March Break Help Requested :)

[pangyal]

Hi everyone,

We are looking to go over MB 2018 for the first time and I couldn't really find any threads with concrete feedback about this time of year. Weather doesn't bother me, as long as it doesn't snow and I can leave my parka at home . I have two main questions- first, how are the crowds? Is MB before the real Spring Break crowds hit, or is it in the thick of it?

Second, I am frustrated by airfares at the best of times these days to get from Toronto to MCO. The fares are currently sitting above $800/pp return for leaving the Wednesday before MB starts and returning the Friday or the break. Is this as low as they will get, since they will be pushing up the fares for that week even if we leave a few days before, or should I wait it out a bit longer?

Thanks in advance

 

[Sue M]

Undercover tourist has crowd calendar, Easy Disney used to but I'm not sure what has happened, hasn't been updated since April. Touring plans is a great web site and also has a crowd calendar, for all the info you get on it, it's worth the year subscription price of $12
I think march/April will be crowded and I avoid that time.

 

[pangyal]

Undercover tourist has crowd calendar, Easy Disney used to but I'm not sure what has happened, hasn't been updated since April. Touring plans is a great web site and also has a crowd calendar, for all the info you get on it, it's worth the year subscription price of $12
I think march/April will be crowded and I avoid that time.

Thank you for the advice! I do have a TP subscription, but I have found all of the crowd calendars to be wildly inaccurate over the past year or two, across all of the websites. We use rope drop and FP wisely, but my dad might be coming and he can't deal with crowds.

I'm also worried about the airfare issue!

 

[rxbeth]

I went this past March break and it was my first trip ever to Disney. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We had our ADRs and our FP and got to do much of the things we wanted. We are even planning for March break again next year!

Flights will suck. We fly out of Detroit and last year we paid $350 US round trip and I'm hoping for the same.

 

[deedubb]

We have gone about 10 times over March break. Personally, I don't find the crowds too bad but I have nothing to compare with as we have not gone during down periods when crowds are low. Flights from Canada are super expensive at that time of year though. We have found it much cheaper to drive across the border and do a direct flight with Delta. We get an extra day and a half in Florida this way, and it is still a lot cheaper paying for the Delta comfort seats compared to regular seats and flying from Canada.

 

[Sue M]

We have gone about 10 times over March break. Personally, I don't find the crowds too bad but I have nothing to compare with as we have not gone during down periods when crowds are low. Flights from Canada are super expensive at that time of year though. We have found it much cheaper to drive across the border and do a direct flight with Delta. We get an extra day and a half in Florida this way, and it is still a lot cheaper paying for the Delta comfort seats compared to regular seats and flying from Canada.

I used to drive down to Seattle for cheaper fares, but always needed overnight hotel with park n fly rate, I get the early morning flight so would have to leave my house at 2am for the 3 hr drive down if I didn't do hotel. I always check both ways, and lately it isn't as much of a price saving. Wish I didn't have to do hotel. But this is just flights for 2. If all 4 of us were going we'd realize more of a savings. But with our $ US flights just aren't as cheap as they used to be. I remember being able to book Seattle to Florida RT for $300. Once as low as $250!!

 

[bababear_50]

Hi Hon
I am a frequent March Break traveler and I found the flights this year to be extremely high. I am now booked with Air Canada but would have prefered West Jet.

This year I am going Solo so it was a bit easier to accept the higher flight prices but for a family of 3 or more it is sooooooo expensive. There are some flights that fly out of Hamilton airport to MCO. (Hamilton is YHM) Check out Sunwings flights. http://www.sunwing.ca/Cheap-Flights.asp

A few of my friends usually drive to BUF and fly from there but they are saying their flights have gone up this year .

So.................. I am now trying to off set the high cost of travel and USD exchange,
Using Airmiles for Disney Park tickets (done)
Using Airmiles for Universal Park tickets (done)
Using Airmiles for Starbucks cash--this offsets my food costs.(done)
Exchanging 40.00 CAD every two weeks for 40.00 USD...kind of makes the sting a bit less when I do it this way.
Using gifted Tim Hortons cards for dept airport,YYZ.and Using Starbucks gift card for MCO airport.(done)
Using CAA for discount on Park-N-Fly. or I may just have one of my sons be my Taxi service.

There are many ways to pinch and save but it is so hard when the flights are so blasted expensive.

