# Spring break crowds at Orlando parks



## JPD (Apr 2, 2009)

I've been reading that attendance at all Orlando parks are way down. It also said the parks are laying off alot of employees. Can someone tell me how the spring break crowds are, and if you noticed a decline in service at the parks? We will be going to Disney the week after easter.   Thank you


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## elaine (Apr 2, 2009)

*very crowded*

sorry--it's going to be VERY crowded.  WDW has had a special Buy 4 get 3 free deal running that includes that week.  Touring estimate blogs have raised estimates for the week after Easter to 10 out of 10 for crowd levels.  If going to any of the parks, plan to go early as the crowds tend to pick up after 11 AM. Good luck. Elaine


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## amanven (Apr 2, 2009)

For all the carry on about the crowds being down at the Disney parks because of the recession, it didn't look like they were down much for Week 11this year.  Average ride wait time without a Fast Pass at Animal Kingdom was still close to an hour for the popular rides like Expedition Everest.


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## Sea Six (Apr 2, 2009)

I was up there last week - I never saw the place so crowded.  90 - 120 minute waits for the popular rides like Soarin' and Toy Story Mania.  Fast pass machines were covered for the day by 1:00.  It was a mob scene just trying to walk around.  No more spring break time for me!


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## rapmarks (Apr 3, 2009)

It was a mob scene at universal and Islands of Adventure the week of March 22nd.


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## ctreelmom (Apr 3, 2009)

We will be there that week, too, and FYI my daughter's high school marching band and chorus are going to participate in a big music festival, so expect lots of high school groups.


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## CAROLW (Apr 3, 2009)

We were at the Disney Parks 3/15/-3/22 and they were unbelievably crowded. Our family were probably the only ones who weren't on Spring Break. (what was I thinking). I had to take the kids out of school. But we traded into the Disney Beach Club Villas and was lucky to get any week during March.

But we still had a fabulous time because we followed Tour Guide Mike's advice. We were ahead of the crowds all day and went/saw everything we wanted to. I highly recommend www.tourguidemike.com, especially if you are going during a busy time.


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## jjlovecub (Apr 4, 2009)

I'll do a day by day as we are here for 8 days right now. BTW I should mention we did touring plans and we arrive right as the park opens. This is my first time using these and so far it has worked to perfection. This is crazy - I have gone to Disney for years and thought I knew what I was doing but boy was I wrong. I am hardly waiting at all in parks with waits up to 2 1/2 hours. So yes the parks are busy but there is a "right" way to do it.

Sat 4/4 - Blizzard Beach 
Not too bad. We were there right at opening time and I waited 20 minutes for Summitt Plummit. After that it went to a 60 min wait. Most rides were 15-20 minutes. 

Sun 4/5 - Animal Kingdom
Again, there as the park opened at 8am. I rode Everest first (10min wait) and got a Fast Pass for later. Crowds really picked upa round 11am. My longest wait was 20 minutes. The longest wait I saw all day was 60 min for Everest and the rapids

Mon 4/6 - Epcot
Busiest day yet. There was a huge crowd waiting as the gates opened at 9am. I went right to Test track with my son while my wife got Fast Passes for Soarin. My longest wait of the day was 15 minutes but by noon all Fast Passes in Future World were gone for the day and there were 2-3 hour waits at the most popular rides. By then though we were done with that part of the park and off to the countries where the crowds were average at best.

Tues 4/7 - Going to Universal


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## jjlovecub (Apr 7, 2009)

jjlovecub said:


> I'll do a day by day as we are here for 8 days right now. BTW I should mention we did touring plans and we arrive right as the park opens. This is my first time using these and so far it has worked to perfection. This is crazy - I have gone to Disney for years and thought I knew what I was doing but boy was I wrong. I am hardly waiting at all in parks with waits up to 2 1/2 hours. So yes the parks are busy but there is a "right" way to do it.
> 
> Sat 4/4 - Blizzard Beach
> Not too bad. We were there right at opening time and I waited 20 minutes for Summitt Plummit. After that it went to a 60 min wait. Most rides were 15-20 minutes.
> ...



Weird - wouldn't let me edit so I'll continue here

4/7 - Universal Studios was dead at 9am but pretty busy by noon. Average wait time for the big rides was about 40-50 from noon on.

Tomorrow we are going to stay around the TS and rest from 4 solid days at the parks. We will probably hit Disney Quest and Downtown Disney though.


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## May mom (Apr 8, 2009)

I heard that yesterday 4/7, MK was closed due to attendance, meaning they weren't letting any new people in.  So it's pretty crowded there right now.


