****Official Thanksgiving 2020 Thread****

[Stefne]

I noticed you are going Thanksgiving week and arriving 11/20 AND have already made your ADRs. We are arriving on the 21st. Does that mean I'll be able to make my reservations tomorrow? And it looks like you made them for the whole week. So I'm not going to have to log on each day? Thanks for any tips and guidance you can give!

I believe that poster and I have the same dates 11/19 - 11/28. I made ADR's this morning and for the whole week. Your ADR date should be on Tuesday.

Rules are different for split stay though.

Icc2 is correct. We are arriving on 11/19 and were able to book for every day of our stay since we are staying onsite. You aren't terribly off base though... when we originally rescheduled our trip we were supposed to arrive on 11-20, but added a day at the beginning of our trip at some point during the million modifications we have done to this trip .

 

[lynzi2004]

So happy to have found this thread about Thanksgiving specifically. We were originally booked at ASMovies as our youngest will turn 2 in January so we wanted one more stay in the values. Our kids love the theming of the values. Throw in the pandemic and we were on the fence about going...until we were upgraded to AoA Nemo Suite! We are not are not the type to spend money on hotels like that so although we are worried about the crowds, we are planning to still go just for the room! haha

We arrive Wednesday and leave Sunday with 5 day tickets, that way the kids don't miss any school. DH and I made a trip down in August for our anniversary. Crowds were super low, but waits for buses/skyliner at park opening, middle of the day ride lines (whether inflated or actual) all seemed kinda high. We are rope drop, FP, park close people. We never waited more than 10-15 min pre-Pandemic so I'm planning on sticking with my tried and true plans and then just grinning and bearing the lines mid-day or finding new things to do like Sorcerers, Wilderness Explorers, etc. We didnt find the masks too terrible, although I'm excited for the slightly cooler temperatures this time vs. August. We've also never seen any of the Christmas decorations so we are excited for those as well!

 

[Funfire240]

I'm going to ask on here first before I start a new thread - for those of you with school aged kids, are you nervous about pulling them out of school? We have been virtual so I thought we would be good but just received notice that both kids will be back full time starting Nov. 2 and we are set to fly out Nov. 23. we have always had no problems with vacation requests (our district says we can request one family vacation per year up to 5 days if the kids make up their work). We are traveling that Monday to Monday so they would only miss Mon, Tues and the following Mon. But now I'm wondering what will be thought if we put in for a request so soon after going back. DH says don't worry about it but of course I do. I will add we haven't seen anything regarding travel being discouraged and we are not in a state that would have to quarantine but of course we will continue to monitor and watch how things go between now and then.

 

[lcc2]

I'm going to ask on here first before I start a new thread - for those of you with school aged kids, are you nervous about pulling them out of school? We have been virtual so I thought we would be good but just received notice that both kids will be back full time starting Nov. 2 and we are set to fly out Nov. 23. we have always had no problems with vacation requests (our district says we can request one family vacation per year up to 5 days if the kids make up their work). We are traveling that Monday to Monday so they would only miss Mon, Tues and the following Mon. But now I'm wondering what will be thought if we put in for a request so soon after going back. DH says don't worry about it but of course I do. I will add we haven't seen anything regarding travel being discouraged and we are not in a state that would have to quarantine but of course we will continue to monitor and watch how things go between now and then.

We are not in a quarantine state either but will be watching as well. I'm pulling my kids out for 2 days. Some days it does cross my mind that I shouldn't do it because I'm usually pretty strict about them going to school. They almost always have perfect attendance. I've never pulled them out for a vaca but this year has been crazy! I figure they will be fine missing 2 days. We have no other plans during the school year so unless they are sick, they will go to school.

I guess it depends on grade level and learning ability. Mine are in 6th and 3rd grade. One is a fast learner and the other one is not. I'll definitely do my part when we return home to get them caught up, if necessary. I don't think it will be an issue as they don't do much learning right before a holiday anyway.

