Your thoughts on Disney World during Easter week (updated: disaster avoided)

[halfmonkey]

We're currently booked on a Disney Cruise from 4/22/17-4/29/17. We missed Star Wars Days at Sea by a week. We're planning on flying into FL on 4/16/17 and then going into the parks from 4/17/17-4/21/17. I'm sure this week at Disney World will be quite busy and the hotel will be quite expensive too. We're planning on staying at the Art of Animation but currently, I can't price it out that far in advance so I'm wondering if anybody has any ideas of what the hotel might cost in terms of upcharge for the week following Easter when I think most schools will be out?

My train of thought is even though it will be way more expensive to move the cruise up and also then be able to go on the Star Wars Days at Sea, it might work out if the hotel is way more expensive. This way, I'll be trading the expense from the hotel charge if we stick with our current plan to moving the upcharge to the cruise cost. I see one benefit as we get to go on the Star Wars Days at Sea if I move it and it seems that the crowds will be a little less crowded if we go during the week leading into Easter weekend rather than the week following Easter weekend. I guess it kind of depends on the cost of the hotel if it really is much less expensive if we go the week leading into Easter Sunday.

Anybody have any insight that can share? Thanks.

BTW, the difference in the cruise cost would be about $4000 so the savings on the hotel would need to be substantial enough to make any kind of sense. If it's a savings of like $500, I don't see us doing it but obviously the closer to the $4000, the easier the decision will be. Also, if we stick with our original plan, we will need to pull the kids out of school because our spring break is the week before and after Easter Sunday.

 

[tink1970]

I went to mousesavers.com and checked this year's (2016)prices. While you didn't mention whether you'd be in a Little Mermaid room or a suite (big price difference between the two) there is some price fluctuation in the seasonal pricing.

Easter room (3/20-4/2) rates for Little Mermaid: $225, while Finding Nemo Family Suite $522 (per night)

the time prior to Easter (3/4 to 3/19) is "peak" so Little Mermaid: $190/219, Finding Nemo $438/505 ( the second price is for F/Sa-weekend nights are higher)

the week after Easter (beginning 4/3 this year) is "regular" Little Mermaid: $165/196, Nemo $396/450

Obviously the prices will go up for next year but I think you can see a general trend. Looks like the difference is about $60 between most and least expensive times in the spring for LM, $126 for Nemo (and for the less popular suites) It would be difficult to justify $4,000 change based on room rates alone (unless Disney does something wildly different next year with pricing which they could always do!).

Now if you consider aggravation in the parks, crowds, etc, well...that's a horse of a different color.

 

[Bree]

Easter is the second busiest time of the year. The week of 4/17/2017 is also Spring Break for most of the New England states. It will be VERY crowded and closures are likely to happen at Magic Kingdom. This year WDW was calling guests trying to get them to change their FP+ reservations to other parks. Did I mention crowds? Google Magic Kingdom Easter crowd photos to get an idea. It is wall to wall people.

 

[daisyx3]

It is doable. We have been 6 times. You have to know what you are doing, GO AT ROPE DROP, have your dining reservations and FPs planned. If you go early you can do it. But you must have things planned out. If you fly by the seat of your pants and don't do fastpasses or dining ahead of time, and just roll into the parks when you wake up....it's not for you.
We have only been to MK at Easter late in the evening...usually for the second parade or whatever. We like to spend Easter itself at Typhoon Lagoon!
Daisyx3

 

[princessmommyx3]

I went to WDW the week before Easter last year and it was a madhouse. Like PP said, it is the 2nd busiest time of the year. Have you heard of touringplans.com? It costs a few dollars to subscribe but it gives great crowd level predictions for all 4 parks for every day of the year.

 

[MPS516]

Our Spring Breaks next year do not coincide with Easter, half the schools are out the last week of March the other half the first week of April. We do have some of the Catholic Schools out for longer break at Easter but the numbers are relatively few. We have been during actual Spring Break as well as Easter week in the past and neither time were so off put that we wouldn't go back. Not sure how the East Coast breaks line up but we have run into lots of Midwest family's during our break times.

 

[halfmonkey]

So it's a good thing I posted this thread because it got me looking at confirming our kids' school spring break. I didn't see any notices about the official calendar for next year so when I originally booked the trip, I was just guessing when spring break would be. I thought it would fall the week before and after Easter since that's how it is this year. Luckily, I started looking for the official calendar because it just got released and it appears that spring break is the last two weeks of March. If I didn't check and we kept our scheduled, we would have had to pull the kids out of school for two weeks and then on top of that, it sounds like it's super crowded during Easter week at WDW.

So it turns out that I will need to cancel our current trip and rebook it for March 25th to April 1st. We'll do a pre-trip to WDW, flying into FL from CA on March 19th and go into the parks from March 20th to March 24th. We'll then travel to Port Canaveral on the morning of the 25th to board the ship. I'm not too sure how the crowds will be during late March but I'm hoping it's not as busy as pre and post Easter week. The nice thing about this change too is it looks like we'll be going during the Star Wars Days at Sea. The kids don't know we're planning on going into WDW and now we'll have another surprise for them too with the Star Wars Days at Sea. I'm so excited.

Does anybody have any websites that you trust and are accurate that you can point me to so I can check on crowd levels during the second to last week of March?

Now I need to get my daughter's Princess Leia costume ready and let's see if the boys want to dress up as Stormtroopers again. My oldest son (9 by the time we go on the cruise) is switching to the Light Side and wants to be a Jedi. I don't recall seeing any Jedi costumes sold in the Disney stores so if he really wants to be a Jedi, that might be a little more tough for him to dress up on the cruise. I'm looking forward to buying some of the SWDaS merchandise. I think I'll get some pins, the name tag, a t-shirt, a picture frame, a door magnet frame, and an ornament. We'll see what else they have.