Advice on visiting in Spring

[JessiMommy]

Since I am having difficulty finding what I want in a Disney room this September I am contemplating moving our trip to the Spring. I have not visited during this time in several years so I am not sure what to expect. For the past few years we have traveled mostly in mid to late January or early September. I am familiar with crowd levels at those two times. I know things are ever changing as far as crowds go these days though. For anyone who has been recently in the Spring, can you give me your thoughts on what I can expect? I assume it's still wise to avoid the week before and the week after Easter. Is early March better than May? Or no? I'm open to February as well but I really want to use the pool and don't want to risk the chance of it being too cool. We enjoy the pools in September so much when it's super hot out.

I've been fighting breast cancer for the past year and I've really been looking forward to my September Disney trip. However, it doesn't seem to be in the cards for us after all. I'm OK with that but I want to move forward in planning something else. I'm open to hear any suggestions. I'm pretty good at planning and using those FP's and rope drop to our advantage. I just want to avoid really heavy crowd periods. We have FL Resident Annual Passes so we have to be mindful of those black out dates. We really love the AKL (especially that pool!) The entire time I was angry this past year over this dumb cancer stuff I just imagined floating in that pool, ahhhhhh.... Lol! So what do you suggest?

 

[bnhonest]

We were there our last trip the second week of May this year. Like 6 weeks ago. It was wonderful. Temps mid-80s, warm enough to swim, but not beat-you-down hot. Crowds were very manageable everywhere except MK, but that was because of the last Wishes show and first HEA show. There was not a drop of rain the entire week.

 

[momimouse27]

Some people will tell you it's awful and hot and crowded. I can only talk about my experience, which was really wonderful!

We went three years ago at the end of April/first week of May. It wasn't the slowest crowd-wise, but it also wasn't the worst. I'd call it average. But I found the temps to be very nice. It was especially nice at night, breezy and cool with around upper 70/low 80's. It was one of my favorite trips I've taken.

 

[CarolynFH]

March is the beginning of Spring Break season so gets busy no matter when Easter falls (although the weeks before and after Easter are the busiest as you know). So early May would get my vote too.

 

[10MoreMinutes]

We went last May (the 21st-24th) and wouldn't be opposed to going at that time of year again. Crowds were really manageable...I was actually pleasantly surprised by this, given the time of year. Any later and I think we would have started running into summer crowds. In terms of crowd level, I'd go with early to mid May over March because March-April means Spring Break.

My only complaint about mid-May was that it was HOT...like, heat index in the upper 90s, hot. None of us were expecting that, but we just made sure to re-apply sunscreen a lot and drink lots of water and we were fine. We did take an afternoon to float around in the pool for a couple hours, and it was perfect weather for that.

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

I love March-great temps, longer hours, no rain...We were at WDW 1st week of March , 2nd week of May this year. March crowds were less, not as hot, much easier to get FP last sec ADR...May was hotter, some rain,not much but we go the same time every yr and some Mays we have had ALOT of rain, the temps get get to low 90's but still had a nice time but we spent every afternoon in the pool or waterpark.

 

[loves to dive]

We were there the week of March 6 this year and it was pretty nice. It was my son's college spring break. The weather was mild, I wore capris and short sleeve shirts the whole time, some nights were a tad chilly for this Georgia girl. No rain, nary a drop. The crowds weren't bad but I'm no judge of that since I've been just about every time of year to go and don't even think Friday nights at Epcot during F&W is bad. I have been the first week in April many times as that is my birthday week and it did seem a tad more crowded then the week in March we went this year but, again it wasn't horrible. I did get a little rain every time I was there in April but nothing like the summer showers, weather is pretty decent, shorts and tshirts, maybe a sweater in the early morning. I've been there late May, it was hot and rained more, crowds weren't horrible but it was F&G at Epcot (all my spring trips are for F&G) and could be a tad crowded during that but not jam packed.

 

[CAS239]

Spring break, warm weather, humidity coming back

 

[tlmadden73]

In 7 years I have gone 4 times for short trips and here is how I would rate the crowd levels from "CROWDED" to "NOT CROWDED"

early October
late March (2 weeks before Easter that year)
late August (week before Labor Day)
late January

Despite that, I would go in Spring again because of the weather, but crowdedness probably depends on when Easter falls as a lot of Spring Breaks revolve around that day.


I went a few months ago at the last week of March (which was between the normal mid-March Spring Break time and Easter week) and I found the crowds manageable and the weather awesome compared to other times of year. Not too hot to drain your energy, but hot enough to hit the pool in the evening.
The only park I found overly crowded was DHS (simply because it was an EMH day AND the park has little space and attractions that it always feels crowded). Since I planned on hopping to MK, my Fast Passes were over there, but if I had gotten Fast Passes for DHS and stayed there the day I doubt I would have find it crowded either. (I was just shocked at a 30+ minute wait for TSMM DURING EMH).

We hopped over to MK and I found it pleasant with little waits for the attractions we didn't have Fast Passes for. I was able to check out the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot and everything there was a walk-on except the "big" rides.

We also went to LEGOLAND during the trip and it was EMPTY (every ride was pretty much a walk-on).

 

[JennyDrake]

Another vote for first week in May. As PPers said, March and April are Spring Break season and most spring breaks are NOT linked to Easter. The end of April is Cheer Summit, which I find barely tolerable--give me Pop Warner ANY day....but I digress....

I have been the past 11 years either the last week of April or first week of May and I find May preferable. I've been 2x over the last 5 years in March and I found it surprisingly and unpleasantly crowded.

 

[JessiMommy]

Wow! Thank you for all the awesome advice. You have given me plenty to think about and consider. I appreciate your help more than you know.