How are the crowds the week of T-giving?

[TimeWarp]

Just curious about tips for the week of Thanksgiving. How prepared should we be for crowds. We were hoping that the first of the week wouldn't be so bad. Very curious to about EE days. It almost seams like you should hit another park on that morning. Are all their rides open on the EE morning? Lots and lots of questions. We are just ready to go!

 

[AimeeM]

Hi Time Warp
We arrived at WDW last year on Thanksgiving Day! We checked in and went straight to Epcot. I was really expecting masses of people, but we walked in the main gate and there wasnt a single soul in line for Space Ship earth! (this was about 5-5:30 pm) I knew to stay away from Magic Kingdom on Thursday ( turkey day), Friday and Saturday. THen Sunday was EE day at MK so we stayed away that day too. The only time we went to MK over the weekend was we parked hopped over on Saturday evening to catch spectromagic. I think if you avoid MK as much as possible over the weekend you will be fine. It was an awesome time to go. THe Christmas decorations were up! We went to the special Christmas party at MK! I just loved it!!! Oh, one word of advice... if you plan on eating Thanksgiving Dinner at any of the parks.. get an EARLIER time. We picked the last seating at Garden Grill because we didnt want to miss it since we just flew in that day. When we checked in at the podium 10 minutes early, we had a 90 minute wait. Seems they were letting anyone in and all the late seatings got screwed. It was awful! I had tired, hungry grouchy kids. So remember.... early seating! Have a great time!

 

[DisneyFreak43]

Thanks AimeeM for the tips!

We are also planning a T-day trip to Disney, although not until 2004. I am gathering info, even though this will be trip #7. We have been the second week of Nov. before and love the weather, but can't wait to see the X-mas decorations next time. Keep the tips coming! Did you also go to Universal?

 

[auntkelly]

We were at Disney World during Thanksgiving week, 2000. I did a lot of research on these boards before we went. Our family followed the "tried and true" advice of arriving at the parks early, taking an afternoon break and then returning to the parks in the evening. As long as we arrived at the parks shortly after opening, we found that we were able to ride all the popular rides with little or no wait. We arrived at AK shortly after opening on EE day and rode the Safari twice with no wait. We then went to the Dinasour ride and waited less than ten minute to ride. By 10:30, the park became pretty crowded and the lines began to get quite a bit longer. After lunch, we stood in line for about 30 minutes to see It's a Bug's Life, but because the weather was so pleasant, we didn't mind a bit and had a lot of fun finding various animals carved in the tree. Our experience at MK on EE day was pretty similar. My kids favorite ride was Splash Mountain. One day we rode it at least five times in a row with no wait before 10:30. After 10:30, the line became long, but that was okay, we were soaked and we went on to enjoy the rides with shorter waits (Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Carribean). I made a PS every day for lunch, so we had a relaxing break at noon and then headed back to our resort to swim. When we returned to the parks late afternoon, it was generally to see the special events such as parades and Spectromagic, so the crowds were not too much of a problem. The evening was usually not a good time to ride the popular rides. When we visited MGM in the evening, the lines at Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster were over one hour long and all the fast passes were gone. We watched the Indiana Jones stunt show and Spectromagic and skipped the rides. Thanksgiving day was our day off from the parks. We headed for Cocoa Beach and toured the Space Center. It was nice to spend the day away from the parks, although we had a hard time finding a restaurant that was open-we ended up eating pressed turkey at a cheap restaurant chain. Even so, we had a great day. We're going again this year during Thanksgiving week and we're really looking forward to our trip. We plan to be at the parks when they open to ride the popular rides. Keep in mind that although it can become crowded at Disney World during Thanksgiving, the beautiful weather makes the lines much more bearable.

 

[Camping Griswalds]

We went in 2001 and I would never do it again. Although the decoration were beautiful, the crowds were awful. We arrived the Sun before Thanksgiving and really enjoyed ourselves Sun, Mon and Tues, by Wed the crowds had started to pick up, but Thurs, Fri and Sat were horrible. Yes you could use Fast pass and see the less popular rides, but in between in the walkways, you were shoulder to shoulder with little breathing room. Not very enjoyable at all. What we did to avoid this is go into EE and we basically left the parks at 10:30. One time it took me one hour and 45 min to return from Animal Kingdom to our campsite, It has never taken us longer than 25 min before that trip. I will say by Sunday after T-Giving most people had left so Sun was tolerable and Mon am was good. However out of our total of eight days, only four were totally enjoyable. It's always a matter of opinion, but I have been to Disney 15 times in my life including the summer months and spring break and the only time I would never go again is Thanksgiving. Good luck to you brave souls, and I hope my experience was the exception.

 

[JAP]

We are going this year arriving on Fri Nov 28, day after Thanksgiving.

I too was wondering about the crowds. We won't be doing any parks on Fri but thought we would do MGM on Sat, AK on Sun and then MK on Monday.

We want to get the most out of MK and hope that it would be least crowded the Monday after Thanksgiving. Any thoughts as to this plan???

