Spring Break - What to expect

[MlWinans]

Spring break is one of the few times of the year I have not been to WDW. I know the pricing at an unforutnant level but we are going anyways.

What can we expect crowds levels to be like? Summer? Holidays? And are the hard to get ADRs even more difficult to get that time of year?

 

[Alesia]

It depends on your exact dates.

The two weeks surrounding Easter are second only to Christmas in terms of crowds. The crowds lessen the further you get from Easter.

 

[loves to dive]

It would depend on whose Spring break you are talking about. Not every school in every state has the same one, we were there last year the second week in March, which was UGA's spring break and F&G was going on, it wasn't bad at all. Heck, in our little surrounding area we have a University, a bunch of little colleges, and four counties all within a 30 mile area, each county seems to have a different school schedule and so does the University and colleges.

 

[TabbieWolf]

We were there in March this year (before Easter), and everything was normal for most of our trip...and then the last day, on our way back to the hotel to leave...college kids. Too many to fit in the bus -- we all got crammed in like sardines. All on their way to Disney Springs to party at the various places you can acquire liquor there (they were not quiet about this).

I'm not saying it's totally normal, but dang, we were glad to be leaving.

 

[MlWinans]

It depends on your exact dates.

The two weeks surrounding Easter are second only to Christmas in terms of crowds. The crowds lessen the further you get from Easter.

It will be the week before Easter. I am familiar with the crowds the week following Christmas, I didn't realize it would be quite to that level.

 

[edk35]

We have been 3 times the week of Easter. I have never been at Christmas, but I would not hesitate to go that week again. Take advantage of rope drop, avoid Epcot in the afternoon/evenings on Sat. and Sunday and get the heck out of MK's Fantasy Land by noon. LOL I have thoroughly enjoyed our spring break trips. This year I was there for only 3 days but way after Easter and it was great. Of course I would love to go during Flower and Garden when it wasn't Easter week but school schedules dictate otherwise. Go have fun!!!! The weather was nice!!!

 

[AJT607]

We're planning to visit over Easter 2017 (Thurs-Mon). Our itinerary, plus the feedback from everyone on this website, has made me feel pretty comfortable with that decision. We're staying at Beach Club and getting Annual Passes for the first time - and we plan to take full advantage of rope drops and park hopping. I think visiting during heavy-crowd times is all about expectation-setting. We've visited during the past two years over the summer and I've never found crowds to have a huge impact on our trip.

 

[angierae]

We were there Easter Week in 2012 (we left on Easter Monday) and this was before FP+ but we didn't find it too awful. Of course we were there for ten days so we took a lot of midday breaks and took advantage of late EMH a lot, but we had a fantastic time.

 

[DVCcurious]

The week before or after Easter can only be described as "a beating".

The two weeks surrounding Easter, Christmas to New Year's, and 4th of July are the 4 worst weeks of the year.

We go every Easter and here is our game plan:

1) If there are 7AM EMH we go to MK from 7AM-12PM.

2) If there are not 7AM EMH we go to MK from 7PM-12AM

Now, we're DVC members so we go to WDW at least annually and we're willing to spend time at the pool, at nice dinners, etc rather than sitting in humongous lines. But if this is your main trip and you want to be at the parks all day, well, good luck to you.

Two years ago I went back to MK in the afternoon while the kids were napping (we were at Wilderness Lodge, so not a long trip). It was 3PM. First tier attractions like the mountains/7 dwarfs/Anna and Elsa were 120+; second tier attractions like Pirates, Haunted Mansion and Tomorrowland Speedway were 60 minutes; third tier attractions (magic carpets, dumbo, Under the Sea, teacups) were 40 minutes.

I strongly advise being there at rope drop or close. I strongly advise avoiding the middle of the day. I strongly advise not attempting to do Rope Drop, break/nap, close each day as that will kill you. So I suggest you do what we did: choose evenings or mornings and just spend 5 hours a day at the park. It keeps the stress level down, you have at least 2 hours of short lines (7-9AM or 10PM-12AM), and it keeps things fun.

 

[teachmedis]

I've only been at Easter, last year --the week after. I got fastpasses for the big ones, and resolved myself to we'll do what we can do. I agree with pp, if you can go to Mk during morning emh do it. We hit the parks hard with a solid plan every morning, took a break in the afternoon and then went back out for a couple more attractions in the evening. There were only a couple of times that I felt overwhelmed by people--Tomorrow Land at night, and in AK Africa at around 11 a.m. The weather was perfect. Enjoy it!