Just my honest opinion here..... but I do not think the prices are going to come down,,,BUT I have seen in past years a one or two day sale. I think the best advice I received was to buy at a price I could live with and not look back.

Best wishes to you
Hugs Mel

 

[mkmommy]

Flights seem really high, but I got lucky and found flights on AA for less than $500 Toronto to Orlando on March 8 and then retiring from Miami March 18( we are doing Universal with AM tickets and a cruise from Miami) . I have found in the past if you leave the Tuesday after March break starts and return the following Tuesday fares are much less but not everyone wants kids to miss school.

 

[mab2012]

Crowds: Can vary depending on where our March break falls relative to other school districts. Usually Ontario March Break is the same week as Texas and Florida, so it's one of the busier spring weeks. Crowd levels are high, but not impossible. You'll want to have a good plan in place. We were in the parks for a few days during Ontario March Break this year, and I thought it seemed worse than usual. I don't know if wait times were really higher, but even walking through the parks felt congested. Not sure what the difference was. It might just have been because the weather was cool, so fewer people were opting to hang about the resort pools.

Airfare: As always, if you can fly midweek, don't mind lengthy connections, or have some flexibility over which airports you fly out of or into, you might do a bit better. Anything under about $500/person at that time of year is about the best you can hope for, and usually requires at least one of those compromises. Direct flights from Toronto are probably not going to get much better.

I have not yet booked for our 2018 March Break trip, and I'm not too stressed about it, but my kids get 2 weeks off, so I'm fortunate to have some flexibility over when we travel. We're also willing to drive several hours to an airport if it gets us reasonable direct flights at a decent price. Direct flights out of Ottawa to Orlando are scarce, and prohibitively expensive around school breaks. Sitting over $1000/person for the March Break weekends at the moment!

Also a word of caution on the weather: we've mostly been lucky at March Break, and often the temperatures are in the mid twenties. But they do occasionally get a bit of a cold snap, and can have days more comparable to early spring weather here; temperatures in the single digits or low teens, often accompanied by a cold-ish wind. It probably won't be like that for your whole trip, if you're unlucky enough to have it happen at all. But I've seen it happen for at least a day on three March trips over the past five years. We don't bring heavy winter outerwear, but it's a good idea to have some cooler weather clothing available.

 

[mort1331]

So I used to be just a sept/oct visitor. Then we went for MB 4 years ago, I was dreading it because of the crowds. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. With the execption of MK in the late afternoon, the rest of the parks were very reasonable. Just have a plan for MK, the other parks have a loose plan, FPs were easy to switch when we needed to.
For flights, you have time. Apply for the west jet MC. If both you and your partner get separate ones, they each can get $250WJ dollars and $99 companion flight. So that alone can help with the costs. You don't have to use it after so good luck.

 

[pangyal]

So I used to be just a sept/oct visitor. Then we went for MB 4 years ago, I was dreading it because of the crowds. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. With the execption of MK in the late afternoon, the rest of the parks were very reasonable. Just have a plan for MK, the other parks have a loose plan, FPs were easy to switch when we needed to.
For flights, you have time. Apply for the west jet MC. If both you and your partner get separate ones, they each can get $250WJ dollars and $99 companion flight. So that alone can help with the costs. You don't have to use it after so good luck.

We both do have that card and have burned our companion vouchers for the year already...it's a fantastic card!

I wonder if March Break crowds are dependent on when Easter falls. I've been trying to research, but haven't found anything.

 

[bababear_50]

USA/CAD Easter 2018
Good Fri March 30
Easter Sunday April 1
Easter Monday April 2

Ontario School Spring /March Break
March 12-16

University/College USA 2018 Break
https://www.ststravel.com/college-spring-break-dates
(Most Of March and April)

I've always found crowds increase from mid March onwards.
Sometimes there are more license plates from Ontario in Old Key West's Parking lot that USA plates.
I agree with Mort1331 that with a few FP+ and a good touring plan the March Break crowds can be manageable.
This year was on the cool side and our resort /pool got very little use except by "We True Canadians",lol. The Parks did seem busier this past March 2017.
Hugs Mel

 

[isabellea]

I agree that the weather in March can be on the cool side. Our Spring break (Montreal) is always the first week of March and we had morning at WDW that we were glad I had brought our fleece jackets. Luckily, we are driving so we always have warm clothes with us.

