Universal at Thanksgiving?

[sn00zn]

Hi, this is my first post to the boards after lurking for a few weeks! We (myself, husband, 3 kids ages 11, 6, and 4) will be spending Thanksgiving week at Universal (staying in the Royal Pacific). My husband and I spent one day at Universal on our last Disney vacation, and the kids haven't been there yet, so we are sort of Uni-newbies.

I couldn't find much Thanksgiving info in the trip reports, so I'd like to know if anyone has any tips. During Thanksgiving week are there certain days that will be especially good or especially bad to visit the parks? Are there any special events that the kids might enjoy? Is there anywhere that would be great to eat for Thanksgiving dinner? (I would love to try Mythos, either on Thanksgiving or some other time).

Well, I will be having lots more questions I'm sure and I've really enjoyed reading all the helpful info on these boards!

snoozn

 

[Slacking]

Any day before Thanksgiving (except possibly Wednesday- not sure) = Good
Thanksgiving Day = Good
Friday-Sunday After Thanksgiving = STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Slacking]

FAR FAR AWAY!!!!!!!!!

 

[phamton]

Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) was not crowded. Thanksgiving day was empty but as Slacking said: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were horribly crowded. Since you are staying onsite though, you should be fine with FOTL.

 

[Slacking]

Even though Unlimited Express (I refuse to call it FOTL) waits still shouldn't be too bad during that insane weekend, the parks are still super crowded and you've got to fight your way through many crowds.

 

[sn00zn]

Thanks for the crowd info. Our schedule (which is due to when I could get cheap airfare!) turns out pretty well. We arrive the Friday before Thanksgiving, so we have 5 days of low crowds. We leave early in the morning the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so Friday should be our only crowded day. Maybe we'll just hang out at the pool. Though it will be hard not to go to the parks on our very last day! But even with express I don't want to be in the middle of huge crowds with three kids.

Do you think Sea World would be crowded that Friday too? I was planning on doing Sea World on our first day in Orlando and then not leaving Universal again, but maybe we could do Sea World on Friday instead.

Thanks for the help!

snoozn

 

[Slacking]

I would think that the Friday after Thanksgiving would be insane everywhere you go. Might as well go to Universal that Friday since you will have Unlimited Express (Sea World wouldn't be too bad though since you can count the number of rides they have on one hand.)

 

[kirstenjet]

It'd be much better to do Sea World on the busy day as there is very little to queue up for.

Zoe

 

[SpideyHulk24]

Seaworld will probably be busy too. Not as bad as Universal, maybe, but still busy.

 

[sn00zn]

Thanks everyone for the planning help. I'm not going to make a definite decision yet (after all, I have 160 days of planning!) I think I may stick with the original plan of doing Sea World on our first day. Since we won't even get in til after midnight, I know we'll want to sleep in on Saturday and Sea World would be a better park to arrive late at I think. I guess I'll just leave Friday open. Since we're staying onsite, we could try the parks and then run back to the pool if it's too horrible. Thanks again for the info!

snoozn

 

[ColoradoBuffaloMom]

We were at US/IOA last Thanksgiving and stayed at HRH. It was great. We arrived the Friday before Thanksgiving and left on Thanksgiving Day. No crowds at all till Thanksgiving Day and it got a bit more crowded that day but still we just walked on Spiderman. We did have FOTL so that helped a lot. We did Sea World the Tuesday before Thanskgiving and it wasn't too bad either.

The biggest change I noticed from visiting in the summer to visiting at Thanksgiving is that the parks close pretty early so it just makes for long days rather than taking a rest midday and returning at night.

Weather was GREAT-we layed out at the pool a lot which was nice since we live in Colorado.

Enjoy!

Elise

 

[sn00zn]

Elise,
I'm glad to hear you had such a good experience at Thanksgiving time. We are also from Colorado (probably near you, judging by your user name!) so we will enjoy the pool and Florida weather too. I am a little disappointed the parks will be closing early, but I think we'll have to do a mid-day break anyway for the little ones (4 and 6). I certainly don't want to be dragging cranky kids around the park. Anyway, we should have 5 full days of low crowds, and with fotl too, should be no problem getting everything in!
Thanks for the info, from everything I've heard I feel like we picked a great time to go.
snoozn

 

[Desiree]

How is the week after Thanksgiving? We're arriving Sunday afternoon and were just thinking of doing CityWalk that evening. Will the crowds be bad?

 

[Cindy'sCastle]

Hi Desiree:

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. I'm not sure about the week after Thanksgiving but it seems like the crowds should start to thin out by then, especially the ones with children going back to school. We're gonna be getting there the week of Thanksgiving (the Saturday before) but will be leaving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Have a great trip!

Cindy

 

[Desiree]

Thanks Cindy! You guys have a great and safe trip also!