Our guide to April 2026 at Walt Disney World offers a free crowd calendar, weeks to visit & avoid, weather, ride refurbishments, and tips for navigating the chaos of Easter and Spring Break. Plus, info for Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios.
If you’re considering a spring visit, April crowds fluctuate depending upon whether Easter occurs in April. During most years, that’s the case. In the last decade, Easter has happened during March in only 2016 and 2024. This coming year, Easter falls on April 5, 2026. That’s 15 days earlier than last year, which had a late holiday.
You can expect the week before and days after that to be among the busiest times of the year at Walt Disney World. Spring Break crowds will descend upon Walt Disney World throughout both months. But with Easter occurring in early April 2026, the season is going to be more condensed that last year–more on par with the historical norm.
The upside of Easter is that you it means somewhat of a special event in April, with a few offerings for the holiday. It isn’t much, but the Easter Bunny (and Mrs. Bunny) meet and greet in Magic Kingdom and decorated eggs at the resorts are enjoyable. Still, we’d gladly trade these for lower crowds!
Here’s what else you can expect during April at Walt Disney World, organized by category…
April Weather at Disney World
Outside of the first week, April is exceptional when it comes to weather. Lows at the beginning of the month are in the low-60s and creep up into the mid-60s by the end of the month. High temperatures range from 80 to 85 degrees. Take a look at the “comfortable” band on this page–those are the kind of averages we like to see!
Obviously, anomalies are possible in both the “too cool” and “too hot” directions, but largely, April is one of the more comfortable months weather-wise in Orlando. April is more predictable than March and May, both of which are more likely to have unseasonable cold snaps (in the case of March) or early humidity (in the case of May). While all 3 months are great for weather, April is the “safest.”
April Special Events at Disney World
If you’re visiting on Easter or the weeks immediately before it, it’s also worth noting that there are special festivities for the holiday. Take a look at our Guide to Easter at Walt Disney World for more on the beautifully-decorated eggs, seasonal foods, Magic Kingdom meet & greet, pre-parade, and everything else you can expect from Easter in the parks and hotels.
Much more significant than that is the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, which continues in April and brings a vibrant atmosphere to Epcot, but there’s not much else. The annual event will run for the entire month of April, continuing until just after Memorial Day.
There’s also the runDisney Springtime Surprise event from April 16-20, 2026. That event will have an impact on crowd levels, as we’ll discuss below. There’s also the ICU Junior World & World Cheerleading Championships, Cheerleading Worlds, and Summit Championship to be held from April 22, 2026 to May 3, 2026.
These are major dance and cheerleading competitions that boost attendance at the parks and occupancy at the hotels, usually the All Stars and Coronado Springs. The impact on crowd levels in the parks isn’t significant as a whole–and tends to be overblown based on anecdotal experiences, which can be quite bad.
Meaning that you could think they’re a huge negative if you’re stuck in line for Haunted Mansion behind a group of 100 cheerleaders…or you might never see a single participant during a weeklong trip. Accordingly, you should always check out the ESPN Wide World of Sports calendar before booking your trip–and especially, your resort.
Finally, there’s After Hours at Magic Kingdom, After Hours at EPCOT and After Hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. These occur sporadically and, as the names suggest, are held after park closing. They have minimal impact on daytime crowd levels, but result in a slight bump in crowds during the evening ‘mix-in’ time.
We do not recommend changing your plans because of After Hours at Magic Kingdom or EPCOT, but you might want to do DHS on a different evening. Normally, that park is great for lower wait times at the end of the night, albeit to a lesser degree on After Hours dates. It’s also possible to have two showings of Fantasmic (a strategy game-changer) on nights when After Hours is not occurring.
Aside from Easter week, expect above average park hours in April. It’s worth noting that park hours are a decent proxy for projected attendance levels, so the later a particular park is open, the higher Disney expects the crowds to be. Plan accordingly. For more tips on what times of year might be good for visiting, check out our Walt Disney World Crowd Calendars post for the best and worst months of the year.
