Dang...Those Crowds..

Spoil our fun, absolutely not, but since you have only gone in July, you've never seen them in mass. Try going in January when the groups are 200 -300 large. They can turn a wait time of 20 minutes into a 90 minute wait in no time.

If to many groups are in one park, we go to another park, but that never ruins our fun.

Whit!! ...January...What's all that about..??...I was under the impression that Easter...July4th..and Xmas were the busiest times...

I do try and avoid the busiest seasons in Disney. October and February or early March are my favorite times to visit. Many of my family members have crowd anxieties and when the Parks are shoulder to shoulder, it's just asking for trouble with us.

I've never run into one of the tour groups, so I don't have a good answer to that.

Crowds and the weather are such huge factors for me. I mean, I do everything in my power to not book during the summer months or times when the parks will be crowded like for major holidays and whatnot. I mean, if you're going to go during the busiest times of year, it's Spring Break or bust. Having gone there three times, there are crowds but it's more manageable. Not the case if you're going during Christmas or the summer months from what I understand! Idealistically, Sept and Oct and very early December would be my preferred times.

We have gone in January the past 2 years and the South American tour groups are out in full force. Like mrhub, we avoid them if possible. We had to change rooms last year from the mansions at POR to alligator bayou due to at least 20 teenage South American girls sitting outside our door until the wee hours of the morning. And this happened 2 nights in a row! It can get crazy! We like that time of year tho as crowds are still low and the weather is nicer than at home in Canada. We prefer to go in low season.

January is midsummer in South America, so the kids are on summer break and the tour groups flock to Disney World.

We've only gone during "low" season - October, November, and December, and never around any major holidays. Of course there are always people at WDW, but we've never had a huge problem with crowds.

When we were in the world a couple of weeks ago (November 3rd to 18th) the Magic Kingdom seemed much busier than it was during our July 2011 trip. I think it is all relative to your expectations. It was not that busy when we went in July. We walked straight on most of the rides in Universal and all the Disney Parks. We even managed TSM on standby! We also got walk-ins for every restaurant we tried for.

Wow!..That would drive me crazy...I'am gonna have to put a new thread on about this subject of tour groups..

Actually, Kristen just did one in August:

http://www.wdwforgrownups.com/forum/combating-tour-groups

Cheers sir..Have put a new thread on as I'am curious about your groups.?..I'am such a nosey person..LOL..

The tour groups come in July and January. We just got a bunch of Brazilian International College Program participants and they are here until sometime in January because they are out of school for summer. January is a bad time to stay at certain resorts like Pop Century and Art of Animation. The Fifteens (girls celebrating their quinceanera) take over Pop Century. This year there were about 1,000 of them staying at the resort. Art got some of them at the food court because Pop ran out of certain foods or couldn't handle that big of a group at once.

Guess I'm adding January to my list of months to avoid travelling to Disney World. And adding November to my list of ideal months to visit (Except Thanksgiving week for obvious reasons.) along with Sept, Oct and early to mid-December.

It's the beginning of January when there are crowds. After Martin Lurther King Jr day, it slows down because schools are back in session.

It's not just Disney for us. We always vacation between mid September to mid November to miss crowds. Doesn't matter if we do the beach, cruise or Disney. We like the lower crowd levels.

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I've traveled to WDW during various times of the year. Of all the times I've visited, July 4th week was the busiest. It was very crowded and one park reached capacity that day. We avoided the parks on July 4th and just hit up DTD.

Christmas time is hit or miss and some of the weekends are crowded.

We found May to be pretty decent. Spring break is over and kids are still in school in most states, so we avoided a lot of crowds.