I would have to say the flavor seemed more spearmint to me than peppermint. And you're right about texture playing a big role. Something else I will hesitantly mention about the peppermint fudge....My MIL likes to dissolve fudge in her mouth rather than chew it up. She said that she was left with a ball of waxy stuff that would not dissolve. She said that it is likey some sort of edible parafin that candy makers use as a filler, and that she was surprised because it is usually found in low quality candy. I threw the remainder of my peppermint out right then and there.
Ariel224 - You know, I've had other things (not at DLR, but other places) that advertised peppermint as being the flavor, when it was actually more like spearmint. That always bugs me because they are two different flavors, even if they have that crispness to them. If I buy something peppermint, I want it to be peppermint, not spearmint! Yes, texture does play a big role. Fudge - even just in its regular chocolate form - can be really great, or it can go terribly wrong - and a lot of it has to do with texture. The ball of waxy stuff does not sound appetizing. I wish I could get them to give me a tiny sample of the fudge at the Candy Palace, but I don't think they will.
Maybe so, but those threads on the WDW go by so fast and the thread that I tried to start on the WDW thread can be on page two or three in just one day. I am not a WDW person than a DL person and that's why I stay on this side of the forum. Even though there is a lot of great info and more DISers on the WDW forum, I still like this side of forum with all the very nice DISers who love DL so much.
I'm sorry to hear that you are sick and hope you get soon for your trip.
You're right, Bret - those threads on the WDW side move too fast and it would be way too time-consuming to maintain the thread and keep it active. Over here, we can kind of put threads on 'auto-pilot' and they sort of take care of themselves because things don't move as fast over here and many more people become aware of the threads before they disappear. Truth be told, we would much rather have you over on the DLR side of the board, contributing to our forums with wonderful DLR photos! But if there ever
were going to be an exclusive "WDW at Christmas" thread, you and tksbaskets would be good candidates to contribute to it!! And there are certainly other DLR DIS'ers who could contribute their WDW photos as well.
Right now, Bumbershoot (Molly) is off at WDW, and she just posted in her Pre-TR that she now sees how & why many people do Resort-Only vacations at WDW, without ever going into the parks. The Resorts are
that amazing, I guess, which is what we always hear about. It would be easy to just spend a week going from hotel to hotel, enjoying the grounds, the holiday decor, all the gift shops and the restaurants without ever setting foot in one of the parks. We are lucky to have the few Disney hotels that we have in Anaheim, but we will never have the space necessary to really build up the Resort side of things like they have in Orlando. And you could pretty much enjoy the grounds and gift shops of all 3 DLR hotels in one day, and then maybe get all the restaurants done in in 2 days.
I'm a peppermint fan through and through but was wondering if I should skip this after trying the pumpkin fudge and throwing it out after one bite. I'll definitely save my money and put it towards a big ole cookie instead
lapdwife - Nothing at all wrong with a big ol cookie!! I might get a big cookie or two at DLR - and a big cupcake as well!!
so adorable!!! i can't wait! i can actually see my self reusing those bottles !
Jasmine - You could totally reuse them! I hoard those bottles when I stay onsite. I just stash them every day and the housekeeping folks will leave more. And then I come back with lots of them and end up giving away sets on the DIS!
If nothing else, those 'ears' bottles are collectible (and they have them at the DLH, too, but
not at the GCH). Up until 2 years ago, the Paradise Pier bath products were in these boring red, black, yellow and white boxes and bottles. Those boxes and bottles had been around since the '90s!! In fact, those items used to be in the DLH rooms too, and then finally the DLH switched to the ears bottles. I thought that the PPH would stick with the boring boxes forever, so I was thrilled to see the ears bottles in their bathrooms in 2008!!
H20 makes mostly all the products in the DLR hotel rooms (for WDW too), but they don't always put H20 in the tiny print on the backs of the bottles. I have some older versions of PPH/DLH bottles that say "H20" in teeny tiny print on the back. Mainly they try to focus on the Disney aspect of those and keep the H20 part quiet. Only the GCH has (or had) bottles that prominently said "H20 Spa" on them. But, really, H20 is behind all of it.
I actually didn't spend a lot of time in DCA last year either but I recall seeing pictures of more decorations when people had posted them. The garden area where the Ladybug and other characters are is totally blocked off right now due to construction and I think they were previously decorated. But you know what...my memory is so bad right now I could totally be wrong (I seriously don't recall Roz wearing a hat last year!)