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## May mom (Apr 8, 2009)

disboards is reporting that MK is closed again today (4/8) due to crowds.


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## Redrosesix (Apr 8, 2009)

The Dis Unplugged Podcast last week said that attendance was down significantly at the other parks, Universal and Seaworld.  They give all of the credit for WDW doing ok to the 4/3 deal.

However, this week is Easter week and it's historically crowded at that time.  Add to that the Spring Breakers and you get high crowd counts, even without the 4/3 deal (and it was offered for these weeks)

For anybody who's interested, here's the thread from the Dis Boards (where I can usually be found):
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2142686

It's loooooooonnngggg


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## Redrosesix (Apr 8, 2009)

CAROLW said:


> We were at the Disney Parks 3/15/-3/22 and they were unbelievably crowded. Our family were probably the only ones who weren't on Spring Break. (what was I thinking). I had to take the kids out of school. But we traded into the Disney Beach Club Villas and was lucky to get any week during March.
> 
> But we still had a fabulous time because we followed Tour Guide Mike's advice. We were ahead of the crowds all day and went/saw everything we wanted to. I highly recommend www.tourguidemike.com, especially if you are going during a busy time.



BTW, the week you picked is Spring Break for most public schools in Canada. Remind me next year when you're making your plans and I'll let you know when it is scheduled for 2010.


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## luvsvacation22 (Apr 8, 2009)

I know it is not DisneyWorld, but we were at Disneyland 1 1/2 weeks ago and on Friday morning they were anticipating closing the gate-which means they were at capacity.


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## Redrosesix (Apr 8, 2009)

luvsvacation22 said:


> I know it is not DisneyWorld, but we were at Disneyland 1 1/2 weeks ago and on Friday morning they were anticipating closing the gate-which means they were at capacity.



Was there something else happening at that time besides Spring Break?  And was it only DL that was busy?


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## jjlovecub (Apr 11, 2009)

*Week Continued*



jjlovecub said:


> Weird - wouldn't let me edit so I'll continue here
> 
> 4/7 - Universal Studios was dead at 9am but pretty busy by noon. Average wait time for the big rides was about 40-50 from noon on.
> 
> Tomorrow we are going to stay around the TS and rest from 4 solid days at the parks. We will probably hit Disney Quest and Downtown Disney though.



Sorry - just been so busy having fun that I didn't have time to update :whoopie: 

4/8 - Went to Disney Quest. The longest wait was 30min for Pirates, Jungle Cruise and Aladdin were 15 minutes. It was our first time there and my son loved it!! Hardly any waits to play any of the games.

4/9 - Hollywood Studios. By far the busiest yet (though I never waited more than 20 minutes for anything). When the park opened I went to ride Rockin Roller Coaster while my wife got the Fast Passes for Toy Story. Within an hour Toy Story and Rockin Roller Coaster were at 90-120 min waits and Tower of Terror was a steady 45 minutes all day. By that point though, I had done the big rides and really enjoyed the rest of the day.

4/10 - Magic Kingdom!!! My favorite - We got to the park for the 8am opening at 7:40 only to find the Tomorrowland side already open! What a great day. By 11:00 am the park was packed but between 8-11 I had gotten more fast passes than I could use for the day. Mainly because at 8:00am the fastpass was for 8:10 and so on so I could get a new fast pass!! Disney accepted everyone even though most were after our time had passed. My longest wait was 20 minutes on a Splash Mountain Fast Pass (when the standby wait was 130min) and the only real time where I deviated off of the touringplans guide - 30 minutes because my son wanted to ride the Tomorrowland Speedway for a 4th time. How could I say no  We rode Splash Mountain 5 times and Thunder Mountain 4 times - it was great!! We stayed until 11pm (park closed at 12). I knew it was time to go when my son slept through the big drop on Splash Mountain. I guess I wore him out.

So my advice is do touring plans or the Mike Guide and you will be like me - happy and amazed and how little you will wait - OR wait 2 hours in line and still enjoy all that is your vacation!!

4/11 - Final Day here - we went to Aquatica. We did NOT get there at the 9am opening since we went 6:30 to midnight the day prior. I know, I know, I am so not dedicated. Anyway, we got there at 10:15 and they closed the park by 11 as they were at capacity. We didn't really care because our kids are still young so they just play in the kids zone and go in the lazy rivers. I looked at waits were about 45-60 minutes. My wife and I are going back w/o kids in July so I knew I could ride the rides then. We stayed for about 4hrs and now back at the TS where everybody except me is taking their first nap of the week. We are going over to Downtown Disney tonight and probably over to Disney Quest again for my son and then off to home tomorrow. It has been a fun-filled week.


