What are the crowds like??

[wdwnutze]

We will be in Orlando 11/26-12/5. We are thinking of possibly going to Seaworld the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Anyone been at that time of year and know how the crowds might be? We are not going to WDW til 11/30 in hopes to avoid some of the holiday crowds.

 

[vernon]

Even if there are a lot of people SW copes probably better than any other park. This is because there are relatively few "rides". A large # of people wanting to go on a ride increases the queue time quite dramatically, whereas most of the attractions at SW are shows or walkthroughs. Avoid wild Arctic immediately after a show at Shamu Stadium, many people come out of Shamu and head straight into the queue for WA, this can easily increase the queue time from a usual 20-30 minutes to more than an hour. JTA and Kraken may get busy so I would suggest riding them early in the day if you want to include them. For the shows I find that I usually get there at least 15 minutes before showtime anyway, find a good seat and use the time to have a drink or a rest. If the park is very busy, maybe it's a good idea to get there an extra five minutes or so early, but with the large seating capacities it is unusual for a show to get closed off. You might not get quite such a good seat, or even have to stand, but you're going to get to see the show.

Generally I've never had a problem as far as the attractions go , at SW due to a busy park. If there ever is a slight inconvenience it's that the restaurants can get busy at "peak times". I would suggest having a large breakfast outside the park and try not to lunch between 12.30 and 3.00. I'd either eat in the park about 3.30 and make do for the day, or grab a snack a little earlier and then eat outside the park after I had left for the day. I'm not sure how long it will be until the new shops and restaurants are open, but that will help this particular, occassional , problem.