What is GOING ON????

[flannualpasshldr]

Took the family over to the Magic Kingdom today to see a friend who is down on vacation with his family. The park was JAMMED!! JAMMED like Easter Sunday! Normally this time of year is dead since spring break is over and summer hasn't started. Jammed to the point where there's an 80 minute wait for Stitch's escape at 10AM. Jammed to where I had to walk through a que line OUTSIDE of Pirates of the Carribean. This is all fine when it's peak season and we stay away but during the last week of April?? Has a second spring break been added to the calendar because I want my kids to go to that school!

 

[HGD24]

Here in Northern New England, the kids had Spring vacation this past week...that might have contributed somewhat to the crowds....

 

[rombar]

Lots of schools in New Jersey have off this week.

 

[Granny]

I think March & April are hit & miss with the spring break crowds.

I must admit I read this with mixed feelings. On one hand, I felt sorry for the OP who thought they were booking a low attendance time of the year only to see huge crowds.

On the other hand, I'm glad that WDW continues to be a strong destination. That means they will continue to invest in the parks and keep our DVC experience fresh with each return visit.

Thanks for posting the information.

 

[Dean]

The crowds are usually pretty high from late Feb to the end of April. There may be a few days that are lower simply depending on when various spring breaks fall. Remember many are not at Easter. Any time that is Magic season should be considered at risk for being high demand. Most of the good guidebooks have a crowd size chart to give you an idea.

 

[flannualpasshldr]

If spring break is at the end of April, when do kids get of school for the summer?

 

[Disney Fanatic]

Just curious what day of the week you visited?

Was it Saturday or Sunday?

I have heard that the weekdays are a much better choice.

This is our strategy for next week and I hope it works!

 

[Dean]

If spring break is at the end of April, when do kids get of school for the summer?

It's not uncommon for schools in part of the country to get out mid June.

 

[flannualpasshldr]

I was there yesterday. Since we only live an hour away we normally go on weekends but sometimes during the week if I'm out in Kissimmee doing business. I was at MK a few weeks ago and it was dead. No lines for anything. But yesterday was packed.

 

[canwegosoon]

If spring break is at the end of April, when do kids get of school for the summer?

My kids last day of school is June 24 th and we were off last week...but not at WDW!!!

 

[DisneyHumbug]

Here on Long Island school are closed this week and everybody (except me) is in WDW! We get out on June 24.

 

[Deemarch]

Here in northern NJ lots of schools are out for the week. I really hope that it's a bit quieter next week!!

 

[DVC-Don]

Spring school vacation last week here in New York. The school here gets out for the summer on June 24.

 

[Disneyrsh]

I wonder if it's the magic your way that's making it so crowded. At my daughter's school, I'm sort of the 'go to girl' for asking questions about disney, and I've had people coming out of the woodwork asking me about if they can really do disney for $1500 (to which I snort, chuckle and answer, You can try!).

We're going down the middle of next month (may) and I'm having a heckuva time trying to get the norway princess lunch or breakfast, and that's on a monday! So far I got a 2:30 lunch, bleck. And I can get nothing on the Hollywood and Vine fantasmic package for that week, either. Zip! Zippo. We usually make it a point of going when nobody else is, so we've been there in january where it feels like we have MGM and EPCOT to ourselves-I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that feeling! The only time we felt like the MK was empty was a sunday morning with rain and gale force winds. We braved the boat (had it to ourselves) and had the park almost to ourselves. I hate crowds...

 

[lllovell]

Wasn't it also a really nice weekend there this past weekend? Maybe part of it is "locals" overload too since it was a nice weekend and they probably have spring fever as bad as I!!!

 

[patsal]

For some areas of upsate NY there was a real set of messed up breaks this year. Nothing was predictable. Some schools had a week in Feb. and a week at Easter , others had a four day weekend for Easter and last week off, as well as the week in February. Still others had no Feb. break, a four day weekend for Easter and last two weeks of April off. We don't get out of school until June 24th so having a break in late April is not really a big deal.

 

[sarhenty]

NYC schools have off this week, I think its due to Passover being this week.

 

[JeffreyY]

Yes, NYC schools are off this week because passover is late this year (usually we are off for easter/passover, late March to mid April).
We don't get out of school until June 28th.

 

[laceemouse]

In the south, schools tend to start early to mid August so they are done by late May or early June at the latest. In the Northeast, they start much later, like September, and go until much later in June. Here we are somewhere in between, although we are in the process of switching to homeschooling so I can post one of those "When is the least crowded time to go?" questions. We never liked taking our kids out of school for vacation because the workload here is just too great.

 

[goofy4dvc]

We were at MK on Tuesday and Thursday and commented that it was the busiest we had evey seen it there. We usually go last week of April or first week of May. MK was noticably busier than the other parks. We gave up with trying to fight the crowds and went back to hotel to swim. I think WDW should either add enough attractions per park or build another park to better accommodate the crowds. The wait-time should not be that long for rides or attractions.