March 2024 at Disney World: Crowd Calendar & Info
This guide to March 2024 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. (Updated February 29, 2024.)
March 2024 will likely be a “tale of two seasons.” The beginning should be slow, with crowds subsiding after Mardi Gras and Presidents’ Day in late February 2024. 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 2024 can otherwise be a good time to visit Walt Disney World. Let’s take a look at the highs and lows of the month…
While it’s always above-average in terms of crowds, parts of March 2024 won’t be as bad for a couple of reasons. First, because Easter isn’t until March 31, 2024. This means schools that plan their Spring Breaks around the Easter holiday won’t be off for Spring Break the end of the month.
However, many K-12 schools and colleges in the United States have their Spring Breaks in earlier in March. That includes many districts in Florida, including the two counties with the biggest impact on Walt Disney World crowds.
This is where our Spring Break 2024 Crowd Calendar for Walt Disney World will come into play. If you’re only concerned with congestion, wait times, and planning around dates to avoid–that has you covered. It details which weeks of spring break will be best and worst.
We’ll discuss the ramifications of Spring Break in the March 2024 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 I find March to be 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 2024 Disney World Special Events
Let’s start out with the nonpublic events in March 2024 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’s currently on the ESPN Wide World of Sports calendar for March 2024:
- The Quest Recreational Championship: March 8 – March 9, 2024
- 2024 UCA All Star National Championship: March 9 – March 10, 2024
- Disney Spring Training: March 11 – April 07, 2024
This is actually not too bad, especially as compared with the cheer and dance competitions that peppered the calendar over the last month-plus. (There’s more to come in April 2024 before ESPN WWoS season winds down until there’s better weather in the fall.)
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, on a positive note, there is no runDisney race in March 2024. The Princess Half Marathon is in late February, and the Springtime Surprise is in mid-April. Neither have any impact on crowds in March.
Then there are the public events held during the month at Walt Disney World. The 2024 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival kicks off at the end of February, and continues for the entirety of March and April. This will spike ‘feels like’ crowds at EPCOT, as it’s 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 2024 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 2024 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 2024, check the Walt Disney World Refurbishment Schedule. Major rides have downtime scheduled, including Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom (which is being reimagined into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure) and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios.
The construction project that will have the most noticeable impact on the guest experience is the massive reimagining at the front of Epcot. This is much better now that the World Celebration Gardens have opened and there’s a path directly to World Showcase, but there are still a sea of construction walls to navigate around the still-in-progress CommuniCore Hall & Plaza. Based on recent progress, it appears unlikely that this will be done in February 2024.
EPCOT is also home to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which is now a couple years old but still incredibly popular. Other even more recent additions to EPCOT include Moana’s Journey of Water (water exploration trail) and Luminous: The Symphony of Us (nighttime spectacular). Both are worth checking out.
Then there’s the biggest addition to Magic Kingdom: TRON Lightcycle Run. This is still the newest major attraction at Walt Disney World, and is less than a year old as of February 2024. See our Virtual Queue Strategy Guide for TRON Lightcycle Run for details, tips & tricks for success, and more (Cosmic Rewind also uses a VQ–apply the same advice to both rides).
Another alternative for Cosmic Rewind or TRON Lightcycle Run is buying line-skipping access via the Individual Lightning Lanes. Those posts explain each option, their pros & cons, and everything else you need to know. Suffice to say, do not just show up expecting to join the standby line–as there isn’t one for either ride.
For an overview of what’s on the horizon, see What’s New & Next at Walt Disney World in 2024 & Beyond. Sorry, but nothing new is opening in March 2024. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is the next big addition, and that will debut this summer.
March 2024 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. Crowd calendars are increasingly less reliable because of the way Disney manipulates attendance patterns, staffing, closures, and ride capacity.
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. For years, this approach worked and made crowd calendars reliable. Walt Disney World attendance followed an identifiable pattern that tracked with the aforementioned proxies.
