Thanksgiving week Questions!

[Walt Sent Me]

My family and I originally was going to WDW chrismas week. Today we all talked and want to go Thanksgiving week instead! I have a few questions before I change my reservations. We'd be there from 11/21/05- 11/25/05.

1. How are the crowds? Are they a lot better, or a little better than Christmas?

2. Are the Christamas decoration all up?

I just looked on the disney calendar and the extra magical hours will work great for our trip. Tuesday the 22nd is AK. The 23rd is MK. The 24 is Epcot.

3. We will be at Epcot Thanksgiving Day! Is there anywhere to get a traditional Turkey Dinner?

Thanks

 

[marlaymike]

1. I haven't been in Disney for Thanksgiving, but since it is a Holiday I know it will be crowded.
2. I went during November a couple of years ago and the Christmas decorations wereup. Also, in 2003 we went during Halloween, and before we left the Christmas decorations were up.
3. If you go to allearsnet.com there are the Thanksgiving menus for almost all the restaurants in the Resorts and Parks.

 

[Walt Sent Me]

Thanks.

Can anyone else infer as to how crowded it will be?

 

[Thrawn]

How crowded? Extremely.

 

[MartyMouse]

We went last year at Thanksgiving and had a great time, so we are going again this year. We didn’t go to any parks on Thanksgiving Day, just swam in the pool and hung out at the hotel, but had dinner at Chef Mickey’s. Chef Mickey’s did have turkey and other Thanksgiving traditions on the buffet; we were also told that a lot of the Disney restaurants had special Thanksgiving menus. That reminds me we still need to make reservations for dinner. As far as crowds we hit the Magic Kingdom that Friday and the park was somewhat full but never waited more than 15-30 minutes for any ride and that includes Philharmagic (it was still relatively new then) … no I take that back we did wait over 80 minutes for the Pooh ride because my mother would not believe us on how lame the ride was. Oh, yes on Friday all the decorations were up and most of the hotels had their gingerbread houses.

 

[napnet]

from what i understand, thanksgiving is the busiest time for WDW

 

[mwc1996]

We went or the week of Thanksgiving last year. It seemd the parks got a little busier each day heading up to Thanksgiving. We also avoided the parks on the actual day but I do remember Friday being fairly busy. There weren't any insane wait times that I recall. The weather was nice and we did get to see the decorations including the Osborn lights.

 

[DDuckFan130]

We are actually going for our third time on Thanksgiving weekend. The crowds are not THAT bad. They are very manageable. Christmas and New Year's are obviously a lot worse :lol: But Thanksgiving weekend isn't too bad, as long as you use your FP's wisely The decorations are definitely up, which is why we enjoy this weekend so much. We eat turkey legs for thanksgiving, so I can't advise you on the dinners :lol:

Hope you enjoy your trip...I know we will

 

[KentB3]

from what i understand, thanksgiving is the busiest time for WDW

You are WAY off! The most crowded period of the year at WDW is from Christmas Eve (December 24) to New Years (January 1), with the week of July 4th coming in second.

 

[Craig & Lisa]

The family and I went last year the week of thanksgiving as well and it did not seem overly crowded, we normally go in the first full week of Nov., however we went to MK for our turkey dinner in the liberty tree tavern, and this year the family will be at crystal palace for the dinner, I won't be there for that because my job only let me go this year if I came back for black friday, so I lose 2 1/2 days on my vacation this year. Hopefully we can manage a few days in April, we will be looking into more time in DVC, but most if not all the decorations will be up and they are indescribable, you have to check out some of them at the high end resorts, beach club for one, they covered a small carosel with chocolate, and put 5 hidden mickey's on it in gold leaf.:sohappy:

 

[mandib]

We were there for Thanksgiving last year. Actually did Thanksgiving Day in the MK. Yea-crazy if you would like to call us but really we just showed up, got potriats done, then ate at Libery Tree Tavern <- my fav restuarant. It was really yummy and definately "thanksgivingy". Ok short story time, while my family was dining a man sat down at the table next to us all by himself. He ate dinner while his cell. It made me sad. We almost invited him over except that we were almost done when he sat down. Anyways MK was SO crowded. I really don't think we did any rides. Maybe HM. I remember the line for Space Mountain was crazy. Oh well. Going the week before Christmas this year so I'll compare. Have a good trip no matter when you go

