Things to do on Thanksgiving day besides Disney?

[sky13]

My original plans were to be in San Francisco during Thanksgiving morning/afternoon and enjoy wandering around and the parks, then fly down to LAX to head to hotel near Disney that night. It currently seems that wandering around outside in SF is a really bad idea in view of the dismal air quality, and United has just extended travel waivers to cover my flight, so I could potentially get an earlier flight and arrive in Anaheim either a day or two before or on the morning of Thanksgiving.

Is there anything to do in Anaheim (or nearby areas) on Thanksgiving day besides Disney/Knott's? It feels like not very much will be open besides the theme parks and a few restaurants that day. Unfortunately I already have 5 Disney park days planned and can't add any more days to a 5-day ticket, otherwise I would have loved to go into the parks! I have also already planned a Knott's visit for later in the trip.

Would appreciate any suggestions of things to do please!

 

[lalasmama]

Enjoy the hotel where you are staying. Pool maybe?

Go to DTD for a meal.

I'm assuming the beach would be too cold.

I don't think AMC has opened at Garden Walk, but there's bound to be another movie theatre in the area.

Character meal could take up 2 hours or so.

A night at Great Wolf Lodge.

... Clearly, I fly in the night before my first park day, since I have no idea of what else to do nearby

 

[WonkaKid]

Things to do on Thanksgiving day besides Disney?

Gee, I guess I never thought about it ;-).

 

[pblack]

If you're going to have a car, you could go over to Universal Studios.

 

[goooof1]

In LA you can go to The Grove and Farmer's Market, LaBrea Tar Pits, LACMMA....all in the same area of LA.

 

[wingednike]

Not sure if it is open that day, but Muzeo in Anaheim is close by and has a special exhibit on trains that includes pieces from Walt's Barn

 

[sky13]

Enjoy the hotel where you are staying. Pool maybe?

Go to DTD for a meal.

I'm assuming the beach would be too cold.

I don't think AMC has opened at Garden Walk, but there's bound to be another movie theatre in the area.

Character meal could take up 2 hours or so.

A night at Great Wolf Lodge.

... Clearly, I fly in the night before my first park day, since I have no idea of what else to do nearby

Thanks for the suggestions! Unfortunately the hotel I'm staying at that day is the Fairfield Inn so don't think there is that much to enjoy at it... And argh, wish the AMC at DTD was open as watching Ralph Breaks the Internet would have been great to do (I think that's when it opens?)!

Gee, I guess I never thought about it ;-).

Be nice, I'm from a place that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving! Which is well, anywhere outside of the USA

If you're going to have a car, you could go over to Universal Studios.

Unfortunately no car... But a park does seem like one of my better bets in terms of having somewhere to go with lots of things to do that day. Might try to juggle around my park days between DL and Knott's and see if I can do a half day in a park on Thanksgiving then.

In LA you can go to The Grove and Farmer's Market, LaBrea Tar Pits, LACMMA....all in the same area of LA.

Not sure if it is open that day, but Muzeo in Anaheim is close by and has a special exhibit on trains that includes pieces from Walt's Barn

Thanks - will see if these are open. Didn't realise quite so many things were closed on Thanksgiving (first time in the US over Thanksgiving)!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

There are movie theaters at the Block at Orange (and an outlet mall of sorts, too) about 10 minutes from the parks. I don't know if the shops will be open, but the movie theater should be. Should be an easy Uber/Lyft trip from the FFI.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I don't know if it would be open that day, but there is a miniature golf place in Anaheim.

You can bowl in downtown Disney.

The daytime weather has been nice. It could be a very nice day to visit the beach. You won't want to go into the water but there's lots to do at state parks like Crystal Cove.

 

[midnight star]

I'm giving another vote for Universal Studios. It's a little far, but you can try and catch an Uber! I'm suggesting it because many places may be closed or have very modified hours on Thanksgiving.

I'll give a backup vote for the beach, although it would be too cold for me, even if I don't get in the water. For others though, it might be nice!

 

[hilarys]

For what its worth (since weather is so hard to predict) the smoke is predicted to start clearing on Tuesday or Wednesday because of rain coming in on Wed/Thursday. So airy quality may very well be fine in SF by Thanksgiving day.

 

[sky13]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

I've changed my flights now so am flying out of SF early early Thursday morning (instead of in the evening) - would have preferred to leave earlier but my SF hotel was past the change/cancellation deadline so at least this way I don't have to deal with hotel changes and charges for doing so. Hoping this will get me to the Fairfield Inn by noon.

Then have changed around all my park days - so now we're going into DL/DCA on Thanksgiving! And I even managed to get a Hungry Bear Fantasmic reservation for Thanksgiving day! This is going to be way more fun than sitting around inside the hotel in SF avoiding the bad air outside. Not too worried about how crowded the park will be, as we'll have 4 more park days after.

For what its worth (since weather is so hard to predict) the smoke is predicted to start clearing on Tuesday or Wednesday because of rain coming in on Wed/Thursday. So airy quality may very well be fine in SF by Thanksgiving day.

I really hope it gets better! I've been watching the airnow and purpleair websites like a hawk. I live in a part of the world that gets really bad haze from forest fires every few years or so and we hit >300 about 3 years ago, and being outside then was really no fun at all. The air quality here right now is great, so it feels really ironic that I'm travelling a long way to go to somewhere with bad haze...