What Went Right During My Peak Week of Spring Break at Disney World
Over our years as Walt Disney World fans, Sarah and I have developed clear preferences for favorite times to visit and returned repeatedly during those weeks. That much should be evident from our Best & Worst Months to Visit Walt Disney World, which offers several recommended ‘sweet spots’ for planning your own trips.
We’ve also managed to find the silver linings in some peak weeks. For example, we used to love visiting the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve for the super early openings and ultra late closings. Those hours are a thing of the past (for now?), but that week still has an exceptional energy.
Admittedly, we’ve avoided other weeks, including ones that have their own selling points despite being busier. One of those has been the peak week of Central Florida spring break, which we’ve tried to steer clear of for the last several years. As has been covered at length in other posts, including our Spring Break 2023 Crowd Calendar for Walt Disney World, we were forecasting this to be the worst week of spring break at Walt Disney World.
Nevertheless, when I had the opportunity to do a stay at Walt Disney World for the TRON Lightcycle Run media event, I opted to extend that to “stress test” our itineraries, Genie+ and Lightning Lane strategy, and more. (I also opted to “stress test” my stomach, eating a lot of ill-advised foods.)
I learned a lot in the process, the fruits of which will be shared in the weeks to come over the course of content about Early Entry at all four parks, Extended Evening Hours at both Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, Genie+ run-throughs, hot dog reviews, and more.
For now, I wanted to address some topics that I found interesting, but that probably are not worthy of standalone blog posts. This touches upon all of the ‘successes’ of my solo trip, with the second installment focusing on what went wrong.
Weather – When most people are planning spring getaways to Florida–especially those from snowy states in the Midwest and Northeast–they are probably not hoping for extreme cold weather. I guess I’m the outlier there, as I love doing the parks when temperatures are in the 50s or 60s.
As much as I love the low crowds of August and September, the heat and humidity can be brutal. When the temperature is colder, I can always add layers; but there are only so many I can take off before park security puts an end to the party. I was thus very pleased with the weather this trip, which ranged from the low 50s to high 80s.
Highlighting the weather as a strength might seem useless for planners, but this is an underrated aspect of visiting during spring break. March and April are far more likely to have mild and pleasant temperatures than are other school breaks. During the holiday season, it’s often too cold; in summer, it’s too hot. Spring break weather is usually just right.
Late Nights – One underrated aspect of 30 degree daily swings in temperature is that many guests are not properly prepared and clothed for it. To their credit, Walt Disney World rolls out racks of hooded sweatshirts (don’t really know why I’m giving them “credit” for savvy sales of merchandise–not like it’s altruistic), but that’s still not enough to keep people in the parks late into the evening.
Even on days that didn’t have sharp shifts in weather, the parks were noticeably less crowded in the last several hours of the night. This is hardly a new phenomenon, but it’s one that I keep expecting to change. I really can’t explain this dynamic…have the last few years made everyone more tired? I don’t ever remember the parks clearing out in the evening (save for Animal Kingdom pre-Pandora) the way that they do now.
In any case, the end of the evening continues to be the best way to approach pretty much everywhere except World Showcase. This is especially true with Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios (something we really expected to change with the return of Fantasmic, but that has not happened). It even happens at Magic Kingdom, at least with actual wait times (crowds for the fireworks and on Main Street are a different story).
Extra Hours – I have a theory. Genie+ and Lightning Lanes have simultaneously created a false sense of security among guests who use them, and a defeatist attitude among those who don’t. It’s as if paid line-skipping is viewed as the silver bullet for beating wait times, and if you don’t buy Genie+ or Individual Lightning Lanes, you’re out of luck. You will endure long lines and lengthy waits, no matter what.
Except that isn’t true at all. As noted above, evenings are awesome. Same goes for mornings, albeit to a lesser extent. Then there are the bonuses hours, which are the best of all. I did Early Entry at all four parks and Extended Evening Hours at both EPCOT and Magic Kingdom (the only places it’s offered right now). With one exception, all of these experiences were excellent.
