Why? Mk open untill midnight on 4/18

[Aquagirl]

Yup all CT public schools, along with the majority of New England are on spring break that week.

 

[holly2005]

MA is always on spring brake the 3rd week of April. I booked my airline tickets 2 months ago and could hardly find a flight. I paid $440 per ticket, normally you can get to Orlando for under $150 r/t. Now you can't get a direct flight and they are $1000 for a plane change flight. I think it will be a bit busy.

 

[shafke]

The problem you are running in to is that Easter was so early this year. When Easter is mid April, this coincides with spring break for schools. You can then say I'm not going week before and week after Easter and be safe.

 

[cheerdancer11]

Yea, im going for a short school trip so it shouldn't matter. Hopefully I'll be going again next year whenever my college has off.

 

[AshClan]

MA is always on spring brake the 3rd week of April. I booked my airline tickets 2 months ago and could hardly find a flight. I paid $440 per ticket, normally you can get to Orlando for under $150 r/t. Now you can't get a direct flight and they are $1000 for a plane change flight. I think it will be a bit busy.

That's why we are driving (first time ever) this year! The flight prices are just ridiculous!!

....and MA is always off the week of Patriots Day, which always falls on the Monday closest to the "real" Patriots Day on April 19th. NH usually has the week following, but I know CT, ME, RI, some parts of NY, and I think NJ (?) are all off. We'll certainly have lots of company!!

 

[MrsJ Henry]

Syracuse area is on break too. Most of the Northeast has a winter break in February and a spring break in mid to late April.

As far as I know, most of the south has just one break usually around Easter.

Yup just about all the schools in central NY have spring break the week of the 18th.

 

[sunnygirl]

I think it's a little odd that a large chunk of an entire region's public school system is off this late in April, but it is what it is.

The reason we have a break in April up here in the Northeast is that the schools stay open until mid to late June. We don't start up again until September, after Labor Day.

It's probably a good thing that different parts of the country are on different schedules or else all school vacation time at DW would mean Christmas size crowds!

 

[Marge8]

We fly out from U.K. for a week at Disney 21/4 are you saying that many schools are on holiday that week and it will be busy?

 

[BamaTigger]

NOOO!!! I though we'd miss all the spring break crowds not going easter week It will be fun staying at MK that late though!

DITTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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[mwerner2]

There is also a big event called the Sun N Fun Fly in in Lakeland - Just 30 miles down the road from WDW. Last year, more than 160,000 people from each of the 50 United States and 73 countries participated in Sun ‘n Fun’s seven-day fly–in.

I have been trying to get motel reservations in Lakeland as we need to camp out at the hospital there next week. There are NO vacancies from April 12-19

 

[rwodonnell]

As others have said, Patriot's Day is BIG here. It's actually a Mass state holiday, and many businesses take it off. The schools are always out statewide for the week. Makes a lot more sense in terms of a regular schedule than doing the week after Easter, as some states do. It was new to me when I moved here too, but it makes sense. Now that I've been here a while, I'm always surprised when people haven't heard of it, with all that happens (most notably the Boston Marathon and Red Sox always play at home around noon, but also many parades in many towns, etc.)

I think this is an interesting example of many small schools exerting influence by coordinating their schedules - I haven't seen the same coordination in any other state east of the Mississippi, for example. I mean, none of those school systems is in the top 100 in the US, but collectively they wield influence.

I was surprised to read this, so I had to check it out. Boston is actually 43rd according to this list: 100 Largest Public School Districts 1999-2000 I also think there are other explanations, perhaps school districts are geographically smaller than in many other states? I am not sure, but I do know that Massachusetts is 13th in population, therefore it stands to reason that there must be a fair number of students in Massachusetts. If you count all the states that are reportedly off if all the posts here are accurate, it's easy to see why the parks could be crowded. And don't forget the cabin fever syndrome playing into it - most of us in the northeast are dying for some nice weather after the winter we just had, and we're finally getting it!

 

[Brook106]

Many NY schools have the last week of April off for Passover.

 

[Beerbelly6219]

In upstate NY, above NYC, all schools are shut down for the week of the 18th. THis is all across the state, north and south of Albany. We always have either Easter week off, or, as happened this year, if Easter is early, a week off later in APril. We'll be there-hopefully not too crowded.