disney at christmas

[tdashgirl]

Posted a separate thread, but figured I'd post here too just in case someone here knows about it:

I've been keeping my eye on the DLR calendar for a possible December trip; today I noticed on the DtD district section, Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen has "Holiday Gingerbread House Building Workshops, 12pm-2pm" for a couple of the weekend dates. There's a link, but it just takes you to the Ralph Brennan DtD webpage. What's the scoop on this? How much, is it worth it, etc?

 

[merrrydeath]

There are parts of North America getting snow and frost already...who sings that song that goes "hello country bumpkin...hows the frost out on the pumpkin?".... Lol... they should have put some snow on the giant pumpkins too!

Snow on pumpkins! Now that I like. That would be really cute.

 

[Sherry E]

I think I am almost more eager and curious to hear about whether there are any traces of Christmas appearing in DCA than in DL! Am I the only one? I have to know if those candy cane stripes on CALIFORNIA will make one last appearance before the letters are taken down forever!! And will they do one last decoration of the Golden Gate Bridge before they tear it down? They usually hang garland, lights and wreaths on it. Or will they just ignore all of that and have a very un-holiday-ish DCA this year?

We know that Disneyland will be amazing in terms of an all-out Christmas celebration, in every corner of the park, in every shop and restaurant, etc. It's always fully decked out everywhere. And DTD, as well as all the hotels, will be decked out too. California Adventure, however, is the great unknown this year. It's a big question mark now, after we saw what was done (or not done) for Halloween Time.

True, the CM I spoke to last week (who booked my hotel room) said that the holidays are "very special" at Disneyland, and she seemed to think that DCA would not be neglected in terms of decor and displays in shops and things. But this same CM also admitted that she was surprised to see that Candy Corn Acres had not returned to DCA this year for Halloween Time. And she admitted that DCA is very wrapped up with WoC and ElecTRONica this year, as well as the ongoing construction.

Last year there were garland bells and candy canes in the Hollywood Backlot area. And we know Santa had his photo spot in Paradise Pier. So I cannot wait for someone to hurry and get to the park in the days leading up to 11/12 and report back to us on what they see (or don't see) in DCA!!

 

[Littleprincess2010]

I think I am almost more eager and curious to hear about whether there are any traces of Christmas appearing in DCA than in DL! Am I the only one? I have to know if those candy cane stripes on CALIFORNIA will make one last appearance before the letters are taken down forever!! And will they do one last decoration of the Golden Gate Bridge before they tear it down? They usually hang garland, lights and wreaths on it. Or will they just ignore all of that and have a very un-holiday-ish DCA this year?

We know that Disneyland will be amazing in terms of an all-out Christmas celebration, in every corner of the park, in every shop and restaurant, etc. It's always fully decked out everywhere. And DTD, as well as all the hotels, will be decked out too. California Adventure, however, is the great unknown this year. It's a big question mark now, after we saw what was done (or not done) for Halloween Time.

True, the CM I spoke to last week (who booked my hotel room) said that the holidays are "very special" at Disneyland, and she seemed to think that DCA would not be neglected in terms of decor and displays in shops and things. But this same CM also admitted that she was surprised to see that Candy Corn Acres had not returned to DCA this year for Halloween Time. And she admitted that DCA is very wrapped up with WoC and ElecTRONica this year, as well as the ongoing construction.

Last year there were garland bells and candy canes in the Hollywood Backlot area. And we know Santa had his photo spot in Paradise Pier. So I cannot wait for someone to hurry and get to the park in the days leading up to 11/12 and report back to us on what they see (or don't see) in DCA!!

I'll be there in the week leading up to Nov. 12 and I will make sure to post back here about DCA and the Christmas stuff

 

[scrappinbear78]

Thanks for answering my question about murchandise. I already have a list going that I will be purchasing...I can't wait. I also can't wait to start reading and looking at everyones pictures from this year's season. Will be interesting to see what we would have seen this year. It does sound like with the weather, all the construction and the what ifs...that for it being our first and possibly only trip ever to DL...that next year is probably going to be better than this year. I don't know how visible all the construction work actually is, but I know that I can't stand all the congestion that is usually caused by it. I don't know if it will be almost done by next year or not, but there is a chance that the weather will be different though. I also never know, the weather could turn out to be very mild this year even though we are going through a very very cold snap right now with enough snow falling on our mountains since Sunday that they are talking about opening them on Friday....only the 4th time they have opened them Halloween weekend since 1954. Either way, I know we will have a blast next year (as long as it isn't pouring down rain...then if it is, it will be miserable and won't get to do much at all)

Anyway, also get on here only goin gto write one or 2 sentances and end up with a pretty big paragraph. One of these days it will be a short response.

