[mulankaye]

Hi ya'll!
I am a newbie here, and must say that I love this forum. Everyone loves disney as much as me! I am taking my first trip to Disney Jan 22-28 and I am hoping that some people can share their experiences with travelling to disney in Jan. I have heard that you can go swimming..warm waters..but chilly air.. I live in Wisconsin, so I am sure that jan there will seem like summer time
I am planning on staying at Pop Century..I have heard good things about them.. Does anyone have any info on that resort? I am waiting on baited breath for the discounts to come out.. I want to make my reservations as soon as possible.
Thanks so much for all of your advice and help! I am going to need all I can get!

[MissDisney]

Welcome! Welcome! Glad you are here mulankaye!
Let me be the first to wish you a wonderful planning experience for your first January trip ever! First, the WDW hotels are always heated, so you can always swim. Also, the crowds are lighter, so the parks will be terrific! Pop Century is a perennial favorite on this forum, so you will probably love it! Wow... I wish I were making plans and priority seating reservations and all that fun stuff! You are going to get a lot of great advice here! I would just suggest this early that if you want to go to something special, like Cinderella's Royal Table, of the Polynesian Luau or Cirque du Soleil, you might want to make those reservations as soon as you can. Do you have children coming to WDW with you?

[disneyguy]

Great time of year to go!!! I go about one month after you, and it is a wonderful time of the year. Yes, Disney pools are heated at all resorts. I stayed at Pop Century(PC), on my last trip. Not sure what kind of info you are looking for, but yes I would wait to book my trip until the discounts come out next week. I would recomend requesting the 70's A Building(I think it is the one i stayed in). I always get so confused. If I am right, the A is the one closest to Everything Pop (the food court/gift shop).

[PrincessJill]

First trip! How exciting!! Welcome to DC, the people here are GREAT - you'll love it! I haven't tried Pop Century yet but I've been to all the other value resorts, and they are great for how cheap they are (compared to the other hotels). Tips for your trip: USE FASTPASS!! It'll make your life so much easier, lol. Do rides and shows you really want to see first, that way you'll make sure you get to do them. And most of all have fun!! If you have any specific questions, anyone here will be able to answer them, I'm sure. There's no limit to what all these awesome DC people know.

[disneyguy]

Forgot to mention I would recomend purchasing The Unofficial Guide to Disney and The Passporter. They can be found at any book store. The Passporter helps you do your planning, and The Unofficial has all the info you will need.

[llama]

Welcome to DC! You've come to the right place to plan your trip. Don't be afraid to ask any questions - we all live for planning. lol. January is a wonderful month at WDW. Very low crowds. Weather can be up and down, so be prepared for cool to hot. As Disneyguy said - a good guide book is invaluable and the Unofficial Guide is wonderful. The 2005 edition just came out. Buy it, and read it every night. The more you know and the more you're prepared, the better your trip will be! Glad to have you here.

[bethishooked]

Best advise I can give you for your first trip to Disney is to "slow down". There are so many things to do and see, it can get overwhelming. I would recommend getting a Disney Guide Book. I particularly like Birnbaum's Walt Disney World book. It keeps all the info short and sweet, so you don't go into information overload. Pick out the hot spots you would like to see, maybe a couple of sites from each park. Hit those first thing when you arrive at each park, and then enjoy going with the flow for the rest of the day. Its amazing when you take it at a slower pace, that you pick up so much more details (Mickey Mouses planted everywhere you don't expect). Make sure you take breaks throughout the day. Lots of times we go back to the hotel for lunch. The kids rest up while they are eating, sometimes taking a cat nap, and then you can go back to the parks, enjoying the evening events, being fully rested.

Have a great time and enjoy!

[Cheryl]

We went at the end of January this year & the kids did swim 2 or 3 days. We did have some very chilly (like in the 30's) mornings but warmer afternoons! The pools are heated, not hot by any means, but swimable!

I found January a great time to go - there was NOBODY there for most of our trip, we waited in NO lines & on many attractions, the Fastpass stations weren't operating since there were no lines anyway!

Have a great trip & lots of fun planning as well!

[Dopey]

Originally Posted by disneyguy

Forgot to mention I would recomend purchasing The Unofficial Guide to Disney and The Passporter. They can be found at any book store. The Passporter helps you do your planning, and The Unofficial has all the info you will need.

Yeah but don't forget to buy them at amazon.com and click through from this website so that Mickey gets his just desserts....

And welcome to you from me as well, mulankaye - you will love it here and you'll get all the help you need!

[CiliaWilia]

You should check out www.allearsnet.com they have everything you need from menus for most of the restaurants (with prices) to pictures of all the different hotels on site. I love that website and it is helping me TONS on planning my first trip...

[royorb1]

mulankaye, this site is awesome, the people here go out of their way to help. I wish I had known about this site before I went on my first trip to WDW. I am at this site many times a day, it has become even more popular than ebay for me. It is hard to absorb all the info about WDW, but no matter what happens on your trip, I'm sure when your leaving to go home, you'll be thinking about when you will be comming back! Have a great trip!!! P.S. every park is incredible!

[Dana]

WElcome to DC!!! Love all the newbies we ae getting lately. The more Dcers the merrier. January is an excellent time to go. I am going this january (21-27) for the second time at that time of year. Excellent touring, low crowds, mild weather. You have to be prepared for all sorts of weather that time of year, but expect it to range from the high 50's to the mid 70's. The pools are heated and my DD was able to swim a few times last year, so bring your suits regardless of what the weather man is saying. Ask anything here. As said in the above posts, we love to help.

[mulankaye]

OH MY GOSH!! I am feeling the love here! How awesome you all are! Thank you SO SO Much for all of your imput. I can't wait to get to know you all!
I have the unofficial guide from 04, and I think I've worn it out lol.. Im thinking of going the route of picking my fav rides from each park and then taking it easy at the rest.
I am so so so excited. I think I am more excited than my 9 year old lol
Any suggestions on getting the characters? I want to get as many signatures as I can. 27 years old going on 10 lol

Thanks again all of you! You all are super!

[Dana]

Originally Posted by mulankaye

OH MY GOSH!! I am feeling the love here! How awesome you all are! Thank you SO SO Much for all of your imput. I can't wait to get to know you all!
I have the unofficial guide from 04, and I think I've worn it out lol.. Im thinking of going the route of picking my fav rides from each park and then taking it easy at the rest.
I am so so so excited. I think I am more excited than my 9 year old lol
Any suggestions on getting the characters? I want to get as many signatures as I can. 27 years old going on 10 lol

Thanks again all of you! You all are super!

I highly suggest getting a few PS's (priority seatings) for a few character meals to get autographs. You have to eat anyway and they come right to your table instead of you waiting in a line to see them. They do, however, have many,many places to see all the characters in all of the 4 theme parks.

[tragic312]

first off, welcome to DC. you have come to the right place to learn everything you need to know about WDW in preparation for your first trip EVER.
second, you picked a great time of year to go to WDW. my DH and I went to WDW in january of last year during my first trip and it was incredible. the lines are incredibly short so you get to see a lot of shows and go on lots of rides without waiting long. with the small crowds, you'll get to walk around and absorb all of the beauty and fun of WDW.
you're not dealing with the heat and humidity so that's a plus. as far as weather is concerned, when we went, Florida was hit with a cold front. so, the temperatures were around mid 50's to low 60's. that didn't bother us because when we left home, Jersey, the temperature was below 0 so we had no complaints. do bring your bathing suit because the water temperature is about 80 degrees in the pools.
if we go back to WDW, i want to go in january because of the small crowds. that's my thing. the smaller the crowds, the more we can do!