I'm sorry to hear that you are sick...I've been feeling under the weather as well
There's definitely something going around right now so take care and get better before you trip!
Flitterific - Thank you. I am feeling much, much better now, thankfully. I was not well on Sunday night at all, and was not feeling that great yesterday. I was beginning to worry that I was coming down with something that would be at its peak just in time for my trip! I am not one of those people who can function well when ill. I see some folks out and about who act like nothing is wrong when they are sick. They just carry on like normal. I need rest! So being sick at DLR would pretty much leave me unable to do much of anything! Luckily, I think I have willed it away - whatever it was. You're right - lots of people are coming down with something lately. I think that in SoCal, much of it has to do with the crazy weather we have had this year. The temperatures have been all over the place, and I think people's bodies can't get used to the rapid changes in weather.
Well...even though apparently Roz was wearing her Santa hat last year, I still feel better knowing that I was not the only one who didn't remember it!!
Maybe we got lucky, but the peppermint fudge we hade was wonderful. Maybe because it was the samples for the tour they made it a little better?
DH is not a mint fan, and loved it. I am a mint fan, and adored it. I thought it was better than the regular milk chocolate by a lot. It was creamy, thick enough to chew but melty enough to not have to, and the mint flavor was spot on. Nothing about it said "toothpaste" to me. If i wasn't afraid of the calories, I could have spent my entire souvenier budget on this stuff.
But, like I said, maybe we just got lucky or they put a little extra into the tour sample? I hope not...maybe, like everything, the fudge has it's "off days" too? Based on what I had, I would buy it. A LOT of it, lol.
MattsPrincess - Now, see, your description has me almost wanting to sample the fudge again!! I had all but banished it from my list for fear of getting a 'toothpasty' batch. Hmmm....I will have to decide on the spot, while I am at DLR.
Thanks for letting me use the picture!
I felt, in general, DCA wasn't as decorated as much as I thought it would be/remembered from last time we went (which was 2008).
The big wreaths on those elephants at the entrance to Hollywood Backlots area were missing, and, except for the Sunshine Plaza area, the windows didn't seem to have any special touches, etc. I'm not sure if it was just my perception, the contrast with
Disneyland (although we went to DCA first), or if DCA did got the short-shrift again, like at Halloween.
amamax2 - The wreaths on the elephants were one of the things I was asking about back when the holiday decorations were just beginning to go up. I hadn't seen any photos of them from this year, and since we didn't make it into DCA in November, I couldn't verify for myself. So I'm glad you have now confirmed what I suspected - that the elephants are wreath-less! So this means that the rest of the Backlot area must not have its usual candy cane wreaths and bells hanging from the various posts along the street.
Other than that, I guess I am not too surprised by what they've done in DCA with the holiday decor. In my opinion, they are at least
trying to decorate what they can of DCA. From what I have seen in photos, it looks like most of the same decorations that were up in previous years are up again - with the exception of the glaring omission of the stuff in the Backlot area. (And that's directly related to ElecTRONica. That's not even a construction issue, I don't think.) Heck, it's a miracle that they even put up the candy cane CALIFORNIA letters one last time, as well as the Golden Gate Bridge decorations one last time. I didn't even think they would do that much. They could have easily decided to not put anything up in A Bug's Land this year, but they put it up anyway, so that's good.
So I'm thrilled about those things because I expected
less. I can at least
tell that it's Christmas based on the photos I have seen from inside the DCA stores and in the photos of the facades in general. DCA was never on the same level as Disneyland to begin with in terms of the extent of the decorations - even pre-construction. As you implied, the contrast is dramatic. DL always had the bulk of the decor. I would imagine that some things just 'fit' better in the themes of Disneyland than they do in California Adventure. DCA has a more minimalist approach.
But for Halloween Time, to remove Candy Corn Acres was to remove the
only real, legitimate trace of Halloween in the entire park!! That was the only real "decoration." The window displays - what few there might be in DCA - don't stand out. You have to look for them. CCA was the only thing that really stood out which said "Halloween." It's like they didn't even
try to make it Halloween-esque in DCA at all this year, which is a bummer. At least, when they took away the elephants' wreaths and the other holiday stuff in the Backlot, there were still plenty of other obvious traces of Christmas left around DCA. But without that giant candy corn in DCA, there is virtually nothing left!!
