Week before Easter week, or late May 2017?

[akl432]

Hello everyone! I am planning a 2017 trip and have 2 different weeks to pick from:

1) March 31- April 8, 2017 (the week of Good Friday through Easter Sunday is the following week, April 8 - April 16)
2) May 19 - 27, 2017 (Memorial Day weekend starts May 27)

Which would be better for crowds? Will Spring Break crowds and Easter crowds be very heavy during week #1? I wasn't sure when Spring Break crowds end and Easter crowds begin. On the other hand, will crowds be higher in late May/Memorial Day weekend since some schools will be out?

I am guessing that week #1 might be better for crowds, but then I wondered if that week might still have lots of Spring Breakers. I'm also considering the potentially lower resort prices in May for #2 (either a value resort, or renting DVC points for AKL).

We are 2 adults, no kids, and we hit the parks hard, from rope drop to close, maximizing attraction time. Therefore, shorter lines are very important to us.

Any feedback is appreciated! Thank you so much!!

 

[Alesia]

The weeks before and after Easter are two of the busiest weeks of the year. The week leading up to Memorial Day is much less busy.

Late May/early June is actually my favorite time to go. The local kids (as well as most of the east coast kids) are still in school, so the crowds are very manageable.

 

[maryj11]

I would go late May if Easter is any where near your other choice. We went memorial day week 2014 and I thought it would be super crowded. Actually it wasn't bad at all. It wasn't low crowds but it was way better then I thought it would be. We enjoyed that week, with a little planning of course.

 

[Canuck16]

I would suggest avoiding Spring Break and Easter as crowds will high for sure.

May is a great time to go.

 

[DVCcurious]

Clearly mid-to-late May will have shorter lines. BUT...........If you want to ride the most attractions then I gotta vote for 3/31-4/8.

We go every Spring Break either the week before or week after Easter. MK opens at 7AM and closes at Midnight or later each day. That's like 17 hours! During May you'll see MK open at 9 and close at 10PM, that's 13 hours. You will get more rides in 17 hours than 13 hours.

Plus, during Spring Break there's nobody in line at MK at the non-A&E/7DMT attractions until 9AM. So you have 2 hours with no lines. Last year before 10AM we did:

A&E (we were first in line so we got out at 7:15)
Peter Pan
IASW
Dumbo
Barnstormer
Speedway
Astro Orbiter
Speedway (again)
Astro Orbiter (again)
then at 9AM we moved to Adventureland and did
Jungle Cruise
Pirates
Magic Carpets
Jungle Cruise (again)

Then it was 10AM and the crowds really started to build. We went to the Bakery for a snack and the swarm of people flooding up mainstreet was amazing to watch. We did our 3 FP+s from 10-11, 11-12, and 12-1 and then left for the day.

But we did 13 things before it got crowded. I went back at mid-day during the kids' naps and saw that all the lines were about an hour (pirates, haunted mansion) or 90 minutes (mountains). Assuming you could do 2 rides per 3 hours for the rest of the day after 10AM, and the park closes at midnight then you'd do about 10 more attractions that day. But lines will drop at the end of the night and you have your 3 FP+s to use so let's call it 17 more attractions after 10AM. So 13 +17 = 30 attractions in one day.

I know we did Fantasyland, but the Mountains have no line so as a couple who probably want Space, Splash, and Thunder I could imagine you could do Space 4 or 5 times during Extra Magic Hours between 7-8AM and then move to frontierland and ride Splash and Thunder probably 4 times each before the crowd builds at 10AM.

Sure, the middle of the day is massively more crowded during Spring Break, but you won't get 3 full hours with no crowds at the beginning of the day if you go in May. In fact, with MK open from 9AM-10PM (13 hours) you'd have to do 2.3 attractions per hour during May to net the same number of attractions you could do during Spring Break.

So if you're really a commando tourist who is going to be there from open to close I gotta vote for Spring Break as your biggest bang for your buck.

 

[roselark]

The week before Memorial day is a great week to go! Much less crowded than the week before Easter. That would definitely be my choice.