Equally notable is that my worst morning occurred on the least busy day of the entire week, and some of my best ‘runs’ in both the morning and evening occurred on 9/10 or 10/10 crowd level days. I’ll have separate reports on all of these in the coming couple of weeks, but the salient point is that you should not sleep on Early Entry, nor should you skip Extended Evening Hours if you’re eligible.
As compared to Extra Magic Hours, both of these offerings seem to fly under the radar. Part of why Early Entry works so well is that crowds are diluted among all four parks every day (which is huge!), but equally significant is that too many visitors dismiss it as a “waste of time” because it’s “only 30 minutes.” To each their own, but we consistently find ourselves being able to accomplish more during Early Entry and the 30 minutes of rope drop thereafter than we ever did during morning EMH…at least, at 3 of the parks!
EPCOT – Crowd calendars have become almost irrelevant for EPCOT. This has increasingly become my perspective, but spring break really drove this point home. Prior to this visit, I shared sentiment attempting to illustrate this point in a recent crowd report:
As always, EPCOT is the one park where what you see is probably not what you get. If you visited on February 21, you would’ve encountered wait time levels that amounted to a 9/10 crowd level, but you also would’ve missed the end of Festival of the Arts by one day. If you visited on March 1, you would’ve been there for 2/10 crowd levels according to wait times, but also the start of the 2023 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival.
I would be willing to bet that if you asked 100 people to walk around EPCOT on both of those two days, and never had them do attractions or look at wait times, the majority would say March 1 was busier. More than any other park, EPCOT is the locals’ park, and that’s evident in scenarios like this.
If you’re a tourist focusing on attractions, you still would’ve enjoyed low wait times, to be sure, but you would’ve felt much more congestion than the crowd level suggests. There’s no good solution to this discrepancy, other than pointing it out. This does happens at the other parks to some extent, but not to nearly the same degree as EPCOT.
This is 100% true. I was in EPCOT on March 15, a 10/10 crowd level day with an average wait time of 56 minutes. It was also a day that many Annual Passes were blocked out, as was the Florida resident ticket deal.
As someone who primarily doesn’t do EPCOT for attractions, this day felt less busy to me than recent 2/10 and 3/10 days I’ve done during the winter off-season. There were virtually no lines for the Flower & Garden Festival food booths, walkways had some congestion but weren’t awful, and the Imagination lounge was only about half-full.
By 10/10 crowd level standards, it was a really pleasant day. But then again, I say that as someone who did not endure the triple-digit wait times for Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, or Test Track. I know it was a busy day because of that and the extended overflow queues for front-of-park attractions that are normally walk-ons, but that wasn’t my perception as someone there to eat and wander my way around World Showcase.
TTA PeopleMover Lines – This one is niche, but similarly, there was often no line (or a short one) for the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. Again, this was the case even on 8/10 and 9/10 days in Magic Kingdom.
Unlike the above EPCOT dynamic, this actually is not something that I’ve noticed in the past. My hope is that the TTA was just having really efficient days with minimal downtime (and it seemed to be!), and not that there’s a pronounced gap in the attraction’s popularity between tourists and locals or regulars.
Characters…Minus One – Character dining experiences are still not back to 100%, but it sure seems like regular meet & greets have now reached that point. I’m inclined to go a step further, as the new additions to Disney’s Hollywood Studios plus the character caravan that goes around to resorts are things that did not exist pre-closure.
I’m frankly surprised and delighted that Walt Disney World has restored the “free” character encounters prior to the “paywalled” ones, and equally pleased with the quality and variety of these experiences. As compared to Disneyland, it still seems like free-roaming characters are the missing ingredient, but after seeing how that’s going with the newest addition to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge…maybe there’s a reason for that!
Staying at All Star Sports – We are huge advocates of split stays at Walt Disney World, and recommend them as a great way of experiencing a variety of accommodations, taking advantage of perks, or splurging for part of your trip. Our own advice was seemingly taken to an extreme with this trip, which started out at the Grand Floridian and concluded at All Star Sports. (I wonder how many guests do that particular split stay–it can’t be many!)
Part of my motivation for staying at All Star Sports was “research,” to see if the youth sporting events being hosted at the hotel negatively impacted the normal guest experience. Upon checking in and being assigned a room overlooking the Touchdown section of the resort, I had a “what have I gotten myself into?!” moment. My room was, quite literally, directly above the middle of the football field. Every night that I returned to the room–no matter how late I stayed in the parks, there were dozens of kids playing on the field.
I am very happy to report that this was never an issue. Aside from 30 seconds of chanting once at midnight (before I was in bed), I didn’t hear any sound from outside my room. In the interest of full disclosure, I turned my room’s room from “auto” to “high” and was also perpetually-exhausted from doing Early Entry to after park closing every single day, but I still could have been awoken if the kids were rowdy enough.
Not to contort myself into turning this into too much of a positive, but the energy at All Star Sports was excellent. It reminded me of a more athletic version of Fort Wilderness, with kids (not just the event participants) out playing catch with their parents, young adults playing foosball and cornhole by the lobby, Cast Members getting in on the fun (and likely keeping it in check), and people just generally being engaged in activities. The resort felt relaxed and alive, but without bursting at the seams or being overly raucous.
St. Patrick’s in the Parks – On the topic of subverted expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by St. Patrick’s Day in the parks. This isn’t a holiday that’s really on my radar, and I started the day out in EPCOT. I was wearing all-blue, as if in subtle protest of the green-imbued uniform of St. Patrick’s Day. In actuality, it was total coincidence. I would’ve dressed appropriately but also avoided EPCOT had I known it was St. Patrick’s Day, worried it would’ve been chaotic, crowded, and too much of a party scene.
In actuality, the atmosphere at EPCOT was delightful. I’d hazard a guess that ~25% of guests were wearing leprechaun Mickey Mouse shirts (it felt like I missed a memo) with the majority wearing green of some sort. Rather than being a party scene, it was convivial and family-friendly; the perfect atmosphere for a holiday at Walt Disney World. Next time, I’ll be sure to actively partake by wearing my own Leprechaun shirt–but one featuring Warwick Davis, not Mickey Mouse.
The Weekend – No, not the Canadian singer known for his sonic versatility and dark lyricism. I’m talking about the weekend days of Saturday and Sunday. This was already covered in Spring Break Crowds Have Sprung at Walt Disney World, but the weekend was surprisingly uncrowded.
Maybe I should’ve seen this coming, as it’s been a trend we’ve been observing more and more lately. However, there’s always been a good explanation for that, from runDisney events to post-holiday crowds heading home. In this case, one week of spring break should’ve segued into another, as that’s usually been the case in the past.
I have my theories for this, with most revolving around pricing. Higher weekend prices for airfare and hotels (off-site and on-site), plus increased ticket prices and the overall cost of vacations could be causing visitors to cut days from their Walt Disney World vacations. Locals being pushed away from weekends could also be an explanation, but I suspect pricing is the big one. Either way, it made the weekend more pleasant than expected–and definitely better than the same dates were in 2019 (or even in 2021-2022).
Ultimately, spring break is not going to become one of our favorite times to visit Walt Disney World. Even with all of the upsides identified here, these are not dates we’d choose if given a wide open calendar. However, that’s not the reality for most actual tourists who have young children. This is precisely why so many people visit during school breaks and they become crowded in the first place–a lack of better options.
With those more narrow parameters in mind, spring break actually becomes a more desirable time to visit. As a general matter, I was surprised at just how smoothly things went and what I was able to accomplish. The trip wasn’t without problems (more on those soon!), but by and large, crowds and wait times were both “beatable.”
All things considered, spring break is certainly better than the heart of summer season, which typically is not as crowded–but that’s more than offset by worse weather. What’s more debatable is whether spring break is superior to other holiday weeks. The crowds this particular week were not as bad as Thanksgiving or Christmas–but those are (arguably) more than offset by the seasonal festivities. In any case, I would not hesitate to do a spring break 2024 trip if it were my best or least bad option for visiting Walt Disney World. Even during these peak weeks, there are plenty of opportunities for having fun and outsmarting the crowds.
For me, it was a productive research trip that encompassed a lot of strategy trials and testing, plus plenty of fun riding TRON Lightcycle Run and seeing Happily Ever After. It’s also nice seeing normalcy restored at Walt Disney World to the point that the parks are mostly in their pre-closure states, and pretty close to firing on all cylinders. It’s hard to believe it’s been three years; it feels both like a lifetime ago and only yesterday.
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
If you’ve already visited Walt Disney World during spring break this year, what was your experience? If you’ve visited this same week in prior years, how do you think this year compares? Thoughts about anything else covered here? If you’re a frequent visitor during this timeframe, what’s your take on crowds, wait times, seasonal spirit, weather, etc? Agree or disagree with my assessment of spring break? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We went 3/9-11. We used genie+ all three days at Epcot, MK, and HS. The genie+ system went down on 3/9 as we were trying to hook the epcot rides-came back up after about 2 hours. We got a virtual queue pass for guardians (group 19), and had our first pass for test track. Ended up doing test track, soarin, and frozen with genie plus. Remy was down a good part of the day. By the time it was up, all genie+ passes were gone. We ended up waiting in the standby line for 1.5 hours for that ride, but ended up walking on to most of the other rides we didn’t use genie+ for. We rode every ride at Epcot, and I feel like we could have done that readily without genie plus.
“We rode every ride at Epcot, and I feel like we could have done that readily without genie plus.”
Thanks for sharing your experience. For me, this line is the biggest takeaway. Did you have to criss-cross the park much to take advantage of your Lightning Lanes, or were you able to time them well?
This December, I’m doing my first Christmas week trip. I have some trepidation and some excitement…..
I truly despise huge crowds. My favorite trips have been August, despite the sweltering heat.
That said — My family has now done WDW often enough that we don’t need to do commando touring. We don’t need to experience every attraction.
We will want to do whatever is new (for us, that will be Tron and Guardians of the Galaxy)… want to do our favorites…
I’m seriously considering as a Christmas week strategy: Mostly skipping mornings apart from Animal Kingdom. Using the mornings and early afternoons just to stack Genie+ — And just spend the last 3-4 hours per day in the parks, along with extended evening hours at Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Is that an insane strategy for 10/10 Christmas week? Figuring 2 nights in each park (with extending evenings at MK and Epcot), and 1 day at AK… we can still experience everything we want, while having casual mornings and early afternoons at the resort, pool, etc.
Adam, Christmas time is a truly magical time at WDW; over various years we have been there four times during Christmas. For us, we always factor in at least one day to ‘resort hop’ (no parks) to see all the wonderful and varying decorations. Those days have been the most memorable and meaningful for our family. So excited for you and yours!
I’d definitely also do a morning in DHS, as you can accomplish a surprising amount during Early Entry and thereafter there, and there are no guarantees that Genie+ will work out as well in that park.
Otherwise, not at all a crazy strategy. Actually, a good one. Spend time outside the parks, explore the resorts, make good ADRs. You’re obviously knowledgeable enough to know the types of other things you want to do, so I won’t bombard you with suggestions.
We did this last year (forgot about mornings/Genie+/late nights) and it worked pretty well. We were lucky to hit one of the DHS extended evenings that they held. That was great and something you might keep an eye out for too.
That’s what we do for Christmas week and it works out really well for us! see you there….
This has worked for us the past three trips (thanksgiving week, Presidents’ Day weekend, and a late July trip). We actually started doing this with that July trip to avoid the worse of the day time heat. Allow for relaxed pool or water park time also. As you mention, staying in a resort that offers extended evening hours is a bonus.
With small children, it is difficult to hit in the early morning and late evening sweet spots. I do think an early morning at Hollywood studios makes sense as Tom says, and we would generally do this early in the trip, when the kids are full of energy, and then push their sleep schedule back thereafter.
Great post as always, Tom. We were at WDW Mar 12-16. It was our first experiences with Genie+ and LL as our last visit to WDW was in 2018; frankfully, I was worried (indeed rather nervous) about the two. Worry is in my ‘job description’ (ha), but there was no need. Luck (with a little bit of strategy) accompanied us in all four parks – only one minor glitch encountered at Remy’s when it went down after waiting in stand-by 45 minutes. Those things happen. But we were awarded an extra LL by a sympathetic cast member which allowed us to LL Test Track for later. I’m still not sure how we did it, but we nabbed eleven LLs in MK alone; the lottery effect was certainly working in our favor. As for weather, we too were thankful for the cooler temps; being from the north, 50-60 degrees felt like a heat wave. Keep the awesome posts coming!
Great to hear that your trip went well! Did you use Genie+ at EPCOT? If so, which of the 4 headliners did you score?
Hey, Tom. We did not buy Genie+ for our day at EPCOT which is the reason we found ourselves in stand-by at Remy’s. We were able to secure a virtual queue for Guardians and landed a good group that allowed us entry before noon. The LL given by the nice cast member priority at Test Track which we had earlier opted not to consider unless or until stand-by dropped below an hour.
We were there and had an amazing week. The weather was HEAVENLY after months of gray Indiana winter. How’d we cope? I don’t mind the crowds when I don’t go to the parks! We stayed at Old Key West, which has the most beautiful grounds. We slept in, visited other resorts, had lunch dates. Hung out at the pool and Disney Springs a bit; had dinner at ‘Ohana. We rode the boats and monorails. We went briefly into the MK (our dear friend is a cast member and took us in on a day off) but I am finding that the crowds weird me out after sticking so close to home for 3 years. There is so much going on OUTSIDE the parks and I guess I am officially an old fart as I enjoy the downtime. Just looking at the flowers and trees and the sky made me so happy! I feel blessed to be able to go regularly so that when it’s crazy crowded, we just opt out.
Enjoying the quieter things and pleasant places at Walt Disney World doesn’t make you an old fart, it makes you…sophisticated. 😉
We go every year for Spring Break – it’s the only time possible for our family for many reasons. In fact, this time last week, I was teary-eyed while watching Fantasmic!
I was so glad to read your thoughts on Epcot. As a seasoned Disney spring breaker, I felt we really messed up our strategy here. I bought Guardians first – my family doesn’t run for rides and I don’t care for the stress of virtual queues (it’s my money and I can spend it how I wish) – and then grabbed Remy. Big mistake. The return time for Remy was 6pm, so by the time we could book another LL, the park was insane and wait times out the kazoo. I fixed that problem the next day in HS by getting Slinky first and buying Rise second.
I agree with you. This week ONLY WORKS if you’re okay with rising crazy early and rope-dropping; if you’re okay with buying Genie+ and ILL; if you’re okay with crazy crowds and out of control strollers and other people’s grumpy kiddos. It’s part of the charm for us. If you go having done some research and know what to expect, it’s enjoyable.
The crowds felt average to maybe a hair elevated from years’ past. It was colder than we’re used to, and it rained on us literally for the first time in a decade. But I can read weather forecasts, so we’d packed our own sweatshirts and ponchos.
All in all, a wonderful trip is in the books, and I’m just waiting on Disney to open reservations for 2024.
Thanks for the article! I teach writing for a living, and I enjoy your command of the language.
Don’t feel badly about your ‘results’ using Genie+ at EPCOT. That seems to be a common theme right now, and something I’ve heard from others–and experienced myself. What else did you get after the Rat Ride?
