Thanksgiving in the World...questions!

I haven't been the week of Thanksgiving. I can tell you that the decorations are up the week before Thanksgiving. Depending on the location, they're either up when I arrive or put up during the week I'm there. It's cool seeing the transformation.

As far as the water parks, I believe at least one is always open. Looking at this year's calendar, Typhoon Lagoon is closed Oct 27 through Dec 21. Blizzard Beach is closed Dec 22 through Mar 15.

This is just a guess, but I would imagine that the Christmas decorations are up before the first MVMCP. This year, that's around Veteran's Day weekend (if I get to MVMCP and there ain't no Christmas lights/trees/ornaments, I'm asking for a refund!!). I know Disneyland has had theirs up by the 2nd week of November. Strangely enough, when I went to DL a few years ago, the actually had billboards up along the highways stating the date the park would be fully decorated.

Usually as soon as Halloween is over the Christmas decorations go up and yes they are all up for the MVMCP.

We have toured some, not all, of the resorts in December. Of the resorts that we walked through, Boardwalk and Grand Floridian were our favorites. I hear that AKL is pretty cool too.

Sorry, I am not much help. I have only been during the Holidays once.

The decorations go up in early November. Our extended family went to WDW for Thanksgiving about eight years ago and it was very crowded. We had a difficult time getting dinner reservations at a reasonable time (we had elementary/middle school age children). We booked a fair amount of time ahead of time & immediately started trying to make ADRs. While we love seeing the decorations....our family will not go during Thanksgiving again. Sometimes with school age children you don't have a choice but if we had a choice we won't go at Thanksgiving again. Hubby & I took his parent this past December (second week) and it was a lovely! We had a wonderful time!!

Best wishes on your trip planning!

I enjoyed my Thanksgiving Trip! The place was gorgeous. There were some crowds, but I managed to navigate around that by enjoying the resorts more. Epcot was especially nice with their Different storytellers, but they did not start up till the day after thanksgiving.

I've always been very afraid to go during Thanksgiving, even though it's something I'd really like to do one day! Sorry, I can't offer any advice, Eeyore, but DisneyDoc, I would love to know more about the storytellers at Epcot!! What's that about, please??

( I can't give you any info, but I can GATHER more info for you, see?)

Those storytellers are located all around the WS, dressed in costumes representing holiday figures from that culture; Pere Noel in France, La Befana in Italy, St. Nicholas in UK, a Chinese tale of the Monkey King, etc...all of these actors dramatically and sometimes humorously tell us about the holiday legends and traditions of that region. I always hate it that this begins the day before I have to leave.

That's my favorite time to travel to Disney! Although, I usually arrive on Black Friday for 4 nights...I found the crowds calm down starting Saturday....I guess most people start their trek home after spending the week down there?

The parks and resorts are mostly decorated (as far as I can tell) and there are alot of photo ops available with the Christmas trees and decorations.

My favorite resort to stay at during the fall/winter is the Wilderness Lodge....just gives you the winter/holiday feeling, plus....I love the lobby!

Don't forget to go to MVMCP too - to see the parade....the Candlelight Processional is nice, I haven't been to that in a few years tho'.

The Halloween Party ends Nov 1 and the Christmas party starts Nov 8. So they will have Magic Kingdom turned around in one week. Pop they had gotten it Christmasfied around that same time. I think the main focus is MK then they work on the other parks and resorts. Thanksgiving week isn't that bad but MK got to almost full capacity if not completely the day of Thanksgiving. The crowds start to dwindle a couple days after because kids aren't getting that much time off for Thanksgiving anymore. Most table service restaurants will offer a traditional holiday meal the day of. Resort quick service restaurants will offer one as well. The full menu will be available.