What is Thanksgiving like in Orlando?

Thanksgiving in Orlando means open parks with big crowds, grocery stores that are closed on Thursday and full flights home on Sunday. The plan that works: parks early in the day, dinner at the house and a strategy for the travel days.

When is Thanksgiving 2026, and how busy is Orlando that week?

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, 2026, according to the federal holiday calendar of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. It has been the fourth Thursday of November since Congress fixed the date in a resolution signed on December 26, 1941, per the National Archives.

Expect a busy week, for two reasons:

• Schools are out. In Orange County, where Orlando is, public schools take the whole week off, November 23 to 27, 2026. Other districts set their own break, so plenty of families arrive the weekend before.
• The airport fills up. Orlando International Airport (MCO) forecast close to 1.9 million passengers for the 2025 Thanksgiving period, November 21 to December 2. The busiest day it projected was the Sunday after the holiday, November 30, with more than 177,000 passengers.

The weather usually cooperates. National Weather Service normals for November 26 are a high of 77 °F (25 °C) and a low of 56 °F (13 °C). A cold front can change that quickly: the record low for the date is 29 °F (-2 °C), set in 1950, so pack a warm layer. The rest of the month is covered in what Orlando is like in November.

Are Disney World and Universal open on Thanksgiving Day?

Yes. Every major Orlando theme park is open on Thanksgiving Day, most with long hours. These are the hours published as of October 2026, and they can change before the holiday.

Place	Thursday, November 26, 2026
Magic Kingdom	Open, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
EPCOT	Open, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Hollywood Studios	Open, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Animal Kingdom	Open, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Universal Studios Florida and Epic Universe	Open, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Islands of Adventure	Open, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
SeaWorld Orlando	Open, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Publix	Closed, company policy
Target	Closed, company policy since 2021
Walmart and Costco	Closed on Thanksgiving 2025

Park hours: official calendars compiled by ThemeParks.wiki.

Watch for early closings during Thanksgiving week

Disney’s separately ticketed holiday parties shorten regular park hours on several nights of the week. Thanksgiving itself is a full day at Magic Kingdom, with no party.

Date	What changes
Saturday, Nov 21	Jollywood Nights: Hollywood Studios closes at 7 p.m. for regular tickets
Monday, Nov 23	Jollywood Nights: Hollywood Studios closes at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov 24	Christmas party: Magic Kingdom closes at 6 p.m. for regular tickets
Wednesday, Nov 25	Christmas party: Magic Kingdom closes at 6 p.m.
Thursday, Nov 26	Thanksgiving: Magic Kingdom open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., no party
Friday, Nov 27	Christmas party: Magic Kingdom closes at 6 p.m.
Saturday, Nov 28	Jollywood Nights: Hollywood Studios closes at 7 p.m.
Sunday, Nov 29	Christmas party: Magic Kingdom closes at 6 p.m.

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party costs $189 to $229 per person and Disney Jollywood Nights $169 to $199, plus tax, depending on the date. If you are skipping the parties, put Magic Kingdom on a full hours day. Thanksgiving Day is one of them.

Disney’s ticket terms warn that holiday periods are among the most requested dates. Also note: Orange County lists November 23 and 24 as makeup days if schools close for a storm, so an active hurricane season could turn them into school days. For calmer weeks the rest of the year, see the least crowded times at the Orlando parks.

What is open and closed in Orlando on Thanksgiving?

Most grocery and big box stores close for the day, so do your shopping by Wednesday.

• Groceries. Publix, the big Florida supermarket chain, closes three days a year: Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Target announced in 2021 that its stores would close on Thanksgiving from then on. Walmart and Costco closed on Thanksgiving 2025, according to ABC7 and CBS News. Neither had announced its 2026 plan as of October.
• Pharmacies. On Thanksgiving 2025, most CVS stores were open, some with shorter hours. Walgreens closed most stores and kept its 24 hour locations open for the pharmacy.
• Outlets and malls. In October, the pages of both Orlando Premium Outlets still showed no holiday hours. Stores that close Thursday open early Friday for Black Friday.
• Restaurants. Each one decides its own holiday hours. In 2025, Starbucks said some stores would change hours, and Chick-fil-A was closed. Check the specific location on Google Maps before you head out.

