Week BEFORE Easter at DL

[DisneyPups]

Hi all! This is my first post on the Disneyland board as I would like to start gathering information to see if a trip to the left coast is in the cards. So I work for a school system and my DD will be entering Kindergarten in the fall. In my district we have Spring Break the week leading up to Easter. I know there's variation on before vs after... do California and other nearby states typically have the week after off? How crowded does that week get in DL/DCA? Should I avoid it? My DD's 6th bday is the Wednesday of the week, and it would be pretty magical to have a birthday in the parks! If you all give me bad news, I'll stick with WDW but if you think it's doable with an almost 6yo and an almost 3yo, I'll keep DL on the list of options. We'd definitely like to go somewhere since our youngest DD just turned 2, which means this will be the last trip where she is free ticket-wise. Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions. (More info: we are DVC members, so they've both been to WDW multiple times!)

 

[SMD]

The week leading up to Easter is the most common Spring Break week for local schools. It's the week LAUSD typically takes. Also, because of the 10 week quarters, the last week of March is the week that most universities on the quarter system take. And April 1st is a state holiday. This year was unusually because Easter was late and many districts in nearby states had early breaks, but Disney blocked the week before and it wasn't as busy as peak Spring Break. But with Easter falling 16 days earlier next year, that won't be the case.

 

[figment_jii]

Spring Break is more of a season at DLR than any specific week...anytime from about mid-March through mid-April will likely have some school districts out on "Spring Break". Next year (2018), the Spring AP blockout covers the week before and after Easter. Historically, that would mean DLR expects the peak Spring Break crowds to arrive those two weeks. This year, it seems like the AP blockouts coupled with other ticket blockouts and the lateness of Easter meant the crowds were actually pretty manageable before and after Easter. So, it's hard to say what kind of crowd patterns we'll see next year.

 

[DisneyPups]

Thank you both for your quick response! I think we'll wait for another year!

 

[SMD]

There are obviously no guarantees either way, but if you want to do DLR, I'd go next year. Expect it to be very crowded and consider it a plus if it's not as bad as expected. With Star Wars land opening in 2019 I'd expect crowds to increase for several years and Disney will probably do something for the 65th Anniversary in 2020 that will last into 2021.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

As a general rule of thumb, we advise our friends to skip the week before and the week after Easter if they want to avoid the heaviest spring break crowds.

 

[DisneyPups]

Yeah, as frequent WDW travelers, I always said I would NEVER go during spring break... and then I had two kids with spring birthdays... My oldest DD is during Spring Break next year (and often) and my youngest just had her bday on Easter this year... there just isn't any getting around it if I want to do birthday in the park. Haha. Of course I can abandon the idea of their bdays and celebrate my own (Apr 30)... spring breaks are over by then and college should have another week or two... Oh well. I think we'll just wait until they're older anyway, so we aren't dealing with early bedtimes... I've yet to see a nighttime parade or a fireworks show since I had kids... but at least we get all the rope drops!

Thanks again for everyone's input.

 

[kirstie101]

We went the Sunday/Monday before Easter this year and I was shocked by the lighter than expected crowds! It was a very pleasant surprise. We go during busy times (Christmas, summer, rundisney races) so I was expecting those type crowds and was pleasantly surprised. My sis in law went in early March, hoping to miss the crowds, and they had much longer wait times than we did!

 

[DisneyPups]

Thanks everyone for your help. I'll be back for more advice when we plan a DL trip. For now, we're headed back to WDW for her bday.