We are seasoned WDW vets that go on average about every 1.5 – 2 years. We last were at Disney for Thanksgiving 2015. We had such a great time on that trip we decided to go back for Thanksgiving 2017. Two adults, one son (15) and one daughter (12).
Weather: It was very nice the first part of the week then it turned a bit rainy. Not a pouring rain but just kind of a wet drizzle – not even enough to need a poncho most of them time. The forecast looked pretty bad for Thanksgiving Day but the rain managed to miss us and for that we were very thankful. We often go in the summer when the heat is just brutal – the cooler weather makes park touring so much easier.
FP+ - This is our 3rd trip with FP+ and our first where you had the ability to make the 4th FP in the app. At the MK on 11/21 I was able to secure 6 additional Fastpasses usually within a very short time frame. Some of them were even immediate – we scored a Splash Mountain fastpass at 6:27 for 6:30 – 7:30. We got multiples for Splash, Big Thunder Mtn, Space, Jungle Cruise, etc.. My family though t I was a FP wizard. The refreshing technique was not as successful at the other parks – there just is not the availability with fewer attractions. Overall I still like FP+ for the ability to pre-plan and the ability to refresh and get more worked quite well.
4 Park Day – our first full day was Sunday, 11/19. We hit HS for EMH (RNRC, TOT, Star Tours), hopped to Epcot for the late morning/afternoon (World Showcase, Canada/France movies) and then headed to AK for the evening (had FP+ for Flights of Passage, Rivers of Light, Safari). We were done at AK around 9:30 but we knew the MK was open until midnight so we decided since we had already been to 3 parks we might as well do the 4th. In order to be "official" we decided we needed a picture in the MK and to ride an attraction so I got a Fastpass for Pirates and off we went. It was an exhausting day – my Fitbit logged over 33,300+ steps and almost 14 miles but it was an adventure and something our family will remember for a long time.
HEA/Dessert Party – I LOVE Wishes – I would always cry a little just because it made me so emotional. I was sad it was leaving but feeling hopeful with all of the good reviews. HEA was my own personal must-do so I booked the dessert party for 11/21 to make sure we got a good view. The dessert party was good – plenty of food and most of it pretty good. I really enjoy sparkling cider so I had several glasses of that. It was nice that they had fruit/cheese options too because otherwise it was just too much sugar. The viewing location was nice but seemed more crowded that it was when we had FP for Wishes in the same location two years ago. We all loved HEA and even though I will always miss Wishes HEA is a worthy replacement – I loved all of the projections. I loved HEA so much that we decided to catch it again the next night. We started looking for a place around 8:30 and ended up closer to the castle behind a fountain area – dead center. While waiting there was a large family that got into a fight with a mother/daughter from Italy. The family was trying to save a lot of seats in a prime area and that never goes well. Members of that family kept heading out to find CMs to complain to and would not let it go. In the end a CM moved them to watch I think must have been some kind of VIP area they had roped off – proof that if you complain loudly enough, to enough people you can get even better seating. Anyway after that family left we were surrounded by very nice people. We played Heads Up on the phone to pass the time and talk to others around us. The view was even better from this location than the dessert party view – you could see the projections more clearly. In the future I would not do the dessert party and just show up about 90 minutes before and wait it out. The show is worth it. The did make announcements about 30 minutes before the show that Main Street and the Hub area were at capacity. That was the first time I had heard that announcement so I was glad we had safely staked out our spot well in advance.
AK/Pandora – This was a new area for us this trip. My daughter and I have never seen the movie while my husband and sons are fans. The area is beautiful. I expected that area of the park to glow more in the evening – it really was more muted. When we rode the river ride with the glowing plants I think that is more of what I expected to see all around the park. Flights of Passage is AMAZING! A truly incredible ride. The lines hit 4 hours they days we were there – I don't understand the kind of dedication it takes to get in a 4 hour line but I admire it. We were lucky enough to have a FP for FOP on both 11/19 and 11/24. We decided to rope drop FOP on the 24th so we could get in one additional ride. We were so early we had a private bus from the Poly. ;-) We arrived at the gates at 7:00 and they started letting people into the park pretty much right away to head into the bridge before Pandora. People were running which made me a bit nervous because it was so slick since the pavement was wet. At 7:30 they started letting people into Pandora – just a few minutes into the very fast walk to the ride an older lady in front of us fell which was a little scary. She seemed OK but she is lucky she was not trampled by the crowd. We headed straight for the ride and we were getting on right at 8:00. By 8:15 we were headed over to the river ride. I checked the app and it said it was temporarily down… oops! We did some shopping in the gift shop and then noticed the ride was back up with a 40 minute wait time – by the time we got over there it was 50. We waited about 35 minutes to ride. It is nice but not worth more of a wait than 30 minutes or so.
