Need Help: Planning Thanksgiving 2012 Trip

[4my2girlz]

For the past 3 years my family and I (Hubby, 39, myself, 34,DD 7, and DD 6) have been to WDW stayed at Pop Century and taken advantage of the Free Dining Plan and LOVED every minute of all of our trips BUT this year we are changing things up a bit!

We will be staying off Disney at the Hilton SeaWorld for 2 weeks - 11/17 - 12/1. We have never stayed off site so I'm a little nervous to say the least.

We plan to visit WDW, as well as Universal, Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld, and possible Discovery Cove.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, including but not limited to:
Where should we dine for Thanksgiving?
Is Discovery Cove worth the $$?
How many days should we allow for Universal/Islands of Adventure?

We are WDW fans and plan to purchase an annual pass so we can spend the majority of our time at WDW parks but want to also try some new things out!

Hilton Seaworld 11/12
Pop Century 8/11
Pop Century 9/10
Pop Century 9/09
Off Site 5/00
Caribbean Beach 5/98

 

[Metro West]

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, including but not limited to:
Where should we dine for Thanksgiving?
Is Discovery Cove worth the $$?
How many days should we allow for Universal/Islands of Adventure?

1. Most every restaurant at any of the resorts will have some sort of Thanksgiving dinner...most are very pricey. Are you thinking of dining at Disney, Universal or somewhere offsite?
2. Yes...Discovery Cove is very worth the money. Definitely go if you can swing it.
3. You should allow a minimum of a full day at each park.

 

[4my2girlz]

Because we have been three years in a row during free dining promos, we have done pretty much every character dining and tried a large variety of restaurants at WDW. I'm willing to dine off-site for Thanksgiving.

I guess I already have in my mind that WDW will be very busy the week of Thanksgiving so I'm thinking we should do Discovery Cove that week and maybe take a drive to Clearwater for the day and save the Christmas party until the week after Thanksgiving.

Since this will be our first Thanksgiving away from family, I would love to take the kids somewhere special that they'd always remember!