9 days at Thanksgiving

[Llama mama]

New to Universal. Done Disney many times at Thanksgiving. We know big crowds.
We have 9 days booked at Royal Pacific so we have the Express Pass.
Is Universal shoulder to shoulder the whole week of Thanksgiving?
Will EP times be reasonable? 30 minutes or less?
Should we or do we need to utilize open early hours?

 

[macraven]

I have not gone in that time period can’t answer for crowd levels
But did a search and read some in past years had no complaints for T day and the Friday that followed

Traffic patterns for the parks do change each year

I did not check our trip report sticky for any threads listing Thanksgiving 2019
Maybe look at that thread to guide you if no one responds here

 

[Llama mama]

I did a Thanksgiving search and read through every post I could find lol . Most seem vague. A few listed times so it seems like 15-30 minutes at Holiday times with EP seems the norm.
I think since we have so many days we will plan on some EE and some sleep in days

 

[SaintsManiac]

I was there the Friday-Sunday before Thanksgiving. Friday was fine. Saturday and Sunday were very busy. We also had Express Pass and it was wonderful. However, you could hardly walk through Hogsmeade, so be prepared.

Not sure when your 9 days start, but that's all I got.

 

[Llama mama]

I was there the Friday-Sunday before Thanksgiving. Friday was fine. Saturday and Sunday were very busy. We also had Express Pass and it was wonderful. However, you could hardly walk through Hogsmeade, so be prepared.

Not sure when your 9 days start, but that's all I got.

Thank you !! We are booked 11/21 to 11/29. I think we may avoid the park that last weekend. We will be sure to hit everything early in our trip .

 

[cfoxga]

We've done Sat-Wed before Thanksgiving twice (2017 and 2019). There are good sized crowds, so I would definitely recommend having EP. There was one afternoon last Thanksgiving that EP lines got very long (Kong was over 45 minutes), so we just left the park and came back after dinner.

Everyone has their opinion, but 9 days is a ton for Universal. Our first trip was 5 days a CB (so no EP) during Spring Break 2017. We did EE every day and took only a break for lunch. I was kinda burned out on the last day.

Since you are at RP and have EP, you'll be able to really take your time and experience the parks. I'm sure the first day or two you'll want to go early, but you should be able to sleep in, eat a nice breakfast, and leisurely enjoy everything you want to do. The only special consideration is Hagrids, since it is so busy. To minimize wait times on that, we went 1 hour early to rope drop IOA and had a 45 minute wait on the ride. Better than the 2-4 hour waits that we would see on the app during the day. Perhaps by next Thanksgiving, it will be shorter lines.

 

[SG131]

I agree 9 days for universal is a really long time, especially during a time of year when you don't know if it will be warm enough to want to do Volcano Bay. Maybe when the 3rd park opens a week long trip will be more justifiable, but with express pass even with high crowds you'll be able to do everything you want multiple times in 4 days. I'd plan some activities outside of Universal for some of the other days of your trip.

 

[Disxuni]

You'll definitely be able to enjoy the Universal resorts if you not only have nine days, but also EP. I would only state concern yourself with travel time, but you're on site. That being said, the weekend afterward will be packed. I checked the times out of curiosity the day prior to Thanksgiving this (or should I say last) year and it was actually not that busy at all during the times I checked on and off. In terms of crowd unsure, but the wait times weren't dramatically long. Of course things differ between each year I'd imagine, however while it picks up a little during Thanksgiving, it's not like Disney where the whole week it's shoulder to shoulder.

 

[macraven]

For me, a stay of 9 or 10 days is usual

I treat it like I do for my other vacations
I don’t get up early and rush anywhere daily.
I don’t live by the clock and can relax not being on a set schedule

I take my time for the parks and hit them different times
I’m not in them from opening to closing

If I have a short park day, I’ll hit City Walk around 9 or 10 pm for dinner and drinks
They don’t close until 2 am

There are many times in my vacation I meet up with friends and spend much of the day with them sitting around the pool or at Jakes where my lunch visits can be 3 hours..


Many do hotel stays of over one week and never leave the UO grounds

 

[Disxuni]

There are many times in my vacation I meet up with friends and spend much of the day with them sitting around the pool or at Jakes where my lunch visits can be 3 hours..

 

[Llama mama]

I agree 9 days for universal is a really long time, especially during a time of year when you don't know if it will be warm enough to want to do Volcano Bay. Maybe when the 3rd park opens a week long trip will be more justifiable, but with express pass even with high crowds you'll be able to do everything you want multiple times in 4 days. I'd plan some activities outside of Universal for some of the other days of your trip.

We have SeaWorld booked two days and might even throw in a Disney Christmas party one night. Most of our vacation have always been go,go,go . Hoping to have some down time relaxation time for this one.

 

[Llama mama]

For me, a stay of 9 or 10 days is usual

I treat it like I do for my other vacations
I don’t get up early and rush anywhere daily.
I don’t live by the clock and can relax not being on a set schedule

I take my time for the parks and hit them different times
I’m not in them from opening to closing

If I have a short park day, I’ll hit City Walk around 9 or 10 pm for dinner and drinks
They don’t close until 2 am

There are many times in my vacation I meet up with friends and spend much of the day with them sitting around the pool or at Jakes where my lunch visits can be 3 hours..


Many do hotel stays of over one week and never leave the UO grounds

That’s what I am hoping for . Not having to wake early . Just leisurely enjoy the parks. Pop in at different times and hopefully not have it wall to wall people. I think since we are going early enough we will just avoid the parks the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Thanks for all the tips and advice. You have been extremely helpful and I am truly grateful.

 

[Irja]

We were there over Thanksgiving 2019. We were at Universal 1/2 day arrival day Sat and all day Sun, plus I went into the parks by myself that Mon. This was the weekend before Thanksgiving. That Mon we transitioned to WDW. I found the crowds to be quite manageable the times I was there but I did see on crowd calendars that it was going to be getting much busier as soon as we left. I could tell Universal had many more staff in place that Mon morning. I left before it got busy but I saw the signs. Express pass was wonderful. We saw maybe 1/3 of Universal in the time we were there and could have spent many more days. We did not try to do Volcano Bay.