Go or avoid spring break time?

[Jedi5]

Planning a trip with the family for spring break.
I'm ready to book our trip for Arizona.
Of course this morning I see a commercial for Universal Studios and well you know...

Reading that the crowds around spring break time are pretty high.
Right now we'd be looking at the last week in March.

For those of you that have been there around that time frame, did you enjoy the crowds or did the crowds ruin your trip?

In your opinion, would you advise a newbie looking for their first time at US to go when crowds are low?

thanks.

 

[macraven]

i went one time during spring break and never again.
not my thing.
too many peeps...... having to rush too away some of the excitement of being there.

last week of march will have it's crowds.
spring break for some parts of the country at that time.


for a newbie, i would think going for the first time would be great during the low period or moderate crowd time period.
it's workable.

sometimes when it is hot and large crowds, peeps get irritable which makes a vacation a drag at times.

but, if you have kids in school and can only do summers, go early june or last week of august.

 

[MMitchell29]

Can someone tell me if spring break considered the first part of April (like the first 2 weeks) or the entire month? I was thinking about going the last week

 

[macraven]

Can someone tell me if spring break considered the first part of April (like the first 2 weeks) or the entire month? I was thinking about going the last week

with easter on the 8th, you will find crowds in early april.
some schools have their break time to coincide with the days off for easter.


also, there are some sections of the states that have spring break in early april.

if you look at the hotel rates, you can see where they drop in price in late april.

rates will be higher during what they, UO, considers spring break.

 

[Metro West]

I went during SB one year...never again.

 

[sjs314]

Spring break officially begins March 9 thru I believe up to the 2 weeks following Easter which as someone mentioned is April 8th this year.

In 2009 we went from March 24-March 31 Easter was April 12 and the crowds were crazy busy, even worse I think than the 4 years we went for Easter week.

Trying the fist week in Marcch this year as it is projected to be only "busy" as compared to "super busy"

Also Room Rates are at a peak during the "Official" Spring Break dates be cheaper before and after.

Go before or after the start of or the end of but not during.

 

[JenSinMA]

When "Spring Break" is varies considerably from state to state. Last week in March does indeed seem to be right in the peak of the spring break season, as indicated by all the different crowd calendars. TouringPlans, Orlando Informer and UnderCover Tourist all show that week as Busy to Very Busy. I wouldn't attempt a visit during that time, UNLESS I could stay onsite and get early entry to IOA and the unlimited Express Pass. And even then I would think twice, because I don't handle crowds well. But that's just me. ;-)

But we're in Massachusetts, and we're lucky enough to have our spring break at the tail-end of the season. Third week in April, every year. It's just a few states (or districts within states) that use this week, so it's great for us as long as Easter doesn't fall on our week. We went on cruises during our spring break in 2008 and 2010. Both times it was a ship full of us folks from MA, with some New Yorkers and Rhode Islanders thrown in. This year, we're making our first visit to Universal that week. I'm trusting the crowd calendars and banking on low crowds, so we're staying off-site and not buying Express Pass Plus (unless we get there and feel we need them.)

 

[mom4graceandlogan]

For those that found the crowds miserable did you stay on or offsite. Planning on going 3/28 to 4/1 staying onsite. I would think express pass would make it tolerable. We are not harry potter fans

 

[rascalmom]

Our Spring Break is the 3rd week of March this year - and we are headed to both Universal & WDW. We're staying onsite - hopefully that will mitigate some of our waits.

The big goal of our trip is Harry Potter and we will take full advantage of the early entry both days we are there. Once that is done, we'll pick & choose. I don't have a problem going over the Citywalk or back to our hotel for meals if the lines are too long for the food spots in park.

For Disney, we've done Spring Break a couple of times. It was busy, but not unbearable. We've got our ADRs and will use FP as much as possible. We've been there many times & plan to have down time just soaking up the atmosphere & some rays poolside.

 

[Sandy321]

I'm going to add my Spring Break thoughts -

its going to be crazy busy - spring break, but we're going anyway - its DD Spring Break, she's a freshman, she cant take off during school - she's getting straight A's, and her grandmother is paying!

To combat the crowds - we researched. We're staying onsite, we'll get there early, we'll know the "lay of the land" (thanks to this board!) studying maps and hints and tricks to get to Harry Potter.

