Thanksgiving crowds?

[S.Poppins]

I am sure this has been asked a thousand times.... Just how crowded is Thanksgiving week? How long are wait times for rides?

 

[Eljay]

Very crowded, considered to be one of the busiest times of the year.

 

[S.Poppins]

That is what I was afraid of. I think I will stick with my plan of going after Thanksgiving.

 

[Eljay]

Let's see, Thanksgiving is on Nov. 22, if you go on Monday, Nov. 26th, after the Thanksgiving weekend crowd leaves, you will have smooth sailing!
Oh yeah, plus the Christmas decoration will be up!

 

[Bliss22]

Run for your lives!

 

[AlwaysEeyore]

How is the week before? We are checking in 11/11-11/23. Is the week after Thanksgiving less crowded than the week before?

 

[tolookaa5]

My family and I went down last year the Mon before Thanksgiving until the Wed after Thanksgiving. The first couple of days were busy but not unbearable but come the day before Thanksgiving til Tues it was very busy. Waits were over 60 min on some Soarin was the worst at 120 min wait or more. People were not very friendly, I have to say.
I would not travel this time of year again. Love the Christmas decorations but I would definitely go the week after, say the Tues. after because crowds lessened then and decorations are still up.

It was also very cold last year, just my luck. It snowed "flurried" in Orlando one day. It was warmer up east where I came from than it was at WDW. I was in turtle necks the whole time.
But by Thanksgiving it was a little warmer.


Good luck on your decision. Whatever you choose it is sure to be magical!!!

 

[sarahsmom73]

I have a different take on this. We went down for Thanksgiving 2005 and are going again this Thanksgiving. DH and I are both teachers in different school districts. We have to go when we are on break. We don;t have any time together for spring break 2008 and we LOVED Thanksgiving. It seemed not as bad as Spring break to us.

I would NEVER consider it without a plan. We used TGM last time and it was fabulous! We also did a park in the am then took a break around 11:30 to swim, nap etc and headed back in the late afternoon. It was nice to be leaving the park having done everything we wanted to do as the hoards of people were coming in.

We were at each park in the morning prior to it's opening.
We also made sure we had our ADR's made well in advance.. (Ours are all set at great times for this year).

Am I going to tell you it is not busy? Of course not.. If you play your cards right though you can have a great time!

Good Luck!

 

[slduck]

We were also there in 2005. The crowds we heavy, but I found them to be bearable until Wednesday afternoon. The weather was very nice then turned cold. I heard that it was much more crowded this past year.

 

[shame711]

We are going the week of Thanksgiving as well as the week after. Can I expect the crowds as Seaworld and Universal to be bad as well?

 

[Bliss22]

We were there the week after Thanksgiving and the crowds were light. I did talk to a couple of cm's and they all agreed this was the busiest they hax=ve seen after Thanksgiving. If you can switch your dates do so. I think that light crowds is the best way to truly enjoy the parks.

 

[AlwaysEeyore]

How is the week before? We are checking in 11/11-11/23. Is the week after Thanksgiving less crowded than the week before?

I meant the week before Thanksgiving week.

 

[S.Poppins]

In 2005 we went the week after Thanksgiving and we went this past January. Both of these times were great. Soaring was still a long wait, but everything else moved pretty quick. After you have done low crowds, I think a busy season would be frustrating.

 

[onelovejw]

My hubby & I are also teachers and are planning to go NOv. 17th -22 we are leaving Thanksgiving Day. What are good strategies for these days? Do you think these are considered the "busiest days" ? We went during Christmas 2005 & lines were very long. We have early dining reservations around 6 each night.

 

[loveysbydesign]

We were planning to go the 10th-19th but to get the cheaper airfare(JB $59 each way) we switched our dates to the 13th-22nd. I'm hoping to get most of the must-do's done by the 20th! Although it may be a bit hard since we'll have a baby in tow this time