Jan. 9-16th, 2010- Low Crowds?

[Audrey9505]

Do you think January 9-16th would be a good week to go as far as low crowds are concerned? I think the marathon is that Saturday the 9th, but we wouldn't be in the parks until Sunday and our last day in the parks would be Friday the 15th. When do the MLK day crowds tend to start? Thank you!

 

[flydisco]

Do you think January 9-16th would be a good week to go as far as low crowds are concerned? I think the marathon is that Saturday the 9th, but we wouldn't be in the parks until Sunday and our last day in the parks would be Friday the 15th. When do the MLK day crowds tend to start? Thank you!

They will be less crowded but you may want to check the refurb schedule. I know that early january is the time of year that a bunch of refurbishments start.

 

[Michael Hall]

Hope this helps

I have been two times in this time frame. Not all that crowded but be warned the weather was down right cold last year. The year before it was 80. Last year it was in the 30's at night and 50's during the day. Still had a great time. They had the 4 nights get 3 free plus a 200 dollar gift card that I used on food.Easy to get dining reservations. We are headed for Disney Cruise Line on 9-27-09 and then the world on 10-01-09.:wave:

 

[Susan Savia]

Our first day in the parks was on the day the marathon ran. We had absolutely no problem, with either street traffic or crowds in the parks. We love the winter for Disney. The cooler temps are nice. There are days when we wore shorts, and a few when jeans were comfy. We only stayed late in the parks once to see Wishes and it was cold and so a heavy sweatshirt and hat felt good. The crowd level stayed the same the entire week.

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Do you think January 9-16th would be a good week to go as far as low crowds are concerned? I think the marathon is that Saturday the 9th, but we wouldn't be in the parks until Sunday and our last day in the parks would be Friday the 15th. When do the MLK day crowds tend to start? Thank you!

The marathon is 1/7-1/9 for 2010. We were there for the marathon last year and although it brought big crowds to the parks at times, we found that it did not affect ride wait times much...whatever the reason for that is :shrug:
But for the most part, the crowds are low.
Like another poster said, January is a time for rehabs which is a downside to going in January.
The weather is great, however.
I'm not positive but I'd imagine that the MLK crowds, if any big ones at all, will begin on the Thursday or Friday before.

 

[lukacseven]

I've been down for the past 4 years for the marathon weekend...wait times for rides are minimal. There are races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday's "Up" themed 5K begins at 7:00 am at Epcot and is finished and cleared out well before the park opening. Similarly, on Saturday, the half-marathon which starts at Epcot, goes through MK and returns begins at 6 am and everything is cleared out by 10. Sunday, the marathon spans all 4 major theme parks and traffic between parks, particularly AK and DHS is very congested until around 1:00 pm. Use monorail transportation if possible (be prepared for trains crowded with race spectators) or give yourself an extra 45 minutes (by bus) if you plan on being at any of the parks when they open on Sunday. Otherwise, crowds are fairly small and wait times rarely exceed 30 minutes for most rides. One of the biggest disappointments is that Spalsh Mountain has been closed for rehab the past 3 years. In '06 the weather was in the 30's in the morning. In '07 late morning temps got up to 89. The past 2 years were around 80.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

We were there last year Jan 19th-26th so a little later than you are planning for. Crowds were great- I don't think we ever waited longer than 30 minutes for anything. We always got there prior to rope drop and for the first hour or so the parks were open, we walked right on to everything.
MLK weekend was the first weekend we were there. We didn't realize that when we first booked. On that Sat, Sun and Mon crowds were defintely bigger than they were the rest of the week. Even in just our hotel food court we saw a big difference.
Weather can be great- layers is defintely the key! We would start out most days in jeans and sweatshirts and take the sweatshirts off by lunch time. I think there was only one day we wore shorts and short sleeves all day.
We also did not make any dining reservations before we went. We ate at table service restaurants about 4 times. We simply went to the front desk at the hotel the morning we wanted to go and made a reservation for dinner time. We didn't have any problems and always got the restaurant and approximate time we wanted.

It really is a great time to go! Have fun planning!! :wave: