Category — 9. Spring Break and Easter at Walt Disney World

(This page is one of a series explicating Walt Disney World lingo, abbreviations, and FAQ for first time family visitors to Walt Disney World.)

DISNEY’S 2014 INTERNATIONAL FLOWER AND GARDEN FESTIVAL AT EPCOT

Every year from roughly early March through mid-May, Walt Disney World presents the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival.

In 2014, the Flower and Garden Festival is scheduled for March 5-May 18.

The gardens at Epcot are almost always lovely, and they are at their loveliest during this period.

Disney’s own wonderful landscaping is supplemented by additional plantings, topiary, and specially themed gardens.

Also presented are special programs presenting gardening tips, and weekend concerts.

Likely growing in 2014 is the more emphasis on food we saw beginning in 2013.

See the official Walt Disney World web page for the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival here.

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OVERVIEW: APRIL 2014 AT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews April 2014 Walt Disney World crowds, prices, deals and discounts, weather, and operating hours; adds a few other notes; and ends with week by week summaries.

The first week of April 2014—beginning March 29– will see moderate crowds and high prices. The week beginning 4/5 will have a pre-Easter lull in crowds, but still high prices.

Because of spring break crowds, the week before Easter, beginning April 12, will see wildly high crowds and prices. The late Easter in 2014 means the week after Easter won’t be as bad as in recent years.

The week beginning April 26th will be wonderful.
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OVERVIEW: MARCH 2014 AT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews March 2014 Walt Disney World crowds, prices, deals and discounts, weather, and operating hours; adds a few other notes; and ends with week by week summaries.

The first week of March 2014 will see low crowds and moderate prices. After then, the spring break crowds pour in to Disney World and prices jump up.

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The weeks before and after Easter are two of the most wildly crowded weeks at Walt Disney World.

The common-sense approach to handling them is to run, screaming, back home.

But if that’s not an option for you, here’s some more common sense that might help.

HANDLING YOUR DAYS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD DURING EASTER WEEK

You need a good plan for each day.  I’ve already covered this here, but the basics are

• Arrive at the turnstiles well before the park is scheduled to open
• See the rides that build long lines quickly first
• Use Disney’s free FASTPASSES to manage the rest of the long-line rides, until they run out
• Consider buying your way out of the problem of all FASTPASSES being taken early

PICKING WHICH PARK TO VISIT WHICH DAY

Don’t let me mislead you–from March 23, 2013 through April 6, 2013 every day is gonna be just rotten.  But some days are better than others.

The trick to finding the best days to visit the parks is to figure out what everyone else will do, and do the opposite.  This is the “judo” of Walt Disney World.

I’ve done this for the two weeks around Easter, where days with more color, and especially more darker colors, are worse.  See the chart–click it to enlarge it.

The best days at a given park will have three characteristics:

1. They’ll have no color at all
2. Other parks will have lots of color
3. The day will be right after, right before, or ideally, sandwiched between, days at the same park with lots of color

Epcot on March 27 is a perfect example of this.

BUILDING THE DAILY CROWD FORECASTS

The chart is built on the five common sense items that drive crowds at Walt Disney World:

1. The basic patterning of visits: The most common full day is Sunday, and people tend to see the Magic Kingdom and Epcot the first few days of their trip, and Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom after
2. The effect of Extra Magic Hours: Extra Magic Hours draw people staying in the ~30,000 Disney World hotel rooms, and those without hoppers then stay all day. So crowds are higher than on on-EMH days.  Note that the Magic Kingdom has Extra Magic Hours every single day, which makes things rough for those staying off site.  I’ve given the Magic Kingdom the darkest color here only on days with both morning and evening Extra Magic Hours
3. The extra attractiveness  of days with longer operating hours–a big issue at some times of the year, not much of a factor these weeks, because operating hours and evening shows are pretty consistent.
4. The holiday effect–people are drawn to the Magic Kingdom in particular, and also to Epcot, on major family holidays
5. The weekend effect: both longer and shorter visits tend to include weekends, so Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are particularly crowded days.

Combine all these drivers, and you can see how some days will be worse, and some better.  The weeks overall will be horrible–but having a plan will help a lot, and picking your days carefully will help some too!

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OVERVIEW: APRIL 2013 AT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews April 2013 Walt Disney World crowds, prices, deals and discounts, weather, operating hours, adds a few other notes, and ends with week by week summaries.

[Read more →]

OVERVIEW: MARCH 2013 AT DISNEY WORLD

This page reviews March 2013 Walt Disney World crowds, prices, deals and discounts, weather, operating hours, adds a few other notes, and ends with week by week summaries.

[Read more →]