2018 MLK Crowds?

[Justin S]

Hi there!

I am currently planning a trip to Walt Disney World in January (2018). I am looking between 2 different dates

Jan 7 – 13 or Jan 14 - 20

I am definitely leaning more to the 14th as it fits my schedule better and seems the crowds should be lower that week.

I was wondering what everyones thoughts are on MLK crowds? I would be arriving Sunday the 14th and leaving Saturday the 20th. I was thinking of doing MK on Monday, but I am worried that this is a bad choice. Is there a better park to do that day? Or do you think MK would be tolerable?

I previously went to WDW this past January (2017) during the marathon weekend and thought the crowds were pretty heavy for my liking. I didn’t get to ride my favorite rides multiple times like i am used to.

How do the marathon and MLK crowds compare? Which week would you suggest is best? Is MLK only 1 day of crowds as apposed to the week long crowd from the marathon?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

 

[fla4fun]

I have been there for both and felt it was less crowded marathon weekend than MLK, but it wasn't a huge difference - just a noticeable one. I usually end up with MLK weekend as part of my January trip and it feels like September during F&W to me. There aren't slow times anymore, just slower but still busy?

 

[Justin S]

I have been there for both and felt it was less crowded marathon weekend than MLK, but it wasn't a huge difference - just a noticeable one. I usually end up with MLK weekend as part of my January trip and it feels like September during F&W to me. There aren't slow times anymore, just slower but still busy?

Thank you so much for this information. Are you talking only about the weekends crowds or during the week days? Cause I will be at the parks during the week and not on those weekends. Im just scared of left over crowds from those weekends

I agree completely on the no slow times anymore. Which would you say is a better weekend to go?

Thanks again!

 

[Justin S]

any other suggestions?

 

[SaintsManiac]

We are going 1/11-1/15 and it's been ridiculously easy to get ADRs that I had trouble with for our Thanksgiving week trip. I wasn't able to book a standard room at POP, though. I was trying to change it from preferred to get a refurbished room, but only standard pool view was available last week.

This will be our first time going in January. DD is out of school, so we figured why not?

 

[Justin S]

We are going 1/11-1/15 and it's been ridiculously easy to get ADRs that I had trouble with for our Thanksgiving week trip. I wasn't able to book a standard room at POP, though. I was trying to change it from preferred to get a refurbished room, but only standard pool view was available last week.

This will be our first time going in January. DD is out of school, so we figured why not?

Thank you for your input! is not being able to get the room at POP a bad sign do you think? Or a foreshadowing of high crowd levels? I don't usually say on property so I'm not sure how those fit together, and if that is typical.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Thank you for your input! is not being able to get the room at POP a bad sign do you think? Or a foreshadowing of high crowd levels? I don't usually say on property so I'm not sure how those fit together, and if that is typical.

I'm pretty curious about why, but it could be anything. The website has been weird lately when booking/searching for rooms.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Thank you for your input! is not being able to get the room at POP a bad sign do you think? Or a foreshadowing of high crowd levels? I don't usually say on property so I'm not sure how those fit together, and if that is typical.

I've heard it said that Disney resort availability is not a good indicator of overall crowd levels. Disney always seems to find a way to fill their resorts (I think they maintain an occupancy in the high 80% range which is pretty darn good. It's the # of offsite visitors that drive the overall crowd level and it's hard to get a good indicator on that.

 

[prgal0715]

I'm going the same week - January 14th - 20th - and have had no trouble booking ADR's, including hard to get ones like 'Ohana and Cali Grill. (I typically go the week before during the marathon, but find the crowds high for that time of year.) Since my "usual" January trip straddles both Marathon and MLK, I'm anticipating high crowd levels the first day or two due to MLK then (hopefully) lower crowds following the long weekend. I wouldn't worry too much about the room - as a pp mentioned, the Disney website has been extremely glitchy and not showing availability for any rooms. I booked through my TA and got the CL room at BC I wanted, so rooms are absolutely available.

 

[jon185]

We are going Jan 14-19 before our cruise on the dream. First time going this time of year. For what's it's worth i use touring plans crowd calendars, and they have park levels for all the parks around 6-8 level on that Monday. The rest of the week is pretty light for all parks 2-5 levels.

 

[Justin S]

I'm going the same week - January 14th - 20th - and have had no trouble booking ADR's, including hard to get ones like 'Ohana and Cali Grill. (I typically go the week before during the marathon, but find the crowds high for that time of year.) Since my "usual" January trip straddles both Marathon and MLK, I'm anticipating high crowd levels the first day or two due to MLK then (hopefully) lower crowds following the long weekend. I wouldn't worry too much about the room - as a pp mentioned, the Disney website has been extremely glitchy and not showing availability for any rooms. I booked through my TA and got the CL room at BC I wanted, so rooms are absolutely available.

Yea I usually go the week before as well (marathon week) which as you said the crowds get to be a lot and I don't want to deal with that again. I'm not worried about a room as I am staying off property so thats not an issue.

Have you ever been during MLK week before? As for the MLK week when do you think the crowds will die? I would think after Monday but I have no idea. Do you think the MLK crowds will be worse than the marathon crowds?

I am just torn on which week would be best to go crowd wise.

 

[prgal0715]

Yea I usually go the week before as well (marathon week) which as you said the crowds get to be a lot and I don't want to deal with that again. I'm not worried about a room as I am staying off property so thats not an issue.

Have you ever been during MLK week before? As for the MLK week when do you think the crowds will die? I would think after Monday but I have no idea. Do you think the MLK crowds will be worse than the marathon crowds?

I am just torn on which week would be best to go crowd wise.

Based on the ease of getting an 'Ohana ADR at a "normal" time well after the 180 mark, I tend to think crowds will die down after Monday. (HA!) But who knows - if Festival of the Arts comes back this year, it could be consistently busy throughout the month.

 

[wfjeff]

Have you ever been during MLK week before? As for the MLK week when do you think the crowds will die? I would think after Monday but I have no idea. Do you think the MLK crowds will be worse than the marathon crowds?

I am just torn on which week would be best to go crowd wise.

Also torn between both the marathon and MLK weeks. I additionally I am wondering about others exp during the week days. Do the crowds drop down considerably for both/either.

 

[Justin S]

Based on the ease of getting an 'Ohana ADR at a "normal" time well after the 180 mark, I tend to think crowds will die down after Monday. (HA!) But who knows - if Festival of the Arts comes back this year, it could be consistently busy throughout the month.

is there a date when they usually announce when that festival will be held?

 

[Justin S]

Also torn between both the marathon and MLK weeks. I additionally I am wondering about others exp during the week days. Do the crowds drop down considerably for both/either.

That is definitely what I am wondering. The crowd calendars online show that it should drop after monday, but would like some guests to share their experiences if thats true.

 

[fla4fun]

Thank you so much for this information. Are you talking only about the weekends crowds or during the week days? Cause I will be at the parks during the week and not on those weekends. Im just scared of left over crowds from those weekends

I agree completely on the no slow times anymore. Which would you say is a better weekend to go?

Thanks again!

Talking about the weekends primarily, although the MLK crowd doesn't seem to thin out as quickly as the marathon crowd. If I had to pick just based on crowds alone, I would probably give the slight edge to marathon weekend, but I usually end up incorporating MLK into my January trip to stretch my vacation time. There can be a few transportation issues on Saturday and Sunday of marathon weekend, but if you aren't going to the parks those days it won't affect you much. All of my marathon trips were to one of the Epcot resorts, and my MLK visits have been at various Disney resorts.