***Official Jan 2018 Thread****

[First timer]

Hi! This is our first trip in January, and our first stay at the AKL! We are so excited and can't wait!!! Our dates are the 20th - 28th. We had to cancel two other trips as daughter had 5th knee surgery and husband had tumor removed - this will definitely be a celebration trip!!!

 

[k8Davies]

Hi! This is our first trip in January, and our first stay at the AKL! We are so excited and can't wait!!! Our dates are the 20th - 28th. We had to cancel two other trips as daughter had 5th knee surgery and husband had tumor removed - this will definitely be a celebration trip!!!

Firstly yay on the trip and I have added it to the Roll Call.

Also yay you got some stuff to celebrate looks like you been through a lot lately, so glad you got something nice in the diary to all enjoy together.

I hope you have a super, fantastic trip

 

[First timer]

Thank you so much K8Davies!

 

[leshunlenese]

Well you can add me to this list. I will be attending the Disney college program alumni weekend Jan 19to 21. Staying at the contemporary!

 

[k8Davies]

Well you can add me to this list. I will be attending the Disney college program alumni weekend Jan 19to 21. Staying at the contemporary!

You have been added YAY and I hope you have a fun time catching up with all the other alumni

 

[MinMou]

I know this is early, but I am starting to work on my list of Fast Passes. For those of you who have been to WDW in the slow part of January before, how do you manage 2 Tier 1 attractions in Epcot? I am figuring that we have to do the Frozen ride, but we also want to do Soaring. I figure we need to wait in line for at least one of them, but wondered if lines in January will be that bad.

Did anyone go to this year's Festival of the Arts? Wondering if that will be a factor for either of those rides.

 

[Star Tourist]

My wife and I will be there from Jan 20 - 26. Staying at All Star Sports. We usually stay at POR, but trying to save a bit of money this time. Going to miss Riverside, but I'm sure we're find our way over there at some point to see Bob.

 

[jannalynn_11]

I know this is early, but I am starting to work on my list of Fast Passes. For those of you who have been to WDW in the slow part of January before, how do you manage 2 Tier 1 attractions in Epcot? I am figuring that we have to do the Frozen ride, but we also want to do Soaring. I figure we need to wait in line for at least one of them, but wondered if lines in January will be that bad.

Did anyone go to this year's Festival of the Arts? Wondering if that will be a factor for either of those rides.

Curious about this as well, as we were wondering the same questions! (Never too early to work on FP, we are doing the same Per the TP data/plan I am working on, it looks like doing 2 of the 3 at RD will be the way to go, and then doing the 3rd with the FP in the afternoon. I think we may hit TT at RD, then head to Frozen immediately after (and the Anna/Elsa meet after that). Then we are going to make our way to everything else, and hit Soarin with the FP in the afternoon!

 

[Star Tourist]

Even in Jan, lines can get long. If you're only doing 1 Epcot day, I'd suggest rope dropping one of the big rides, fast passing another then waiting for the 3rd. I'm no expert at which has the longest line, but Frozen seems kind of out of the way from the other 2 so we fast passed it on our last trip, rope dropped Soarin' and waited (30 minutes) for TT one day.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

I know this is early, but I am starting to work on my list of Fast Passes. For those of you who have been to WDW in the slow part of January before, how do you manage 2 Tier 1 attractions in Epcot? I am figuring that we have to do the Frozen ride, but we also want to do Soaring. I figure we need to wait in line for at least one of them, but wondered if lines in January will be that bad.

Did anyone go to this year's Festival of the Arts? Wondering if that will be a factor for either of those rides.

We were there during the festival last year. To me Epcot still didn't feel terribly crowded. The crowds at MK and AK were way worse during our stay, but we hit them closer to the Pro Bowl stuff, so maybe that's why. We saw lots of families with Pro Bowl lanyards all over those two parks. We have not yet been interested in doing TT, but on both of our Epcot days, we FP'd Frozen (because at this time, Frozen was still having issues with breaking down, and I wanted to make sure we didn't lose out on riding it) for our Tier 1. Used FPs on Pixar and Land one day and SE and Nemo another day so we could hurry and get additional FPs both days. We used those for Soarin' multiple times and then still managed to snag FPs for Illuminations one night. We also used the evening EMH to ride Soarin' over and over and over . . .

I should clarify that we are not rope drop people, so this is what worked best for us. I am wondering if a second year in a row of both festival and pro bowl will bring in more crowds than last year, though, since the word about both has had time to spread. If so this plan might not work as well this year. Also, if we had wanted to do TT, this plan would probably not have worked out so well then, either. Soarin' seems to move people through quickly, but I don't know about TT. TT does have a single rider line, though, right?

 

[Deirdres]

I would love to be added, we will be at BCV Dec 29 - Jan1, and then OKW from Jan 1 - 6. It will be myself, DH, DS21, DD14, DS24 and his GF. It will be the GF's first time. ADR's all set, except for NYE, trying to get 10pm-ish at Rose and Crown, but selection only goes up to 8pm. Not sure why.