April Refurbishments & New Rides
In terms of attractions that will be closed during April 2026, check the Walt Disney World Refurbishment Schedule. The bad news is that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Big Thunder Mountain will be closed through April 2026. As will a few other small-scale attractions.
The good news is that Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin will reopen on April 8, 2026. This comes after the attraction closed for refurbishment late last summer. We strongly suspect it’ll soft open before Easter, but at minimum, it’ll be open for the rest of the month once April 8th rolls around.
As a fair warning, that refurbishment calendar doesn’t reflect the full scope and scale of construction at Walt Disney World. The parks are just now ramping up their next development cycle, and that will be very evident by early 2026 in Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
While the guest impact won’t be nearly as bad as the last development cycle, there will be visible construction walls, closures, and more. See Walt Disney World’s 5-Year Plan: Construction, Closing & Opening Dates for New Lands & Rides for everything you need to know.
When it comes to new additions for 2026, the bad news is that nothing aside from Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin will be open in April. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is the next attraction to reopen, and that’ll happen in early May. Otherwise, everything else debuts for Cool Kids’ Summer on May 26, 2026, with a couple of attractions opening a few days ahead of that on May 22, 2026. That’s the big weekend for new additions.
As of April, the newest additions at that time will be Zootopia Better Zoogether. Other recent additions that are less than a year old include Test Track 3.0, Villains Unfairly Ever After, and Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure. There’s also Disney Starlight Night Parade, which should be performed nightly. This is probably the biggest new-ish addition at Walt Disney World, and it’s also at Magic Kingdom.
Overall, the biggest new thing in Orlando isn’t at Walt Disney World at all, but rather, at Universal Orlando: Epic Universe. This brand-new theme park will be roughly one year old (counting previews) as of April 2026, and this should be a sweet spot of lower crowds and smoother operations once you get to mid-month. When it’s firing on all cylinders and crowds are manageable, Epic Universe is something special. See Best Dates to Visit Epic Universe in 2026 for recommendations.
For an overview of what else is on the horizon, see What’s New & Next at Walt Disney World in 2026 & Beyond.
April 2026 Crowd Calendar for Disney World
While April is not the Spring Break month for most colleges and schools with static Spring Break schedules, many schools in the United States schedule their Spring Breaks around Easter. This means that the couple of weeks around Easter (particularly the week before) will be two of the busiest of the year.
The week after Easter is still busy, as many school districts–particularly those in the Northeast and Midwest–have their Spring Breaks that week. This is more pronounced the earlier that the holiday occurs, and Easter 2026 is falling 2 weeks earlier than last year. This is the perfect distance between Presidents’ Day/Mid-Winter Break and the end of the school year, so we expect an uptick in year-over-year crowds the week following Easter as a result.
Consequently, you can expect the two busiest weeks of the month to be the first two. The week leading up to Easter is usually the busiest week between mid-January and mid-October, and often the busiest all the way until Christmas (usually worse than Columbus Day/Fall Break, Veterans Day/Jersey Week, and Thanksgiving).
The worst week of the entire Spring Break season will be March 30 to April 6, 2026. 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, although mid-March when Orange County is out has come close a couple of times.
It’s worth noting that the week leading up to Easter did not have its usual 10/10 crowd levels in 2025. The week leading up to Easter was unsurprisingly busy, with a bit of a lull (comparatively) for the holiday weekend itself. No huge surprise there, as crowds heading home before the weekend has increasingly become the trend. This is driven by a number of factors, but mostly higher prices. Easter was “only” 8/10, which may seem heavy–but that was the slowest Easter week we’ve seen since 2021.
However, Easter also occurred later than normal and that undoubtedly resulted in some schools shifting their Spring Breaks as a result. With Easter 2026 occurring the first weekend of April, our expectation is that it’s a return to normal, with average crowds across the entire week of at least 9/10. Again, the holiday weekend itself will be slower than the days leading up to it.
