How were the crowds this week?

[pens4821]

We are thinking of going next year this week (6th through the 12th), and curious how it was. It's between then, and the last week January/first week of February. I meant to look at wait times throughout the week, but of course being busy I forgot.

 

[jenrose66]

I was there the 5th thru the 11th. It was marathon weekend. It didn't feel terribly crowded to me. With Fast Pass waits were manageable. I think the longest we waited was 30 minutes for SDMT right before wishes.

 

[C&B Young]

Monday was much worse than we expected at Magic Kingdom, appeared there was still a lot of spill over crowd from the marathon. Tuesday through Thursday were much more what we expected, very light crowds at the other parks. Had no problems getting same-day Fastpasses for all attractions (even Frozen in Epcot).

 

[Accident]

Monday is always stoopid busy in MK. couldn't tell you why, all the other parks can be vacant and MK on monday is crazy and more busy than saturday.

 

[Anal Annie]

We were there from the 3rd thru the 9th and I thought the crowds were horrid - at least compared to last year. We were there the same week last year and they were no where near this bad. If you can go the 2nd week of January it shouldn't be as bad once the Marathon crowds leave. Definitely go after the marathon weekend if you can. We saw 120 minute + waits for a lot of the bigger attractions several times. Even Jungle Cruise went over an hour at times.

 

[donac]

Thanks for the info. I am thinking about going this week next year. I almost booked it for this year but just couldn't press the button since we have a vacation planned for May to Arizona

 

[edk35]

My friend is there now...arrived Thursday night. She says the crowds are way heavier than previous Jan. trips (for 10 years) for the same MLK weekend time period....however they did just start that new Art Festival thing at Epcot and it is kind of like a Food and Wine lite type event....so the booths with food and alcohol are VERY LONG. She is surprised at the crowds yesterday at MK and today at Epcot.

 

[swimgalsmom]

We have been here all week. The crowds were a lot heavier than we expected. MK on Wednesday was very busy.

 

[jenmsmith]

We were in MK on Wednesday, too. It was busier than my previous January trips, for sure.

 

[Harambe]

Just got back. We arrived on the 4th and MK was very, very crowded, which surprised us, but other parks that first week weren't as bad. The Tuesday after the marathon, the crowds dropped off, and we thought the rest of this past week was very doable, with the parks being full, but not crazy.

Marathon weekend did hit a glitch this year because they had to cancel the Saturday race due to weather. They then offered those folks a spot in the Sunday race, so I think there were more people coming to cheer for their family members on Sunday. Like fools, we got on a very early bus to get to MK at opening, only to be stuck on that (very overcrowded) bus for over an hour, hoping to make it to our FP for 7DMT. We did make it in time - but the ride was down . . . hahaha, best laid plans, right???? Moral of the story - just sleep in on that Sunday morning, and go to the parks later.

 

[NYCANC]

On Marathon Day- we had a PPO at BOG. We thought we would be let in at 7:45 (for an 8am) but we had to wait for all the family/friends in the park that were cheering to be let out. They announced that the restaurants knew people would be late. We were let in around 7:55 and runners were still going up Main St. We had to go around the long way to BOG and there were CM's along the way helping people with ADR's to cross the path of the race.
When we got up to BOG- there were some CM's "not happy" with the way it was planned and said it could have gone a lot better than it did.
The Beast was out (just for the runners) and there was a long line of runners waiting to take pics with him.

 

[3darlings]

We were there the 9th (Monday) thru the 12th (Thurs). I knew better than to go to MK on Monday so we went to Epcot and then DHS. Both had pretty heavy crowds - much heavier than I expected. We did EMH at DHS and then jumped to MK on Tuesday. EMH at DHS was bad because we ended up standing in line for TOT for 45 minutes (starting at 8:15). Turns out they were only running 2 out of 5 elevators (no explanation of why - frustrating!) The overflow from TOT ended up affecting everything else so RnR had a 60 min before 10. We did get on TSM at 8 so that was good but EMH ended up pretty much being a disaster. We jumped over to MK by 11 (using the express buses which were great) and the crowd at MK was way heavier than I expected. We had old magic bands that allowed us to get a number of SD FP+ so it turned out ok but the lines were bad (SD FP+ also saved the day at DHS). By Wednesday, things did seem to be calming down. That was our day at AK because we were doing the Wild Africal Trek. Based on wait times, it would have been better for us to have done AK either Monday or Tuesday and then Epcot/DHS on Wednesday. I am sure the crowds picked up again with MLK weekend approaching.

 

[OchreHand]

I was there from the 8th to the 13th. MK was always full of people. There were several choking points (especially Fantasyland.) it just seems that park will always be full.

Even TouringPlans updated their numbers and were off. They predicted a 5 for MK on the 8th and said it really was a 9. Same goes for that Tuesday, originally a 4 but really a 9.

I found DHS to be the most manageable.

 

[HelloMimi]

We were at the parks Jan 11-15 last year, and 8-15 this year (with a break 12-14 for Universal). While the parks seemed to be a bit busier than last year, the only time it felt really crowded was on the 14th and 15th, but that was expected, especially at Epcot. Going at rope drop, choosing the right parks for the right days (I used EasyWDW to decide), and having a scheduled plan really helped us. We never waited longer than 25 minutes for anything, even if the posted wait time was much longer. On the 10th, our full MK day, it seemed like BoG was taking all walk-ups at 12:00. We were able to bump our reservation up 30 minutes early, even though MDE showed no availability.

We arrived on the last day of the marathon, and as we were riding the ME to ASMu around 11:00 a.m., we noticed a ton of traffic. Luckily, the marathon was already winding down, so by the time we were on our way to MK around 12:30, everything had already cleared up and the cones were being put away. If you have to go to WDW during the marathon, hit the parks later in the day.

I've also noticed that the colder it is, the less people seem to stay at the parks. Crowds were lower last year when every night was pretty chilly, and this year, on our only really cold night (the 8th), MK seemed empty by 6:00.

 

[Gina Starr]

I will echo what everyone else has already said. It was busier than last year during the same week so comparing a week from year to year is hard to do. My hubby and I were there for 10 days and my sister and her family joined us for two of the days. They really wanted to try splash mountain or sdmt neither of which we had FP for. The waits never went below an hour for splash and 75+minutes for sdmt. Hubby and I went to MK the day after the whole family went and it was significantly less crowded and we could have done splash with a 15 minute wait. It will also depend on weather which you of course have no idea what it will be like this far in advance. MK was dead the 8th when it was in the 50s.