 

[MamaJessie]

I know this is early, but I am starting to work on my list of Fast Passes. For those of you who have been to WDW in the slow part of January before, how do you manage 2 Tier 1 attractions in Epcot? I am figuring that we have to do the Frozen ride, but we also want to do Soaring. I figure we need to wait in line for at least one of them, but wondered if lines in January will be that bad.

Did anyone go to this year's Festival of the Arts? Wondering if that will be a factor for either of those rides.

I would make it for FEA, and head to Soarin' first thing in the morning.

 

[k8Davies]

My wife and I will be there from Jan 20 - 26. Staying at All Star Sports. We usually stay at POR, but trying to save a bit of money this time. Going to miss Riverside, but I'm sure we're find our way over there at some point to see Bob.

Congrats on the trip and I'm sure you'l have a fantastic time, as your in Disney so where ever you stay it's Magical

also I added your trip to the roll call but couldn't abbreviate the hotel keeping it PG lol.

 

[k8Davies]

I would love to be added, we will be at BCV Dec 29 - Jan1, and then OKW from Jan 1 - 6. It will be myself, DH, DS21, DD14, DS24 and his GF. It will be the GF's first time. ADR's all set, except for NYE, trying to get 10pm-ish at Rose and Crown, but selection only goes up to 8pm. Not sure why.

Yay on booking your trip, NYE sounds like fun and good luck getting your reservation sorted.

I have added you to the roll call and I hope you have a great 2017/2018 trip lol

 

[k8Davies]

I know this is early, but I am starting to work on my list of Fast Passes. For those of you who have been to WDW in the slow part of January before, how do you manage 2 Tier 1 attractions in Epcot? I am figuring that we have to do the Frozen ride, but we also want to do Soaring. I figure we need to wait in line for at least one of them, but wondered if lines in January will be that bad.

Did anyone go to this year's Festival of the Arts? Wondering if that will be a factor for either of those rides.

I am assuming that the FOTA will make the queues especially for Soarin' longer, although the only festival frame of reference I have is F&W and I know that's a lot busy.

Luckily (now going to sound really smug, sorry) as I'm there for two weeks I hoping I can FP all the top tier over that period.

For the trip my main FP+ of choice will be FOP and seeing the DH doesn't like AK if Pandora doesn't wow him, he'll stick to the once and done like we did on our last trip, so to get both rides in I might have to queue for the River Journey.

Which means I'm keeping everything crossed it's a lot quieter in Pandora than its been lately lol

 

[k8Davies]

We saw lots of families with Pro Bowl lanyards all over those two parks

Okay be nice as I am English (also I can't remember if I asked this before ) what in the Heck is a Pro Bowl and when is it on.

 

[BK2014]

what in the Heck is a Pro Bowl and when is it on.

The Pro Bowl is the National Football League's (NFL) version of an all-star game. It used to be held in Hawaii every year, but was played in Orlando in 2017. It will be played in Orlando again on January 28, 2018, at 3pm eastern time. It will be held at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, which is approximately 25 miles from the Walt Disney World Resort.

 

[k8Davies]

The Pro Bowl is the National Football League's (NFL) version of an all-star game. It used to be held in Hawaii every year, but was played in Orlando in 2017. It will be played in Orlando again on January 28, 2018, at 3pm eastern time. It will be held at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, which is approximately 25 miles from the Walt Disney World Resort.

Oooh fancy, I assume as it's going to be popular as if it's all stars, that people from lots of different teams right - yay look at me and my sporty type knowledge - GO TEAM SPORTS!!!

Okay so I'm right in thinking Disney will be busier that weekend; and on the 28th to avoid sporting type restaurants and areas - as i know I'll ask really dumb questions, like why are there big H at either end of the playing surface.

Jokes, I know why they're there it's for kicking the ball over, see I'm so sporty - rest assured I'm just as clueless about sport over here as well

All joking aside, thank you @BK2014 for the answer

 

[Megan Havard]

I am officially booked! Staying at Art of Animation 01/17-01/24 with my husband and two daughters (7 and 2). I am so excited!!

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Oooh fancy, I assume as it's going to be popular as if it's all stars, that people from lots of different teams right - yay look at me and my sporty type knowledge - GO TEAM SPORTS!!!

Okay so I'm right in thinking Disney will be busier that weekend; and on the 28th to avoid sporting type restaurants and areas - as i know I'll ask really dumb questions, like why are there big H at either end of the playing surface.

Jokes, I know why they're there it's for kicking the ball over, see I'm so sporty - rest assured I'm just as clueless about sport over here as well

All joking aside, thank you @BK2014 for the answer

Yes, if it's like last year, that weekend will be busier. Friday was the worst day that we experienced. There was a Pro Bowl parade on that Saturday last year in MK, so I imagine that day was even more crowded than Friday. Luckily, we were heading home so we avoided the parade crowds. Still, I don't think the crowds were as heavy as summer or holiday crowds. Just busy for the last week of January.