Spring Break

[CarterFamilyof12]

Due to some scheduling conflicts now with another trip, we have to move our Disney trip. We had initially planned later in the year but now with a couple conference dates popping up and work conflicts with my husbands job and school testing schedules for 7 of our kids- we are forced to go during a "high crowd" time of year. We were looking at Easter- spring break. I figure if I am going to fight crowds, at least the weather can pleasant while doing so.

Has anyone ever been around Easter? I've read through some things I found online where people say they would never go again on Spring Break, but I feel like we dont have a lot options. Its going to be Easter, Christmas or oppressively hot July. I had commented on a Youtube video and got a reply that, if we go during Easter we will just be wasting our money as its not an enjoyable time to visit. I was so disheartened. My kids will be devastated if I put this trip off until 2017.

Insight? Advice? Opinions? I feel like our Disney Dream Vacation is going down in flames :*(

 

[Julylady]

Not to worry! We have traveled during spring break several times and as long as you have a good plan, its fine! You need to do more advanced planning as going "seat of your pants" doesn't work so well in busy times. About 7 months prior to our trip, I map out what part we will be in each day. We only do Extra Magic Hours in the morning at MK. We find that for the other parks, its best to schedule your visit the day AFTER EMHs. We then make 1 table service ADR for each day (the lines at counter service meals can be very long and its hard to find a place to sit.) At 60 days we make FP plus reservations for either late morning or late afternoon. We do rope drop every day, but that's usually at 9am so we can all sleep in until 7:30.

And to be honest, the crowds do take their toll. To mitigate this, we spend a portion of each day at the hotel just relaxing at the pool or in the room. We have never been commando people so I don't know what that would be like during Spring Break. With these plans in place we have always had a great time! We ONLY travel during school breaks (family of educators) so that's all we know!

 

[CarterFamilyof12]

School break is 55 days away, so not a lot of time for advance reservations. We are not commando types and with 10 children in the family, we will do lots of breaks. I was looking at a trip that would be 6 days long. So if I did this, would it be best to get park hopper as to go to less crowded parks if necessary?

 

[SandyinMonterey]

We've done both WDW Spring Break in 2014 and Disneyland Spring Break 2015. While both were very crowded, Disneyland was much worse. Maybe because it's just so much larger at WDW? Anyway, ride lines at WDW extremely long, if we didn't have fast passes we probably wouldn't of been able to do most rides. Dining reservations are a MUST! We went to Blizzard Beach on a very nice, sunny day and to our surprise it wasn't nearly as crowded as we thought it would be. All in all, if we had to do Spring Break at WDW again, we would. Just make things easy on yourself with some planning for dining, fast passes and take advantage of Magic Hours.

 

[Shanti]

Due to some scheduling conflicts now with another trip, we have to move our Disney trip. We had initially planned later in the year but now with a couple conference dates popping up and work conflicts with my husbands job and school testing schedules for 7 of our kids- we are forced to go during a "high crowd" time of year. We were looking at Easter- spring break. I figure if I am going to fight crowds, at least the weather can pleasant while doing so.

Has anyone ever been around Easter? I've read through some things I found online where people say they would never go again on Spring Break, but I feel like we dont have a lot options. Its going to be Easter, Christmas or oppressively hot July. I had commented on a Youtube video and got a reply that, if we go during Easter we will just be wasting our money as its not an enjoyable time to visit. I was so disheartened. My kids will be devastated if I put this trip off until 2017.

Insight? Advice? Opinions? I feel like our Disney Dream Vacation is going down in flames :*(

My vote would be for July if you can afford to stay in a moderate or deluxe that has a really nice pool with a slide. (I'm from Texas, so July in Florida is milder than what I'm used to, so keep that in mind when evaluating my response, but still, I'm not into sweating.) If you can plan to do rope drop & first hours until mid-afternoon, then return to resort to swim, then rest & dine during the daily afternoon/evening rain, then return to the parks for evening/nighttime fun on some nights, you can have a magical vacation in July.

If your lodging will be such that it won't be practical or pleasant to spend hours each day at your resort, & you plan to power through entire days at the parks with no break, then I recommend Christmas (only if you can swing the week before Christmas, not after), or Easter.