 

[Sherry E]

I'll be there in the week leading up to Nov. 12 and I will make sure to post back here about DCA and the Christmas stuff

Littleprincess2010 -

That would be great if you can post here live from the scene!! Over in the Halloween thread, we were all waiting on the edge of our seats to hear back from our 'person on the scene' to report back and tell us what was at DLR in terms of decor, merchandise and food when the season began (in fact, even a couple of days before Halloween Time began)! I mean, literally, we were waiting for any morsel of information coming to us live from DLR and I think we were all jumping up and down with glee when some information trickled in (courtesy of VictoriaAndMatt)! It was like waiting for an astronaut to report back to you from another planet to tell you if he found water or life! Or like the Mars Rover!! You sit there and wait for any little beep or gurgle from the Mars Rover to let you know what's happening on the Red Planet and what was found in the soil samples!!

So we need someone to be our DLR Holiday Rover!!

It was interesting to hear about whether or not there were any new decorations out on the start date of Halloween Time (9/17) that were not there the day before. In other words, did anything change overnight from 9/16 to 9/17 or did everything look the same.

One of the big things I am curious about in DCA - other than what I mentioned last night - is A Bug's Land. There is really no reason why they should avoid putting the usual Christmas decorations in A Bug's Land. It's not in the way of anything they are currently working on, construction-wise.

But, if my theory is correct that Disney decided to kind of scale down the holidays in DCA this year to keep the spotlight/focus on World of Color and also ElecTRONica, we might not see any giant Christmas bulbs in A Bug's Land this year. Hopefully I'm wrong.

 

[Littleprincess2010]

Im getting a special package on my phone so my full data plan will be good in the US (Im in Canada) so I can post updates while standing in lines right from my phone!! Im so excited to see things changing, although I am sure that a lot will have already changed by the time I get there on the 7th.

9 days until we leave!!

ETA: I won't be able to upload photos from my phone, but I will try to have them up daily on my Trip Report (See link below )

 

[Sherry E]

Im getting a special package on my phone so my full data plan will be good in the US (Im in Canada) so I can post updates while standing in lines right from my phone!! Im so excited to see things changing, although I am sure that a lot will have already changed by the time I get there on the 7th.

9 days until we leave!!

ETA: I won't be able to upload photos from my phone, but I will try to have them up daily on my Trip Report (See link below )

Be sure to post some photos here in this thread for us, too, if you can! Since this is where everyone is coming for holiday info and photos, you will have a very captive audience!

Because they have already started the slow process of getting some of the merchandise in the shops and putting the snow on the Castle at DLR - and IASW is already closed to receive its holiday overlay - I think mostly everything will be up and out by when you arrive on the 7th. I don't know, though - see with Halloween Time, it's easier to tell what's out and what's not out yet because there is not that much of it in the scheme of things and it's easy to keep track of.

For Christmas at DLR, it may appear that everything is up 5 days in advance, but really, it will be hard to tell if every shop and restaurant are fully decorated already, if every single Christmas tree is in place, or if every decoration that was up last year is up this year - because there is just so much to find!! It will be plenty Christmasy, though!!

I'm guessing that the decoration process will be probably 90% complete when you arrive, and then on 11/12, all the stuff like IASW Holiday, the Winter Castle, the snow on Main Street, Santa, the carolers, etc. will be on and out in full force!! There will probably be a few nips and tucks done in the overnight hours between 11/11 and 11/12, or maybe overnight from 11/10 to 11/11 - tests, trial runs and that sort of thing.

 

[Ariel224]

On my little Holiday Tour Thread, I've decided to compile reservation dates and times for those going on the Tour. Please come join in if you would like your details added to the list.

 

[mvf-m11c]

Give it a bump and here are more pics during the Holiday season. Here are some pics of the Christmas lights and decorations at NOS.

 

[merrrydeath]

Beauuuutiful pictures. Almost made me drool... I know that's weird.

 

[disneylovingfamily:4]

Love the pics!!

 

[Sherry E]

Ooooooh!!!! I love those photos^^. I wanna hurry up and get to DLR!!! I can't wait to be immersed in the holiday splendor again!!! I wish I could get there sooner than December 12th, but I won't push my luck. I'll be fortunate if I can even pull off my trip, let alone trying to upset the universe and get there a month early!!

 

[tinkermell]

Sherry,

I was reading a little ways back, and you mentioned starting a new thread with a ToC. I think you could start one now. It's really not too late, and things are just now getting going for the holidays. You know what I mean?

Being a moderator, can you move some of the information from here, to a new site? And if you did do it now, we would not expect it to be done overnight. Little by little would be good.

I just get frustrated, when I'm looking for something like the Candy Canes, or the Candlelight Processional, and I can't remember what post I saw them on.

Just a thought!
Have a good day!

 

[Sherry E]

Sherry,

I was reading a little ways back, and you mentioned starting a new thread with a ToC. I think you could start one now. It's really not too late, and things are just now getting going for the holidays. You know what I mean?

Being a moderator, can you move some of the information from here, to a new site? And if you did do it now, we would not expect it to be done overnight. Little by little would be good.

I just get frustrated, when I'm looking for something like the Candy Canes, or the Candlelight Processional, and I can't remember what post I saw them on.

Just a thought!
Have a good day!

