Disney at Easter: Port Orleans French Quarter

Port Orleans French Quarter
Photo by Alison Dixon 

Our past two Disney vacations were in the sweltering July heat among swarms of people. Summer is usually the most convenient time for our family to take a trip (no school and few activities), but it's not always the most ideal time (heat and crowds). So, for our most recent trip to Disney, we wanted to try a different time of year. We decided to work around our kids' Spring break in April. We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter from Wednesday, April 12th through Tuesday, April 18th. We were there for Easter since it fell on Sunday, April 16th.

After we returned home, many people wanted to know...were the parks crowded? The answer? Yes! They filled up by early afternoon. However, the key was getting to the parks right when they opened. Mornings were great at most of the parks. We went to Magic Kingdom on a Thursday when it opened and rode five rides in a row with wait times of less than ten minutes! It was awesome! After lunch, the wait times for those same rides soared higher and higher throughout the day. Being early risers paid off.  Also, we reserved most of our Fast Passes for the afternoon, when we knew we'd be waiting 90 or more minutes for popular rides. At one point in the afternoon, The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train had a wait time of 210 minutes!

 But unlike the summer months, our April trip greeted us with pleasant weather. We had temperatures in the low 80's with sunny skies. So while we did have the crowds, the comfortable weather made dealing with the rest of the Spring breakers and long lines, a lot more more bearable.

Easter Sunday was a day of relaxation for us. We decided instead of spending the day at a packed park, we'd spend it at the resort.. We are so glad we did, because like most of the Disney resorts, there were lots of kid friendly events planned. Here is the Easter activities flier from Port Orleans French Quarter. Its' sister resort, Riverside, had a similar lineup.

 The first Easter activity was the candy scramble.  This event was for kids up to 16 years old! Our 13-year old daughter was thrilled when she saw that. This was a lot of fun for the kids, and cast members had it orchestrated perfectly by sectioning off the age groups one at a time to ensure everyone got a fair share of candy. Disney even provided bags to put the candy in.

Easter candy laid out in the shape of eggs. Photo by Alison Dixon

Scrambling for candy! Photos by Alison Dixon

Next up, was the Easter egg hunt along the Sassagoula River at the resort. This didn't go as smoothly, however. When the cast member gave some enthusiastic instructions, some little ones interpreted that as "go!" Unfortunately, parents didn't stop those kids. The result was a lot of unhappy (and even crying) children who didn't get any eggs. Everyone did go home with an adorable, plush Peep, though! Cast members handed them out to all of the kids after the egg hunt.

Peeps!

The rest of the day, we enjoyed watching the kids play Easter themed pool games with cast members and other kids. They had such a great time and even won little prizes. There was also an egg decorating craft for a fee and a tie dye shirt activity, which also cost money (we didn't do either).

French Quarter had character greetings on Easter and a campfire, but we had already ventured out to Disney Springs for our Easter dinner at the Planet Hollywood Observatory. Our dinner there was tasty but the service wasn't awesome.

So...would we go to Disney again during Easter break? We would. The weather was great and it's possible to get a lot of rides in during the early morning hours. Plus, there are plenty of nice Easter activities going on all around Walt Disney World during this time. Also, Epcot's International Flower and Garden Festival was happening, which made for some gorgeous scenery during our visit. Happy Spring!

Epcot: photo by Alison Dixon