Busy on Thaksgiving?

[NCLinda]

How busy will MK be on Thanksgiving Day? We have 3 days - Thaksgiving, Fri, and Sat.
Which day would you do MK? Epcot?

Linda

 

[Cindymere]

I have read that Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year... upwards of 55K visitors a day to the parks.

I'd get the unofficial guide to WDW and check out their touring plans to see what will be the best for you to do.

 

[NCLinda]

We went 8 -9 years ago and it was wonderful - no lines, nice temperatures. We started on the Saturday after Thaksgiving. However, this year we are doing the 4 day Wonder cruise and we needed to do the parks starting on Thanksgiving Day. Now I am gtting nervous.

Linda

 

[Cindymere]

Yeah, the Sat after Thanksgiving until the week before Christmas is the least busiest time of the year. The Sat. before Thanksgiving through the Saturday after Thanksgiving are 55+ people a day weeks.... Last visit you just missed the crowd

I'll bet the cruise will be great! Just prepare for a potentially large crowd and have a plan and you'll probably still enjoy yourself! I went many a time in July with 1 hour wait times and it still was a blast...

 

[Maverick]

I'll chime in as we've gone this week for the last couple of years.....

Thanksgiving week:

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday - Very light and manageable crowds. MK is typically pretty busy on Sunday as it is an EE day.

Wednesday - Somewhat larger crowds, but manageable.

Thanksgiving - Crazy huge crowds

Friday - Crazy huge crowds

Saturday - Crazy huge crowds

Sunday - Marginally large crowds early, but tapers off pretty nicely later in the day.


As an example: I arrived at MGM on Thanksgiving day 2001 at official opening to buy my limited edition annual passholder pins. By the time I bought the pins (At the big sorcerer's hat) and made my way back towards the entrance, the posted wait for RnRC was 100 minutes and ToT was 80 minutes.

Now, I did not actually walk down to the attractions to verify, but there were SO MANY more people on the street than any other day we had arrived at park opening. It was like a night and day difference.

We've altered our trip plans this year to arrive the Thursday before Thanksgiving and go home on Thanksgiving day. The crowds on Thursday, Friday and Saturday are just more than we care to deal with. We'll use Wednesday as our Downtown Disney / outlet mall shopping day before heading home on Thursday.

I don't want that to scare anyone because Disney can be lots of fun at any time of the year if you want it to be, but the crowds will be significantly larger on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There is no way you couldn't tell the amazing difference if you are there both parts of the week.

Hope this helps!