Any suggestions on Spring Break that ends with Easter?

[StacyStrong]

Our party of 5 adults and 1 child (age 9), will be there the week before Easter too. I’m hoping that the weather may not be too hot since Easter falls earlier in the month, April 14. This week is not my first choice, but since 1 of us is a vice-principal and 1 is a teacher, April 11-13 it is. I’m trying not to stress about the crowds. I have already told everyone we will be doing rope-drop for the first 2 or 3 days and then a “down day” before back to a few busy days again. I’ll keeping checking in here for any suggestions or hints...thanks!

I might be misunderstanding you, but Easter falls on April 21.

ETA - oops. You already noticed! Sorry!

 

[Lorelei18]

Ok, so here are my thoughts based on our previous spring break trips, and one "week leading up to Christmas" trip. The one year I thought, "Oh, Easter is April 20, and our spring break is the last week of March, WDW shouldn't be as crowded as it has been in previous years." It turns out when Easter falls later in April, Florida schools have spring break in March. We are actually seeing a similar thing in the schedules in the districts in Ohio right now. That one year, 2014, there was a day we were at Magic Kingdom that I'm pretty sure the entire state of Florida was there. It wasn't even a phased closing day, but we left for the afternoon and came back in the evening. There were cars parked on the lawn back by the racetrack in the TTC parking lot. That is the only "miserable" day I can recall out of 3 years of Spring Break trips. I'm actually happy our spring break is April 13-20 this year! I've been there on a day in December last year that I think someone said had 80,000 people, where they were directing people away from the hub 30 minutes before HEA, and even that day didn't seem as bad.

Having said all of that, here is my experience and how we personally handle it.

Before your 180 ADR window, make a rough plan of which parks you think you want to go to each day, which rides/shows/activities you and your family may want to do. We personally avoid the parks with EMH even if we've been eligible for them.

Make ADR's at 6am 180 days out. Additionally, we have had much better luck doing lunch reservations, and trying to go to lunch at 11:30 or as soon as the restaurant opens for lunch. The times we've booked dinner are the reservations where we've waited 45 min or more for our table. It's less stressful to be seated right away, have your order taken right away, etc. Plus, assuming some parks open at 8am (MK and AK tend to during Spring Break), you'll have been pounding the pavement for 3.5 hrs at that point anyway, and the parks will start getting crowded by 11:30.

Make FP as soon as your window opens. We typically do FP 9:45-10:45, 10:45-11:45 and 12:30-1:30.

The week before your trip recheck the park hours. We've experienced the MK hours changing to an 8am open from a 9am open days before our trip. Same with AK. I wouldn't be surprised if this year HS opens at 8am.

For us, rope drop is super important on Spring Break. My kids also naturally wake up at 6:30am no matter what. Each night check the park hours for the following day. The parks will often start letting people through the touchpoints 30-45 min early depending on the park (I believe MK may actually be an hour early now). So, if you want to do rope drop, count backwards from official park open. Determine what time you want to be in line, even if you aren't at the very front (also consider time to go through security before reaching touchpoint line). Then figure out what time you need to be out the door in the morning to arrive and be in line by the time you want to be in line. I have to do this, because every night my DH asks me, "What time do you want to leave tomorrow?" So I've had to work out this process now so that it's almost down to a science.

We ride as many rides as we can during those first couple of hours, then use our first fastpass near the end of the fastpass window. Then move onto our 2nd fastpass ride. Then go to lunch. Then 3rd fastpass ride. Then fight our way back to the front of the park through the walls of people looking at their phones and maps and fighting with each other over what ride to do, leave the park, swim in the pool and take naps. My point being, we avoid the most stressful and hottest part of the day. We return around 5 and stay til park close.

For evening shows, I'd consider booking a meal package or dessert party that includes a designated seating area. We did the HEA dessert party with plaza garden viewing at Christmastime, and as they announced that the hub had reached capacity 30 min before the show, I could not have been more grateful we splurged on that.

