January 2024 at Disney World: Crowd Calendar & Info
Our guide to January 2024 at Walt Disney World offers a free crowd calendar, days to visit & avoid, weather, seasonal events, planning tips, and when Christmas decorations are taken down. We cover everything at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios.
Typically, January is the month of the holiday hangover at Walt Disney World. Some Christmas entertainment continues for a few days in early January, and there are still decorations up for the first half of the month. January’s big draws are the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts and the Walt Disney World Marathon.
Aside from those events, January tends to be relatively quiet. Most guests who want to visit during the winter do so in November or December of the previous year. Those who begin planning a visit for the new year typically don’t visit until Easter or Spring Break. As such, there are a lot of upsides to visiting in January, from light crowds to favorable weather. Of course, there are some downsides, too…
I’ll be honest: I’m not a huge fan of Walt Disney World before mid-January. To me, it really does feel like a hangover. There are straggler decorations that feel out of place or forgotten, and the weather can be frigid. This is entirely a matter of personal preference, as I know some people enjoy being able to see Christmas decorations without dealing with the crowds. Personally, once Christmas is over, I’m done with the holiday.
Here’s what else you can expect from January at Walt Disney World…
January Weather at Disney World
If you go by historical averages, January is the coldest month of the year at Walt Disney World. In my experience, November through February can have weather ranging from cold to downright balmy, but January tends to have more of the former category than the other winter months. Expect weather on average from the upper-40s to low-70s.
Packing for January weather requires preparing for a wide range of weather conditions, and you’ll want to make sure you attention to the extended forecast before your trip so you don’t get surprised with a streak of 30-degree weather or 90-degree weather and not have the proper attire for either extreme.
Read our Winter Packing Tips for Disney post for more insight on what to take on your January Walt Disney World vacation.
January Special Events at Disney World
Between the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts and the Walt Disney World Marathon, January isn’t quite the “sleepy” month it once was. We absolutely love the annual Festival of the Arts, which will run from January 12 until February 19, 2024 at Walt Disney World. Read our Guide to the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts for more info and tips about this special event.
The 2024 Walt Disney World Marathon will occur January 3-7, 2024 and will be held live and in person. If you’re doing the WDW Marathon or any other race and need last-minute “training” “advice” (air quotes around both), see our Idiot’s Guide to runDisney.
Normally, there’s a “holiday hangover” for a couple of weeks at Walt Disney World. During that time, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and (to a lesser degree) Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom parks still decorated for Christmas.
There’s no other Christmas entertainment and not really anything else of substance, but you can expect to hear music and see decorations until around January 8, 2024. After that, decorations will gradually go down and the music will stop playing–but it’s not like flipping a switch overnight. It’ll take a week-plus for all signs of the season to vanish. (There’s more info about all of this in our Ultimate Walt Disney World Christmas Guide.)
This is at least partially due to the Walt Disney World Marathon. Many runners postpone their November or December trips in order to run the event in early January, and enjoy seeing the illuminated Christmas decorations on the course in the early morning hours. Consequently, most decorations left up until that weekend and taken down shortly thereafter.
January Refurbishments & New Attractions
In terms of other attractions that will be closed during January 2024, check the Walt Disney World Refurbishment Schedule. High profile attractions that will go down during the winter off-season include Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Kali River Rapids, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Frozen Ever After, and more.
The good news is that Walt Disney World is no longer a veritable construction zone, as most major projects have now wrapped up and the next development cycle has yet to begin. This is most noticeable in the front of EPCOT, which is no longer a complete sea of construction walls with a giant dirt pit in the middle.
The one exception is CommuniCore Hall & Plaza, which remains behind walls. Walt Disney World hasn’t given an opening date for that and it’s not mentioned in details for the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts. Given that and the Odyssey being used along with visible progress on the project, our guess is that CommuniCore Hall opens for the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival, which starts February 28, 2024.
Speaking of EPCOT, Walt Disney World’s biggest addition to the park in decades is Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Be sure to check out our How to Ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind & Virtual Queue Speed Strategy to improve your chances of success for joining the free virtual queue.
Another alternative for Cosmic Rewind is buying line-skipping access via the Individual Lightning Lanes. Those posts explain the free and paid options, their pros & cons, and everything else you need to know. Suffice to say, do not just show up to EPCOT expecting to join the standby line–as there isn’t one.
