DVCers spring break....

[supersuperwendy]

So now that the 2013 charts are out I see my penciled in plans for 2013 are untouched!!

So...now I must admit I'm nervous about going for Spring Break 2013. It's our daughters 15th birthday and she wants to go for her Bday. The only issue is..it's premier season so a ton of points and I'm assuming it's going to be CROWDED. Is it worth the points do you think? We only have enough for 4 nights/5 days. Will we be in total gridlock in the parks? Would it be worth it to have her consider celebrating her birthday on different dates? I'm afraid of spending all of our points and then being miserable due to crowds. Any advice would much appreciated.

 

[JJSWDW]

Hi,
In our experience if either weekend touches Easter weekend then it'll be really crowded. However, that doesn't mean it is all bad news. First, during march and early April the MK will have really late extra magic hours. We had one Sunday last march where the MK was open until 2 or 3 am. We made extensive use of the late EMH during our trip mainly because it's usually a few hours in length where early EMH ( there's an early EMH ??) is often only an hour. During EMH not only are the off site people gone but everyone is on equal ground since there's no fast passes. However for the late EMH be prepared as it can still be busy until the last portion of it. It's amazing how many rides you can walk on at 2am. For those who think the little ones can't do this, DS7 was only 6 at the time and he was going strong. But, be sure to get up late and take an afternoon break to relax in the room or hit the pool.

If either weekend touches Easter it's extra busy because you get the trifecta of vacationers:
- those who always have Spring break tied to Easter
- those who always have spring break that given week regardless of Easter
- those who don't care about spring break but take a vacation because it's Easter

 

[JJSWDW]

Bottom line, for a non Easter spring break, we'd definitely do it again.

 

[supersuperwendy]

We would be there the Sunday - Thursday before Easter. So we would be out of there just before Easter weekend. I'm hoping our years of WDW experience have prepared us for dealing with big crowds! How does it compare to Christmas week crowds?

 

[lovin'fl]

We went for Easter week in 2005 and that was THE most crowded we ever experienced (except for Christmas day this past Dec...that was awful too, but it was the end of our trip so we were done with the rides by then). We were there for the whole week leading up to Easter as that was our spring break week. It was very crowded, but I don't remember if it was bad all week or just as we got closer to Easter. It was a very frustrating trip and we vowed never to go that week ever again.

 

[arthur06]

We are skipping 2012 at WDW.

But I was thinking of trying to do 4 trips to WDW in 2013. With the charts out now, I will have to start playing with the dates.

Jan for 4 nights with DW for marathon weekend.

Split stay during SB. 1/2 week at BLT and 1/2 week along the coast to watch some Spring Training Baseball.

August. Try for last week before school starts at home.

Then maybe a week in December.

 

[edk35]

We arrive the weekend before Easter this spring break. It will be our first time going during this time period. The most crowded time we have ever been is Thanksgiving week. We are also NOT staying DVC. We are renting a home out in Windsor Hill and also driving in. We have only driven a couple of times. We expect it to be really crowded no matter which days we go to the parks. Our plan is to not go to the Disney parks after Thursday leading into Easter weekend. That is the only plan of action I have.

 

[4DisneyAddicts]

I assume the water parks are just as crowded, or are they not as bad?

 

[starbox]

We've gone Spring Break (which has been Easter week) for the past 3 years. It is crowded, but it's nothing like Christmas. The weather draws people to the water parks and to their resort pools, which eases up the park crowds as compared to Christmas. Don't get me wrong - it IS really CROWDED - but it's not impossible to enjoy if you have a plan. We've always enjoyed it.

 

[nolanboys]

I'm in the same boat. We went this past year for spring break and loved it - it was crowded, but not too bad, and the weather was great. Originally we planned on going for NYE for my 40th birthday this year, but I am worried about the crowds and cold weather, so we decided on spring break again. Well... The point charts came out, and I didn't realize Easter was so early. We have enough points, but I don't want to go when I know it's going to be crazy. We may still go over NYE and stay through the 6th, but I'm worried it will be crazy that whole week because of where school's Christmas break will fall. Already planning on Spring Break 2014 because of where Easter falls. You have to decide how much crowds bother you. I know I can handle it for a few days, but anything more than that no way. Good luck! I'm still trying to figure it out. You should see all the different dates and resort scenarios I have charted - tad OCD!

