January 2010 and tour groups

[Dimmsdale]

I'm trying to pin down a time for our3rd trip to WDW and looking at the last week of January. Any advice on what tour groups tend to descend on WDW early in the year would a really helpful thing to know.

Thanks for any wisdom you can pass on.

Dimmsdale

 

[disney4life2008]

The BRAZILIAN TOUR GROUPS - they pretty much have January on lock. My best advice is to avoid the parks they are at but that is pretty hard to do. I had the pleasure of being there this past January from the 1st until the 15th and the tour groups were HORRIBLE. They were loud, obnoxious, cheered every second. My experience with the groups is that they think they own the theme parks when they are there and are very arrogant. I cursed out a group of brazillians teens in portugese (they had no idea I spoke it) because they were making fun of my boyfriend and I. I made them cry - it was lovely.

 

[Dimmsdale]

Eww. That does not sound good. Is it all January or just the early part? We had a magical trip October 08 and I'd hate to have the second family one wrecked by millions of tour groups. As it is I'm trying to avoid football and cheerleading groups. Ugh.

Thanks for your input. Its appreciated. Guess I'll check early Feb pricing now.

 

[disney4life2008]

I think its all of January. But keep in mind - the crowds are not heavy - only the tour groups. They shouldnt pose much a problem. Just do not get in a line where a group just entered - it will be foreever. Also, beware about Fantasmic! The tour groups meet outside the theater about an hour before the doors open. So arrive early.

 

[mousebymarriage]

We went Jan29 - Feb 5th 2008 and did not see any tour groups. However, there was some dance teams or something but, they were well behaved and there wasn't a huge amount of them.

 

[disney4life2008]

We went Jan29 - Feb 5th 2008 and did not see any tour groups. However, there was some dance teams or something but, they were well behaved and there wasn't a huge amount of them.

You just reminded me - I stayed at SPORTS in January and there was a Cheerleading competition arriving a few days before I left. Well the night before I left - there was about 200 girls (college aged I think) on the football turf screaming to the top of their lungs at 4am in the morning. I called security and they were removed.

 

[Philo]

I was at WDW from the 7th - 20th January 2007 (staying offiste) and I can honestly say that the tour groups weren't that bad.

There was obviously some chanting, shouting and running around but it certainly isn't as bad as everyone makes them out to be. Maybe it's because the majority of them were there for a cheerleader competition and must have been at the competition most of the day?

I think because the parks were less crowded it was just much less irritating.

My advice is to just not worry about it. Accept the fact that there will be tour groups and have a great time - IMO January is still one of the best times to go.

 

[Susan Savia]

We were in the parks January l0th thru the 18th and only saw one group of them and that was in MK. I think we saw more cheerleaders and marathon people, then tour group people. I think they pretty much come thru the winter months as we've also noticed them in February, too.

 

[Agent1964fem]

From what I was told about the groups the heavist time is in the Summer time most of them are from wealthy families and the parents basically send them away for the Summer . The trip to Disney is the last taa dah of their holiday. We went July of 2009 yes there were some that were pretty loud . Most of them were pretty well behaved . I'm not sure if these groups can be avoided . One man at a bus stop looked and me and my husband told us next holiday he is going to Brazil or Portugal theres no one there. :ROFLOL:


Wilderness Lodge 1997
Carribbean Beach 2003
Port Orleans-Riverside 2005
Wilderness Lodge 2007
Polynesian 2009
Contemporary 2011

 

[luvlifeinfl]

I know that past 4 yrs we went to WDW in July & the tour groups were REALLY bad. This year we have changed our plans to go in Nov. instead of July.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

We were there 1/23 - 2/1 this year. We did encounter several tour groups of the South American variety. I believe a couple of them were from Argentina. Like another poster said, if we saw them get in a line we'd go somewhere else just because they can swell wait times really bad. If we saw more than a couple groups in a park we'd just hop a bus somewhere else. There was some obnoxiousness but it wasn't as bad as I've seen in the past. Obviously it wasn't so bad that we won't go again in January since we're booked to do it again. We talked to a couple CMs this past trip & they said some of it could be attributed to the lower value of the US dollar in the months prior to our visit. Made sense. The dance teams came in towards the end of our stay. Ick! We were eating dinner at Cape May when a huge group of them came in & sat down. All the other people who were eating around that area either got up & walked out or started horsing down their food so they could get the heck out. I told a manager I wished I knew they were coming so I could've changed my reservations. **sigh**

 

[eroyee]

If your days are flexible I would look into early February. Make it before Presidents day, though....