Rivers of Light was also new to us. It was pretty but I agree that there is really not cohesive story and it does kind of disappoint. I am glad we saw it once but I don't think we would do it again. However, we did catch the Tree of Life Awakenings and we all LOVED it – a much better "show" in my opinion. We were all captivated while watching – it is very beautiful and well done.
We also had the chance to try a nighttime safari – the start of it was not that great because you cannot really see the animals but then we got to the lions and for the first time they were all up and really moving around and the male lion stood around roaring – that was pretty incredible and something you just would not see during the daytime – it made the nighttime safari worth it. I think it is best to do both if you can – one daytime trip and one nighttime.
HS – Quite a few attractions have closed since our last visit and we probably only spent around 9 hours or so in the park over 2 days. It is still worth a visit to me if you have park hoppers – once Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land open the entire vibe of the park I think will change and I think I will miss the laid back feeling we had this year. We watched the JBJB show and while it was cute enough the story did not really appeal to us and we would probably not watch it again. We have big SW fans in our family so we were disappointed the SW fireworks were not happening as well. We saw some of the projections on the TOT for the holidays from a distance and I wish we had spent time over there rather than waiting for the fireworks.
Crowds – Crowd levels were high but that was expected. We had reasonable expectations so it was totally manageable. I didn't feel the crowds were any worse this year than they were in 2015. Hollywood Studios was surprisingly quiet on Thanksgiving Day – at least it felt that way to us. Two years ago HS was the busiest park we were in and the one that felt most crowded – perhaps more people are avoiding the park. It turned out to be a great day crowd wise.
Any questions? Just ask!
Weather: It was very nice the first part of the week then it turned a bit rainy. Not a pouring rain but just kind of a wet drizzle – not even enough to need a poncho most of them time. The forecast looked pretty bad for Thanksgiving Day but the rain managed to miss us and for that we were very thankful. We often go in the summer when the heat is just brutal – the cooler weather makes park touring so much easier.
FP+ - This is our 3rd trip with FP+ and our first where you had the ability to make the 4th FP in the app. At the MK on 11/21 I was able to secure 6 additional Fastpasses usually within a very short time frame. Some of them were even immediate – we scored a Splash Mountain fastpass at 6:27 for 6:30 – 7:30. We got multiples for Splash, Big Thunder Mtn, Space, Jungle Cruise, etc.. My family though t I was a FP wizard. The refreshing technique was not as successful at the other parks – there just is not the availability with fewer attractions. Overall I still like FP+ for the ability to pre-plan and the ability to refresh and get more worked quite well.
4 Park Day – our first full day was Sunday, 11/19. We hit HS for EMH (RNRC, TOT, Star Tours), hopped to Epcot for the late morning/afternoon (World Showcase, Canada/France movies) and then headed to AK for the evening (had FP+ for Flights of Passage, Rivers of Light, Safari). We were done at AK around 9:30 but we knew the MK was open until midnight so we decided since we had already been to 3 parks we might as well do the 4th. In order to be "official" we decided we needed a picture in the MK and to ride an attraction so I got a Fastpass for Pirates and off we went. It was an exhausting day – my Fitbit logged over 33,300+ steps and almost 14 miles but it was an adventure and something our family will remember for a long time.
