Spring break is one of the busiest times of the year at Walt Disney World. Crowd levels increase during the recess, culminating with peak weeks in March and April 2025. Easter is infamous for its high wait times in Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. It’s not just one week of elevated attendance, but a season with different districts having weeks off in two months.
Spring break season kicks off in the first half of March with colleges and universities, followed by K-12 school systems that take their week-long breaks. But not all dates within that range are equally crowded, as evidenced by last year, when the lowest low were 1/10 crowd level days (24 minute average wait) and the peak was 10/10 (60 minutes). We do not expect anything that extreme in 2025. To the contrary, we’re going to explain why this year should be much more consistently crowded. It makes for much more boring predictions, but that’s been par for the course thus far this year.
Our goals with this are highlighting weeks that will have the highest wait times and worst crowd levels at Walt Disney World during the spring break season. And perhaps more importantly, let you know when spring break crowds will end and shoulder season will start. In so doing, we’ll look at school schedules for some of the largest districts that impact Walt Disney World, last year’s crowd levels, and more to predict which weeks will be the peaks on Walt Disney World crowd calendar for March and April 2025…
Let’s dig right in with the kickoff of spring break season, which has already started. I’ve spent the past several days in the parks, and thanks to Mardi Gras, EPCOT’s Flower & Garden Festival, youth events at ESPN Wide World of Sports, and early spring breaks for universities and a scattering of school districts in the South, above-average crowds have arrived.
Perhaps I’ve seen this to a disproportionate degree since I’ve been spending a lot of time alternating between rides on Cosmic Rewind and eating at EPCOT food booths (all in the name of Very Important Research), but I’ve been a bit surprised by the number of college kids at Walt Disney World on break. Not that it’s truly busy at this point (it’s not), but this used to be a lull–one of the best stretches of the year!
While crowds are already moderate, spring break will unofficially arrive on March 14, 2025 and spike wait times even higher. This is the Friday several school districts in Central Florida will start their recesses. Unlike last year, when these Orlando-area districts were spread out across a few weeks, they’re almost all consolidated into March 14-23, 2025. (Some don’t include the Friday beforehand–that’s about the only difference.) This includes Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Brevard, and Orange Counties.
Even if no other districts in the entire United States had spring break that week, it would be busy at Walt Disney World due to the local school systems. This catches some longtime Walt Disney World fans by surprise, as Floridians did not have such an outsized impact on park attendance a decade or so ago.
Central Florida has seen a population explosion in the last several years, with these two counties in particular seeing an influx of remote workers and upper middle class families who visit Walt Disney World in strong numbers. As we’ve seen time and time again in the last few years, holiday breaks in Central Florida counties now have significant impacts on attendance at Walt Disney World.
One mitigating factor for that week’s crowds is that the two lowest tiers of Walt Disney World Annual Passes will be blocked out March 15-22, 2025. However, the 4-Day Discover Disney Ticket for Florida residents is not (whereas it ended before Central Florida’s spring break last year). That should make it an attractive time for locals to visit–just not to the same extent as it would be in the absence of the blockouts.
Beyond the Orlando area, there are several large districts in Florida that are among the largest in the country and have an outsized impact on attendance at Walt Disney World. Those districts have spring breaks during the following timeframes:
- Hillsborough County Public Schools: March 17-21, 2025
- Palm Beach County Public Schools: March 24-28, 2025
- Duval County Public Schools: March 17-21, 2025
- Miami-Dade County Public Schools: March 21-31, 2025
- Broward County Public Schools: March 24-28, 2025
- Volusia County Public Schools: March 14-21, 2025
- Lee County Public Schools: March 17-21, 2025
Here are other major school districts and their spring break 2025 dates that could significantly impact crowd levels at Walt Disney World:
- Houston Independent School District: March 10-14, 2025
- Dallas Independent School District: March 10-14, 2025
- Gwinnett County Public Schools: April 7-11, 2025
- Chicago Public Schools: March 24-31, 2025
- Detroit Public Schools: March 24-28, 2025
- New York City Public Schools: April 14-18, 2025
- Fairfax County Public Schools: April 14-18, 2025
Note that some districts have ‘professional development days’ or flex dates off the Friday before or Monday after their breaks begin. These are often used as makeup days in the event of snow or other weather-related closures, and it seems like there have been a lot of those thus far in Winter 2025 (even in Florida!).
This is not an exhaustive list of spring break schedules. These districts were selected because they’re among the country’s largest districts that are either near Walt Disney World or feed heavily into visitor demographics. That’s why Chicago is listed but Los Angeles Unified, Clark County (Nevada), and Honolulu’s school districts are not.
Obviously, there are more than a dozen major school districts in the United States with breaks that contribute to crowds at Walt Disney World. Notably, there’s very little representation from the Northeast and Midwest. This is not to say that New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Indiana, etc. don’t have a huge impact on crowds. They absolutely do!
