When you think of the busiest times to vacation at Disney World (or anywhere) spring break season probably comes to mind.
Disney World
Now that spring has officially arrived and March is well underway, it’s safe to say that we’re in the throes of spring break season. At the beginning of the month, we were greeted with dense crowds and even sold-out Genie+ — Disney’s skip-the-line service. However, those crowds have thankfully died down throughout the month! We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the lack of crowds in each of the parks as well as lower wait times. At first, we were thinking to ourselves, “HOW?! It’s spring break!” But now, we think we have an idea.
The answer lies within the Annual Passholder calendar. The Pirate Pass and Pixie Dust Pass are two options for Florida residents. While these are the most affordable options, they do have blockout dates. This means that there are dates that those pass holders cannot enter the parks. Well, both passes are currently blocked out.
Here’s a look at the Pirate Pass calendar…
©Disney
…and here’s a look at the Pixie Dust Calendar.
©Disney
Since these passes are for Florida residents, blocking them out of the parks can really impact the amount of crowds we see at Disney World, especially since it’s spring break season. Further, we can take a look at some of the other events taking place nearby.
Disney World Annual Passholder Entrance
At the beginning of March, we likely saw some leftover crowds from the runDisney Princess Half Marathon Weekend, which took place the weekend of February 28th. Plus, there were cheer and dance competitions taking place at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Now, there are no sports-related events taking place at ESPN.
Hey, Mickey!
So… all of that is to say that the lack of events and blocked out Annual Passes could be why we’re seeing less crowds right now. Gorgeous weather and low crowds honestly make for some perfect Disney days. We’re at Disney World every single day, so we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop with more Disney news. Make sure to follow along so that you’re always in the loop.
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So glad the kids are grown, I’ll never set foot in a Disney park again. So much more out there to occupy my time, also a lot cheaper. Lived in Florida for 25 years, visited on a regular basis from when they first opened. 2008 was our last visit when we took our granddaughter. Don’t miss it one bit.
In the north east, spring break isn’t until the week following Easter this year. And we know A LOT of people from NJ/NY all going down to WDW and FL. Tbh, I think it’s still a little early as aren’t most spring breaks tied in to the Easter holiday weekend?
I wish it was empty when we went for spring break. We were there 3/10-3/15 and magic kingdom was packed! Anyways, still had a great time!
My personal opinion is people are watching the more and less crowded calendars. They plan their trips/events around that time. They are now booking trips when the calendar in the past has stated low crowd attendance. That inadvertently adjusts the crowd level. We all think we can beat the system or find a hack to gain a “Better experience”. People today will take their time off when they think they will gain the best possible experience and then post that on their social media. Again, my personal opinion.
Thank you for boosting our morale! We are there April 2-5th with our littles for the first time.
We just returned from our trip, arriving March 15th and left March 19th. Park days were Saturday, Sunday and MK after hours on Monday, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather or crowd size. By far my best Disney vacation ever. We went last year in early February, only did park days during the week and it was packed. My tip is go when it’s convenient for you because you’re rolling the dice any which way. But also, St. Paddy’s day at Epcot during F&G was the absolute best! And After Hours parties are worth every dime. You can get in at 7pm, so that gives you 6 hours to do all the rides. We ate at BOG at 7:45, started the park around 9. We waited less than 20 minutes for Tron and Mine Train and everything else was a walk on. We never felt rushed and rode everything before 1am.
Heading there for my spring break on Saturday and spending the week.
Nobody has spring break at this time. Schools that do it halfway through the semester use the first 2 full weeks of March. Schools that have spring break tied to Easter will come first full week of April.
We were there the 13th (MK) and 15th (Epcot) and both parks were packed. In my 40+ trips, I had the longest wait times ever even utilizing the lightning lanes. MK hours were extended to 7:30am early entry until 11pm.. Epcot sold out of virtual queues for Guardians of the Galaxy in 2 seconds and individual lightning lanes sold out in less than a minute after nine. If this is empty then this will be our last trip. It didn’t help that because Frozen and Test Track were closed over half the day, lightning lanes were never available. The boat ride in Mexico had a line out the door of the building. Lol
Hi Marilyn! Some Florida schools out for Spring Break during this time. You can find a full list of when these Spring Breaks fall here.
Locally this is Spring Break week for two counties around and near WDW.
We have been at Disney last week and this week and are loving it!! The traffic, not so much, but in the parks, the lack of crowds we were expecting and the gorgeous weather have made this trip OH-MAZ-ING!! We’ve been able to enjoy some new experiences we haven’t before due to the lower numbers. Thanks for all your great tips Disney Food Bloggers!!
My boyfriend works for one of the Disney hotels and the hotel is nowhere near capacity. There is more than just Passholder blockouts going on.
Hi! Wanted to give an update that Magic Kingdom on Tuesday had multiple ride issues. We had to
evacuate Thunder and Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion stopped 4 times & when we were up for our TRON virtual queue… it was broken down. After watching the fireworks (which were fantastic), we went to get on the monorail…which was temporarily shut down due to mechanical issues. The other 3 parks were fantastic, it felt like Magic Kingdom was overbooked and cast members were doing the best they could to manage the crowds, but they could only do so much.
I think a lot has to do with current prices. Good neighbour hotels are saying they are hosting far fewer spring break guests and many are choosing Universal with their competitive pricing and attractions appealing to the teen market.
Lower crowd levels hasn’t stopped Disney from setting the highest Genie+ prices in history. Another price increase without having to announce a price increase.
For most of the midwest, non-college spring breaks just started this weekend so they likely aren’t wven there yet. I would expect this week and next to be very high attendance. I also think people that go all the time have a different sense of what “empty” or even “not busy” are compared to people who rarely visit or are first timers.
Military salute tickets are also blocked out!!