March 2027 at Disney World: Crowd Calendar & Info

This guide to March 2027 at Walt Disney World offers a free crowd calendar, weeks to visit & avoid, weather, ride refurbishments, and what’s new. All of this, plus info & tips for Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios.

March is a “tale of two seasons.” The beginning should be slow, with crowds subsiding after Mardi Gras and Presidents’ Day in late February. Then later in March, colleges and many school systems in the country will take their spring break…and that means trips to Walt Disney World!

If you’re somehow able to get past that (perhaps you’re an avid queue enthusiast, in which case 120-minute waits might be right up your alley), the month of March can otherwise be a good time to visit Walt Disney World. Let’s take a look at the highs and lows of the month…

The big change for the coming year is that Easter moves forward to March 28, 2027. This is the earliest it’s been since 2016, and only the second time in the last decade that Easter has fallen in March. The end result is that schools that plan their Spring Breaks around the Easter holiday will be off for Spring Break in the final week of March 2027.

Even outside of Easter, many K-12 schools and colleges in the United States have their Spring Breaks earlier in March. That includes many districts in Florida, including the two counties with the biggest impact on Walt Disney World crowds. We’ll discuss the ramifications of Spring Break in the March 2027 crowd calendar section below. Here’s what else you need to know about the month at Walt Disney World, organized into convenient categories…

March Weather at Disney World

As far as the weather goes, March is the month when the weather starts to turn around and warm up. Temperatures rise over the course of the month, and although they are still on the cool side of mild, it’s usually quite comfortable. Sure, it can be abnormally cold or hot in March (definitely check the long term forecast before visiting as it really could be either), but you’re generally in for weather that’s almost ideal for touring the parks.

Lows at the beginning of the month are in the mid-50s and creep up towards the 60s by the end of the month. High temperatures range from 75 to 80 degrees. In looking at those numbers and the “comfortable” band on this page, you might think that it skews towards chilly. That can be true early in the morning and late at night, but keep in mind that you’ll be most active during the middle of the day when it’s warmest; personally, I prefer slightly cooler temperatures when I’m active, anyway.

The result is that March is one of the better months of the year for weather in Florida, particularly towards the end of the month. At the beginning of the month you’re more likely to experience unseasonably cold weather, so I tend to avoid that. About the only downside to this mild weather is that it can make visiting water parks or spending much time in your resort hotel’s pool less appealing (or downright unappealing). This can be a bummer for those seeking a ‘tropical’ reprieve from winter in the North.

Being Michiganders, that’s exactly what my family wanted from our trips when I was growing up. I still remember an early March vacation during which my parents decided to stubbornly stick to our plans (I paint them as “stubborn” but the reality was probably that I was a bratty kid who insisted upon going) to visit Blizzard Beach. There was almost no one in the park, and we all spent the better park of the day wrapped in towels on our beach chairs.

I recall crossing the icebergs in Ski Patrol Training Camp and envisioning them as actual chunks of ice, which wasn’t that much of a stretch of the imagination at the time. I share all of this because you might not want to make concrete plans for the water parks or put too much weight in a hotel’s swimming pool when choosing a hotel or planning a March visit–you may not want to spend time at either.

March 2027 Disney World Special Events

Let’s start out with the nonpublic events in March 2027 that impact attendance at Walt Disney World. While there is no Beer Bong World Championship (let alone more unsavory events) held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports, there are youth events that can result in just as wild of crowds.

There are usually major dance and cheerleading competitions held in March that boost attendance at the parks and occupancy at the hotels, usually the All Stars and Coronado Springs. Here’s what was on the calendar at the ESPN Wide World of Sports for the previous year (2027 dates have yet to be published, but these events are usually on the same weekends, or +/- one week):

• Youth Flag Football World Championships: February 28 to March 2
• The Quest Recreational Championship: March 7-8
• UCA/UDA All Star National Championship: March 8-9
• Disney Spring Training: March 10 to April 20

All of these are large events. In particular, the Youth Flag Football Championship describes itself as “one of the largest youth flag football tournaments in history with over 700 teams and 8,000 athletes.” That’s a lot of participants, and keep in mind that very few of these athletes (who are children) will travel alone. Most come with families, so there’s a multiplier on that 8,000 that probably increases the overall attendees to somewhere around 20,000 (give or take).

