Spring Break 2024

[IzzyB]

Early Easter probably great for the first quarter fiscal report, but bad news for the second quarter report. Generally, where Easter is, on the calendar, has a fairly significant impact on the quarterly reports for the parks. Bottom line, first quarter report might be OK but the second quarter report, if soft vacation bookings continue, could be pretty dismal, unless they open some of this new stuff in June instead of July.

I assume Disney will have Tiana open in May for soft and grand in June.

Universal will be contending with the same slow period, you would hope the front part of Dreamworks is on the same timeline as Tiana. But it seems parade won't be until July which tells me night time show will also be July.

 

[Mad Dog]

I assume Disney will have Tiana open in May for soft and grand in June.

Universal will be contending with the same slow period, you would hope the front part of Dreamworks is on the same timeline as Tiana. But it seems parade won't be until July which tells me night time show will also be July.

Yeah, I was thinking the same timeline for Tiana. Tiana will bring some attendance to WDW once it's opening is announced. @Tomfoolery just said the expected opening for Dreamworks is June.

 

[SeventyOne]

I am confused by what you mean with changes by local schools and which week is the 3rd busiest?

I mean Easter week will always be the third busiest week of the year (behind the two weeks around Christmas/NYE), simply because so many of our "feeder" markets will be out-of-school that week. It's just tradition up north. Local Florida schools don't often follow that tradition, so you'll see a bump in whatever week the local counties decide to take a week off. A minority of guests come from Florida, but it's still the #1 state. But all the other major states combined make a huge majority.

So if Orange and Osceola are off in an otherwise slow week, you'll see a big bump. But shifts in crowds during Easter week are harder to detect, because 85% of busy would be a huge drop from the year before but still feels busy as an observer,

 

[Mad Dog]

I mean Easter week will always be the third busiest week of the year (behind the two weeks around Christmas/NYE), simply because so many of our "feeder" markets will be out-of-school that week. It's just tradition up north. Local Florida schools don't often follow that tradition, so you'll see a bump in whatever week the local counties decide to take a week off. A minority of guests come from Florida, but it's still the #1 state. But all the other major states combined make a huge majority.

So if Orange and Osceola are off in an otherwise slow week, you'll see a big bump. But shifts in crowds during Easter week are harder to detect, because 85% of busy would be a huge drop from the year before but still feels busy as an observer,

Good logic. Interestingly, your 85% comment would be right on. A guest couldn't discern the difference in crowd, but the individual park's financials for that time period certainly would. They'll know, but we won't. And that stuff remains hidden in quarterly reports also, since Easter, unlike most holidays, falls on far different dates from year to year. Tough to compare.

 

[IzzyB]

I mean Easter week will always be the third busiest week of the year (behind the two weeks around Christmas/NYE), simply because so many of our "feeder" markets will be out-of-school that week. It's just tradition up north. Local Florida schools don't often follow that tradition, so you'll see a bump in whatever week the local counties decide to take a week off. A minority of guests come from Florida, but it's still the #1 state. But all the other major states combined make a huge majority.

So if Orange and Osceola are off in an otherwise slow week, you'll see a big bump. But shifts in crowds during Easter week are harder to detect, because 85% of busy would be a huge drop from the year before but still feels busy as an observer,

Gotcha. Yes, the week before and after Easter will be as busy as the 2 weeks during Christmas. It isn't just Florida schools though and the week Orange and Seminole was off was actually not that busy. There are lots of schools in the mid west, Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee that don't follow the normal week before or after Easter. I think more and more schools are starting to begin earlier, split the semester at Christmas, and have spring break split the quarter. It is spreading out the crowds a little more, but with this year having Easter in March it caused a compressed season with 3 really busy weeks and 1 week that wasn't because for some reason OCPS and a few other made an odd choice to have the week after New Years off pushing their spring break out a week.

 

[Brian G.]

Yea - seems like its a madhouse at both resorts today.

 

[GAcoaster]

Today was the busiest day I've seen at WDW in a LONG time. They were turning people away at the Epcot monorail station. The last time I saw that was December 2019...

 

[Brian G.]

Today was the busiest day I've seen at WDW in a LONG time. They were turning people away at the Epcot monorail station. The last time I saw that was December 2019...

Also saw they stopped Parkhopping to the Magic Kingdom.

Over at Uni - lines were really long. Even VC single rider line was at capacity. haha

 

[Mad Dog]

Free dining plans (Disney Visa) for 4 day WDW bookings for all of July , First week in September, Dec. 9-21. Quick service plan free for values and moderates. Table service for Deluxes.....Sounds like July must be soft on hotel bookings at this point in time....Available starting tomorrow......WDW Parks turned real soft on Sat. & Sunday. Universal, as usual, was still strong Saturday.

