Thanksgiving Weekend Visit- my report

[Dot2Vegas]

I thought I'd do a mini report with my observations. We visited DL on Saturday 11/30. One day, one park tickets.
Driving from Vegas, we arrived to the gate around 8:30am. I was nervous and leery of the crowds because of the holiday weekend. We went into this knowing that we would probably not get much done and that was OK. We were there to simply see DL during the holidays, as we have never done that.
Once inside the park we were shocked. Crowds were light! We were afraid to jinx anything so DH and I just kept staring at each other, not mentioning how happy we were! We walked onto Star Tours, then headed to IASWH to brave the crowd. We walked right on! This pattern continues and by noon we had done the above rides plus HMH, POTC and had lunch! The rest of the day went pretty smooth- crowd wise. Then all of a sudden at 7:30 or so it seemed mobbed. So we mostly just wandered, doing a few rides here and there.
Holiday fireworks- amazing!
Jingle Cruise- kind of lame. We still love the ride so it wasn't a waste of time but definitely not very holiday themed.
Santa and Mrs. Claus- perfect! My oldest DD is right on the verge of not believing and Santa and Mrs. Claus were so well cast that she is a strong believer again! Yay!
IASWH- breath taking! I prefer it to the regular version. I liked it much more than I thought I would.
The Frozen M&G was a long wait-60 minutes- but fantastic! We all loved the area and Elsa and Ana!
The biggest complaint we had was with how rude other people were. We know people aren't always nice but man, there were a lot of rude and disrespectful people. We witnessed many CM being screamed at during the fireworks by guests that were clearly breaking rules and just a general rude tone to most folks.
Overall it was a fabulous trip and we will definitely be back for the holidays every year!

 

[momtothreeinfinity]

Thanks for posting your trip report. Less than 3 weeks 'til we leave, and I've been reading so many people's experiences, I'm getting more and more excited.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were an 'eject' button for rude people in the parks?

 

[viaggiamo]

Thanks for your report.

We will be arriving December 5, 3 more sleeps for us...

Where did you meet Santa and Mrs Claus? I know Santa will be at the hotels, but is there one in Disneyland?

 

[DisneyBiskit]

We are there this weekend! I'm going in knowing its going to be crazy because of Candlelight Processional but I'm OK with that. (Thats easy to say right now! LOL)

 

[Dot2Vegas]

Thanks for your report.

We will be arriving December 5, 3 more sleeps for us...

Where did you meet Santa and Mrs Claus? I know Santa will be at the hotels, but is there one in Disneyland?

Yay!!! How exciting! I hope you have a great time!
Santa and Mrs. Claus were in the back of Big Thunder Ranch. Its called the Jingle Jangle Jamboree. Super cute area with crafts and games and Billy Hill and the Holiday Hillbillies were performing back there too! In addition to Santa and Mrs. Claus we saw Mickey and Minnie doing meet and greets (without terrible lines) and Goofy and Pluto were running around interacting with everyone. Goofy grabbed my girls and was running around with them!

 

[Dot2Vegas]

Thanks for posting your trip report. Less than 3 weeks 'til we leave, and I've been reading so many people's experiences, I'm getting more and more excited.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were an 'eject' button for rude people in the parks?

Have a great time! That is why I posted my little report. Reading others always gets me excited!!
An eject button would be fantastic!!

 

[Sherry E]

Thanks for your report.

We will be arriving December 5, 3 more sleeps for us...

Where did you meet Santa and Mrs Claus? I know Santa will be at the hotels, but is there one in Disneyland?

Santa is also at the Elias & Company store on Buena Vista Street, with very cute "helpers." At the Jingle Jangle Jamboree he seems to be in and out of the little cabin that's onsite. The cabin was always his picture spot in the past, when it was the Reindeer Round-Up (pre-2012). When it became the Jamboree he moved to an outdoor photo spot. However, on certain days -- and not always rainy days -- he moves back into the cabin! So you never know whether you will get an indoor/dark cabin shot with Santa at the JJJ, or an outdoor, brighter picture.

Also at the JJJ, Goofy is usually in his own Santa outfit and Pluto wears reindeer antlers. Mickey used to wear a winter sweater but this year he had on some other sort of suit/jacket situation. Maybe he saves the winter sweater for Town Square.