Just how crazy is Easter week?

[Jchoma]

Thank you so much for the input! If we do decide to go Easter week, we will definitely go with the mindset that we’re not going to be able to do every single ride and that we need to be prepared for crowds. And no MK on Easter Sunday. I also re-thought our EMH strategy. I don’t think we will get park hoppers for this trip, so I was previously thinking we would just go to parks without EMH in the hopes that most people visit the parks that do have EMH that day. But maybe that doesn’t make a big difference in the crowd levels, and it’s smarter to hit morning EMH and leave when crowds get too overwhelming. I’m not sure my kids could handle midnight EMH...but that would truly be a cool experience!

Based on the responses, sounds like June might be better but not *that* much better in terms of crowds. And worse weather. So I think, in spite of the warnings of def-con level crowds...I’m leaning toward Easter week.

Despite some of these reports, and my own prior motto of "I'd NEVER go at Easter", we are going to go for it. I keep trying to set expectations for my family, all hard-core veterans, so they won't be shocked. I looked at last year crowd photos too. And yet...it's Disney. Hoping to do rope drop or late nights, and take breaks during the day. We will see how we do and I'll definitely report back.

That’s a great plan! Where did you find photos of crowds? And thank you for offering to report back! Hope you have a magical time.

 

[kittylady1972]

Thank you so much for the input! If we do decide to go Easter week, we will definitely go with the mindset that we’re not going to be able to do every single ride and that we need to be prepared for crowds. And no MK on Easter Sunday. I also re-thought our EMH strategy. I don’t think we will get park hoppers for this trip, so I was previously thinking we would just go to parks without EMH in the hopes that most people visit the parks that do have EMH that day. But maybe that doesn’t make a big difference in the crowd levels, and it’s smarter to hit morning EMH and leave when crowds get too overwhelming. I’m not sure my kids could handle midnight EMH...but that would truly be a cool experience!

Based on the responses, sounds like June might be better but not *that* much better in terms of crowds. And worse weather. So I think, in spite of the warnings of def-con level crowds...I’m leaning toward Easter week.

That’s a great plan! Where did you find photos of crowds? And thank you for offering to report back! Hope you have a magical time.

Yes I think as long as you set your expectations you can handle it. Personally I am looking forward to the nicer weather. We are hitting parks early but not on EMH days with ONE exception the 7am opening at MK we might hit, since we already have a tour scheduled for 8am that day there. We did enjoy our June trips but it was warm and humid. I had to do a few searches for crowd photos but if you look enough you can find a few. Again that July 4rd CRUSH of people at MK we've experienced already, and these days anytime you want to be on Main Street around the time of the fireworks it's been insane. I think we can handle it.

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

I will be at MK on Easter so I will let you know how it is - oddly, Touring Plans has the crowd calendar at 6 for this park on this day. Hopeful!!

 

[LuvAriel]

I will be at MK on Easter so I will let you know how it is - oddly, Touring Plans has the crowd calendar at 6 for this park on this day. Hopeful!!

Ill be there too! Have a great time!

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

Ill be there too! Have a great time!

Thanks!! You too!!

 

[Jchoma]

Again that July 4rd CRUSH of people at MK we've experienced already, and these days anytime you want to be on Main Street around the time of the fireworks it's been insane. I think we can handle it.

Ok, if you've been through that and are still planning Easter, I'm looking to you for inspiration and a trip report, lol!!

I will be at MK on Easter so I will let you know how it is - oddly, Touring Plans has the crowd calendar at 6 for this park on this day. Hopeful!!

That IS surprising! I wonder why that's the case and if it'll change.

 

[BigB0882]

Im surprised Easter Sunday is so crowded. Touringplans has that as the lowest level day for MK for that time period and it is also the lowest day over at Universal for that same time period. I assumed that a lot of families stayed home and did their Easter thing together, either making sure their vacation ended the Saturday before or didn't begin until Monday after Easter. I will have to go back and look at previous Easter Sundays and see what the actual crowd levels were.

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

Im surprised Easter Sunday is so crowded. Touringplans has that as the lowest level day for MK for that time period and it is also the lowest day over at Universal for that same time period. I assumed that a lot of families stayed home and did their Easter thing together, either making sure their vacation ended the Saturday before or didn't begin until Monday after Easter. I will have to go back and look at previous Easter Sundays and see what the actual crowd levels were.

That’s why we are going to MK on that day - because of Touringplans prediction. I hope they are right.

