Any advice or thoughts on 2020 Thanksgiving week?

[Sarahslay]

I think unless you're ok with park restrictions as they are now then you might want to just wait until later in 2021 to go. We rescheduled our July anniversary trip for Thanksgiving week knowing things will probably be the same, but it's just DH and I and we can drive from GA so I'm not concerned about the experience. If you want it to be this "wow!" amazing, magical, nothing is different trip then any time the rest of this year is not for you , not even in November. I don't see this changing for a while.

 

[Beachmom0317]

If you decide to go, I think you should stay somewhere other than Jambo. We just stayed there and the lack of food and stores is really inconvenient. We also stayed at BW and BLT and they were so much better. I know DVC availability is tight for that week (we’re going that week too) but keep stalking the site and you’ll get something, so many people are canceling.

The kicker is I was able to score a value room so the points are sooooo low! I own at CCV so never ever thought I’d get a value! But your experience is what I’m afraid of. Just seems like too much is closed at jambo to be worth it!

 

[kniquy]

Any thoughts or advice?

We had a July 4th trip planned and moved it to thanksgiving week. We are DVC owners and generally anywhere from mid September to early January the resorts are booked up solid. What i am seeing as far as DVC is that there is a lot of availability, which means that many people are cancelling their trips.

Given the state of the virus and the fact that there will not be a vaccine by November, I think WDW's only choice is to keep crowds limited - keeping resorts closed (they already extended some of the resort closures) and limiting park capacity. I expect it to be a little busier than what we have been seeing from the park going YouTubers, but probably not that much more busy.

We are looking forward to experience WDW in a very different way and making the best of what we are dealt.

 

[maryj11]

We had a July 4th trip planned and moved it to thanksgiving week. We are DVC owners and generally anywhere from mid September to early January the resorts are booked up solid. What i am seeing as far as DVC is that there is a lot of availability, which means that many people are cancelling their trips.

Given the state of the virus and the fact that there will not be a vaccine by November, I think WDW's only choice is to keep crowds limited - keeping resorts closed (they already extended some of the resort closures) and limiting park capacity. I expect it to be a little busier than what we have been seeing from the park going YouTubers, but probably not that much more busy.

We are looking forward to experience WDW in a very different way and making the best of what we are dealt.

Yes I agree. It won’t be as crowded as it normally would be.

 

[maryj11]

I think unless you're ok with park restrictions as they are now then you might want to just wait until later in 2021 to go. We rescheduled our July anniversary trip for Thanksgiving week knowing things will probably be the same, but it's just DH and I and we can drive from GA so I'm not concerned about the experience. If you want it to be this "wow!" amazing, magical, nothing is different trip then any time the rest of this year is not for you , not even in November. I don't see this changing for a while.

We are okay with it not being the wow as it has been in the past. We go every year, but always in the summer. We won’t be totally disappointed if there are no fireworks,parades etc..

 

[MomOTwins]

I think it will be very crowded thanksgiving week. I would not go unless you have antibodies. It’s all just guesswork, but I think airlines and disney will be increasing capacity to try to boost end of year revenues. The parks have lots of park pass availability now because florida is scary and summer heat (with masks) is unpleasant. and even with park pass availability green for resort guests and ticket holders it is still hard getting a ROTR Boarding pass. Imagine what it will be like when boarding passes are sold out.

 

[maryj11]

I was also thinking even though they will have Christmas decorations up will the parks close before dark? If so that will put a damper on seeing the Christmas lights.

 

[MomOTwins]

I was also thinking even though they will have Christmas decorations up will the parks close before dark? If so that will put a damper on seeing the Christmas lights.

It gets dark earlier in Nov. Epcot and AK will be dark well before closing then. MK and AK won’t really get dark if they keep the same hours as now (though I suspect will have hours extended slightly by then).But they will be pared back decor in MK anyway because no MVMCP.

 

[MrsBooch]

The kicker is I was able to score a value room so the points are sooooo low! I own at CCV so never ever thought I’d get a value! But your experience is what I’m afraid of. Just seems like too much is closed at jambo to be worth it!

Yeah I'm going to suggest picking a resort with a fairly decent food selection in house. I've not been recently but I've heard multiple people coming back from a Jambo trip saying that it was a pain due to lack of food options.
Poly, CCV, Riviera, or Saratoga if you wanted to hit up DS.

I think it will be very crowded thanksgiving week. I would not go unless you have antibodies. It’s all just guesswork, but I think airlines and disney will be increasing capacity to try to boost end of year revenues. The parks have lots of park pass availability now because florida is scary and summer heat (with masks) is unpleasant. and even with park pass availability green for resort guests and ticket holders it is still hard getting a ROTR Boarding pass. Imagine what it will be like when boarding passes are sold out.