 

[2013Frozen]

We were there the week before Easter (arrived on St. Patrick's Day and left the Saturday before Easter). We had planned our ADRs and Fast Passes in advance. Was MK and weekends crowded? Yes. Were we fortunate to do what we wanted to do with planning, yes. When we were done and crowds were heavier we went back to the hotel. We were there in mid June 2015, and to me the crowds were about the same, especially for MK.

 

[guinness408]

This is a great thread, thanks for all the advice. We're doing the tues-sun after Easter and I'm stressed about the crowds. In FL for a wedding so seems a shame not to sneak in a quick trip.

 

[skuttle]

We went Wed before Easter to Friday after Easter a couple of years ago and had THE best time! I don't know if we had a really good plan, or if we were expecting it to be so bad that it just wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. The weather was perfect. We were able to go swimming every day. We did take advantage of 7am EMH every other day of our trip. Our trip was also on the longer side so we didn't stress out if we missed something. We just caught it the next day. We made our FP all for after lunch/early afternoon. Our MK days, we left after that and went back to WL to take a break from the crowds and swim. We've been during 4th of July, Thanksgiving, week before Christmas...so some busy times. Easter we definitely crowded, but we loved it and would go back again. Easter day we just stayed at WL and caught Fantasmic that evening at Studios. WL had a candy scramble and I had easter baskets made for the kids at the WL store and delivered to our room. It was great! It was, by far, one of my most favorites trips in a while.

 

[MlWinans]

Thanks everyone for the feed back. I am really looking forward to going that week. I am not to worried about the crowds (been multiple times the week after Christmas) just wanted to know what to expect. Also this will be our first time there during the F&G which is just one more thing to really look forward too.

 

[AMusicLifeForMe]

Don't expect any difference with crowds. I would compare maybe to the summer months. All of the main attractions will have hour+ waits, and I would get the ADR's you want at 180 days in advance. Get your fastpasses at 60 days in advance if you are staying on property. You will still have a great time and the Flower and Garden Festival at EPCOT is awesome!

 

[surlecn]

Our Spring Break is 03/20-03/24, Easter is 04/17. I am hoping since we are nearly a month away from Easter, we won't experience any issues.

 

[citygirl27712]

We were there last year at spring break. We arrived on Thursday a week before Easter weekend. Regardless of when we go, we typically are rope droppers and stay until bedtime. I did not find the crowds to start getting bad until the week of Easter. On Saturday after we arrived, we went to EPCOT and the countries were packed due to the Food and Garden Festival. Also, it was a Saturday, the weather was beautiful and there was a ton of just turned 21 year olds doing drinking games around the world. Then Tuesday before Easter it was starting to get crowded. We went in the mornings, left by 2p and returned between 6-7pm to stay tll the parks closed. In 9 days, we never waited more than 30 minutes in line.

 

[MrsHammer]

We were there this year from April 9-15th. It was a bit crowded, but with smart planning ahead of time with fastpass+, ADR's and a reasonable touring plan, the crowds can be managed. Most US school breaks were over, but we encountered a very large population from Great Britain that we didn't anticipate. The weather was beautiful! Low temps around 60, high temps around 83 with low humidity. Can't get much better than that. Again, I can't stress enough that crowds are manageable as long as you prepare!

 

[tndisney5]

We have found MK is unbearable after Noon around the holidays, spring break and summer. We enjoyed DHS and AK the most during those times, including spring break. Less crowded, but still crowded enough to fill up Indiana Jones to standing room only and (RIP) Lights, Motors, Action. As much as I love MK I have found it is harder and harder to manage during any visit that isn't dead zone - Jan/Feb.

 

[MinnieMSue]

We have been to Disney many times but last year we went spring break starting Good Friday and ending late Easter week. I expected wall to wall people. I planned that we couldn't do everything but that wasn't going to matter since we had gone so often. Also we knew we were returning thanksgiving week. Well it wasn't that bad! Yes it was busy but. It to the levels we feared. We FP the headliners (as best we could with the tiered parks ). We skipped really long lines but found times that were tolerable. Weather was wonderful. Not too hot at all and only very brief rains. We had one bad storm that was coming so we left AK early. It was pretty heavy and lasted a few hours. Stripped the bark off the trees at Coronado springs! We even got a discount for hat saved us $500! I would repeat this trip because it was really good. Of course now I know that attendance was down this year so that must be why it wasn't as crowded as I imagined. Oh and flower and garden festival is really nice too