Anyone who has been March/April/Easter time...

[ava_rose]

Hi,

We have two potential date options for next year, just wondering for those who have been at this time, if there is much difference in crowd levels/general business of the parks?

Option 1:
Fly March 20th for 2 weeks (Easter weekend is in the middle)

Option 2:
Fly April 5th (one week after Easter weekend) for 2 weeks

I've tried looking at some crowd calendars for next year and it does seem that option 2 will be lower crowds than option 1 but not by a crazy amount...

Option 1 suits us better for work/school etc but we are wondering if there's enough of a benefit with crowds etc to consider option 2...

 

[DWillowBay]

Just my opinion, but Option 2 seems better to me. Lower crowds, slightly warmer weather. With Option 1, you run the risk of some Spring Break crowds as well as Easter crowds since some schools link Easter with Spring Break. But you know your needs and availability best. Have a great trip, no matter when you go!

 

[pixiedust2u]

Option 2

 

[Mirabell Rose]

Here this year. Thurs-Sun following Easter crowds huge. Yesterday and today, much much lighter

 

[scrappinginontario]

Another vote for option 2 both for crowds and weather.

 

[js]

I'm waiting to book a cruise and we have to wait on the NYC Public School calendar for my dh. He is thinking that the Spring Break for 2027 will be the week of April 19 due to Passover, not Easter. Not sure what other schools in the NE follow that schedule but it lines up to what is usually done.

 

[Genie+]

The week starting Apr 5, is going to better than the 2 weeks prior. The following week should be even better!

We are basically in the option 2 set of weeks now. WDW made 2 weekdays ‘good to go’ this week, and 4 next week. That means they let Annual Passes come without reservations, which is when WDW predicts soft attendance.

The crowd calendars have a hard time predicting around Easter and spring break because always moving and the way schools overlap is always changing.

For sure I’d go with April 5-19 next year!

 

[lovethattink]

Option 2, without hesitation.

 

[Genie+]

The week starting Apr 5, is going to better than the 2 weeks prior. The following week should be even better!

We are basically in the option 2 set of weeks now. WDW made 2 weekdays ‘good to go’ this week, and 4 next week. That means they let Annual Passes come without reservations, which is when WDW predicts soft attendance.

The crowd calendars have a hard time predicting around Easter and spring break because always moving and the way schools overlap is always changing.

For sure I’d go with April 5-19 next year!

Starting from Good Friday in any year, the next 16 days are very busy.

The 2 weeks after that period are lighter crowds by a significant amount.

Option 1 leans above average to high crowds. Option 2 leans below average to average crowds.

If you look on disneytouristblog, Option 1 is worst weeks to visit and Option 2 is in best weeks to visit.

On WDWprepschool, they show red during Opt 1 and yellow/orange during Opt 2.

Touringplans this year went like:


eta - Easter had thunderstorms which helped reduce crowds that day


Here’s a closer look into TP, these are the numbers as they actual happened so far for 2026:



The green line splits between Opt 1 & 2. These are considerable changes!

I would expect the same next year, just adjust it 1 week back to account for Easter being 7 days earlier next year.

So in 2027 things should shift gears starting around April 5th.