Easter Week 2014

[DisnutDave]

What are your thoughts on Easter week 2014? DVC has premier season for 2014 as April 13-26. I know this is due to it being Easter week. Does anyone think that the crowds will be bad 4/20-4-26? It seems that most spring breaks are falling March and early April. It is our 25th wedding anniversary on April 23rd and we really wanted to be at the World. We are thinking if crowd levels are too high along with the points, we may just go the following week and celebrate then. Any thoughts on crowds for that week?

Thanks!

Helga

 

[jel0511]

Our Spring Break is the week before Easter and is the same every year. The Easter weeks, regardless of when they are are VERY crowded. A lot of schools tie their spring break to Easter, at least here in the northeast. We'll be there 4/11 - 4/21 next year and I expect the same crowded atmosphere as we'e experienced every year for the past 7 years.

 

[crazybones27]

Easter week is one of those times where the parks actually close due to capacity. Definitely expect high volume crowds the week of and after Easter.

 

[CarolMN]

The week before Easter and the week after are always busy. Always. If you can go earlier or later, you will encounter MANY LESS people in the parks.

Only the week between Christmas and New Year's is busier than the Easter weeks.

 

[KBoopaloo]

The week following Easter Sunday is school vacation week for the majority of schools in Massachusetts and for many other parts of New England as well. Our April break is based on Patriot's Day, not Easter and and always falls the week of Patriot's Day, which is the day after Easter in 2014. We are trying to decide between a big family trip in April of 2014 or 2015 and are leaning towards 2015 to avoid the Easter crowds on top of the New England break crowds.

 

[n2mm]

I think next year will be tough in terms of crowds and getting a desired room. I've always found when Easter is late it affects the late spring travellers like myself. We always go well after Easter, but before Memorial Day. With that timeframe being shorter it does affect the crowd level. Often I book my May trips at the 7 month window, but may not in 2014. I am working now on putting my April/May 2014 plans together so I'm ready to decide where I might want to stay. I'm glad I own 3 homes, because it makes it easier to be flexible at the 11 month window.

 

[corpcomp]

Since Easter is April 20th next year versus March 31 this year, the two week period before and after will be Premier season and the most expensive. It will also be the most packed.

We were down there last week for our Spring Break and it was not bad except for Toy Story Mania and the Electric Light Parade.

I can guarantee you that it will be packed for your anniversary on the 23rd.

Since DS 17 is going to college next year and has a huge amount of time off for Christmas break, we are going back the 1st week of January which we have been told is not busy and may still see the decorations. Very inexpensive time. Cooler, but coming from CT, it will still be about 20-30 degrees warmer.

But anniversaries are important and you should not let the crowds impact rekindling your marriage vows, holding hands in the park, fine wine dinners and exchanging expensive gifts.

Then again we just go to Outback steakhouse.

 

[DisnutDave]

Thanks for the replies! We knew that the time we were thinking about would be crowd-laden (that's why we usually go in May, October and early December), but we're weighing that against the timing of our anniversary. As corpcomp said (LOL), this may one of those times that we go just to enjoy the resort and atmosphere and accept the crowds. But maybe we'll go just a bit later to avoid the worst of it.

Dave and Helga

 

[disfanforlife]

Since Easter is April 20th next year versus March 31 this year, the two week period before and after will be Premier season and the most expensive. It will also be the most packed.

We were down there last week for our Spring Break and it was not bad except for Toy Story Mania and the Electric Light Parade.

I can guarantee you that it will be packed for your anniversary on the 23rd.

Since DS 17 is going to college next year and has a huge amount of time off for Christmas break, we are going back the 1st week of January which we have been told is not busy and may still see the decorations. Very inexpensive time. Cooler, but coming from CT, it will still be about 20-30 degrees warmer.

But anniversaries are important and you should not let the crowds impact rekindling your marriage vows, holding hands in the park, fine wine dinners and exchanging expensive gifts.

Then again we just go to Outback steakhouse. [/QUOT
We are thinking about that January time too since two of our kids will have that same long break as your son. But still, I am leaning more towards their spring break the week of march 17 because we have never been during F & G and I am hoping the weather will be warmer too!

 

[corpcomp]

Since Easter is April 20th next year versus March 31 this year, the two week period before and after will be Premier season and the most expensive. It will also be the most packed.

We were down there last week for our Spring Break and it was not bad except for Toy Story Mania and the Electric Light Parade.

I can guarantee you that it will be packed for your anniversary on the 23rd.

Since DS 17 is going to college next year and has a huge amount of time off for Christmas break, we are going back the 1st week of January which we have been told is not busy and may still see the decorations. Very inexpensive time. Cooler, but coming from CT, it will still be about 20-30 degrees warmer.

But anniversaries are important and you should not let the crowds impact rekindling your marriage vows, holding hands in the park, fine wine dinners and exchanging expensive gifts.

Then again we just go to Outback steakhouse. [/QUOT
We are thinking about that January time too since two of our kids will have that same long break as your son. But still, I am leaning more towards their spring break the week of march 17 because we have never been during F & G and I am hoping the weather will be warmer too!

F&G was spectacular this year. Just amazing how they do it.

 

[disfanforlife]

That's great to hear. I really want to try it! I think we will. It might not be so busy since our kids spring is a lot earlier and no where near Easter. Then try January the next year. Maybe I will ask you how the weather was when you go in January!

