Any thoughts on how crowded Disney World will be the weekend before through mid week before Easter 2019 (April 13-17) ? Right now crowd tracker has those times as really crowded yet less crowded as it gets closer to Easter. This seems backwards to me doesn’t it ?
I think because Easter is later, a lot of systems have moved Spring Break to earlier - possibly the week leading up to Easter but not after if not earlier.
This would seem to be the case. Our school district in SE Wisconsin always has spring break based on Easter so that is when we are going. The crowd calendar for Easter week is much lower (as of now) then last year, some days with CL of 4 which seems amazing to me!
But why would the 1st half of the week be busy then lower if schools have the whole week off ? Shouldn’t crowds be pretty consistent level all week ? Can’t understand the drop-off
People want/need to be in church on Easter? Airfare prices increasing? Any number of things.
You could say the same thing for Christmas and Thanksgiving weeks and those weeks are crazy all week - I think this website just needs to update or produce more accurate info.
I think the bigger difference between Christmas and Easter is that generally schools are out the week after Christmas. But if schools are out the week before Easter, people would be heading home at the end of the week, and there are some who would rather be at their home church for Easter if they have to be back to work/school on Monday anyway.
I personally don’t stress about the crowd levels as there is nothing you can do about them but manage expectations. I’d rather anticipate heavier crowds and find them lighter - of course I don’t believe in planning every moment either and trashed my attempt at TP fifteen minutes in to wing it (and had a wonderful time), so…I’m weird on this site for that.
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We have the option of going 1st half of the week or 2nd half and planned for 1st half because this site has always said its crazier closer to Easter holiday. Now they are saying its going to less crowded and its causing us to consider altering plans. Just want to make sure info us accurate first. I am a teacher and can only travel certain times of the year and would like to make the most out of the week. We split the week up by going to St Pete but would flip flop based on heavy crowds.
I see what you are saying–there are 9/10s early in the week and they drop to 6s/7s later in the week. That’s a tough call as TP is constantly updating their predictions based on information they receive. As far as I know TP incorporated all of the major school system spring breaks into their CL predictions already so I think they may be correct. Check out other crowd calendars (Undercover Tourist predicts a similar trend).
If it were me, I would probably go with the crowd calendar (accepting that you have no control anyway and with a plan, you’ll be ahead of the crowds no matter what). You could also look back at the historical crowd levels from last time Easter was so late in April and see if this trend played out IRL.
We have been to WDW the end of March/beginning of April for 4 of the last 5 years. This coincides with Easter every 3 years. The crowds leading up to Easter do actually decrease, TP is not wrong in this. Usually Thursday-Sunday are less crowded than the days before them and after Easter. It might not make sense, but it is definitely what we have experienced.
I would go the days closest to Easter based on my previous experience. BUT…neither of these times will be low or even moderate crowds. It will be very busy, but with rope drop, great FPP, mid day breaks, great ADRs, and most importantly a plan, you will be fine. I would go the whole week, personally and skip the beach. You really need 7-8 days that time of year. We love going at that time, and since my kids are high schoolers we have no choice if we want a long trip but to go during school breaks.
It is a black out week for the Gold AP. I assume this means Disney expects it to be very crowded,
You’ll get more foreigners around Easter, British holidays are for 2/3 weeks before Easter this year. I’ve heard it said that when Easter is late the spring break crowds are more spread out, so busy but not insane. Here’s hoping because we are there the second week before Easter. I’ve been following TP crowd level prediction and there’s been AK days that started at 7, went down to 2, and is now on 6. HS has fluctuated over CL level too, but not so much EP and MK. While I do look at all the CL predictions out there, FPP likely availability and morning EMH are the biggest factors in my choice.
Both TP and Kenny the Pirate are predicting an EMH change at HS and MK for early April, I’m waiting for Disney to show those days in its calendar, should be soon.