Any first hand reports for Thanksgiving weekend?

[3PRINCESSMOM]

Hopefully, we'll be there through Wed 11/29. So if the crowds die down on Sunday, we'll get a few days of less chaos in.

How crowded is crowded? We are typically off season visitors. However, the past few December trips I have seen the MK wall to wall on weekend days. So it won't be completely foreign to me.

My initial thought is to do AK Friday, during the day then maybe Epcot at night. Epcot during the day Saturday, and DTD at night. MGM during the day Sunday, then finally work our way over to MK later in the day Sunday and do it all day Monday. Any Thanksgiving wknd. veterans care to comment on how realistic those plans are?

Any and all feedback is so greatly appreciated

 

[redheaded mama]

We are going to be in WDW for Thanksgiving and for the week after. I would love to hear from some "experienced" disers about what to expect for crowds.

We are going to AK for Thanksgiving. I already made all my ADR's. I can hardly stand the wait. This is our first trip to WDW.

I have been lurking here on the site for a while now, and I haven't read much about Thanksgiving. I would love to learn more.

 

[jimmytammy]

Our experience...the parks empty around noon on Sun. So MK would be perfect for Sun. That was what happened last year for us. As for the rest of your plans, its hit or miss. With EE being open at AK, that park has definitely drawn more people.

 

[goofy4tink]

I was there for Thanksgiving '04. We actually arrived on Thanksgiving afternoon. Headed to MGM, it was very crowded...Star Tours was a 90 minute wait at 2:00. So, we returned to BW. We ate at CM's that night and went straight back to BW after eating, so can't tell you about the crowds that night. But, the next day we went to Epcot...huge crowds. I've never seen that many people in one place. The parks stayed pretty crowded until Sunday night...I was expecting fewer people by Sunday morning, but that didn't happen. On Monday it was better but certainly not empty. Wasn't until Tuesday evening that things were really good. When we were getting ready to leave on Wed, I told my dh that we should start coming to WDW the middle of the week after Thanksgiving from now on!!! The weekends get crowded but the weekdays are nice!!
MK was by far the most crowded of the 4 parks...your plan of attack looks pretty good!

 

[Letsbgoofy]

We went for Thanksgiving a few years ago. The Friday after, all the parks had "closed" signs on them. I guess that meant you couldn't drive and park? We went to the AK - it was insane! I'm used to late August crowds...we waited for the safari for at least 90 min. We skipped the parks Saturday. Sunday, we went back to the AK and it was a walk on everything.

We arrived on Thanksgiving in the late afternoon and went to CMs for dinner, so I don't know how the parks were prior to the Friday after.

 

[3PRINCESSMOM]

Perhaps scared enough to rethink these possible plans. Fri 11/24 thru Wed 11/29 means the princesses would only miss 3 days. However, I am not sure how we would handle crowds of this magnitude! Thanks everyone!