And the fact that they severely scaled back the NOS decorations in DL is not only disappointing but also puzzling - because what they stripped away made such a huge visual impact on that land at night, which enhanced its uniqueness and made it really stand out over all the other lands in terms of holiday decor. To kind of minimize that and make it 'less' than what it was for no apparent reason (no construction; no other new attractions affecting that area) seems, again, to me like they just...aren't
trying! It's like they did the lazy version of NOS at Christmas time this year!! That area is one of their great strengths during the season, so whomever the genius was who had the brilliant idea to scale down the beauty of it was probably high!
I only got to watch the parade once this trip and I didn't get a very good spot for taking pictures. The weird lighting at night made it very hard to take good pictures and a lot of the pictures turned out blurry. So for all you picture-takers out there, I recommend taking pictures of the parade during the daytime (which was what I did last year). Anyway, here are some of the better ones that I picked out
Flitterific - When I was at DLR on 11/13, we had a really good spot for the parade at night, I felt, but you're right - the lighting is weird. Mainly the problem I had was the fact that the characters are constantly moving. So unless you have a tripod or a really fast shutter speed, it is hard to get non-blurry photos. I actually saw both the daytime and nighttime versions of the parade that same day. I think the nighttime parade is much more beautiful. Some of the floats are lit up and it's just prettier overall. But yes, I would imagine that getting better photos in the daytime might be more possible. I didn't try to get any daytime photos because our vantage point was not good. But about half of my nighttime parade photos came out blurry.
I did the same thing you did, though - I posted the ones I could salvage from the blurry bunch!!!
Sherry, we were hoping for cooler weather too - it's in the 70's while we are at DL according to AccuWeather! It's been warm in Denver too. Just doesn't feel like Christmas. My grass is still green which is weird. Usually by now it has gone dormant and is brown. We had a few teases of light snow but then a day later, back to 60-70's. Crazy!!!
Disgram23kids - Oh the weather is crazy in SoCal this year. Right now, on my Yahoo toolbar weather icon, it says 49 degrees. And it has been in the 50's and 60's every single day for the last couple of weeks. So now that I'm looking forward to some nice, cool, crisp days at Disneyland in December next week, when it should be cool and crisp, the weather decides to change. My forecast says 80+ degrees for one day I'm there, 77 for the next and in the 70's the day after that. Suddenly it decides to warm up.
T least it looks like my trip will be rain-free, but still...the fact that it's jumping from 50-something days to now 80-something days in a week is annoying.
What a good thing to know. I am always stressing over if my battery is charged. I am relieved that the Photo Shop on Main street will charge your battery and for free! Thanks for the information, Mexikolla.
Liza - I found that to be a really helpful hint too! I didn't know they would do that, let alone for free. It will be really handy for people who are not staying at a hotel nearby and cannot get back to charge a battery during the day. They will also take a full memory card and transfer all your photos to a CD to clear up the memory card. Of course, I'm sure that is not free but it's still handy!! If you don't have extra memory with you and don't want to buy another one, having them do that is really helpful.
Wow - I just started thinking about how much the Photo Shop on Main Street has changed with the times over the decades!! I remember back in the 1970's and '80s, when the most advanced thing they had at the Photo Shop was two or three different types of film and maybe some disposable cameras (once those became popular). Now they are charging different types of batteries for cameras and saving photos onto CD's and selling all different types of digital cameras with special Disney effects and images, etc.
i dont know how i missed it earlier but i want a reindeer hat!!!!! is 31 to old to hav a reindeer hat? do they have a age resctriction!? 
Yes, the weather is warming up to the 70's. By the time I get to DLR on Sunday it will be a toasty 80 degrees or above....which I don't like, but it is what it is and I can't do anything to change it!! As long as Mother Nature doesn't decide to unleash Hades on us SoCal folk again and make us suffer through another 113-degree heat wave (like in September), I'll be okay. I've decided that 80 degrees in November or December feels different (and less harsh) than 80 degrees in the peak of Summer feels. I can deal with Fall/Winter heat better than Summer heat. I'd still prefer a nice 60-degree day, but what can I do?
) 
you would know where to find me! I am going to have to try the marshmallow stick with it rolled in the peppermint, though!