Then there’s the biggest addition to Magic Kingdom: TRON Lightcycle Run. This is the newest major attraction at Walt Disney World, having officially opened last April–it’ll be over a year old by May 2024, but still very much having that new ride smell (and popularity!). This works very similarly to Cosmic Rewind; see our Virtual Queue Strategy Guide for TRON Lightcycle Run for details, tips & tricks for success, and more.
Bouncing back to EPCOT, there’s a bunch of other new stuff there. This includes World Celebration, Moana’s Journey of Water, and Luminous: Symphony of Us, all of which will only be <6 months old as of May 2024. That’s still pretty new in the grand scheme of things!
Back at Magic Kingdom, the big addition for 2024 is Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, but that definitely will not open this winter. At the earliest, it’ll debut during Summer 2024. For an overview of what else is on the horizon, see What’s New & Next at Walt Disney World in 2024 & 2025.
January 2024 Disney World Crowd Calendar
When it comes to January 2024 crowd calendars for Walt Disney World, it’s a real roller coaster of a month. In true “holiday hangover” fashion, the beginning of the month tends to be pretty busy. As we’ll discuss in this section, crowd calendars also spike at other points in January, which is otherwise a fairly quiet month.
If your Walt Disney World vacation starts before the holiday season ends, we have a post discussing Visiting Walt Disney World at New Year’s that you might want to check out. Every day of your trip before New Year’s Day, you can expect some of the worst crowds of the year at Walt Disney World. The week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve is almost always the #1 worst week of the year for crowds.
There’s a drop New Year’s Day, but not as precipitous of a drop as there used to be. Last year, the first week of January ended up being tied for the second worst week of the year for crowds. It was tied with Easter week, and behind only Christmas to NYE (albeit by a fairly wide margin).
There’s not a color-coded crowd calendar here because we are becoming increasingly averse to those. If we just had a visual crowd calendar graphic here, many of you would only look at that and not read the accompanying explanation that covers what you might actually expect.
We think such an approach would do readers a disservice, and we’d caution against over-reliance on any Walt Disney World crowd calendars. While they can be useful tools, crowd calendars are one piece of a larger puzzle. Choosing your travel dates solely on a crowd calendar is risky, as they’re less reliable than in the past. Walt Disney World can manipulate park reservations, staffing, closures, and capacity–the result of which is “feels like” crowds that do not reflect actual attendance or organic demand.
As a general matter, we want to warn you that winter is not the “sleepy off-season” at Walt Disney World. In Winter Is Not Off-Season at Walt Disney World, we explain how January and February crowds have grown since ~2017, and what to expect going forward.
There are a variety of times crowds spike during the first two months of the year. Everything from runDisney events to under the radar holiday weekends to school breaks push attendance and wait times even higher. With all of that in mind, here are our crowd calendar predictions for the best and worst weeks at Walt Disney World in January 2024…
The week beginning January 8, 2024 should be the lowest week for wait times, and also for crowds and congestion. That’s because it’ll be before Festival of the Arts starts, so EPCOT shouldn’t be as packed with locals for the start of that event.
During these days from January 8-12, our expectation is that crowd levels will be under 5/10 across the board. Offering more precise predictions is exceedingly difficult given inconsistencies with winter wait times the past several years.
Suffice to say, that should be a very good week to visit–one of the best in the first quarter of 2024. Crowd levels could end up being 1/10 to 3/10 for some parks and days. This just narrowly misses our list of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2024 & 2025. (That’s only because that list is quantitative and qualitative, and we favor visiting during EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts. It’d make the cut from a purely crowds perspective!)
Another good time to visit should be the last partial week of January 2024, leading into early February 2024. That week does make the aforementioned 10 best weeks of the year list. Last year, this same week had 4/10 crowd levels–we’re forecasting slightly lower levels in 2024, as attendance has trended down slightly year over year.
There are no holidays this particular week, and it has historically been a lull in attendance and wait times as compared to most weeks earlier in January and later in February. From a subjective perspective, this is our favorite week of winter. You might encounter ever-so-slightly higher crowd levels than the second week of the month, but EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts is not to be missed and the likelihood of nicer weather is higher.