More recently, wait times don’t always reflect actual crowds because Disney has become adept and more sophisticated at manipulating both attendance and crowd flow. Think of this as the difference between the actual temperature and the “feels like” temperature, but with crowds. We can still actual crowd and attendance patterns, but not wait times. The latter are what most of you likely care about (the “feels like” crowds), but it’s more difficult to accurately forecast wait times via Walt Disney World crowd calendars.
Let’s start with the good news: early March 2024 should 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 2024.
Bad for those who visit in February 2024, but good for those who opt for early March 2024! 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 2024 will see low-to-moderate crowd levels. This is especially noteworthy because the week before (Presidents’ Day/Mid-Winter Break) will have been very busy and the following week is the start of Spring Break season, which is also pretty bad.
But in the first week of March 2024, it’s likely that crowd levels range from around 2/10 to 6/10, with the average being below 5/10. This means average wait times across the entirety of Walt Disney World of around 30 to 35 minutes. Of course, headliners will be worse than this (you can safely expect the most popular rides to have hour-plus or even triple-digit waits), but it won’t be nearly as bad as the school breaks before or after. This is precisely why the first week of March 2024 makes our list of the 10 Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2024 & 2025 (on the best side, obviously).
Specifically, March 1-7, 2024 will see the lowest wait times and attendance of the month. That might sound high or not great, but it’s a sharp contrast to the aforementioned worst week of winter. That stretch saw 10/10 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 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 be busier, especially when the weather is nice.
In the aforementioned Spring Break 2024 Crowd Calendar, we note that the ‘season’ will unofficially kick off on March 8, 2024. This is because that’s the Friday when Osceola County starts its student holiday, with the district being out of session for spring break from March 11 to 15, 2024. Same deal with its neighbor to the west, as Polk County is also out March 11-15.
To be sure, you should avoid Walt Disney World starting March 8, 2024 if at all possible. However, we don’t expect the worst of the crowds to arrive that early. Likewise, the week that follows (March 11-15, 2024) is Spring Break for a handful of Central Florida school districts, but it should not be terrible. Worse than the previous 2 weeks, but better than the 2 weeks to come. If past precedent is any indication, crowds and wait times will gradually increase throughout that week.
Things will get significantly worse starting March 15, 2024. Both Seminole and Orange County, Florida are scheduled to have their Spring Breaks March 15-24, 2024 (including student breaks and weekends). That alone will make that week-plus pretty busy.
Consequently, we forecast the week of March 18-23, 2024 to be the second-busiest week of the quarter, and one of the worst 10 weeks of the entire year at Walt Disney World. The weekends before and after will also be bad, but we’ve seen Saturday and Sunday crowd levels fall off a bit during spring break recently.
You might notice it’s only the second-busiest week of the quarter, which is because of the following week…
That next week will be even worse, with lots of school districts having Spring Break from March 25 until 29 due to Easter falling on March 31, 2024. As a result, school districts that have their breaks anchored to Easter will be off that week–and we’ve also noticed that more districts than normal are on break that week (probably a matter of convenience/courtesy).
This means that the weekend before and the one including the Easter holiday itself will also be very, very busy. Easily among the worst 10 weeks of the year and possibly “top” 5. Whether that ends up being the worst week of spring break or the week before it is an open and almost irrelevant question. Both will be very bad and far (FAR!) worse than the first half of the month.
Expect daily crowd levels of 9/10 or 10/10 at every park during this date range. Some of those 10/10 days will have particularly high wait times (not all 10/10 days are equally busy–that’s just the maximum crowd level).
No matter when you’re visiting in March 2024, we’d advise leveraging Genie+ and Lightning Lanes to beat the crowds. Everything you need to know, including ride priorities, strategy for avoiding pitfalls, maximizing your time saved & ride count, and much more is covered in our Guide to Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World.