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

We are going this year for Spring Break. We check in the Monday before Easter and leave on Thursday. MK will have EMH starting at 7 am. I know that is crazy early, but we plan to be at the park at 6:30-6:45 to try to get as much done as we can. From what I have heard the crowds are decent until about 11 am.

Here is my plan to combat the crowds....because I hear it is CROWDED!!! I plan to collect fast passes early starting right at 7 am. Then , as the parks get crowded starting around 11 am, we will move on to doing things that require reservations such as lunch at Crystal Palace at 11:30 am and at 2 pm DD has a reservation at Pirates League. After that we plan to use our Fast passes we collected early that morning. After that, we will just play it by ear. We may go back to the resort for a while and rest and swim and go back to MK to the fireworks.

Also, we are only planning to do 2 park days...Tuesday and Wednesday and no park hopping. I think park hopping takes up a lot of time during busy season based on my experience. We are going into the trip with a mindset of knowing we wont be able to see it all and we will have to get up early to make it work. Good luck on your trip! I will report back how it went. Heck...I might even do a trip report

 

[supersuperwendy]

We arrive the weekend before Easter this spring break. It will be our first time going during this time period. The most crowded time we have ever been is Thanksgiving week. We are also NOT staying DVC. We are renting a home out in Windsor Hill and also driving in. We have only driven a couple of times. We expect it to be really crowded no matter which days we go to the parks. Our plan is to not go to the Disney parks after Thursday leading into Easter weekend. That is the only plan of action I have.

Is this your first stay in Windsor Hills? We stayed there in 2008 and LOVED IT!!

 

[Anal Annie]

So now that the 2013 charts are out I see my penciled in plans for 2013 are untouched!!

So...now I must admit I'm nervous about going for Spring Break 2013. It's our daughters 15th birthday and she wants to go for her Bday. The only issue is..it's premier season so a ton of points and I'm assuming it's going to be CROWDED. Is it worth the points do you think? We only have enough for 4 nights/5 days. Will we be in total gridlock in the parks? Would it be worth it to have her consider celebrating her birthday on different dates? I'm afraid of spending all of our points and then being miserable due to crowds. Any advice would much appreciated.

We're going down on the evening of Thurs. March 29 (DS's last day of the semester) and staying until Wed. April 4th. We did a similar thing 2 years ago & stayed at Kidani. That year it was manageble because it was the year they did the Give-a-day / Get-a-day thing and we used our vouchers for the special fast passes. We had 3 days worth so we toured like normal the first couple days when the park crowds were heavy but not insane & we saved the vouchers for our last 3 days. We were soooo glad we had saved them. I am not sure how we'll get along this year without them & it will determine if we try to plan another spring break trip for 2013. It definitely got busier & busier as each day passed and by about Tuesday am the week before Easter the MK was so full it was closed to admission by around 10:30!! The monorail was a total ZOO!!

It helped I think that we STARTED our trip as early as we could while it was still in "Magic" season. Even though the weekends take more points it was worthwhile for us to have a couple of days in before the pricey "Premier" season and resulting crowds kicked in so that's what we're doing again this year. Since MK is the most popular park I would suggest you do that park on your first day or 2. And when you DO go, go EARLY or you may run the risk of not getting in. Do not expect to be able to park hop to the MK later in the day as you may have to wait until late afternoon after the parade before they start letting people in again... Park hopping can get tricky when the parks are full. We used the railroad in MK to get around from one end of the park to the other because walking was so difficult with it being wall to wall people!! Without fast passes EVERY RIDE had a standby wait time of between 2 - 3 hours by like 10:00 AM. So you need to be prepared for that idea. We tried to take advantage of morning EMH's so we could ride as many things as we could before they opened to regular park guests...then we left & went to a park that didn't have EMH's that day. Morning EMH's are critical for rides like Expedition Everest at AK!!

