SW- how crowded in last week of March?

[zilp]

I am just starting to get into detailed planning on our upcoming vacation. We plan on going to Legoland(1 day), Busch Gardens (2 days) and SeaWorld (2 days) from Sunday to Thursday. I never gave any thought to spring break crowds . How bad will it be?

 

[KBF]

I am just starting to get into detailed planning on our upcoming vacation. We plan on going to Legoland(1 day), Busch Gardens (2 days) and SeaWorld (2 days) from Sunday to Thursday. I never gave any thought to spring break crowds . How bad will it be?

Spring Break crowds get pretty heavy but nothing comparable to a Disney day. Since Seaworld is opened until 10:00pm the days you're visiting, I would suggest splitting your two days in half. The first day do Park Opening to about 4 or 5 to see all the day shows and exhibits. The next day do 3:00pm- Park close to re see any exhibits you enjoyed, rides and the night time shows. The night time shows are different than the day shows. If you need to plan days, I would do Legoland on Sunday, Seaworld on Monday and Tuesday, and Busch Gardens on Wednesday and Thursday.

 

[RabFlmom]

I am just starting to get into detailed planning on our upcoming vacation. We plan on going to Legoland(1 day), Busch Gardens (2 days) and SeaWorld (2 days) from Sunday to Thursday. I never gave any thought to spring break crowds . How bad will it be?

You will be there during Easter weeks so all the parks will be busy. I would plan opening to close for all the parks. Even though the stadiums at SW are huge, they will fill up early. There will be lines even for meals so plan on that. If you plan to ride coasters you might want to get the front of the line passes.

Holiday weekends we have gone has even taken us about an hour to get from exit at 528 to parking spot in the park. Then the lines to get in and through bag check can be long and slow. On those times we havesometimes not gotten into shows and spend theday mostly watching the animals, etc. just relaxing in the park.

 

[zilp]

yikes! Thanks for the replies. This was a totally last minute trip and I never gave any thought to crowds. I will have my 3 young kids ages 9,6,3. Opening to closing would be too much since the youngest still takes a nap. We are staying in Orlando so it should be easy enough to get to SW early, leave and then come back for any nighttime entertainment.

I am worried about Busch Gardens though, since the drive is so long. Any advice on how to tackle BG?

 

[KBF]

yikes! Thanks for the replies. This was a totally last minute trip and I never gave any thought to crowds. I will have my 3 young kids ages 9,6,3. Opening to closing would be too much since the youngest still takes a nap. We are staying in Orlando so it should be easy enough to get to SW early, leave and then come back for any nighttime entertainment.

I am worried about Busch Gardens though, since the drive is so long. Any advice on how to tackle BG?

The easiest thing to do if you're doing two days at Busch Gardens is to find a hotel out there that you can stay overnight in my opinion.

 

[zilp]

The easiest thing to do if you're doing two days at Busch Gardens is to find a hotel out there that you can stay overnight in my opinion.

Thanks for the suggestion. I did consider doing this, but unfortunately our budget won't allow for extra hotel stays. I guess my strategy will be to leave Orlando early in the morning and drive to BG before/at opening for the 2 days we are planning on going. I saw some conflicting reports about drive time- a few places mentioned an 1 1/2 drive and on some previous threads they mentioned just over an hour. What is your honest drive estimate from Orlando to BG?

 

[Lynne G]

Thanks for the suggestion. I did consider doing this, but unfortunately our budget won't allow for extra hotel stays. I guess my strategy will be to leave Orlando early in the morning and drive to BG before/at opening for the 2 days we are planning on going. I saw some conflicting reports about drive time- a few places mentioned an 1 1/2 drive and on some previous threads they mentioned just over an hour. What is your honest drive estimate from Orlando to BG?

I drove from Orlando to BG twice 2 years ago, but it was the end of August. I say it was about 1 hour drive, but it will depend on how crowded I4 is. It's a easy long highway drive. Though make sure you see the signs for BG. I passed the final turn a few times (my DD11 says we turned around 5 times the first time). It's right in the university campus. We loved BG so much we are going back this year, during christmas. I shall also see how more crowded it will be than when we went the last time. Early is good. You can also pre pay the parking on BG's website. Saves digging out cash. One of the reasons we have a Super Grover pass. Free parking with it.

 

[KBF]

Thanks for the suggestion. I did consider doing this, but unfortunately our budget won't allow for extra hotel stays. I guess my strategy will be to leave Orlando early in the morning and drive to BG before/at opening for the 2 days we are planning on going. I saw some conflicting reports about drive time- a few places mentioned an 1 1/2 drive and on some previous threads they mentioned just over an hour. What is your honest drive estimate from Orlando to BG?

In the morning during rush hour may take some extra time to get down I4. I just used mapquest to find the distance from Seaworld to Busch Gardens and it's about 73 Miles between the two parks. So you could get there in a little over an hour. But like I said, if you hit traffic plan on adding some extra time onto that.

 

[angelmom27]

We do all day at the parks. Since you can't take a break from Busch Gardens my tip would be just take a stroller that the little one can sleep in. While the little one is sleeping you could get a few rides in. SW is going to be nothing crowd wise. Now BG will be the harder one. Since you have to wait to do rides.

The drive isn't bad. It depends on where you are entering I4 from as to what traffic will be like. We stay at hotels along the 192 and that is the last exit on I4 for the attraction area so no traffic going to BG. It is at least an hr dr or more.

 

[CampingDad]

We go every year the last week in March for 2 weeks. The last week of March is never as busy as the first week of April. Especially since Easter falls into the first week of April this year. You should be fine with the last week of March as we always are. Don't get me wrong it will be busy but last year we got our second day free pass and went the first week of April and they closed the entrance because the park was at capacity.

 

[MacClemsons]

I am just starting to get into detailed planning on our upcoming vacation. We plan on going to Legoland(1 day), Busch Gardens (2 days) and SeaWorld (2 days) from Sunday to Thursday. I never gave any thought to spring break crowds . How bad will it be?

Doing nearly same thing that same week. 3 kids (9,8,6) and me. SW, Legoland but no BG. Likely doing Orlando science museum and Disney water park. I'm hoping it's not THAT bad too.

 

[zilp]

I'm hoping it's not THAT bad too.

Keeping my fingers crossed for manageable crowds and traffic