Thanksgiving week at WDW

[Doug7856]

I have been planning the MVMCP for the Tuesday after Thanksgiving-Dec. 3. I wonder if the Sunday (Dec. 1) would be a better option as for as crowds go? Anybody have an idea?

You might find this blog post about MVMCP helpful: http://blog.touringplans.com/2013/06/05/disney-world-magic-kingdom-christmas-party/

 

[mare1203]

Thanksgiving will definitely be busy, but not wall-to-wall. What's interesting about Thanksgiving is it is one of the very few truly American holidays. At certain times of the year there seems to be a larger number of foreign tourists (Brazilian, UK, Canadian, etc), but not Thanksgiving which makes it somewhat unique.

I honestly think Easter week/weekend is the worst, even over Christmas.

Patience is key. If you're used to summer crowds you'll be okay, but if you usually visit in lower crowd times there will be noticeably less space all around.

 

[meredith1]

Thanks Doug-that absolutely helped! Many thanks!!!!

 

[Tink_Kel]

We are actually flying in on Thanksgiving day this year, as we are going on a cruise beginning that Saturday. We have ADRs for The Yachtsman, I can't wait to see what the Thanksgiving menu is going to be like!! Anyway, we are avoiding the crowds and won't be going to any parks until we back from the cruise on the 7th of December, so hopefully it won't be so crowded.

 

[OurDogCisco]

I made dining reservations last week for our Thanksgiving trip this year. I reserved at Flying Fish for Thanksgiving day and then, I thought I should reserve elsewhere a few days later and guess what most places are booked. I was looking at one of the Grand Floridian Restaurants. I'll probably keep checking as people cancel or change plans. Anyways... it will be busy leading up to the Thanksgiving weekend. One year we stayed through the Monday after Thanksgiving and Sunday at Magic Kingdom was dead. You could hear a pin drop. It was also cold and wet so, I'm sure that drove away some of the locals. Great time of year to go but I've never been off-peak so, I probably don't have a good handle on the crowds.

 

[chicagoshannon]

We arrive on Thanksgiving and are staying the week after. I've been making ADRs all week. I'm getting nothing we wanted. It's seriously frustrating! I've never had problems before getting the 8am ADRs I've wanted!

 

[momofkids]

We arrive on Thanksgiving and are staying the week after. I've been making ADRs all week. I'm getting nothing we wanted. It's seriously frustrating! I've never had problems before getting the 8am ADRs I've wanted!

Maybe they are holding some back for the release of the general public free dining. I didn't have these kind of issues last year, and I was almost a month past 180 days when I made reservations. This year, I am finding a few restaurant reservations difficult. I have read that some of the Epcot restaurants are being held for the release of CP packages; so, that might affect dinner reservations. I also think a lot of people make reservations at 180 days on the off-chance that they might go. Keep trying there will be cancellations. Last year I couldn't get 'Ohana at first. After about 2 weeks, I was able to snag a reservation. There are chronic reservation changers who will cancel too. Watch the Nov/Dec cancellation threads.

 

[SoonerSean]

My only problem with ADR was with BOG... got a 9:20 dinner the last night we're there. I don't book a lot of character dining so I'm sure that helps. But we got Crystal Palace one night and Chef Mickey's for breakfast one day.

I keep checking BOG for another opening but it's been no-go for over a week. I'm about to give up and just enjoy the 9:20.

 

[luvsJack]

We love going at Thanksgiving.

Check out one of the touring sites and the best days charts. Pick your parks accordingly. Try to be at rope drop and start with whatever popular thing you want to do the most, get a FP for the second thing (for us in MK its straight to Splash and a FP for BTMRR). Use FP as much as possible.

AK or DHS on Thanksgiving day. AK is the best.

It will be crowded the closer you get to Thanksgiving day but its not all that bad really. The walk ways seem crowded and any of the shows seem crowded but wait times really are not that bad especially if you use FP.

We try to do as much as we can in the first part of the week when its not as crowded.

For Thanksgiving meal we have done Boma (didn't like it), 50's Prime Time (loved it) and this year we will hop to Epcot from AK for Garden Grill (taking dgd so want to do a character meal). A lot of places have a special Thanksgiving meal, check out AllEarsnet.com for a list.

I did my ADR's right on the 180 mark and got everything I wanted within 30 minutes of when I wanted it. We tend to do ADR's mainly for lunch so if we want to hop somewhere else at night there is no problem. I didn't even try BOG as I knew it would be hard to get--we will eat lunch there on our last day.

 

[Tink_Kel]

We arrive on Thanksgiving and are staying the week after. I've been making ADRs all week. I'm getting nothing we wanted. It's seriously frustrating! I've never had problems before getting the 8am ADRs I've wanted!

I feel for you, I tried to get dinner at BoG at 180+3 days with no luck!! I was up at 5:00 am to make Thanksgiving reservations, and that's frustrating too, because we don't even know yet what's going to be on the menu!!