I am hoping to go to WDW the end of Feb/begining of March 2009, I plane to stay 1 week, what are the best days to arrive and leave? I have no idea what the local school schedule is like, and of course want to be in the smallest crowds possible/shortest lines, it will just be me and a friend. Thanks for your suggestions/ideas.

Doug

Local school schedule doesn't make a huge difference - it's the school schedules everywhere else that are a bigger impact on WDW crowds.

Avoid President's Day Weekend, and you should be good in Feb and early March.

I've read, and it seems true to us, that weekends are travel days for most people and so often the parks are less crowded on Sat. and Sun. Have others noticed this too? That was counter intuitive to me, I've got it so ingrained in my mine that weekends are more crowded everywhere.

We went Feb 26th to March 5th 2008. It was great! Our first day there we went to MK and walked on every ride in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. It did get more crowded during the weekend but the longest we waited in line for anything was 30 min. There was a cold front when we arrived. It gradually got warmer during our trip. It was an awesome time of year to go.

If you go after Presidents Day weekend and into early March, you will not have any problems with spring break crowds because it's too early. Moving into mid-March, yes, you will begin to encounter spring break crowds. I think that sounds like an ideal time to go!

Bear in mind that there are schools that operate on a year-round basis, and their vacations happen at different times, so there could certainly be some families visiting then while their kids are on school break. But that won't be as much of a crowd as spring break or holidays.

It would be logical for weekends to be more crowded simply because local folks could go to the parks.

Have a great time!
Mary

I've read, and it seems true to us, that weekends are travel days for most people and so often the parks are less crowded on Sat. and Sun. Have others noticed this too? That was counter intuitive to me, I've got it so ingrained in my mine that weekends are more crowded everywhere.

But what about the locals? They would come on the weekends, so would that make up the difference? I'm not sure. There's that Tour Guide Mike site that will tell you what the crowd size will be on any given day. Might be worth it to check that out if crowd size is a real issue.