Park hints for Thanksgiving

pixelpixie

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 23, 2004
Messages
90
Hey everybody. I was hoping some of the more seasoned Thanksgiving time vacationers could post some of their experiences or any helpful hints - please! We went in Sept. last year and absolutely loved it! It was such a great vacation that we didn't even mind losing a day due to a hurricane! This time we are arriving the Saturday before Thanksgiving and leaving the Saturday after. And I'm worried about traffic levels once Thanksgiving hits. So any helpful advice you can give me would be fantastic (like which parks are likely to be less crowded during that time and anything else). Thanks!
I love these boards! :earsgirl:
 
Thanksgiving day itself isn't really all that bad, but the day AFTER Turkey Day is one of the most crowded of the holiday season. That whole weekend will be crowded, as many people use the excuse of a Thursday holiday to take a nice long weekend vacation. The crowds will be much higher than you encountered during your September trip, so plan your time in the parks based on that, and you'll be fine!

Christmas decorations will be up by the day after Thanksgiving, and all the holiday shows -- Candlelight, Osborne Lights, tree lightings -- will begin that day as well.

:earsboy:
 
We went last year from the Thursday before Thanksgiving through Tday itself. We had a great time. The crowds in the beginning were minimal we thought, but as the next week began and progressed towards Tday, it was crowded!! It was neat though to see all the Christmas decorations and things. The Osbourne lights were turned on the night before Thanksgiving so some members of our group went and saw those. Thanksgiving day, we spent it at MK because we really wanted to eat at LTT for lunch. I have to say, the park was packed. Much, much more crowded than when we had first arrived on our trip. If you plan accordingly, you'll still have a good time despite the crowds!
 
Hi, we went last Thanksgiving. We checked in to the GF on Tuesday evening and left the following Tuesday. We had a blast. We are evening people,so we really enjoyed the late hours at the MK (open until midnight). We would go to the parks after the Wishes (watched from our balcony) and people would be streaming out. We had walkons for almost everything we wanted to do.

The weather was lovely, too. Not too cool at night for us, about 50s, and 70s/80s during the day.

On Thanksgiving day, we rented a boat, had lunch PS at Whispering Canyon, rented a surrey bike at WL, went to the petting zoo, had reservations for the horse and carriage ride at the WL. It was different for us as we are usually comando park people, but so much fun! We had a PS for dinner at the Plaza at 7:30. After that we headed to Adventureland and walked on Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Alladin.....it was great. We never tried MK during the day, though. That would probably have been a different story and I wouldn't have enjoyed my trip as much.

Just make sure that you have PSs, and other ideas of things to do other than just the parks. It was swimming weather, but we really kept busy with other fun things. Epcot, MGM weren't too busy when we visited, either.

Have fun! I would do it again if I get the chance. The Xmas decorations were neat to see, also. I tried the MVMCP on Sunday night. Don't really have too much great to say about that party, though. We were disappointed with the huge amount of people that chose to go to that first party. To me it seemed extremely crowded. Some people would disagree, but we were pushing a stroller and my daughter uses a white cane so that makes navigating through crowds difficult. It took us so long to get from one land to another attraction in another land, we really had a bust of a time. No cookies, no photo, nothing special. (I have been to halloween parties 2003 that were great)

We have been MANY times, in Feb, Jan, August, March, but this was one of our best trips.

Lives4Disney :earsgirl:
 

Has anyone tried to go to DTD over the weekend? I know the malls around here are packed on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, so I was kind of figuring DTD would be as bad. Does anyone know? Trying to figure what to do those two days.
 
Lives4Disney: How was the lunch at Whispering Canyon? I'm arriving the Saturday before Thanksgiving (VWL) and leaving the Friday after. I'm considering WC for lunch or dinner. I plan to visit the parks Sunday-Wednesday, leaving Thanksgiving Day for R&R.
 











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