Which park to visit on Easter day?

[3littlecuties]

Our 180 day window for ADRs opens on Sunday so I'm trying to plan which parks we will be in on which days. We are arriving on Good Friday (Mar 30) and leaving the morning of Sat Apr 7. I would like to spend 3 park days, then a break day, then 3 more park days. We'll do 2 MK, 2 EP, 1 HS, and 1 AK. I'd like to do MK and EP both once during our 1st three days and then once during our last 3 days.

Typically, we like to rope drop and then leave shortly after lunch to head back to the resort and go to the pool or just relax. Our kids don't handle full days in the parks well. I'm thrown off by Easter though. We do not want to rope drop on Easter. We plan to have a leisurely morning and then go to a brunch. Then we will head to a park around 12:00-1:00.

Given that information, which park would you choose to go to on Easter Sunday? The historical crowd calendars on touring plans says that all the parks drop a bit on Easter Sunday. I find that hard to believe. Would it be a mistake to do MK? We ALWAYS rope drop MK because there are so many rides and we can get to more of them in the morning with lower crowds. If we don't do MK, the other choice would be Epcot. Which do you think would be less crowded for the afternoon? I thought Epcot was always worse in the afternoons.

Thoughts? I've looked at all the crowd calendars and they all seem to disagree on "best parks" and "parks to avoid" for individual days! Ugh!

(Yes...I realize that I'm probably totally overthinking this but I like to be prepared!)

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I think the crowd calendars can be helpful but in my past experience when I've looked at them, I have disagreed with my experiences on those days. We did MK this past Aug 14- was listed as a 6/10 of being busy, it was a day that I would consider very high crowds. Then we did Epcot on a hopper day, August 13- we were there from about 11-3 and it was fairly low crowds, I think it was listed as an 8/10. So as helpful as they may be, I think it's a guessing game. I have found MK is always very crowded from 11-5 and then it drops some, but I feel like crowds will still be pretty high since this is a holiday time and spring break for some. I have learned WDW is always busy it's just whether or not it's crazy busy or manageable busy. I have also heard to avoid MK on Wednesdays and weekends, but again, I feel like during a holiday time, that's a moot point. At any rate, you will have a blast no matter when you go even if it's stupid busy- we always have. FP+ and dining reservations have been our saving grace over the years.

 

[MomTo3PrincessesInNJ]

We've done Easter Sunday in WDW twice. We've had the same plan -- leisurely morning, brunch, then parks. We did Epcot both times because Epcot has Easter activities and my young kids enjoyed it. They met the Bunny, did a free egg hunt, and we paid to do the giant egg hunt in the world showcase.

 

[3littlecuties]

We've done Easter Sunday in WDW twice. We've had the same plan -- leisurely morning, brunch, then parks. We did Epcot both times because Epcot has Easter activities and my young kids enjoyed it. They met the Bunny, did a free egg hunt, and we paid to do the giant egg hunt in the world showcase.

I considered Epcot because of those activities but then wondered if my kids would rather be riding Disney rides than doing Easter activities. So the activities were fun? Maybe we should go with that option then.

 

[ahem]

This past Easter my mom, younger sister and I went to Epcot. We are all adults, we were staying at the Dolphin. Coming in through international gateway maybe 15 after 9. We ran over to Frozen and only had a 15 minute wait. We headed to Nemo and Friends, then Soarin' with a FP at 10:15, we rode Journey Into Imagination, went into a butterfly habitat, then headed to test track and did single rider line. We got all that done and headed to Mexico for lunch. It was a great Easter Sunday.

 

[3littlecuties]

This past Easter my mom, younger sister and I went to Epcot. We are all adults, we were staying at the Dolphin. Coming in through international gateway maybe 15 after 9. We ran over to Frozen and only had a 15 minute wait. We headed to Nemo and Friends, then Soarin' with a FP at 10:15, we rode Journey Into Imagination, went into a butterfly habitat, then headed to test track and did single rider line. We got all that done and headed to Mexico for lunch. It was a great Easter Sunday.

But we wouldn't be heading in until AFTER lunch. I would assume it would be much more crowded then.

 

[ahem]

But we wouldn't be heading in until AFTER lunch. I would assume it would be much more crowded then.

After lunch we were strolling through the showcase and noted it really wasn't as crowded as we anticipated for a major holiday at WDW.

 

[10CJ]

Well touringplans has MK as a 6 that day. Not sure I believe that though! That being said, if you want to do MK then do MK.

We will be there for Easter this year. Our plan is for Epcot in the morning/early afternoon. We will head back to the resort for a break. After dinner we may head to MK but that part is still up in the air. This is our first Easter trip so I do not have anything to compare to.

Will you have park hoppers? It sounds like no. However if you do you can always change parks if the park you choose seems too crowded once you are there.

Where are you staying and where do you plan to have brunch? I would probably pick the park closest to brunch if you are heading to the parks from Brunch.

 

[3littlecuties]

Well touringplans has MK as a 6 that day. Not sure I believe that though! That being said, if you want to do MK then do MK.

We will be there for Easter this year. Our plan is for Epcot in the morning/early afternoon. We will head back to the resort for a break. After dinner we may head to MK but that part is still up in the air. This is our first Easter trip so I do not have anything to compare to.

Will you have park hoppers? It sounds like no. However if you do you can always change parks if the park you choose seems too crowded once you are there.

Where are you staying and where do you plan to have brunch? I would probably pick the park closest to brunch if you are heading to the parks from Brunch.

We are actually buying APs when we go this December so we can park hop if we want. However, our 9 yo DD has Down syndrome and we will be renting a large stroller from Kingdom Strollers for her and park hopping is not exactly easy for us. This is a big reason why we only do 1/2 days in the parks. She gets tired and can only handle so much at a time.

Part of what is making this trip hard to plan is that we aren't sure yet where we are staying. Currently we have a garden wing room booked the Contemporary. However, I'm waiting to see what discounts may be released. In the past, we have switched resorts after discounts were released. One year we booked a garden wing at the Contemporary and then when discounts came out, the 30% discount specifically excluded that room type so we switched to the Poly because it ended up being a much bigger discount. Another year, we booked Beach Club and then when discounts came out, we couldn't get the discount applied to our existing reservation at BC so we switched to Boardwalk. But then it turned out that our travel agent screwed up and our reservation was CANCELLED so she got us in at YC 5 days before we left! At least those were all in the same general area though.

We will either stay at the Contemporary or move to Poly, BC, YC, or Boardwalk based on pricing. If we can't get any reasonable discount, then we would stay at POR. Spring break prices are crazy!

We haven't picked where we will eat for brunch yet. I was thinking possibly 1900 Park Fare. I don't have my heart set on anything though. O'hana would be another possibility.

 

[lentesta]

Well touringplans has MK as a 6 that day. Not sure I believe that though! That being said, if you want to do MK then do MK.

Thanks for the shout-out @10CJ! Magic Kingdom was a 5/10 on Easter this year, and 7/10 on Easter 2016. I think 6/10 seems like a reasonable estimate at this point for 2019.

 

[10CJ]

Thanks for the shout-out @10CJ! Magic Kingdom was a 5/10 on Easter this year, and 7/10 on Easter 2016. I think 6/10 seems like a reasonable estimate at this point for 2019.

Good to know, thanks. Thanks for the link to this years numbers with predictions vs actual It just seemed too good to be true when I saw that number for 2018. I am still debating switching around my day that day and going to MK in the morning instead of EP. I am rapidly running out of time to figure it out before my dining window opens.