All that to say, I think you'll be fine

 

[Kjbbach1]

Who is watching the availability calendar and worrying about wait times for Thanksgiving week? HS is already showing no availability for most of the week for Theme Park Guests, Resort Guests, and Passholders. We already have all the days we need, but I am so nervous the lines will ruin the trip and the reviews are so mixed

We did Thanksgiving week 3 years ago and found it less crowded then Columbus Day week, but I feel like all bets are off for this year.....hahaha.

Staying offsite for Nov 20, then BWV Nov 21-28. Can't wait to do ADRs tomorrow!!!

 

[lynzi2004]

I'm going to ask on here first before I start a new thread - for those of you with school aged kids, are you nervous about pulling them out of school? We have been virtual so I thought we would be good but just received notice that both kids will be back full time starting Nov. 2 and we are set to fly out Nov. 23. we have always had no problems with vacation requests (our district says we can request one family vacation per year up to 5 days if the kids make up their work). We are traveling that Monday to Monday so they would only miss Mon, Tues and the following Mon. But now I'm wondering what will be thought if we put in for a request so soon after going back. DH says don't worry about it but of course I do. I will add we haven't seen anything regarding travel being discouraged and we are not in a state that would have to quarantine but of course we will continue to monitor and watch how things go between now and then.

I would not be too nervous given the dates. There will not be much learning going on those days anyway. There would be no point in teaching something new on Monday, only to have Tuesday be the last day of school for almost a week. Depending on your age of kids, they will likely be missing Thanksgiving coloring sheets, review work, etc. We are only gone over the days that our kids are actually out, but if they have vacation 'hangover" on Monday morning, they will be staying home! lol

 

[lynzi2004]

Who is watching the availability calendar and worrying about wait times for Thanksgiving week? HS is already showing no availability for most of the week for Theme Park Guests, Resort Guests, and Passholders. We already have all the days we need, but I am so nervous the lines will ruin the trip and the reviews are so mixed

We did Thanksgiving week 3 years ago and found it less crowded then Columbus Day week, but I feel like all bets are off for this year.....hahaha.

Staying offsite for Nov 20, then BWV Nov 21-28. Can't wait to do ADRs tomorrow!!!

This is my biggest concern! Like I mentioned earlier, we were there they weekend before Labor Day weekend. Morning/evening crowds were great and overall crowds were super low. But from about 11am-4pm, Splash was sporting a 60ish minute wait and no way around it without FP. (The wait might have been inflated but I wasn't walking across the park to find out!) BUT, that being said, you could still avoid most all of the lines with smart touring, there was literally nothing we didn't do that we would have liked. I'm hoping that with the anticipation of Thanksgiving being busier, Disney will do small things, like run both sides of BTMRR, both sides of Space, add another train on SDD and 7DMT, those things alone will immensely help the line situation without really causing much more of a staffing issue. I'm also hoping that park hours could be extended a bit more still. 11am-4pm is going to be crowded in every park, but I'm banking on the fringe hours and eating at off the beat times.

 

[NJlauren]

I'm going to ask on here first before I start a new thread - for those of you with school aged kids, are you nervous about pulling them out of school? We have been virtual so I thought we would be good but just received notice that both kids will be back full time starting Nov. 2 and we are set to fly out Nov. 23. we have always had no problems with vacation requests (our district says we can request one family vacation per year up to 5 days if the kids make up their work). We are traveling that Monday to Monday so they would only miss Mon, Tues and the following Mon. But now I'm wondering what will be thought if we put in for a request so soon after going back. DH says don't worry about it but of course I do. I will add we haven't seen anything regarding travel being discouraged and we are not in a state that would have to quarantine but of course we will continue to monitor and watch how things go between now and then.

Is your school giving a virtual option? In our state it is required to be an option, can you ask to opt in to virtual for the 3 or 4 days? Personally with out a quarantine i don't think i would be worried to much about missing 4 days.

We are in a quarantine state, and my daughter is supposed to go back to school in October. I am hoping there is no longer a quarantine when we go but if so we will just deal and miss what we miss and make up work as necessary. I am hoping i can just opt in to virtual for the 4 days we will miss. But if needed i guess for 14 days when we get back as well.

Honestly this whole thing is a mess!