If at all possible, we recommend avoiding through January 1-7, 2024 because many local schools are still on holiday break for those dates. It’ll actually get bad after the holiday weekend, as blockouts for most Floridian Annual Passholders are lifted on January 3 and that will result in a surge of guests on that date. Osceola County and Orange County schools do not go back into session until January 8, 2024. That’s a Tuesday, meaning Sunday and Monday could be surprisingly crowded.
There’s also the 2024 Walt Disney World Marathon that will occur from January 3-7, 2024. The main event for that is on January 7, but runners typically arrive early and enjoy the parks before the races rather than extending their stay into the following week. Typically, race participants are not in the park starting the Sunday of the main event (January 7, 2024). This year, that decrease could be offset by locals taking one last visit before school goes back into session on Tuesday.
Following that, the drop will be sharp and sudden–don’t be surprised if crowd levels go from 10/10 on January 8 to 3/10 only a couple of days later. It’s not completely like flipping a switch from peak to off-season…but it’s pretty close!
Another time to avoid is January 12-14, 2024. This is the Martin Luther King Jr. Day long weekend, and usually slightly spikes crowds.
However, it typically does not disproportionately impact the following Tuesday through Friday…or even the holiday itself. The biggest impact is usually Friday through Sunday, with those taking long weekend trips starting to head home on MLK Day itself. Being so close to Christmas and New Year’s, most people don’t get or take a full week off.
Even so, this is hardly bad by holiday weekend standards. Because it’s so close to Christmas and New Year’s, very few people travel for the MLK long weekend. It’s basically just locals who have the day off–and not all of them do. In the last few years, crowds have only spiked ever-so-slightly, and still been below average. They’re just a tad worse than the adjacent winter off-season dates.
We also want to draw your attention specifically to January 29, 2024 at Magic Kingdom. On this day, the park closes at 4:30 p.m., which is 4-5 hours earlier than it’ll close on adjacent dates. As a result of that, the vast majority of guests will avoid Magic Kingdom on that day. After all–why pay the same amount for 4-5 fewer hours, no fireworks, and no nighttime in the park?!
Which is exactly why we highly recommend visiting Magic Kingdom on that day, especially if you have Park Hopper tickets or the opportunity to return on another full operating day to see the fireworks. This will be one of the 5 least busy days of the entire year at Magic Kingdom, and you absolutely will not need Genie+ on that day. This is all doubly-true if park hours are extended and the opening time is moved forward to 8 a.m. (that hasn’t happened…yet).
As a result of this day being less busy, the adjacent days will also be busier. We’d probably avoid Tuesday at Magic Kingdom if at all possible.
On balance, our expectation is that crowd levels for January 2024 as a whole will once again be more similar to a normal year. The Walt Disney World Marathon will likely spike crowds early in the month. Then the Dance Team National Championship, a colossal youth cheer event held at Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports, will result in an influx of event attendees later in January 2024.
Speaking of the latter, there are actually several events at the ESPN Wide World of Sports throughout the winter and spring months, which makes sense–the weather is conducive to it this time of year and prohibitive from roughly April through November. These can have a major impact on resort room availability, as there are tons of attendees and they take up huge blocks at the All Stars, Coronado Springs, and a few other hotels. That, in turn, reduces inventory there and pushes other people to different hotels.
Long story short, a lot of hotels can sell out completely, causing planners to freak out that the parks are going to be chaotic and crowded. And they can be…sometimes. But there are two things to keep in mind. The first is that the majority of guests in the parks at any given moment always come from off-site. The second is that the youth groups are primarily participating in sporting events at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. So to some extent, they are occupying rooms and displacing guests who would otherwise visit the parks.
To be sure, some of these youth events do have an impact on overall crowd levels in the parks. The bigger ones especially can have a material impact on the parks, especially if you visit the same park as their entire (or large portions of) their group attends. For the most part, though, it’s more localized. Meaning that if you have the misfortune of getting in line behind a huge group of cheerleaders, dancers, flag football players, etc., it can spike both the wait time for that particular attraction and feel unpleasant for various reasons (the same reason you probably wouldn’t want to be around hundreds of under-supervised pre-pubescent kids anywhere).
Another complicating factor would be that January is also the start of ‘summer’ vacation season for South America, namely Brazil. In a normal year, you’d encounter large South American tour groups in Walt Disney World. These tour groups typically don’t have a significant impact on crowd calendars, but could impact on the “feels like” crowds if you encounter them frequently.
