Thanksgiving vs. Christmas

[Tina in FD]

Due to my oldest child's schedule (she's in college now & is crazy involved in EVERYTHING!), we aren't able to pull the kids out of school and travel during less hectic times. Our last trip was the first week of December last year and was wonderful, parks weren't crowded and we had a fantastic trip. Now we want to plan another trip, but it looks like we're going to be stuck traveling at peak times, even though none of us are really looking forward to it.

I realize that both Thanksgiving and Christmas are extremely busy times, but is one worse than the other? If we choose Thanksgiving we may be able to pull everyone out the Thursday before the week of Thanksgiving (and travel back home, on Thanksgiving day), so it would be a little less hectic I'm thinking... is this correct? Or if it doesn't make a huge difference I may plan it during Christmas break and call it their present.

Regardless, we're tentatively looking at spend 3 days at Universal (most likely the first 3, as I think they'll be the slowest days), then one day at Discovery Cove, one at Aquatica (yes, I know it's "cold" to the natives, but we live in Iowa and it'll be warm to us), and one at Seaworld......

Mind you, we REALLY aren't fond of large crowds, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[bumbershoot]

Trying to channel my old college-student self...I would go for Christmas break. The semester is DONE, there's no studying to be done while gone. Assuming she's not in a winter sport she won't be called away for tournaments, etc. She'll just be on holiday-time.

Thanksgiving was always hard for me because there was something for me to be doing.

 

[RMulieri]

Thanksgiving is less crowded than Christmas week.The week between Christmas and New Years ( much like Disney) is the BUSIEST week of the year.It will be packed and have huge waits.Now staying onsite for the express pass helps, but you have to factor in large amounts of people in the restaurants and bathrooms too.Thanksgiving is not too bad till Black Friday and it is busy then, but far more manageable

 

[Metro West]

Thanksgiving is less crowded than Christmas week.The week between Christmas and New Years ( much like Disney) is the BUSIEST week of the year.It will be packed and have huge waits.Now staying onsite for the express pass helps, but you have to factor in large amounts of people in the restaurants and bathrooms too.Thanksgiving is not too bad till Black Friday and it is busy then, but far more manageable

 

[Tina in FD]

Thanks so much for the advice. I'm leaning towards Thanksgiving, but am nervous about the homework (she had a TON of work this past week) that she may have to do... UGH! Wish it were like the good 'ol days when I just yanked 'em out of class and we didn't have problems. Oh well... that's what happens when they start growing up.

Thanks again!

 

[JennCa]

We were just there over the same dates in November and I am 99% sure that Tday would be much better crowd wise. I thought the crowds were very reasonable, didn't stay on site the week and everything was easy, Friday week before Tday), then each day got progressively busier. Next year should be busier in general since the new Harry Potter area will be open. Staying on site makes a huge difference and if you were to stay on site then I would say either is fine.

Jenn