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. With that said, there are currently a surprising number of deals available for Annual Passholders, Florida residents, and even the general public. See All Current Walt Disney World Discounts for specifics. Some of these are actually quite good.
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–but also a month on the rise. Normally, 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. Even with slightly elevated wait times, we once again expect that to be true in early March 2024.
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 Genie+ and using 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!
Good afternoon and thank you for this very informative post. I wanted to comment on the statement that Mardi Gras week could possibly be a bit less crowded as the city of New Orleans has lifted tcrowd restrictions and the citizens will be out in full force. I am a born , bred , roots firmly in the ground New Orleanian. I want to share two partly humorous, partly serious New Orleanian sayings that reflect the love / hate relationship some have with Mardi Gras revelry. The first , ” Half of us go sking, ( yes, southerns ski ) the other half go to Disney” . The second. being, ” Those who can leave, do “. This is especially true for families with young children. Families with older children who are members of high school or university bands and other teams will stay as there will be obligations for these young people to participate in many parades. Likewise, Mardi Gras Krewe members who will, of course be atop the floats will be looking forward to the festivities. Times have changed and so has the true feeling of Mardi Gras in our city. There are increasingly larger, and rowdier crowds and reports of crime. Add these problems to the city’s long standing tendency to head for the slopes or Disney with the kiddos and Grandma in tow for a week . The result being there will, more than likely never be a less crowded Mardi Gras week in Disney World. That said, it won’t stop us from coming. Thanks Disney World for giving SE Louisiana a respite from Mardi Gras Madness. Thank you Tom for the always informative, always enjoyable reads you send us each day. We are planning our first trip to Disney since 2019. Your observations and crowd prediction tools are most appreciated.
I am sorry, nowhere did you state that New Orleans citizens would be out in full force during Mardi Gras .You mentioned the possibility of more of the New Orleans population staying in town for Mardi Gras week .
Hi! You have a typo. Easter is April 9th not April 19th! 🙂
Hello! Love the info on your page. How do I find out what big events are happening in April of 2023 after Easter? We want to go after Easter to avoid it being crazy busy but also want to avoid the cheerleader and race events.
Some important post are not being posted. Why?
The walls are thin . You can hear what is going on next to you . We just went and there is Covid in the resort’s and the parks . We caught Covid. We wore mask inside and outside . The rides are not being wiped handle bars . The people next to us in resort had Covid we can hear them talking about it. Is the cleaning people actually cleaning everything? I’d the thumb print when you walk in being cleaned ? We didn’t see it between families.
If you are concerned about Covid perhaps don’t go to crowded theme parks. They have always been an easy place to catch whatever is going around. It’s what happens when you get a bunch of kids together in the same place.
We will be there March 10th celebrating our 40th anniversary at the Magic Kingdom.
Any thoughts of opening and closing and most of all what to wear during the day?
I just came back from President’s weekend. I was expecting it to be bad. I wasn’t expecting it to be THAT bad. There was an extended queue for Figment. Genie was selling out for NUMEROUS attractions within minutes. I rope dropped Remy on Monday morning without much difficulty but it was a 3-hour standby line by the time I walked off shortly before 9am.
I think in addition to expected holiday crowds, you are getting a flood of “we have been putting Disney off until the mask mandate is lifted.”
I expect most of March to be bad. Far worse than you’ve seen in the past.
It’ll be interesting to see how March plays out.
January and February have been brutal, but I think at least part of that is due to the widespread expectation that they wouldn’t be bad. That expectation doesn’t exist with March and April. I still think they’ll be worse than the last two months on average, but not with Presidents’ Day/Week crowds throughout.
No, not President’s week crowds throughout…. but bad, with a few really really bad days.
On a related note, having experienced Genie+ on 10/10 days — They REALLY need to limit its distribution. When you oversell Genie+ in 10/10 crowds, it becomes nearly useless. I was spending my last morning at DHS, so I had to be done by noon. The app froze at 7:00am… by 7:01, the only morning G+ left was Star Tours.
