Crowded 4/26-5/1?

[pewing]

I am going the week after Easter this year. Thoughts? Busy time...or not?

Our spring break is the end of March, but I know some areas do that later...

 

[gonga]

I think it will be less crowded. Spring break should be over by mid April. I love that time of year in WDW. Spring break is over, kids still in school...............................Ahhhhh how nice. Have a wonderful time, we are not far behind you we will be there 5/14

 

[cindyfan]

Everyone says that the 2 weeks surrounding Easter are the 2nd most crowded (most crowded being Christmas).
But I think with Easter being later this year, and so many schools have their spring breaks earlier.
PLUS everything else going on......it may not be quite as bad as previous years.
We are arriving on Wed after Easter. So I am figuring the crowds should start to die down then. and by that weekend be back to a more normal April.
Since you are not arriving til Sat April 26th, you should be okay with the crowds!!!!! The Easter crowds will be gone by then.

 

[Blondie]

In April of 1998 we went two weeks after Easter break and it was still pretty darned crowded...but nowhere near as crowed as one week after! Been there, done that, never going back during that time frame again!

 

[cindyfan]

pewing......we went the exact dates as you just 2 years ago....
April 27th - May 2nd, Easter that year was April 15th.
We found the crowds to be very light
The only exception was on the weekend. It was a weekend for Grad nights, and the start of the flower show....same as this year.
The bad part was that with Grad nights there were no night time parades or fireworks That was when they only had them on weekends. Hopefully they will have the parade and fireworks scheduled during the week.

So we saw alot of teenagers on Friday and Saturday.
And the weekend of May 2nd was Star Wars weekend, which is not scheduled for this year....I don't think

We are prepared for crowds the first couple days......but I'm not going to worry about them after that Friday

 

[JOC]

We went April 26-May 3 last year and the crowds weren't bad. Weather was nice too..starting getting a little hot towards the end of the week though.

 

[kilee]

We arrived last year the Friday after Easter and stayed for a week. The crowds were reasonable and got thinner by the end of our stay. We only used fast pass in the park once and never waited more than 15 minutes for any ride. It was really hot when we were there. The weather was close to 90 everyday. Supposedly it was unseasonable hot the week we were there for the beginning of April.

 

[HM]

Were we all at the same place last year? Your experiences don't sound a bit like mine of the same time..

I was there from April 25-28 and it was hot as all get out...mid-90s those days. and VERY humid. (We usually go in the summer months and found it very similar.) We about had heatstroke watching the MK afternoon parade on day. I also thought it was pretty crowded, esp at MK. My son and I ended up in the pool every afternoon to escape crowds and the heat. Of course the crowds were nowhere near those you'd get at Easter... -HM

 

[JOC]

HM,
We arrived on Friday, April 26 and got to FW cabins around 3:30 p.m. I remembered it POURED that night because after we settled in we went looking for a fast food place and it wasn't fun. We only did the parks until right after lunch, as our then two-and-a-half yr. old had to have breaks. Like you, we would take pool breaks or just relax in our cabin. We did MK Sunday morning; got there right as they opened and did all the rides we wanted to do in less than two hours. Tuesday my husband golfed and I took our son back to MK around 10:30 a.m. and stayed until after 4 p.m. to see the parade. Even getting to Fantasyland so late in the morning, we were still able to do the rides we wanted to with about 5-10 minute waits tops. It did start getting hot (to us) towards the end of the week (May 3), which is when we transferred over to Hard Rock Hotel to do Universal.

 

[HM]

JOC --
I had almost forgotten about that rain. We were sitting in the Fantasmic stadium when it started to drizzle....we decided to not chance it and went for the buses. Are we glad we did...it started POURING the minute we got on the bus and kept up for a long time. We went back to WL and goofed around there instead.

We did get a bunch done at MK on Sunday morning I remember, so it couldn't have been too bad that day. Maybe I have a faulty memory about the rest of the visit's crowds...but it just seemed busy to me thinking back. -HM

 

[JOC]

"Busy" to me is anything with more than a five minute wait...my now three-and-a-half yr. old can't even wait in line that long! LOL
It's funny because everyone says that Christmas week is the worst time to go, but we did MK on Dec. 23 (Monday morning) starting at 7:30 and we were done with what we wanted to do by 10:30...that's when the crowds really started coming in. Main Street was PACKED with people coming in...I think we were the only ones trying to get out!

 

[cindyfan]

I guess it is all relative to what you consider to be "crowded"
We have been to the parks on certain days that there were "events" and it was NUTS!!! Such as the day we showed up at MGM on the first day of Star Wars weekend!!!! We had no idea that was going on or we would have avoided it.

We've also been to MK on a Saturday of a holiday weekend and it was also CRAZY!

No, we don't like crowds either...and I really don't think I would ever go over Easter weekend!
But as work and school schedules worked out....we will be there the week after.
As long as we prepare ourselves for crowds...we will be fine!
and I think the crowds will thin out by the end of that week.