It’s likely that international visitation numbers will rebound to some degree throughout the years to come. The extent to which that occurs really depends on whether the dollar weakens, and when that happens (thus far, it has not occurred). At present, international visitors are facing higher costs due to conversion rates–and that’s on top of all Walt Disney World’s price increases over the last three years.
January Pricing & Discounts
The silver lining to a January vacation is prices. Disney typically releases some room-only discounts for the general public, Annual Passholders, and Florida residents. While some of these deals are offered year-round, the difference in January is that rack rates are at their offseason levels for most nights in January, making these discounts in late January cheaper than the same offers in November or December.
We prefer the room-only discounts to the Free Disney Dining Plan promotion, which is not likely to be offered for January 2024, anyway. Our Walt Disney World Discount Comparisons post covers why the room-only discount gets our vote over “free” dining. In this case, free isn’t always better, even though it is for many guests. If you’re booking a room-only discount, you can decide for yourself which hotel might be best by reading our Walt Disney World Hotel Reviews.
Overall, January is a mixed bag at Walt Disney World. Once January 1 hits, I’m not interested in anything Christmas, and by the second week in January, the background music and decorations just feel awkward. If you go to Walt Disney World to escape the cold weather, this month might also not be for you. Florida in January can be surprisingly brutal, especially if you’re dressed for a tropical getaway. Plus, park hours are often short and crowd calendars spike at various points through mid-January.
The upside to a January visit is lower attendance later in the month, which also means lower prices. The cooler weather can also be very beneficial, and we’ll take January weather over summer heat and humidity any day. You might actually prefer the shorter hours, since it means getting everything done in a shorter timeframe. Festival of the Arts is also the best seasonal event of the year at EPCOT. In other words, there’s a lot to love about January–especially later in the month leading into early to mid-February, when the crowds are just as low, the weather is starting to improve, and there are no remnants of Christmas left lingering about.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
Do you like Walt Disney World in January? Are you a fan of the holiday offerings after Christmas at Walt Disney World? Looking forward to Epcot’s Festival of the Arts or doing TRON Lightcycle Run? Do you agree or disagree with our advice or crowd calendar recommendations for January 2024? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We are planning a trip Jan 2018 and really hope there is an arts festival this year! I would love to participate in some of the interactive workshops and scavenger hunt. I’ll keep an eye open for dates. Thanks for the info!
10409 Windfall Ct
My wife and I are 30 year Disney vets with a lot of experience in picking optimal times to save max money at resort hotels and avoid the crowds (and standing in long lines which I lothe ). Having visited at all the optimal times of year late Jan is among our favorites. We both opt to work the week between Christmas and New Years when everyone else goes to Disney and take vacation in Late Jan or in Feb except around Presidents’ Day ( avoid that time!) . We made the Christmas mistake once many years ago but never again! Late January means Very low crowds and if you get up early and make it to your favorite park at opening and use your fast pass ( which you won’t even need a lot of days early in the morning) you can hit all the biggest attractions before lunch with almost no line and go back to your practically empty resort and have the pool to yourself then grab a nap and return late afternoon till they close!! With great discounts on rooms and more availability to choose from its a no brainier. Or you could opt to just go with the masses at Christmas , Spring Break , or Summer and stand in line for hours waiting to visit attractions, waiting in increadably long lines of tired, stressed out, cranky parents and children until your your monorail, bus, or water taxi arrives. Then after what feels like an eternity when you finally get on the transportation you’ll likely have to continue to stand on your aching feet until you get back to your resort and hike to your room to collapse, sleep in from exhaustion and arrive the next day at the parks late morning with the everyone else and do it again! That’s not my idea of vacation and probally not yours either.
Life is about choices and outcomes based on the choices you make.
Make better choices about when and how you visit WDW and enjoy your vacation more!
Hope this helps and have an amazing WDW vacation!
We are planning our first trip in January 2018. After skim reading this article, and I did that cause it was making me awful nervous. Is the weather really this brutal in January???
I don’t live in Florida but in Tennessee. So I’m used to colder weather than Disney locals. If you’re used to sorta cold weather you’ll be fine. I normally wear a sweatshirt over a short sleeve shirt and shorts and I’m fine. It’s honestly colder in their buses than it is outside.
Hey tom!