 

[Cdn Gal]

Usually its beautiful weather, however one year it was really cold! It was like a crisp early spring day. You needed a long sleeve shirt, jeans and a sweatshirt. I have always found that it is quite busy at March and has increased in the past 15 years or so that we have been going. However this year because of the dollar, I can't see a whole lot of Cdns going down. Lots of Texans too which is great because they generally are very nice people! Used to fly out of Syracuse but now everybody is doing that so the price has increased, so now we fly Southwest which is an extra 45min drive-totally worth it! FREE luggage and you get points towards travel. One year we were planning on driving down because it was just too expensive, but we drove to Washington (7 hr drive away), left after school, arrived at 1am, slept in the car until 4am, and got the 5am flight out. Totally worth it! We paid $250 round trip for BOTH of us to fly (with Southwest). We have also flown out of Baltimore and it was cheap too! (5 Hour drive)

 

[kuhltiffany]

If you do wait to book and are considering Southwest, they usually release their March Break flights in August.

 

[mab2012]

We both do have that card and have burned our companion vouchers for the year already...it's a fantastic card!

I wonder if March Break crowds are dependent on when Easter falls. I've been trying to research, but haven't found anything.

There's probably some impact when Easter falls early.

For example: last year (2016), Good Friday was March 25. Ontario March Break was March 14-18, and my kids' 2-week March Break ran from March 14-25 (so overlapping Easter). We usually plan our trips in whichever week is NOT March Break week, but that year we made a point of going during the first week in order to avoid the Easter crowds. So we were at least one family there during Ontario March Break as a direct result of the early Easter weekend. I don't know if it makes much difference on the overall numbers, but I'm sure we weren't the only ones.

 

[richmo]

A USA perspective on this: I've been down the past several years, and March is a little tricky because of breaks and Easter.
- US colleges tend to have their week long spring breaks the first or second full week in March. There's some exceptions to those weeks, but the vast majority will be then.
- An even bigger factor to crowds is when Easter lands. In 2018, Easter is April 1. The week leading up to Easter is one of the busiest of the year at WDW. The week following Easter is also very busy, but not at quite the levels of the week prior.
- Schools also take breaks throughout March and early April to varying degrees and differing lengths.

I think the most important thing to avoid, if you're looking to avoid crowds, is to stay away from that Easter period. March will stay busy because of the school breaks, but is definitely manageable. The weather is usually good too!

 

[grantclaire]

Hi we have been dedicated March Breakers, our plan for flights was booking early on WestJet and using a companion flight or waiting for Southwest flights released in August. As for crowds they can be large, just have to get to the parks early! I thought for sure this past March there would be less Canadians but we ran into many from Ontario. The lower CDN $ did change our spending habits, smaller rental car, ate most meals in the villa(stayed offsite) did not shop much. Good luck with your planning!

 

[dancin Disney style]

We have gone for MB several times and the last three years in a row. We have easily found low cost flights from BUF. That said we are able to travel slightly off the break. Typically we leave on the Tuesday or Wednesday prior. There has been an 8pm flight out of BUF that we take. Even with the exchange rate I have paid under $300 CAD per ticket for non stop flights.

The weather is usually very nice...25-30 during the day. However, this past March the beginning of our trip was like that and then it turned full on cold. Our last day there the over night low was about 4 and the afternoon high was only 15 but it was windy and we just didn't have the right clothes for that temp. It took until around 2pm to reach that 15. So basically the weather can be unpredictable. In future I will pack a few more items to cover cooler temps. When I was packing at home the forecast was short/tshirt weather for our entire week but it changed drastically after we got to WDW.

The crowd level is VERY high as the week goes on. Many Canadians but the local break is the same week. I have some crowd pictures of MK from this past March that I will dig up and share. You can easily make it work but it takes some planning. It's not a time I would advise someone to go for that once in a life time sort of trip.

 

[pangyal]

Thank you so much everyone for your kind advice! I found $625 return tickets on Westjet and grabbed them...now that their change/cancel fee is only $25, it's a no-brainer to lock in good prices if possible while making final decisions.

We usually go to the parks early and swim/ chill at the resort in the afternoon...I am still unsure about how busy it will be, but fingers crossed the crowds arrive after we leave . We are going from the earlier Wednesday (March 7) to the following Thursday (March 15). The tickets were $175/pp cheaper to come back on the Thursday.