Tell me about Thanksgiving at WDW!!

[kritter]

We are thinking about a trip to WDW @ Thanksgiving time. How are the crowds, etc...?? TIA!!

 

[Rob S.]

I have a friend that would go at Thanksgiving every year because of the kids school schedules. Now that they have all graduated from college he has vowed NEVER AGAIN! The crowds are the worst. I remember him telling me that there was still a 60+ minute wait for space mountain at 2:00am.

 

[TwinsFan]

We went one year for Thanksgiving, I don't remember it being hugely crowded. The weather can be iffy, we went to the water park one day and then a cold front came through and we had to buy a jacket at the gift shop the next.

 

[rlovew]

We go right before Thanksgiving for a couple of days (my birthday trip) and it is more crowded even then than many other times of the year. The one year we were there for Thanksgiving was the most crowded I ever remember it being. On Thanksgiving we had a 10:30am reservation at Kona. We arrived for EMH at 8am and were able to ride pirates by 9:30 when we had to leave and go to the Poly for breakfast. That Friday we went to DHS and arrived 10 minutes after opening. The line for RnR FP (this was before TSM opened) was about 30 minutes and lines for all the headliners were an hour plus wait times listed by 10am.

 

[walkdmc]

We visited that week in '09. From the Saturday to Wednesday night before T-giving, everything was great, low crowds and good weather. However, beginning Wednesday night, the crowds were so thick, we avoided the parks from that point on.

We stayed at the Poly and walked onto empty monorails and buses at the TTC, from Sat. to Wed. Then, Wed. night, the line for the monorail serpentined down to the ticket booths!!!! It was stunning, the very quick difference in crowds.

Make sure you tour hard the first 1/2 of the week, use a touring plan, make ADRs - like now!, and plan on just relaxing toward the end of the week. RD, FPs and ADRs are your three best friends during that week.

 

[Starr W.]

We've gone Thanksgiving week since 2006, no problem for us.

Make your ADR's, personally we don't eat T-giving dinner at a park. We go to a resort or Raglan Road.

We get to the parks early, leave mid day, perhaps go back in the evening.

Weather is definately iffy. We've had temps in the mid 80's to high 50's over the years.

 

[The VWL Five]

We went during Xmas in 2009 and that was a 'never again' moment.

I can't imagine Thxgiving being worse than Xmas

 

[DMKEDM]

Our family tradition is to do T-giving at WDW--we've been going every T-giving for at least 10 years (I've lost count!)...

It is definitely one of the crowded times of the year, with crowds building from about Tues til drop-off towards late afternoon the Sunday after T-giving...and it can be very hard to find a place to eat a traditional T-giving meal if you try to plan that "spontaneously"...altho the counter service T-giving meals (e.g., Artist Point at SSR) are really quite good...if you do decide to go, definitely make an ADR (even if you wind up changing your mind and canceling it later)...even now you may have trouble getting in to some restaurants on T-giving and the following weekend...

Weather is variable...one year I remember it being in the 90s; another I remember 30s for my early morning exercise walk, w/a high of 60 most of that week...mostly it's nice, tho--lows in the 60s and highs in the mid-70s...not the rainy season, altho that doesn't mean there won't be any rain...

But for us the spectacular element to T-giving at WDW is that it's the start of the Christmas season...by Friday morning, all the holiday decorations are up and all the holiday shows and displays are running--and Christmas at WDW is spectacular indeed...it's just breathtakingly magical...

Disney has cut back, noticeably, on both decorations and "events", over the holidays--but if you've never done a trip to Disney between T-giving and Christmas, you'll still be blown away by how spectacular it is...it's less than it used to be, but if you've never seen it as it used to be you'll find it wondrous indeed as it is now...

