Candlelight Processional extended to 20 nights!

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

More information is coming but here's what we know so far:

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/08/an-early-holiday-gift-for-disneyland-guests-twenty-nights-of-disneyland-candlelight-ceremony-performances-scheduled-for-2012/

The Candlelight Ceremony and Processional has been a Disneyland Resort tradition since 1958, bringing holiday magic to Main Street, U.S.A., with the help of celebrities like Cary Grant, John Wayne, Dick Van Dyke and, in 2011, Gary Sinise.

This holiday season – for the first time in its history – the Candlelight Ceremony and Processional is being extended to a total of 20 nights at Disneyland park, with two performances each night. The first two nights, December 1-2, will be invitation-only events; however, performances from December 3-20 will be open to Disneyland Resort Annual Passholders and guests booking special, to-be-announced dining packages for the 2012 holiday season.

The Candlelight Ceremony and Processional is a beautiful evening performance of beloved holiday music and the telling of the first Christmas Story in Town Square on Main Street, U.S.A. The first performance was in 1958 and has continued every year since. These classic performances touched off another tradition at the Walt Disney World Resort – the popular Candlelight Processional at Epcot.

These are all the details we have at this time, but stay tuned to the Disney Parks Blog for more information on registration for Annual Passholders and booking for the new dining packages. We’ll share more details on the 2012 Candlelight Ceremony and Processional at Disneyland park as they become available.

 

[Tiradan]

Thanks for the info! Now I'm considering cancelling my October trip and booking a December one instead. I think I will as I haven't bought airfare for the October trip yet. Woohoo! My First candlelight processional

 

[danimaroo]

I'm hoping this actually helps with crowds while we're there, as we're going to be there for the first weekend of December, which is historically when they've held the CP... But with the extension, my hope is that more locals go later on in the month and keep things a little less crazy on Saturday the 2nd. Fingers crossed anyway, hehe...

 

[AnabellaAnaheim]

That's big news! I'm so excited that it's being extended so more people will be able to see it.

 

[JennyN]

We will be there the first weekend in December, as it is invitation only does this mean we won't be able to see CP? I wonder how they are going to do as vip or booked guests only.

 

[disneymom0104]

I have mixed feelings about this. We will be there Dec. 2-7 and I was preparing myself to deal with the CP crowds one night, now it will be the entire time we are there. I wonder how it will effect overall crowds, or if the passholders will only come in for that event?

On the flip side, I am excited to hear more about the dining package that will be available- that could be really neat!

 

[Escape2Disney]

I have mixed feelings about this. We will be there Dec. 2-7 and I was preparing myself to deal with the CP crowds one night, now it will be the entire time we are there. I wonder how it will effect overall crowds, or if the passholders will only come in for that event?

On the flip side, I am excited to hear more about the dining package that will be available- that could be really neat!

That's how I feel. It's nice that it's offered more than one night, but having it every night of our trip makes me worry about the crowds more than I was before. I wish they would have done it a few days a week instead so there would be a break in the rush to the parks.

 

[skellinton]

I will be there the first week of December too and am now super worried about crowds and hours of the park. Will they close DL early for this? How hideous will manuerving around the park be while it is going on?

 

[Minuet888]

is there going to be a different celebrity each night?
As a choir director who used to do Candlelight, I wonder how this effects the schools they haven't told us anything about this yet.

 

[Sherry E]

is there going to be a different celebrity each night?
As a choir director who used to do Candlelight, I wonder how this effects the schools they haven't told us anything about this yet.

I'm sure it will be handled like it is handled at WDW - one celebrity will do a few of the CP's, then another celebrity will do a couple more, another one will do a couple, etc. (That is what happens at WDW, right? Seems to me I was told that it works that way a while back.) I doubt they would have a different person for each night.

This multi-night CP is uncharted territory for DLR, so it will be a learning process. Even the Halloween parties only take place on 10 or 11 nights each year. I think it's going to be quite an experiment on Disney's end - to try to pull off this 20-night effort and first see how it affects the course of events and operations in Disneyland itself. It's possible that the CP could eventually move out of DL in future years (and over to DCA, or to another part of Disneyland), but maybe they want to really see how successful it is or is not for so many nights in DL this year before they decide what the future of the CP is going to be.

It should be interesting to see how it all pans out!

 

[disneegrl4eva]

this is more confusing than before...invites?? who's going to be invited?? How many people are they going to invite the first 2 nights????



Candlelight Processional Extended!

For 2012, the Candlelight Processional is being extended to 20 nights! For the first two nights, seating will be by invitation only. For the remaining nights, seating will be available to Annual Passholders and guests booking special dining packages. More details will be available later.

 

[Sherry E]

Lynn, I'm going to merge your post into this thread about the CP:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2976464


(Also, we were discussing this is the Christmas thread quite a lot yesterday too.)

 

[disneegrl4eva]

Lynn, I'm going to merge your post into this thread about the CP:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2976464


(Also, we were discussing this is the Christmas thread quite a lot yesterday too.)

HEY!! i found it first...merge Tom why dontcha?????

More information is coming but here's what we know so far:

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/08/an-early-holiday-gift-for-disneyland-guests-twenty-nights-of-disneyland-candlelight-ceremony-performances-scheduled-for-2012/

so son of a buscuit eater...they are going to do all 20 nights on Main St???...with this many nights I really wish they would reconsider putting in FL Theater again

 

[danimaroo]

Okay, this gives me hope again that perhaps our final night at DL, which is December 1st, won't be so bad/busy, because the first 2 nights are "invite only". I am ALL for invite only if it means the parks won't be insane due to CP, haha.

