When exactly IS Spring Break?

leebee

DIS Legend
Joined
Sep 14, 1999
Messages
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I keep seeing posts saying "just back we were there during spring break" and I am confused. I thought "spring break" was the 2nd and 3rd weeks of March, with maybe a little bit of a crowd the first week. It seems like now it's the whole month of March, and at least the first week of April. Up here in the northeast, many schools had a winter break in February and will have spring break either the week before Easter (so starting in a few days) or the week after Easter. Is "Spring Break" about to become a two-month season rather than a two week deal? :confused3
 
Spring Break has always been a 4-6 week window depending on where Easter lands on the calendar.
 
I keep seeing posts saying "just back we were there during spring break" and I am confused. I thought "spring break" was the 2nd and 3rd weeks of March, with maybe a little bit of a crowd the first week. It seems like now it's the whole month of March, and at least the first week of April. Up here in the northeast, many schools had a winter break in February and will have spring break either the week before Easter (so starting in a few days) or the week after Easter. Is "Spring Break" about to become a two-month season rather than a two week deal? :confused3

Spring Break in Texas is usually in March. College Spring breaks are all over the calendar. A lot of schools have the week before or after Easter....just depends on where you live. So Spring Break is about the second week of March to after Easter.
 
We normally go to WDW at Easter time and we notice a huge difference in crowds when Easter falls in late March versus late April. I think March is a huge month for spring breaks, so add Easter to that and WDW is very, very busy. However, with Easter in later April like this year, we don't normally experience as large of crowds. Still busy, but not nearly as bad as we experience in late March.

I keep checking my resort (Poly) and other resorts we're interested in, and all still have plenty of rooms available for next week (Easter week). Last year when Easter was in late March, we noticed the rooms were more filled.
 

Most colleges have spring break in the middle of March. Many k-12 schools have it near Easter. (usually week before). President's week can also be busy.

I think many of the K-12 schools in Orlando area have SB in March.


BuckeyeBama has it right!


Yes, I think "spring break" is an easy catch-all for, "the parks were more crowded than we thought they'd be." :lmao:
 
Spring break at Disney this year is March-April, with Easter so late this year, spring breaks around the country are very varied. Here in central Florida ours was 2 weeks ago.
 
Most colleges have spring break in the middle of March. Many k-12 schools have it near Easter. (usually week before). President's week can also be busy.

I think many of the K-12 schools in Orlando area have SB in March.


BuckeyeBama has it right!


Yes, I think "spring break" is an easy catch-all for, "the parks were more crowded than we thought they'd be." :lmao:

The bolded is regional....Seems like schools on the East Coast and South have it near Easter. In Ohio it was always near Easter, but out west it seems like Spring Break is in March.
 
In most parts of the Northeast, Spring Break includes as much of Passover as possible.
 
Colleges in our area seemed to have had their spring breaks either the first or second week of March this year. Public school districts had their breaks last week or will have theirs the week before Easter here.
 
In my area (SE PA) which is a HUGE college area, College spring breaks are usually in March or about half way through the semester.

School Districts mostly seem to do either the week before or week after Easter. However, those are usually snow make up days, and with the winter we had, most schools don't have much if any spring break this year. We only have Good Friday off this year since the rest are make up days.

I know this isn't how a lot of the country is, but it seems pretty consistent with the Northeast. I know when easter falls so late a lot of schools try and schedule a day or two off in March as a "mini" spring break type of thing, but with all the snow days this year, those would have been make up days as well.
 
I went to a Catholic university, and we had a spring break in February and an Easter Break. Both were about a week.
 
I live on the Gulf Coast of MS where Mardi Gras is a big event. In the school district where I teach and other surrounding districts, we have 2 - 3 days off for Mardi Gras. Then we will have a week + 1 day the week before or after Easter. This year it is the week before. Just 3 hours north of us where I formerly lived and taught, the districts in that area had spring break the 2nd week of March but no Mardi Gras break. Most of the colleges have it 2nd - 3rd week of March as well.
 
When we lived in North Dakota they didn't even get a whole week for spring break. I think it was only 3 days....we took a couple extra days and went to Disney...it was too cold up there not to escape!!
 
It is an interesting point that this winter has taken a sledgehammer to many school's schedules around Easter this year. For instance, my son was supposed to get 6 days off starting Wed. April 16 thru Monday April 21. Snow days have wiped out all but Good Friday (18th) and the 2 day weekend. I've heard from more than one family that was thinking of/planning to go that they're not. It'll be interesting to see if there's enough of that going on to temper the Easter crowds this year....plus the normal "spring break", which virtually all colleges have already had, is far away enough from Easter this year to maybe keep things a little calmer around the holiday. I suspect not, though...
 
Where I live, Spring Break was always the week before Easter. In the last few years, the local school districts have had increased pressure from other religous denominations to give time off for their holidays as well. In turn, the school districts have started moving spring break around so it would not be close to Easter so that no one can say it has anything to do with the holiday.
 
Here in Orlando we are all gearing up for the week before Easter to be crazy. Both traffic wise and in the parks. Our local schools have long finished their spring breaks, but we get typically get a majority of visitors in that week.
 
DVC always has its Premier Season the two weeks beginning Palm Sunday, which has the highest point requirements along with the week between Christmas and New Years. I've always taken this to mean that Disney considers those two weeks as the high part of Spring break. My kids Spring break in Virginia is always Holy Week (even though it's a public school).
 
It just depends on the school districts. To me when I hear the words Spring Break, I always think of the 2 weeks around Easter.

But now that my oldest will be heading off to college, it sounds like their spring break is in March.

So now I guess I'll have to change my thinking. :)
 
In Maine and Massachusetts the schools are closed the week of Patriot's Day in April. It is only a coincidence if it falls at Easter. I believe that NH and VT schools are closed the following week.

In 2015 our spring break is not close to Easter. That is why my DD, who is a teacher, is planning a WDW trip that week for her family and me.
 


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