Late June or Thanksgiving?

[LibertyBelle58]

I am planning for 2006. We had a great trip in 2002, thanks to my "lurking" on the boards. Happy to be a board member now!

With school, our choices are limited. Any opinions on June vs Thanksgiving?

Last week in June - Not sure I can take the heat & rain. How bad is it really? How about the crowds?

Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving day through the following wednesday) - I like the idea of the nice weather, Christmas decorations.. Weekend crowds are a given, but do the crowds taper off by Sunday? I am most afraid of the sky high airfare that time of year! Can anyone share experience with this?

 

[mareed]

This is an easy recommendation for me to make - choose the Thanksgiving dates!

I've been in early June (which is a bit less crowded than late June) & Thanksgiving. I think crowds will be about the same in late June & Thanksgiving, but Sun-Wed will be lower. The weather will be miserably hot, humid, with afternoon rain in June, but should be quite pleasant over Thanksgiving, with a chance of having it be a bit cool. You'll get to see XMAS decorations over Thanksgiving. Your travel dates should be great for getting decent Thanksgiving airfare if you're flying there on Thanksgiving day, and leaving the following Wednesday.

 

[TammyA]

I vote for Thanksgiving. We went from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving until the Wednesday after Thanksgiving in '04. I was on the first flight out on Wednesday and the airport wasn't crowded at all. We flew out of Philadelphia on Southwest. The airfare was about $145...not bad for our area at this time of year. The parks were VERY busy through Sunday. Monday - Wednesday was blissful. The park traffic was so light that fast pass machines were closed...they weren't needed! We rode Rock 'n Roller coaster and got right back on with no line! The weather was great too. We were able to swim and go to Typhoon Lagoon.

I usually go in June...not anymore. June is really hot and crowded.

 

[LibertyBelle58]

Thank you for your replies. We will also be flying from Philly. Can't wait to see the Christimas decorations! I'll try for 2005, but if we have to save up until 2006, it will be worth it. Have a great day!

 

[addicted2disney]

Hi Liberty Belle 58
Another Pennsylvanian here who LOVES LOVES LOVES going over Thanksgiving. This year will be our 3rd trip over Thanksgiving and our 4th year of going down for 2 trips. We did thanksgiving, halloween, thanksgiving, and going thanksgiving again this year. Trust me, you will NOT be disappointed with going then. I really wanted to leave Wednesday before thanksgiving this past year, but air fare was over 350 bucks to leave that day. It dropped down to 139 if we left on thanksgiving, so we took the earliest flight out of Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving morning. My kids are off Thurs-Tuesday. It is awesome!! All of the Christmas decorations are up, they are doing all of the special Christmas shows like Osbourne Lights in MGM, the Christmas Storytellers in all of the countries in Epcot, All the parades in the afternoon at AK & MGM are "Christmasy".. not differnet, but have a christmas theme to them.... the characters are in santa hats and scarves, the cars have tinsel on them and wrapped presents in side of them! You get to see all the tree lighting ceremonies at all 4 parks. AND then best thing is that the Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party starts that Sunday after Thanksgiving and the 2nd one is on Tuesday. Last year we did 2 parties. One night for rides, the other night for shows. We like the parade so much that we watch them both. The fire works are awesome.. and they go all around the park!! Epcot also had a special version of Illuminations that added a few minutes more of fireworks at the end!! THere is CHristmas music everywhere , decorations everywhere. Awesome!! Im going back this year.. shooting for wed- wed