How busy is Thanksgiving Weekend?

OhioMom23

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 9, 2006
Messages
53
So, tell me the truth how busy is Disney World during the week of Thanksgiving? We have went during Christmas for a few years and know how busy it is then.

TIA:)
 
Thanksgiving day is worse than Christmas day!!!!
We have been there for the past four years and the MK is the worst, the wait time on SM was 240.
You also need to make dinner reservations as soon as you know you are going to go, as they get full months in advance.
 
I have been the last three years during Thxgiving. This past year (2006) was the most crowded. We actually think it is not that bad during that time. I have gone in the summer months and it has been extremely crowded. Yes, the more adult rides have long waits but with speedpass its not terrible. We have found that the best times to visit Magic Kingdom is Thxgiving Day and the Friday after...but at night. The park is open really late and around 7-8pm there is literally no wait for any ride. I highly recommend that time of year!
 
I have to agree. Thanksgiving Day (as well as Friday after) is mobbed. We went down the weekend prior to Thanksgiving 2005 and loved the days leading up. Wednesday before started getting more crowded. Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) was packed. We made reservations as soon as we could (180 days out if I recall, might have been closer at that time) at Liberty Tree. It was packed in there as well. We still had a great week, but expect crowds from around Wednesday on.
 

We thought Thanksgiving was a great time to go...We arrived the Saturday before and made sure that we hit the MK early in the week. The closer you get to Thanksgiving, the busier it will be. We were warned to avoid the MK at all costs on Thursday, so we went to MGM and had a great time. While the park was busy, we had time to do everything we wanted to do. We went to Epcot on Friday, and it was extremely busy. We had saved that day for visiting all the countries and checking out the Christmas decorations.
We are going back this year for Thanksgiving this year! :cool1:
 
I've never gone at that time, but have had friends that have. They said fast passes were gone between 11 am and 1 pm, lines there were still long, walk in lines were miserable, eating was a huge wait even with ADRs, etc, etc.

I would not go at that time. BUT, it most probably depends on what time you are used to going. We go in off season to regular season.

Touring Plans dot com has a good crowd calendar calculator. You might want to try there. I tried to insert a link, but the silly thing wouldn't work.
 
I have traveled over 20 times beginning the Sat or Sun after Thanksgiving. We have learned to avoid MK on the Sat following Thanksgiving. That day the the busiest day we are there. We have done both Epcot and MGM on that Saturday without any problems.

In 2002, we decided to leave the day before Thanksgiving, and spend 10 days at WDW. We avoided MK Thanksgiving day, and went to Epcot. We ate dinner at Teppanyaki in Japan and had a very nice time.
 
We were at WDW for Thanksgiving 2005. We decided to do this in August 2005 and the only ADR we could get for Thanksgiving night was at Wolfgang Pucks (upstairs) in DTD. We spent Thankgiving day in AK which wasn't bad at all. We were able to get onto most things and shows with minimal wait. Friday at Epcot was insane. Most FP were gone before noon and the rest by about 1pm. It was extremly crowded and we waiting 1 1/2 hours after our ADR time to be seated for dinner. We will avoid Epcot at all costs on Friday this year.

A few coworkers were at WDW this past Thanksgiving and said MK was unbearable Thanksgiving day. They said the crowds really thinned out on Sunday. I believe MK usually closes early the Sunday after Thanksgiving for MVMCP so maybe most people try to avoid MK that day because of that. :confused3
 
We are planning on giong this year on 11/24 (Saturday). Do you think it will be ok after the weekend, or will the whole next week be crazy too!!! I did not want to go the next week with POP warner crowds. Any info will be helpful. thanks:)
 
We left for WDW the day after Thanksgiving and the weekend wasn't unbearable. By Sunday, a lot of the crowds were really thin. In fact, most of the rides were walk-on during EMH at MK on Sunday night.
 
Yes, I was wondering the same thing...if we go the WEEK after, sounds like we should be avoiding the mobs?
 
Yes, I was wondering the same thing...if we go the WEEK after, sounds like we should be avoiding the mobs?

The week after is great! We hardly had to wait for anything, although there are some exceptions (some of the big rides still have waits). We still needed fast passes for the big-ticket rides, but other than that, barely any waits at all (maybe 10-20 minutes max). The absolute most we waited was 30 minutes for BTMRR and, when we got off the ride, the line was much shorter (so, we must've hit it at a bad time).

We went to MVMCP the Thursday after and walked onto everything.
 












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