Easter Advice Please

[magical memories]

What is a good strategy for Easter Week? Should we try to get to the parks for EE and skip the EMH? Any suggestions for Easter day? Which parks would be too crowded to even go to?

 

[tjmouse]

Always skip MK on a holiday. It's the most crowded.

Use morning EMH for sure. I would not do evening EMH that week, but if you are adventurous, I think MK might be open until 3:00 am one or two nights!

Try to go to the park in the morning that had evening EMH the night before. That's usually the least crowded.

Plan on hopping.

Pick your 3 must do's and do those first. Or let everyone pick one or two that they want to do.

Use FastPass.

 

[JFrey4240]

We go every Easter because that's when we're off from school. Go early, early, early or you'll regret not getting out of bed! Whenever we went early, especially MK, we were able to ride the rides we wanted without waiting too much. Park attendance really picked up around 11 and by the parade it was packed! We learned never to be in the Splash Mountain area around the afternoon parade because you couldn't go anywhere. There were so many people that you had to backtrack towards the Haunted Mansion to get out of that area. So we would go early and hop to another park or head back to the resort for a swim. It's doable but you need to plan ahead. Make sure you make all you ADR's before you leave or you'll be eating counter service food all week. Have fun!

 

[Mamu]

Knowing there's going to be crowds. I say go with the flow and have a Magical Trip.

You could sit here forever and try to plan the perfect trip. It will never go as planned, there are always snags.

Your at Disney, It's Easter, the crowds are large but who cares, it's better then being home. Have a Wonderful, Magical Trip.

 

[ellenmiele]

I have to disagree about avoiding MK on Easter Sunday. Last year we stayed at the Contemporary, arriving the day before Easter. Since Easter Sunday was our first full day there, the kids were anxious to get to MK. On Easter Sunday we went to the Catholic Mass in the Contemporary, then the candy scramble, then breakfast at Chef Mickey's. At about 2 pm we figured what the heck - lets go over to MK (mostly to try to catch the parade at 3 and see Mr and Mrs Easter Bunny). We'll as we walked up Main Street, my husband and I looked at each other and knew we were both thinking the same thing - where was everybody? Yes, it was crowded but nowhere near what I had been anticipating. So...here's what I heard from a CM: since some schools are off the week before Easter and some are off the week after, Easter Sunday is a big turnover day and crowds can be pretty manageable. Overall, he said the week before Easter tends to be a little busier than the week after. Now, all that being said, on Tuesday of the week we were there, they did close MK due to capacity (we were heading to EPCOT that day anyway). But that was the only max capacity closing that we heard about that week.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

This will be our 2nd easter trip. We have 3 teen ds and I already know they will not get up early and go to the parks so we will probably do the 2 days when mk is open till 3 am. Also we will most likely do the late night emh. I have made all the adrs for one big sit down meal a day, breakfast is just granola bars etc. If you are doing counter service, definetely get there by 11:30 or like 4:45 for dinner. It was terrible with lots of people stalking you for a table etc, if you went at any later times. The busses were usually standing room only, fastpasses had actual lines to get them and the return times were sometimes like 6 hours later. Easter Day we avoided the MK. We did a charcter breakfast at cape may, then went to epcot, then hopped over to mgm for dinner at hollywood and vine. Turned away people with no adrs.
This year we are going april 11-18. We have ap's so can pretty much go anywhere, we will fit all the 4 parks, 2 water parks and the ds will go to disney quest twice. I have made 7-8 adrs already, I might change 2 of them. I havent finalized the easter day plan yet, but so far we are having dinner at the garden grill. Might to to ak in the morning. If you plan well, you will have a good trip. I would also say bring some snacks, drinks etc, in a backpack because if you have little ones, it can be frustrating to wait in a line with 20 people in front of you etc. Have a great trip.

 

[hightown]

We did Easter/Spring Break last year and had one of our best trips ever. Of course, we've been lots of times and will in future so it didn't bother us if we were not able to do a big ride due to crowds.

That trip, we looked for alternate things to do and I guess that made it so fun.

For instance, I surprised my Daughter with tickets to go see Maroon 5 on Saturday night. It was at the Osceola Heritage Center. Very small venue and easy to get to. She was FLOORED.

One day we spent the entire day at the Who Wants to be a Millionaire and saw just about every show. It's something we both love doing.

On Easter, we slept in and then she did the Easter Egg scramble at Yacht Club. We went to Downtown Disney and saw a movie. Then had dinner at Chef Mickeys. A perfect day.

I would recommend you get ADRs if you want sitdown meals because those will be gone.

Don't expect to ride everything, take it slow and stop and smell the popcorn! Look for different things to do.

 

[magical memories]

good advice. Thanks, we will have a GREAT trip no matter what the crowds are!