 

[bumbershoot]

so son of a buscuit eater...they are going to do all 20 nights on Main St???...with this many nights I really wish they would reconsider putting in FL Theater again

But aren't they putting that theater to use again? The thing I remember reading said early '13, but isnt' it possible they'll use it pre-princess for this?

Because frankly having CP right there on Main Street for 20 days is going to be a huge pain in the patootie. Especially for those of us with absolutely no interest in the subject matter.

The whole invite-only mention makes it sound like it'll be held in a place where they can control entry (of course they can control entry to the parks, but you know what I mean), so I can't help but wonder if it'll be changing areas!

 

[Eeee-va]

The Candlelight Processional causes in-park traffic issues, but it only occurs 2 nights, so EVERYONE interested has to see it in this tiny window.

But 20 nights makes 40 performances...didn't it used to be 4? So (barring rain) that's 36 extra performances. They could cut the viewing area in half (routing traffic accordingly) and still allow 5 times more people to see the performance.

That's not to say that Disney will reduce the viewing area substantially, or at all, but I'd be a bit surprised if they didn't make some effort to improve traffic flow problems, given the number of days. Though I imagine the "processional" aspect will still cause some problems.

IF they are able to fix the traffic flow, then hopefully those who aren't interested in the Processional can (hopefully) take advantage of reduced lines throughout Disneyland.

 

[disneegrl4eva]

Okay, this gives me hope again that perhaps our final night at DL, which is December 1st, won't be so bad/busy, because the first 2 nights are "invite only". I am ALL for invite only if it means the parks won't be insane due to CP, haha.

ah but who are these invited guests??? Media? Celebrities???? I still feel that regardless whether they are "invites only", we are still going to see a high number of park attendees...especially if its on MS....they cant block out people from viewing it...they may mean the invited guests get to sit down where others can stand around other areas of MS and watch as best they can...so either way CROWDED CROWDED CROWDED

But aren't they putting that theater to use again? The thing I remember reading said early '13, but isnt' it possible they'll use it pre-princess for this?

Because frankly having CP right there on Main Street for 20 days is going to be a huge pain in the patootie. Especially for those of us with absolutely no interest in the subject matter.

The whole invite-only mention makes it sound like it'll be held in a place where they can control entry (of course they can control entry to the parks, but you know what I mean), so I can't help but wonder if it'll be changing areas!

The Candlelight Processional causes in-park traffic issues, but it only occurs 2 nights, so EVERYONE interested has to see it in this tiny window.

But 20 nights makes 40 performances...didn't it used to be 4? So (barring rain) that's 36 extra performances. They could cut the viewing area in half (routing traffic accordingly) and still allow 5 times more people to see the performance.

That's not to say that Disney will reduce the viewing area substantially, or at all, but I'd be a bit surprised if they didn't make some effort to improve traffic flow problems, given the number of days. Though I imagine the "processional" aspect will still cause some problems.

IF they are able to fix the traffic flow, then hopefully those who aren't interested in the Processional can (hopefully) take advantage of reduced lines throughout Disneyland.

yes, but the operative word is how??? Bumbershoot, I was reading a bunch of the comments from the Disney Blog that was done by the social media manager Erin Glover and she specifically said that it was definitely going to be on Main St...so again...with it being there, how can they control and improve the traffic flow??? Especially because during the CLP dates, chances are there will be 1 parade per day and people start coming to line up for it around 2ish or so..couple that with parade crowds and its going to be a catastrophe.......unless..................they have the waiting area outside the park and they lead them over say half an hour before it starts??? Then it might not be so bad...use one entrance for people to come in with a CM in front and walk through????

 

[Royal Consort]

I'm a bit concerned. We did our research and this seemed to be the quietest week and arranged our entire holiday to the States around this and the week after Thanksgiving at Disney World. Nothing can be done but if I hadn't yet booked internal flights around the US, we'd move Disneyland to the week before Thanksgiving.

It's great for those who want to see CP. We have nil interest in it but I am hopeful it won't be TOO crowded. :S

 

[Niebz]

I'm surprised more people aren't talking about this. I just heard about it today and I can't imagine how it's possibly going to work. We went to the Candlelight Processional last year in December and we knew it was going to be crazy so we planned an entire day around it and were lucky to have an okay view. Loved it but would never want to endure that craziness every single night of a trip. The viewing area is very small so it gets really competitive for a spot (again - we spent our whole day waiting on Main Street for just an okay standing view).

Main Street basically shuts down completely for the entire evening. That means no evening Christmas parade (which is so much better at night), no tree lighting ceremony, and no taking in the nighttime decorations, music, and snow on Main Street because you won't be able to get anywhere near that area without waiting for hours in one spot or being shuffled into the extremely crowded walkways of people trying to enter and exit the park. That's another problem - exiting and entering the park takes forever when this is going on (we had to stand at the entrance for 20 minutes in a crowd of people before we were allowed to move and after that it was another 20 minutes to make our way down the street). Accessing the stores for evening browsing is impossible. Lining up for fireworks, again, a disaster. I really think this will be terrible. I won't be planning anymore Disneyland in December trips if this continues because I wouldn't want to deal with this headache every night of my vacation.

 

[BryANDJessMom]

Any update on this? My annual passes aren't activated until next week, so I can't see info online...