We were there from the 13th through the 20th (actually ran into you at Epcot on St Patricks day by Guardians) and had a GREAT week… sure it was crowded but we took a lot of your advice, paired it with our experience and had a wonderful time. Weather was amazing…definitely didn’t want to go back home to NY
Great to hear that your trip went well, and it was nice to see you at EPCOT!
Me and my family visited March 13-17, and we were at Epcot on the 15th also. It was certainly busy, but with your Genie + recommendations we knocked out everything we wanted to do fairly easily. Hollywood studios worked out great Friday, with 3 Genie picks before lunch (Falcon, Olaf, Star Tours). Many people were frustrated but we had a great time.
Which Genie+ selections were you able to score at EPCOT?
Frozen, Mission Space, Spaceship Earth, and Soarin.
What’s the best way to tackle early morning hours and getting a spot in the virtual queue at magic kingdom. Is there a good place to stand outside before you go in or do you get in before the 7 o’clock time?
Susan, I think you are confusing the virtual cue with an actual line. You enter the virtual cue with your phone. Tom has many posts explaining the use of it.
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We were there last week too. And I think maybe because of the weather and crowds, we park hopped a lot more than usual, spending more time, but doing fewer rides. One day we made it to all four parks. We also did the after hours for deluxe resort guests at EPCOT, tapping in earlier in the day so that we could get a boarding group in the virtual que for Cosmic Rewind while having dinner at Sebastian’s. Speaking of EPCOT, we also discovered just how pleasant it is to experience World Showcase during early morning entry – no obnoxious, drunk crowds! We expected heavy crowds but I think did ok with it and had a great trip.
“As compared to Disneyland, it still seems like free-roaming characters are the missing ingredient, but after seeing how that’s going with the newest addition to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge…maybe there’s a reason for that!
Really curious about what you mean by this. Is the Mandolorian being dive-bombed by crowds? Also love the Warwick Davis Leprechaun shout out. Please bring a pogo stick.
Hi Maggie
I think Tom is referring that Disneyland has always had free roaming characters. They don’t have a specific schedule. Most of the time they are in Fantasyland and around Main Street. Sometimes they are in front of certain attractions. Our last visit we were on our way to the Alice in Wonderland ride via Matterhorn and Captain Hook was just hanging around all by himself. Another time we were entertained with Cruella near Main Street. Disneyland is very good with roaming characters that interact with guest.
We were not as successful. We roped dropped early entry on multiple days and had some minor morning successes on some days but other days we would be in the queue and the ride would be broke down wasting all our early entry time! The amount of time that rides were broken was ridiculous and because of it the already long lines were unbearable. Even the lines for the shows were often ridiculous. We were at Animal Kingdom (Safari, Everest and both Pandora rides had wait times 2-4 hours all day) and tried to lineup for Lion King 1/2 hour before show time and it was already filled so the lineup was for the show after! It was so busy that they wouldn’t let you sit down at a picnic table if you didn’t have food in hand from the restaurant yet there was no where else to sit and get off your feet and out of the sun. We felt like cattle being herded around all day often going nowhere because by the time you got to the ride/experience it either wouldn’t be running or a mass amount of people beat you there so the wait time skyrocketed. We did have a few mornings that felt more successful (thanks to advice from Tom ….get to the parks 45 minutes before early entry) but it just felt very stressful and “unvacationlike” to be awake so ridiculously early only to beat the crowds on one or two rides tops. We knew it was going to be busy but we unfortunately had to choose this week to go. We made the best of it and the weather was perfect but will never go during high crowd levels ever again! (We also went to Universal and got Express passes and had way more fun!! Though they also had lots of ride breakdowns!)
Sorry to hear you had so many negative experiences. Sadly, I’ve been there with the ride breakdowns during Early Entry or rope drop. It really stinks to wake up at the crack of dawn only for it to be a total waste of time.
