Help planning park days over Thanksgiving

[SFMommy]

I'm trying to map out which days we will be in which parks for our trip over Thanksgiving (Saturday - Sunday). We are spending the first 3 nights at The Poly and the last 5 nights at The Swan.

We have 7 park days (Sunday - Saturday) with no hopping. We don't think the cost of hoppers will be worth it for us because we are not nighttime people and usually spend from early morning to early afternoon in one park, have a late lunch and then we are done for the day.

Sunday and Monday will be at MK because we are staying at The Poly and that is the whole point of staying there.

Then I think we will do Tuesday afternoon in HS with FP+ and some shows after we transfer from The Poly to The Swan.

I can't figure out how to plan Wednesday - Saturday (4 days). We want 2 days at EP, 1 day at AK and 1 more day at HS. I'm considering going to AM EMH at EP on Thursday and at AK on Saturday. Also thinking that maybe Wednesday would be a good EP day since it is the day after an evening EMH at EP. So...

Sun - MK
Mon - MK
Tues - HS (afternoon)
Wed - EP
Thurs - HS or AK or EP (AM EMH)
Fri - HS or AK or EP
Sat - HS or AK (AM EMH) or EP


Another thing is that I want to do a CL dinner package at EP one night...which would have to be Thursday, Friday or Saturday. And of course, Thursday is Thanksgiving...so not sure which park would be best that day.

Any thoughts as to which parks which days? Thanks!

PS - We are probably going to skip the SWGE stuff. We have only been to WDW once and it was May 2016. So Pandora and TSL are both new to us and those are a priority, in addition to shows and attractions that we don't have in DLR. We will hold off and see SWGE in 2020/2021 at DLR.

 

[SaintsManiac]

We'll be there Monday-Saturday that week. The only days we know right now are Thanksgiving Day at Epcot and Black Friday at Galaxy's Edge.

We did Epcot on Thanksgiving in 2017 and had a blast. We didn't do the EMH, as we slept in and arrived at about 1pm.

 

[SFMommy]

We'll be there Monday-Saturday that week. The only days we know right now are Thanksgiving Day at Epcot and Black Friday at Galaxy's Edge.

We did Epcot on Thanksgiving in 2017 and had a blast. We didn't do the EMH, as we slept in and arrived at about 1pm.

Thanks! I was leaning towards EP on Thanksgiving because so many people here on DIS said that it wasn't too crowded. But then people also say don't do EMH because that park WILL be more crowded! Also, I'm worried about being able to get a CL dinner package on Thanksgiving day. But I do think that it would be a fun place to spend Thanksgiving.

 

[Klayfish]

The only day that will really matter is Thanksgiving itself. MK will be very busy that day, though morning isn't so bad. We did MK on Thanksgiving Day 2015 and it wasn't bad at all until early afternoon, then it got really crowded really quick. In 2017, we did HS and it was fine all day (we left around 3pm).

Beyond that, it doesn't matter. I think the whole "avoid EMH parks" thing is dramatically overblown. It doesn't matter. Just go to the park you want, you won't notice a difference.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Parks with EMH are more usually more crowded than parks without for the exact reason you are mentioning. Many people don't have hoppers and want to maximize their day. This is why hopping makes sense to start your day during EMH then get out of there and hop to a less crowded park when the people arrive at 10:30 am.

There are some people who will arrive for rope drop, whether it's 9, 8, 7 and 6 (our Thanksgiving week saw 7 am regular openings with 6 am EMH) and there are some who won't get to security until 10 am no matter what time the park opens.