Park crowds calendar *by park* for Thanksgiving?

[ObscureAllure]

Hi Guys! I always see the crowds calendar that says the crowds numbers for ALL of the parks, but I never seen it broken down. I'm looking to find out which park will be the least crowded (traditionally) for Thanksgiving Day. THANKS!

 

[siskaren]

EasyWDW recommends which park is the best to do each day, but it's a little early for November (hours should be out in a week to 10 days.) However, I do know that he'll most likely recommend DHS or AK as the best park for Thanksgiving.

 

[ObscureAllure]

EasyWDW recommends which park is the best to do each day, but it's a little early for November (hours should be out in a week to 10 days.) However, I do know that he'll most likely recommend DHS or AK as the best park for Thanksgiving.

Thanks dear!

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

As far as I know, touring plans is the only crowd calendar which breaks things down to give you a crowd level number for each park. You can also view historical crowd calendars.

 

[ObscureAllure]

As far as I know, touring plans is the only crowd calendar which breaks things down to give you a crowd level number for each park. You can also view historical crowd calendars.

Just subscribed to the site - thank you!

 

[TheTXTaylors5]

We've been to WDW for the week of Thanksgiving for the past eight years. If we get a crazy hair and dare to venture into a park on actual Thanksgiving, it has been . . . Epcot. Yes, ALL the parks are going to be busy. But, it seems to handle the crowds the best. One year, we decided to visit MK for EEMH on Thanksgiving and had an amazing time once the crowds left.

Another year, we went to the MK on Christmas Eve. It was busy, but manageable. We had a great day! Since then, I've actually stopped reading all the hoopla about avoiding MK and Epcot on holidays.
(Those are usually the same people who recommend that you don't do Extra Magic Hours.)

My personal recommendations:
#1 Epcot
#2 MK
#3 DHS
and as a "last resort"
#4 DAK

(BTW - We love DAK, just not during the holidays!)

Have a magical trip!

 

[siskaren]

We've been to WDW for the week of Thanksgiving for the past eight years. If we get a crazy hair and dare to venture into a park on actual Thanksgiving, it has been . . . Epcot. Yes, ALL the parks are going to be busy. But, it seems to handle the crowds the best. One year, we decided to visit MK for EEMH on Thanksgiving and had an amazing time once the crowds left.

Here's what easyWDW has to say about that:

"Casual Disney advice is to head to Epcot on holidays because it handles crowds better than the other Parks. While it’s true that there is physically more space in Epcot to stand than the other Parks, there are really only two major headlining attractions and a few upper-tier attractions in Epcot. Because of this, the lines at Soarin’ and Test Track will be extremely long and other attractions that are usually empty will see significant waits."

 

[ObscureAllure]

We've been to WDW for the week of Thanksgiving for the past eight years. If we get a crazy hair and dare to venture into a park on actual Thanksgiving, it has been . . . Epcot. Yes, ALL the parks are going to be busy. But, it seems to handle the crowds the best. One year, we decided to visit MK for EEMH on Thanksgiving and had an amazing time once the crowds left.

Another year, we went to the MK on Christmas Eve. It was busy, but manageable. We had a great day! Since then, I've actually stopped reading all the hoopla about avoiding MK and Epcot on holidays.
(Those are usually the same people who recommend that you don't do Extra Magic Hours.)

My personal recommendations:
#1 Epcot
#2 MK
#3 DHS
and as a "last resort"
#4 DAK

(BTW - We love DAK, just not during the holidays!)

Have a magical trip!

why not DAK during the holidays? That's suggested by both touring plans and EWDW I think, that was my original plan.

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[jojomoore]

In 2009, we visited WDW during the week of TG. On TG day we went to AK. It was crowded but doable. We arrived at rope drop. AK closes early - by dark. So that evening we had a reservation at Chef Mickeys and afterwards thought it might be nice to go to MK to see parade and fireworks but took one look at the crowds and ran. "No way". We visited Epcot the Wednesday before TG and the Friday after TG. Wednesday was not crowded at all - it was raining, but on friday it was hard to move in the world showcase especially around the Mexico, Norway, and American pavilions. I believe this is the day that story telling and candlelight processional begins. My suggestion based on my experience would be DHS or AK on Thanksgiving Day. We visited HS on the Saturday after TG and it wasn't very crowded. Ofcourse, headliners will always be a long wait. My advice will be to have a plan and arrive at rope drop or plan to use the new reserved Fastpasses. Temperatures are really nice in comparison to most other months. YOu will just need to be prepared for hot, warm, cool, and freezing weather and watch the forcast to make sure you are prepared. We have went twice during TG and enjoyed both trips regardless of the crowds. We had a plan to help us make the most out of our trip. But try not to plan too many activities and plan for some rest. I know that "magically" Epcot and MK will appeal to most for a holiday. But AK and Chef Mickeys turned out to be one of our best days of our trip that year. CM gets a lot of bad reviews but they servedtraditional TG food on the buffet- like thickely carved turkey and cranberry dressing. My children loved the Contemporary and characters too.