HEA/Dessert Party – I LOVE Wishes – I would always cry a little just because it made me so emotional. I was sad it was leaving but feeling hopeful with all of the good reviews. HEA was my own personal must-do so I booked the dessert party for 11/21 to make sure we got a good view. The dessert party was good – plenty of food and most of it pretty good. I really enjoy sparkling cider so I had several glasses of that. It was nice that they had fruit/cheese options too because otherwise it was just too much sugar. The viewing location was nice but seemed more crowded that it was when we had FP for Wishes in the same location two years ago. We all loved HEA and even though I will always miss Wishes HEA is a worthy replacement – I loved all of the projections. I loved HEA so much that we decided to catch it again the next night. We started looking for a place around 8:30 and ended up closer to the castle behind a fountain area – dead center. While waiting there was a large family that got into a fight with a mother/daughter from Italy. The family was trying to save a lot of seats in a prime area and that never goes well. Members of that family kept heading out to find CMs to complain to and would not let it go. In the end a CM moved them to watch I think must have been some kind of VIP area they had roped off – proof that if you complain loudly enough, to enough people you can get even better seating. Anyway after that family left we were surrounded by very nice people. We played Heads Up on the phone to pass the time and talk to others around us. The view was even better from this location than the dessert party view – you could see the projections more clearly. In the future I would not do the dessert party and just show up about 90 minutes before and wait it out. The show is worth it. The did make announcements about 30 minutes before the show that Main Street and the Hub area were at capacity. That was the first time I had heard that announcement so I was glad we had safely staked out our spot well in advance.
AK/Pandora – This was a new area for us this trip. My daughter and I have never seen the movie while my husband and sons are fans. The area is beautiful. I expected that area of the park to glow more in the evening – it really was more muted. When we rode the river ride with the glowing plants I think that is more of what I expected to see all around the park. Flights of Passage is AMAZING! A truly incredible ride. The lines hit 4 hours they days we were there – I don't understand the kind of dedication it takes to get in a 4 hour line but I admire it. We were lucky enough to have a FP for FOP on both 11/19 and 11/24. We decided to rope drop FOP on the 24th so we could get in one additional ride. We were so early we had a private bus from the Poly. ;-) We arrived at the gates at 7:00 and they started letting people into the park pretty much right away to head into the bridge before Pandora. People were running which made me a bit nervous because it was so slick since the pavement was wet. At 7:30 they started letting people into Pandora – just a few minutes into the very fast walk to the ride an older lady in front of us fell which was a little scary. She seemed OK but she is lucky she was not trampled by the crowd. We headed straight for the ride and we were getting on right at 8:00. By 8:15 we were headed over to the river ride. I checked the app and it said it was temporarily down… oops! We did some shopping in the gift shop and then noticed the ride was back up with a 40 minute wait time – by the time we got over there it was 50. We waited about 35 minutes to ride. It is nice but not worth more of a wait than 30 minutes or so.
Rivers of Light was also new to us. It was pretty but I agree that there is really not cohesive story and it does kind of disappoint. I am glad we saw it once but I don't think we would do it again. However, we did catch the Tree of Life Awakenings and we all LOVED it – a much better "show" in my opinion. We were all captivated while watching – it is very beautiful and well done.
We also had the chance to try a nighttime safari – the start of it was not that great because you cannot really see the animals but then we got to the lions and for the first time they were all up and really moving around and the male lion stood around roaring – that was pretty incredible and something you just would not see during the daytime – it made the nighttime safari worth it. I think it is best to do both if you can – one daytime trip and one nighttime.
HS – Quite a few attractions have closed since our last visit and we probably only spent around 9 hours or so in the park over 2 days. It is still worth a visit to me if you have park hoppers – once Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land open the entire vibe of the park I think will change and I think I will miss the laid back feeling we had this year. We watched the JBJB show and while it was cute enough the story did not really appeal to us and we would probably not watch it again. We have big SW fans in our family so we were disappointed the SW fireworks were not happening as well. We saw some of the projections on the TOT for the holidays from a distance and I wish we had spent time over there rather than waiting for the fireworks.
Crowds – Crowd levels were high but that was expected. We had reasonable expectations so it was totally manageable. I didn't feel the crowds were any worse this year than they were in 2015. Hollywood Studios was surprisingly quiet on Thanksgiving Day – at least it felt that way to us. Two years ago HS was the busiest park we were in and the one that felt most crowded – perhaps more people are avoiding the park. It turned out to be a great day crowd wise.
Any questions? Just ask!
Last edited:
