Thanksgiving?? Too crowded or not?

[kylaura]

What about the Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving? Has it been crowded in the past? The Touring Plans crowd calendar doesn't look too bad.

 

[BriLovesDisney]

I went the week of Thanksgiving several years ago and found the crowds to be very manageable. I'd definitely go during that time again.

 

[tinkerjo]

A CM told my kids last week that Thanksgiving day is like a ghost town at WDW

 

[mom2rtk]

A CM told my kids last week that Thanksgiving day is like a ghost town at WDW

Were they winking when they said that? It's never a ghost town at WDW. Least of all on a holiday. Check the resort rates. I can guarantee they are not value pricing, which is what they charge during the slowest times of year. It won't be Christmas busy, but it will be VERY busy.

 

[WishICouldSpeakWhale]

We were there in 2017. The Sunday before Thanksgiving was nuts. Thanksgiving didn't seem as bad (we went to MK and Epcot), but I wonder if I was just expecting it to be as crazy as it had been the Sunday before.

MK was definitely not a ghost town.

But, if you are considering whether or not to go, I am considering going back for Thanksgiving week this year. So it couldn't have been that bad.

 

[570traveler]

We’ve gone the past 2 years from the Sunday before Thanksgiving till the Saturday after. Crowds are heavy even on the days preceding and increase as the holiday approaches. We enjoy going this week since I can take off work to go and the holiday decorations are lovely.
If you’re hoping for low crowds, avoid this week. We go knowing that we may not get on many more rides than our 3 fast passes (many popular rides will be 2-3 hour wait...fop was over 5 hours).

 

[zobow02]

We went during Thanksgiving once and a couple days prior to the holiday. It's not a terrible time to visit but the lines are still long like always. Honestly there isn't even a decent/non-crowded time to go to Disney lol

 

[SaintsManiac]

It was very manageable. We had a truly magical time. Go and enjoy!

 

[ariane37]

We went for Thanksgiving in 2015 and 2016, and would have gone last year if it wasn't for DS's basketball schedule because we love that week! It's crowded but not as crowded as one would think. As with other holidays you need to make RD a priority and, another big thing, eat your QS meals at "off" times; I can't stress that enough! Getting to experience most of the holiday decorations and offerings is a big plus.

 

[Klayfish]

A CM told my kids last week that Thanksgiving day is like a ghost town at WDW

They were very likely making a joke. That's absolutely false. Thanksgiving Day is extremely crowded, probably one of the busiest single days of the year.

Having said that, the week before Thanksgiving is certainly busy in general. Is it "too crowded" is a question only you can answer, OP. The way I always put it...you're going to the most popular tourist destination in America...on a major holiday. So common sense will tell you it's quite busy. But whether you can have fun or not depends on you. We were there this year and had plenty of fun.

 

[slpeters]

I can't speak to Thanksgiving itself but as far as the days leading up to it, we were there for a week this last November and flew out the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We had an amazing time! Yeah, we had to do some stuff to make sure we didn't spend all our time in line--all that good stuff we learned on here. We rope-dropped, we did EMH, we park-hopped and took afternoon breaks so we could stay until park close as well. We planned out our FPs and had a few reservations. We really didn't have any substantial waits--actually the longest we waited for anything was both times we did FOP as a FP (about twenty minutes or so). The parks did feel more and more crowded as the week went on but the only time it felt really "crowded" was that Monday night in MK. Of course everyone had already warned us about that and we planned for it--saved our FPs for the evening, did the dessert party, had an early ADR--it was actually one of our most magical days. I don't have a lot to compare it to because as of yet it's the only time I've been to WDW but I can say that where we assumed it would kind of be a one-time thing we had such an amazing time that we're already planning two more trips!

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

We went for Thanksgiving in 2015 and 2016, and would have gone last year if it wasn't for DS's basketball schedule because we love that week! It's crowded but not as crowded as one would think. As with other holidays you need to make RD a priority and, another big thing, eat your QS meals at "off" times; I can't stress that enough! Getting to experience most of the holiday decorations and offerings is a big plus.

What were average wait times for popular rides? Were you able to get FPs for popular rides?

 

[Klayfish]

What were average wait times for popular rides? Were you able to get FPs for popular rides?

I don't know precisely what the average wait times were, I don't really track it. But for popular rides, it was pretty long. I recall seeing FoP over 3 hours, Space Mountain around 2 hours, RnR 90+ minutes, etc... However, we never once waited more than 20 minutes for anything. We used FP+. It takes a decent amount of digging at times, but we always got them, even for popular rides. The one and only exception was FoP, never got one for that. But 7DMT, Space, RnR, TSMM, EE, etc...we got same day FP+.

 

[Paul Rodgers]

I went the full week of Thanksgiving 2016 (Sun-Sat) with the three of us. You could definitely tell a difference between the first couple of days, and then Thursday and Friday, but it wasn't that bad. It was definitely manageable, and it felt more busy the few days after the Oct '16 Hurricane last year rather than the week of Thanksgiving. We just fastpassed the heck out of everything we could get and had our dining reservations set. Plus it helps taking shortcuts (using back entrance of Epcot, Uber to Contemporary for MK, caring less about the the scene and more about the rides and experiences).

 

[CynBeth]

We have been twice during Thanksgiving Week arriving the Fri before and leaving the Sun after so we could do MVMCP on arrival day. We did not find it too bad at all. We always make ADRs and FPs plus schedule 2 days each at MK and Epcot sometimes a little more time there and 1 day for DHS and AK so we pretty much have the time for everything we want to see and do. We are going this year and right now left Thanksgiving Day open but might try to go back to AK to finish up what we didn’t get to earlier in the week.

 

[Monykalyn]

We did the Sunday before to Saturday after Thanksgiving 2017. We stayed offsite-great way to escape the crowds in a lovely resort, uncrowded pools, 2 bed 2 bath condo. We had a great time but we didn't do open-close in the parks either. Thanksgiving day itself we hit RD in MK and did many rides before we left at noon-1pm ish, combo of standby and FP-when we left for the day there were still many FP left for afternoon. Didn't find traffic bad either.
The parks all decorated for Holidays are really something to see!

 

[soniam]

Were they winking when they said that? It's never a ghost town at WDW. Least of all on a holiday. Check the resort rates. I can guarantee they are not value pricing, which is what they charge during the slowest times of year. It won't be Christmas busy, but it will be VERY busy.

As a comparison, we will be staying at POR next week. We also plan to stay there for the entire week of Thanksgiving. My room rate for a comparable room is pretty much the same. So, like you said, it's not xmas or NYE busy, but it's more like Spring Break, holiday weekend busy.

 

[Delirium]

We are doing Thanksgiving this year for the first time. Planning a lot of rope drops and some late nights at MK, with large mid-day breaks at the resort most days. Looking very much forward to it. My wife has been there when the Christmas decorations have been up. I have not.

 

[mamamelody2]

Our last park day last year was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We were Epcot early evening and used our FP on Soarin. Once we got off, it was at 180 minutes and LWTL was at 90 minutes. Very busy.

According to TP, the Mon, Tues, and Wed before Thanksgiving last year the parks were mostly 10s with a few 9s. Thanksgiving itself was MK 8, HS 9, EP 9, AK 6. Definitely not a ghost town like a PP was told by a CM.

 

[ariane37]

What were average wait times for popular rides? Were you able to get FPs for popular rides?

To be honest, I don't know, especially since it's been over a year since our last Thanksgiving trip and we've had so many trips since then. But wait times were long lol. Not first thing in the morning though which is why I say RD is definitely important; you can get a decent amount done in the first couple hours, it's also one of the only times we've utilized morning EMH. I will say we did NOT have good luck getting additional FP's during the day but 1. we only take additional FP's for headliners and 2. none of us have the patience to constantly refresh. We did find that while the parks got crowded mid-day they let up enough for us to find FP's in the late evening.

The first year we went in 2015, AK on Thanksgiving Day was great as far as crowds. In 2016 HS was BAD. However, others we know that went to MK actually found it to be much less crowded than expected. Both years we spent Black Friday at Epcot and found it to be extremely manageable but spent most of our time in WS watching the storytellers and didn't focus on rides or getting FP's.