Magic Kingdom Thanksgiving Day vs. Black Friday

Based on crowd levels, what is the better day to be at Magic Kingdom


  • Total voters
    16

BigHero4

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm planning a trip the week of Thanksgiving and have Magic Kingdom as my last park, but I need to pick what day to be at MK... Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday. What day is the least insane in terms of crowd levels? If anyone has pictures from previous years, or tips for these two days, please feel free to comment. Thank you for the help!
 

riverscu0m0

Active Member
We typically go every single year for Thanksgiving. Black Friday is the move, avoid Disney Springs on BF though! We like Epcot on Thanksgiving day for a 1/2 day. MK will still be packed compared to like today and you'll see the crowds get larger as the week goes on. Our speculation with BF is that the parks start to get less packed since people are leaving, however with so many schools out earlier & for longer this year, who knows!
 

Trackmaster

Well-Known Member
Its all well and good to give answers and throw dates out, but more important than the A or B answer is the justification behind it, and the thought process behind why your prognostication is why it is. What is driving crowds to certain dates, and why? Thoughtful answers like that will help the reader much more, and help them plan better going forward. The thought process is the important part, not just getting raw answers for one particular case.

Touring Plans is indicating Thanksgiving would be worse than Black Friday, but I'm a little surprised. I would have thought that they would been deadlocked with Black Friday getting a slight edge. Big time holidays are brutal at parks for sure, but the days surrounding them usually hit more (assuming that they're still part of natural school breaks) unless there's something that the park is doing specifically. Granted, Touring Plans doesn't really provide insight, but just provides historical data raw pegged to the expected date (with some changes due to changed circumstances). In general, with Corona, I'm not believing a word they're saying, as there's not enough data on Corona crowds yet. And either way, I tend to care more about logic and patterns rather than daily historic data. Again, I care about improving your thought patterns rather than blindly going off crowd calendars.

Since people are overwhelming picking Thanksgiving. I'll leave it to you guys: what specifically is driving your pick? What is making people desperate for MK on Turkey Day over the Door Buster specials? Is MK doing something Thanksgiving specific for the day?
 
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JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
I dont know how the Covid/ Disney park capacity issues are going to change the wekend crowds this year but typically you have the heavier Thanksgiving crowd who want to be at MK for the holiday. Then the Friday crowd who avoided MK Thursday because of the holiday who will now visit on Friday hoping to have avoided the buzier day. Covid will play a part in both, either day will be buzy so I wouldnt think you are going to get that much advantage by choosing one day over the other. I'm thinking slightly better on Friday.
I have friends who always visit WDW over Thanksgiving week and they absolutely have to be in MK for Thursday. It's tradition, it's that MK has more rides, better decorations, and the place to be.
 

BigHero4

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
All great and detailed thoughts so far. I appreciate you all.

If you were to choose between Epcot or Hollywood Studios to do on Black Friday, which would you pick?

I know I'm straying off my own topic ;) but it's pretty obvious that MK will be the most crowded. Seems to me that Epcot or HS would be the better pick (instead of MK) for Black Friday.
 

NelleBelle

Well-Known Member
I would think MK would be crowded both days, regardless. I’d go with EP but is dead set on MK on one of those days, I’d do Black Friday with the thought that maybe some visitors are hitting the outlets malls and not the parks. All I know is I did DL years ago on thanksgiving day and it was the worst crowding I’ve ever seen in a park to this day (and this was back in the late 80s)!
 

larryz

I'm Just A Tourist!
Premium Member
Parents have never been loath to take advantage of the traditional school holidays to make a mad dash to Orlando for a few days of fun... but it will be interesting to see how many try that in 2020.
 

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
At this point I'd steer you to EP. Theres plenty of shopping you could get done in the pavilions and kiosks if you want to start Christmas buying. if not theres still a lot to see and do and its a park that even when crowded, doesnt feel as bad as the others.
 

Trackmaster

Well-Known Member
I would think MK would be crowded both days, regardless. I’d go with EP but is dead set on MK on one of those days, I’d do Black Friday with the thought that maybe some visitors are hitting the outlets malls and not the parks. All I know is I did DL years ago on thanksgiving day and it was the worst crowding I’ve ever seen in a park to this day (and this was back in the late 80s)!

Yeah Thanksgiving is a pretty bad week. There really are only three natural school breaks when the weather is nice down here, and the other two (spring break and Xmas) are known for being bad and on Gold AP and lower blackout list. I'd imagine that pricing reflects this too. Thanksgiving hasn't slid into the blackout list yet either, so a lot of people may choose Thanksgiving over Xmas and spring break because of this. Its probably about time for Disney to put Thanksgiving week on the silver and lower blackout list.
 

Ldno

Well-Known Member
I mean I didn’t know my kids were off school for a whole week so I totally could had been there for thanksgiving but quick question does disney do anything for black friday at the parks?
 

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