Easter Question

[kazthebird]

I am a teacher and have realised my college are taking the Easter two weeks at an earlier date in 2011 and I am off 4th to 15th April. We are now considering visiting Orlando at this time. My question is will everybody have the same idea and will Orlando be as busy as the official Easter because that is what I want to avoid.
I have looked at some flights and they are quite expensive and Virgin have sold out on most dates around that time, which makes me think everybody will be using this two weeks as the unofficial Easter.
Any advice would be greatly received plus if anybody knows where I can get cheap flights from manchester I would be grateful. [msnsmile2]

[blott]

From what I've managed to glean, it seems that schools are now spreading out their holidays to avoid the situation where everyone gets the same holiday and everythng is heaving during that time.

There are obviously bound to be other Brits on holiday the same time as you but not the whole school population like used to be the case. However, I can't speak for what dates will be applied to school holidays in America.

Generally Easter is a busy time, one of the busiest of the year, so if you don't like crowds then perhaps another school holiday might suit you better?

As to cheap flights during a school holiday period, those are usually rarer than hen's teeth but you need to seach every day to see if any flights have appeared in a sale.

[Robert5988]

As Blott states Easter is very busy and flights are expensive.

You might have a better chance of getting indirect flights with AA or US from Manchester at more reasonable prices.

[ShirleyD]

With the late Easter, schools seem to be having different holidays, with some of the private schools starting in late March. Although the bulk of villa enquiries I have seen are from the 9th and 16th April.

[christhear]

In our area and some others due to Eater being late in 2011 they have put all of the holiday before Easter and we return on the Tuesday after Easter Monday.
I was looking at some internal flights in the US and the really expensive weekend seems to be the one before Easter. So you shouyld be at least one week earlier than the main rush.

[Katys Grandad]

if you can hold off for a while there are bound to be flight sales over December/January and very possibly before.

The hard fact is that passenger traffic is picking up and the airlines are responding by setting by far the highest prices I've seen in many years of transatlantic flying.

[kazthebird]

Thanks so much for all your help.
I have checked and the American children don't appear to be off for their spring break at this time and not all Brits will be there so do you still think it will be very busy at this time or not?
I feel confused [msnscared]

[randyj]

we are watching for flights for April 3 2011 for the 2 weeks after. The schools in florida take the easter holidays and are very busy at the parks. this past trip in Late march into April was a great trip with exceptional weather but but the first week was great the parks were not at all busy but into the first week in April we found to be very busy because the florida schools were on Holidays.

[steph_goodrum]

Although in area they decided a few years ago that the first 2 full weeks in April would be the break (obviously it has now been dubbed as Spring Break" and if Easter fell within this 2 weeks there would be no extra break but if outside then it would be a long weekend. This was supposed to even out/stabilise the length of terms for students and staff, however next year they have gone agaisnt that and moved the start date back to 11th (when it was expected to be 4th under their guidelines).

If other areas follow suit then it looks as if the first week may not have as many Uk visitors as the second as you are approaching Easter. At least with the internet and fast passes youu can plan your days to maximise the enjoyment and you will probably find the parks are open for longer days so you get more time to spread outu the rides you want to do.

[kazthebird]

OK
Let me get this straight, are the American kids off school/college for the first two weeks in April? [msnscared]

[blott]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by kazthebird
OK
Let me get this straight, are the American kids off school/college for the first two weeks in April? [msnscared][/quote]Some of them will be.

If you can imagine that the US is many times larger than the UK and so there are many more schools and children, it's inevitable and some will be on holiday at any time around a major holiday.

The US probably has a larger logistical nightmare getting all their school kids off on holiday so they also rotate the dates. Americans have 'spring break' which covers from the beginning of March until after Easter where every school kid gets their chance to take their holiday.

The good news is though that, like the UK. every kid doesn't go to Florida!

[gpullan]

We booked flights in July for 27 March to 13 April 2011 and paid around £400 each. I'm expecting it to be busy from around 5th April onwards, hopefully quieter for our first week.