Thanksgiving weekend, what park?

[Donnask8pro]

We are actually there 9 days but Sat, Sun, and Mon after thanksgiving is 3 of them. Not great days.. Tooooo busy for me. ( I have a son in a wheelchair) What park should I do? I was thinking of doing U.S. 1 of them. I want to save MK for the middle of the week. Should we just lay low? Thanks for all your help.

 

[WDSearcher]

Every theme park in and near Orlando -- Universal, Sea World, Disney, Busch, Cypress Gardens, even the Holy Land Experience and Gatorland -- will be packed solid on the day after Thanksgiving, and will be crowded throughout that weekend. Simply trying something other than Disney will not keep the crowds away. I'd choose the pool.

 

[KLAIT]

We have always hit EPCOT the Sunday after Thanksgiving and never had to wait for anyting...always thought it was pretty empty.

 

[Donnask8pro]

Thanks for helping. Anyone else have a great opinions?

 

[scanmom]

We went to Orlando T-day week 2002. We spent the 1st part of the week at WDW, then on Thur-Sat., we went to US/IOA. We stayed at the HRH, to get FOTL with our room keys. It was PACKED!!! There were posted wait times of 2-3 hours for the biggie rides. We got on them all, many times over, and our longest wait was about 20 minutes. We got the Entertainment rate, at that time $125.00/nite, and had to get 2 rooms (we had 7 ppl), but it was WELL worth the price. We had a great time, saw everything, even the shows and Grinchmas, and we were only at the parks 2 days. Plus, FOTL gets you into the restaurants too. There was a major line at the Hard Rock Cafe, with a 2 hour wait for a table. We just showed our room key and zipped past everyone! We were seated at our table about 15 minutes later!! You can't beat that. I would spend the time at Universal, stay on site, and enjoy! The hotels there are all equal to a deluxe resort at Disney, and they are awesome! It was warm enough for us to enjoy the HRH pool, and you can rent a cabana for the day if you want to. And I believe you can pool hop at Universal Hotels! Check out the US/IOA hotels forum, you will not regret it!

 

[Donnask8pro]

O, I wish. I checked the prices (we need 2 rooms also) We have a timeshare (someone gave us fo free) and booked ASmo the rest of the time. So basically bag U.S/IOA that weekend? I guess the pool will be it. Unless we just do Epcot and deal with it.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I asked this same question a few weeks ago, since I'm going this year for my first Thanksgiving. The general impression I got is that all the parks (except MK) aren't too bad if you get there right at opening and leave by noon. However, since I'm there Thanksgiving week and the following week, I think you're idea may be the best-lay low! I'm staying at POR that weekend, going to hang around the resort-rent bikes, maybe do some resort hopping, but like you said-lay low!

 

[Donnask8pro]

Is AK packed that weekend also? My kids are young, AK probably not a big attraction to them.

 

[tmfranlk]

We are going Thanksgiving through the next weekend. Our plans are to either skip parks on Thursday and Friday, or at least not worry about doing much since we have APs. On Saturday, we are going to Epcot since that park seems to absob crowds better. Our plans are also to just focus on the storytellers and Kidcot stations as well as things that we can FastPass. From what I have been told, the crowds should start to thin on Sunday and be pretty much gone by Monday. For you, maybe you could do the pools on Saturdan and start in with the parks on Sunday, doing either Epcot or AK (MGM has EMHs that night, AK had them the morning before).

 

[Donnask8pro]

Hey we're there at the same time. We are at ASmo 25th, Dec 3rd and 4th. Maybe we'll do AK EMH on Sat that makes sense and than get the Heck out of there. Thanks.

 

[Donnask8pro]

I dont show EMH for Sat at AK. Am I missing something? I just figured it out. I had printed it wrong on excel. Thanks thats what I'll do.