 

[AimeeM]

Jap
Thats a good plan! We avoided MK until Monday too. We are used to January crowds ( or rather lack of) and I was nervous of masses of people over Thanksgiving. I would NOT say that the crowds were awful! It was a little more people than Im used to, but nowhere near as bad as I expected. And really, it was only bad over the weeked. Epcot was fine, no big crowds there. I noticed it a little at MGM & Animal Kingdom. Again, not BIG crowds, just a little more than January. I would definately go back again at that time. We chose to make our 2nd trip of the year in early October this year and try the MNSSHP. May try Thanksgiving again next year!!
One thing about your weekend plan... Find out when Specto is. If you will be there the following weekend and will catch it than you are good. If you WONT be there, they may only be showing it on that Saturday after Thanksgiving. That was the day we did Animal Kingdom. We left AK mid afternoon before the parade( its only open until 5 anyway) whent to the room to change and pack up for the night time ( it was chilly at night last year) and then we hit Magic Kingdom at night. We really just walked around the shops, looked for characters and saw Spectro. We didnt go back again until Monday. By then, the parks were dead. So if you only have one weekend to see spectro, switch your AK and MGM days so you can hit MK on Saturday night !

 

[JAP]

Thanks Aimee! The last time we went to Disney I was about 10 weeks pregnant and felt lousy the day we did MK. I want to be able to hit all the things we missed, which was a lot. DD is 6 but will still enjoy all the rides. We also have a DS that will enjoy MK as well.

I will have to check out Spectro info. I have seen people mention it better never thought much about it. Also, we are thinking of going to the Mickey's Christmas Party on Dec 2. That costs extra but it sounds like fun.

 

[susy]

Okay, Thanksgiving experts! We are off-season type people, but did Labor day, Columbus and Veteran's day weekends last year. Can anyone compare these to TG crowds? We did good-arriving early, break, back at night.

We are braving the crowds to do TG this year! We will drive up from South FL on the Wed and check into WL. We want to take the boat over to MK and activate our passes. This is in NO WAY a commando type trip for us, as we are buying AP's and have five more trips planned.

Some things that could slow us down a bit: Since it is DS' b-day, we have invited the grandparents to join us. We will have 3 rooms at the WL. My mom and her DH will check in later on the same day we do, just a bit later. We have all our Ps's planned together , but aren't necessarily going to tour together the whole time. We will probably go together to the parks, but split up if we want, since my mom tends to move a little slower than my DH!

Dh's parents won't check in until Sat afternoon. We are all leaving Monday to go home.

I NEED reassurance!!!

Tell me if our plan is okay- want a good mix of park/down time.

Wed- check in at WL- MK dinner at WCC
see if mom has checked in

Thurs- drive to Epcot
break
TG dinner at Chef Mickey


Fri- drive to MGM
lunch at Sci Fi (yeah, no Pizza Planet!) leave around 1 pm
break at WL
drive to Epcot (around 5pm)- dinner at Teppanyaki-stay for lluminations. Our only "late" night.

Sat- drive to AK
break
see if inlaws are checked in
all adults - dinner at Artist Point, Ds- cub's den
BED!

Sun- EE at MK (hopefully lots of people will be heading home!)
Ds'b-day. We will all be wearing our "Celebrating Marcus' 6th Birthday at Walt Disney World" shirts.

early lunch at Crystal Palace
NAPS!!!!!!
MVMCP!!!

Monday- sleep in. All of us having breakfast at WCC and heading home.

Ok, experts, how does this plan sound?
We are big believers in breaks, naps, and not over doing it!

 

[wdwnut61]

Susy,

Your plan looks perfect. This will be our first Thanksgiving in WDW also. Last year we arrived on Dec. 27th and stayed till Jan. 7th. That was our first expericence with holiday crowds. I knew we were in trouble when the check in line was out the door of the CR. That being said, we made out fine. Much like your plan, we were flexible and did'nt try to cram too much in each day. Just go with the flow and you'll be fine. You'll probably find out with each day that you'll be able to do even more things but if you can't that's ok too Hey breaks and naps are important and experiencing Disney camando style is not my idea of a vacation

I hope you have a wonderful trip. We are looking forward to Thanksgiving in Disney as well.

 

[AimeeM]

Jap..
You dont want to miss Spectomagic! Especially if you havent seen it before. I think its a MUST SEE!! I bet your DD will just love it!! The Cinderella float is awesome! First its all differnt colored lights then all of a sudden its all white lights!! I think you will love it!

 

[MELISA]

We will be arriving on Saturday after Thanksgiving, with Sunday as our first day in the parks. Will the Thanksgiving crowd be leaving by Monday? What park would you recommend for Sunday?

 

[Camping Griswalds]

When we were there the crowds were really thinning by Sun. Mk was very sparse by the afternoon and seemed empty on Mon. This was in 2001. I would choose those weeks between thanksgiving and December. You are going at a great time. The weather should be great and the decorations are beautiful.

 

[AimeeM]

Melisa,
When we were there last year, we waited until that Monday to hit Magic Kingdom. Im glad we did. The crowds were gone! Sunday is EE day at Magic Kingdom. If you are trying to avoid crowds, then I wouldnt go there. If I were you, Id probably pick Epcot for Sunday. I think the other parks are still going to have Thanksgiving crowds at them, although they may be thinning by late afternoon. Epocot is so big, and there is so many other things to do there besides stand in ride/show lines, that you dont notice the people. You could spend a good part of SUnday strolling through World Showcase and letting the kids make their masks! Have fun.

 

[MELISA]

THANKS AIMEE for your reply!