(Post)Thanksgiving Park Strategy

[PlutoIsHerFav]

We are planning a last minute trip over Thanksgiving weekend. We're planning on 5 nights and 3 day PH tickets (still debating MVMCP tickets). We either plan to arrive the Wed (day) before Thanksgiving and leave the following Monday, or arrive Thanksgiving and leave the following Tuesday. We're leaning toward the latter for lighter traffic (driving) and I'm assuming park crowds on Thanksgiving Day are nuts.

So, if our schedule is:
Thurs (Thanksgiving) - arrive/no park
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday - depart/no park

...would it make most sense to use Saturday as our off day? For this short trip, we're really just trying to pick what would be best for crowd management. We're only going with PH tickets so we can hop if we pick the wrong park, lol.

Slinky is my kids' #1 request, always. We did EMM last time, but of course that's not an option now. We don't plan to spend much time at all at DHS. Is our best bet to try for a FP for Mon morning, and if we can't get it, hit the line at closing? It doesn't look like the GE opening is helping to lessen the wait for Slinky at rope drop!

 

[RememberWhoYouAre]

Will you be hitting up each park?
I like to do MK on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving because they show The Totally Tomorrowland Christmas Show (from MVMCP) on these dates. Me and DD love this show, so that's reason enough for us to go. If your family doesn't like shows, then I guess that won't matter to you.
We've done epcot on that Saturday a few times and I've always been surprised that it was not nearly as crowded as I expected it to be. (Maybe everyone else heads to a different park on Sat?)
We've had good luck doing slinky dog just before closing with little wait. But that's as long as you're okay if that happens to interfere with the nighttime shows at HS if you were planning on watching either Fantasmic or JBJB.
I'd also like to mention that Disney Springs is always crazy busy for us on Saturdays. So, if you were thinking of doing Disney Springs on your rest day, you may want to take that into consideration. We did the stitch scavenger hunt and the Christmas Tree Trail last year and enjoyed doing those low-key things.

 

[CynBeth]

With such a short trip I would not have an off day and would add 1 or 2 more more days of tickets as depending on what time you arrive you could do part of Thanksgiving Day at a park. I would also do MVMCP the Sunday after Thanksgiving. There will be the storytellers and Candlelight Processional at Epcot so you might want some additional time there. We have been over Thanksgiving Week several times and if you make all your dining and FPs the crowds should be ok for you.

 

[PlutoIsHerFav]

Will you be hitting up each park?
I like to do MK on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving because they show The Totally Tomorrowland Christmas Show (from MVMCP) on these dates. Me and DD love this show, so that's reason enough for us to go. If your family doesn't like shows, then I guess that won't matter to you.
We've done epcot on that Saturday a few times and I've always been surprised that it was not nearly as crowded as I expected it to be. (Maybe everyone else heads to a different park on Sat?)
We've had good luck doing slinky dog just before closing with little wait. But that's as long as you're okay if that happens to interfere with the nighttime shows at HS if you were planning on watching either Fantasmic or JBJB.
I'd also like to mention that Disney Springs is always crazy busy for us on Saturdays. So, if you were thinking of doing Disney Springs on your rest day, you may want to take that into consideration. We did the stitch scavenger hunt and the Christmas Tree Trail last year and enjoyed doing those low-key things.

Thank you!! We may or may not visit each park. We were just there in August so don't feel the same "need" to see everything! However, it's my FIL's very first trip so we want him to experience it. However, we'll focus on MK. We'll likely do a half day at HS to fit in Slinky. Doing it at park close probably makes sense. We love Fantasmic, but it won't be a "must". AK is up in the air. If I could manage a FOP FP then definitely. Otherwise, maybe a half day, if at all. I honestly love Epcot, but I'm not sure how the construction will affect that.

Good point on DS on Saturday! I'd love to do the Christmas Tree Trail! What is the Stitch Scavenger hunt? Sounds fun!

With such a short trip I would not have an off day and would add 1 or 2 more more days of tickets as depending on what time you arrive you could do part of Thanksgiving Day at a park. I would also do MVMCP the Sunday after Thanksgiving. There will be the storytellers and Candlelight Processional at Epcot so you might want some additional time there. We have been over Thanksgiving Week several times and if you make all your dining and FPs the crowds should be ok for you.

Adding a day of tickets for 5 pushes us over budget, plus I don't want to push my FIL too hard! We were just there in August for 10 days, so I am trying to scale back this trip for his sake. I am considering MVMCP that Sunday. We've done it before that same Sunday and I really loved it - but it is another $600. Another option is going own to two park days and adding MVMCP. I have never done Epcot at Christmas - that sounds wonderful. What would I need to know/plan for the storytellers and candlelight processional? Is it incredibly busy/hard to see?

 

[CynBeth]

For the storytellers they have something in each country and there is a schedule with times. Our favorites are Italy, France, Norway, and Germany but we try to see as many as we can. For the CP it is held each night 3 times with a celebrity narrator. The only way to guarantee a seat is to buy a CP package for either a breakfast, lunch, or dinner not a regular ADR it is special for this show and you are assigned a show time. There is a standby line but people can wait all day and not get in to any of the shows that day if it is a popular narrator. Not sure if they have changed how that works.

 

[PlutoIsHerFav]

For the storytellers they have something in each country and there is a schedule with times. Our favorites are Italy, France, Norway, and Germany but we try to see as many as we can. For the CP it is held each night 3 times with a celebrity narrator. The only way to guarantee a seat is to buy a CP package for either a breakfast, lunch, or dinner not a regular ADR it is special for this show and you are assigned a show time. There is a standby line but people can wait all day and not get in to any of the shows that day if it is a popular narrator. Not sure if they have changed how that works.