 

[SeventyOne]

...WDW Parks turned real soft on Sat. & Sunday.

An unnamed moderate Disney hotel went from 100% booked Friday (and week before) to mid 60s Saturday to low 40s Sunday.

 

[Mad Dog]

An unnamed moderate Disney hotel went from 100% booked Friday (and week before) to mid 60s Saturday to low 40s Sunday.

Spring Break/Easter giveth and Spring taketh away.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Went to DAK & Epcot last night, it was great to see the parks relatively "dead" after what felt like 3 months of heavy crowds. And this was the first/second day that the majority of APs were unblocked after nearly a month of blackout dates. Interested in seeing what happens the rest of the month and through the summer.

 

[krazyhorrorkid]

Gonna chime in here…
Went to WDW when spring break was in full pursuit for some and went again this past Saturday. MK seems very light in crowds on those spring break transition Saturdays, the weekdays are packed while Saturday and Sunday seem pretty light most of the time, atleast for Magic Kingdom. Epcot is normal and Studios seems packed every day no matter what.

It surprised me how dead Magic Kingdom was, got a TRON VQ at like 2:30 with no trouble, not sure if that’s normal or not though as I am still a very new passmember to WDW.

 

[saint.piss]

I went to USF for the last day of Mardi Gra on Sunday and was quite happy that it wasn't at all busy. Most waits were 25 minutes even for Gringotts. I was able to do Revenge of the Mummy in less than five minutes with single rider

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Gonna chime in here…
Went to WDW when spring break was in full pursuit for some and went again this past Saturday. MK seems very light in crowds on those spring break transition Saturdays, the weekdays are packed while Saturday and Sunday seem pretty light most of the time, atleast for Magic Kingdom. Epcot is normal and Studios seems packed every day no matter what.

It surprised me how dead Magic Kingdom was, got a TRON VQ at like 2:30 with no trouble, not sure if that’s normal or not though as I am still a very new passmember to WDW.

Saturdays & Sundays have been random at the parks the past few years now, they can get pretty busy but also dead thanks to demand pricing impacting when single-day tickets are purchased. Weekdays (including Mondays) have become busier at times than Friday/Saturdays... it's bizarre.

There's random days you can get a Tron VQ a a few hours after the 2nd drop, not entirely rare. I've stopped giving advice on best times to go cause the parks have somewhat mastered spreading demand out throughout the year.

Even if summer is forecasted to be low crowd-wise, I wouldn't submit anyone to that lol

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

Even if summer is forecasted to be low crowd-wise, I wouldn't submit anyone to that lol

Likely the new normal.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Likely the new normal.

Yes, which is why I cringe when I'm told Jan-Feb is the slow season. Traditionally, sure, not anymore lol

 

[Mad Dog]

Yes, which is why I cringe when I'm told Jan-Feb is the slow season. Traditionally, sure, not anymore lol

especially Feb. ...Presidents week is almost as busy as Christmas week.

 

[IzzyB]

An unnamed moderate Disney hotel went from 100% booked Friday (and week before) to mid 60s Saturday to low 40s Sunday.

I went to USF for the last day of Mardi Gra on Sunday and was quite happy that it wasn't at all busy. Most waits were 25 minutes even for Gringotts. I was able to do Revenge of the Mummy in less than five minutes with single rider

Wonder if people left early to get home for the eclipse? I know a lot of people in the path had spring break the week after Easter based on co-workers. Maybe locals traveling? We travelled and so did several people I knew. The flights out of Orlando and then back in after were PACKED. The airport was insanely packed on Thursday. Which I expect business people, but lots of families too which shocked me.

 

[Mad Dog]

Wonder if people left early to get home for the eclipse? I know a lot of people in the path had spring break the week after Easter based on co-workers. Maybe locals traveling? We travelled and so did several people I knew. The flights out of Orlando and then back in after were PACKED. The airport was insanely packed on Thursday. Which I expect business people, but lots of families too which shocked me.

The tourists seem to leave early on most of the vacation/holiday weeks. Disney is more tourist oriented than Universal, it died by the weekend. Universal was still quite busy on Saturday, which is always busy on Saturdays no matter what time of year it is. Just shows that Universal gets a heavy locals usage on Saturdays. Friday and Saturday are the departure town days for Disney tourists generally. So far this week, the WDW crowd levels are very September like low. Universal low moderate. Last year we went to WDW the week after Easter. The crowd levels were moderate, but not drop off low like this year. Feast or famine it seems. (I'm using Touring Plans crowd levels which are probably the most accurate when it comes to Orlando since they have actual boots on the ground that they use)