“It was so busy that they wouldn’t let you sit down at a picnic table if you didn’t have food in hand from the restaurant yet there was no where else to sit and get off your feet and out of the sun.”
Which restaurant was this? I’m going to guess Satuli Canteen as that’s about the only place I can think of that regularly has a strict ‘rule’ like this.
It was Flame Tree but we also weren’t “allowed” to go into the Connections quick Service restaurant unless we had our food in hand purchased from Connections. I’m not sure about other restaurants because we mostly brought our own food and ate in line to save money and kill time.
Yeah I’m surprised to see Tom comment positively about early theme park entry. Our last trip was in November and I felt like our entire resort (Pop Century) was in line for the skyliner over an hour before any of the parks opened. And I think we have been to HS 4 times since Rise of the Resistance debuted, and I don’t think there was a single morning when it was open. Most of them, it didn’t open for at least and hour or two after the park opened. By the time we walked over there, we lost any advantage of early entry at the other busy rides. In the MK, we were *really* early, standing on the tommorowland bridge with maybe 500 people in front of us. The entire hub was filled with people behind us. When they let us in, someone in my party insisted on going to the bathroom. After that small delay, the line for Mine Train followed the fence all the way around the corner toward the splash area. And it wasn’t moving quickly, so I don’t think it was that the inside was still filling up. There were just that many people that did early entry.
It sounds like we may have crossed paths last week, Tom! I was nervous about getting value out of the parks last week, between the spring break crowds and my personal necessity of zipping over to the Hyatt Regency Orlando to see my kid participate in an orchestra festival. Using After Hours at MK and genie+ at Epcot on Friday, we managed to do and see every single thing we wanted with time to spare. The park we worried about was DHS on Saturday, but following your standard advice of starting early, breaking, and heading back in the evening, was a complete success. The only time we were overwhelmed by crowds was after lunch at Disney Springs on Saturday – in every direction, it looked like the Shibuya Crossing. I typically go out of my way to visit WDW during slower weeks, but this trip made me realize that a positive attitude and good touring strategy will get you through just about any WDW scenario. Thanks for all the great tips that made it possible!
Thanks for sharing your experience. A couple of questions:
1) Which attractions did you get with Genie+ at EPCOT?
2) How was After Hours at MK?
I’m not surprised about Disney Springs resembling Shibuya Crossing (good one, by the way). When locals are blocked out of the parks, they flock to Disney Springs! Obviously hindsight is 20/20, but we’d strongly recommend anyone else reading this do Disney Springs on a weekday and one of the parks on Saturdays or Sundays. That applies not just to spring break, but any holiday weekends.
Hey there, great post. Thank you. What did you mean by the following: “In any case, the end of the evening continues to be the best way to approach pretty much everywhere except World Showcase.”
Is Epcot not a good place to be from 6-9pm? The crowds don’t reduce down? And when you say World Showcase, are you excluding Soarin and all of the other rides towards the front of the park? Do those get better over the last 2-3 hours? (Understood that this doesn’t apply to GOG, given VQ.)
Thanks again, great website — super helpful information. Glad you enjoyed your time at the parks.
Only applies to World Showcase. Our half-day EPCOT itinerary offers a good afternoon and evening strategy for the park: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/half-day-epcot-itinerary/
We were there 3/12-19 for spring break and were bracing ourselves for chaos. Also did early entry, EEH at MK and EP, and evenings at all the parks. All were manageable despite the crowds and a daily midday break gave us the energy to open and close the parks. We did everything and more than we hoped. As you alluded to, we were shocked at how slow the parks were on Sat 3/19 (HS in the morning and AK in the last couple of hours). Great week! Thanks for your posts leading up to and after the week!
You’re welcome–thanks for sharing your experience!
