The Spring Breakers Are Coming! Disney World is About to Be Overrun By Record Crowds

It’s that time of year again. After a long, cold winter, the northern state releases its students and families on spring break to overrun Walt Disney World.

With Easter weekend being earlier this year, most midwestern and mid-Atlantic school districts have moved their spring break into March to correspond with the holiday. So, that means the next three weeks will see crushing crowds at Disney World and Universal Orlando.

Related: DO NOT Go To Disney World This April

While Disney World does not release crowd numbers, Orlando International Airport does, and that gives us a pretty good idea of just how many travelers will be rushing Walt Disney World’s gates.

Last spring break, Orlando International Airport saw a record number of passengers. But this year, officials at MCO airport expect to shatter that record.

MCO Airport expects an 11 percent increase in travelers this spring break for a total of 7.6 million passengers passing through the airport between now and April 1.

Kevin J. Thibault, Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, said:

We expect to set a new Spring Break benchmark with more than 7.6 million passengers. This growth is actually a continuation of what we saw in 2023. For the year, we shattered all passenger records with more than 57.7 million travelers.

It's #SpringBreak & we're expecting to welcome record numbers of travelers! Follow our 3-2-1 travel rule for smooth journeys. ✈️
Top 5 busiest days:
March 23 – 197,697
March 31 – 197,401
March 16 – 196,920
March 9 – 194,649
March 24 – 191,788
ℹ️: https://t.co/O9AVI5nNOQ pic.twitter.com/bqeufFbhO0

— Orlando International Airport (@MCO) March 8, 2024

The busiest travel days for passengers are the weekends. MCO Airport expects more than 195,000 travelers to pass through the airport on the following three Saturdays and more than 190,000 travelers on the following three Sundays. Good Friday expects to see more than 188,000 passengers.

On the first significant day of spring break travel, Orlando International Airport saw more than 125 flights canceled. On Sunday, March 10, MCO canceled or delayed 133 flights due to large-scale thunderstorms in the area and along several flight paths.

More than 100 of those flight delays and cancelations were on Southwest Airlines.

What This Means For Your Disney World Vacation

The Orlando airport won’t be the only part of Central Florida experiencing larger crowds. You can expect the same when you get to Disney World.

Today, the first unofficial day of spring break, saw the Park Hopper for all parks sold out. And while the Park Hopper was available for a single park, with Magic Kingdom costing $35, most popular attractions’ waits were well into the triple digits.

As it gets closer to Easter weekend, you can expect that the wait times and the Park Hopper price will increase.

While the wait times will be longer, the weather should be perfect for most of the week.

What do you think about heading to Disney World during spring break? Let us know in the comments.