Thanksgiving

[Bubbie Girl]

Thinking of a trip over thanksgiving. We have always wanted to see Christmas decorations but being a teacher its always been summer trips. Thinking of making a trip over Thanksgiving so how busy is it and give any tips for that time of year...weather etc. Thanks so much!!

[Strmchsr]

It's very busy, but not unbearably so. You just have to have a plan and be patient. Doing that will allow you to see plenty of the Christmas decorations. Now, MVMCP doesn't happen that week and most of the Epcot stuff doesn't start until Thanksgiving weekend.

As for weather - highly variable. You can have rain or sun, 80s or 40s or everything in between. Generally it's not that cold in late November, but the weather is constantly changing.

[buzznwoodysmom]

We love to visit for Thanksgiving. With our children getting older we can only head to Disney when they have school breaks. Thanksgiving is one of our favorite times to go.

In our experience it's been busy (when isn't Disney busy lately?) but, not any more so than other times of the year that we can visit. We are finding Mardi Gras is getting busier and busier each year. The last time we did both Mardi Gras and Thanksgiving in the same year (2013) Mardi Gras was far busier. I would compare our Thanksgiving trips to our summer trips in terms of crowds. Busy? yes. Manageable? Absolutely. Just have a plan, book resorts, ADRs, and FP+ early to have a better chance of getting those that are most important to you and you should be good.

As far as weather, there is just no telling. We have had trips where we wore shorts and swam daily, and trips that we needed our heavier jackets. And some trips where we needed warm weather clothes and cold weather gear all in the same week.

One suggestion if you are interested in the Christmas décor. Take a day, or a portion of a day, to tour the resorts. Or plan meals around resort areas you are interested in touring. We love to visit Wilderness Lodge, all three monorail resorts, the Epcot area resorts, and Animal Kingdom Lodge for the holidays. All resorts have some décor, but the deluxe resorts are worth a visit. We usually plan Ohana's at the Poly for one night and take an hour or so before or after dinner to tour the monorail resorts. We also plan dinner at an Epcot area resort one night and spend some time touring those decorations and the Boardwalk. WL is worth a special trip to see it's amazing lobby.

If you are interested in MVMCP and your kids are able to miss a day or two ahead of or after the break you can usually get a party the Thursday or Friday before Thanksgiving or the Sunday or Monday after. If you've never been to the party and are interested it might be worth adjusting your dates a bit to catch one of the parties surrounding Thanksgiving week. Lots of people think it's not worth the cost, but we love the Christmas party.