Strategy for Thanksgiving Week Wed-Sun 2018

[gulliesmom]

So I posted a couple days ago asking about going Christmas 2018 and after a lot of discussion, we decided we are going to do Thanksgiving instead. So we are planning on staying at the Grand Floridian and arrive Tuesday afternoon so will have Wednesday, Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as full days. I am thinking of doing a 4 day ticket so we have one full day to do non park stuff.

For the seasoned experts out there, how would you do these four days? What parks on what days? I am thinking MK on Thanksgiving. We will likely get PH on our tickets.

Thanks!

 

[matheke]

Sunday will more than likely be your only low park attendence day. Plan that to NOT be your down day

 

[WishICouldSpeakWhale]

Thursday (Thanksgiving) turned out to be pretty nice crowd-wise. I thought Magic kingdom was manageable. We had 3 fast passes and lunch reservations at CRT (made at 6am on our 180+10 day). We picked up two more fast passes via the app after we used our first 3. We didn't get to MK until about 11am.

After MK, we went to Epcot for dinner at Coral Reef. We didn't do much else in Epcot, just took a ride on Nemo at 8:55pm. We were the only people on the ride so that was pretty cool. We did leave during Illuminations, rather than fight the crowds after. We could see the fireworks from our balcony at Boardwalk, so we didn't feel the need to stay.

Friday (MK) and Saturday (AK and Epcot) were busier, but I did pick up fourth fast passes to test track for my daughter and Soarin for me.

Sunday in MK was nice. Crowds were much lower than any other day, but there was a Christmas party that night so the park was closing at 6. We hopped back to Epcot for dinner.

If you can swing the cost, park hoppers are nice that weekend.

 

[CynBeth]

I would do Epcot on either Fri or Sat to experience the storytellers and CP.

 

[rer1972]

We are planning a family trip for Thanksgiving 2018 also; BRV for the first 5 nights, and then AKV for the last 4 nights. I have been looking at historical crowd levels for days after and days before the trip. So far I am seeing this sort of average

CROWD LEVEL 1-10 OUT OF 10
SUNDAY (11/18/18) 6-7
MONDAY 8-9
TUESDAY 9
WEDNESDAY 9-10
THURSDAY 7-9 (Epcot seems to move the average up to 9; thinking it's due to dining at Epcot for Thanksgiving Day?)
FRIDAY 8-9
SATURDAY 7-8
SUNDAY 4-6
MONDAY 3-6

Right now our plan is Sunday 11/18 to Tuesday 11/27.

Still need to see about MVMCP days for 2018, since we would like to attend. We also tend to do early time park visits (while the kiddos are fresh), and then come back in the afternoon/evenings.

Thinking of doing MK on Thanksgiving Day early, head over to Trail's End with everyone for Thanksgiving Lunch/Dinner (we are early eaters), and then head back to MK if everyone is up to it. Would like to do MK another 1-2 days before and after as well. Will do AK 1-2 days when we are staying at AKV to make the most of our time. We may try to do HS (not sure how Toy Story Land will affect crowds by then) during the days after Thanksgiving. We'll do 1-2 Epcot Days here and there.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Wednesday was the most crowded day to us. We were at AK. We arrived at 1pm and left about 8. We wound up skipping Everest, because it was dark and just so packed everywhere and we didn’t have the energy to walk all the way over there after FoP. We did find a nice quiet spot to enjoy Pandora at night.

Thursday we headed to Epcot in the afternoon and had a great day. It was very manageable and we did so much more than we expected.

Maybe we overestimated the crowd levels beforehand. Maybe we zigged while others zagged. Either way it was great.

 

[dragonfly57005]

Good to know. Due to school schedules I think this is the only timing that will work for us to go. We’ll come prepared on it being a bit more crowded than usual.

 

[Klayfish]

If it was just me, in your situation, I'd do a 6 day ticket. The cost isn't that much more than a 4 day. If you're arriving Tuesday afternoon, I'd be in the parks that evening...maybe not all night, but for some amount of time.

As for which parks, I really think you should just do them in whatever order you decide is best. MK will be very crowded later in the day on Thanksgiving Day itself, so keep that in mind. Other than that, it's a crowded week. We were just there for Thanksgiving this year. Honestly, I can't even remember which park we were in on which day...except for Thanksgiving Day itself I remember we were in HS.

Lines will be pretty long, but extra FP+ are somewhat available after your first 3. Some parks still empty out toward the end of the evening. For instance, we rode TSMM one night right before park closing and literally walked right on it. AK is pretty empty at night too (except for Pandora). Ride at MK aren't bad when fireworks are happening, we walked right on Splash one night.