We were advised about spending Thanksgiving period at Disney(Thanks to clarkgriswold & janis).

A group of us will arrive after 20hour+ flight on Thanksgiving day at LAX at 11am from Singapore. At the moment we are a bit ambivalent on doing it on Thanksgiving day (which is advisable) or the day after (which is absolutely MOB!).

For some reasons, we could only do Disneyland on the first 2 days of our 3 week tour of your beautiful SouthWest.

With the exception of my family, the rest in the group had never been to the US. We have a mid-40's couple, 2 mothers, a 6 year-old boy & 5 mid-teen girls in this advance party.

We had never experience Thanksgiving spirit in our life before but would certainly be glad to feel this spirit.

With fast pass system at Disney, we are not sure the American perspective of MOB (does it means queuing for hours). We had been to place where there are queues of 2~4 hours and we skipped those rides and do the less popular but still enjoy the carnival spirits. We are pretty seasoned global travellers and had been to places with riot-like enviroment.

The company is great in this advance party and the kids are pretty adaptable and well mannered. So whether we skipped the popular rides, we think we can soak and enjoy ourselves in this carnival-like spirits. We are doing these just for the kids.

Subsequently the days after this will be spent in hiking the grand Canyon, Sedona, Zion, Bryce, etc.

Just wanna hear and appreciate your penny worth of thought

Thanks, Don

Message: I think I would go down to San Diego on that first arrival day (no traffic), and do the San Diego end of your trip on Thursday Fri and Sat. On Sunday I would drive up to Hollywood for your day at Universal, then drive back down to Disneyland for Sun and Mon evenings. You can get an early start at Disneyland on Monday and it will not be too crowded. On Tuesday after the morning traffic you can head to Joshua Tree and in the late afternoon start for Arizona.

Perhaps someone will have a good suggestion for you on what to do Thanksgiving afternoon and evening in San Diego. A relaxing dinner and a walk by the ocean/La Jolla might be nice, but you will need to make a reservation soon for 16 persons, that's a huge group to be traveling with, and most of them will be very tired on the first 2 days.



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Thanks clarkgrisold for your good suggestion. I think it would difficult for us to re-jig the itinenary due to transportation issues and 2 different groups arriving at LAX on different days.

But we hope the days at the canyons,parks will more than compensate for the traffic and crowd.
Don

Hi don_sgp
We also live in S'pore and we have done the Disney/West Coast trip before - you will have a great time!
I am not sure of the closing time at Disneyland on Thanksgiving day but realistically you probably won't get to the park until about 3:00 at the earliest and your family may begin to droop from jetlag a bit early on the first day. IMO it would STILL be worthwhile to go on Thanksgiving day as opposed to the day after and as early in the day a possible. IMO the feeling of Thanksgiving is difficult to capture if you are not spending it in someone's home (a bit like Chinese New Year - festive but you miss out on the nuances and true meaning if you don't spend it with a local family)and while the Disneyland lines don't compare in waiting time to the Tokyo Disney lines it is MUCH less fluid and organized. Fast pass helps with the very popular rides but lines can be quite long at non-fast pass/less popular rides as well (on the busiest days 1hour+) although a true Disney expert would be able to give you a clearer idea of wait times on the day after Thanksgiving. You can, of course, relax for the rest of your trip after a hectic day at Disney but long lines and tons of people everywhere you turn coupled with jet lag can turn even the funnest experience into an exhausting and disappointing one. Hope this helps a little with your decision!
have a safe and fun trip!

Don-Disneyland closes at midnight on Thanksgiving Day so that might work for you. I would avoid Disneyland at all costs the day after Thanksgiving. When we say a MOB, it can get so bad that you can barely walk through the park and of course waits for rides could be hours. Not sure how much fast passes speed up the lines on a busy day like that but I doubt you will soak in much atmosphere because all you will remember about Disneyland is how crowded it is.

I would think that Thanksgiving Day would be a good time to go but after a 20 hour flight, your group might not be up to it. (Another possibiity would be to get a two day pass, go for awhile on Nov 25th and then for a few hours on the 26th until it gets too crowded.) Don't know where you plan to stay the evening of the 25th. I saw your other posting with your schedule for your 3 week trip. It seems doable but tiring especially the first few days with all the amusement parks. You could change your trip plan to:
Nov 25 - Arrive LAX - Afternoon/Evening Disneyland
Day 2 - Possibly more Disneyland or just rest and see LA (Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Hollywood).
Day 3 - Universal Studios
Day 4 - Head to San Diego, stop in La Jolla, go to Coronado
Day 5 - Sea World
continue trip as planned

As emd on your other thread mentioned, it is difficult to go to a theme park and plan other activities on the same day. By going to Disneyland that first day, you will miss the crowd, have some time to rest up from jet lag on the 26th (and see LA) and then have a day each for Universal and Sea World.
Hope this helps. Have a wonderful trip.