crowds and weather for March 1-8

[emmababy]

Any advice on crowds and weather for this time of year would be great. Is it warm enough to swim? Are the crowds pretty light? Thanks!

 

[stczt]

We are going to be there then too. We are staying at Windsor Hills. I am wondering the same thing.

 

[FatElvis]

We were there this past March - it was pretty chilly most of the time. We were able to swim the first night, but we didn't go again. A few brave souls were out though.

We wore jackets each morning, and shorts or capris. I brought sweats or leggings for the girls to put on in the evening, although I think they ended up wearing them most of the day. Had a bit of rain here & there. I LOVE that kind of weather though.

Crowds - well, they were worse than I expected. It was ESPN weekend, so MGM was nuts, of course. I'd have avoided it but my dad wanted to see some of the events. AK was also WAY worse than I thought it would be. We did get to the parks early each day so that helped. And the nights were actually OK since it got chilly.

I haven't been in the summer though, so I've never seen a super crowded, level 9-10 day. But these days were certainly full - fastpasses for Soarin', Everest and one other attraction were gone relatively early.

 

[design_mom]

We were there the first week of March in 2005. We wore jackets in the mornings and evenings (well, the kids and DH did... I'd rather just freeze. LOL!), but were fine in shorts and t-shirts during the middle of the day. We didn't swim, but I think it would have been fine in the middle of the day, but chilly at night.

We didn't think the crowds were particularly bad. It was busy, but not *crazy busy*. I think the longest we waited for anything was about 20 minutes.

 

[emmababy]

What is ESPN weekend? And when is it?

 

[dogluva]

We went in March last year-closer to the middle (7-17). Crowds were getting worse as we were leaving but not anything really bad. Maybe on the weekend.

As far as the weather, it was perfect. Shorts, tank tops all day and maybe a sweatshirt at night but not every night.

 

[FatElvis]

What is ESPN weekend? And when is it?

Here's some info about ESPN weekend:
http://www.allearsnet.com/tp/mgm/espn.htm

Looks like next year it will be Feb 29 - March 2. Basically they do live broadcasts from the park, have lots of athletes there for different things.

 

[ujpest_doza]

We've been twice at that time, 2002 and 2005.

In 2002 we were there from 2nd March until 16th March and apart from one day that was cloudy, cold and windy the rest of the fortnite was lovely and sunny, although a lack of humidity meant that it felt cool when you got out of water in the first week, but not the second when the humidity picked up.
It was very quiet at this time but this still during the post 9/11 period where travel seemed to take a hit.

In 2005 we travelled 27th February until 12th March and this time the weather was cold, wet and very unpredictable for the majority of the time. In those 2 weeks we had 4 days that i would consider to be hot and sunny, another 4 or 5 days that were warm but not really hot and another 4 that were cold and very very wet. The wet weather made the local news headlines as it was so out of season.
Crowd wise it was a strange 2 weeks, as the theme parks themselves weren't uncomfortably busy but due to Bike Week at Daytona Beach the hotels and restaurants were very busy in the evenings. There were quite a few bikers on our flight from Manchester and one i spoke to said they were staying in Kissimmee/Orlando and commuting to Daytona every day because the hotel prices in Daytona were 3 times more expensive than in the Kissimmee/Orlando area at that time. A lot of other bikers it seemed had the same idea.

When the weather was hot it was okay for swimming and water parking, but unfortunately on this trip those hot days were few and far between.

 

[emmababy]

So bascially it is a crapshoot!Thanks for all the info, esp the ESPN thing. My dh would like that!!