I’m already booked through DVC (Thank God), but someone in another group mentioned that the week after Thanksgiving now has zero resort availability. I ran a search and, sure enough, nothing is showing available for 11/26-12/2. Now I’m getting worried! I chose this week (in part) because I heard it was relatively light to moderate crowds. Anyone been to the parks when the resorts were booked and it NOT been crazy busy??
The number of people staying at WDW resorts is a relatively small percentage of all the people in the parks. I’d trust the CLs and not worry too much. Also, there was talk of computer glitches causing room inventory issues, but with no trips in the foreseeable future, I didn’t pay much attention.
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I am going that week too and trying to add an extra day, but there is “basically” no availability. I also chose that week due to its history of being slow, but I guess this is the year every one caught on because ADRs (even the ones no one really wants) and rooms are completely gone - and I’ve received two notices from TP that the CL has gone up. I am sure we’ll receive a few more by the time our vacation rolls around. What used to be a CL3-4 week is now a CL5-6 week. I’m told it won’t likely make a difference in touring, though.
I booked a stay that same week for the same reason. It was supposed to be one of the best weeks to visit, crowdwise. (I guess we’re in trouble if ten more people respond to this saying the same thing).
I think the question becomes whether it is normal for resorts to get all filled up two months in advance. Maybe that is something others can address.
I assumed it may have something to do with the second resort discount they added. So first they did the “free dining” offer that week. Later they did the standard discount that we usually expect to see. Then they did another discount just recently, right? Of course NONE of those discounts applied to MY reservations! 
We go every year this week and it’s always nice crowd-wise. I think there may be some weird room inventory glitch, have noticed that on the TA booking side, and had other agents tell me they were told that by a CM. Also as far as ADR availability, especially at MK, there are fewer time available on MVMCP nights, therefore more bookings at non-park restaurants taken.
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IMO-Calling them directly works. I had computer problems showing no openings recently and the CSM had different info on their screen.
I contacted my TA to see if she could find some availability for me and I told her I was curious if there was a computer glitch and more rooms were available than what is showing. She said no, they are nearly fully booked because so many people rescheduled from Irma to that week. Anyone else hear anything more about that week?
I am really, really regretting my decision to go that week. My DH has some social anxiety and gets nervous in shoulder to shoulder crowds. My friend talked me into changing from second week of October to week after Thanksgiving because it would be less crowded. Ugh! 
Uh oh. That’s the weekend my family of 14 is going. We also chose for lite crowd levels. Just made our 60 day FPP reservations this morning. Things were going quick, but was able to secure FOP, woohoo!
I was a little confused when I started plugging FPP into our touring plans and optimizing and kept getting back the message that the TP wasn’t using the FPP because it was better to go at different times. Especially confused now if CL will be higher than traditionally? Will be following reports!
I really hope the Irma rumor the travel agent mentioned isn’t true. My family and I have never seen Disney st Christmas and my husband is disabled. More crowds =more problems. Hope we’ll all be fine.
I’m going that week as well. Back in August I was able to change resorts on my reservation but they were very limited so I have a split stay now. Originally I wasn’t happy about it, but now I’m actually quite excited to experience 2 resorts. One an all time favorite and the other a new one for me.
I’m going from 11/18-11/24, and I had the same problem plugging my fastpass into the TP.
The TP is trying to say some rides will have like 5 minute waits, which is impossible considering it’s an 8 or 9/10 CL week.
In the stretch I’ll be there (11/26-12/2) there’s no availability for the entire week, but there is limited availability (mostly deluxe resorts and villas) if it’s broken into 3-4 night segments.
That seems about right for a mildly busy season (it’s really not even the least busy week of the holiday season) at the 60-day mark. Even for a really slow season, once you get into the 40-60 days out period there’s going to be limited availability. Then, just before the 30-day cancellation deadline some more may open up, and once you get within that it stays fairly low.
FWIW most of my trips are booked within 60 days of arrival, and this really isn’t all that unusual, in my experience. I don’t think I’ve ever booked an entire week at the same resort with less than 6 weeks notice. It’s mostly the result of people not being consistent with trip lengths and travel dates. If you try to book just one night at a time then you’ll almost always find something, even over a holiday, but since most of the rooms are booked into lengthier blocks (and weekend blocks) you won’t be able to stay in the same room. The resorts may actually have plenty of availability on each individual night you want, but they cannot fulfill your request all in one go because they don’t have any rooms available for consecutive nights so it shows as unavailable.
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I looked into the hotel situation a bit more. I truly am concerned because of my husbands phobia of enormous crowds.
It looks like the only day that has next to zero availability is the evening of 11/30. That coincides with the short hours at the MK theme park. I would have to assume there is a private party at the MK and there are blocks of rooms used by the attendees for that evening only. This is just an assumption, of course, so I called Disney to confirm. Not surprisingly, the CM knew less than me. She said it had something to do with a F&W cheese event at Epcot. I told her F&W wasn’t during that time and she “corrected” me to say F&W is in November too. Yes, it is in November, but not on the 30th and even it if was, it wouldn’t make sense to close MK for an Epcot event. I told her I thought she was looking at Oct 30. That seemed to confuse her more so I didn’t argue.
It appears it is going to be a slightly more crowded week than years past, but all of the resorts are not full for the week - only for the one evening and probably due to something that is happening in a park we can’t attend anyway. This makes me feel so much better about the crowd levels that week and I hope it eases some other’s minds as well.
It is a private event, but it’s a cast member recognition event so I’m not sure how much that would impact hotels. I still am not expecting heinously large crowds, but I think this week is probably a little difficult to predict, as “the week after Thanksgiving” falls differently sometimes with regard to how close it is to Christmas, Halloween, mid-term breaks, etc. and that can affect how many people are willing to take time off from school, work, dance, etc.
Hmmm, a cast member recognition of that magnitude would probably be the Legacy Awards. Those cast members could be from any the parks even the international ones as I understand it, so it could be possible that they would need the additional rooms for that event? That would be kinda exciting, knowing such a special event is happening during our stay.
I’m not sure if it’s the same thing, but the DVC CM said it’s a thing that happens yearly (though they moved it this year to the week after Thanksgiving from 2 weeks before) and it’s where they recognize CMs with milestone anniversaries. It could be international, but he didn’t mention that.
Nix that - Legacy Awards have already been held for 2017.
There is a lot more showing up for availability now. I checked our dates (26-29) when I first saw this post and there was almost nothing. Now it’s pulling up at least seven resort options. Hopefully the projected crowd levels will hold true.
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Keep in mind CSR and CBR have smaller room inventories because of renovations,
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