When to go
March is spring break for somebody every single week, which makes it the most expensive non-summer month at Universal Orlando and the month where moving your dates by a week accomplishes almost nothing.
Excellent weather, heavy crowds, and no reliably quiet week to escape into. Go in March if the school calendar decides for you, and buy Express Pass rather than hoping for a gap.
Expected — not yet announced · Checked July 2026
Crowd and cost shapes describe multi-year patterns at both resorts rather than a forecast for any single March. Weather figures are climate normals for Orlando and for the San Fernando Valley and do not decay. Epic Universe opened in 2025, so its effect on the resort's March crowd distribution rests on fewer cycles than the rest of this page and is stated as a direction rather than a measured shift.
High crowds
Climate normals for each resort. These are averages over a long reference period, not a forecast — the only figures on this site that do not decay.
| Resort | Avg high | Avg low | Rain days | What it feels like |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universal Orlando (Orlando) | 79°F | 57°F | 7 | Climate normals for Orlando, not a forecast. Close to ideal: high 70s afternoons, comfortable mornings, humidity still low enough that a full day outdoors is reasonable, and warm enough that the Islands of Adventure water rides stop being a mistake. Cold fronts still reach central Florida this month and can knock ten degrees off for a day or two. |
| Universal Hollywood (Los Angeles) | 71°F | 49°F | 5 | Climate normals for the San Fernando Valley around Universal City, not a forecast. The tail of the wet season, with most days dry and the occasional soaking one. Low 70s afternoons make this the most comfortable month for the walking and the escalators a Universal Studios Hollywood day involves, and evenings still need a layer. |
High cost
Each of these has its own page with pricing, strategy, and a verdict.
Festival
The best-value thing Universal Orlando runs, because there is no ticket: a night parade, a concert series, and a street of Cajun food booths, all included with regular admission to Universal Studios Florida. The catch is that the good parts run on select nights and the concert brings the whole of Central Florida with it.
Expected — not yet announcedNo extra ticket
In February or November, moving your trip a week is the highest-value decision available. In March it is worth almost nothing, because the districts that make up the crowd rotate through the month rather than clustering. Effort spent hunting for a gap is effort not spent on the things that actually work.
What works in March is arriving before the gate opens, front-loading the headliners, and buying Express Pass for the busiest of your park days. Universal prices Express Pass per date, so on a four-day Orlando trip the sensible shape is to buy it for the one or two days you expect to be worst and go without on the rest.
The second thing that works is splitting the day. Orlando afternoons in March are pleasant enough that people stay in the parks all day, which is exactly why the middle of the day is the worst part of it. A pool break from one until five and a return until close converts a bad March day into a good one.
Epic Universe is the newest park in the resort and still the one everybody wants a day at, which means it absorbs a disproportionate share of a busy month. On a March Saturday it is the hardest ticket at Universal Orlando, and it holds its queues later into the evening than Universal Studios Florida or Islands of Adventure do.
The counter is straightforward and most people do not take it: put Epic Universe on a weekday and take the older parks on the weekend. Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios Florida have more attractions per acre and more indoor capacity, so they degrade more gracefully under crowd than a park where demand is pointed at a handful of new headliners.
Epic Universe also sits on a separate campus reached by shuttle bus or car, which adds a transport step that matters more on a busy morning than a quiet one. Budget the extra time or you will lose the first hour, which is the hour that matters most this month.
Universal Studios Hollywood in March is a moderate-crowd park in excellent weather at close to its lowest prices, at exactly the moment Orlando is expensive and busy. If your trip is flexible on coast, this is the month where the two diverge most in California's favour.
The reason is the school calendar. Southern California districts overwhelmingly attach their spring break to Easter rather than taking a fixed March week, and the park's business is local rather than national, so the March surge that fills Orlando simply does not arrive here. Weekends still run high on the local pass base, but weekdays hold.
The trade is that one day is still one day. Universal Studios Hollywood does not become a longer trip because the month is good, so March is the month to pair it with the rest of Los Angeles rather than the month to extend it.
Easter falls anywhere from late March to late April, and where it lands is the largest single variable in this month's crowd shape. In a year when it falls in March, the last week of the month is the worst week of the spring at both resorts and prices accordingly. In a year when it falls in April, March's back end is the calmest part of the month.
Check where Easter sits before you assume anything about late March. It is the one date on the spring calendar that is fixed well in advance and knowable for free, and it is the one most trip planners forget to look up.
Our spring break and Easter page carries the full picture across both months, including which resort handles the peak better and how far ahead the Orlando hotels sell out.
Height requirements, ride mechanics, accessibility detail, and permanent dining live on our evergreen guide, our year-round sister site. They do not change with the season, so we do not repeat them here.