Nevertheless, the actual impact of youth sporting events on crowd levels is debatable. If you end up at the same hotel as them or behind a large group of cheerleaders in line or in the same Haunted Mansion stretching room as them, your perception of them will likely be very different than someone who stays at a different hotel and only encounters small numbers of them in passing. We speak from experience (including that very specific Haunted Mansion example), and say that this is generally not something about which you should be concerned.

Speaking of athletic events, there’s also the Princess Half Marathon from February 25 to March 1, 2027. That won’t really impact crowds in March, as the runners usually arrive early and there’s seldom a crowds spike on the Saturday and Sunday of the main races. The runDisney Springtime Surprise isn’t until April 8-11, 2027, so that also won’t impact March.

Then there are the public events held during the month at Walt Disney World. The EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival starts March 10, 2027, which is a week later than normal. That’s pushed back because the EPCOT Festival of the Arts lasts a week longer, running until March 1, 2027. Both of these events will spike ‘feels like’ crowds at EPCOT, as they’re a big draw for locals who show up specifically for the event–to see the floral displays, eat food, and buy merchandise.

One thing locals typically do not do–or do disproportionately less than tourists–is rides. As a result, congestion at EPCOT is higher but wait times often are not. Locals also visit EPCOT disproportionately at the start of events, on weekends and after work. Meaning that some dates in early March identified below as great times to visit won’t be so great for EPCOT congestion or feels like crowds. Just something to keep in mind as you plan your days (or times of day) in each park!

Regardless of whether you’re into gardening (I’m not) this is event has the park looking lovely. The flower tapestry by the Imagination pavilion, between Future World and World Showcase is incredibly picturesque, as are the many topiaries around the park. There’s much more than that, all of which you can read about in our Guide to EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival.

Finally, there’s After Hours at Magic Kingdom and After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. These occur sporadically and, as the names suggest, are held after park closing. They have minimal impact on daytime crowd levels, but result in a slight bump in crowds during the evening ‘mix-in’ time.

We do not recommend changing your plans because of After Hours at Magic Kingdom, but you might want to do DHS on a different evening. Normally, that park is great for lower wait times at the end of the night, albeit to a lesser degree on After Hours dates.

Park Hours for March are usually pretty good. Walt Disney World has quietly been extending these, with Magic Kingdom now closing later and the other 3 parks opening earlier as a result. Of course, there’s a reason for this: spring break attendance forecasts!

March REFURBISHMENTS & NEW ATTRACTIONS

In terms of attractions that will be closed during March 2027, check the Walt Disney World Refurbishment Schedule. That schedule won’t be accurate until around February, but we don’t expect much to be added.

The good news is that there are fewer than expected attraction closures during March at Walt Disney World because of Spring Break. That doesn’t mean there won’t be brief closures or unplanned maintenance, but we would not expect any other headliner attractions to have multi-week closures.

It’s also possible that Spaceship Earth and Expedition Everest could be closed for lengthy projects that were announced at D23. Moreover, another Magic Kingdom ride reimagining starting in early 2027, such as Space Mountain, would explain why Tiana’s Bayou Adventure went down for refurbishment in late 2026 as opposed to early 2027.

While the guest impact won’t be nearly as bad as the last development cycle, there will be visible construction walls, closures, and more. See Walt Disney World’s 5-Year Plan: Construction, Closing & Opening Dates for New Lands & Rides for everything you need to know.

Recent additions at Walt Disney World include Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets, Soarin’ Across America, Bluey’s Wild World, Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run featuring Mandalorian & Grogu, and the Magic of Disney Animation. On top of that, refreshed versions of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin debuted within the last year.

Other relatively recent additions include Zootopia: Better Zoogether, Test Track 3.0 and Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away, which is Walt Disney World’s first night parade in roughly a decade. We love Disney Starlight Night Parade and highly recommend making a point of watching it during your trip.