From what we can surmise, districts in the Northeast and Midwest have spring breaks that are, on average, later than the South. It’s our assumption that this is because many districts in cold weather states are also more likely to have a mid-winter break, and that usually coincides with Presidents’ Day. Accordingly, those districts don’t take another week-long break less than a month later–they’re more staggered. These districts are more likely to have their spring breaks in April, especially this year when Easter is later. Speaking of which, private schools throughout the United States are much more likely to have spring break coincide with Easter week.
Additionally, our focus here is on K-12 school districts, but universities have spring breaks that can cause slight spikes to attendance. Colleges usually have less of an impact on Walt Disney World crowds due to age demographics, but they don’t have zero impact. Notable examples include Florida State University (March 8-15, 2025), University of Florida (March 15-22, 2025), University of Central Florida (March 15-22, 2025)–you get the idea. Here’s a comprehensive list of college spring breaks.
As a result of Orange County and other Central Florida school districts having their spring breaks, March 14-23, 2025 should be pretty busy. However, the aforementioned AP blockouts for that date range should help to at least partially offset that.
That week was actually the least busy of spring break last year, but the difference was that Central Florida breaks weren’t consolidated into that week and the Florida resident ticket deal ended just before spring break started. The circumstances are different this year, so we’re forecasting something closer to a repeat of previous years (2022-2023) when Orange County’s break was among the busiest of spring break.
As we’ve seen repeatedly, the absence or presence of a Floridian ticket deal has a huge impact on crowd levels during local school breaks. Accordingly, you should not expect a repeat of last year’s lower crowds during Central Florida’s spring break. We cannot stress this enough.
Nevertheless, this timeframe does not make our list of the 10 Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025 & 2026. It’s close, but the AP blockouts and earlier timing (when fewer out of state districts have breaks) bump it to “only” worst 15 or so.
Crowds won’t let up the next week–to the contrary, they’ll likely worsen. Although it’s a less common break for Central Florida school districts, many Midwest and Northeast schools have the last week of the month off, as do the huge districts around Fort Lauderdale and Miami. On top of that, APs aren’t blocked out. Consequently, March 24-31, 2025 will be among the busiest of the season. Probably not Easter week bad, but probably an 8/10 crowd level or higher week.
Suffice to say, that two-plus week stretch from March 14 until March 31, 2025 will be really busy at Walt Disney World. This is our first prolonged ‘peak’ of spring break.
The key differences from last March were the timing of Easter, intensity of Central Florida break blockouts, and early arrival of spring break (driven in large part by Canadians–we do not expect a repeat of that this year for reasons beyond the scope of this post).
With Easter several weeks later and the other factors not in play, it’s reasonable to expect a couple weeks of more consistent crowds in the second half of March 2025. The lows won’t be as low, but the highs won’t be as high. Our expectation is solid stretches of 7/10 and 8/10 days, with the occasional 6/10 or 9/10. After March 14, we don’t expect any average or below crowd level days, but we also don’t expect 10/10 days. (There has not been a single 9/10 or 10/10 crowd level date this year since the New Year’s break.)
This is in contrast to last year, when the first 10/10 crowd level day was March 11 (during the tail end of the Floridian ticket deal), and Easter week at the end of the month had an uninterrupted stretch of 9/10 and 10/10 days. In between, there were several consecutive 1/10 to 3/10 crowd level days due to the aforementioned AP blockouts, early ending of the FL resident ticket deal, and spread out Central Florida breaks. Those lows and highs were unheard of for spring break season at Walt Disney World, and we’d be shocked if there’s a repeat of those extremes in March 2025. The circumstances are very different this year–that cannot be overstated.
As always, the second peak is Easter week. The worst week of the entire spring break season will probably be April 11-21, 2025.
This is a fairly safe prediction year in and year out, regardless of what else happens. Easter week has been the busiest of spring break season for as long as we’ve been covering Walt Disney World, with one big exception. Back in 2022, Orange County’s spring break week in mid-March was busier than Easter week in mid-April.
That’s a very similar setup to this year in terms of dates, but we’re still expecting Easter week to be busier since that’s the trend before–and since. Regardless of whether Easter falls early or late, it’s always one of the 2 busiest weeks of spring break. It is possible that we should downwardly ‘adjust’ the crowd forecast for Easter occurring three weeks later than last year, but not by much. Plenty of public and private schools will still have it off–enough to make this the busiest or second-busiest week. As such, we’re expecting a crowd level of 8/10 that week.
Although there are some straggler school districts, expect April 22, 2025 (Earth Day!) to be the unofficial end of the Spring Break season. That will be partially–but not fully–offset by new ticket deals, but crowd levels should still be trending downward for the remainder of April 2025. We’d expect below average (4/10) crowd levels that week as a result. The following week will be even better, signaling the arrival of shoulder season.