I want to wait a bit longer. I already have it all mapped out. It's way too much work to copy a lot of things from this thread and move it to a new thread right now (if it were not, I would have done that for Halloween Time, Part 2)! I will be busy with keeping the Table of Contents in Part 2 updated when it gets started.

The thing is, people are just now planning or starting to plan their trips and this thread is fully developed already - it's in the main Info sticky at the top of the page - complete with lovely photos and tons of information. It makes sense that they would come here to look over everything. A new thread won't have anything in it yet. It all has to be timed out right. I did it with "Halloween Time at DLR - Part 2" and it worked well!

We all just have to hang in there a bit longer! And by the way, the Search feature for this thread works beautifully! I have found many things by using Search. Not the Search feature for the entire board, mind you - but go to the Search This Thread feature. Type in Candlelight Processional or Candy Canes or whatever it might be, and you will find a list of posts in this thread that mention that subject - many of them get discussed over and over.

And if you cannot find something - I'm pretty good at being able to track down posts and remember where to look for them (i.e., when I found the photos of the GCH tree for KCMike), so I can always help.

But really, the Search This Thread feature is very helpful!!

 

[kylie71]

I'm loving this thread! Thanks!!

 

[smiley_face2]

Im getting a special package on my phone so my full data plan will be good in the US (Im in Canada) so I can post updates while standing in lines right from my phone!! Im so excited to see things changing, although I am sure that a lot will have already changed by the time I get there on the 7th.

9 days until we leave!!

ETA: I won't be able to upload photos from my phone, but I will try to have them up daily on my Trip Report (See link below )

Who are you with and what plan did you get? (if you don't mind me asking) I'm with Telus and back in January I got the voice, data, and text passes which cost $50. and signifigantly reduced the cost of using my iphone in the US. I still tried to use it only in wifi areas and there are none of those in the park. I used it maybe 3 or 4 times in a week right in the park. I tried to make calls from the hotel using my telus calling card with a rate of only 7cents per minute. Anyway I ended up with extra charges on my bill of roughly $60. so together with the passes it was over $100 to use it on a very limited basis. I found the data part of it is the worst. even with the pass it's still $1. per MB and 1 MB is not a lot of data! If you have an iphone, reset your data usage stat to 0 before you hit the US border, then you will be able to keep track of just how much you are using.

 

[tinkermell]

I want to wait a bit longer. I already have it all mapped out. It's way too much work to copy a lot of things from this thread and move it to a new thread right now (if it were not, I would have done that for Halloween Time, Part 2)! I will be busy with keeping the Table of Contents in Part 2 updated when it gets started.

The thing is, people are just now planning or starting to plan their trips and this thread is fully developed already - it's in the main Info sticky at the top of the page - complete with lovely photos and tons of information. It makes sense that they would come here to look over everything. A new thread won't have anything in it yet. It all has to be timed out right. I did it with "Halloween Time at DLR - Part 2" and it worked well!

We all just have to hang in there a bit longer! And by the way, the Search feature for this thread works beautifully! I have found many things by using Search. Not the Search feature for the entire board, mind you - but go to the Search This Thread feature. Type in Candlelight Processional or Candy Canes or whatever it might be, and you will find a list of posts in this thread that mention that subject - many of them get discussed over and over.

And if you cannot find something - I'm pretty good at being able to track down posts and remember where to look for them (i.e., when I found the photos of the GCH tree for KCMike), so I can always help.

But really, the Search This Thread feature is very helpful!!

Aww! Thanks Sherry!

I will just have to be more patient! LOL! In the meantime, I will continue to check out this thread for info.

BTW- I really do appreciate the work and time, all of you moderators put into the DIS!

Melody

 

[Littleprincess2010]

Who are you with and what plan did you get? (if you don't mind me asking) I'm with Telus and back in January I got the voice, data, and text passes which cost $50. and signifigantly reduced the cost of using my iphone in the US. I still tried to use it only in wifi areas and there are none of those in the park. I used it maybe 3 or 4 times in a week right in the park. I tried to make calls from the hotel using my telus calling card with a rate of only 7cents per minute. Anyway I ended up with extra charges on my bill of roughly $60. so together with the passes it was over $100 to use it on a very limited basis. I found the data part of it is the worst. even with the pass it's still $1. per MB and 1 MB is not a lot of data! If you have an iphone, reset your data usage stat to 0 before you hit the US border, then you will be able to keep track of just how much you are using.

Im with Rogers (Hubby is with Telus, but doesnt have a smartphone). The plan is $40 a month for 500mb and a bunch of other stuff. Its a Data Add-on plan and it has the option of paying $10 for 30 days of using my included data in the US. My voice pack will be $40 for 70 min. and a reduced rate after that, so $50 in total makes me *heart* Rogers. $110 isn't bad either though, I think thats the going rate if you have a regular data plan through rogers too.

 

[lapdwife]

I'm in the park now for the Tron meet and NOS is looking beautiful. All the large ornaments are up on the balconies. The castles gotten more snow since Monday.