Thanksgiving Day--Of course it will be crowded...

We're going Thanksgiving week this year too and I'm wondering if Garden Grill is a good choice for Thanksgiving day. They serve a pretty traditional meal.


We ate at GG for Thanksgiving in 2017. It was a great meal!
 
Well, I logged on to MDE this morning and was a bit late to the party. Liberty Tree was already booked for lunch and dinner on Thanksgiving Day. So I booked Cape May instead. I think it will be perfect, since we are staying at the Swan.
 
Well, I logged on to MDE this morning and was a bit late to the party. Liberty Tree was already booked for lunch and dinner on Thanksgiving Day. So I booked Cape May instead. I think it will be perfect, since we are staying at the Swan.

We really enjoyed Cape May the couple times we went for Thanksgiving!! Turkey and crab legs, perfect Thanksgiving dinner 😋
 

Count me in with the Thanksgiving crowd this year. It will be our first time going over Thanksgiving, and I know it will be insane, but this will be our third time to WDW this year. So, I don't mind relaxing more and not doing the parks as much if they are insane. I am also trying to decide what Thanksgiving Dinner to book. My ADR window is in two days. I was thinking Biergarten, but now after reading the posts about Cape May, I am thinking about going there instead. We normally love both restaurants, I especially love the crab legs at Cape May. But, we definitely want the traditional Turkey dinner as well. Has anyone been to both, and if so which one did you prefer?
 
I was planning on Epcot for Thanksgiving Day as well. I've never been on that holiday, but from all the advice I got on here, I figured that was a good choice. But this year they aren't starting the Festival of the Holidays until the day after Thanksgiving! We really want to do it, so I guess we will just fight the crowds at MK.

OP--You will LOVE Homecomin'. It's one of my favorites. Sorry I can't help you with your crowd question since I haven't been during that time. Maybe we will run into each other--literally! LOL!
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you said something about the start date for the Festival of the holidays! I just assumed it started with the Christmas decorations! I just re-organized my schedule thanks to you!!!!
 
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you said something about the start date for the Festival of the holidays! I just assumed it started with the Christmas decorations! I just re-organized my schedule thanks to you!!!!
I'm glad I was able to help. I have read recently that the CP will start on Thanksgiving but all the other festivities will start on Black Friday. I wasn't able to get an ADR where I wanted for Thanksgiving Day, so we may end up at AK on Thanksgiving and then celebrate with turkey and a trip to MK on Black Friday.
 
I did my ADRs yesterday - Thanksgiving day was rough! I guess I should have expected it to be, but wowza! Ended up with a Cape May dinner - I'm happy with that, though we were hoping for Garden Grill. Never been to Cape May, excited to try it!
 
I did my ADRs yesterday - Thanksgiving day was rough! I guess I should have expected it to be, but wowza! Ended up with a Cape May dinner - I'm happy with that, though we were hoping for Garden Grill. Never been to Cape May, excited to try it!


Garden Grill has not been released yet. Set up an alert on Touring Plans.
 
I make my ADR’s this weekend. I’m debating whether or not to avoid HS restaurants. I think I might book a couple and then decide once we get closer once I see how the crowds are.
 
If dinning reservations are any indication, Nov 27-Dec 1 will be busy. Likewise, the flights on Southwest (Pittsburgh) on 12/1 were sold out shortly after the booking window was open except for the first and last flights of the day.
 
I'm glad I was able to help. I have read recently that the CP will start on Thanksgiving but all the other festivities will start on Black Friday. I wasn't able to get an ADR where I wanted for Thanksgiving Day, so we may end up at AK on Thanksgiving and then celebrate with turkey and a trip to MK on Black Friday.
This really confuses me why they would start CP first. I was hoping they followed the schedule of the last 3 years. It is because of the old schedule we always did Tuesday before thanksgiving until the Tuesday after thanksgiving. The festival of the holidays was one of my favorite things to do and enjoy.
 
This really confuses me why they would start CP first. I was hoping they followed the schedule of the last 3 years. It is because of the old schedule we always did Tuesday before thanksgiving until the Tuesday after thanksgiving. The festival of the holidays was one of my favorite things to do and enjoy.
I agree. It doesn't make sense. Why not start all of the festivities on Thursday? Especially with Thanksgiving starting so late this year. I was very surprised when I found out that the Food & Wine Festival was ending so late this year. I guess they make more money off of it than they do the holiday festival.
 
I wonder if it also may have to do with them having problems finding narrators. Last year they had quite a few blanks on the list until very close to the start of the season. I wish it was starting earlier. Last year we had a choice between Chita Rivera and Helen Hunt for Thanksgiving week because it started at the beginning of the week, and it made it not so stressful to think you only have a few days to get a spot.
 
I agree. It doesn't make sense. Why not start all of the festivities on Thursday? Especially with Thanksgiving starting so late this year. I was very surprised when I found out that the Food & Wine Festival was ending so late this year. I guess they make more money off of it than they do the holiday festival.
That’s the only thing I can think of that they make more money with Food and Wine. I also wonder if by shortening it, they save operating costs for the storytellers and additional entertainment for the holidays.
 
I wonder if it also may have to do with them having problems finding narrators. Last year they had quite a few blanks on the list until very close to the start of the season. I wish it was starting earlier. Last year we had a choice between Chita Rivera and Helen Hunt for Thanksgiving week because it started at the beginning of the week, and it made it not so stressful to think you only have a few days to get a spot.
I don’t know if that is so much the case. The CP has always started on Black Friday minus last year. It may have been harder to find more narrators last year, but that would be dependent on when Thanksgiving falls. I wonder if it has more to do with the F&W is cheaper to run vs. profit over festival of the holidays.
 



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