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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

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Original poster

So is it really NOT a good idea to take a school-age child to Disney Orlando without...

20 replies

cartblanche · 30/10/2011 11:42

taking them out of school?? Because from what I can gather, going in the Easter Holidays would be ABSOLUTELY nightmarish? I have 2 school-age kids and am toying with the idea of doing Disney next Easter. After reading threads on here it seems I should be prepared for hours of queuing, possibly not being able to even get into some parks, traffic jams and it doesn't sound like any fun AT ALL!

Also when do the English/Welsh schools break up for Easter? The Easter hols in our part of the world are from Monday 2nd April - Friday 13th April inclusive.

Was all fired up about this last night but am now getting cold feet! Can't countenance going to Florida in July/August because I know I would find the heat impossible!

OP posts:

hocuspontas · 30/10/2011 11:59

We went at Easter and it was the perfect time! Lovely weather and the queues were as normal as any other theme parks I've been to. The US aren't on holiday at the same time from what I can remember.

Canella · 30/10/2011 12:02

As far as I can make out Easter 2012 falls perfectly so all the schools in the UK are off at the same time as are ALL the schools in Germany. Thats a lot of dc going on holiday. Cant comment on Disney itself but imagine it'll be chocka.

ihatethecold · 30/10/2011 12:26

just try to book flights for easter to disney and you will see how busy it will be, they will be all booked up by now.
we went in may half term this yr. took the kids out for 1 week.
went on the 25th may returned on the 8th june.
it was amazing, how old are your kids?
mine are 8 and 11. they loved the water parks the best, no queueing, can cool off . it was hot when we went, approx 30 degrees

OhYouBadBadGhostie · 30/10/2011 13:03

have you considered going during feb half term and taking them out of school for a week. Fab time of year - pretty quiet and cheaper.

AttilaTheMeerkat · 30/10/2011 15:49

How old are they?.

I've been at Easter before and its been okay throughout.

If you did want to go next Easter I'd book this asap. You may not now get a direct flight as you would have needed to book these dates about six months ago. Its a very popular destination and the high prices (kerching!) charged for a flight to Orlando reflect the demand. Airlines have also cottoned onto the fact of there being different half term dates so going a few days prior to Easter will also cost dearly.

In this part of the country the Easter half term is as you state.

Idasonions · 30/10/2011 15:53

We went Oct half term last year and took dc out of school for a few days.
Perfect weather, not too hot and not very busy. Halloween is a good time to be in the states for the dc too.

MOSagain · 30/10/2011 18:37

we used to go at Easter which is always very busy. We were lucky though in that DC1 and 2's school had 4 weeks off so we always tried to go the two weeks that weren't peak time. It will be very very busy and the flights very expensive. We'd hoped to go next easter but flights ridiculous, would have been over 6k just for flights

mirpuppet · 30/10/2011 21:19

I was there for the second week of Easter break last year and it was fine. But the English school holidays were quite late so I think the other Europeans had gone home and the US schools are not on holiday.

Figgygirl · 30/10/2011 22:07

It is not so much the Easter holidays that are busy, but American Spring Break when hordes of families and school groups descend upon WDW.
Check online for American school and college holidays and avoid those dates if you can.
We hit them one year by mistake, and yes, it was horrendous from a crowds point of view. Luckily we had been a few times before, so did not need to do everything, and knew our way around the parks which saved time. Fastpass tickets had all gone for the day by 11am, and waterparks were full within an hour of opening.
The parks late closing times helped, and with EMH we were still in the Magic Kingdom at 3am but not everyone could do this and be up the next morning for 7am opening.

We took our boys in October the first time, taking one week off school and using half term week as well. We had lovely weather and low crowd levels, so would recommend doing that if you can.

February can be the coldest month and it could be rather chilly for waterparks. We went in March one year and had frost in the mornings! It did warm up during the day, but with a chilly wind it was too cold for sunbathing or swimming for me!

My favourite time is after Easter and Spring Break, in late April - early May, but this does mean taking kids out of school.

Agree that the summer holidays are very hot and humid, and can be very uncomfortable for those who don't like close heat. Tropical storms or hurricanes are also more common at this time.
We had temps of over 90 deg for 2 weeks in early May on one trip, which was too hot for my son, and he got heatstroke, despite tring to keep him cool.
Being tropical, it is very hard to be sure what weather you will have.
Late November - early December can be lovely with low crowds outside Thanksgiving holidays, but a couple of years ago it was very cold and rainy!

