Week before Thanksgiving. What's Decorated?

[Philhar-Fanatic]

Looking into taking our kids out of school for 3 days the week before Thanksgiving. By doing this we hope to get in a few riding days without HUGE crowds. We'll be checking out Thanksgiving day or the day after. Will all the Christmas décor be in full swing or will we be missing out?

 

[RedDad]

Yes! The Christmas decor in the parks will be up by that time as MVMCP will be going on, and it's been my experience that the resort decorations should be nearly complete as well. The week before Thanksgiving is a great time to go, and the week of isn't bad crowd-wise either until you get to Wed before Thanksgiving day. I would definitely recommend you check out touring plans or some other source for info on which park to go to each day, particularly the closer you get to Thanksgiving day.

 

[Respect the Walt.]

We have gone Christmas time 3 years running. Full Christmas decor is usually up by the first week of November. Spooky stuff comes down fast and candy canes go up just as quickly. FYI we usually go the week after Thanksgiving= no crowds.

 

[Philhar-Fanatic]

Thanks Red Dad. I am a touring plans fan! Glad to hear it's all going to be up! We're planning on being there for 8 to 9 days so we'll have plenty of time to check out all the lights!

 

[Philhar-Fanatic]

Respect the Walt. I WISH we could swing the week after Thanksgiving but it won't work out with the kids school. So we'll settle for second best and go early!

 

[DJMoore2011]

When we went Nov 13th thru the 19th 2011 and it was Christmas almost everywhere. We were not expecting it and well to be honest it threw me off for a bit, there was only one place we saw Fall decorations and that was at Chef Mickey's.

Now that we know what to expect it is very beautiful and it did get me in the Christmas mood when it was time to decorate at home.

Add all together: just married, first time to WDW and I had just lost my oldest brother in August I was not ready to see all the Christmas stuff at first. After a couple of days we did get into the swing of things and enjoyed our stay and all the wonderful decorations. Even got to see the start of the Gingerbread tree at the Contemporary.

 

[luv]

I don't know if everything will be up, but certainly a lot will be up.

I do think you're going to hit some of the busiest days of the year and also recommend the touringplans.com site.

Have a great trip!!

 

[SMS55]

Went for Veterans Day two years ago and the parks were pretty much decorated already. The hotels not yet though, but from what I was told they were about to start decorating so you should be ok.

 

[DJMoore2011]

I don't know if everything will be up, but certainly a lot will be up.

I do think you're going to hit some of the busiest days of the year and also recommend the touringplans.com site.

Have a great trip!!

See I didn't think it was all that busy the week before Thanksgiving 2011, the longest wait time was 15 minutes and that was only cause it took us that long to walk through the quea. My Dear Hubby had been to WDW before and said the crowds while we were there that week were nothing compared to when he last went in end of May to early June of 1989 where everything was jammed pack. I can't stand crowds, in fact I have anxiety problems in crowds that is why we picked the week we did because all the Cesarean Dear hubby did led him to believe it is one of the least busy weeks at WDW. I had problems during parade times but well found an out of the way spot till most of the crowd got out of the way that was the only crowd problem I had.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We went the week before Thanksgiving last year....checked out day before Thanksgiving.

- Parks were fully decorated...with the exception of the MK tree
- Resort decorations went up around Nov 16/17 *These are supposedly the dates even if Thanksgiving is later
- MVMCP and Osborne Lights were in full swing as was the nightly castle Dreamlight lighthing
- No Candlelight Processional
- No Epcot Storytellers
- DTD was decorated and had live holiday music

Crowds didn't really feel like they were building until Tuesday ... and by Wednesday, you could definitely feel it. Still, with FPs and a decent plan, it wasn't really a huge deal.