How Bad is Easter Weekend in the Parks?

[Tattylou]

We've done a couple of spring break trips during the week leading up to Easter but we always leave to go home a couple of days prior to Easter because the crowds get crazier & crazier the closer it gets to Easter (so I've never actually been in a park ON Easter). Our experience was tho that the parks get busier with each day and by mid-week MK reached capacity by mid-morning every morning and it was WALL to WALL people. We felt like minnows swimming upstream trying to cross the park (actually the only easy way to do it was to hop onto the train & ride it around the park). We usually left and went somewhere else by say 11 - 12:00. By that time it was always closed to admission until the crowds thinned out. These trips were the only times we've seen the parks at FULL capacity and that's a crazy thing to be caught in.

Minnows swimming up stream, exactly....we were there Easter 2014. The MK was wall to wall people by noon every day. I have been to WDW over 15 times and had never seen it as crowded, esp fantasy land. Epcot and the other parks seemed to handle the crowds better. You must get there early to get anything done. We still had a good time, but if I had a choice I would go at a different time.

 

[HM2012Butler]

Christmas, Easter and 4th of July... Stay away

 

[Selket]

We went just this past March (Easter 2016) and I thought the crowds were a bit heavier just after Easter Sunday than before it. Yes it is crowded and you have to do early mornings and plan more if you want to ride a lot. I can see if you're traveling with little kids who want to ride everything in Fantasyland 5x then it's going to be stressful. It really depends on your expectations. I enjoy going then but then we usually find ourselves there during peak times (Spring break and 4th of July) so my expectations are tempered. The weather can be fabulous and usually is for Easter but this year it rained a lot!

 

[My2Qtz0205]

I went Easter weekend 2015. We coped by:
1. Getting park-hoppers. 2. Taking a mid-day break 3. Using FP+ and understanding we may not get to ride everything we want to (we chose RRC over TSM), and 3. Avoiding MK on Easter Sunday. We went to the church service at the Contemporary, had brunch at the Wave, and took the monorail to Epcot to enjoy the Flower and Garden Festival. We never felt overwhelmed, and DH HATES crowds! We skipped Illuminations because DD hates fireworks and I wanted to do laundry at the resort before our cruise the next day.

 

[Minniesgal]

We enjoyed Easter this year but we just did Epcot and we did 3 fast passes then done and just came back for dinner

 

[Alli76]

Just so you know a lot of New England schools districts have spring break either 2nd or 3rd week in April... I am pretty sure that next year Easter is the weekend in between. Could make that weekend worse than normal.

 

[muenginerd]

Thanks everyone. I talked to BFF and they are skipping Disney this time around. Maybe going to check out Disney Springs one night. They're going to be busy during the day with their convention so there wouldn't be early mornings. With the convention going on they can't set plans during the day. We all decided it's best to skip for now and we'll set a trip together with the girls when it's less busy. She's one of my daughter's Godmother and really wants to be able to spend the time enjoying Disney through her "nieces eyes" and not rushed by another event going on.

 

[babyruth]

Just so you know a lot of New England schools districts have spring break either 2nd or 3rd week in April... I am pretty sure that next year Easter is the weekend in between. Could make that weekend worse than normal.

Combine Easter 2017 with Patriots Day in Massachusetts and the schools here made that week spring break = insane. Thoroughly expecting capacity crowds!

 

[Strikan]

The majority of the replies here actually give me hope for our Spring 2017 visit which will be the week leading up to Easter. I am a planner anyway and we expected to arrive early, leave midday and return at 6pm. From what I am hearing, this might work after all.

 

[Disn3yVision]

While it is definitely the busiest time of the year, I went during Easter week this year with a party of 7 spanning 3 generations and we didn't find it overcrowded to the point of being unenjoyable at all. Maybe because we are used to Disneyland and that was our first time at Disneyworld so our reference point was skewed but thanks to very meticulous planning and making FP+ and Dining reservations in advance (only about 4 months out even) we waited in line waaaaaaay less during Easter at Disneyworld than we normally do on a typical Saturday at Disneyland. Also, we stayed at POFQ and really took advantage of magic hours. We were there for 7 days with 6 park days and went from RD to close but pretty much went on every attraction and only waited more than one hour once or twice. After reading about how terrible it would be we were actually pleasantly surprised. I think if you have a good plan you will be fine. We had to choose between Easter and Summer and dealing with the heat would just be too much for my mom and two little ones. It rained pretty much every day we were there but it kept it cool and it wasn't unbearable.