Thanksgiving or 1st Week in December???

[tom]

Hi All, I need some help trying to decide whether to Keep Thanksgiving week or change to the first week in December for the Boardwalk Villas. Any opinions on which of the two weeks is better? Are there any special celebrations for Thanksgiving or just at the meals at the restaurants? How about the park crowds? Any info would be helpful.
Thanks, Tom

 

[RobDoc]

Before you go changing any reservation plans, you might want to check availability. There have been many reports about BWV being already reserved at that time. A bird in the hand......

The crowds are usually smaller during the 1st week in Dec- although this year may be different since there will be a celebration of Walt's 100th Birthday that week.

Doc
doc@wdwinfo.com

 

[fkj2]

I've not ever been tempted to go Thanksgiving week but I have been there the first week of December. I've heard the crowds drop dramatically after the holiday but its becoming a very popular time to travel to WDW because all of the Christmas decorations are up. It used to be that Dis did decorations after Thanksgiving but 4 years ago a CM told me that the people who went for Thanksgiving wanted to see them also. You might get better rates after the holiday for cars,etc.

 

[Geubux]

The Christmas decorations are put up during the Thanksgiving day weekend, not sure which day. We have gone the second week in Dec and the place was dead! Which is good!! We are going this year Dec 8- 15. Although the DVC may be packed, usually the other hotels aren't. When we stayed at CB in Dec 99, only 400 of the 2000 rooms were filled. But, the Friday the week before Christmas, they filled up like magic. the parks were so slow we never used fastpass; took longer to get the fastpass than to go through most lines.

 

[ceejay13]

We love the first of December because of the low crowds. I do agree with the previous post that said to check availability. We tried in May last year for BWV, our home resort and it was all booked and the waiting list was closed. We ended up at OKW at loved it, however.

 

[DebbieB]

We love the beginning of December and have gone the first or second week the past 3 years. I have Dec 1 to 7 reserved at BWV. From what others have posted, I would not have got my standard view if I had not called right at 9:00 11 months before my check-out day (it was a Monday, so I also had first crack at the 2 days before it too). People who called later in the day could not get standard view and I've heard that all the rooms are sold out for those dates. I was there last year that week and the entire resort was sold out completely. The crowds at the parks usually aren't bad around that time of year. We love the Christmas decorations and activities.

 

[jeanneg]

We usually arrive the Wed before Thanksgiving and and as far as we can tell all of the decorations are up. Osbourne Light Show is running by then and the Candlelight Processional at Epcot usually begins the Friday after turkey day. Mickey's very Merry Christmas party (or whatever it's called)is one of the few things that doesn't begin until December. So either way you'll get to see most of the holiday stuff. That being said, keep in mind that Thanksgiving week is VERY crowded. Our kids are in HS and college so we can't pull them out, but if I had my choice I would certainly opt for December. Futhermore, if you're using DVC points you'll need fewer of them for the early December stay. We love DWD at Christmas but as soon as all our kids have flown the coop, we're going on our own - in December! One last thought, Thanksgiving at Disney is almost like a non-holiday. We've tried several options for a traditional dinner and were not really pleased with any of them. Lately we've been ordering the precooked turkey dinner from Goodings and adding the side dishes that we wanted. It's a little bit more work, but a better meal. Room service from Olivia's is convenient but very expensive. Twice we paid about $125-150 for dinner for 6 and both times they gave us 6 slices of pie! At that price they should have delivered at least one whole pie! Plus there was always too much of what we didn't eat and never enough mashed potatoes! Hope this helps....good luck!

 

[tom]

Thanks everyone for your helpful input