 

[drinkme]

We went Easter 2017 & were surprised how much we got done. We did Peter Pan stand by twice with just a 20 minute wait. We did the Safari 3 tines with hardly any wait. The worst was Frozen WITH a fp. About an hour. I used Touring Plans & chose the parks they recommended.

Easter that year was late so that helped a lot. I think with Easter being late again next year it will have lower crowds.

Have a great trip. I am thinking of going then, too

 

[Jchoma]

Get up super early
Be on the first bus out of your resort
Get to the front at rope drop (now with the castle open show that means the land you want to visit first)
Ride Standby until 10:30
Have FP+ from 10-11; 11-12; and 12-1
Ride FP+ from 10:30-11:00, then 11:30-12:00; then 12:30-1:00
Then leave the park

You will not see the night time shows
You will not be in any park after 1:00
But you too can have short waits during Easter

OP here. I really appreciate everyone's input and experiences! I wanted to clarify, I definitely don't expect short waits during Easter Week for the most part, except hopefully during EMH. The strategy above is actually what we would likely do, get up very early, hit our top priority rides and take afternoon breaks. My kids get up early anyways, and have the most energy then, so it's totally fine to get to parks super early.

What I am trying to gauge is just how crazy the crowds are. I have never experienced higher than an 8. For example, if we left MK for a break and wanted to come back in the evening, would we experience issues getting in? Do you not think being in the park after 1:00 or seeing the nighttime shows is possible if we leave? Is it difficult to walk through the crowds, and are there crazy bottlenecks everywhere? I'm trying to understand just how insane the crowd levels are, with the expectation that lines will likely be long. It seems like responses are either "don't even consider that week" to "it's fine with good planning and realistic expectations", both on this board and a FB group I'm a part of. So please keep your input & experiences coming, it's very helpful!

Thanks everyone!

 

[Leeba]

I'm going this year, so I'll let you know Now, to be fair, i'll only be at WDW for 2 nights and 2.5 days before a cruise ... so I may not have a ton of input, but I'll definitely report back. I also have a "whatever whatever" attitude about the whole thing, which would not be the case if WDW were our entire focus. I'm feeling it as more of a bonus, because the cruise is the big part of the trip. All that being said, we booked at the Polynesian, which I am dying to experience, so I am also sort of thinking that if the parks are awful, then that gives me more of an excuse to go back to the resort.

Which brings me to my other question .... I wonder how crazy crowded the resorts & pools will be!

 

[Jchoma]

Which brings me to my other question .... I wonder how crazy crowded the resorts & pools will be!

I'm wondering the same!!

 

[kittylady1972]

OP here. I really appreciate everyone's input and experiences! I wanted to clarify, I definitely don't expect short waits during Easter Week for the most part, except hopefully during EMH. The strategy above is actually what we would likely do, get up very early, hit our top priority rides and take afternoon breaks. My kids get up early anyways, and have the most energy then, so it's totally fine to get to parks super early.

What I am trying to gauge is just how crazy the crowds are. I have never experienced higher than an 8. For example, if we left MK for a break and wanted to come back in the evening, would we experience issues getting in? Do you not think being in the park after 1:00 or seeing the nighttime shows is possible if we leave? Is it difficult to walk through the crowds, and are there crazy bottlenecks everywhere? I'm trying to understand just how insane the crowd levels are, with the expectation that lines will likely be long. It seems like responses are either "don't even consider that week" to "it's fine with good planning and realistic expectations", both on this board and a FB group I'm a part of. So please keep your input & experiences coming, it's very helpful!

Thanks everyone!

And THIS is us in a nutshell also. Well we may have to drag one or two kids out of bed early but the rest of us can do the early up and out routine quite easily. I'm curious about the leaving and coming back also. I just found an online crowd calendar that compared Easter weekend to the days before and of Thanksgiving, and if it's like that then we know exactly what we are in for and can manage that.

 

[Donalyn]

From what I've gathered, it is fairly unlikely that MK would close in any capacity during the weeks around Easter. However, the parks can get pretty crowded (like wall to wall people in places) before they get to a capacity issue (as defined by WDW and the fire marshals). So, I'd expect that you could get back in after a break - if you want to.

I will tell you that in high crowd times, the evenings aren't necessarily any better than mid-day. My most crowded time ever at a park was DL on Veterans Day weekend (also a race weekend) in the evenings after our resort break. It was so bad that I wanted to leave the parks (and that never happens).

