February or January

ecefaratti

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 9, 2019
We are unfortunately having to reschedule our trip that was planned for early December this year. We are now looking at the end of January/Early February 2021 or the end of February/Early March 2021. We have never been at either of these times so we are looking for input. Our highest priority is lowest crowds as we have a large group. Thank you!!!
 
The info from this year showed alot of crowds for Jan Feb but they also had alot of new releases . Just always assume crowd lvls will be high and just plan for what you wanna do. FP+ and ADR will be your saving grace with a big group and getting things done.
 
I went the last week of January to the first of February this year. The weather was amazing coming from the cold Midwest and I honestly don't think the crowds were too bad. I thought it was perfect.
 
The period after MLK Day in January and Presidents’ Day/Princess Half Marathon in February is probably the sweet spot in terms of crowds. We usually go in January because DVC points costs are lower than in February. Weather is unpredictable that time of year no matter what - can be very cold or warm up into the 80s in the same week!
 


We visited 1/25 through 1/31 this year. It was pretty busy. The weather was chilly, but not cold. It rained a bit and there wasn’t much sun. Epcot was very crowded when we visited (on a weekday) due to renovations and the Arts Festival.
 
I went Jan 21-25. So right after MLK weekend. Crowds were nice. Epcot on the 23rd was the slowest day. Downside was that it was COLD!! And we had refurbishments such as Test Track and the water rides (it was cold so even if water rides were open we wouldn't have done them). Our last day on Jan 24 was finally in the 70's. All other days were in the 50's and the mornings and nights were in the 30's. It was BRUTAL standing at the HS gates at 5:30am in the freezing cold. Looking back, I have no regrets going at that time. We brought warm clothes so we were good there. But reading threads on crowds throughout February made me glad we chose the week we did.
 
Last month there was a discussion about this time, and the consensus was to NOT go during the time between the Pro Bowl (in Orlando) and the Super Bowl (in Tampa), as the Orlando/Miami one two punch crowded the parks a lot this year.
 


It's so hard to know the least crowded time, bc even when the crowds are low, they adjust everything so the lines always seem long to me. But I do know that there is a big cheer competition usually the 1st or 2nd weekend of february. It's pretty crowded when that is happening.
 
We are from Northern Indiana and we were there the first week of Feb. for 9 days ...I thought it was freezing but my son and husband thought it was nice. Ok nice.... I dont think high 50s and low 60s is nice.. that was in the morning.. the afternoons (late afternoon) did get in the low 70s and a few days (2 maybe) it did reach low 80s but trust me it did not last long. Plus the wind and when the sun was not out..it was cool. We kind of thought the crowds would be high because of Star Wars.. and they were.. To sum things up we did have a great time ..we love both.. Disney and Star Wars . Next time we will go end of April and first of May.
 
We seem to get much better weather at the end of February then at the end of January. The January trips have been nice but more often we have gotten much cooler weather. We like to travel at the end of February into the beginning of March to take advantage of low rates but warmer weather.

There are no slow times at WDW anymore, but there are cray busy times which happen during the holiday weekends.
 
We were just there January 25- Feb 4. As others have mentioned we had some chilly mornings (40-45 degrees in mornings so we had light jackets that we wore til about noon). I feel like highs for us were in the mid60s, with one day at the end getting up to low 70s maybe. My kids did swim one day.

In terms of crowds, there were definitely days where it felt very manageable and pleasant. We had one weeknight (Tuesday?) evening in Epcot that was RIDICULOUSLY shoulder to shoulder packed in World Showcase but otherwise I felt generally pretty fine about crowds so maybe that was a weird fluke. The following Saturday night were were in Epcot again for dinner and it wasn't half as crowded so go figure? We did have packed buses (standing room only several times) at POR but I think we had bad bus luck and that didn't necessarily indicate overall crowds.

One thing I will note and that might matter to you was that I got up to do the early morning FastPass booking 60 days out for those dates (and we had a 10 day reservation so I thought we'd be golden)... as soon as it opened, I made sure to prioritize Flight of Passange and Slinky Dog first, and we didn't get either of them :( We did get SDMT twice, though. We never ended up riding either of those because the waits for FOP were always 180 minutes plus when we were in AK and Slinky Dog only got down to 65-70 min at the very end of the night. Again, maybe just my own bad luck, or party size (4-5) or maybe indicative of crowd levels.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











facebook twitter
Top