Love your blog-
One question, if i may-
I read about the probowl being held at disney this january (on the 29th). My trip (and flight!) to wdw is already booked for that wked, but now im concerned about crowds. Any guesses as to what it might be like and if i should go through the headache of rescheduling?
Thanks!
Hi when would the 30% off for Jan 2017 likely to be available ?
I’m coming from Australia this January (only time I can go due to work), so the cooler weather is fine by me. The weather sounds like it’s relatively similar to our winter weather. We’re escaping the Australian summer and weren’t particularly looking forward to anything too warm even in Florida.
Hey I haven’t been to Disney since I was 4 and I think 8 now finally get to go to Disney without problems my family doesn’t have the money to go and when we finally be able its first week of January and the way these comments are looking is raining on my parade making me really mad because I never get to go to Disney with out an excuse so wen I do and my family has the money y’all say its the worst time to go but wat about the people who saved up enough to go who cares about Christmas hang over as long I get to go to Disney and stop hearing those stupid rich kids say every year they go to Disney every year and there Me and the rest of small kids who have money issues can’t go its every blue moon I can care less about the weather I’m going to enjoy myself anyway ride closures are a stupid reason not to go idk y they would its not fair to the poor public who finally manage to gather up their money to go and now y’all restricting them aitte w.es
Hi there,
Coming from Canada the weather would be great! Is there a way to know which attractions will be under refurb or maintenance and when? We will have a 4.5 y.o. so I don’t really care much about splash mountain but there are some other rides that we would be interested to know whats going on!
What is “rope drop”? We are going to WDW for a “business” trip Jan. 12-19, 2015, in which the convention is only 2 days of our 8-day trip. We are taking our 3 boys, ages 5, 3, and 5.5 mos. I’m very glad to hear that the crowds will be so low when we are there. We were hoping for some outdoor pool time at the resort, but after reading these posts, I’m wondering if to not even plan on it. No one has mentioned anything about rain, but I’ve read elsewhere to take ponchos. Any thoughts on that?
Angie, “rope drop” is when the park opens. I would definitely bring your swimming suits…all of the resort pools are heated to 80 plus degrees, not to mention the fact that many of them have hot tubs too.
We’ve gone to WDW every January since 2010, with upcoming trip January 10-15th. As a college student, it’s a time when I both have the free time to take a trip, and crowds are almost non-existent. We’ve always been the time to get to the parks for rope-drop, so the shorter operating hours aren’t really too bothersome, although Splash Mountain being closed literally every year has been frustrating. And although the weather is cold for Florida, coming from New York City in January, anything above 40 degrees is fantastic!
Getting ready for a Jan. 15-19, 2015 trip! We’re Minnesotans, so we expect the weather to be a step-up, even if we’re wearing coats and mittens to the parks – but it is definitely helpful to know that packing a real variety of clothing options is the way to go.
I’m also super happy that (probably because of the MLK Day long weekend?), the Magic Kingdom will be open until 1 am at least 2 of our 4 nights! Like Tom the commenter said above, we’re definitely using our trip as a way to offset the post-holiday blues.
The coldest day in Florida is still warmer than most of the country in January! Besides, with the right gear you can stay comfortable at any temperature (I love my Patagonia jackets)!
After showing my husband your blog, I was able to convince him to go to EPCOT for our 5 year wedding anniversary (Jan 23). We’ll be bringing our 6 mo. old daughter along with us, so it’s going to take a little extra effort to make it romantic. Any suggestions for restaurants in EPCOT/Downtown Disney that could be romantic but still baby friendly?
My suggestion in your case would actually be Beaches & Cream, located at the Yacht & Beach Club outside the International Gateway entrance of World Showcase. It’s romantic in a ‘sharing ice cream on a first date’ kind of way, not romantic in the ‘low lights and violinist’ kind of way. I think that would work well.
If you disagree, I have a post with other romantic options that might work! Have fun! https://www.disneytouristblog.com/romantic-disney-world-restaurants/
I’ve gone the last week in January for the past two years, and will do again in 2015. I enjoy the low crowds, and even if the weather is “cold” (as it was last year – upper 40s, low 50s as highs), it was still warmer than the polar vortex crap I experienced in Michigan.
I also enjoy that week because my birthday is January 30th. So low crowds + birthday celebration = perfect!