 

[Stefne]

I'm going to ask on here first before I start a new thread - for those of you with school aged kids, are you nervous about pulling them out of school? We have been virtual so I thought we would be good but just received notice that both kids will be back full time starting Nov. 2 and we are set to fly out Nov. 23. we have always had no problems with vacation requests (our district says we can request one family vacation per year up to 5 days if the kids make up their work). We are traveling that Monday to Monday so they would only miss Mon, Tues and the following Mon. But now I'm wondering what will be thought if we put in for a request so soon after going back. DH says don't worry about it but of course I do. I will add we haven't seen anything regarding travel being discouraged and we are not in a state that would have to quarantine but of course we will continue to monitor and watch how things go between now and then.

I guess it really just depends on your school, but I know with my kids, the days right before holidays usually aren't that detrimental to miss. Our kids were supposed to have the entire Thanksgiving week off, so we were just going to officially be pulling them for the Thursday and Friday before the week long school vacation started. Now, the start date for school was delayed by a month due to the pandemic, so all of their school vacation holidays have turned into remote learning days so I guess they will now technically be missing 5 days of school. I'm not stressing it though. I have never in all of my kids years of school pulled them out for a trip and this is my oldest's senior year of high school. Seeing Galaxy's Edge and Disney at Christmas are his only wish so I will do my very best to make it happen if at all possible. He has already lost so much this senior year as their school is doing full remote learning right now and his marching band season has been pretty well been shut down after practicing for two months this summer for nothing. We are just going to roll with it and make up the work when we can.

 

[Funfire240]

Ok you guys are all making me feel better! DH would say I worry too much what other people think. We have pulled them out for a few days before and I'm not concerned about the work (DD12 is in all advanced classes and straight A's; DS10 is advanced where offered and B's/A's). My concern was what other people/the school might think about taking a vacation so close to after going back full time and I'm realizing that doesn't matter as long as are are good with it I was looking at our handbooks and they are updated for this year as it includes quarantining as an excused absence and still shows the vacation request as well. I worry too much sometimes! I am so looking forward to this vacation! (one year ago was our last trip when we surprised the kids for the weekend of Galaxy's Edge and MNSSHP so thinking how last year at this time we were in the midst of working on our 4 parks in 1 day!)

 

[mrsap]

I'm going to ask on here first before I start a new thread - for those of you with school aged kids, are you nervous about pulling them out of school? We have been virtual so I thought we would be good but just received notice that both kids will be back full time starting Nov. 2 and we are set to fly out Nov. 23. we have always had no problems with vacation requests (our district says we can request one family vacation per year up to 5 days if the kids make up their work). We are traveling that Monday to Monday so they would only miss Mon, Tues and the following Mon. But now I'm wondering what will be thought if we put in for a request so soon after going back. DH says don't worry about it but of course I do. I will add we haven't seen anything regarding travel being discouraged and we are not in a state that would have to quarantine but of course we will continue to monitor and watch how things go between now and then.

We take our kids out every year for Disney and will be doing it again in November (they’d miss 8 school days). They provide both kids with work that will be missed while gone. Usually a lot of work, but they’ve never given us a hard time. As long as their grades are good, we will continue to do it every year. PS - don’t worry what anyone else thinks!!!!

 

[A_Hal]

Has anyone made an ADR for Whispering Canyon on Thanksgiving Day? We have tried several times today, but we have received a message stating they are encountering problems. Just curious if anyone else had the same issue.
We were able to get every other restaurant we wanted; however, with 10 people we had to split the party into 2 or 3 groups for all of our restaurants.

 

[mrsap]

Has anyone made an ADR for Whispering Canyon on Thanksgiving Day? We have tried several times today, but we have received a message stating they are encountering problems. Just curious if anyone else had the same issue.
We were able to get every other restaurant we wanted; however, with 10 people we had to split the party into 2 or 3 groups for all of our restaurants.

Did you try calling?

