We have planned a trip to Orlando for this April at Easter. I was wondering if there are any week long school holidays between now and then. We are tracking wait times for various rides at the parks so if there is a break during which we could track the times so we can plan our fast pass+ selections.
I know that it is going to be busy but we would like to have an idea as to how busy before we get there.
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You could probably look at wait times around President's Day Weekend. While there's only one official holiday, a lot of school systems will schedule teacher workdays and other days off around the federal holiday. The lines and crowd levels will still not be anything close to what it will be during the week preceding Easter, but it will be the closest comp you will get between now and then. Some school systems have started to shift their Spring Breaks throughout March (most Universities now rarely have Spring Break the week of Easter anymore), so you could also look at wait times and crowds from the second week of March onward. Again, they will pale in comparison to Easter Week, but will give you a baseline for what to expect during one of the busiest weeks of the year at WDW.
As the_man has stated, I would expect 2+ hour lines for virtually all main attractions with 3-4 hour lines for FoP and SDD. If you're not staying onsite, I would not expect to see any prime FP+ attractions (FoP NRJ, Frozen, Soarin, Test Track, 7DMT, Space Mountain, BTMRR, SDD, TSM, RNR, and ToT) available 30 days in advance of your visit. However, just because FP+ times are not available when you're first eligible to book, don't stop looking. Disney deliberately holds back inventory, which is randomly released all the time. You should check the app/website frequently to see if anything better pops up, including while you're in the parks.
Thank you for the responses. We have been to the Orlando area at Easter before but it was 9 years ago. Is the Break the schools give before or after the Easter weekend. We are in Saskatchewan Canada and our schools give the week after.
Orange and Seminole county schools are on spring break from Friday March 15th thru Friday March 22nd, inclusive.
As the_man said, Easter and Christmas are the busiest times for WDW. It's night and day regarding crowds today compared to 9 years ago. Come prepared for madness and you will be OK .... :)
Easter Sunday is April 21st, and gold & silver passes are blocked out April 13th thru 26th. Europe usually has 2 weeks holiday around Easter, so there's a huge influx of people from across the pond.
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Easter and Christmas/New Years weeks are the busiest time of year for the parks in Orlando. Last Easter the wait times at Disney were around 1 hour for the second tier attractions, 2 hours for attractions like Space and Splash Mountain, and 3 hours for Flight of Passage. Make sure to book your FP in advance as there won't be anything good available day of. Also all the pathways and everything are pretty much wall to wall people so make sure to get your spots for parades and fireworks early.
The good news for you is that Star Wars opens in the fall so there are a lot of people who are putting off their vacations until then, but even with that there will still be very substantial crowds.