Can’t argue against the birthday trip in January! Have fun! 🙂
We’ve gone to WDW in January four times in 2005, 2008, 2011, and 2012. The only time we’ve really had cold weather was the first time, and even that was really just one evening. Granted, we’ve gone in very late January and sometimes drifting into early February. So it may be worse in the earlier weeks. We love the smaller crowds of that time and the lack of hot temperatures. The only downside is the frequent refurbs, especially of Splash Mountain.
I think things are reasonable amount better by early February, so maybe that’s part of it. You’ve been lucky to avoid cold weather given all those January trips, though! 🙂
We have been going in January for 9 years now (#10 will be in 26 days). Here are the pros and cons that we’ve encountered:
Pros:
– Short lines, to the point that certain attractions such as Living with the Land are essentially walk-on
– More fun packed into one day. This is an offshoot of the short lines. Although the park hours are shorter, because the lines are shorter we are able to fit more into those hours.
– Weather. Yes, I know it can be chancy (we’ve had to wear our coats to the park some days). But I guarantee that it’s still nicer than the weather back home (in the North).
– The holiday hangover. To Tom’s point in the article, we all are suffering from the letdown after the holidays. By scheduling our trip in January we have something exciting to look forward to and it makes a nice break in the middle of several months without a holiday.
Cons:
– Park maintenance. This is when most of the park maintenance takes place so several attractions will be closed.
– Group tours. This is a popular time for South American tour companies to schedule their trips. Lots of teenagers without adult supervision. /shudder
– runDisney. This one is a mix. As Tom indicated, the crowds generated by this event are substantial and thus will offset a couple of the pros listed above. However, as crowds go, I personally have found the runDisney participants to be some of the most respectful people I’ve met at WDW. One of my favorite recent experiences was cheering the marathon runners through their last few miles in Epcot.
Your point about the holiday hangover is a good one, and something I didn’t really consider. For you, personally, there would be *less* of a holiday hangover if there’s a January trip to be excited about. Good call.
As far as large groups/events go, the runDisney crowd (I think) is by far the best. It’s made up of mostly Disney fans and serious runners, and for whatever reason, both seem to be very respectful in the parks. Definitely not the worst type of crowd to be around…although they might make you feel a little bad for eating that 5th dessert in World Showcase as they stroll around having just run 26.2 miles! 😉
My husband and I went in January 2009 for
the Marathon weekend and the following week.
We had seven days in the parks and had
only one crowd issue at HS. The weather
was crazy! We wore shorts on Saturday before
the race and were freezing on Tuesday! We are
going back next week for him to do the Dopey
Challenge and will be prepared for the cold!
We like the discounted rooms and enjoy all
the race fun but I prefer end of February and
beginning of March for great weather and
still lighter crowds.
Best of luck to your husband in the Dopey Challenge. That’s intense!
We’re actually checking in on the 16th of January for a 10 day stay.
I’m looking forward to the colder weather and the lower crowds. I have sun allergies so I’m covered up pretty much all the time and that really stinks when it’s 90+ out, lol.
We’ve went in beginning November for 10 days last year and I loved it! Xmass decorations everywhere and we got to see the Osbourne Lights for the first time. The temps were good for me although there were a few days that were downright hot!
We’ve also gone in the beginning of May before and end of March/beginning April one year. Both times were entirely too hot and crowded for me but both of those times were also during the Flower and Garden Festival, which I love.
I think the only thing that I’ll miss in January is “something”. All of our past trips there was something going on at the time….Flower and Garden, Food and Wine, and when we went in November we caught the last day of the Halloween party the day we arrived and the first day of the xmass party before we left, it was fantastic!
Oh well, 18 days and counting till check in and I’m sure, even with nothing going on, it won’t be an awful vacation. 😉
No, no trip to Walt Disney World, no matter the time of year is awful. I can totally understand wanting the cold weather with the sun allergy, too.
I really like visiting in May, especially if the weather is mild (never a guarantee). It seems like anytime after April and before November, and you’re rolling the dice with crazy humidity.
I’ve gone to Disney the past 2 Januaries, primarily because my birthday is in January. 2 years ago, we just did a long weekend (Jan. 17-20) and had to leave on my birthday. However, last year, we were able to stay for a longer period (Jan 19-24). It was my dream come true to spend the day at the Magic Kingdom for my birthday and to see Wishes.
