Not sure on best time to visit for Christmas season due to Thanksgiving.

[AussieNSW]

I have just received an email from the airline we usually fly with from Australia to LAX Qantas and they have some good deals in November early December. Being the Christmas lover I am I thought maybe we could organise a quick trip to see the Christmas season. My problem is that I am unfamiliar with how busy Disneyland will be during this time. I am aware that the superheroes marathon weekend will be on 12th -13th November and that the holiday season should start about the 14th. Does the holiday season fully start at this time or does it take a while to get up and running?
In regards to Thanksgiving I know it will be extremely busy on the 24th and 25th. Do people then stay for the weekend and into the next week or do people go straight but to work on the Monday 28th November?
The week of Thanksgiving do people arrive on the weekend before 19th November or do they tend to arrive the day before Thanksgiving?
I realise that crowd numbers change from year to year and are influenced by events such as the 60th last Christmas season but I would like just a general idea.
Thanks for all your help as we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia I am unfamiliar with how people organise their holidays in November.

 

[JessL]

I did a bit of research into this at the beginning of the year and ended up booking for 14-23 November. After the marathon and before Thanksgiving and based on previous years, the Christmas decorations should be up by then. At that point airfares for December were much more expensive than November, so that was the best week I could find. Of course, with Fantasmic not on and no railroad and now talk of no fireworks, I'm beginning to wonder how much I'd lose by cancelling and going to Tokyo instead! Good luck!

 

[Mamato4boys]

I have never been in November, but am planning a visit from the 14-18 this year. From my research, the 10-13 will be very busy because of the marathon, and that might make the crowds a little larger than they would otherwise be on Monday the 14 (due to marathon people making a long weekend), but the rest of the week shouldn't be too terrible. Disney is predicting Friday the 18 until the Sunday after Thanksgiving to be peak crowds, if I recall correctly. Some schools get the entire week of Thanksgiving off, so that will likely increase crowds the entire week of Thanksgiving, not just that Thursday-Sunday. Most people are back to school and work the Monday following Thanksgiving, so the crowds should decrease significantly. Not an empty park, but most likely not packed either.

I think that most decorations and attractions are done when the official kickoff to the season occurs, but some things, like the hotel decorations, usually aren't finished until after Thanksgiving.

 

[AussieNSW]

Thankyou for that information that was what I needed to know to made some decisions.

 

[Elk Grove Chris]

We have been the week of Thanksgiving 4 times in the last decade. Days leading up to turkey day can get very busy, but we have found that the days after even into the weekend are not all that terrible, Sunday is a get a way day for a lot of people. From what I can remember, they felt like just busy weekend days, hit the parks early and hard and you can get a lot accomplished. Week after can be really nice, shorter park hours though.