Very first week of January

[Allenfow98]

New years eve is a Saturday this year. How crowded would it be to check in on Sunday the 1st and stay through that following week. I have heard technically it's still considered holiday time but I'm hoping everyone will be cleared out by Sunday night into Monday. And have experiences or opinions?

[mechanic]

Attendance does drop significantly after the 1st. They also start closing down more attractions for maintenance then too.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Its been several years but the best trip we ever had crowd wise was when we checked in on Jan. 1 and stayed through Jan. 7. Like another poster said after the 1st the crowds dropped way down and wait times were minimal.

[Melanie]

WDW Marathon Weekend starts that Wednesday though. It brings in a lot of people. It's certainly not holiday crowded, but there won't be a big drop off in crowds.

[Strmchsr]

Agree with Mel. Although crowds certainly drop off from the week before New Year's it's not nearly as "empty" as it used to be. There are still a good number of folks who stay. Plus, with New Year's being on a Sunday a number of schools won't start back until later so folks will stay later then Marathon Weekend starts.

[disney daddy]

See if you can find out when Florida schools will be back in session. If Jan 1 is on a Sunday, then Jan 2 is a holiday too. You'll still have a multitude of foreign travelers and people that pull their kids out for a few extra days, but I've been there on New Year's Eve and it is uncomfortably crowded. It does lighten up after though, but not as much as you'd expect.

[Strmchsr]

See if you can find out when Florida schools will be back in session. If Jan 1 is on a Sunday, then Jan 2 is a holiday too.

Florida schools are all on different schedules. Each district sets their own calendar. I'm in the panhandle and every district around me has a different schedule but most of them start after New Year's either later in the week or on the 9th. None go back back on Jan 2.

[Arielfan98]

I went January 6th-13th this year and it wasn't bad at all! The only places it will be crowded is where the marathon begins and ends. The marathon begins at like 5am, so you should be ok traffic wise. However, the marathon this year ended at EPCOT and my family coincidentally went there that day. It's not as bad as you think, but it causes a lot of people traffic. For instance, it's impossible to get to the other side of innoventions because the race runs through there and they make visitors wait for the runners to go. So basically avoid wherever they begin and end the race, especially where they end, and you should be fine :)