 

[ObscureAllure]

In 2009, we visited WDW during the week of TG. On TG day we went to AK. It was crowded but doable. We arrived at rope drop. AK closes early - by dark. So that evening we had a reservation at Chef Mickeys and afterwards thought it might be nice to go to MK to see parade and fireworks but took one look at the crowds and ran. "No way". We visited Epcot the Wednesday before TG and the Friday after TG. Wednesday was not crowded at all - it was raining, but on friday it was hard to move in the world showcase especially around the Mexico, Norway, and American pavilions. I believe this is the day that story telling and candlelight processional begins. My suggestion based on my experience would be DHS or AK on Thanksgiving Day. We visited HS on the Saturday after TG and it wasn't very crowded. Ofcourse, headliners will always be a long wait. My advice will be to have a plan and arrive at rope drop or plan to use the new reserved Fastpasses. Temperatures are really nice in comparison to most other months. YOu will just need to be prepared for hot, warm, cool, and freezing weather and watch the forcast to make sure you are prepared. We have went twice during TG and enjoyed both trips regardless of the crowds. We had a plan to help us make the most out of our trip. But try not to plan too many activities and plan for some rest.

This is actually exactly what I was planning, going to AK and then either doing Tusker House or CM for dinner. (I have a feeling that CM will be booked by the time I get to it, though.) Thanks for the advice!

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[TheTXTaylors5]

why not DAK during the holidays? That's suggested by both touring plans and EWDW I think, that was my original plan.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Back when DAK had EEMH, we had the bright idea to visit the day before Thanksgiving. It was the most miserable experience we had ever had at DAK. From that experience, I could only imagine Thanksgiving day was worse with the expected crowds. I found that a lot of novice WDW guests tend to visit during holidays and the summertime. This can make for people aimlessly wandering around or standing in the middle of a walkway with a park map pulled out. Yes, MK and Epcot gets insanely busy on any major holiday. But of all the parks, I'd still choose Epcot for any major holiday. It handles the crowds the best with wide sidewalks and open spaces and it is beautifully decorated for Christmas already during Thanksgiving week. Also, there are more attractions to enjoy and space for guests to spread out at Epcot. Yes, DAK is listed as the biggest park. But, mainly due to Kilimanjaro Safaris (100+ acres) and the other animal roaming areas like Maharajah Jungle Trek and Pangani Forest Exploration Trail.

Epcot Attractions:
Future World
Test Track
Soarin'
Spaceship Earth
Mission:SPACE
Journey Into Imagination with Figment
Living with the Land
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
Turtle Talk with Crush
Ellen's Energy Adventure
Innoventions East
Innoventions West
Captain EO

World Showcase
Maelstrom (Norway)
The Spirit of Norway - movie (Norway)
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros (Mexico)
The American Adventure - movie/animatronics (American)
Impressions de France - movie (France)
O Canada! - movie (Canada)
Reflections of China - movie (China)

Also if you have children, they can enjoy KidCot Fun Stops and Phineas and Ferb: Agent P's World Showcase Adventure.

Friday after Thanksgiving, Epcot gets the busiest due to CP and it "officially" starts Holidays Around the World So, I would not recommend visiting Epcot on Friday. JMHO

There are locations within Epcot that serve traditional holiday meals:
Akershus - Traditional turkey and stuffing dinner. (Princess Character Meal)

Biergarten - Turkey, green beans and stuffing will be replacing some regular menu offerings.

Coral Reef - Serving up a traditional Turkey and fixings dinner.

Garden Grill - Gourmet versions of Thanksgiving classics. (Mickey and Friends Character Meal)

Le Cellier (Canada) - Offering their regular menu as well as tradtional Thanksgiving fare.

Rose and Crown (United Kingdom) - They have the classics, turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes.

Note: Everyone has different takes on what is busy and not. I've even seen trip reports where a person stated a park was empty and we were there that same day seeing attraction waits for well over an hour. (Use FP people!!!) So, take my opinion and others with a grain of salt. Do what you want! Heck! If you even want to visit MK on Thanksgiving . . . Go for it! Just arrive at rope drop. Have a magical trip!

 

[gwmort]

We were there for Thanksgiving 2012. We had actual Thanksgiving dinner at LTT in MK, which was of course the least recommended park (but a lovely dinner).

We started our day at rope drop in DHS (which I believe was the most recommended park). We got the fps for TSMM and signed up for JTA, hit the great movie ride, VotLM, rode TSMM, grabbed a quick lunch, picked up fps for Star Tours, did the JTA show, rode star tours, headed over to MK.

Got to MK and it was packed, I mean crazy packed like I have never seen before. Rode Peoplemover and picked up fps for Space Mountain (picked up around 2:00 for a ride time around 9:00). Met up with family and headed over to LTT, knocked out PotC on the way.

Dinner ADR was running late (waited about an hour beyond scheduled time), but had a very nice meal. After dinner it seemed like crowds were thinning out, we rode Thunder MTN standby (40 min posted was closer to 60), then headed over to new fantasyland. Did EtwB (waited about 40 min). Then headed over to Space Mountain to use the fps.

After space the park was pretty well cleared out the rest of the evening (open until midnight), we walked on Dumbo around 10:00, and walked on LM thereafter, even walked on splash mountain around 11:30.

It was a crazy day, but with a little patience and a good attitude it was an awesome day of park touring.

 

[squirrel4569]

We went to MK on Thanksgiving last year because we were having dinner at CRT and didn't have PH. It was also the last day of our trip so we wanted to catch up on some things we had missed earlier in the week. We had arrived on the previous Saturday so we had hit most of the things we had wanted to by this day.

Like others have said it was crowded but we still managed to ride a lot of things and see a lot of characters and enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving meal at the castle. We knew it would be busy so we set our expectations as such. We had a wonderful time and have said more than once that we would do it again.