Week of Thanksgiving vs. weekend before Christmas? Opinions please

[Disney_Luv]

We go to Disney with my parents every winter for about 3-4 days, usually in December. This year, we are trying something different. We will be there the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through Sunday night. We already have ADR's set. But, now my parents are worrying about the crowds over the Thanksgiving weekend. We normally go at the beginning of December, and the crowds are pretty low. But, one year, we went the 18th-22nd of December, and by the time the 20th came, the crowds were insane. All of the rides had super long lines, and we ended up not really being able to do much.

Anyway, now, thanks to these boards, we get to the parks at rope drop (versus 11am-noon), get our fastpasses, and things go so much more smoothly.

For those of you who have been around both of these times, do you think the crowds were worse over Thanksgiving or in the few days before Christmas? And, if we use the rope drop/fast pass system, should the parks still be manageable?

Thanks so much for any opinions!

 

[summerskye]

Thanksgiving week is gonna be packed. We have done it many times. School and work schedules force us to do this week. If you do RD, utilize FP and have a general game plan, then it can be a nice vacation. Just don't show up at 1pm and expect to walk on the rides. We have skipped the parades at times to hit some rides with pretty good luck. If you are ok with not doing everything, then you will be fine...

Enjoy

Woo Hoo - just hit post # 300 Watch out Robo, I'm gonna catch up with you...

 

[Disney_Luv]

Thanks for the response. I know Thanksgiving week is extremely crowded. I was just curious how it compares to the crowds a few days before Christmas.

 

[Badger Brent]

We've done both times. Thanksgiving week was crowded and christmas got busier each day toward christmas eve and beyond. But the holiday feeling was much more present during christmas week. That was our experience. Have fun with either date.

 

[mareed]

We've been many times at these exact times, and I think crowds Thanksgiving week and just before XMAS are about the same. (All of my Nov/Dec trips have been Thanksgiving and 2 weeks at XMAS, so I speak from experience.)

If you were completely miserable on your Dec trip that was just before XMAS, you'll be miserable Thanksgiving week. We have to go during school holidays so we're almost always there during extremely crowded times and still continue to go back and have a great time! (Spring Break, July 4th, Thanksgiving, & XMAS).

 

[Sleeping Becca]

I went during Thanksgiving last year and I thought it was fine. It was actually much less crowded than I expected. I used ridemax and it worked like a charm. I know the crowds were there because of the RD madness at Epcot and DHS but with our touring plan we avoided the fray. If you are smart about picking your park days you should be fine. IMHO the few days leading up to Christmas will be worse.