Honest Advice About Easter Trip

[kimmy kay]

Was Thinking Of Going The Week Before Easter. From What Everone Says The Parks Are Very Crowded. My Dh Isn't Reall Crazy About Returning To Wdw. He Won't Want To Get Up And Be At The Parks At 7:00 And I Don't Know If I Want To Either.

Can Someone Give Me Some Pros And Cons For Easter Time.

 

[brentalex]

We were there for Easter week this year. It happened to be our kids spring break, which is not based on Easter, but is always the 3rd week in April. Not sure if you are going to like this, but the parks were very crowded. We got up early many mornings, hit the parks early, got to do all we wanted and then would relax. We were at the MK and Epcot at EMH rope drop times. The MK was empty, it was 7 am. We have some wonderful pictures of us in an empty park, was like it was all ours. We did all of tomorrow land, some things twice and then went to adventure land for its opening. Did all we wanted, even getting stuck on Splash Mt as it kept stopping. By 11 we were done with all we wanted to do and were able to just wander around, get a fast pass for something and go to it when it was time and just relax between fast pass rides. But the park was packed.
We did the same thing at Epcot, although since it is bigger, it seems to handle the crowds a bit better. But we did all the future world rides early and then just hung out. The second day at Epcot it rained in the afternoon which helped to empty it out a bit, so it may not have been as bad.
MGM and Ak were also packed, especially AK. That was the worst of the 4. But again, we did all we wanted and were probably out of there by noon. it was too crowded to just wander around and enjoy it. You could hardly move.
So, you can enjoy yourself, but I think you need to choose the right park on the right day, and I think you need to be up early at least a few days. The parks will be very crowded.

 

[Quinn222]

I would not go then. It's a mob scene.

 

[40-Something Kid]

Have to agree with the above poster. If there were any other time (except other mad rush weeks) you could go, take the alternate dates. Easter (week before and week after) crowds are oppressive. And, to make it worse, there are very few discounts on anything during this mad rush.

 

[WDWguru]

If you want to avoid crowds and don't want to get to the parks when they open, do NOT go anywhere near Easter. It's second only to Christmas/NYE week in crowd levels and parks are known to close due to capacity crowds on some days during the week before and after Easter.

Do yourselves a favor and go another time.

 

[KimR]

What are your alternatives? We go the first week of April which sometimes falls on Easter week. The only reason we go at this time of year is because we have to stick to school holidays and DH refuses to go in the heat of the summer. I hate the cold - so there goes Christmas break, which leaves Spring Break as our only choice. The only good thing is that the weather is usually very nice at that time of year. If you don't mind the heat, though, summer would be much better, IMO. We've gone in June before and it was much less crowded.

 

[alimomof3]

We just returned from Easter week and I found it very managable. I used TGM and did get up to be at the rope drops several mornings but not all mornings. The mornings are the best - practically no crowds but the MK does open at 7am - not many people want to get up that early on vacation. It was very busy but with smart use of FP and getting up early in the AM and going to the right park on the right days I think were very very important in making this easy. The one time I veered off of TGM's suggestion was the worst time of my trip - very very busy at Epcot for the EMH evening. I got suckered into it by my sister.

 

[larryhog]

We went the week before Easter in 2005. I will never go around Easter again. We have been to WDW numerous times and that was the only trip I did not enjoy. The lines were so long and the parks were so crowded we did not even go to the parks every day which was a first for us.

 

[scheddj]

We went at Easter break in 2005 and had a ball. We did go at opening and leave by 1 pm though. We went back into the parks at around 5-6 pm and took advantage of all the EMH's offered. It wasn't bad at all. Around noon time the crowds got oppressive though. I don't think we would have had nearly as much fun if we would have stayed in the parks for the afternoons.

 

[Kaycee]

There are always going to be differing views on just about any question you ask, but I would highly recommend that you not go at Easter because of two things you said.

1) You said that your DH already isn't crazy about returning to WDW. If you get him to go on one of the very busiest weeks of the year, you'll probably never get him to go back again.

2) You said that your DH wouldn't want to get up early on vacation. If you read through the replies you've received, the people who enjoyed their visits at Easter also said they got up early to enjoy park time before they got crazy-busy. It doesn't sound like you'd be having much good park time at all if you don't get up early.

 

[karenloo]

I agree 100 percent with the posters who said the key to Easter at Disney is hitting the parks as soon as they open. We went last month, the week before Easter through Easter weekend, and had a fantastic time - like another poster here said, we also used TourGuide Mike and followed his advice to the letter and had a blast. Rode everything we wanted (many two or three times), saw every show we wanted, ate meals with minimal waits. BUT... again, the key is getting to the parks when they open, and going to the right park on the right day. If you guys already know you don't want to get up early, definitely go a different time of year. By midday the parks were very crowded and some standby lines were 90 minutes or more. Yikes. By about 1 or 2 p.m. we were saying to each other, wow, can you imagine if we'd just gotten here? Like I said, we had a great time, one of our best family vacations ever in fact, but it would not have been possible without getting up early every day and making the most of those first few hours in the parks.

 

[fitgirlFL]

We made the mistake of going the week before Easter - it was too busy. It really spoiled it for us. We got so worn out and couldn't face all of the long lines so we missed going on a few rides. Lines were over an hour at many places. We were miserable, tired and cranky after a few days of it.

If you could go at another time I would really suggest doing that, you'll have a much better time and won't have to stress out about running around to beat the crowds. I just adore Disney, have my annual pass, but there are just certain times I won't go, it takes the fun out of it.

 

[cudworth]

We were there this past Easter as well it is very managable if you get there early , by 10.30 am it is a zoo . I agree with the people who say if you don't to get up early go at another time as you will not have fun standing in 2 hour lines because the fastpasses are gone.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

This was our 2nd easter trip. If you plan well you will have a good time. We have 3 teen ds who refuse to get up early, so we take the reverse of what most of the posters said, we dont arrive early but we take advantage of the late emh at the parks. My ds said they got to go on everest about 6 times in a row, same as the moutains in the mk, that one night on good friday this year they were there at 2 am and did splash about 5 times, thunder 5 etc. We also made all our adrs for one good sit down restraunt a day. I was glad we did that. If we are in the parks during the day we tend to hit the less popular attractions etc. as the lines are alot less. Our first easter day we did a character breakfast at cape may and then dinner at hollywood and vine and spent the day hopping between epcot and mgm. This year we went to typhoon lagoon and then had dinner at the garden grill and did epcot and illuminations. I do stay away from the mk on easter day.

 

[tinkerbell211]

We just got back from an 8 day trip the week before Easter.(First Easter Trip) Our last day was Easter Sun. The crowds weren't too bad until Thurs. We followed TGM's recommendations on parks each and also were at the parks at opening. We did everything we wanted. Often, even rode multiple times w/out waits. Like the others said, go early! The weather was beautiful!!!
We had the dining plan for the first time. The rests during the TS meals were nice breaks during the lunch and/or dinner rush. Can't wait to go next Easter.

 

[mickman1962]

This Easter was my first non-value trip and I was very hesitant about the crowd situation. I would not hesitate to go again as I did not have to battle any crowds. But was at every park before opening. I however get up at 3:30am every day to go to work so I was actually sleeping in at Disney.