Figgygirl · 30/10/2011 22:11

Sorry - EMH means Extra Magic Hours in the parks, which guests staying in Disney resort hotels have every day usually.
We had 3 hrs before opening time, and 3 hours after closing, in a different park each day, which helped to get more rides done with shorter queue lines.

Linnet · 30/10/2011 22:14

We always go in our October holidays, but then we get a fortnights holiday then as opposed to England who I've heard only get one week.

Figgygirl · 30/10/2011 22:15

I agree with Ihatethecold - Easter flights and package holidays for WDW are sold out very quickly from about a year ahead.
They are also twice the price, like Christmas holidays.

Figgygirl · 30/10/2011 22:21

If they are still young, think about Disneyland Paris in May half term instead. French and Spanish schools do not have this holiday, so parks are not very busy and the weather can be very pleasant and quite hot.
Next year is the 20th Anniversary, so there will be celebrations and new shows and parades all year from April.
With two parks, you only need about 5 days Monday - Friday for a first visit to do everything and favourite rides a few times.
The castle was repainted this year along with other refurbs and is looking beautiful!
You can also have a day trip into Paris on the train which takes 40 mins.

Original poster

cartblanche · 31/10/2011 21:57

Thanks everyone - plenty of food for thought! Bit perturbed at the potential costs - yikes! Bit reluctant to take kids out of school but can see the appeal. Am off to google some more!

OP posts:

gigglepin · 31/10/2011 22:04

Easter is a good time, October too.
Avoid like the plague the summer months, hell on earth, truly..
We book 10 months or so prior to going, to break up the cost a bit really, we pay for things each month. Works well for us.

mummymeister · 31/10/2011 23:06

We are taking our 3 out for a week in December which i hope will be OK weather wise. in our part of the world the schools are very understanding as due to our jobs we cannot take any other time out as a family. suggest you speak to your school and see what their view is. we have never done it before and our eldest is 13 so perhaps this is why they are being so good about it. hope you have fun and can thoroughly recommend DL paris with younger kids

Figgygirl · 31/10/2011 23:45

We took our boys to DLP every year in summer holidays and sometimes before Christmas until they were 9 and 13, then we went to WDW for the first time. We were able to go on most rides as a family, although we had to use childswop facility for some with a higher height requirement where DS2 was too small.

You do need at least 2 weeks there, which can be extremely tiring doing a different park or waterpark each day, with early starts and late nights, and not much relaxation time to catch up. It depends on how much you want to do really.
You can just concentrate on the 4 Disney parks, but it is a long way to go and not do all the other theme parks as well.

We have now been to WDW five times, usually for 2 1/2 weeks, but still love going to DLP as well for a few days.

Lucy88 · 07/11/2011 12:02

Agree with Figgygirls comments.

Took DS to DLP when he was 4 and we went in the 2nd week of May/June holidays for 6 nights (we get 2 weeks where we live). Weather was perfect, virtually no queues during the week and we got to do everything we wanted and go back to all our fav things on the last day.

icancancan · 19/11/2011 20:30

we had booked to fly on 30th March 2012 (booked about 6 months ago and flights were expensive then so booked flights to miami). Read about Spring Break which falls about 2nd April next year so will be a peak time. Weather is supposed to be nice then. Am changing my flights to October half term instead (we get 2 weeks off) as weather cooler although still in 70's and much less crowded. also we got big discount on disney hotel and free dining for that stay (offer still on until 30th Nov).

Figgygirl · 07/12/2011 15:52

Spring break in WDW is manic - huge crowds, although the parks stay open longer.
When we went the first time, we arrived on 8th October to rather chilly weather - in the 50's and quite windy! We spent our first day in DisneyQuest in Downtown Disney as we went there for our Virgin welcome meeting and discovered DisneyQuest which is an indoor interactive attraction on 5 floors which was covered by our Disney tickets.
We did not plan to stay in there all day, but our boys loved it, and it was not busy. It has restaurants, so we had lunch and dinner in there as well. It stayed open until 1am so sometimes we went there after the parks had closed, but was much busier in the evenings.

Luckily the weather changed after that and was lovely and hot for the rest of our 2 weeks.

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