Whether they limit it by raising the price during high crowds, or limit it to onsite guests, or whatever… If Genie+ is an “upcharge,” they need to make sure it’s worth the money. And the only way to do that is to limit its distribution. I’d rather pay $30 or $50 for a useful feature than $15 for a useless feature.(And I’m a G+ defender… it wasn’t entirely useless all weekend but the value is very very limited in 10/10 crowds)
Say what you want about crowd calendars, but TouringPlans’ ratings match Disney’s park hour decisions almost perfectly over the next couple of weeks. While they make mistakes, good quality data analysis will win out more often than not. Data > eyeballing it.
What were their predictions for January and February before the start of 2022? When did the numbers for March change?
Tom is exactly right about the Touring Plans crowd calendars. While I have gleaned some use, I have also booked a vacation based on 2/10 and 3/10 weeks only to have them change them to a whopping 9/10 about a week before I went. The expectation made it worse.
With nothing less than an hour and a half wait and many 2-3 hours at Hollywood Studios today, it appears that limited capacity is over with. I’m scheduled to go March 5-12, along with everyone else apparently. Premium pricing for an oversold experience has me heavily considering Universal for the future.
March 7-11 is spring break for most schools where I live so there must be a lot of other schools that have the same spring break. I know several families that will be in Disney World that week.
I’m so confused by the park time extensions March 6-12th!!! Why that week and not the next? Weird. ♀️
Me too! Touring Plans had these dates really high (10/10 for the Tuesday!) even before park hours were extended. I know 2022 is busier than usual with folks finally taking delayed trips, I know there are some college spring breaks the week of March 6, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what the big increase is for that week in particular. When we booked last year, it seemed like such a sweet spot in March!
Do you have any predictions for mask requirements for last half of March? We’re going March 20-26 and I’m so hoping masks will no longer be required at that point. Wishful thinking?
What about the last week in February, is the weather too cool then? Or about the same as the 1st week in March would be? And the crowds lower?
We have to be there the third week in March because my son and I are both teachers and that’s OUR spring break, so even though we are teaching online at the moment, it’s still our only option. Thanks for all the updates – and we will keep our fingers crossed that we’ll still be able to enjoy ourselves!
Tom, wondering what you think of the recent hours extension for next week? We are going March 4-10 and were hoping crowds would be significantly lower, but with MK open til 10 and Epcot til 11 (and even AK til 8!), we’re thinking DIsney is anticipating far higher crowds than we are.
im guessing they are ramping up the hours for spring break…..also remy might be having a soft opening mid march…….I’m there March 8-12….spring break officially starts march 12th…..that’s why the raise hours i think!
Tom, thank you for the amusing anecdote about Blizzard Beach! We had the “water parks and more” option on our package, but decided to drop it and will just buy a single day ticket in the app if weather permits once we are actually there, since we only really have one day on which we would visit. Exactly this sort of tidbit that makes your blog so useful.
First week of March is our favorite time to go! 2018 ans 2020 many afternoons were above 80 lending to plenty of pool time. The crowds are lower too. Though I caution people to check the FL schools for their days off. We got stung at MK one Monday it being super packed… little did we know schools had professional development day off that day! Lesson learned!
You really think I have no chance in hell to ride REMY or see HARMONIOUS? Or possible space 220? I’ll be there March 8, 2021?
My husband and I are coming to Orlando area 3/5-3/20/2021. What are the rates for seniors to come to the park?
Just the same as everyone else, $109 per day without tax
We are staying the 25th thru the 1st at the contemporary. Family of four with 7 and 10 year old children. I’d love a planning guide and would be grateful. Thanks!
Even if visiting March 13-20, which would normally be crowded, shouldn’t it still be less crowded because of the 40% capacity? I don’t see how this would be a 7/10 crowd with the limited capacity. Maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part.