I will have to disagree with you on this - the parks aren't currently AT capacity now, and given the time period we are talking about is only 3 months away, looking at consumer confidence as it is, I don't see a sudden uptick in theme park attendance just because it's thanksgiving. Not this year.

 

[MomOTwins]

I will have to disagree with you on this - the parks aren't currently AT capacity now, and given the time period we are talking about is only 3 months away, looking at consumer confidence as it is, I don't see a sudden uptick in theme park attendance just because it's thanksgiving. Not this year.

I don’t think its “just because its thanksgiving” that crowds will pick up. I think its because (1) lots of people have to reschedule rather than cancel outright disney trips because they have nonrefundable park tickets or APs and/or use or lose vacation days; (2) a lot of those people had planned on spring break or early summer trips so are probably looking for a school break to travel; (3) it’ll be cooler then and florida heat may be scaring people away now; (4) florida covid numbers may not be as bad then; (5) travel restrictions/quarantines may be lifted then.

 

[MrsBooch]

I don’t think its “just because its thanksgiving” that crowds will pick up. I think its because (1) lots of people have to reschedule rather than cancel outright disney trips because they have nonrefundable park tickets or APs and/or use or lose vacation days; (2) a lot of those people had planned on spring break or early summer trips so are probably looking for a school break to travel; (3) it’ll be cooler then and florida heat may be scaring people away now; (4) florida covid numbers may not be as bad then; (5) travel restrictions/quarantines may be lifted then.

ok - we will have to see. I hope all of that happens. I hope the numbers get better and I hope flights are sold out like a normal thanksgiving. I wasn’t implying that it’s only because of the holiday. I’m talking more about the fact that people aren’t traveling. And while state restrictions may very well be lifted I don’t know that worldwide restrictions will be - Canada, UK etc would have to lift their travel bans.
I HOPE you are right.

 

[maryj11]

ok - we will have to see. I hope all of that happens. I hope the numbers get better and I hope flights are sold out like a normal thanksgiving. I wasn’t implying that it’s only because of the holiday. I’m talking more about the fact that people aren’t traveling. And while state restrictions may very well be lifted I don’t know that worldwide restrictions will be - Canada, UK etc would have to lift their travel bans.
I HOPE you are right.

I think it will be little more crowded, but nothing like it has been in the past. I’m sure they will still have a limit on how many can get into the parks.
I’m hoping COVID cases will be down, I don’t think they will be lifting restriction world wide by then.

 

[MrsBooch]

I think it will be little more crowded, but nothing like it has been in the past. I’m sure they will still have a limit on how many can get into the parks.
I’m hoping COVID cases will be down, I don’t think they will be lifting restriction world wide by then.

agree

 

[dachsie]

I'm actually scheduled the week after Thanksgiving at GDT. I vacillate betokening canceling and going every day it seems. Already decided I will drive from TX rather than fly. But now am wondering if CSR will actually open if the numbers are low and then where would I be moved to. Already moved once from ASMu. I really want to go - I need a break. Work has been extremely stressful this year. I plan to make a final decision early Nov I guess. Will all depend on how things progress. If I dont go, I may drive to AZ for Xmas

 

[maryj11]

I'm actually scheduled the week after Thanksgiving at GDT. I vacillate betokening canceling and going every day it seems. Already decided I will drive from TX rather than fly. But now am wondering if CSR will actually open if the numbers are low and then where would I be moved to. Already moved once from ASMu. I really want to go - I need a break. Work has been extremely stressful this year. I plan to make a final decision early Nov I guess. Will all depend on how things progress. If I dont go, I may drive to AZ for Xmas

I would say if CSR is not open you would get moved to Caribbean Beach.
I know what you mean about really wanting to go. I going to go if we have no quarantines and it’s still open!

 

[jmoak]

Personal guess - if you are happy with the way park operations (bare bones experiences) are right now - go ahead and plan for Thanksgiving. If you don't mind the work of rescheduling, go head and plan. The truth is nobody knows. I'd guess not much will change with Disney operations between now and then. Maybe a few more people, maybe not.

We are planning to go the week after Thanksgiving and this is kind of what we were thinking. We want to be able to ride, ride, ride....So, we are actually hoping that the same protocols and capacity limitations are still in place then...As we think this will be the only time we will get to have an experience of just basically walking on everything trhoughout all of the parks...