I know not everyone can pull it off because of school, but my favorite and most frequent time to visit is the soft spot in the early March calendar. Tom already laid out all the great reasons – weather, long park hours, after the February madness of Presidents’ Day / runDisney / cheerleading competitions / Mardi Gras, but before the heart of Spring Break. There is also some sort of Spring room deal going on of the 15%-25% variety. Seems like I am always there for St. Patrick’s Day and I love it. Yes, I have to take the kiddos out of school for 2 maybe 3 days, but when straddled over a weekend it’s not the end of the world.
We just came back from another split stay Pop Century/Dolphin and that particular split works really well for us. We get the benefits of Pop’s pricing, Disney vibe, and transportation, then the convenience of the Dolphin and it’s excellent pool area for what is also a fairly good price.
As for Genie+ and the early entry rush, I think I’m over it. I would imagine many who read this blog are in a similar boat — we’ve been on all the attractions, so the idea of checking off a lot of ride boxes isn’t really the highest priority. For those with kids, they don’t really know the difference. A great day at the Magic Kingdom is still a great day at the Magic Kingdom, even if we don’t nail that perfect strategy for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. So why stress with the 7:00 am rush to book things, bury your face in a phone all day, and use ride efficiency as the primary goal to having a “successful” day? Usually what’s efficient through Genie + ends up dragging you all over the park anyway, which isn’t much fun. Then there’s the inevitable situation of me nailing the perfect plan, only to have the 6 year old not want to go on the ride reservation we have worked so hard to get because she’d rather stand in a 45-minute line to see Merida (a movie she’s never seen and a character she doesn’t know…but that’s how kids work).
So the morning rush at the Magic Kingdom for SDMT or Peter Pan or whatever…meh. Not worth it. I wish I had just waited until regular opening and did the sequence of Jungle Cruise/Pirates/Big Thunder/Haunted Mansion/Tasty snack at Sleep Hallow….all of which would have reasonable lines when taken in sequence without the need for Genie +, even on what eventually become the busiest days. Or if you’re like Tom, the same can be said at the end of the day. What Genie+ does do is allow you to maybe ride 3 more rides midday or afternoon with smaller wait times, but it puts the rest of the day so out of whack for me, I’d rather just hit up a group of popular rides in the AM and a different group of popular rides in the PM and use the midday insanity as a chance to slow down, enjoy some food and entertainment, some other attractions, and possibly the mid-day resort refresh.
I guess this is a long way of saying I’m going rogue next visit. I’ll plan the right time of year to go, and sequence the parks on their traditional slower days of the week. I’ll arrive relatively early and stay relatively late. But no rope drop early entry and no Genie + for me. I think this will allows us to “see” more, and it’ll certainly feel more like a vacation.
“Then there’s the inevitable situation of me nailing the perfect plan, only to have the 6 year old not want to go on the ride reservation we have worked so hard to get because she’d rather stand in a 45-minute line to see Merida (a movie she’s never seen and a character she doesn’t know…but that’s how kids work).”
Lots of solid points in here, but this one both made me laugh out loud and also is a nice ‘best laid plans of mice and men often go awry’ reminder.
In fairness, maybe your daughter is trying to send you a message that you’ve deprived her a viewing of the (underrated) Brave! 😉
Please keep an eye on the weekend trend and report! We generally avoid the parks like the plague on the weekends when we’re there but, man, would it make a lot of things easier if we didn’t feel like we had to.
Agreed!!
As a Canadian who comes down every spring break, and an AP holder, I was pleasantly surprised at the parks. We went in the AM and banged out the low hanging fruit rides and left after lunch. Returning in the evening, I was very surprised at how much we were able to do.
We did spring our first three visits to DW and overall it was ok minus the first trip which was during spring break and crowds were ridiculous. Last April we did a trip which overall was pretty good crowdwise as well. We are skipped DW this year and trying DL for forst time in august- hoping its not too crowded
Good read and great photos. Love that one of the PeopleMover w/ the Tron canopy in the background.
Great read Tom. We are traveling to WDW for a quick 2 day Easter visit. Curious to hear your thoughts on 4/9 and 4/10 at MK and EPCOT respectively.