 

[Marijil]

We go every thanksgiving....it gets more crowded every year since 2001.....we did the liberty tree thing a couple of times, last year we did chef mickey.....alot of places have thgvg food......this year im booked at Jiko (which by the way is the best restaurant at WDW imo).....ressies are hard to come by for thanksgvg dinner...good luck...maybe well see ya there.....ps i think hotel ressies are scarce too

pps if you time it right...one evening u go to bed and its normal....the next morning its xmas....very cool...disney elves

 

[doop]

I was there in 2001 the week after thanksgiving, and there were MINIMAL crowds and the christmas decorations were up, hope that helps.

 

[Walt Sent Me]

Thanks to everyone for thier wonderful comments! I think I've made up my mind! We're going to WDW for thanksgiving week!

We will be at EPCOT for Thanksgiving day, so hopefully due to the size of the park, there will be managable crowds. We haven't decided where to eat.

When do we find out how long the parks will be open at night for EMH?

Thanks

 

[DisKid]

Thanks to everyone for thier wonderful comments! I think I've made up my mind! We're going to WDW for thanksgiving week!

We will be at EPCOT for Thanksgiving day, so hopefully due to the size of the park, there will be managable crowds. We haven't decided where to eat.

When do we find out how long the parks will be open at night for EMH?

Thanks

Even though you've already changed your ressies, let me just add to the comments...


We've been down at Thanksgiving week twice now. Of course like every holiday, the crowds get worse every day up to Thanksgiving. Crowds are not as bad as at Christmas though.

As for decorations, they seem to go up about a few days before Thanksgiving, but it's not until the night after Thanksgiving when they light them up...at least the trees in the parks.

 

[MartyMouse]

Thanks to everyone for thier wonderful comments! I think I've made up my mind! We're going to WDW for thanksgiving week!

We will be at EPCOT for Thanksgiving day, so hopefully due to the size of the park, there will be managable crowds. We haven't decided where to eat.

Thanks

Have fun, I know we did last year … and … perhaps we’ll see ya there.

PS -
As far as where to eat I wish I could recommend the American pavilion however they don’t have a real restaurant (but you would figure they would have Thanksgiving after all it’s an American holiday), so I would say give the Garden Grill a call they specialize in American food so they may do something special for Thanksgiving, but I’m no expert.

 

[shmmrname]

1. The X-mas decorations go up, but you'll notice new ones each day of the week.
2. The crowds get to be pretty bad, but the extra hours off-set them nicely. Up until the actual day of Thanksgiving the parks are deserted, but Thursday brings chaos.
3. We ate at Crystal Palace in MK, so I don't really know. We used AllEarsNet for all of our research before making PS's.

 

[imamouse]

We went Thanksgiving week in 2003, and the crowds were heavy. Thanksgiving day wasn't too bad, we park hopped and went back to our resort for a swim (the weather was hot!). When we went to the MK for our dinner ressie, it had thinned out a good bit. The most surprising part (to us) was that Friday was the least crowded day of the entire week.

If you haven't made your dinner AR yet, you will need to hurry. I made ours in Aug for our 2003 trip and had a very limited selection to choose from. Good luck and enjoy! :wave:

 

[erinuga]

hi!
we go to wdw every year the week of thanksgiving and always spend thanksgiving at epcot so maybe i can help you out....we usually have our "thanksgiving meal" at lunchtime in a country- i believe that the only country that has a traditional thanksgiving meal is canada (i'm not sure about what is over in the future world)...my dad is the only one of us that cares about having turkey so we go to the port orleans riverside food court for dinner- because they have a whole turkey dinner deal (and the rest of us can get pizza!) we've found that thanksgiving in epcot is totally managable- but the other posters are right that wdw in general gets busier with each day... consequently, we try and do all the major rides at the beginning of the week and just enjoy being at wdw the last half of the week-
christmas decorations are up- and the osborne family lights also will be up...
hope this helps!

 

[Walt Sent Me]

Thank you everyone! I'm getting so excited!