I'm wondering if this will be the year Disneyland starts a hard ticket/party event for the Christmas extras and festivities. Since the popularity of the new parade and fireworks are still high, I can see the powers-that-be (PTB) decide to run them throughout the holiday season. Then the PTB could run a holiday party night with the holiday parade and holiday fireworks and falling snow. My 60-day window to start making dining reservations opens in 16 days. I'll definitely be watching the 60-day window to the start of the official holiday season which should begin allowing reservations on September 14th (a week from today).
What do you think? Will it finally be starting this year? Or would there have been more advance warning?
I definitely think that there will be some sort of hard ticket Christmas party event coming up -- more than likely, in the next year or two. It's really been looming for a while -- I don't think anyone has believed that it wouldn't happen sooner or later, but the timing has not been right. It's a slippery slope as to how to 'package' it for the Disneyland crowds. The 'problem,' for lack of a better word, is that both A Christmas Fantasy Parade and the Believe in Holiday Magic fireworks have been around for so many years. Unlike the Halloween Screams fireworks, which had only been around for one year before being turned into a Halloween party exclusive, both ACFP and BIHM have been there for years and years as part of the regular holiday events, and have become part of returning visitors' holiday traditions. To add those two things to a costly Christmas party would almost be insulting -- because they're old. The only way it would work would be if both the parade and the fireworks were removed from the holiday season for a couple of years, and then brought "back by popular demand" as part of a hard ticket Christmas party. They have to be taken away to create some demand before being brought back.
But... this year it appears that the Christmas Fantasy Parade is returning. It may not run at night, but it is returning in the daytime. It's the holiday fireworks that are probably not returning this year.
I don't doubt that Disney may try to capitalize on the popularity of the Christmas season in some way this year, and add in some kind of paid event -- like a special dinner, like what is happening at the Blue Bayou during Halloween Time this year. That may be their way of testing the waters and seeing what works for the holiday season in terms of a hard ticket event before actually diving full force into a multi-night Christmas party.
I think that Disney could have easily started a Christmas party at DLR years ago, but they didn't... and it's for a reason. What reason, who knows? But there is a reason. They know they have to sell it and package it just right. Currently, they are basically stripping away quite a few Halloween elements from the daytime and making them Halloween party exclusives, and beyond that they are now charging for a separate dinner in addition to the crazy cost of the Halloween party. If they try doing that same thing with the holiday season in the same year, and launching some multi-night Christmas party, I'm not sure if it would go over well when the dust was settled,
It's funny because I see a lot of people across the Internet say that they would love a party at DLR -- and I suspect that it is because they are used to the WDW way of doing things. I don't think that a lot of people realize that, at DLR, we get all of that stuff (that would be a party exclusive at WDW) "for free," all season long, and that's how it has been for years! So, to say that they would love a party essentially means that they would rather pay to watch an old Christmas parade and fireworks, and meet characters in holiday attire, than to do all of that for free all season. That makes very little sense to me. And the extras that would be added into a party -- cookies or whatever -- should not be enough of a reason to want a party.
I think that the only real way a multi-night hard ticket party at DLR could work without tons of backlash from repeat visitors and locals is to introduce all new party-exclusive entertainment, OR keep the ticket sales way down so the crowds are low, or remove the existing entertainment for a couple of years and then bring it back as part of a party.
With all of the construction coming up for Star Wars Land, I actually tend to wonder if an official Christmas party might be postponed for a while -- or if it might be held in DCA while the work in Disneyland is going on.
But... it's worth mentioning that, after a 9-year absence, the Halloween party was resurrected in 2005 -- during the year of the 50th anniversary. So, if Disney could decide to debut a hard ticket party during the 50th anniversary year, what would stop them from doing it during the 60th?