Crowds During Thanksgiving

[No11's Mom]

We have been planning a trip in March 2002, but I don't know if we will be able to wait that long. So now we are considering going Thanksgiving week. I know some of you (Jennifer Wooster) were there this past Thanksgiving. How were the crowds? What were your longest waits? Was it difficult to get in the restuarants? We would be arriving the Friday before Thanksgiving, and leaving the Friday night after. We would be staying onsite, so we should be able to take advantage of FOTL.

Some advice from the regulars please - would we have a more enjoyable trip if we came the week of Thanksgiving, or the 2nd week of March, 2002.

Also, was anyone at AK, MGM or MK during the early part of Thanksgiving week? How were those crowds?

Thanks for the help and Happy New Year!

Donna R.

 

[WebmasterBarry]

Bump!

Barry aka usagi
Moderator, Universal and Sea World Boards

 

[Molokai Gram]

Personally I think the second week in March 2001 to be the absolute best time to go!

 

[No11's Mom]

I agree totally - March 2001 would be the ideal time to go. I am playing the lottery twice a week, and if my numbers come up I'll be there! I will be there with you in spirit whether I'm there physically or not. I can't wait to hear about the fun yall are going to have. I was wondering if your flight from Las Vegas to Orlando was a non-stop or not. I thought that if by chance you're on Continental and have a stopover in Houston, I'll come up to the airport for a visit.

Unless I get some responses that say Thanksgiving is a much better time than March, it looks like we will be there in March 2002. We can stay an extra day or two if we go in March. Plus we are thinking of doing the Discovery Cove dolphin encounter, and the weather might be a little more reliable in March. It is tempting to plan it for sooner though!

Have fun!

Donna R.

 

[Jennifer Wooster]

I liked going during Thanksgiving becausse the weather was cold and I don't really like hot weather.I don't know what March is like, but I doubt it is that hot. You never know with Florida though.

We were at US and IOA on Thanksgiving Day and thought that only a few people were at US, but quite a few were at IOA. I can't remember exactly how long the rides were, but I'll tell you what I remember... We got there first thing and covered almost all the major rides at least once at US before 11am. Nothing was more than a 15 minute wait, but we only stayed there until 2pm or so. I don't like a lot of shows so we moved on to IOA. Since it was my first visit, we did quite a bit of wandering and rode some of the smaller rides with about 20 minute wait like Cat in the Hat. If you would have been waitng for the Hulk the wait would have been at least an hour, Spidey was running over an hour also, but the singles line moved pretty fast. Compared to Disney, Universal was a million times better from what we heard about lines. We ended up at Animal Kingdom for the day after Thanksgiving and loved it. I don't know how busy it normally is, but compared to US it seemed like huge crowds! We used Fastpass, can't say enough about it, and it worked out fine. We saw ALL and I mean ALL the attractions by 4:30pm. (not including shows) We did spend quite a bit of time with the animal encoounters. Then, on Saturday after Thanksgiving the crowds seemed similar to Thanksgiging at IOA, but instead we got there just as they opened and used the early entry. Some of the rides like Dudley were no wait at all and Jurassic was 10 minutes. Early on in the day at that season no one wanted to go on those rides. We covered all the rides easily that we missed before and then did repeats of our favorites. I think we went on Spidey 3 times.

The big plus for us was vacation days. My hubby only has so many days so we had to go over a holiday. I think if you were going for that reason this time of year is great. The only other days with that many off are July 4th and Christmas both are super busy! Also, I liked seeing the Christmas decorations. If days were not an issue and you liked warmer weather I would try spring time, if you can find a time not too crowded and enjoy it! No matter when you go, it's great!

Jenn