Who else is traveling the week of April 4th? INSANE CROWDS??

[WDWOswald]

The days of visiting the parks after spring break has ended are over for us and my wife and I will be traveling with our 7 year old son the week of April 4th. It appears that ticket prices are higher for that week than perhaps any other week of the year. I'm assuming this means incredible demand and insane crowds.

Any tips for surviving what is likely to be terrible crowds that week? We are renting a car and staying at bonnet creek. Although doing a lot of rides isn't super important to us because we have been to WDW so many times, we do want to enjoy the new fireworks shows and at least a few rides each day.

Also, for the first time ever, we are only doing three park days instead of six or seven. Ticket prices are too high and we don't feel like we'd get enough value out of more days at the parks. That leaves us with three "non park days" to visit Disney Springs, enjoy our resort, dine out, etc. However, we aren't used to that much down time on our trips. Is it worth driving to the beach? Paying $400 for a day at universal?

 

[Haagen Dawgs]

Amen. Same boat. The ticket prices for both Universal and Disney are higher than ever that week. I had hoped that being two-weeks before Easter, after college Spring Breaks and avoiding both Jersey Week and and Florida Spring Break would pay dividends, but it appears that isn’t the case. You, me, and every person in Georgia on spring break will descend.

We are staying offsite as well at Sabal Palms, but I love Bonnett Creek. We just wanted the full kitchen and amazing pools at Marriott World Resort. We are literally saving $6,000 vs booking a 1-bedroom Deluxe at Disney for a week.

The reason I mention this is that you are going to need to get Genie + for every park (the crowds will demand it despite some feeling it isn’t necessary in AK and Epcot. Stack rides at 7 am, 9 am, and 11 am. It will likely be spent after that, but that gives you three expedited lines at least. ILL everything except maybe Space Mountain.You won’t be able to get it for RotR. It will be gone to onsite guests long before you have a shot.

My point, the thousands you are saving for staying offsite will need a few hundred dollars of that to limit some lines and you want to maximize that as much as possible.

I am taking my oldest to Universal as she is a huge Harry Potter fan and I’m buying the Express Pass in advance of anticipation of them selling out. I recommend skipping Universal if possible as it is incredibly cost prohibitive if not staying there. The one day cost makes me a bit ill.

Enjoy your resort when you can, pack some Xanax and don’t look at your AMEX bill until you are back home. That’s what we are doing

 

[Brian Noble]

Any tips for surviving what is likely to be terrible crowds that week?

[...]

Also, for the first time ever, we are only doing three park days instead of six or seven.

We've often been during busy times. I've been during President's Week (both with and without Mardi Gras), Easter, peak Summer, and Christmas. We will be there next month for FL/TX spring break.

My biggest piece of advice: stay out of the parks between 1PM and 5PM. We normally get there a bit before rope drop, tour until a TS lunch at noon, and we leave the park when lunch is over. We get a nice several hour break at the resort and then go back for dinner, maybe a ride or two, fireworks, etc. About every third day or so we will sleep in and skip the morning. Sometimes we will do World Showcase in the afternoon on a sleep-in day, but sometimes not.

If you follow a plan something like that, it makes those extra days a lot more valuable, because you are spreading your limited attention across the hours when the parks are least crowded.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Spring break varies greatly depending on where you live. Where we live it's the third week of March but 'Spring Break Season' at Disney is considered to be mid-March until the end of April.

We were at Disney 2 weeks ago when crowds were high. I'd recommend purchasing G+ for MK and DHS (if you wish) but didn't find it necessary at the other 2 parks.

We slept in a couple of days (after booking our initial LL at 7AM) then headed to the parks mid-afternoon with a stack of LL reservations in our pockets. This method worked well for us.

On down days we've enjoyed the water parks, mini-golfing, Disney Springs. Other options are bowling at Splittsville. Possibly Cirque?

Hope this helps.

 

[Deebee_7]

Touring plans is giving very low crowds that 1 week?!

 

[gharter]

We are at both parks that week and expect it to be crazy busy as Spring Break will still be in full swing. When Easter is late March, early April, mid April is quieter. Doubt it will be this year.

 

[gharter]

We slept in a couple of days (after booking our initial LL at 7AM) then headed to the parks mid-afternoon with a stack of LL reservations in our pockets.

Glad to hear that worked as I was thinking about trying that approach.

 

[Haagen Dawgs]

Touring plans is giving very low crowds that 1 week?!

They have been missing left and right since Covid. Their prediction of a 3 at MK yesterday was an 8. There were some level 10 crowds at the end of January. January!

 

[Deebee_7]

Oh boy and I was more or less counting on that. Wrong of me clearly!. I did not get Genie+ for our family of 4 thinking it will all be OK. Can't seem to get myself to add another few 100's of euro's on top of the already expensive 14 day ticket. We will try and arrange DAS and DAS advanced reservations because of my daughers autism. Makes the choice to buy Genie + diffucult as with the 14 day pass you have to buy it for all 14 days. And we'll probably only spend about 9 days in the parks.

 

[100AcreWood]

I follow several of the Disney bloggers who post pictures of the crowds. I wonder if people are more likely to pull their kids out of school for Disney, than before.

 

[Haagen Dawgs]

Oh boy and I was more or less counting on that. Wrong of me clearly!. I did not get Genie+ for our family of 4 thinking it will all be OK. Can't seem to get myself to add another few 100's of euro's on top of the already expensive 14 day ticket. We will try and arrange DAS and DAS advanced reservations because of my daughers autism. Makes the choice to buy Genie + diffucult as with the 14 day pass you have to buy it for all 14 days. And we'll probably only spend about 9 days in the parks.

You can always buy individual day Genie +…you just can’t purchase it until midnight of the day of use.

 

[Deebee_7]

True. But because I booked a package holiday way before Covid struck and had Fastpass+ included I can now add Genie+ for about 7 dollars per person per day. But then I need to buy it for the 14 days.
I could of course opt out and buy it at full price only for the days that I will go to MK and Hollywood studios (about 5 days in total I think)

 

[WDWOswald]

You can always buy individual day Genie +…you just can’t purchase it until midnight of the day of use.

It seems to me Genie+ will do absolutely nothing for us. I have to wake up at 7 am and immediately make selections for random times? We don't rope drop the parks. We will probably get there around 11 and leave about 2 or 3 and come back around 6. I doubt the Genie is going to care what our schedule is.

 

[Brian Noble]

We don't rope drop the parks. We will probably get there around 11 and leave about 2 or 3

In my experience this is a terrible idea for a high crowd time.