End of April/Beginning of May 2011..crowds for grad night,cinco de mayo,mother's day?

[jewel71]

Has anyone been to WDW the last weekend in April through the first weekend in May? The weather looks like it should be pretty nice during that time (not too hot yet?) but the crowds have me concerned. The last weekend in April is grad nights.......are you fine so long as you stay away from MK? What is the crowd level for the other parks on those days? Also Cinco de Mayo is during the first week in May, and in 2011 it would also be the week before Mother's Day. (But we would leave probably by that Friday, so we wouldn't actually be there during the Mother's Day weekend, just the week before.) Just curious if anyone who's been during this time can tell me what to expect crowd wise? Thanks for your help!

 

[mreid1974]

We actually were down there this year at the same exact time you are talking about.. April 30th to May 7th.. Our first day of going to a park happened to be a Friday and it was grad night.. Cant start a vacation without going to MK first. The park closes early on grad night days.. 7pm!! But with that being said, we were there till right after the parade so we left the park at about 4. And the crowds were great.. I think people think its gonna be bad so people stay away.. Longest wait was 10 mins.

Cinco De Mayo was just like any ordinary day.. We were actually at Epcot that day and did go to Mexico and it didnt seem bad at all..

As far as weather goes this past year was a tough one to judge for normal years. Florida had a incredibly early hot streak this year.. But the weather is great!!! If you choose this time of year i feel you will be very happy with your choice!!

 

[jewel71]

Ok, I did it! I finally picked a date! We arrive Thursday, May 5th and leave Friday, May 13th 2011! The home rental we wanted made the final decision on weeks for me, because coming the end of April was going to cost a whole lot more than arrival in May. I CAN'T WAIT! Thanks for your help!

 

[mreid1974]

No problem anytime!!! Have a great time planning and have a magical trip!!

 

[Lillian Gracey]

This definitely helps! I was worried that the grad nights and cinco de mayo would bring in a lot of crowds. I'm going from April 30th to May 8th. I'm glad crowds won't be too bad!

 

[scarlet_ibis]

We even ate at San Angel Inn on Cinco de Mayo years ago and it wasn't anything special. That was sort of a let down!!

We were there May 8-16 this year and I will say that the crowds on some of those days were very much larger than I had expected. May 15 was my DD's 7th bday and it was a Saturday. I don't think I have *EVER* seen the Magic Kingdom so crowded. Poor kid only got to go on one ride the whole day (not counting the CoP or the TTA!) and I was sad that we had insisted that she save so many things to do on her special day because we just couldn't do very much. I would definitely get Park Hopper passes. We hopped out of HS several times when it was jam-packed in the mornings.