Beyond routine refurbishments and ride reimaginings, there’s a lot of ongoing construction throughout Walt Disney World. While the guest impact isn’t as bad as the last development cycle, there are visible construction walls, closures, and more. See Walt Disney World’s 5-Year Plan: Construction, Closing & Opening Dates for New Lands & Rides for everything you need to know.

We’re focused here on recent additions because the bad news is that absolutely nothing debuting soon will be open by March 2027. Thus far, next year’s major additions that we know about are the phased openings of Monstropolis at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom.

Neither of those have dates, but we’re expecting attractions to debut starting around Memorial Day. In addition to that, Walt Disney World has set a late Spring 2027 reopening date for Carousel of Progress, which we also expect to be closer to Memorial Day than Spring Break. With that said, Carousel of Progress is the one attraction that could possibly open by late March 2027. We highly doubt it, though. Even April might be a stretch.

For an overview of what else is on the horizon, see What’s New & Next at Walt Disney World in 2027, 2028 & Beyond.

March 2027 DISNEY WORLD CROWD CALENDAR

We’ll start this free crowd calendar section with the same preface as other months—skip ahead a few paragraphs if you’ve already read it. Wondering why you don’t see a color-coded crowd calendar here? It’s because we don’t really trust them anymore and don’t think you should, either. If we just had a visual crowd calendar graphic here, many of you would only look at that and not read the accompanying explanation that covers what you might actually expect. That’d be doing you a disservice.

While they can be useful tools, crowd calendars are one small piece of a much larger puzzle. We no longer choose our own Disney travel dates based exclusively upon crowd calendars and we’d likewise discourage you from doing so. While still useful, crowd calendars are less reliable because of the way Disney manipulates attendance patterns.

Walt Disney World doesn’t release official attendance numbers, so crowd calendars utilize info like school schedules, airport traffic statistics, hotel pricing & occupancy, and other indicators as proxies for crowds. As things once again return to normal and stabilize, Walt Disney World attendance is once again following a more identifiable pattern that tracks with the aforementioned proxies.

Let’s start with the good news: early March 2027 should once again be a great time to visit because it’s a lull in crowds. That isn’t always the case, as years when Mardi Gras is at the beginning of the month (or end of February) result in an influx of visitors from Louisiana and other areas of the South. Thankfully, the worst weeks of winter will occur in mid-to-late February 2027.

Bad for those who visit in February, but fantastic for those who opt for early March 2027! Actually, if you visit at the very end of February, you should be in good shape. The end of the month into the first weekend of March should be great (outside of EPCOT).

In fact, our expectation is that the first week-plus of March 2027 will see low-to-moderate crowd levels. This is especially noteworthy because just before that (Presidents’ Day/Mid-Winter Break/Ski Week) will have been very busy and shortly thereafter is the start of Spring Break season, which is also pretty bad.

In the first week of March 2027, it’s likely that crowd levels range from around 2/10 to 5/10, with the average being below 4/10. This means average wait times across the entirety of Walt Disney World of around 30 to 35 minutes.

That might sound high or not great, but it’s a sharp contrast to the aforementioned worst week of winter. That stretch will likely see 8/10 to 9/10 crowd levels and average wait times of 54 to 61 minutes. That’s a huge difference over the course of an entire day!

This is precisely why the first week of March 2027 makes our list of the 10 Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2027 & 2028 (on the best side, obviously). Specifically, February 27 to March 7, 2027 will see the lowest wait times and attendance of the month. Although some school districts start having Spring Breaks around then, it’s still a statistically insignificant number in the grand scheme of things.

With that said, there are a couple of wildcards in the first half of March 2027. The first is the aforementioned youth sporting events at the ESPN Wide World of Sports.

Some of those attendees will arrive early and visit the parks in the week leading up to their weekend events. It’s our expectation that these events will be scheduled largely for March 6-7, 2027, but we we view this as relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.

The other wildcard is that the lowest two tiers of Walt Disney World Annual Passes will be blocked out March 13-31, 2027. This is the longest uninterrupted blockout in years, and it’s due to Central Florida school districts and Easter week occurring back to back.