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## Nancy (Apr 11, 2009)

*Thanks*

I've enjoyed reading your updates.

Nancy


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## JonathanIT (Apr 11, 2009)

Redrosesix said:


> Was there something else happening at that time besides Spring Break?  And was it only DL that was busy?


Besides the Spring Break crowds, DLR has the "2fer" promotion going on for local residents, a very popular buy 1 get both parks ticket (must be used on separate days).  That last few weeks have been very busy.

*jjlovecub*, it sounds like you had a great week!  Even reading about it was fun.


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## UWSurfer (Apr 11, 2009)

Thank you folks for Tourguide Mike (TGM)  site...I had never heard of it until mentioned here last week.  We just arrived this morning after a red-eye flight.  Belive it or not we arrived at the HGVC I-Drive at 8:15am and they had a 3 bdrm unit READY for check-in.  We did a 4 hour nap and then went through and put together our park list for the week based on TGM suggestions.   Tomorrow is Animal Park.

It should be a full week as I'm taking a side trip down to Pompono Beach for an afternoon and following morming dive per the suggestion of another set of tuggers here.



jjlovecub said:


> Sorry - just been so busy having fun that I didn't have time to update :whoopie:
> 
> 4/8 - Went to Disney Quest. The longest wait was 30min for Pirates, Jungle Cruise and Aladdin were 15 minutes. It was our first time there and my son loved it!! Hardly any waits to play any of the games.
> 
> ...


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## pgnewarkboy (Apr 12, 2009)

Just back this morning from Cypress Point 1 and trips to Disney World and Sea World.  We, including children and grandchildren, enjoyed the Magic Kingdom very much.  My wife and I felt that the cleanliness, freindliness, people moving managment etc, has definitely gone downhill at the other Disney Parks.

We were very unhappy with our day at Sea World.  It seems that InBev, the German company that bought Anheuser-Busch, is not interested in maintaining the quality of that park.  We have been at Sea Worlds in Orlando and San Diego in the past.   The Orlando Sea World has seen better days.

Cypress Point was a very nice place to stay.


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## wise one (Apr 15, 2009)

We were in the DW area for spring break.  We stayed at the  Vacation Village @ Parkway.  We did not go to the theme parks, but did go to the Marketplace several times.  We also drove across the property on Friday.  It was really hard to find parking on Tuesday and Wednesday and the crowds were heavy.  We went back on Friday and the crowds were down.

We also rode the Disney Transport from Downtown Disney to the Wilderness Lodge on Tuesday and to the Animal Kingdom Lodge on Wednesday.  Each of the Busses were always full.  

On Wednesday, we noted that the signs on the highway showed that the Magic Kingdom was full.  We also noticed that that the parking lot at the AK park had cars parked on the grass on Wednesday, that was not the case when we drove past that lot on Friday.

Orlando TV stations reported that both the Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon were operating at capacity on Thursday.  We noticed a sign on the highway at about 1:30 pm that read that Typhoon Lagoon was closed to new visitors until 2:30 pm.

We thought to ourselves that Disney was not having a recession, or at least not last week.

VV@P where we stayed was so packed that there were cars parked on Arabian Nights Blvd because the parking lots were so full.


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## myip (Apr 16, 2009)

We are still at Disney for Spring Break.  I didn't think it is that busy.  We have fast pass and wait about 10-20 minutes for rides that we don't have fast pass.  May be we are very lucky.   I am very surprise with easy sitting in various Disney restaurants.  Last time, we have reservation and have to wait 15 - 30 minutes for sitting.  This time, we just have to wait less than 5 minutes.

4/12 - Epcot  (not too busy.  manage to go to most of the rides and wait only 10-15 minutes.  I was surprised that Memo around noon didn't have to wait too long.  May be the most 5 minutes)

4/13 - Magic Kingdom (Fast pass worked great)

4/14 - Epcot (rainy day - decide to go to Epcot)

4/15 - Hollywood (Used Fast pass for Star War and Little Mermaid).  All other events, we just show up 10 minutes before show time.

4/16 - Animal Kingdom (Use fast pass for Safari ride only).  Manage to see Memo and Lion King shows, walk straight into the It is Bugs World.

4/17 -- going to Magic Kingdom... Hopefully, it is not too busy.


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