Memorial Day Weekend Crowds?

[armerida]

Wondering how busy Memorial Day weekend is compared to, say, the weekend before or after in May? Trying to plan a 3-day weekend trip - would have to use a personal day if not going for the holiday weekend, which makes Memorial Day a little more compelling.

We don't normally mind crowds (we were just there from Christmas to NYE and had no problems), always have a solid plan, and since we have AP, we don't have to do everything, but we also want to relax. As a reference, our last long weekend trip was Veterans Day, which also happened to be the last weekend of F&W - never again! Never seen it so crowded!

Thanks for any info!

 

[armerida]

Has anyone traveled during Memorial Day? Would appreciate any insight

 

[AngiTN]

Yes, several years, it's a normal time to go with DGD, as our school dismisses a few days before that.
It's not bad at all. Not as Holiday weekends go. (we've done pretty much every Holiday at Disney except Christmas day)
Reason is, you still have a portion of the US still in school. And it's too close to the end of the school year for them to take off. It's the same reason Labor Day weekend is also not bad. It's too close to the start of school for a portion of the country to take off.
Anytime you have a Holiday where so many families won't be inclined to travel it's better.

 

[SJSloan]

Memorial Day is actually a great time to go, compared to many other holidays. A lot of schools are still in session at that time. I would say that the weekend before is even less crowded but I don't think it would be worth taking an extra vacation day (if you didn't want to).

ETA - we usually go the week after Memorial Day and it is more crowded. So I would rank them: 1) week before, 2) Memorial Day, 3) week after.

 

[armerida]

Thanks for the responses, super helpful!

 

[OB1]

3 years ago my wife had decided we should skip our annual trip, which is around May 20th. Then about the time we would have started, she said "LET'S GO". With only 2 days to prepare, we booked All Star Movies, what ever FP were available (and there were some decent ones), and headed down for 4 days, including through Sunday of Memorial Weekend. We were surprised that while busy, it was not hectic. We did pretty much everything we wanted and more. It was a great trip.