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Is January the Best Time to Visit Disney World?

January is one of the best and unexpected times to plan a trip to Disney World! From the change in crowds and weather to the promotions and festivals, January is a phenomenal time to visit! As with any time, there are pros and cons to visiting in January. Here are some events that may impact your experience, as well as our list of pros and cons to planning a January Disney trip! 

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Events that Impact Crowds

  • New Year’s Day and the following days see a spike in Disney World attendance, reaching park capacity (and restricting park entry!) on days surrounding the holiday. It’s prime time for families to squeeze in one last trip before the school semester starts. Most students head back in the second or third week of January, depending on the school district. 
  • MLK Day weekend invites families to take a Disney trip over the long weekend, perhaps only missing one school day the Friday before. Crowd levels are high during the cooler weather as a result.
  • Run Disney’s Marathon Weekend usually occurs in January (public health permitting), which brings heavy crowds over the weekend and Friday/Monday that bookend that weekend. Be sure to check Disney’s official Special Events Calendar when planning your trip! Note: Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend happens January 3-7, 2024, so plan your trip accordingly!
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Pros of a January Disney Trip

  • Lower crowds – Generally speaking, you will start finding lower crowds in the parks once the school semesters start. While there’s rarely a time you’d ever find a sparsely populated park, you may not be shoulder-to-shoulder like you may have been during winter holiday throngs.
  • Promotions offered by Disney – Low season for Disney starts around the middle of January. And while promotions are never guaranteed to pop up, Disney has historically announced promotions like the Disney Meal Plan and hotel incentives like free days or a percentage off of room rack rates. A great way to catch a new promotion is to check the Disney World website daily around September and December. The easiest and best way to catch a new promotion, however, is to book your trip with a travel agent. Disney trip planners, like Jenny from Small World Travel, will immediately research and apply new savings to your reservation as they come available, saving you time and money on your family’s Disney trip! As an FYI, their services are free to you, as their commissions are a flat rate from Disney. 
  • Low season pricing – If you’re trying to save money on your Disney vacation, mid-to-late January is a great way to go to Disney on a budget! Aside from the possibility of promotions listed above, you’ll also see lower rates on rooms across all categories (value, moderate, and deluxe resorts). Similarly, you may see lower ticket prices by a few dollars per ticket, especially during weekdays. It may not seem like much at first, but savings for a family of four can be a few hundred dollars over the course of a week. You can simply capture these savings by choosing to travel during Disney’s low season. 
  • Epcot’s Festival of the Arts – Artists and performers descend upon Epcot in the last half of January to present at Epcot’s Fine Arts Festival. You will also find booths presenting unique and appetizing dishes at a snack portion and snack price. Hands-on activities like painting a mosaic-style mural are fun for the whole family! We especially love to paint the mural on our way into the park and check on the wall’s progress on your way out! Note: Festival of the Arts begins January 12, 2024!
  • Milder Weather – Orlando temperatures take a dip in January, offering park-goers a break from extreme heat and humidity. The days can reach into the 80s while nights can dip into the 50s. As always, it’s best to pack layers in preparation for any weather that may spring up. If you find yourself missing some time poolside, keep in mind that all pools on Disney property are heated year-round! Just be sure to bundle up for the walk back to the room!
  • Christmas Decorations – If you skipped the holiday crowds but still wanted to catch the holiday spirit, you can still see Main Street draped in garlands and wreaths. You can also catch enormous, decorated Christmas trees in the parks and resorts on your early-to-mid January visit. The timeline for removal of decorations has varied over the years, but we’ve been able to catch festive décor as late as the third week of January. Full decorations are almost guaranteed through the first and much of the second week of January.
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Cons of a January Disney Trip

  • Leftover holiday traffic – Not only do increased crowds mean longer wait times for attractions and meals, it also results in Disney World restricting entry due to capacity restrictions. Many times ticket holders and annual pass holders may not be able to enter during these “max capacity” conditions, allowing additional spots reserved for Disney Resort guests. At other times, entry may be restricted for all guests, allowing entry later in the day once occupancy has dwindled in the afternoon. If you are travelling during New Year’s week, the possibility of not entering the park, regardless of having a ticket, can be a shocking inconvenience! It’s yet another benefit of staying on property as a resort guest!
  • Shuttered Epcot booths – If you’re arriving early in the month before the Epcot Fine Arts Festival kicks off, you’ll be met with empty, shuttered, festival booths. The festival breathes life into these kiosks throughout the year, but between festivals, the World Showcase has at least one of these vacant shanties for each country with additional booths sprinkled throughout the walkways, infringing on guest views of the lagoon and platform for the upcoming HarmoniUS nighttime spectacular.
  • Unpredictable weather – Just when we thought we could catch a break in the Florida heat, Orlando can hit us with unpredictable spikes and dips in temperature. While it’s manageable to pack layers in our suitcase, it can be more difficult to schlep the same layers for an entire family throughout the park. Be sure to keep an eye on weather forecasts and always pack your poncho!
  • Closed rides and attractions – As Disney World crowds dwindle, rides and attractions are often taken offline for weeks or months at a time for a yearly refresh. This usually includes the closure of water rides like Splash Mountain or the draining of the River of America, which means no cruise on the Liberty Belle riverboat and no journey to Tom Sawyer’s Island. Guests are left with a view of hoses and tracks on the riverbed or a cleverly worded, albeit disappointing, sign asking us to “pardon [their] mess.”
  • Closed water parks – In a more dramatic fashion than a single ride closing, entire water parks are still closed for the season, laying dormant until summer brings more guests looking to cool off at Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon.
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As you can see, visiting Disney World in January can be a much different experience than what you may expect over summer break! We maintain that January is an ideal time to go for a slower, more relaxing trip away from the pulsing crowds you’ll find during peak season. Have you visited in January? What did you love about it? Any tips for travelling in the low season? Let us know in the comments!

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Is January the Best Time to Visit Disney World?
*The WDW Lists is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with The Walt Disney Company.

January is one of the best and unexpected times to plan a trip to Disney World! From the change in crowds and weather to the promotions and festivals, January is a phenomenal time to visit! As with any time, there are pros and cons to visiting in January. Here are some events that may impact…