Obviously, we love Disney at T-giving...or we wouldn't keep going year after year...we cope w/the crowds by expecting them...we hit parks early (it's pretty easy to ride the big attractions between park opening and 10:30 or so, especially when you factor in the ability to use FPs), and then go back for dinner and after-dinner strolling...we do resort visiting, Downtown Disney (Downtown Disney is horribly crowded at night from the Tues-Wed before T-giving thru the Sunday after...it's definitely a day-time destination for us that week!), swimming (weather-permitting) mini-golf, etc. after lunch until dinner time...

If you're a person who just can't stand crowds at Disney, then T-giving weekend (Wed-Sun) is not a good time to go. But if you can deal w/crowds, then it's a fantastic time to experience the magic!

 

[sskem96]

We went down on Thanksgiving Day in 2009. Thurs, Fri, and Sat were pretty crowded, but the crowds started to thin considerably on Sunday and the following week was great.

 

[com_op_2000]

The one year we went at T-giving we did not go to a park. Instead we were in a 1-bdrm at OKW and had eight people for lunch/dinner. DW cooked a turkey and stuffing in the oven and the others brought the sides. DD and other family members went to the pool during the afternoon and the football games were nice in the GS bar.

 

[kcarp75]

We went last year 2010 at Thanksgiving. We Stayed Friday-Wed before Thanksgiving. It was great! The weather was perfect, we Made sure to go to Magic Kingdom early in the trip......knowing that as we got closer it would be more crowded. The parks are also decorated for Christmas, The best part about that time was after the trip we got to go home and eat turkey and still have a LONG weekend to recover!!!!!

 

[amypetecar]

We went last year over thanksgiving, but rather than taking the kids out of school mon-tues before thanksgiving, we toured the wed before TG until the tuesday after. Crowds were very light Sun - Tues and airfare was dirt cheap!

We followed the advice on touringplans.com, avoided parks with extra magic hours, and were fine. it was crowded, but wasn't hard to navigate the crowds.

Wed - Did HS. Waited an hour for TSM at rope drop, but using fast pass didn't wait longer than 10 min. for anything else. Park was crowded though! Peak waits at TSM was 90 min, RRC 75 min, and Tot 60.... but get fast passes in the morning and you're all set.
Thurs (Thanksgiving) - toured AK. minimal crowds; no lines over 10 min. using fast pass. I didn't see a posted wait time over 30 minutes including everest and safari. We did the fantasmic dinner package that night. we were there early with our reserved seats but people were definetly just walking in and getting seats up until around 20 minutes before show time.
Fri - toured MK. toured rope drop to 1pm and 7pm - after wishes. used fast passes for major rides and we waited less than 10 minutes for everything. took a break with lunch at wispering canyon and pool time at OKW during the day
Sat - non-theme park day. pool during the day and DTD at night. DTD was beyond packed! Had reservation for late dinner at California Grill and watched wishes before dessert.
Sun - toured Epcot center with very light crowds during the day and did MVMCP at night. very managable crowd at the party, and did a ton of rides in addition to the parade, fireworks, and castle show. We walked onto test track at 10am, and soarin was very easy to get fast passes twice. i don't think anything else gets a line in that park.
Mon - slept in and spent late afternoon-park closing at Epcot. There was almost no-one at epcot. we walked right into the last show of the candlelight processional without a wait! and had plenty of room in Japan along the railing for illuminations. we didn't check out the headliners that day, but i don't think anything had much of a wait except soarin.
Tues- i've never seen so few people at the Magic Kingdom! I was sad that we could only stay until 2pm until we caught our flight, but it was beyond uncrowded!

I hope this helped to give you a sense of what touring the parks was like.

 

[henderkm]

We've been there several times during T'giving. It's my favorite time to go because the Christmas decorations are already up and usually the Candlelight Processional has started.

We leave for WDW on the Friday or Saturday before T'giving and usually fly back out on T'giving day. Flights are cheaper and the airlines are much less crowded.

The parks are crowded, but not as much as the week before Christmas. We always try to do MK and DHS at the beginning of our stay.