So you start on Good Friday and will be there a week and don't get up to 9; then here is what to know:
1. If you have gone other times of year and it was not Christmas week or July 3-5, then you will not know what crowded really means until you get there during Easter time. Easter makes most summer weeks look like off season.
2. If you want to eat dinner at any time after 5 and before 9 at a sit down restaurant in a park, make your ressies now. I saw a walk-up family to Crystal Palace at 6 on Good Thursday ask for the "next available seating time for dinner" and the CM said, "Tuesday at 8:30." With resort reataurants, you can usually get a time somewhat close to what you want by calling the day before. But you should make a ressie if you intend to eat.
3. MK will be packed to the gills every day. On Easter Sunday it has its worst day and often goes to capacity; both the day before and day after Easter almost reach the same level. Good Friday (for no known reason) is often MK's lightest day of the holiday period -- but that is relative; it means the lines for popular rides without fast passes will be 90 minutes rather than 2 hours. The mountains, Pooh, Peter Pan, and Dumbo will have sustained, morning to closing lines 90 minutes to more than 2 hours. Even Swiss Family Treehouse can get to over an hour. Fast pass is a necessity. Also, the lines may reduce for a brief period to 30 minutes for those popular rides during a parade.
4. Fast Passes for the entire day at any park for a popular ride can run out before noon.
5. Most crowded time of day at any park is between 10:30 and 3. At MK, between 4 and 8, you can often hit some attractions -- Haunted Massion, Pirates, Tiki, Small World, Carousel -- with a short line (no more than 20 minutes and sometimes a walk-on) even though they can be 60 to 90 minutes in the morning to early afternoon. After 8, huge crowds start to return. The same holds true after 3 at Epcot for all but the new Mission Space and Test Track (those two will likely hover at the 3 hour regular line wait most of the day and evening); and at MGM after 4 for all but Tower and RnR. In other words if you see huge lines at a ride in the morning, skip it, and try later in the day if you intend not use fast pass for it.
6. Crowds on the streets at MK can get so packed between 10:30 and 3 that it can actually take 25 minutes just to walk from Space Mountain to the center stage area in front of the castle (without crowds it can be done in under 7 minutes).
7. Epcot and AK tend to have their lightest days of the holiday season on Easter and the day before (forget about any of those falacies you have heard about weekends being more crowded; weekdays are worse at that time of year for those parks); again that is relative it just means it will be very crowded and not completely overwhelming. MGM is also fairly good for those days.
8. Very late in the day it is sometimes easy to get on most rides at AK.
9. If they have two Fantasmics in the same evening, the second one will not fill and you can walk in right near starting time. If they have only one, then decide now to either get the dinner package or plan to get in line 60 minutes or more before show time if you intend to actually get in. If there are two Fantasmics, then Tower and RnR sometimes get to below 30 minute lines during the first one.
10. The water parks tend to reach capacity by 11:00 and then start to take in new customers again after 2:30.
11. People actually start setting up camp for curbside views of the 3 p.m. parade at MK starting as early as 1. Unless you want to do that, and then have to fight off interlopers, it is best to just find some elevated area, like the Town Hall steps, shortly before a parade.
12. Once there, check for actual opening times and don't just rely on those usual early entry times; they sometimes just open all the parks an hour early during that time of year (and don't decide to do so until you are there).
13. Avoid MK on Easter Sunday. Contrary to what most believe when they go there on Easter Sunday, absolutely nothing goes on there that you cannot see other days during the holiday period.
14. If it is any consolation, the weather should be ideal -- 80's to even low 90's, pleasant at night and the usual daily thunderstorms most often occur between midnight and 5 a.m. rather than during the day.
