Spring Break Crowds

exeseven

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 17, 2019
Hello,

We're looking at a short notice trip from March 23-28, and are curious if anyone could elaborate on what to expect crowd wise in detail. We know this is typical spring break season and around the dance competitions. Our hope was that folks would be holding off until GE opens and crowds might be slower than usual for this year until then.

I've checked various crowd calendars and none seem to agree on what to expect. Most just say moderate crowds with high on the weekend days, but some are saying 9/10 and 10/10 crowd levels for the whole week. Is one known to be more reliable or accurate than the others? I'm aware all are, for the most part just guesses.

Just to have something to compare to, should we expect crowds to be noticably worse than Brazil season? Our last trip was during those weeks of January and despite everything claiming the parks would be less busy than average, crowds and waits felt excessive for what everything we found online told us to anticipate.
 
Welcome to the Dis!

You're better off not worrying about crowd calendars. None of them are particularly reliable. As you've said, they're just guesses.

Have a great trip!
 
Agree w previous poster, the crowd calendars will be all over the place and not provide a single cohesive answer and truth be told, even if they did, they have a good chance of being completely wrong. I feel the calendars just confuse ppl more than they already are when trying to plan FP+, meals, rest breaks, transport, it gets ridiculous to throw in an anticipated crowd level for a future date. I think they have a general idea of crowds but I've been in anticipated low crowd days and have experienced high level crowds and later saw where several calendars adjusted their actuals.

I am of the mindset, you go to Disney when when you can and you make the best of it. Rope drop the parks to get the most rides done, take midday breaks from the parks since that will be the highest crowd times and just be patient. Yes, spring break is busy, no matter which way you slice it, but it's manageable. If you have the option to go another time, maybe look at that but with GE opening later in the year, that may put off some trips but I wouldn't count on it being low crowds. Lately I expect the worst and hope for the best when it comes to crowds.
 
Spring Breaks across the country seem really spread out starting in late February all the way through the end of April. I have no idea the ratio of highest spring break week to lowest spring break week crowds. I'd say it will be less busy than Easter week (late April) and better than the week ending with Friday March 15. I'm pretty sure that I read elsewhere that the local to the parks spring break is the week of the 15th. Someone else chime in and correct me if I'm wrong.

As always, FastPass is your best friend. Start off getting passes that are scheduled for the earliest part of your day. You'll be able to accumulate more throughout the course of the day thus making it possible to do more even if it's packed.
 


There’s a Spring Break poll around here in the last few pages. Week of the 24th is a big one. Virtually all of Northern Illinois is always off that week and Orlando is a very popular getaway at that time since we’re still cold and sometimes snowy.
 
If you worry about crowds you won't have fun.
Also crowd calendars are crap anymore.
While I'm sure some school districts and some colleges will have spring break around that time the vast majority have a break in February around President's Day and then The week leading up to or the week after Easter depending on when Easter falls which this year is late so likely the majority will be the week leading up to.
I suspect the week you go won't be terrible.
 
We've gone during Texas spring break week, and while the crowds were heavy, with a good touring plan you can have a pretty good time. It's going to be busy so just plan on it.

Disney also modifies hours and staffing depending on crowds. They'll reduce capacity on rides depending on crowd level. I rather go when the parks are open later (10 to midnight) even if it's busier than go when everything closes at 8PM.
 



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