CROWD LEVEL's January 1st and after

[DeeCee735]

Good morning,

Just wondering what crowd levels are if I were to book January 1st for a few nights? Is there a post anywhere about it, or does anyone here have any first hand experience with this time of year?

I know Christmas/New Year's week is the busiest time of year, I'm just wondering if it dies down at all as of the 1st?

TIA

 

[gharter]

It depends on which weekend the marathon is on. Usually the 1st or 2nd weekwnd.
And next year, SWGE will most likely have just opened. I expect January and February to be much busier tha usual.

 

[sponica]

My first hand experience is over a decade old, I remember telling myself, it will get better after the 1st.

Spoiler alert: it didn't.

 

[yulilin3]

In the words of K2SO from Rogue One "It's High...it's Very High"
It will be 8,9,10 out of 10 until about the last week of the month

 

[mom22boys]

We were in WDW the first week of January this year and last year. It is crowded, very crowded, but still very fun and manageable (think about waiting in line for 10-15 minutes to get on the People Mover crowded). I think it partially depends on how large your group is. For our family of four we were able to have very full park days and were able to get a lot of extra FPs (after our initial 3). We rode everything we wanted to ride and some of our favorites multiple times (Space, BTMRR, RnRC, ToT, SDD) with our longest wait maybe being about 45-50 minutes (we got in line for SDD 15 minutes before park close). However, I think a huge reason for our success was we were only looking for FPs for 4 people. I think it would be more challenging to get those extra FPs if you had more people in your group. Oh, and one last thing, we did get to the parks at rope drop, left in the afternoon for a break by the pool, and then returned for the evenings. We never stayed through the middle of the day which is always the busiest.

 

[crzy4mickey]

We just came back and i think the crowds were pretty high for this time of year. That being said it wasn't at all like summer, spring break or Christmas break. There were several events going on...Dance competition, La cross, and field hockey. the start of our trip was the end of the field hockey, the middle of the trip was dance comp and the end of the trip was La cross. it was pretty busy but again there are no slow times anymore. The Arts fest was going on and that brought in crowds. But the one thing that was noticeable was the LARGE tour groups. WOW! Had to be at least 30 in a group and they would gather to account for everyone in the middle of a walk way...yes stop right in the middle of a narrow area and would not move for anyone. I might get slammed for this but they were obnoxious and i'm not even talking about their chanting. I for one could not imagine traveling with that many people. When do tour groups typically come? Are they only there during certain times? We're starting to plan the next trip and i'm thinking beginning of April or Mid May to see F&G again. Disney is great at getting crowds in by adding new festivals and adding discounts to less busy times. All in all it was still a good trip...how could it not be when you're in Disney!

 

[mco65]

I think the Christmas crowd has started to hang around for first week of Jan. If your hoping to avoid the Christmas crowds by going the first week in Jan.. you wont be happy. I had that exact plan once, ONCE.. not a good plan!

 

[DeeCee735]

Thank you. I would be okay with not much park time. I have two upcoming trips this year to begin with. But I was planning it for two generations of cousins, so I know the 20-30 year olds would want the parks more than us over 50 crowd. I will see if I can push it into mid January. Getting them all at the same time outside of the Christmas/New Year holiday is a huge challenge
I appreciate all the input.

Dee

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We have been during the first week of January a few times.

This year we were there 1/3 (MK) and 1/4 (Epcot). Significantly more crowded than the other years.

 

[poooh]

I've been Jan. 11th-17th in 2014 and Jan 5th-12th in 2016. Both times we found the crowd levels to be extremely manageable. However, the crowd levels for January seemed to have increased in just the past couple of years. I was surprised to see some of the wait times and trip reports from this past month. I know Disney is getting more crowded every year but I didn't realize how quickly it was happening.

 

[KayaWildfire]

Yes, it definitely didn't calm down after the 1st this year.

 

[DWillowBay]

We were there from Jan 2 - 5 this year and it was thick as peanut butter! We had a great time and don't let crowds determine our fun, but it was VERY thick!

 

[Jkpark]

I think what day of the week New Years falls on also plays a part. I was there in 2016 when the 2nd and 3rd were Saturday/Sunday it it was crowded but not holiday crowded. This past year with most schools off through the 6th - it was very crowded the 2nd-5th. And they didn't offer the same hours as they would in the summer or the week of Christmas. As an example, we hit rope drop at MK (9am)on the 3rd, and it took 45 minutes to ride Space Mtn. By the time we were off, waits at Pirates and Splash were already 60 minutes. We waited for our FP to start at 10:15, rode those, ate and left. Standby for Haunted Mansion was over 2 hours the bulk of the day. I knew to expect crowds but wasn't expecting that level.