The next week will slow slightly, but that Monday through Thursday especially should still be very busy. We’d anticipate 6/10 to 7/10 crowd levels for the week as a whole. Note that this is significantly higher than the week after Easter last year (4/10 for the week). However, the two-week shift forward will make a big difference.
Although there are some straggler school districts, expect April 14, 2026 (Tax Day Eve!) 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 2026. We’d expect average or below (4/10) crowd levels that week as a result.
The downtrend should continue for the remainder of the month and into May 2026. Our expectation for all of those weeks in the lead-up to Memorial Day is average crowds in the 3/10 to 4/10 range. That’s about what happened last year, and the end result was a slow 6-week stretch from late April through May. We aren’t predicting crowd levels that are that low, but 1/10 to 2/10 crowd levels are more likely than 4/10.
See our list of the 10 Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2026 for additional recommendations about dates to go and ones to avoid around this time of year (and others).
Note that the runDisney Springtime Surprise will occur April 16-20, 2026. Despite that, our expectation is still 4/10 crowd levels, with the actual Saturday and Sunday of the runDisney races being even lower than that. As we’ve observed repeatedly over the last few years, runDisney events don’t move the needle much on crowds–especially on the weekends themselves.
As noted above, there’s also a trio of big cheer and dance events that are held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in the second half of the month (event dates: April 22-24, 2026; April 24-27, 2026; April 30 to May 3, 2026). Those also won’t have a huge impact on crowds. At least, not in a vacuum.
Generally speaking, sporting events do not have much impact on overall crowd levels for Walt Disney World as a whole. There simply are not enough participants with park tickets to move the needle. However, they can contribute in a major way to localized congestion and crowd levels, spiking wait times at various attractions. if you visit the same park as their entire (or large portions of) their group attends your perception of their impact might be very different.
These groups can have a major impact on resort room availability, as there are tons of attendees and they take up huge blocks at the All Stars, Coronado Springs, and a few other hotels. That, in turn, reduces inventory there and pushes other people to different hotels.
Long story short, a lot of hotels can sell out completely, causing planners to freak out that the parks are going to be chaotic and crowded. Which can be true…sometimes. But there are two things to keep in mind. The first is that the majority of guests in the parks at any given moment always come from off-site.
The second is that the youth groups are primarily participating in sporting events at the ESPN Wide World of Sports, not going to the parks. So to some extent, they are occupying rooms and displacing guests who would otherwise visit the parks. (See Why Are Walt Disney World Resorts Sold Out? for a more thorough explanation.)
All things considered, April 2026 will be busy at Walt Disney World, but not nearly as bad as March 2026 as a whole. Easter will be the busiest week of the Spring Break season, but the rest of the month shouldn’t be too terrible. Above average as a whole, but not insanely busy.
Ultimately, April can be one of the worst months to visit Walt Disney World. However, that’s largely because of Easter–and only when that holiday occurs deeper in the month. With Easter happening earlier this year, the Spring Break season will largely be winding down by the second week of the month.
Other than that, April 2026 shouldn’t be that bad. Fewer school districts have their breaks in the second half-plus of April. This should make it a good month to visit, especially if you want to get in before the summer heat arrives, which seems to happen earlier every year. The biggest disappointment this year is that nothing new is opening by April aside from Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, which means you’ll have to visit starting around May 26, 2026 to experience all of the new and reimagined attractions.
Beyond crowds, April is actually appealing for other reasons. The weather is great, refurbishments are rare, and Epcot is looking great with Flower & Garden Festival. The second half of April 2026 after Spring Break season ends should be absolutely fantastic–the intersection of pleasant weather (knock on wood–it’s Florida, so heat and humidity are always possibilities!), low crowds, and Walt Disney World in bloom.
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
Do you agree or disagree with our thoughts on April? Do you think it’s average, exceptional, or somewhere in between? Enjoy visiting for Easter? 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!