November or early December 2008? Please help me decide.

[Skadar2]

Picking a week is so stressful! My family of 4 is planning the big 2008 trip to WDW. This is the first time ever for the kids, so it's important! Our priorities are:

1) Lightest crowds possible
2) Warm weather for swimming

The first 4 days, we will be at Wilderness Lodge, the 2nd 4 days we were planning on Port Orleans Riverside (or Coronado Springs). Every week we target seems to have some problem, so we can't seem to arrive at the best decision. Here are the weeks we have been debating:

1) November 8-16, 2008 - This may overlap Jersey Week crowds. Also contains Veteran's Day.

2) November 29 - December 7, 2008 - We would arrive on Thanksgiving weekend, but the actual week should be quiet. We would be traveling on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which might be tough.

3) December 6-14, 2008 - This coincides directly with Pop Warner week, of which we have heard a lot of horror stories at the resorts.

Please, any help or insight you can provide is appreciated! Thanks!

 

[amwhitaker]

We went just went in November. Thanksgiving weekend was super crowded but the week after was great. But realize this can be a very ify time of the year for swimming. It can be really warm or downright cold! You take your chances this time of year.

 

[renda460]

We have been several times in late Nov and early Dec. Some trips the weather is in the 90's, and others it is only in the 70's. You will most likely be able to swim, but there is a possibility that the weather you hit is cooler.

Traveling the Sat after Thanksgiving may cause your flights to be much higher. This is just something to consider. We spent this past Thanksgiving at WDW and flights were much higher than normal.

From my experience, the Pop Warner crowds may only affect the Value resorts. We have been there along with lots of Pop Warner kids, and also many cheerleaders. Other than seeing these groups in the parks, we only noticed a problem when we were staying at a Value resort. They seemed to be outside and quite loud late into each night.

 

[marvin12]

We are in the same boat. We really want to do the sunday after thanksgiving, but have you seen the price of airfare. Just don't know what to do...

 

[Skadar2]

We are in the same boat. We really want to do the sunday after thanksgiving, but have you seen the price of airfare. Just don't know what to do...

Our carrier of choice would be JetBlue, and they don't even have flights listed that far in advance.

 

[Jack'sGirl5]

We are in the same boat. We really want to do the sunday after thanksgiving, but have you seen the price of airfare. Just don't know what to do...

We are also looking at a big trip the week after Thanksgiving. Our dates are November 29 to December 9. To save on airfare AND to check in on the day that the value season starts, I booked air on Saturday, November 29 through NWA for less than $200 RT . We are staying at the Hyatt Orlando Airport for one night very reasonably so that we can shuttle over to the Grand Floridian first thing Sunday morning and hit the parks fresh.

The other advantage that I have found to traveling a day before you actually start the magic of your Disney stay is that we are way less stressed from a travel perspective. The weather that time of year can be iffy, causing delays is not unusual but if our plane is a bit delayed it won't matter as long as we get in the same day.

Also, as far as swimming goes, I was at Disney during the same timeframe two years ago and it was definately swimming weather for most of the trip. Good luck with your choices!

 

[tiggerfan1]

Hello and welcome to the DIS boards!

I vote for the November 8-16 dates. My family and I went to WDW in early November (Nov. 6-10) which was during Jersey week. We were able to get great airfare and hotel deals during this time. There were quite a lot of people in the parks, but the wait times for many of the rides were surprisingly short. Many of the Christmas decorations were up and the Food and Wine festival at Epcot was still going on. The weather was really nice, too. The highs were in the mid-70s for our entire stay. It did get pretty cold in the mornings and late afternoon/evenings though (bring layers of clothing!). It will probably be much more crowded on Veterans' Day (and the weekend before Veterans' Day), but I'm sure it won't be nearly as bad as having to deal with Thanksgiving crowds or the (gasp!) Pop Warner crowds. I hope this helps. Happy trip planning!

 

[dburg30]

Wow, pop warner is the 6-14 in 08? that stinks.. Then #2 IMO..
The travel may be a little rough, but IMO that's gonna be the best week.. You'll get all the holiday stuff up I would think, plus should be a nice week after TG..

 

[nin8jc]

We're in the same boat -- can't decide and trying to get the best airfare. Does anyone know when they actually turn the Christmas lights on? We've never been for Christmas and I really want to see the World all done up w/o actually being there for Christmas. TIA!

 

[MousekaMaddi]

we were there this Nov 11-18th at Pop, purposely missing the Jersey week crowds and Food and wine and Super Soap weekend(all on purpose) We swam almos every day, had perfect weather and used fastpasses well so had no waits longer than 15 min. anywhere! Lovely week, Lots of holiday trees and decorations, TWO Mickeys christmas parties(yep 2!!)complete with free cocoa and cookies! We loved it!
Enjoyed MGMs Osborne lights and Gingerbread house in G.Floridian Resort, loved the chara in holiday garb. Would def go again this week.
WE DID BRING mittens(and used em nightly!) But had shorts and Ts on daily, Jeans,turtlenecks with swearshirts and mittns nightly.
(We wore shorts and tshirts with alllllllll our warm clothing on top ,to the parks, then we went thru security and into the parks to the lockers where we undressed into a locker (it was just starting to warm up) then later same nite we returned to locker after dinner and redressed everyone, it worked perfectly and we were cozy.) We often didnt leave sweatshirt in the lockers as we would take em on and off all during the day.