Thanksgiving week

[Jeni1781]

If we go during thanksgiving week are all the shows and parades going to be Christmas ones?

 

[beachdreamr1229]

Yes, everything will be Christmas. It's pretty fun, but they really don't do much for Thanksgiving itself aside from good food options. We go almost every year for a few days before Thanksgiving and last year went the day of. It can get very crowded, but better than Christmas crowds at least.

 

[mouschievous]

Yes, we do it that way on purpose! There's virtually no Thanksgiving in the park - I mean, we had turkey legs, but you can get those anytime - though there are special Thanksgiving meals at the hotel restaurants. I don't recall seeing anything about special Thanksgiving meals at the restaurants in the parks, but I didn't look closely at Blue Bayou or Carthay Circle or other TS places, just QS.

 

[beachdreamr1229]

Yes, we do it that way on purpose! There's virtually no Thanksgiving in the park - I mean, we had turkey legs, but you can get those anytime - though there are special Thanksgiving meals at the hotel restaurants. I don't recall seeing anything about special Thanksgiving meals at the restaurants in the parks, but I didn't look closely at Blue Bayou or Carthay Circle or other TS places, just QS.

The TS restaurants all have some sort of Thanksgiving special. We ate at Carnation last year and had a really good traditional turkey dinner. Blue Bayou definitely has one, too. I think for QS, Plaza Inn does turkey in addition to their other traditional family offerings. Even Jolly Holiday had a special turkey sandwich. There are a lot of great offerings. I'm fairly certain several places at DCA had special offerings on Thanksgiving day, too. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain when we were there, so we missed out on trying some of the other options in favor of staying dry, but it's not typical for the rain to be that heavy on Thanksgiving. In fact, most years it's not rainy at all and perfect weather.

 

[mouschievous]

The TS restaurants all have some sort of Thanksgiving special. We ate at Carnation last year and had a really good traditional turkey dinner. Blue Bayou definitely has one, too. I think for QS, Plaza Inn does turkey in addition to their other traditional family offerings. Even Jolly Holiday had a special turkey sandwich. There are a lot of great offerings. I'm fairly certain several places at DCA had special offerings on Thanksgiving day, too. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain when we were there, so we missed out on trying some of the other options in favor of staying dry, but it's not typical for the rain to be that heavy on Thanksgiving. In fact, most years it's not rainy at all and perfect weather.

Good to know for future years! Since it was the first trip for 9/10 of our party, we opted for turkey legs and corn from the cart so we could keep moving. I've been several times for Thanksgiving and it was always gorgeous - not too hot, not too cold, just perfect. I couldn't believe the rain last year!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Good to know for future years! Since it was the first trip for 9/10 of our party, we opted for turkey legs and corn from the cart so we could keep moving. I've been several times for Thanksgiving and it was always gorgeous - not too hot, not too cold, just perfect. I couldn't believe the rain last year!

That Thanksgiving rain last year was a major winter storm which was forecast for over a week in advance, was discussed in several threads here, and was a super big deal all around in Southern CA! Definitely a noteworthy event! Always do a check here before your trip to see if there are any threads mentioning weird upcoming weather events and how to prepare for them for days in the parks. We had DISers post that they did their research here, packed accordingly, and had a blast in the rain because they were well prepared. And we had people post that they had the opposite experience because they didn't prepare. That rain storm was memorable, that's for sure!

 

[Poppins2010]

What typically are the crowds like the Mon - Wed before Thanksgiving ? Am I safe to assume it is better than the 4 day weekend levels?

 

[jolene63]

Our June trip is cancelled. We are hoping to go mid September now. I won't book our flights until we know Disney will 100% be open. If September doesn't work out we might go the week of Thanksgiving. How bad is it? I would never go to WDW during that week because of the crowds. Is Disneyland as bad? We would arrive the Saturday before Thanksgiving and leave the weekend afterwards. This will be our first trip there so I want to make sure we have a good experience because we probably won't be going back anytime soon.

 

[dmar]

Normally Thanksgiving week is really, really busy.... especially leading up to Thanksgiving, including the following Friday and Saturday. The mornings are usually the best times we experienced as locals tend to come in after brunch/lunch time to fill up the park. Then again with Covid, this has turned the equation upside down if social distancing, masks, etc remains in effect which is quite possible. This will limit the attendance and affect the lines for the rides/parades/shows. Either way I'd rather be at a filled Disney park and enjoying the sites, sounds and smell then not, it really depends on what you want to get out of it. Good Luck!

 

[mouschievous]

Our June trip is cancelled. We are hoping to go mid September now. I won't book our flights until we know Disney will 100% be open. If September doesn't work out we might go the week of Thanksgiving. How bad is it? I would never go to WDW during that week because of the crowds. Is Disneyland as bad? We would arrive the Saturday before Thanksgiving and leave the weekend afterwards. This will be our first trip there so I want to make sure we have a good experience because we probably won't be going back anytime soon.

I love Thanksgiving at DLR! The most recent Thanksgiving we were there was 2018. We were there on Thanksgiving day, Friday and Saturday. Before we went, many people warned us that it would be packed and we should beware of the possibility of a sold out park, but that was not our experience. Saturday was the most crowded, but none of the days felt unmanageable. We did not have Park Hoppers, and we were able to ride everything we wanted to, many things multiple times, thanks to MaxPass. We also did a character breakfast, reservation at Blue Bayou, and caught a couple parades and Fantasmic - all of that even with taking a 3-4 hour break midday on Thursday and Saturday!

Now. that being said, I have two caveats - 1, Thanksgiving was very early in 2018, so many looking for a visit during the Christmas theming may not have been ready to go yet and 2, the closures and everything else that Covid brings likely turned all the things we "know" about certain times at DLR on its head.