Thanksgiving at Disney

[kaismommie]

I'm thinking of taking my kiddos to Disney during the Thanksgiving holiday. Has anyone done this before? What's it like? Is the weather still warm? I know this depends on the year, but any input would be great.

We are also thinking of doing Sea World as well, hoping the weather is permittable. Any advice would be GREAT! Thanks

 

[Mom23Disneybelievers]

I'm thinking of taking my kiddos to Disney during the Thanksgiving holiday. Has anyone done this before? What's it like? Is the weather still warm? I know this depends on the year, but any input would be great.

We are also thinking of doing Sea World as well, hoping the weather is permittable. Any advice would be GREAT! Thanks

We did this last year, for the first time. (We used to go for spring break.) It was wonderful and we are going back again for thanksgiving this year.

The weather was fantastic. It was warm..we went swimming daily and could go on the water rides without being chilled.

The crowds, except for Thanksgiving day, were much better than spring break crowds. In fact, if you plan your park days to avoid the parks with EMH and get there early, you will have no issues with unbearable crowds.

It was also nice to get in on the Christmas magic...decorations, MVMCP, and Osbourne Lights.

 

[Mousemommy1]

We went for Thanksgiving week in 2009. In the days leading up to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the crowds were very reasonable. Then from the Wednesday onward, it got crazy!

The weather was decent. Warm during the day, but got pretty cool at night. We did not use the pool during that week.

Being able to see all of the Christmas decorations is a bonus during that time period too!

 

[kaismommie]

Thanks everyone for the input

I meant to put this in the parks forum, must misread the topic heading. I do apologize. I'm wanting to stay at the new resort and if we go this summer, we can't. So I was thinking Thanksgiving
We went before Christmas one year and it was a bit cold. So thought we'd change it up this year

Thanks!!!

 

[alexensmom]

We went Thanksgiving weekend through the next week in 2010 and we were cool. We were in jackets almost every day. We swam at WL pool one day and used the hot tub one evening. It was great to be in Fla and not sweating to death though. The nights were cold. We left MK before the evening parade one night because it was so cold and we were prepared to be. Make sure you pack lots of layers...a pain to pack but I was glad I did. It was a great start to the Christmas season with all of the decorations!

 

[kdawg8762]

We went the week of TG this past year. It was great, overall great weather, and the crowds weren't bad at all, even on TG. We just chose to avoid MK on TG.

 

[1971DBday]

We LOVE Thanksgiving time (well more so after Thanksgiving )!!!!

From 2006 through 2010 we have arrived on Thanksgiving day and stayed the whole week prior. Thanksgiving day and the Friday and Saturday after are insanely busy and it really starts to die down on the Sunday afterwards. The downfall in most cases is your kids will miss some school. However, our rule was they had to always be A/B students (primarily A) and we would continue this routine. However, now the oldest is in high school and it's become more challenging.

This past year we did October - it was okay. F&W Festival was great, wheather was awful but not typical for this time of the year. We've also done April and August and this year will be an 11 day trip in June (Dear God - save us from the heat!)

We are from a Chicago suburb so swimming in anything 69 and up we were fine. The majority of the time it was 72 plus which made it wonderful for the parks yet didn't hurt swim time. I think the highest temp was about 82. But as a pp stated the holiday decorations are so magical and they start going up just before Thanksgiving. Don't miss Osborne Lights at DHS, but DO NOT go on a Fri or Sat.

TouringPlans.com is showing the following:

Thanksgiving day 10 out of 10
Friday 10
Saturday 10
Sunday 8
Monday 6
Tuesday 2
Wednesday 2
Thursday 5
Friday 4
Saturday 6

etc....Thus why we get more the week after Thanksgiving and Sunday and Monday are higher then what we are used to.

 

[CynBeth]

We went this past Thanksgiving Week from Sat before to the Sat after and it was great. We went to SW the day after Thanksgiving which is when their holiday celebration began. Unfortunately we couldn't stay for the evening festivities because we had to get to EPCOT for the CP. Make time to resort hop to see decorations especially at the MK resorts and the EPCOT resorts. The Osbourne Lights are amazing at DHS. Do you have an idea where you'd like to stay? We stayed at POFQ and it wasn't too crowded at all. It is small so the furthest building is a 5 min walk to the main building and it is a short walk to POR if you want to visit that pool or food court. I really liked the boat to DTD. It seemed to take no time at all to get to the parks even when both PO resorts shared a bus. I will be happy to answer any questions.