 

[DVCcurious]

What I am trying to gauge is just how crazy the crowds are. I have never experienced higher than an 8. For example, if we left MK for a break and wanted to come back in the evening, would we experience issues getting in? Do you not think being in the park after 1:00 or seeing the nighttime shows is possible if we leave? Is it difficult to walk through the crowds, and are there crazy bottlenecks everywhere?

Early morning is ok, but by 10:00 AM thousands of people are coming in. Once we got muffins on Main Street at 10:30 and I waited outside with the kids for the 30 minutes my husband was in the bakery line. The sight of hundreds of people flooding up Main Street was, well, amazing. Such a mass of humanity!

The crowds are very crazy. There are bottlenecks everywhere.

You will get in the park no problem so it’s not Christmas with phased closures.... but moving around is a real challenge.

Let me elaborate. The first thing you have to realize is that many rides have extended queues. So it’s a small world’s extended queue cuts off 10 feet of walking space in that tight section between Peter Pan and it’s a small world. There is a dude with a sign that says “keep right” standing in the middle. There is enough room for a double stroller/ 2 people side by side in each direction.

The Hub after 5pm is way worse. You’ll be lucky to have a single file line going in the direction you want to go. Many people camp out in the hub and down Main Street to about Casey’s (so just the beginning of Main Street) to get fireworks spots and they camp very early (I’m not exaggerating with the 5pm). If you were to walk from the entrance of Adventureland to the entrance of Tomorrowland at 8:00pm it would probably take you 20 minutes, maybe even 30.

There will be signs everywhere that say “Haunted Mansion line starts here” or “People Mover line starts here”. Very few lines will fit in their natural queue: pirates, splash, thunder, Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, little mermaid, enchanted tails with belle, that’s probably it. Most rides have extended queues.

The extended queues make walking a challenge because they take up so much room.

FP+ Return lines will be very, very long. Thunder will go back to the bridge, Jungle Cruise will go to the stairs, space will be under the people over track, 7DMT will be back to Be Our Guest.

The line for Storybook Treats (formerly Mrs. Potts) will sort of get close to the 7DMT FP return line and make it really hard to get through there.

The huge FP+ Return lines, the extended queues, they make it a real challenge to move around. And don’t forget the stroller parking! So many strollers!

Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time. But I think it’s fair to say it takes 3 times longer to walk from point A to point B than during a normal crowd day. Everywhere you’re walking in single or double-file lines past these extended queues.


Except for Stitch. It’ll still be a 5 minute wait...

 

[Jchoma]

Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time. But I think it’s fair to say it takes 3 times longer to walk from point A to point B than during a normal crowd day. Everywhere you’re walking in single or double-file lines past these extended queues.

Except for Stitch. It’ll still be a 5 minute wait

Lol about Stitch Wow....this paints a crazy picture and I appreciate so much detail. I’m stressed just reading about those crowds, let alone actually experiencing them! Was every park that crazy crowded the entire Easter week?

 

[DVCcurious]

Lol about Stitch Wow....this paints a crazy picture and I appreciate so much detail. I’m stressed just reading about those crowds, let alone actually experiencing them! Was every park that crazy crowded the entire Easter week?

We only did MK (2 little kids)

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

Be prepared for really high prices. We are going the week after Easter this year and resort prices were terrible- rivaling Christmas. I can usually find what I consider to be a deal, either through a passholder discount or a Bounceback or a travel agent, but rates were just ugly everywhere I looked. Ended up booking at the Dolphin because it was the most reasonable of the deluxe resorts- even with the resort and parking fees.

 

[Jchoma]

Be prepared for really high prices. We are going the week after Easter this year and resort prices were terrible- rivaling Christmas. I can usually find what I consider to be a deal, either through a passholder discount or a Bounceback or a travel agent, but rates were just ugly everywhere I looked. Ended up booking at the Dolphin because it was the most reasonable of the deluxe resorts- even with the resort and parking fees.

I’m concerned about this, too. Room rates haven’t been released for 2019 but I looked at 2018 peak pricing over Easter week to get a sense of the increase and was shocked! I’m sure 2019 will be comparable. Have you stayed at the dolphin or swan before? I’d ruled them out between the parking & resort fees, but maybe we’ll consider staying there if it’s our best cost option. The pools look amazing and of course the location is great. I’m also looking into renting DVC points, but the thought of non-refundable fees scares me a little.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Now that the parks questions have been answered and the thread has moved onto Resorts, closing.