Tips for Disney in January?

Hi all. We’re looking to do wdw Jan 2017. Was just wondering if anyone had any tips for going during that time? What week is best in terms of weather, crowds, closures?

Layers and ponchos. Newspaper to dry shoes. We were there end of January 2016, and definitely did not need shorts, and only wore sandals because of rain. But it was really nice otherwise. Disney always is :slight_smile:

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Did it rain a lot?

Yes it was sort of a record breaking two days, there were rivers in HS and EP.

Layers as previously stated. It can be super cold, super hot or somewhere in between. Look at the crowd calendar and avoid marathon weekend. The crowds are generally better but they do have more closures and the parks are obviously not open as long. We always enjoyed going during January.

Hey! I’m going back in January 2017, too! January 7 - 14. I say I’m going back, because we went in January 2015, the week immediately following New Years. It was great in terms of weather - cool, mostly dry. We wore everything from jeans and light jackets to shorts a t-shirts. We always brought a light coat with us just in case, and definitely for use at night. As I recall, it rained for a brief time one day, and a couple times over night. Never enough at anytime to slow us down!

It wasn’t crowded at all, and the CMs seemed extra glad to see people in a less crowded situation than during the holidays. As far as closures, one of the water parks was closed, as was Splash Mountain.

We liked it so much, we had to come back in January. Maybe we’ll see you there!

I know we dont want to do the rundisney thing so I’m waiting to see the 2017 schedule before we book anything. Is the weather better the later in January you go or it doesn’t matter? What times do the parks close? They still have fireworks right?

We went end of January/beginning of February this year and had little rain. But temps did fluctuate quit a bit. Sweatshirts and jeans one day, shorts and tanks two days later. Crowds were good!

My DH is doing runDisney next year and has booked in for 3-11 Jan…if that’s any help!

A friend of mine went this year, late January - said it was great, low crowds but she did say take jackets/layers.

I’ve been twice in January. In 2012 we went MLK week and this past January from the 2nd to 7th. Weather was generally mild with some heavy downpours the 2012 trip but just some light rain the most recent one. As others have said dress in layers. Temps ranged from 60’s to 80’s, so light jackets are nice, especially as the sun goes down. Crowds weren’t too bad, although we did hit a surprise level 10 crowd one day at MK(was predicted 7). Use the crowd calendar to help decide which parks to visit each day and have a plan of attack and you should be fine. Early January was cool because they still had a lot of Christmas decor up. Overall, January is a GREAT time to visit and you’ll have a great time. Good luck!!