We are planning to go to WDW and Universal right around Pro Bowl time in January 2019. Current predicted crowd levels are low, and Touringplans believes that the Pro Bowl will not impact crowd levels significantly. I checked Touringplans crowd levels for 2018 around the same time and saw that actual crowd levels were significantly higher than predicted.
Were the 2018 crowds higher due to the Pro Bowl or was there something else going on? If it’s due to the Pro Bowl, wouldn’t 2019 crowds also be high?
WDW mucked around with low staffing/capacity that time last year. Crowd levels were not really higher than anticipated but capacity was lowered artificially thus longer wait times. It’s not anticipated to be done this year.
We don’t. It has just been the general feelings expressed by most Disney bloggers. It seems there was a significant amount of bad press and ill will focused on this decision by Disney.
In all honesty, the people coming to Orlando for the Pro-Bowl are probably not going to be spending much time in WDW. An many “locals” will probably be spending more time in sports bars or at home watching the game than enjoying the pleasures of it’s a small world…
We’re going over Pro Bowl weekend too (first trip) and I’ve heard that crowds can be bad the day before (Saturday). I’m hedging by bets for that day by doing a 2nd AK day that day so we’ll be focusing on finishing out the park instead of trying to get it all done in one day. Our plan is 2 FP, 1 show, 1 trail, and the Boneyard with a mobile order lunch and the evening spent at the resort.
I think if you plan Saturday well, you should be fine.