What Happens When Spring Break and Easter Collide in Disney World
It’s a very busy time in Disney World right now! Not only is it spring break season, but it’s also Easter week.
Mr. and Mrs. Bunny
Easter is this Sunday, which is when a lot of schools will have their spring breaks as well — but not always!
So, we’ve been seeing big crowds for the past month in the parks due to spring break, but things are now packed due to the holiday coming up.
Let’s take a look at just how this is impacting things in Disney World!
Crowds
The first and most obvious thing happening is crowds! There are some VERY big crowds in the parks this week.
The other day we showed you just how bad it got to be around EPCOT, and that was almost a week before Easter!
And things have not let up at all. This is what it looked like in EPCOT this afternoon!
The World Showcase Plaza was packed with people.
And, over in Hollywood Studios, we saw MAJOR crowds trying to get into the park this morning. Yikes!
Once inside, we saw a lot of others, including this big group of people near the entrance of Galaxy’s Edge.
We’ll keep updating this post if we see any other major crowds!
Wait Times
With the crowds come some big wait times. Even yesterday, we saw some so wild wait times for rides that aren’t even popular normally, like The Seas with Nemo & Friends!
So, we took a look at wait times again today, and they high yet again. Around noon today in EPCOT, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure was at a 180 minute wait, Test Track had a 125 minute wait, Soarin’ was at 95 minutes, Mission: SPACE was at 80 minutes, and Frozen Ever After was at 75 minutes.
Photo: Disney
We even saw that unusually high wait time over at The Seas with Nemo & Friends again — it was at 50 minutes!
In Magic Kingdom, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train had a wait time of 110 minutes, Peter Pan’s Flight was at 90 minutes, Space Mountain was at 85 minutes, and Jungle Cruise was at 70 minutes.
Photo: Disney
Then, at noon in Hollywood Studios, Slinky Dog Dash had a wait time of 140 minutes, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run was at 95 minutes, Toy Story Mania was at 75 minutes, and Tower of Terror was at 70 minutes. We probably would’ve seen even higher times, but Rise of the Resistance and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway were both closed temporarily.
Finally, in Animal Kingdom, Flight of Passage had a 150 minute wait and Na’vi River Journey was at 125 minutes. Kilimanjaro Safaris was at 95 minutes and Kali River Rapids was at 80 minutes.
We checked back in with wait times around 3:30PM to see if anything had changed, and here’s what we found:
In Magic Kingdom, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was at 120 minutes and Peter Pan’s Flight was at 90 minutes. Haunted Mansion was at 65 minutes, as was Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.
In EPCOT, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure was at 155 minutes, Frozen Ever After was at 105 minutes, and Test Track was at 85 minutes.
Test Track
In Hollywood Studios around 3:30, Rise of the Resistance was at 155 minutes and Smugglers Run was at 140 minutes. Slinky Dog Dash was at 100 minutes and Alien Swirling Saucers was at 90 minutes.
2023 Rise of the Resistance
In Animal Kingdom, Flight of Passage had a 165 minute wait, Na’vi River Journey was at 115 minutes, and Kilimanjaro Safaris was at 105 minutes. So, Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey went down a bit, but the Safari went up!
Sold Out Services
Genie+ set a record today — it sold out earlier than EVER before. The service sold out before 10AM!
And, it was also being sold at its highest price we’ve seen so far — $35 per person. It’s a little bit concerning that at its highest price ever, the service sold out earlier than ever as well.
Disney Genie
The other things that sold out were individual Lightning Lanes. These are available for the most popular rides in the parks and let you skip the regular standby lines.
Individual Lightning Lanes are priced differently depending on the ride and how busy it is in the parks. You could tell it was especially busy today because a lot of individual Lightning Lanes sold out before the parks even opened up!
Lightning Lane
When we checked at 9AM, the only individual Lightning Lane still available was for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and even that sold out later on in the morning. TRON, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Rise of the Resistance, and Flight of Passage were all sold out.
How to Deal with Crowds
So, crowds are pretty much unavailable during this time of the year at the parks. But, there are some things you can do to help yourself out!
We definitely suggest taking advantage of that extra time in the parks if you’re able to. If you’re staying at a Disney World hotel (or other nearby qualifying hotels), you are able to get Early Theme Park Entry into all of the parks every morning.
It’s not all rainbows!
This means that you can enter the parks 30 minutes before they open! If you aren’t able to do this, we would at the very least suggest rope dropping the parks (getting to them before they open) in order to get in as early as possible.
Crowds will start to get worse as the day goes on, so the earlier you get in, the better!
Another option is for Deluxe and Deluxe Villa resort guests. These guests can take advantage of Extended Evening Hours on select nights in select parks.
This will give you a whole two extra hours in the parks after they close to regular guests! This is a great time to get on some popular rides that would normally have very long wait times during the day.
Can you guess where we’re going?
And, if you can afford to, buying Genie+ is also an option to consider during this time. It opens up at 12AM on the day of your park ticket, so we would suggest grabbing it as soon as possible before it sells out.
It is pricy, so you have to weigh the pros and cons for your group. Saving time in a few long lines during the day could definitely be worth it, and remember, you can pick and choose which days you want to get it!
So, you could buy it for your Magic Kingdom day, but maybe not buy it for your EPCOT day. It all depends on your budget, plans, and expectations!
We’ll be keeping you updated on what’s going on in Disney World, so stay tuned for more!
