Disney in April
 

My Family(3 adults, 2 19 year olds and a 9 year old) have booked a trip to DisneyWorld the 2nd week of April. Does any one have any experience going at that time of year ?

You will be there when many schools are on Easter break. We have been there during Easter week and it's packed. However, we still had a great time. Stay on site, get to the parks early, and use Fast Pass and you'll be fine. The parks are usually open late during that time, so you can take an afternoon break and go back at night.

Be very careful of Spring Break.
Disney will be PACKED SOLID.

It will be busy but don't despair. Get a good touring plan - I recommend either the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World or subscribe to tourguidemike.com. It's about the same cost as a guidebook with the most up-to-date information for your time of visit. It doesn't just shoot out a one-size-fits all touring plans - it provides a template for developing your own touring plan that allows you to avoid the crowds. We used it last June and never waited more than 20 minutes for anything even though the parks were quite busy. I think themouseforless.com might have a discount code that saves $3 on the service. It also tells you which parks to avoid on certain days to minimize crowds - that's especially nice during busy times.

This is HUGE: be at your park of choice at least 20 minutes before park opening. Your morning hours are prime for getting to attractions with a minimum wait.

Are you going to Epcot? My 8 year old really loved the candy artist at the Japan pavillion. Your 19 year old may enjoy "Off Kilter" at the Canada pavillion. They're a celtic rock band.

April will be crazy. If you are staying onsite, take advantage of early morning magic hours. Take breaks in the afternoon and return to the parks around 5 p.m. Take your time and KNOW before you go what are your must-sees and what are your can-be-missed. Feel free to email me [email protected] I am an authorized Disney Vacation Planner (NOT A TRAVEL AGENT!!!!I CAN NOT BOOK ANY KIND OF TRAVEL)

Actually, I think most of the northeast public schools have spring break one of the last two weeks in April. College kids are usually March or May; High School grad nights are in May... The second week of April might be okay - except for your second weekend, which is Easter. Do the kids in the rest of the country have the week before Easter off? At least you are pretty much guaranteed great weather!

And like others have said, get an early start; be there a half hour before the scheduled opening. Do your first two priority attractions for that park right away! Eat lunch around 11:am. Take a break between 1-4. Use Fast Pass! Have fun!

It's not that bad. I was there the week before Easter in 2004 and there is only one time I remember thinking it was really too crowded for me - at Epcot in the area where Fastrack is (and they ran out of Fasttrack cards for the entire day by 11 a.m.- the lines for Fastrack were long but moved quickly). Otherwise, we used Fastpass and had priority reservations for all meals at Epcot, MGM, and Animal Kingdom (and did the safari as soon as the park opened) and had no real big problems w/the crowds. It was definitely still a great time (although I much prefer Christmas, but at least Easter is not as bad as Thankgiving crowds, right?)

Hope you checked that your pool is heated--we've been frozen out of "heated" pools 3 times! Get there early and take your time--and do Universal Islands, it's (IMO) way better, esp. for those ages.

I second the idea of going to Universal's Islands of Adventure. It is much more thril ride oriented. Spiderman 3-D, The Hulk, Jurassic Park and Dueling Dragons are all fun for older kids. We also love Suessland and The Cat in the Hat Ride.

Even though you are going during April, you will have a fabulous time! As a teacher who has no choice but to take vacations when school is out of session, I have been to WDW in April recently and had an amazing time.

We got "The Unofficial Guide to WDW" and followed one of the plans and were able to see everything we wanted.

FYI - our Easter Vacation this year is April 14-23. Some places take the week before, but where I work always takes the week after.

Good luck!