Which is better: three days before Thxgiving or weekend in December?

[kristensideaoffun]

The title says it all! We are thinking about going the Sunday or Monday before Thanksgiving for three days or December 8-10th for three days. I’m thinking the three days in December will be less crowded than the days leading up to Thanksgiving… Am I right about this? As long time former AP/MK holders, we avoided Thanksgiving week and weren’t super worried about crowds during the holiday season when we did visit because we had so many opportunities to do so. We let our passes expire this spring but we’ve promised our teen a holiday visit to the parks. Thanksgiving week was our only option but now we also have the option for that weekend in December…

 

[chezcurrie]

This is a tough one - believe keys are blocked the Saturday the 9th, which would probably be a great day in the parks, but it also could be candlelight processional (dates as far as I have seen have not been announced yet.)

I think if I had to choose I might lean toward December just because it’s closer to Christmas and I’m one of those people who wait until then to bring out the decor, but the thanksgiving dates would definitely be more relaxing for me because I’d have thanksgiving and kids off of school time to recoup. trying to remember the crowd reports from last thanksgiving… maybe someone else can chime in.

have a great visit whenever you decide!

 

[kristensideaoffun]

This is a tough one - believe keys are blocked the Saturday the 9th, which would probably be a great day in the parks, but it also could be candlelight processional (dates as far as I have seen have not been announced yet.)

I think if I had to choose I might lean toward December just because it’s closer to Christmas and I’m one of those people who wait until then to bring out the decor, but the thanksgiving dates would definitely be more relaxing for me because I’d have thanksgiving and kids off of school time to recoup. trying to remember the crowd reports from last thanksgiving… maybe someone else can chime in.

have a great visit whenever you decide!

Candlelight Processional dates have been announced and it is the weekend before. I think we are just going to stick with the three days before Thanksgiving. That way our high schooler doesn’t have to miss any school and we will still have the rest of the holiday weekend to recover. We are doing three full days so I feel like we will have plenty of time to soak in all the holiday Disney things.

 

[SpaceMan5]

Not many replies which surprises me a bit. Thought many DIS'ers would chime in on this topic.

By your last post I would say you are making the right decision for you and your family. Either way you are going to have a great time!

 

[chezcurrie]

The teenager factor alone says yup, go when they (and you) can recoup! Can’t wait to hear how your visit was!!!

 

[CoasterGT24]

Definitely the December weekend. Before Thanksgiving is worse than Thanksgiving and after. About a 10 minute difference in average wait time between Thanksgiving week and early December weekends last year.

 

[kristensideaoffun]

Not many replies which surprises me a bit. Thought many DIS'ers would chime in on this topic.

By your last post I would say you are making the right decision for you and your family. Either way you are going to have a great time!

Me too. I’ve noticed the board has been a little more quiet the last few months.

We’ve been there during some really crowded times and are pretty good at getting around in a crowd. We have a two year old and 16 year old so we use rider swap so our teen benefits from getting to go on headliners twice in a row. I’m guessing Monday is going to be crazy busy and then it will get better with Wednesday being the least crowded. We will see! Just going to pack extra patience and good attitudes.

 

[disneyseniors]

The title says it all! We are thinking about going the Sunday or Monday before Thanksgiving for three days or December 8-10th for three days. I’m thinking the three days in December will be less crowded than the days leading up to Thanksgiving… Am I right about this? As long time former AP/MK holders, we avoided Thanksgiving week and weren’t super worried about crowds during the holiday season when we did visit because we had so many opportunities to do so. We let our passes expire this spring but we’ve promised our teen a holiday visit to the parks. Thanksgiving week was our only option but now we also have the option for that weekend in December…

We have been the week before Thanksgiving before and it was fine, up until about 2 days before TG, then it got really busy. I would personally avoid going 3 days before Thanksgiving. We have also gone the first part of December before Covid, and it was a nice time to go.

 

[SpaceMan5]

Just going to pack extra patience and good attitudes.

That is exactly the right mindset you need to have!

Plz post a trip report. It would be fun to read how your trip went. Cheers

 

[LeiaOfAlderaan]

I would normally never choose to go Thanksgiving week, but here I am going with my family 11/19-23! We skipped our usual summer visit but really wanted to go this year. Having that full week of vacation for DD, plus it being the week after her sweet 16, we said what the heck.

We’ve been there with awful crowds before, and we still had a good time. I’m hoping the holiday decorations, food, and entertainment will make up for any disappointment with crowds/lines. We are going in expecting the worst and maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[kristensideaoffun]

I would normally never choose to go Thanksgiving week, but here I am going with my family 11/19-23! We skipped our usual summer visit but really wanted to go this year. Having that full week of vacation for DD, plus it being the week after her sweet 16, we said what the heck.

We’ve been there with awful crowds before, and we still had a good time. I’m hoping the holiday decorations, food, and entertainment will make up for any disappointment with crowds/lines. We are going in expecting the worst and maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is our mentality. And now we are probably going to do a full 5 days instead of 3 so we will be there 11/18-11/23. We figure it isn’t much more to add on two more days and it will give us more freedom to relax when things get really crowded. We’re just going to be sure to have table service restaurants booked for most meals so we get lots of crowd breaks.

 

[snowwite]

We have been the week before Thanksgiving before and it was fine, up until about 2 days before TG, then it got really busy. I would personally avoid going 3 days before Thanksgiving. We have also gone the first part of December before Covid, and it was a nice time to go.

Oh no. That’s exactly when I booked.

 

[disneyseniors]

Oh no. That’s exactly when I booked.

Maybe things have changed, since a lot of things have changed lately. YOu can do it, it's just crowded historically.

 

[crystal1313]

We are going 11/18 and leave thanksgiving day. We are only going to the parks 3 days. Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We have always gone the weekend before TG. It’s crowded. Not terrible. We plan to buy genie. Don’t want to! But also don’t want to be stuck in awful lines that don’t move.

We did not renew our MK. So we bought tickets-which is why we are going as many days.

We have gone every year at Xmas time since 2008. It’s a tradition! (2020 we went to wdw instead) love seeing the decorations and riding HMH and the holiday version of IASW.

Hoping they will have the more appropriately priced gingerbread cookie shaped like a Mickey head and that they bring back the cookie butter sundae at Golden Horseshoe!! Those are our favorite treats.

Have fun everyone!

 

[snowwite]

Maybe things have changed, since a lot of things have changed lately. YOu can do it, it's just crowded historically.

I suppose it won’t be any worse than when I used to take the kids school vacatio week