For anyone who has been the first week of Jan, what were your experiences? And would you recommend, we went just before Christmas last year.
Most of the rides have their big refurbishments in January, as it's the quietest time of year. You may find a lot of things will be closed.
I had a great stay in January, I went during the first week of the Star Wars celebration.
A couple of rides were closed down but I think it was still worth it.
But as some advice, bring warm clothes, it gets very cold in January, so cold that fountains were frozen.
We went in January 2016. Very cold, slightly rainy. But still good fun.
With ours, we were able to catch the last few days of the Christmas season before the decorations came down, but it was outside the peak time so much more affordable. It depends how the days fall each year, check the pricing grid for next year on the DLP website to see how much it'll be.
As others have said, once you get into January "proper" (i.e. post-Christmas), lots of rides are shut down for refurbs ahead of the spring/summer. This was particularly the case the last 2 years ahead of the 25th anniversary, but I would imagine holds true nonetheless for next year.
We were there later in January this year for a quick trip to see some friends before they moved from Paris back to the States. If you can bear the cold and don't mind the park closing early, it's worth going for the small crowds. The parks closed as early as 7pm while we were there, which made it difficult to have dinner in the park, but was great for seeing the fireworks with small children. Bring warm clothes (below freezing for extra magic hours), be prepared for many ride closures, and look for dinner spots in the village. Season of the Force was great, especially the night show near Tower of Terror.
We've been in the first week of January each year for the past 10 years. It is a great time to go because you still have DLP's Christmas Season including all the decorations, most of the special shows like Christmas Cavalcade, Chirstmas Tree lighting ceremony, Snow in Main Street etc. but at a very affordable price and with smaller crowds. Usually all or most of the attractions are still open in the first week of January. Once Christmas season ends (usually after the 6th or 7th of January) a lot attractions close right away though.
One thing about January 2018, most countries go back to school on the 8th of January - they will all be off the first week. I would expect the parks to be on the busy side!
We went the 1st week of January this year and it was much busier than my usual late January trip. That was outweighed by the benefit of the extra Christmas entertainment though!