems with tour groups.

We normally vacation at the end of April beginning of May, so we would have rather had the warmed weather.

 

[MelanieC]

Stay away from the 1/2 and full marathon weekend. Its very hard to get around because they close down the roads that weekend during the race. It's not super crowded and even arriving the monday afterwards or arriving that Sunday is fine. It's usually the second or third weekend of January.

 

[aidtrismommy]

We arrived during the last day of the marathon and only had a problem once. But you can find out ahead of time which park they will be in on a certain day, so just avoid it. The crowds were very low, there were a couple groups when we were there, but it really wasn't a problem. We are going again Jan 5-11 2010 and can't wait. It was really cool though. No swimming for us.

 

[Tootles]

So basically....the marathon is week is what you want to try and avoid by the sounds of things! Sounds like January certainly has some perks though!

Thanks to everyone who has voted on a week so far~

 

[sharadoc]

We went Jan 20-25 this year and it was awesome, despite the cold cold weather...the only negative thing was our HS day...it was overrun with Brazillian tour groups and drove us mad

Yes, avoid the last week of January and all of February, or be prepared to change your plans immediately! The tour groups overrunning the parks can really ruin your vacation.

My advice is to plan opposite all of the EMHs, special events (like Spectro, Fantasmic) because they will ALL be there. They will start to arrive by the 22nd, 23rd.

 

[jb01]

Jan 16-Fri Jan 22 just after the marathon.

 

[ShuisFan584]

STAY AWAY FROM MLK WEEKEND!! If I remember later, I'll get you some pictures. We love going like the second week of January - starting during the marathon and ending at MLK Weekend. The marathon weekend is not bad at all. However, MLK weekend is one weekend you want to avoid. We walk on practically everything during marathon weekend and the rest of the week. However, here's some things we noticed during MLK Weekend:

RnRC - Went to a 90+ minute wait (the rest of the week you couldn't even see the line since it was only inside)
Space Mountain - Went to a 90+ minute wait by 10am with fastpass return time listed as 7:30pm (practically walk on the other parts of the week)
Pirates - Went to a 45 minute wait!! I have never in my life seen Pirates have a wait, not even during spring break. They had to put ropes outside in Adventureland to create a queue and it was taking up a lot of the walkway.

Having said that, I do believe that January is the best time of year to go (besides the first couple days after New Years and MLK weekend of course). It's the best in terms of crowds and weather.

 

[HLAuburn]

We went Jan 27-Feb 3 and it was prefect in my opinion. The crowds were low and the weather was perfect. I think the only thing you might want to avoid in Jan is the marathon weekend.

 

[BrerRabbit_fan]

We were also there January 20-25 and loved it. Much better than last year MLK week. I would avoid NY, MLK, and the marathon. The rest of the month has low crowds. We only met Brazilian tour groups at Fantasmic. They kept the wait lively.

 

[mb168]

MLK day is 1/18, would not go that week if you want lower crowds. I picked 2nd week, schools are getting back in after holidays so should be pretty low.

 

[chemysterygal]

STAY AWAY FROM MLK WEEKEND!! If I remember later, I'll get you some pictures. We love going like the second week of January - starting during the marathon and ending at MLK Weekend. The marathon weekend is not bad at all. However, MLK weekend is one weekend you want to avoid. We walk on practically everything during marathon weekend and the rest of the week. However, here's some things we noticed during MLK Weekend:

RnRC - Went to a 90+ minute wait (the rest of the week you couldn't even see the line since it was only inside)
Space Mountain - Went to a 90+ minute wait by 10am with fastpass return time listed as 7:30pm (practically walk on the other parts of the week)
Pirates - Went to a 45 minute wait!! I have never in my life seen Pirates have a wait, not even during spring break. They had to put ropes outside in Adventureland to create a queue and it was taking up a lot of the walkway.

Having said that, I do believe that January is the best time of year to go (besides the first couple days after New Years and MLK weekend of course). It's the best in terms of crowds and weather.

We went January 11th-16th (Sunday of the marathon to Friday before MLK) and it was great! When I read your post above I was like...what, you mean RnRC actually HAS an outside line?!

I did RnRC and TOT while DH, DGranddad and my little ones did TSM...I was done before them!! Okay, I did the single rider line on RnRC, but it was really really fast.

We did walk-ons at MK one morning...Dumbo, IASW, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, Peter Pan, the Teacups, BTMRR (twice), HM, Flying Carpets, and POTC all before noon one day! It was fantastic!!! We did breakfast at the castle that morning before the park opened, and were at the back of the castle for rope drop there, and we just went...most things were literally walk-on. Couldn't beat it, and I'm not sure I won't return next year. However cold it is, it was worth it for that experience.

Good luck deciding, but don't be scared off by the marathon. All we saw were people with medals once in a while...we congratulated them when we saw them, but there definitely weren't masses of them or anything.

 

[Tootles]

Interesting about people's take on the marathon....but it seems like MLK should be avoided at all costs!!!

Thanks for all the replies!

 

[ShuisFan584]

Let's see if these work. Here's my pictures of the wait times on MLK Weekend in 2008. The first picture is of RnRC on Saturday of MLK Weekend. I don't know why it looks so weird, but the wait is 100 minutes! As I said, the rest of the week it was practically a walk on. The second picture is of Pirates on Sunday of MLK Weekend. It's hard to see, but the wait is 30 minutes. I know it went up to 45 minutes a little later on in the day. Pirates is never anything but a walk on.