It’s often the case that weeklong blockouts like this result in locals moving forward visits to “get their Disney fix” before the blockout starts. This means that March 12, 2027 will be busy, and potentially March 9-11, 2027 along with it. On that basis, we recommend avoiding the few days after our aforementioned best week.

All of this is more or less normal, reflecting the lull between the popular Presidents’ Day and Mardi Gras holidays in late February and the start of Spring Break season in mid-March. Weekends will feel busier at EPCOT, especially if the weather is nice.

Following that, expect the Spring Break ‘season’ to unofficially kick off on March 13, 2027. This is because that’s when school districts in Central Florida (and beyond) will start their recesses. In the past, the start of Orange County’s Spring Break has been one of the worst weeks of the year.

Last year, crowds during Central Florida’s Spring Break ranged from 6/10 to 9/10. The week as a whole was an 8/10 for crowds, making it right on par with Presidents’ Day, Easter, and the week after Easter. This is up from “only” 6/10 crowds the previous year. Our expectation is a repeat of 2026, not 2025, as Central Florida’s Spring Break usually averages 8/10 or 9/10 crowd levels.

Crowds won’t let up the next week, due to Easter arriving early, on March 28, 2027. This is typically the busiest week of Spring Break, and it’ll coincide with South Florida, Midwest, and Northeast school districts. Expect 8/10 or 9/10 crowds, and this week to be busier than Central Florida’s Spring Break.

There won’t be a reprieve in the final few days of the month, as the week after Easter will likely be just as bad given the early timing of the holiday. Not Easter week bad, but another 7/10 to 8/10 week. Even that might be an underestimate. Easter was on April 5, 2025, and yet, peak season crowds did not relent until April 12, 2025. I was in the parks daily during that stretch, and the days after Easter felt every bit as busy as the ones before.

Although this is not an April 2027 crowd calendar, the height of Spring Break crowds will again end on the Saturday after Easter. There will still be some straggler school districts with their recesses during the two weeks that follow, but the worst of the crowds will be over as of April 4, 2027. Approximately one week after that, shoulder season should commence.

March PRICING & DISCOUNTS

As a result of Spring Breaks being fairly common in March, you typically won’t find much in the way of exceptional promotions in a normal year. See All Current Walt Disney World Discounts for specifics.

However, “good” is a relative term when describing these discounts, as March is above average in terms of rack rates and ticket prices. Even a higher-than-normal percentage off an astronomical price is still a high price!

For hotels, much of the month is peak season, which is exactly as expensive as it sounds. Only holiday pricing is worse. For tickets, the pricing is not as bad, but it’s still far from the off-season in terms of per-day pricing.

Overall, March is a tale of two months–the last week of February/first week of March is one of the year’s “sweet spots” for planning a vacation. In fact, we love it so much that it’s one of the top weeks of the year on our aforementioned rankings. Thankfully, the earlier timing of both Mardi Gras and Presidents’ Day means that will once again be the case in March 2027, and even those major youth events won’t be enough to move the needle all that much. It should be a great week to visit Walt Disney World.

The second week–at least, most of it–should also be pretty good, with slightly below average crowds. There’s a reason that window ranks so highly–and it’s not just that the wait times are low. March typically offers pleasant weather, longer hours, and the start of the spring bloom with Flower & Garden Festival beginning. After that, March’s attractiveness deteriorates, but even later in the month, I still think the weather goes a long way to compensate for crowds.

To that point, before you freak out about heavy crowds, remember that better weather and also the likelihood of extended hours. You can still beat the crowds if you arrive early, take a midday break, and stay late. Savvy strategy, strong use of Early Entry & rope drop, our step-by-step itineraries, and staying late can help overcome crowds. That’s even before buying Lightning Lanes, which is obviously advantageous during Spring Break season. You can always beat bad crowds–but the same isn’t true with miserable weather!

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

Do you agree or disagree with our thoughts on March at Walt Disney World? Have you done Walt Disney World during Spring Break before? Do you think it’s a good or bad time to visit? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!