I've watched youtube, and looked at each ride, and read the FAQ thread here, and the food thread here- I have a plan, and I plan on it being crazy busy - so we'll focus on the time together, and be grateful that we have this time -

and we'll pack our patience, and when the lines look really bad - I'll look at my watch and then I'll be spending time with my mom and my dd - and we'll be in Florida - and I'll be grateful, and when its our turn on the ride I'll look at my watch and realize, it wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be

(did that one year at WDW - the lines looked horrid long for the FP, I couldnt believe how crowded it was - mom made me time it - and sure enough 20 min of our time wasnt as bad as I had imagined, the lines looked at least 45 min long!)

 

[rascalmom]

I'm going to add my Spring Break thoughts -

its going to be crazy busy - spring break, but we're going anyway - its DD Spring Break, she's a freshman, she cant take off during school - she's getting straight A's, and her grandmother is paying!

To combat the crowds - we researched. We're staying onsite, we'll get there early, we'll know the "lay of the land" (thanks to this board!) studying maps and hints and tricks to get to Harry Potter.

I've watched youtube, and looked at each ride, and read the FAQ thread here, and the food thread here- I have a plan, and I plan on it being crazy busy - so we'll focus on the time together, and be grateful that we have this time -

and we'll pack our patience, and when the lines look really bad - I'll look at my watch and then I'll be spending time with my mom and my dd - and we'll be in Florida - and I'll be grateful, and when its our turn on the ride I'll look at my watch and realize, it wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be

(did that one year at WDW - the lines looked horrid long for the FP, I couldnt believe how crowded it was - mom made me time it - and sure enough 20 min of our time wasnt as bad as I had imagined, the lines looked at least 45 min long!)

Great attitude!! We should all remember this.

 

[catnhat]

Are we talking about Spring Break for School kids or College kids? Does it make a differnce?

 

[figmentgirl]

Are we talking about Spring Break for School kids or College kids? Does it make a differnce?

"Sping Break" refers to the 6 week period in March-April in which all schools (kindergarten through college) get out of school for one week accross the entire country.

 

[catnhat]

Ok, because the college I work at. ECU (Eastern Carolina University) is on spring break March 5th-March 9th.

 

[hayleyp]

The crowds should be lighter the first week of March. In my opinion, the crowds are typically the heaviest the weeks before and after Easter. On the positive side, the weather is usually awesome!

 

[hayleyp]

The crowds should be lighter the first week of March. In my opinion, the crowds are typically the heaviest the weeks before and after Easter. On the positive side, the weather is usually awesome!

 

[lostinacrowd]

Me and the DW will be going March 7th-March 10th. Looking at all the Crowd Calendars online it does look like that it will be a slow/moderate week and the rest of the month looks to be busy. I never thought USF would be so popular with the spring breakers!

 

[Pembo]

We were at Univ last year during spring break...last week of March. We stayed onsite and used our express passes. It really wasn't that crowded especially compared to WDW. We were at IOA for ee every morning!

And if you get lucky enough to have a full day of rain, poncho up and go to the park!!! We started our trip on a rainy afternoon at HP! It had stormed all day and finally the lightning let up so we headed in. It was so cool to walk up to WW with our umbrellas, very Potter-esque. We were quite pleased to find FJ had a 5 min wait! We literally had to stop ourselves from running through the queue! We rode FJ 5 times that night with no wait.

So pray for rain. lol

 

[damo]

Me and the DW will be going March 7th-March 10th. Looking at all the Crowd Calendars online it does look like that it will be a slow/moderate week and the rest of the month looks to be busy. I never thought USF would be so popular with the spring breakers!

Harry Potter seems to be something most families want to see.

 

[yaytezIOA]

My kids are on Spring Break now and we live in Vero Beach. The crowds honestly are going to be what they're going to be. The highest crowds are statistically Easter week, starting Good Friday. It will be busy from pretty much now until the end of April. Will it be miserable? No.
It won't be any worse than Disney. I would recommend staying onsite so that you get the early access to Harry Potter, and the Express. Plus you'll be so close that you can go back to your room and rest, and come back later in the day. Typically about the last hour before closing people tend to clear out. Add that with your room key which is your FOTL Express ticket and you'll be able to do just about everything.