Where can you eat Thanksgiving dinner in Orlando?

You have three options: a restaurant inside a park, a restaurant outside the parks or dinner at your vacation home. For a large group, the house is usually the easiest.

In the parks

Liberty Tree Tavern at Magic Kingdom serves a Thanksgiving style meal all year. The Patriot’s Platter comes family style and all you care to enjoy, with roasted turkey, pot roast, roasted pork and sides. Disney lists the price range as $35 to $59.99 per adult. Disney dining reservations open up to 60 days ahead, so November 26 opened in late September. Book as soon as you can.

Outside the parks

Off property, each restaurant sets its own holiday hours and menu, and a table for 12 or 15 is hard to get that day. Call ahead.

At the vacation home

Here the group eats on its own schedule, with the game on. There are two ways to do it.

Order a ready dinner. Publix sells Thanksgiving dinners to order ahead. The Publix Complete Turkey Dinner comes with a fully cooked 9.5 to 12.5 lb turkey, cornbread dressing, Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry orange relish and a dessert, and serves 8. You heat and serve. Publix says it works out to less than $10 per person, plus tax. There is also a mojo pork dinner for 8, with rice and pigeon peas and sweet plantains, if the group does not insist on turkey. Publix asks you to order by November 24 for in-store pickup, and since stores close Thursday, pick it up by Wednesday.

Cook the turkey yourself. Most supermarket turkeys are sold frozen, and thawing takes days. The CDC’s guidance:

• In the refrigerator, allow about 24 hours for every 4 to 5 pounds. A 12 lb turkey needs 2 to 3 days.
• In cold water, allow about 30 minutes per pound.
• The turkey is done at 165 °F (74 °C). Check with a food thermometer in three spots: the thickest part of the breast, where the thigh joins the body and where the wing joins the body.
• The CDC suggests cooking the stuffing in a casserole dish instead of inside the bird.
• Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours and eat them within 3 to 4 days.

In practice, buy the turkey by Monday or Tuesday, thaw it in the fridge and roast it Thursday. Going by the Publix kit, a 9.5 to 12.5 lb turkey feeds 8. A group of 16 needs two that size or one much larger.

Check the kitchen before you shop. Ask whether the oven fits a large roasting pan, whether there is a meat thermometer and how many people the dining table seats. If a big pan is missing, a disposable aluminum one from the grocery store solves it and saves the heavy dishwashing. If you are still choosing a home, browse vacation homes for large groups and look at the kitchen and dining table on each listing.

A group can split the cost of the house per person. The median nightly rate per person at Orlando Best Place homes, with the home full, over the next 12 months and before cleaning and taxes, is $25. When you book direct, the final price with cleaning and taxes shows before you pay, with no platform fee. The full comparison is in vacation home vs. hotel in Orlando.

In practice: get to the parks before opening, buy date based tickets before you leave home and keep at least one day of the week for the house. Thursday evening is the natural pick: the group cooks together, eats without a reservation time and rests up for Black Friday.

How should you plan the long weekend and the trip home?

Thanksgiving opens a four day weekend: the holiday on Thursday the 26th, Black Friday on the 27th, then Saturday and Sunday.

Friday is for shopping. Stores that close on Thursday reopen early Friday. In 2025, Walmart opened at 6 a.m. on Black Friday, according to the company. The 2026 hours come out close to the date. Outlets, store hours and the sales tax you will pay are in Black Friday in Orlando.

Sunday is the airport’s busiest day. For Thanksgiving 2025, MCO projected the Sunday after the holiday as the busiest day of the whole period. The airport recommends its 3, 2, 1 rule: be at the airline counter 3 hours before your flight, at the security checkpoint 2 hours before and at the gate 1 hour before boarding. In 2026 that Sunday is November 29. If you can fly home Monday, November 30, or later, you avoid the day the airport flagged as its busiest last year.

Christmas works much the same way, with grocery stores closed and the parks open. If the family is thinking about coming back in December, see what Christmas is like in Orlando.