Mid March

[RasberriPie13]

I am planning a trip Mar 17-24 this is a wk before Easter and going into Spring Break. How are the crowds and are there special events going on like Races etc.

 

[JennyDrake]

No races. Crowds will not be peak level but will be thick. Still, manageable with rope drop.

 

[MermaidMommy]

Crowds will be summer-level, probably around a 8, but not as bad as Christmas or the weeks before and after Easter. As PP said, rope drop (and a good plan) will make crowds manageable. And, the weather is usually quite nice.

The Flower and Garden Festival will be going on at Epcot. It doesn't really affect the crowds the way Food and Wine does, and Epcot will look beautiful.

 

[travelfearlessly]

We went in mid-March this year and the crowds weren't too bad. My only complaint was the high cost of the resorts but we managed to do all the rides we wanted, sticking with all the family friendly ones as we just have a toddler. I think the lines were longer for the roller coasters and bigger rides

 

[soniam]

Definitely check the crowd calendars for St Patrick's Day, which will fall during that time I think. I think Epcot, and then maybe DHS, is usually the busiest. MK seemed much lower. The weather is pretty decent. This year they opened MK at 8am, so 7am EMH. The park was not crowded at all until closer to 10 or 11am. It's like people didn't know it was open that early or couldn't get up that early. It was nice, but it was still dark when we went to the bus because the time change had just occurred.

 

[travelfearlessly]

Definitely check the crowd calendars for St Patrick's Day, which will fall during that time I think. I think Epcot, and then maybe DHS, is usually the busiest. MK seemed much lower. The weather is pretty decent. This year they opened MK at 8am, so 7am EMH. The park was not crowded at all until closer to 10 or 11am. It's like people didn't know it was open that early or couldn't get up that early. It was nice, but it was still dark when we went to the bus because the time change had just occurred.

We did St. Patrick's Day at Universal Studios, the lines weren't THAT bad considering it was also Spring Break and I was trying to ride the popular Harry Potter rides. I think the evening parties for St Patty's Day are where the crowds are

 

[MermaidMommy]

Definitely check the crowd calendars for St Patrick's Day, which will fall during that time I think. I think Epcot, and then maybe DHS, is usually the busiest. MK seemed much lower. The weather is pretty decent. This year they opened MK at 8am, so 7am EMH. The park was not crowded at all until closer to 10 or 11am. It's like people didn't know it was open that early or couldn't get up that early. It was nice, but it was still dark when we went to the bus because the time change had just occurred.

I don't think St Patrick's Day has any real effect on the parks. Maybe Raglan Road at DTD, but crowd calendars don't even mention St Patrick's Day in their recommendations -- at least, I didn't see Josh mention it at easyWDW. St Pat's fell on a Tuesday last year, which is usually the second best park Josh's recommendations, so it makes sense that the crowds weren't too bad at MK. In 2014, however, it fell on a Monday, so MK was the least recommended park on easyWDW for St Pat's that year.

We were there last spring break, and I totally agree about the 8 am openings. We did one 8am EMH at MK, and one regular 8am opening (not EMH, just early opening). It was tremendously less crowded on the day with the early, non-EMH opening. So much so that, even though we've always loved morning EMH at MK, we're going to skip it and do the early openings if they have them again on our trip next March. I thought the same thing at the time -- that people must not have realized it opened early. It was just deserted.