The silver lining for those traveling outside of those twin peaks is that spring break crowds are (sorta) a zero-sum game. Worse crowds because of more breaks certain weeks means better crowds because of fewer breaks other weeks. To be sure, we are not suggesting that the first two weeks of April 2025 will be slow, but it should offer a bit of a breather from the peak season weeks before and after.
It’s hard to know what, exactly, to predict for the first two weeks of April. Digging back through wait times data to 2019, crowd levels are truly all over the place when there’s a lull between Orange County’s spring break and Easter. In 2022, they never really let up. That was a streak of 8/10 and 9/10 weeks. But that was also the height of pent-up demand, and Walt Disney World’s policies were different then in a number of ways.
Outside of that, we’ve seen crowd levels in the moderate range. Given the general trajectory, that’s more or less what we’re expecting–weekly averages of around 6/10. (This would be roughly on par with mid-winter break.) There are still tons of districts with early or late breaks, and it doesn’t take much in the way of school recesses to have an impact on crowds.
Before you worry too much, let’s talk beating the crowds.
The first bit of good news is that we strongly suspect that park hours will be extended for more spring break dates soon. We’re hoping for Magic Kingdom opening at 8 a.m. and closing at 11 p.m., but thus far it’s only 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. for mid-March dates. (Our fear is that these more muted mid-March extensions are reactionary–based on last year’s precedent as is often the case, and are underestimating just how busy it’ll be during Central Florida’s spring break.)
From late March through Easter week, we’re expecting more aggressive extensions. If last year’s precedent is any indication, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios will also get longer hours. This is incredibly advantageous–especially the earlier opening times since most travelers don’t want to do the early wake-up call on vacation.
By simply arriving early or staying late, you can beat the worst of the midday crowds. Of course, that’s “simple” in theory but more difficult in practice, especially if you have small children. That’s a big reason why wait times are lower first thing in the morning and later in the evenings.
Beyond that, be sure to also check out our Walt Disney World Itineraries for step-by-step strategy. Most of those plans have been–or will be–updated for 2025 by the time spring break season rolls around. There’s still more testing to be done at EPCOT and Magic Kingdom now that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind have switched to standby.
Suffice to say, it’s entirely possible to beat bad crowds by utilizing Lightning Lanes, Early Entry, Extended Evening Hours, rope drop, etc. We cover the best & worst approach for each park in Best Time-Saving Strategies for Walt Disney World. If you’re only going to read one planning post, make it that. There are great ways to beat the crowds–even on busy days–without buying Lightning Lane Multi-Pass or Single Pass.
Speaking of which, we have a ~4,500 word Guide to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World for those who want to thoroughly master paid FastPass. Weeks like this, it’s definitely a good option for Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT. Maybe even Animal Kingdom if you’re not an early riser!
Ultimately, that’s about what you can expect to experience during spring break 2025 at Walt Disney World. To summarize, our prediction is twin peaks of heavy crowds March 14-31, 2025 and again April 11-21, 2025. Those should be the worst 3 weeks of spring break season, and the busiest of the year until the final three months of the year. If last year was any indication, it’ll take until Christmas week for crowd levels as high as Easter.
In between, there will be a couple weeks of more moderate crowds, but even those will be elevated as contrasted with anything after Earth Day in April or May 2025…or probably even June through September, for that matter. As such, there aren’t really sweet spots or lower pockets within the spring break season. The time to visit is after spring break ends, during shoulder season.
Within those weeks, the busiest days are likely to be Mondays through Thursdays, with Saturday and Sunday being least busy. One trend we’ve seen in the last year or so is shorter trips and fewer park days (likely due to higher costs), so crowds tend to start strong each week and fizzle out as people head home before the weekend (we’re nevertheless including March 31 and April 21–both Mondays–in our ranges because those tend to be the worst day of the week).
This year’s spring break crowds should be a lot less “exciting” than last year, when crowd levels peaked at 10/10 with an average wait of 60 minutes across all attractions and bottomed out at 1/10 with an average 24 minute wait. The safest prediction to make is a narrower range, with a higher low but also a lower high.
A peak wait time of 55 minutes (the low end of 10/10 crowd level) and a ‘valley’ of 35 minutes (5/10 crowd level) would not surprise me in the least. If anything, I’d bet on a narrower range than that–more like a spread of 17-18 minutes from mid-March through mid-April 2025. That’s still a pretty big range, but obviously nothing like last year’s roller coaster spring break crowds. Beyond the extremes, expect a lot of 7/10, 8/10, and 9/10 crowd level days with daily (and even weekly) differences of only a few minutes, rather than the massive swings of last year.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you visited Walt Disney World during spring break season in the past? What did you think of the crowds? Are you visiting this year for Easter or spring break? Any other major school districts having spring breaks during these windows? Anything else we missed that could impact crowds during March and April 2025? Do you agree or disagree with anything in our crowd forecast for Walt Disney World? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
