Weekend Before Thanksgiving

[PrincessWithABlaster]

So Hubby says he wants to do a long weekend trip to Universal this fall. We don't want to take the kids out of school. From the looks of the days they have off, the weekend before Thanksgiving has really low crowds per Undercover Tourist. We'd arrive Sat and leave Wed (day before Thanksgiving). Those days are mostly green at US and IOA turning to red on Thanksgiving. Anyone know if that's typical? The airfare those dates are horrendous but if crowds are really low, it might be worth it. Im just not sure I believe the crowd calendar. Anyone been there around that time? The other dates we're considering are the first weekend in Nov and MLK day in Jan but both of those are combinations of yellow and red days.

 

[macraven]

since i haven't been to the darkside during Tday holidays, all i know is from what others have posted on the boards.

suggest you use the search button to pullup past threads about that time period.
or if you google it, you will get quite a bit info on what was in the Dis for that time period in the past.

what i can tell you that when ever there is a 4 day holiday, Tday thru sunday, hotels fill up more.
with that in mind, most of them are there for the parks.

since airfare is high for that time period, makes sense to say that is due to the demand for traveling there.

 

[buckeev]

What Red Sed!

SWA, (and the other God Complex Airlines), have done their homework and have decided they can gouge those of us that travel during peak holidays. While it might not be a "Close down the gates" packed, it will be pretty packed. If you're staying OnSite, DLX at Universal, the Express Pass makes the crowds MUCH more tolerable. (Too bad they don't offer the food joints with an Express Pass line!)
I've been doing some creative math to try to decide if we wanna move our Christmas trip to TG break, but the airfare is almost as high then as Christmas. Hotels are a little less though...

 

[nkereina]

We've been the Thursday through Saturday before Thanksgiving twice now. Both times, I'd say that crowds were relatively low in the beginning of our stay, but were noticeably higher by Saturday. We left Saturday night. Not sure if it was more noticeably crowded because it was a weekend, or if people began arriving that were staying through Thanksgiving.

 

[agavegirl1]

November is usually pretty slow but picks up the closer you get to Turkey Day. I went for my birthday in 2010 and it was slow (mid-November) but when we left around the 21st, it started to get busy.

 

[Lisa0620]

We were there Sunday - TGiving day in 2015. We stayed at Cabana Bay because it was kind of a last minute bonus trip and we wanted to keep it cheap, but in hindsight I wouldn't do that week again without having express. The parks get incrementally busier each day as you approach TG. We went to Disney for TG 2014 and found it to be too busy to really enjoy it and to me Universal didn't feel as crowded. We did think Universal isn't as organized with their crowd management, especially at rope drop so that was a little frustrating and something we hadn't noticed on our previous trip when the park was less busy. We liked it enough that we are planning an extended family trip for TG 2017, but we will definitely stay at one of the deluxe hotels for express.