 

[npatellye]

I'm going to ask on here first before I start a new thread - for those of you with school aged kids, are you nervous about pulling them out of school? We have been virtual so I thought we would be good but just received notice that both kids will be back full time starting Nov. 2 and we are set to fly out Nov. 23. we have always had no problems with vacation requests (our district says we can request one family vacation per year up to 5 days if the kids make up their work). We are traveling that Monday to Monday so they would only miss Mon, Tues and the following Mon. But now I'm wondering what will be thought if we put in for a request so soon after going back. DH says don't worry about it but of course I do. I will add we haven't seen anything regarding travel being discouraged and we are not in a state that would have to quarantine but of course we will continue to monitor and watch how things go between now and then.

Our district is allowing us to remain virtual if we choose and that’s what we’ve opted to do, even though schools will be fully reopened next week (they’ve been hybrid for the past 4 weeks).

We’ve taken kids out of school for various trips before and, one year, had one excused as a unique educational opportunity (when I was doing some research in Bermuda) because we would have been over 10 days of absences (2 sick, 6 for Disney, and 7 for Bermuda). Our district has been very understanding and has give us the work to do while we were away. This year, I may have the kids do remote learning for the week before Thanksgiving and then ask for excused absences for the week of Thanksgiving (we will be at Disney for 10 nights but only 6.5 days of school).

 

[soniam]

I'm going to ask on here first before I start a new thread - for those of you with school aged kids, are you nervous about pulling them out of school? We have been virtual so I thought we would be good but just received notice that both kids will be back full time starting Nov. 2 and we are set to fly out Nov. 23. we have always had no problems with vacation requests (our district says we can request one family vacation per year up to 5 days if the kids make up their work). We are traveling that Monday to Monday so they would only miss Mon, Tues and the following Mon. But now I'm wondering what will be thought if we put in for a request so soon after going back. DH says don't worry about it but of course I do. I will add we haven't seen anything regarding travel being discouraged and we are not in a state that would have to quarantine but of course we will continue to monitor and watch how things go between now and then.

We are still completely virtual until Oct 5. For the next 4 weeks after that, they are doing hybrid, some in-person, some virtual. Even the in-person kids are still sitting in a room with a set group of students and doing independent virtual learning with a laptop and headphones. DH and I won't be going back to work in-person until January at the earliest. We've been working from home since mid-March. So, I figure it doesn't make much sense to have DS go into school to still sit in a room in front of a computer and be potentially exposed. Once November/December comes around, I don't know what they will be doing. DS has the whole week off. I am heading in a a few days before, because this was originally a trip for Destination D. We don't have to quarantine; however, we plan to do so for 14 days afterward. We did it after our July Orlando trip. Hopefully, they will have an online option. I suspect they are going to have to, because there will be students who get sick/test positive or are exposed to these students and will need to quarantine at home.

 

[A_Hal]

Did you try calling?

I"m on hold with them now. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[mrsap]

I"m on hold with them now. Thanks for the suggestion.

How did you make out?

 

[JCMCM]

Has anyone made an ADR for Whispering Canyon on Thanksgiving Day? We have tried several times today, but we have received a message stating they are encountering problems. Just curious if anyone else had the same issue.
We were able to get every other restaurant we wanted; however, with 10 people we had to split the party into 2 or 3 groups for all of our restaurants.

For what it's worth, I can't make a Thanksgiving day ADR at Sanaa either. Tried a few other resort restaurants just to test -- Whispering Canyon since you saw the issue there, California Grill, even Olivia's -- and got the same message. Park and DS restaurants were available to book, so perhaps just a resort table service thing??? Very frustrating. If I call and get any worthwhile info, I'll report back.

 

[A_Hal]

How did you make out?

The CM said there was not availability. There were no notes of any issues with the system.
I found it strange that there was already no availability for the entire day, regardless of time and party size.

 

[A_Hal]

For what it's worth, I can't make a Thanksgiving day ADR at Sanaa either. Tried a few other resort restaurants just to test -- Whispering Canyon since you saw the issue there, California Grill, even Olivia's -- and got the same message. Park and DS restaurants were available to book, so perhaps just a resort table service thing??? Very frustrating. If I call and get any worthwhile info, I'll report back.

Thanks for the information. I began to wonder if Whispering Canyon is just going to be closed on Thanksgiving. Perhaps to help limit the amount of visitors in the resorts?