Thanksgiving vs Christmas

[jvz82]

My husband is a teacher so we are slightly limited to when we take our Disney vacations. I'm fairly used to the craziness though because growing up, my mom was a teacher so we always did Christmas Disney trips. We've been planning a Christmas trip for this year. But I'm considering maybe Thanksgiving instead. My husband would have to take 2 days off work so he's a little more hesitant but I've never been there at that time of year and I'd like to check it out. Is it any less busy than the week between Christmas and New years?? Are there any benefits or disadvantages of one over the other? We have 4 kids and one is on the autism spectrum, so I'm honestly a little nervous about going the week between Christmas and New years but I'm not sure if Thanksgiving week would be any different.

 

[ariane37]

I haven't been during Christmas in almost 30 years, but we went over Thanksgiving last year. We got there the Friday before and left the Saturday after; myself, DH, and DS's 13 & 10. It was crowded but actually not as bad as I thought it would be, and we're used to fairly lower crowd times. I will say getting to parks for RD, especially (I would guess ) with 4 kids is key and using FP's wisely; the waits for even less popular rides were long in all parks after 11 and getting 4th and 5th FP's in most parks was difficult. Those additional FP's in MK weren't as bad for the less popular rides, and also for a few rides that kids your children's ages would most likely be more interested in than mine.

Other than that, the only time we felt "crowded" was if we tried to eat QS during regular meal time (ex: lunch around 12:30 as opposed to 11 or 2ish). Lines at QS places at HS and Epcot were ridiculous! So one other area to plan wisely in.

Again, having no recent experience of the week between Xmas-New Years, if you search for threads about it I think you'll find that week to be WAY more crowded than the week of Thanksgiving. It's the busiest week of the year There are those who love that week, but even they will say it's good if you don't mind just soaking up the ambiance and not riding too much. RD is tons more important that week and park openings will be earlier on ALL days; we had a few 7a.m. openings over Thanksgiving but they will be more common over Xmas-NY week. I'd look at some older thread on that week, but my suggestion is for Thanksgiving week We'll be doing it again most likely next year.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Christmas is crazy.

Thanksgiving is slightly less crazy.

We have done Thanksgiving week before, and the days leading up to Thanksgiving, Sat-Tuesday were ok crowd wise but then Wed-Sunday were really bad. Like 4 hour wait time for Soarin' bad.

We honestly have vowed never to go during that time period again, lol.

That being said, if those are your only options, I would choose Thanksgiving.

 

[ariane37]

We have done Thanksgiving week before, and the days leading up to Thanksgiving, Sat-Tuesday were ok crowd wise but then Wed-Sunday were really bad. Like 4 hour wait time for Soarin' bad.

It was weird, I know that's the way it should be and most likely always is, but last Nov. we really felt the crowds more the Mon. and Tues. before Thanksgiving as opposed to the day before and the day after And we stuck to the recommended parks except for the day before Thanksgiving, too!

 

[Mousemommy1]

It was weird, I know that's the way it should be and most likely always is, but last Nov. we really felt the crowds more the Mon. and Tues. before Thanksgiving as opposed to the day before and the day after And we stuck to the recommended parks except for the day before Thanksgiving, too!

In full disclosure, our experience is from 2009 so things may have changed since then!

 

[jvz82]

Thanks for the feedback! If we go at Thanksgiving time, we'd probably check in the Sunday before Thanksgiving and check out either on Thanksgiving day or the Friday after. We are only doing 3 days at the parks (spending the extra days going to Disney springs or swimming at the hotel or whatever). So we could possibly avoid Thanksgiving at a park if that's too busy.

I've heard the week of Thanksgiving has gotten busier and busier over the years because a lot of schools have that whole week off.

 

[staceyrhood]

Our local schools here next to DIsney have the whole week of Thanksgiving off so that adds to the crowds. But, Thanksgiving week is WAY less crowded than the week between Christmas and New Years which is the busiest of the year. This past Christmas the MK closed to capacity (at varying levels) almost daily during that week, as did the Studios (but that was due to the Osbourne Lights).

 

[jtopp]

Christmas week is really crazy. Perhaps slightly less crazy is thanksgiving, and with an autistic child , and advantage you get has to help. Good luck and hope you again have a great family trip

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We went for thanksgiving last year. Most of all the decor was up. Epcot did not start festivities for Christmas around the world until Friday. But even then, if you go at Thanksgiving, you will get Christmas, too.

Book your restaurant for thanksgiving early. We had limited choices due to last minute and the size of our party.

We did avoid MK on Thanksgiving.

Things were busy, but not bad.

 

[mrsp1030]

We have done both and hands down we loved Thanksgiving! So much we are going back again this year at the same time. To me it was better than the Easter craziness and you avoid the summer time heat. I would say it was close to some summer weeks in terms of crowds. Honestly, the only day we felt crowded was Thanksgiving and the day following as we were leaving the MK around 1:30pm. We followed great touring advice and it was a wonderful week!

 

[ariane37]

We have done both and hands down we loved Thanksgiving! So much we are going back again this year at the same time. To me it was better than the Easter craziness and you avoid the summer time heat. I would say it was close to some summer weeks in terms of crowds. Honestly, the only day we felt crowded was Thanksgiving and the day following as we were leaving the MK around 1:30pm. We followed great touring advice and it was a wonderful week!

I have to agree, we left MK on Black Friday around 1 and it was REALLY crowded at that point, but we'd been there since 8:00 and didn't feel the crowds until about noon. Unfortunately I spent Thanksgiving day in bed with a 24 hour stomach bug so I can't comment on any park crowds, but DH took older DS to AK for a few hours and they said it certainly wasn't empty but was very comfortable. And DH doesn't like crowds lol.

As a pp said you need to book your ADR's as soon as you can, unless you aren't wanting many TS's at all or aren't pick AT ALL about where you eat. This will be even more important if they offer FD this year. Even though last year it ended the Thursday before Thanksgiving, many people down there that week still had it and had tons of trouble making ADR's at 180 days out. In all our trips I'd never made ours that early, but for this trip I was up at 6am on day 180 to make them When we were checking in for some of them, we saw quite a few people trying for walk-ups and they were being turned away.