Disney World in April

I'm going to Walt Disney World in April, visiting all 4 parks over the course of a week. I've been to the parks before, but one thing that's stressing me out this time is that I've never visited the parks in April before. What should I expect as far as crowd levels? We're going to be there during the second week of April. I don't want to make a military operation out of this if the park will be slow, but at the same time I don't want to under-plan if the park will be busy. Any advice you can give would be appreciated. Thanks. :D

Easter is earlier this year so it shouldn't interfere. I arrived on April 15th last year and it was more crowded than I expected, lots of kids. It was Massachusetts Spring break and for whatever reason there were many families from there. It is also a popular time for home school families. Other than the M agic Kingdom on Saturday it wasn't bad but it wasn't empty either. AK and DHS were great minus Rock'n, Fantasmic and Toy Story. Fantasmic was crazy crowded. I hit Test Track on its last day open and I walked on, Soarin was crowded, Epcot had a lot of guests because of Flower and Garden and it draws locals. Illuminations was crowded.

All and all it was pleasant and other than a few popular attractions lines were just fine. Weather was low to mid 80's. ADRs because of F&G required some juggling at Epcot, other than that dining worked out well. I booked this trip less than 2 weeks out so getting most of what I wanted was great! We did have several huge storms with high winds, that is when the AK tree branch fell, so pack the poncho's and umbrella's.

Last year, my husband and I planned a spring vacation. We talked with our agent about picking a good not so crowded week. She stated that Spring break at Disney is from the second week of March through the third week of April, with the busiest time being the week before and after Easter. Easter is March 31, so if your trip is the first week of April, I would expect heavy crowds. We ultimately picked April 30-May 4 and had low crowds and fantastic weather. If you are going during a busier time I would recommend checking out Touring Plans.com. They have crowd calendars, tips to beat the crowds and the Lines app for your phone.

Good luck and have a great vacation!

Thanks, guys! I'm actually going the second week after Easter, starting on the Saturday (6th). Some sites say this period will be busy, others predict low crowd levels. I just don't know what to expect. I emailed Lou about this, and he said he's going to use my email in an upcoming show, so I'm praying for good news. :-)

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Originally Posted by SPDR

Thanks, guys! I'm actually going the second week after Easter, starting on the Saturday (6th). Some sites say this period will be busy, others predict low crowd levels. I just don't know what to expect. I emailed Lou about this, and he said he's going to use my email in an upcoming show, so I'm praying for good news. :-)

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I'd take true loves advice and check out TouringPlans.com They have it down to a science and even which days to avoid which parks and what days are best to visit which parks. They have an excellent track history.

I went to their site, but you have to subscribe to see the calendar for April. Can't afford a monthly fee.

Touring plans is an annual fee of $12. (not monthly)

I checked your week. Crowds are based on level 1-10. 1 is the lowest 10 the highest.

According to touring plans April 6 is ranked a crowd level of 8. After that date, the crowds drop to 5 and 6. These are rankings for the overall crowds in all the parks.

So, for example, on April 6 the overall crowds are ranked 8 out of 10.
Magic Kingdom is ranked "Park to Avoid." with a predicted crowd level of 9.2
Epcot gets "Best Park" with the lowest predicted crowds of 3.9
Hollywood Studios has a predicted crowd level of 6.2
Animal Kingdom has a predicted crowd level of 9

Every day is ranked in this manner. You are given an overall crowd rank and then individual park rankings. We found it very helpful.

Hope this helps!

That's pretty awesome news. The 6th is our travel day, and I'm arriving from the UK (originally from Chicago) so I will be totally wiped anyway. I think I'll spend the day having a nice meal and getting to know the POFQ resort since I've never stayed there before.

We're doing the same thing at the end of the year. We are going down the Saturday after THanksgiving..which has crowd levels of 10! So we're just going to take a later flight and hang out at the resort. Hit the ground running on Sunday when the crowd levels drop to 4 (and even lower later in the week)
We're from Philadelphia and even with a 2 hour flight..trying to make it down there to enjoy a full day means a super early wake up time (4am) and everyone is exhausted before we hit the parks. We stay up too late, get up early and by day 3 everyone hits the wall. We've found it makes for a much nicer trip when you just make day 1 activity getting to WDW.

Have a fun trip! Jealous that you only have to wait 5 weeks or so.

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Originally Posted by SPDR

That's pretty awesome news. The 6th is our travel day, and I'm arriving from the UK (originally from Chicago) so I will be totally wiped anyway. I think I'll spend the day having a nice meal and getting to know the POFQ resort since I've never stayed there before.

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The resort is very small so it wont take long as the food, lobby, store, arade, bar are all glommed together, you can walk from one to the other in less than 5, minutes. Pool and Hot tube directly across from those.

POFQ has a boat that is a lovely trip down the river to DTD. Might be a nice way to spend dinner hour. FC is also about a ten minute beautiful, charming walk over to the Sister part of the resort POR.

I'm planning a day at MK Thursday (3/28). I'm pretty sure its going to be rough.