Every where I read says the end of Jan/early Feb is a great lower crowd time to go. But the Crowd calendar for the last week of Jan shows Moderate to high crowds each day. Is that due to the Probowl/Superbowl both being in Florida or SWGE or is that just normal?
we went this year… January 26 - February 3 it was our first trip to WDW so I do not have another trip to which I can compare the crowds… i will tell you we thought World Showcase, on both of our Epcot days, was far too congested. we did not like it… we also thought Harambe area of AK very, very, very, busy (not necessarily due to size of crowds, could be just the design of the space)… we found every other part of all of the parks and such easily navigable. the weather was cold (we are from southern Louisiana and had hoped for better conditions) and rained or overcast most days. we plan to return the last week of February 2020.
Remember that there is a difference between number of people in the parks (what many people think of when they hear “crowds”) and TP Crowd Levels. CLs are a measure of wait times, and because of things like ride capacity management you can have a lower attendance day with the same CL as a higher attendance day.
We were there the same week as you, it was so cold and cloudy, we are from Alabama. I thought ride time waits were reasonable, other than pandora and slinky.
I was there the same week last year. Much more crowded than expected. TP crowd calculator underestimated, even after the debacle where they had to adjust upwards a few weeks before the trip pissing a lot of people off. I think TP’s estimates are much more reasonable for this year. So expect crowds to be around 5-7 on average everyday.
The parks will likely “feel” crowded. But with proper planning you should be able to accomplish what you want within reason. Unless your goal is to ride FOP 4 times in a row.
FWIW, we’re going back same week 2020.
Check out easyWDW’s website and do some searches for crowds early 2019. He analyzed wait times across all attractions and parks for Jan-Mar 2019. That will give you a good idea what you’re up against. Warning - they are not kind to TP.
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I don’t see anything more recent that 2017 on there.
Just posted it. I think it’s reasonable to assume crowds will be similar to last year. Of course the wild card will be impact of a fully opened SWGE, for which nobody yet knows the impact.
In its quarterly earnings report Disney disclosed that revenue and attendance at US parks was down slightly. Too early to say whether this is the beginning of a longer term trend but I hope the crowd increases of the past few years are stabilizing (if not heading downwards). You can google Disney’s latest quarterly report if interested.
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wasn’t it just gross weather??? I’d hoped for sunshine and blue skies!! however, our first day was so easy because we braved the storms and rope dropped MK… everything was a walk on hahahahah
Yes we did Epcot in the rain, wasn’t too bad until I wanted to go to Germany for caramel. We hated to miss test track but ohh well.
The rest of the week wasn’t as bad but our friends went the first week of feb and they were in shorts and tanks!! I was like no fair, we needed jackets.
Thank you
I need to know what you consider cold, lol. Im in missouri and its in the 20s and 30s here in January. And this Jan we had the polar vortex thing and like 26 inches of snow. So it might not seem so cold to us lol
I think it was in the low 50s, but we are from Alabama. Our cold and your cold are probably very different. We had on several layers, I think besides it being cold it was also very overcast and windy
So I am very cold tolerant, but what makes Disney cold is that you will have an 80 degree day and then the next day will be 50. So after the 80 degrees, 50 feels very cold… even though it isn’t actually. Just a head heads up from my experience last Jan.
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I went from 1/24-1/28. It was worse than memorial day 2017. Not crowded, but crazy crowded. (And rainy and cold.)
Also I am failing at Internet. I meant to reply to the original post.
I think its the humidity. 50° in Orlando was colder than high 30s in NY.
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Thats possible. We live in Missouri where its pretty humid and go to denver a couple times a year for football games. Its much drier in denver, and I’ve been to games there in the teens and not been as cold as games in kansas city when its in the 30’s. Still, I think the 50’s might not seem too bad coming from or winters. As long as its somewhere between 50-85 well be ok.lol. We were there the last week of May this year and it was like 102 every day, and it had only been in the 60-70’s at home so it was quite the shock to our systems. Normally its pretty warm 80-90 here by mid may so I figured we’d have time to acclimate to warm.
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I thought so too, but no. I wore a fall jacket- canvas with a lining, over a lightweight down vest and I kept having to buy layers because I was freezing everwhere I went.
I think I overestimated how lmuch the fact that NY was colder would factor.
That is the week I had finally settled on for my girl’s (8 and 6) first trip to WDW (Jan 26 - 31, 2020).
Working now on getting all my ducks in a row for the trip.
Very excited about all of it… and was wondering the same thing about current TP Crowd levels for that week. I think I saw that the Pro-Bowl was going to be on Sunday Jan 26 in 2020…
For Pro-Bowl weekend, do the crowds generally increase the few days before it…or the few days after it (hoping the answer is “before” so we will miss any artificially inflated crowds) 
In any case, really, really, really looking forward to everything! Probably just doing MK and AK for their first trip (2 days MK, split by a day in AK , and then a day of rest). Hoping the weather is decent and the crowds are manageable!!
We went that same week in 2017 and enjoyed it so much we will be there the same week you are in 2020. The first day was cold but the rest of the trip weather was great. I’m sure it varies that time of year.