Easter 2005 Mini-Report

[klmall]

I just wanted to post about our recent trip during the big Easter holidays. We stayed March 27 (Easter Sunday) - April 1 at the French Quarter and were in the parks on March 28, 29, 30 and 31st.

Overall we found the parks manageable if you followed common sense and used FastPasses and took advantage of the MK's early opening each morning at 7:00 AM! One morning I got to the MK at 7:15 AM and rode all 3 mountains within 45 minutes and then did several other rides before leaving at 10:00.

The only park we found unbearable even near opening was the Studios. I did ride Tower of Terror twice but the lines were horrible everywhere and I left after 90 minutes.

Many times I ran first to get a FastPass and then marched into the standby line of the same attraction only to get off and go right again in with my FastPass. This worked well at MK and DS but not at Mission: Space.

We never stayed in the parks after about 11:00 AM unless it was to eat. We found it best to go to a resort like the Poly for a comfortable lunch and rest. Sometimes we went back in a park after 4:00 PM.

Overall, this trip was so much better than our Easter trip in 2002. Maybe it was because Disney had the MK open early every day we were there and even until 3 AM one night. The resorts were packed but even our food court was busy for only short periods.

We even snagged some last-minute PSs and every single time we went to eat we got in early on our PSs!!!! We walked right in to the Kona Cafe without a PS in the middle of the day and had a fantastic lunch!

We did run into several people who had no clue about the expected crowd levels or what a FastPass was and seemed to be having a miserable time.

Overall I wouldn't hesitate to go back during this time period again if you are staying onsite and know exactly what you want to see and when!!!!

 

[PolyHereWeCome]

We had a very similar experience -- Thanks for posting. We were at WDW the Easter Wk just before you (3/22-3/28) and never waited more than 10 min. for anything, thanks to getting there early (7:30-7:45 at MK, 8:30 at AK) and a few times using FP (Kali's, Buzz, Test Track).

We had a similar experience at MGM, as it was the one time we did hit a park mid/peak time of day. We were primarily there for the Fantasmic Dinner package, so we toured the crowded park, then had dinner and fantastic -- center -- seats to Fantasmic (glad we didn't let people convince us that the pkg. seats are bad). We'd spent the morning at MK, which was well worth it.

Glad we stayed on-site (at the Poly) because we really enjoyed the middle-of-the-day time at the pool, beach, lounge, and Neverland Club.

Also glad we'd bought hoppers. We would definitely go again at this time.

 

[Stitchfans]

We were there the 26th to April 1st. In spite of the crowds we had a blast. Weather was wonderful! We just took our time and eventually got to do whatever we wanted to do and then some. Had no luck with fastpass. No big deal though. Just twice (like you said at the studio) did my daughters have to stand in real long lines. 2 1/2 hours for the Rock n roll Aerosmith ride and 1 hr 1/2 for tower of terror. They claimed the wait was worth it. My husband and I just sat in the shade and chatted while they stood in line. We had great character interactions this time too. So many wonderful memories, and most caught on tape. No one will want to come over cause we have a little over 3 hours of video and 150+ pictures! LOL
Will share some of our fondest memories later.