Thank you! For the CP, any thoughts on it with a 3 yo and 7 yo? I think it looks amazing and I think my FIL would love it, but my husband is convinced our kids will make it hard for us to enjoy. HA! Obviously it's Disney so it's kid-friendly, but wondering if we'd be better off waiting until they are older. In the meantime, I'll look to see if I could find a reservation!

 

[lorenae]

I went during that same time back in 2015. Saturday night at MK was amazingly quiet. We didn't have FP, as we weren't even planning on going to the park that day, but added days on when we got to our resort.
We arrived at MK late- like after 6 PM. My GS was 5, so I didn't look at the lines for SM, but we rode the Speedway a couple of times, Splash, Buzz at least three times, the train, and several others. We knew we had FP for SDMT, PP and Pooh for the next morning, so didn't even look at those queues. I can't say it'd be like that every Saturday after Thanksgiving, but I was quite surprised. He mostly just wanted to see Elsa "freeze the castle", as we didn't have party tickets and there were only two nights without a party scheduled and that was one of our only chances.

The Sunday at MK was pretty awesome. Very light crowds in the AM (we had EMH I think), and we had a great time. By 2 PM, it was a bit tighter and some of the stand-by lines were a little longer, but it wasn't an issue. After the parade, there was a noticeable increase in crowds as people started arriving at 4 PM for the party. By 5:00 (park closed at 6) we could barely get past the castle to get out. By the time we made it to the exit at around 5:30, it was very crowded there and a real mob scene.

On Monday, we did AK and had very low crowds (this was pre-FOP).

The crowds stayed low the rest of our stay (we stayed a full week).

Since he was 5 and definitely would not have been happy at a CP, we didn't do it and instead left that area when it got really crowded. He did sit on Santa's lap in the US pavilion as it started to get busy for the CP, and then we took the Friendship boat and got out of there.

 

[PlutoIsHerFav]

Thank you all for your feedback! Looks like we can't take Tuesday off, so we'll be going Wed-Monday. Do we plan to just make Thanksgiving our "off" day or plan to hit the parks? We want to go the least crowded (3) days! We'd like to spend the majority of time at MK, but hit a few of our key highlights at the other parks!

 

[RememberWhoYouAre]

Thank you!! We may or may not visit each park. We were just there in August so don't feel the same "need" to see everything! However, it's my FIL's very first trip so we want him to experience it. However, we'll focus on MK. We'll likely do a half day at HS to fit in Slinky. Doing it at park close probably makes sense. We love Fantasmic, but it won't be a "must". AK is up in the air. If I could manage a FOP FP then definitely. Otherwise, maybe a half day, if at all. I honestly love Epcot, but I'm not sure how the construction will affect that.

Good point on DS on Saturday! I'd love to do the Christmas Tree Trail! What is the Stitch Scavenger hunt? Sounds fun!


Adding a day of tickets for 5 pushes us over budget, plus I don't want to push my FIL too hard! We were just there in August for 10 days, so I am trying to scale back this trip for his sake. I am considering MVMCP that Sunday. We've done it before that same Sunday and I really loved it - but it is another $600. Another option is going own to two park days and adding MVMCP. I have never done Epcot at Christmas - that sounds wonderful. What would I need to know/plan for the storytellers and candlelight processional? Is it incredibly busy/hard to see?

The stitch scavenger hunt in DS is free. Get a map, follow the clues and look for stitch throughout the marketplace area shops. At the end, our "prize" was a stitch button. My teen DD enjoyed it because Stitch is one of her favorite characters. It was a simple, but fun thing to do. We also ate at T-Rex which is their favorite restaurant.
We attempted CP years ago when my DD was 7. She and DH were so bored, we left half way through. I had always wanted to see the full show, so finally last November I saw it. I took my 9 yr old DS with me while DD and DH stayed in future world (they still didn't want to see even though it's been 12 years!). My 9 yr old was mostly bored, but he sat patiently and quietly next to me. I had bought him a cookie just before so that kept him happy for a little while too! I thought it was beautiful, and the videos online and live streams do not do it justice. I am ready to see it again this year if I can fit it in! I saw the 8:15pm show the Saturday after Thanksgiving last year. I think ease of getting into CP depends on day and narrator. Helen Hunt was our narrator, and while initially I had no interest in her (I just wanted to see CP), I thought she did a really great job. I was running behind on time and arrived less than 10 min before showtime and still got a seat! I thought for sure it would have been full already. I think it may have been a combination of lower epcot crowds that day, Helen Hunt not being one of the "popular" narrators, and seeing the last show of the night. I have noticed that with the concerts during epcot festivals, that the first concert of the day seems most crowded. So maybe that's true of CP as well.

 

[RememberWhoYouAre]

For holiday storytellers at epcot, our favorite ones we Norway, UK and Italy. Thought Morrocco and Japan were boring. Kids really liked the large dancing dragon puppet-thing in China.

 

[tazbc18]

Will you be hitting up each park?
I like to do MK on either Friday, Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving because they show The Totally Tomorrowland Christmas Show (from MVMCP) on these dates. Me and DD love this show, so that's reason enough for us to go. If your family doesn't like shows, then I guess that won't matter to you. “

Sorry, is the Totally Tomorrowland Christmas Show shown during Thanksgiving weekend? I thought it was only during the paid Christmas party or the week of Xmas?

 

[RememberWhoYouAre]

Yup, it's shown the Friday-Sunday after Thanksgiving too.