You don't say where you're planning to stay but you might play with the charts a little bit & see if you can plan an AKV value or std. villa or an OKW villa to save points and see if you can back up your dates by a day or two. Sometimes it's not that much of a total difference in point totals if you're combining 2 seasons. And in IMHO the difference in the crowds to go early is worth spending a few more points to stay over the weekend if you can. For example we're using 150 pts. for 6 nights in our LV studio at BLT. The first 3 nights (Th, F & S) are in "Magic" season and our last 3 nights are in "Premier". If we did 6 nights including both weekend nights all in "Premier" it would've cost us 172 points.

Finally, while we packed bathing suits it was NOT water park weather. We tried to go to the Kidani pool a couple of times but they really didn't seem to be heating the water temperature in the pools very high. I stuck my big toe in and backed myself right on over to the hot tub. The daytime temps while we were there were upper 60's - lower 70's...not as warm as I'd HOPED it would be. I had been hoping that we could chill by the pool in the afternoons while the parks were at their busiest but it really wasn't warm enough that year. Crossing my fingers for a warmer spring down there this year!!

 

[supersuperwendy]

Thanks Annie so much. I thought about arriving Thursday or Friday which are magic season. The only problem is the kids would miss two days of school and I'll miss work. We will definitely arrive Saturday though and Premier doesn't start till Sunday. We looked up videos on youtube of spring break in WDW and couldn't believe the crowds. She still wants to go though. I think the laid back feeling of SSR would be perfect during such a busy time. We may just arrive early at the parks, see our faves then retreat to the resort or DTD. I think we will make it full of special birthday events. We've still never seen Cirque De Soleil and the kids haven't been to Hoop Dee Doo yet. Plus our little one will be three so maybe Mickey's Backyard BBQ too!

Did you go to all EMHs? How were non EMH days?

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks Annie so much. I thought about arriving Thursday or Friday which are magic season. The only problem is the kids would miss two days of school and I'll miss work. We will definitely arrive Saturday though and Premier doesn't start till Sunday. We looked up videos on youtube of spring break in WDW and couldn't believe the crowds. She still wants to go though. I think the laid back feeling of SSR would be perfect during such a busy time. We may just arrive early at the parks, see our faves then retreat to the resort or DTD. I think we will make it full of special birthday events. We've still never seen Cirque De Soleil and the kids haven't been to Hoop Dee Doo yet. Plus our little one will be three so maybe Mickey's Backyard BBQ too!

Did you go to all EMHs? How were non EMH days?

Maybe you could think about booking a flight going down on Friday evening after work / school like we're doing on Thurs. then you'd wake up there ready to go on Saturday morning and you don't waste your day traveling?! We just happen to luck out this year that DS's last day of the semester is on Thurs. and our county always takes the next school day off as a "professional day" for the teachers to do grading etc. so he's off on Friday. It's technically not part of what they call spring break but it just happens to fall that way. Next year I think the last day of the semester is Friday so we'll have to wait until Friday night. You may also find that flights are cheaper the earlier you go too.

Yes, we always take advantage of EMH's if we can drag ourselves up. Sometimes we do both AM and PM but so we have to be careful not to stay out TOOOO late the night before if we're getting up early. I think the EMH's start at like 7:00 AM over Easter so that means getting up & out by at least 6:30. We find that it's especially important at AK park. EE is DS's fav. ride so we beeline straight over there, snag fast passes & get in line to ride it standby. We usually ride it standby 2 or 3 times or until the line starts building then we move on & go over to the Safari. After the Safari we see if it's time for new fast passes then we pick up some for the Kilamanjaro raft ride thing if it's open by then (I like to wait to ride that after it starts warming up and it's not open for EMH's so we have to wait for reg. park hours). THEN we move over to Dinosaur then come back to EE for our fast pass ride then hopefully by then we can do Kilamanjaro. Every once in awhile we throw in something different like Nemo or Bugs Life or the Flight thing. DS likes the Whirl coaster but it hurts my back so we head over there & I shop while he & DH do that.