Temps during the week ranged from mid 30s to low 70s. The high was at least in the low 50s every day. I’m from the Midwest myself (Illinois) and I am pretty sure the wind chill was negative double digits every day I was gone (gotta love the polar vortex!), so I sure wasn’t complaining! Also, it has always been my life goal to be able to be outside for at least part of the day on my birthday without the wearing a coat (without the risk of developing frostbite), which I was able to achieve on my 70 degree birthday.
I am a huge fan of the lower prices and crowds. We were able to afford a room at the Boardwalk Inn, which would have been quite a stretch during more peak times. I also like seeing the parks in their “plain” state. The short operating hours don’t bother me all that much. I found this year that we were able to do everything we wanted to, multiple times if we wished, with time to spare. The crowds were much more manageable than other trips we’ve taken during spring break and summer.
There were a few negatives that I experienced. At Animal Kingdom. We’d skipped it on our previous trip because we only had 2.5 days and I was excited to go back. One of my favorite things at Disney is the bat display on the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Unfortunately, the temperature at the time I walked was only in the low 40s and the bats were not out. I was very disappointed not to see them. A lot of the animals were either not out or hiding in a warmer spot. Also, one of my favorite rides (Splash Mountain) was under refurb, although I did know that before I went.
I do think that the debate of the “best” time to go to Disney is one of those “Your Mileage May Vary” situations. I haven’t been to Disney during every month of the year, but I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed going in January. I can definitely see that there are reasons that people would NOT enjoy January and that’s why it’s a good thing that Disney is open every day of the year!
Yes, the time you were there last year was when we were getting wind chills in the negative double digits in the Midwest. I would have GLADLY gone to Walt Disney World then! 😉
Thanks for sharing some of the other things you experienced, both good and bad in January.
I absolutely agree about it being a YMMV thing for “best month”, and highly dependent upon personal preference. With that said, I think there are certain times of year that are very comparable to one another. For instance, mid-December~early-January and late-January~early-February. I’d choose mid-December and early-February over January in those (near) apples to apples situations.
Then you have June-August, and there’s nothing anyone can say to convince me that those are “good” times to visit, no matter your perspective! 😉
Completely agree on the hangover effect.
We’ve watched crowds grow exponentially from our first visit in the middle of December 2000 to our last pre-Christmas trip in 2010. We either went the week prior or the week of Christmas six times during that dozen years and had great fun, even when it was wall to wall people.
We were those crazy people who would get to rope drop an hour ahead of time at the MK on Christmas day and then get out of dodge about the time they closed the park.
But we decided to switch it up and arrive just after New Years in 2014 and stay through Jan. 8 in the hopes of getting the Christmas visit without the level of crowds we’d experienced in 2010. (2012 was a DL Halloween trip and the first even year Christmas we didn’t get to WDW.) These dates also let us experience what a Florida freeze warning felt like! Being from Denver, you’d think it wouldn’t feel all _that_ cold, but the humidity really gets into your bones when you’re outdoors all day in upper-30s.
We’d come prepared for the cold and were actually happy it kept more folks away from rope drop, but even with lower crowds, it was too weird for us. Once New Years had passed, the Christmas stuff didn’t fit with the vibe.
We had very little time to get to ride Splash Mountain before it went down for its usual January refurb, and that’s one of those rides we want to do multiple times during a trip. We tend to do both rope drop and the 2 or 3 a.m. MK closings during our trips, so we definitely missed that.
Our next trip? December 16-23, 2015. 🙂
“We were those crazy people who would get to rope drop an hour ahead of time at the MK on Christmas day and then get out of dodge about the time they closed the park.”
I am one of those crazy people, too. Did the same thing New Year’s Eve a few years ago, returning later in the day. Probably got more accomplished than the average guest on a lightly crowded day. Plus, got to enjoy the holiday entertainment.
Busy times of year never bother me for their long wait times. I know how to use FastPass+ and arriving early well enough that I can do pretty well. Hordes of aimlessly wandering people do bother me (big time), but you get those pretty much any day of the year!
January for is was a perfect time to go with our 3 1/2 year old. We took advantage of short lines and mild temps which were a welcome change from the polar vortex in minnesota. Yes there were some ride closures and shorter hours, but for us and our needs at the time – it worked out perfectly.
Yeah, I can imagine anyone with small children would gladly take shorter hours + shorter waits over longer hours + longer waits. Definitely makes sense from your perspective!