Lastly, we drive our rental car to all of the parks.

So, this is our "survival" plan each year and how we tour the parks. We kind of like the busier times, because the parks tend to open earlier and stay open later. We also haven't really been at a "slower" time. I know this is a lot of info, but it's what has worked for us! Good luck, and maybe we'll see you there!

 

[tobinsatdisney]

We are APs and will pretty much go any time of year except for Easter week. Maybe it's the heat but I find the crowds more frustrating that week than the day before Christmas. However as others have mentioned many Florida schools have Spring Break in March this year but my school and many other will also have an Easter Break and we're off the 18th-22nd as well which may add to the locals crowd. If you plan ahead and adjust your expectations accordingly you should be just fine though

 

[Lorelei18]

We are APs and will pretty much go any time of year except for Easter week. Maybe it's the heat but I find the crowds more frustrating that week than the day before Christmas. However as others have mentioned many Florida schools have Spring Break in March this year but my school and many other will also have an Easter Break and we're off the 18th-22nd as well which may add to the locals crowd. If you plan ahead and adjust your expectations accordingly you should be just fine though

I leave the 19th, so hopefully we will have accomplished everything we wanted to before the 18th and my kids can relax and play checkers at the Frontierland Shooting Gallery on the last day!

 

[wdwplanner13]

Our last trip was 5 years ago. We have a 9 year thrill seeker and 5 year princess seeker. It's basically the 1st trip for the little one, since she doesn't remember going before, but she loves looking at the pictures we took.

We are renting points at Boulder ridge villas for the first 3 nights and then beach club for the next 4. Planning to do MK and AK when at BRV and Epcot and HS when at beach club, with a rest day in the middle. Is BRV close enough for a mid day break?

 

[Lorelei18]

Our last trip was 5 years ago. We have a 9 year thrill seeker and 5 year princess seeker. It's basically the 1st trip for the little one, since she doesn't remember going before, but she loves looking at the pictures we took.

We are renting points at Boulder ridge villas for the first 3 nights and then beach club for the next 4. Planning to do MK and AK when at BRV and Epcot and HS when at beach club, with a rest day in the middle. Is BRV close enough for a mid day break?

I'm not sure about BRV. I'd think it would be close enough for a break from MK at least, as there is a boat that will take you from MK to BRV. I'm not sure about AK to BRV on the busses.

Since you described the ages of your children, not sure how tall your daughter will be, but if she doesn't meet the height requirement for some of the rides, I highly recommend using the Rider Swap. This way, you or your husband can take your 9 year old on the big rides, and the other can take your 5 year old on a smaller ride or to meet a princess. Then later, you can switch off, the 9 year old can ride the bigger ride again with the other parent by going through the Fastpass line. That was another benefit we got a lot of use out of during spring breaks when our kids were smaller. My youngest is hoping this year to be 48" by the time we go so that he can ride everything with his big brothers though!

One other thought I just had, is you don't have to book all of your Fastpasses for everyone in your group for the same activity. If there are rides your 5 year old is unlikely to want to or be able to ride, like Space Mountain for example, I'd consider booking Fastpass for your 9 year old and one parent, and at the same time book a fastpass for a princess met and greet for the 5 year old and the other parent. I did this one year with a large family group we had go with us and it worked out really well.

Sounds like you are going to have a great time! The people I know of personally who tend to not enjoy themselves are the people who underestimate the benefit of advanced planning. Every time we go to Disney I thank my "6 month ago self" for the effort I put in, because I actually get to enjoy myself!

 

[TinkSassy]

Plan to be out of the parks mid-day because it will be warm. We did the DDP last Easter and I booked "almost" every dining package option they had - Fantasmic, Rose & Crown (for Illuminations viewing), etc. Also used these for all the characters we wanted. Lines were long and I find dining a good way to mitigate those lines where possible. Rope Drop is a huge help if you can get your family to do it. ("The only thing that hurts worse than getting up for Rope Drop - NOT getting up for Rope Drop" - my dad)