We've never done Hoop or Cirque either (I can't bring myself to pay that much for that one). One day. Maybe.

 

[supersuperwendy]

Maybe you could think about booking a flight going down on Friday evening after work / school like we're doing on Thurs. then you'd wake up there ready to go on Saturday morning and you don't waste your day traveling?! We just happen to luck out this year that DS's last day of the semester is on Thurs. and our county always takes the next school day off as a "professional day" for the teachers to do grading etc. so he's off on Friday. It's technically not part of what they call spring break but it just happens to fall that way. Next year I think the last day of the semester is Friday so we'll have to wait until Friday night. You may also find that flights are cheaper the earlier you go too.

Yes, we always take advantage of EMH's if we can drag ourselves up. Sometimes we do both AM and PM but so we have to be careful not to stay out TOOOO late the night before if we're getting up early. I think the EMH's start at like 7:00 AM over Easter so that means getting up & out by at least 6:30. We find that it's especially important at AK park. EE is DS's fav. ride so we beeline straight over there, snag fast passes & get in line to ride it standby. We usually ride it standby 2 or 3 times or until the line starts building then we move on & go over to the Safari. After the Safari we see if it's time for new fast passes then we pick up some for the Kilamanjaro raft ride thing if it's open by then (I like to wait to ride that after it starts warming up and it's not open for EMH's so we have to wait for reg. park hours). THEN we move over to Dinosaur then come back to EE for our fast pass ride then hopefully by then we can do Kilamanjaro. Every once in awhile we throw in something different like Nemo or Bugs Life or the Flight thing. DS likes the Whirl coaster but it hurts my back so we head over there & I shop while he & DH do that.

We've never done Hoop or Cirque either (I can't bring myself to pay that much for that one). One day. Maybe.

I will definitely think about flying down on Friday afternoon. We did that in 2010 and had a 2:45 pm flight and were in Disney by 5! It would save me some points too! We are major rope droppers so I'm pretty sure we can make 7 am EMHs!!! Thanks for tips!

 

[supersuperwendy]

I just got a look at the 2012/2013 school calendar. Friday isn't going to be doable I guess. They have PSSAs scheduled for most of March and April including Friday March 22. We have a 4 day weekend for MLK and Presidents Day..I would imagine those crowds are lower than spring break?

Wow..the points for January are great...but the weather could be cold

 

[Goaliemom30]

I love going in January. Weather can be hit or miss, but usually this means at least one pool day and some occasional light jacket weather. The smaller crowds are worth it. Been on Easter Sunday and Iwould NEVER do that again. Many locals spend Easter at the MK as their Easter tradition- at least that is what I learned standing on line for HOURS with the locals. UGH!

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

We check in for a week this coming Easter Sunday. We've been there for Christmas week, and are expecting the crowds will be about the same. In other words, we're going to find enjoyable things to do, while expecting not to get on too many rides because of excessive lines.

We've never done Spring Break before because of the reasons the OP mentions -- the crowds and the points. But this year, we had to use up some points that we banked/borrowed for a big family vacation that had been planned for the summer. That trip had to be postponed until 2013, so we had to squeeze in another week before July 31st. Expanding our summer trip by another week isn't an option because there's no way my office would let me be gone for three weeks straight. With a school teacher in the household, that pretty much meant Spring Break was our only option.

I'm looking forward to it. I haven't done a lot of online searching, yet, to see what special things happen at Easter. It's one of the few holidays we haven't been there for. We'll be staying at SSR, which seems to me to be the perfect Easter resort. It just has that whole "Easter bonnet" vibe to it.

 

[supersuperwendy]

I ageee Dave about SSR, I think it has a perfect Easter feeling too. We talked more about it last night about switching to january and have have decided to keep spring break. I hope we can deal with the crowds!