Next November

[Bossy22]

So, I finally have my wife agreeing to think about dates (although we need to do some saving to make it happen) so now I need some help. I've been looking up November past, and watching this November, but still have many questions.
1.) when do the Christmas decorations go up by? We want to see DL Christmas without going in the busy of Christmas. We also don't want to be there when the rides are shut down to do the overlay (my kids love small world and I love Jungle cruise, etc)
2.) Anyone know when the marathon is next year and how it impacts crowds?
3.) I'm assuming Thanksgiving is terrible, how long is the terrible before and after?
4.) When do they extend hours? Not a deal breaker, just curious as we don't often stay too late but we will miss the early mornings as they seem to be when we get the most done.

Thanks for all your help, I feel like I've mastered the summer but I'm out of my element here!

 

[figment_jii]

1.) when do the Christmas decorations go up by? We want to see DL Christmas without going in the busy of Christmas. We also don't want to be there when the rides are shut down to do the overlay (my kids love small world and I love Jungle cruise, etc)

For the last few years, the Holiday season has official started the Friday of the Super Heroes/Avengers Marathon Weekend. Next year, it's slated for Nov 9 through 12, so I would tentatively expect the holidays to official start around November 10th. The Christmas decorations start going up immediately after Halloween.

2.) Anyone know when the marathon is next year and how it impacts crowds?

I do think the Marathon increase the crowds that weekend, with some residual impact on Monday. I was there a couple of years ago and the parks were very busy on Sat and Sun of the marathon weekend. Veterans Day will be on a Sat in 2017, so some places will close on Friday, giving folks a three day weekend. That might cause some increases in crowds (as mentioned in another thread this year).

4.) When do they extend hours? Not a deal breaker, just curious as we don't often stay too late but we will miss the early mornings as they seem to be when we get the most done.

Operating hours are typically longer the week of Thanksgiving and on weekends. I've only been in the parks once when they extended that day's operating hours. For the most part, I don't think they change the operating hours all that often after they've published them. DLR typically posts operating hours about 45-days in advance.

 

[Angel Ariel]

We were at the parks for the start of the holiday season this year (and last year) as well as the RunDisney weekend, so I hope I can help you with some of your questions!

1.) when do the Christmas decorations go up by? We want to see DL Christmas without going in the busy of Christmas. We also don't want to be there when the rides are shut down to do the overlay (my kids love small world and I love Jungle cruise, etc)

We arrived on 11/8 this year, and most of the Christmas decorations were already up. The holiday season officially started on November 10th (Thursday). Jingle Cruise and Small World were not open until the actual holiday season began on the 10th. We saw a soft opening for Jingle Cruise happening on Wednesday, 11/9, but it was for cast members only. The Haunted Mansion overlay opens in September for the Halloween season and stays open until it's taken down in January.

2.) Anyone know when the marathon is next year and how it impacts crowds?
As figment_jii said, the marathon weekend is Nov. 9th-12th next year. The expo will start on the 9th, with the 5K on the 10th, the 10K on the 11th and the 1/2 marathon on the 12th.

This year, crowds were very light on Wednesday the 9th and Thursday the 10th. There was a noticeable uptick in crowds on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Saturday, especially, it was *very* crowded in Disneyland. DCA handles the crowds a bit better (which is where we were on Sunday), and didn't feel as crowded as DL did. That said, using fastpass, it was still possible to get quite a bit done. We knew in advance, though, that these days would be more crowded and we intentionally planned for them to be more focused on shows/parades/characters than rides. We still did rides on those days, don't get me wrong, but it helped to not be as ride focused on those days.

The Monday after the 1/2 marathon was our last day in the parks. It was noticeably LESS crowded than the weekend. Still more crowded than the Wed/Thurs beforehand, but not nearly as crowded as Saturday was.

3.) I'm assuming Thanksgiving is terrible, how long is the terrible before and after?

Last year our trip dates were 11/14-11/20. (The 1/2 marathon was on the 15th last year). Our Disneyland/DCA days were 11/14, 11/15, then 11/18 and 11/19. We spent the 16th/17th in San Diego. The weekend (11/14-11/15) was crowded just like it was in 2016, with the running crowd. 11/18 and 11/19 were pretty much empty, just like 11/9 and 11/10 were for us in 2016.

4.) When do they extend hours? Not a deal breaker, just curious as we don't often stay too late but we will miss the early mornings as they seem to be when we get the most done.

For our trip this year, DL had magic morning at 7am on 11/10nwith park open at 8am, the day the Holiday season started. The parks also closed at 12am that night. Park hours through the weekend were, I believe, 9am-12am. Wed/Thurs/Mon, though, they were 9am-9pm. I'm not sure when they get extended during both the week and weekend.

I hope that helps! If you have any questions, let me know. I'm happy to help as I can!

 

[lcp9]

We debated Nov 2nd-5th/Nov 9-12th this year, ended up going 2nd -5th.

2nd-5th:
Pros:
Relatively minimal crowds, especially Wed/Thurs - even big rides didn't have wait times more than about 30 mins, FP kept all our wait times 15 mins or less
No big events aside from Dapper Day, which was Sunday and didn't appear to significantly affect our time there (Wed-Sat)
Some holiday decorations are up (some residual Halloween, each day gets more holiday)

Cons:
Not full holiday season (only soundsational parade, regular fireworks)
Jingle Cruise/IASW doing holiday overlays
Space mountain closed two days for removal of halloween (only affected us for one day)
Some shorter days (Wed/Thurs were 10-9, Fri 9-12, Sat 8-12)


9th - 12th
Pros:
Holiday season start
Better parade schedules
all attractions running

Cons:
Probably marathon weekend
May overlap with veterans day
Overall much, much worse crowds

Anyway, this is what tipped the scales and I'm glad we ended up first week of November...I've seen the pics of crowds over Veterans Day (check out the DL subreddit for pics of the entry lines at 11am) and it was out of control. touring plans rated our days (after the fact) at like 3, 4, 4, 6 or something and the following weekend ended up being 6, 6, 9, 9. My kids like IASW but not at the trade off of very minimal waits.

I'm hopeful next year PTN will still be on some sort of weekend schedule even in off weeks, that would be the only thing that might convince us to try 2nd week of Nov. I've heard week before Thanksgiving is still decent although crowds this past Monday were pretty rough b/c of leftover marathoners, etc.

 

[Donalyn]

I was there this past weekend over the race weekend. It was quite busy. If you don't mind not being able to walk next to your kid, but only single file, then you may enjoy your time there. I will agree with prior poster - DL was much busier each day and at all times of day, than DCA. I would avoid race weekend if possible.

 

[Angel Ariel]

If you don't mind not being able to walk next to your kid, but only single file, then you may enjoy your time there.

We didn't find it to be quite that crazy, except for over in New Orleans Square. There it was quite crowded, but we didn't have issues navigating the rest of the park as a party of 5.

I would also say re: Veteran's Day...that was one of our late entry days, and the line to get into the parks was very long. That said, once we were in the parks it was not nearly as bad as we thought it would be based on the entry lines. I'll have to go back through my pictures to remember what it is we did that day (our DL days are blending in my head right now), but we got quite a lot done on pretty much every day we were there. We noticed the increase in crowds, but we didn't feel suffocated by them at all.