Hi everyone, I’m new here and am looking for some advice on a WDW trip I am planning for my DD’s 3rd birthday for January 2017. Our dates are flexible as we are taking our DS out of school for this trip. We had planned to fly into MCO on MLK weekend and start touring on Tuesday, Jan 17th and return home on January 23rd. Our family has been to WDW many times but we have only traveled to WDW in January one other time and that was 13 years ago when traveling in January wasn’t as popular. Are we crazy to be going the week of MLK? I looked back at the crowd calendar for this past January and it wasn’t terrible, the weekends were the worst. I think it would be manageable as long as we use our touring plans! We are a family who does morning touring, takes a mid day break and returns to the parks in the evening with a more low key plan. Wondering if anyone else has been during this time and has any advice? I am an avid planner and used touring plans for our last trip in August of 2013 and had great success.
Hi!
My family has been going that exact week each year since 2009. It’s a great time to go. In all that time, we’ve had maybe 4 times when it rained. Each year it’s gotten busier but even this past year was only moderately crowded. I know they predicted 10s for MLK day but we went early in the day and it was very quiet. It is a cooler time of year so wear layers. The nights are particularly brisk. We had 2 mornings that started in the 30s. We still managed to go to Blizzard Beach on one of the few days it was open.
Please let me know if you have any specific questions. I’m happy to offer up advice or let you know about experiences.
Thanks @disney1974. What discounts have they offered during January the last few years? Because of all the closers at HS and AK only being a one day park, we are thinking of WL for our resort since we will probably be at the MK for at least 3 days.
So, that’s the bad news… No discounts that I’m aware of. But, if you check with a travel agent that specializes in Disney, they may know more.
We book DVC through David’s (dvcrequest.com) and that gives us a huge break on accommodations. We buy our park tickets through The Official Ticket Center, which are somewhat discounted. And we pay for meals out of pocket. It’s the most economical way that I’ve found.
We’re going for a week starting at the parks the Sunday before MLK Day 2017. Do you find that the Crowd Calendar is pretty accurate? What are the crowds really like that week?
We get there on the 14th!
The predictions were pretty accurate in 2016. I believe they ended up extending the hours at MK at least one of the days. It’s busy on the Sunday (I think there was also extra magic that day) and the actual holiday Monday. The subsequent days are noticeably quieter.
In our observations (7 years straight at that time of year), only MK and HS have been nuts. We’ve been there through the hub expansion & New Fantasyland construction. That was a bummer. With all that done and no big projects happening, the park flows better. I’m curious about HS this time around. If more folks are just avoiding it, it may be fairly easy to manage. Fantasmic! was kind of hellish…they only do one show per night at that time of year and it gets packed. Happy to not have it on the plans this time around. If you’re planning on it, definitely FastPass it.
Also excited about Disney Springs finally be 99% done with construction.
As of now, the TP predictions are nice and low. Fingers crossed it stays that way!