We were there January 26-February 7, 2013. This has always been our favorite time of year to go--until this year. Usually, the tour groups peak in mid-January and start to taper off by the end of January and there are barely any in early February. This year, the tour groups were out in full force our entire trip. Even on our last day, in HS, the walkways were so crowded we could barely move. It's difficult to predict wait times because they fluctuate significantly and randomly throughout the day, with no regard to the time of day--it all depends on where the tour groups are. So, for example, first thing in the morning there could be a 30-minute wait for ToT, then it would randomly drop to 10 minutes, but could jump up again within 20-30 minutes. So if you want short wait times, you have to rely on being lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time. The wait time estimates were also very inaccurate because of large influxes of people all at once. For example, we'd get in a line with a posted 10-minute wait, but unbeknownst to us a large group would have entered the line at some point ahead of us, and the wait could be as long as 30-45 minutes. It was so bad, that my husband and I both agreed after the trip that we would be looking for a different time of year to go. Of course, this could change in the future, with changing exchange rates, etc. Also, I recognize these wait times and crowds are nothing compared to other times of year, but we pull our kids out of school for lower crowds and it was frustrating to go to the most recommended parks during a supposedly slow time of year and find them packed. In previous years, most rides were walk-ons or had a 10-minute wait.
We've had pretty good luck with the weather this time of year--very little or no rain. Some days can be hot (mid- to high 80s); we've never had days colder than low 60s. Even on the hotter days, a jacket is usually needed in the mornings and evenings.
We stayed at POFQ for the first time this last trip and really loved it. It's small and pretty. The food was on par with other Disney hotel food courts. Even my DD11 was talking about how much she liked POFQ just the other day. I much prefer it to Pop and think it's worth the extra money.
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