Candlelight Processional in late November?

[jlovesee]

Hi All,
Anyway I am thinking about planning a trip to Disney for christmas, we where there a few years ago the week before Thanskgiving and saw a few of the decorations up, and now I am thinking of doing the christmas-time thing.

Anyway, with my schedule at work the only time I think I would be able to go would be RIGHT after Thanksgiving Nov 24-Nov 28.

My question is, is traditionally speaking will I be able to see the Candelight Processional and Osbourne Lights? I've looked into MVMCP and since Im not a big character person it doesn't look worth it to me personally. So do you know will they be up and running about this time?

Also for anyone who has gone down during the time, half of it is value season half is regular season, what have been some of the AP rates you guys have gotten? Im specifically looking at either POP, Coronado Springs or WL. Maybe even do two days at one and two days at the other.

Last thing, how are the crowds? I know its right after Thanksgiving so I am expecting it to be somewhat crowded, Im not to worried as we have been to Disney many times, so I won't be doing comando style or anything, but are they managable?

Thanks a bunch!

Jennifer

 

[lpizzuro123]

is a wonderful time to go. We went November 2004. We arrived a few days before Thanksgiving and stayed through the end of the first week of December. As far as hotel rates go, I can't help you there. My boyfriends father lives in Orlando so we stay with him. Although we did spent two nights at WL just to have some time by ourselves.

The days leading up to and including Thanksgiving weekend were very busy. We didn't even go to the parks then. We did go to Downtown Disney one night and it was packed. We have alot of friends and family in Florida so we spent time visiting with them.

We saw the Candlelight Procession and I belive it starts Thanksgiving weekend. We did it later in the week. We did the Candlelight Dinner Package. You have to prepurchase tickets and this includes dinner and perferred seating at the show - but you do need to make reservations for dinner. We did the 6:45 show - the second show of the night. When it was finished we headed over to Rose & Crown - requested an outside table - sat down and ate and was able to watch IllumiNations during desert. There is also a special ending to IllumiNations during the holiday season and there is not a dry eye in the house when you see it. It is free to go to the show but adding the dinner package gives you first enterance to the show. There are two lines - dinner package and not dinner package and the dinner package line gets in first. There are three different tier packages for the dinner - the price depends on where you want to eat.

Here are the 2005 prices.
Tier 1
Adults - $30.99 / Child (3-9) - $12.99 (plus tax)
The Garden Grill Restaurant - The Land
Biergarten - Germany


Tier 2
Adults - $38.99 / Child (3-9) - $12.99 (plus tax)
San Angel Inn - Mexico
Restaurant Marrakesh - Morocco
Nine Dragons - China
Rose & Crown Pub and Dining Room - United Kingdom

Tier 3
Adults - $45.99 / Child (3-91) - $12.99 (plus tax)
Chefs de France - France
Coral Reef - Living Seas
L’Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante - Italy
Le Cellier Steakhouse - Canada
Mitsukoshi Teppanyaki Dining Room - Japan

The Osborn lights will also be open so you can walk through them at MGM. The are wonderful with the snow falling. There is also a special holiday version of their afternoon parade.

We also did MVMCP which starts Thanksgiving weekend. We did not go to the MK that day (we went around to visit other hotels to check out their decorations). With your party ticket you can enter the park at 4:00. The park closes at 6:00 and all regular guests have to leave. They generally move all the party goers over to Tomorrowland or Fantasyland (but you do not have to leave the park). We loved the party. As we went during the week it was not too crowded, they have special Christmas shows but if you do not do these the rides will not be too crazy. The parade is also wonderful - different then SpectroMagic which is shown on nights where there is no party - and there is also a special version of Wishes.

I would highly recommend going at this time. We are also planning on going again this year and can't wait to start planning.

Linda

 

[jaysmom4285]

I think you can expect the weekend after Thanksgiving to be very crowded, but that should change fairly dramatically Monday and Tuesday, as people have to return to school/work. You could probably do the CP and Osbourne Lights in the same evening if you did the 5 PM CP. But keep in mind that it isn't totally dark at 5 PM, which takes away a little from the candlelight effect, but the show is certainly the same. I'm not a huge MVMCP fan, although I know I'm in the minority. We have found it to be uncomfortably crowded the past couple of years, even on weeknights, and it honestly isn't worth the money for us any more. But others have had very different experiences and wouldn't miss it for the world.