How were the crowds over Thanksgiving this year? Thinking about going same week 2015

chabs

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 22, 2005
Messages
1,274
My DD had a lacrosse tournament at Disney the weekend before Thanksgiving this year and we went to Universal a couple of days before that and there we no crowds at all. Next year we may plan to go to Universal after the tournament so I was wondering how the crowds were the week of Thanksgiving? We would stay on property so that we could get the express passes. Also-were there any turkey dinners anywhere?
 
Bumping this up for both of us-I can't believe nobody went over Thanksgiving in 2014!

We went the day after and it was crowded. RRR, despicable me, transformers and the other really popular rides were 90 minute waits at the least. I was in town to visit family so we only went that day for a quick visit. Sorry I can't help you more.
 

We went the day after and it was crowded. RRR, despicable me, transformers and the other really popular rides were 90 minute waits at the least. I was in town to visit family so we only went that day for a quick visit. Sorry I can't help you more.

Did you stay onsite? I wondered if it was more manageable with the FOTL passes or am I going to be miserable? I do not like what I call "Disney crowds" with people stepping all over you and no room to move in the parks.
 
We went on day trips Thurs and Friday. We did not find it terribly crowded, esp. compared to the Disney parks, where we were in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

Thurs we were there at opening for non early entry, and had walk on's until noon for just about everything except HP. On Thurs, left about 2:30 (had a 4 yr old with us who was DONE after 7 hours). I came back that night with my sister. We did single rider for big coasters/rides with minimal wait. Crowds were not bad, except for Harry Potter areas. Harry Potter was like FantasyLand gets - choked with people. The rest of the park was extremely pleasant.

Friday I went back with my older son (11). We had a great day primarily at IOA. Again, walk ons for 2-3 hours at opening.

I would go again. I would go in a heartbeat if i were onsite. If you are used to Disney crowd-milling madness, Universal feels practically deserted.
 
We were there Wed-Sun Thanksgiving week and agree with the above poster, generally the parks were great but the Harry Potter sections were really crowded. We went in with Disney crowd knowledge and came away pretty happy. We went in an hour early Thurs. and my son even asked "where is everybody?" We stayed at RPR and had their turkey dinner, it was expensive but sooo good. Ham & turkey carvers, mountains of pre-cracked crab legs and huge shrimp, salmon, quail, a mongolian grill, sushi & wonderful deserts. They also had a kids area with kids food. Hula dancers and a guy with a ukulele. It was nice, servers were really top notch. We had Scooby Doo and a Minion come by for pics.
Stay at a onsite and get the express, the hotel was already decorated for Christmas and so was the parks. You will have a good time.
I recommend Antojitos in Citywalk, go around 7 as they have a live band.
Also Mythos was excellent, the bananna gooey cake is almost worth another 8 hr drive to get one. (seriously) Finnegans was good but not anything too special. Stay far, far away from Confisco Grill~terrible experience here.
We stayed club so alot of our food was from the lounge, which if you can swing it I also recommend. Our room was literally 4 steps away from the lounge so they saw us quite a bit. Any other questions, I'd be glad to help. :goodvibes
 
Thanks! That doesn't sound too bad. I'm glad to hear that we can get a Thanksgiving dinner too.
 
Did you stay onsite? I wondered if it was more manageable with the FOTL passes or am I going to be miserable? I do not like what I call "Disney crowds" with people stepping all over you and no room to move in the parks.

Sorry, missed the part about you staying onsite. We were staying with family and had a free day so we went universal for a while. It was crowded but manageable. The times I was quoting earlier was for standby. You'll be fine with express.
 














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