Is this a realistic expectation assuming capacity restrictions don't change? I welcome any thoughts...

 

[VeeHam]

We are going the week of thanksgiving and driving from Texas. A website (not sure if I can name them) has the park crowds at 2-3 for most of the week and Epcot at a 5 toward the end of the week. I am not sure how accurate this will be. But I hope they are correct.

 

[MrsBooch]

We are going the week of thanksgiving and driving from Texas. A website (not sure if I can name them) has the park crowds at 2-3 for most of the week and Epcot at a 5 toward the end of the week. I am not sure how accurate this will be. But I hope they are correct.

I'm familiar with the website you're talking about (TP) - they wrote a blog post about it as well saying basically they're looking and analyzing the park pass availability calendars and their idea of park capacity and that until capacity increases they do not anticipate more than a 5 any day for the forseeable future.

This is going to be the least crowded thanksgiving ever in WDW!!

Also - the only reason they're increasing Epcot crowds that period of time is because that is the beginning of the modified for Covid Festival of the Holidays - which, i'm super excited about.

Hours shifted from 11am to 7pm to 12pm to 8pm so Epcot now opens an hour later but also stays open an hour later. Not too shabby!

 

[MomOTwins]

I'm familiar with the website you're talking about (TP) - they wrote a blog post about it as well saying basically they're looking and analyzing the park pass availability calendars and their idea of park capacity and that until capacity increases they do not anticipate more than a 5 any day for the forseeable future.

This is going to be the least crowded thanksgiving ever in WDW!!

Also - the only reason they're increasing Epcot crowds that period of time is because that is the beginning of the modified for Covid Festival of the Holidays - which, i'm super excited about.

Hours shifted from 11am to 7pm to 12pm to 8pm so Epcot now opens an hour later but also stays open an hour later. Not too shabby!

However, Disney has said it would gradually increase capacity, so it may well be higher capacity at Thanksgiving. Also, recall that ride vehicles are generally loading far fewer people each time, and FP is unavailable to avoid the longer waits, so I would expect a lot more waiting in lines than normal.

 

[Nick6300]

I'm familiar with the website you're talking about (TP) - they wrote a blog post about it as well saying basically they're looking and analyzing the park pass availability calendars and their idea of park capacity and that until capacity increases they do not anticipate more than a 5 any day for the forseeable future.

This is going to be the least crowded thanksgiving ever in WDW!!

Also - the only reason they're increasing Epcot crowds that period of time is because that is the beginning of the modified for Covid Festival of the Holidays - which, i'm super excited about.

Hours shifted from 11am to 7pm to 12pm to 8pm so Epcot now opens an hour later but also stays open an hour later. Not too shabby!

I would agree that this is going to be the least crowded Thanksgiving in a long time. We were there last Thanksgiving and few of the last 4 or so.
We just came back from Labor Day weekend/this Tue... historically the least busy holiday with kids freshly back to school. And it was the most busy it’s been since July reopening. Kenny the Pirate has articles documenting this with wait times throughout different times of days. We’ve been charting times since July reopening, every day.

Most days this past week were booked full with Sat and Sun being especially busy, and a big dropoff this Tue. But I’d think Thanksgiving will have longer wait times than what we just experienced. Not saying that’s unbearable. But some people expect 25% capacity to mean 75% less wait times, and that isn’t accounting for several things: The lower park hrs, no FPs, no single rider are more obvious, but boats on Pirates or slow moving Small World filling only 2 rows, for instance, occasional attraction stops for cleaning for 15min (happened to us a lot every day), social spacing with longer queue lines/loops and actual lines moving slower because of social distancing, everyone in front of you stopping to get hand sanitizer at every station and holding up the line, transportation arriving closer to park open and only taking 5-6 groups, and on and on. The 25% turned into somewhere between 67% to 75% of typical Labor Day week wait times, despite lower crowds. The wait times were usually overstated. 75 on Runaway was 45 for us, for instance.

And It was the first time I ever received a congratulatory you’re our first guest to tap greeting, just to be first one, 4 days in a row, in 4 different parks, completely empty park photos, first on my attraction of choice every day. FoP, runaway railroad, and 7D 4-5x per day. Had a great time. But would I consider trading that for a trip with normal crowds, fireworks, parades, not wearing masks... and activities like the candlelight Processional, storytelling, and such, at the same price, probably.

I’m a disney addict, and I’d choose to go this thanksgiving despite the canceled certain holiday experiences. And we’re going to DL in Dec next. But it’s a different experience, some pluses and minuses, like anything. Just my opinion. Hope you guys have a good time.