 

[DisneyFamily06]

We were there for 6 nights the week following Easter this year. We stayed at AKV and it was more crowded than normal but not unbearable. We were never shut out of a park and we followed Touring Plans recommendations daily for a great trip. The pool was packed. We went for rope drops, resort in the afternoon, parks at night.

We rode everything including Toy Story and Soarin'. We were used to off season travel so we expected to be overwhelmed. It wasn't nearly as bad as we expected.

 

[corpcomp]

We were there for 6 nights the week following Easter this year. We stayed at AKV and it was more crowded than normal but not unbearable. We were never shut out of a park and we followed Touring Plans recommendations daily for a great trip. The pool was packed. We went for rope drops, resort in the afternoon, parks at night.

We rode everything including Toy Story and Soarin'. We were used to off season travel so we expected to be overwhelmed. It wasn't nearly as bad as we expected.

Where are the rope drops you are referring to?

 

[DisneyFamily06]

Where are the rope drops you are referring to?

That refers to the park openings. We rode Toy Story with a 5 minute wait, Soarin with a 10 minute wait by being there at the opening.

Another thing as well (and others might know), HS was scheduled to open at 9am, there were no morning extra hours, yet we entered the gates about 8:50 and rode Toy Story by 9AM. I had never entered early before. Has anyone else?

One other thing- we drove everywhere and saved a ton of time

 

[triciari]

That refers to the park openings. We rode Toy Story with a 5 minute wait, Soarin with a 10 minute wait by being there at the opening.

Another thing as well (and others might know), HS was scheduled to open at 9am, there were no morning extra hours, yet we entered the gates about 8:50 and rode Toy Story by 9AM. I had never entered early before. Has anyone else?

One other thing- we drove everywhere and saved a ton of time

Hollywood Studios almost always opens early nowadays. Typically by about 10-15 minutes, but sometimes more!!

 

[DisneyFamily06]

Hollywood Studios almost always opens early nowadays. Typically by about 10-15 minutes, but sometimes more!!

I guess the que area isn't huge there so maybe they do it to control crowd back-up?

 

[drusba]

As to crowds when Easter is late: they will not be quite as huge as when Easter is in March or first week of April. However, you will still have the largest crowds of the year other than Christmas week. How bad it is to any particular person often just depends on the individual. For example: two different people see the same crowd size and one thinks it is not bad at all and the other that it is ungodly. You should expect very long standby lines for popular rides once you get beyond the first hour to 1 1/2 hours in the morning, example: Soarin will exceed 2 1/2 hours and possibly reach 3. Fast passes for the entire day can disappear by noon. Best times to get on things is early morning. Lines can decrease quite a bit during a parade. Things like Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and some others can become short lines from about 3:30 to 7. Spaceship Earth which can have huge lines in the morning can be a walk on by 3. For things like the mountains, Soarin, Test Track, and the kids favorites in Fanatasyland you will need fast passes if you don't hit them early in the morning. Important that you make any dinner reservations well in advance.

 

[andi95]

I went this past Easter. Our SB was the week after Easter. We were there for 11 days from Good Friday and left the Tuesday the following week. It was very crowded Easter weekend. However, you can see the crowds were less less each day. By the following weekend, it was relatively normal.

Like others have said, it's not unbearable. Planning and Patience will go a LONG way. Happy Anniversary!! HAve fun!

 

[corpcomp]

Hollywood Studios almost always opens early nowadays. Typically by about 10-15 minutes, but sometimes more!!

That is what we found. We got to HS at 9:10 and there was already a 50 minute wait for Toy Story. The CM at the front told us they opened up at about 8:35 and it was not an early morning opening.

The day before we got there at 10:30 (we are lazy) and the FP time returning was 5pm. Not waiting 6 hours.

 

[Anal Annie]

Our county always places the school spring break either the week before or the week after Easter and includes Easter Monday. It is usually the week before Easter. It is only after if Easter if Easter is super early and so that it doesn't interfere with the State testing they do every year which is in late March. Our quarter also ends in March and the teachers always get a "professional day" the day after the quarter ends. It's nice when it coincides with the Easter break. This year the quarter ended on the Friday the week before the week leading to Easter so they added the Tuesday after Easter Monday as that day which extended the break by a day. LAST year the quarter ended on a Thursday so the "professional day" was the Friday before the break technically started but by default added a day to the beginning of the break. We got a jump on the crowds, airfare cost & point requirements and flew down late on Thurs. night - the Premier season and super big crowds didn't start until Sunday so we got a few nights in on the lower points. We have seen the MK reach capacity on a couple of these spring break trips. It's not pretty. Wait times for just about everything will be 2 1/2 hours by afternoon / evening. I would not go over spring break weeks if I had a choice to go a week or two later. But with a kid in HS we're pretty much tied to vacations over school breaks.

FWIW our 20th anniv. is this week too (on the 25th). Although it's a "big one" we'll just go out to eat on the weekend (DS has swim practice from 7-9:00 that night). Since we usually just order take-out if we actually GO OUT to eat and sit down at the restaurant that in itself will be special. We're going to DL and Aulani on our August vacation and we're just going to call that our anniversary celebration this year. Maybe I'm not sentimental enough but it just didn't work out to do anything super out of the ordinary ON our anniversary.