Day before Thanksgiving

[Ajbro44]

I have read that the day before thanksgiving (Wednesday Nov 23rd) is a very busy day MK. I am prepared for this but my question would be how busy? Like close the park do to capacity busy or simply wall to wall people?
I have an ADR for CRT for 4pm. If we choose to rope drop, leave the park in the late morning/ early afternoon and then return for our 4pm reservation will we have any issues?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Robo]

Unlikely to be near "closing busy."

Getting back in around 4pm should not be an issue.

 

[tmoo]

We arrived at MK about 4PM the day before Thanksgiving this past fall. It was busy, really busy, but they did not limit anyone coming into the park. We had 3 fast passes, then got some snacks at Gaston's, watched the castle projection show and wandered around until the crowd cleared at about 11. We stayed until 2AM and had a great day. If you have a CRT reservation you can make it through the first couple levels of capacity shut downs pretty easy, but last year they didn't even reach a level 1. No guarantee of this year, but you will probably be OK, especially if you are staying on site.

 

[Ajbro44]

Great! Thanks for the responses.

 

[bmalonef45]

Last fall we were at WDW over Thanksgiving week. I think it was the day before Thanksgiving we were on a bus to MK and when we got off (mid morning) we were amazed that the crowds were backed up to the bus stops from bag check/front gates. I'm not sure if something was wrong that snagged the system but in all my trips to WDW I had never seen such a sea of people. I don't know how bad the park was as we were just passing from bus to bus to get back to our resort and didn't go to MK that morning but the rest of the week was pretty manageable. Honestly, we found that the days leading up to Thanksgiving were worse than Thanksgiving and the day after. We used EASYWDW as our crowd guide and it seemed to work well except for one day at HS which was probably because of the last season for Osbourne Lights. They never closed MK during the week to my knowledge.

 

[afinnteach]

We have been 3 times over Thanksgiving in the last 8 years. We have found it to be busy, very busy, but we have never seen it close or limit people entering. We really like going the week of Thanksgiving. The weather is nice, so larger crowds don't fee as stifling, holiday decorations are going up, and we don't have to take too many days off school (for me/teacher and kids). (We've also gone in early June and once in October for F&W)

 

[sdsatl]

holiday decorations are going up

Is there a chance they're not up by Thanksgiving weekend? We have a trip planned, specifically to see the park and resort decorations...

 

[tmoo]

The Thanksgiving week crowds were enough for me. I can't imagine what a capacity closure day must look like! Before the new hub was completed I was actually apprehensive about the trapped feeling I had in the hub on Thanksgiving. The new hub design makes it much easier to see the show from a larger area and turns the high crowd experience from scary to merely annoying. Anyhow, the bottom line is that it will be crowded, but you can still manage to have a good time and probably won't hit a capacity issue. Leaving during the middle of the day might be wiser than staying and fighting the crowds. Of course CRT won't be any more crowded than usual. That had to be a hard reservation to get on that day.

 

[afinnteach]

sdsatl, I'm pretty sure there will be some decorations (unless they don't follow their usual plans). They won't be up everywhere, but it was fun to watch the amount of decorations change from day to day during our week there. I think by the the weekend after Tgiving they are almost all up?

 

[Robo]

sdsatl, I'm pretty sure there will be some decorations (unless they don't follow their usual plans). They won't be up everywhere, but it was fun to watch the amount of decorations change from day to day during our week there. I think by the the weekend after Tgiving they are almost all up?

By Thanksgiving, virtually all of the WDW decorations (parks,resorts, DS) are up.

 

[Mckymousefn]

We normally go the week of Thanksgiving I feel Thanksgiving and the few days after....are the busiest. We AVOID MK on Thanksgiving day... but the days up til then are not horrible.

 

[HollyMD]

Since they begin Christmas parties in early Nov, I would have thought they would all have been up by those.

 

[Robo]

Since they begin Christmas parties in early Nov, I would have thought they would all have been up by those.

Only MK hosts the parties, so only MK has its decorations up that early.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

A fair percentage of people seem to be choosing to stay away from WDW this summer, and I would expect that to continue for a while. Thanksgiving week, including the day before, should be very crowded but not at any sort of closing status.

 

[sdsatl]

sdsatl, I'm pretty sure there will be some decorations (unless they don't follow their usual plans). They won't be up everywhere, but it was fun to watch the amount of decorations change from day to day during our week there. I think by the the weekend after Tgiving they are almost all up?

By Thanksgiving, virtually all of the WDW decorations (parks,resorts, DS) are up.

Thanks, y'all!

 

[Ajbro44]

Thank you all for the feed back. We will be there Nov 16-24 with the 23rd being our last day in the parks......wanting to be prepared as best I can

 

[Mckymousefn]

Thank you all for the feed back. We will be there Nov 16-24 with the 23rd being our last day in the parks......wanting to be prepared as best I can

We'll be there the 19th-24th