disney at christmas

[where's_my_prince]

this is from HK disneyland but i'm guessing they are the same as ours sooooo cute!

 

[kylie71]

Goofy Mom, I'll see your 4 Days, and raise you my 4 days!!!!

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Ooh...wonder if any of it is available online? Going to my WM requires much mental preparation.

Found some cute Mickey/Minnie Pjs for the kids last week, but they weren't Christmas.

I can't find them on their website. They have lots of Mickey and Friends shirts and pjs, plus Tink.

I hear you about the mental preparation to enter Walmart. My kids are off for Thanksgiving break until the 29th, so it was something to do!

 

[Funball]

Here are some pics for the Tree Quest and Wreath Quest that I took today at DL. I still have more, but I need to upload them on flickr.

ok totally loving this tree.. i think caues its blue. and soo pretty!!!!! ooh photo op !!!!

 

[JH87]

this is from HK disneyland but i'm guessing they are the same as ours sooooo cute!

those are adorable!!

 

[amamax2]

this is from HK disneyland but i'm guessing they are the same as ours sooooo cute!

Wow - they are much bigger than I thought they would be! But very cute!!! Thanks for finding and posting this picture!

 

[specialks]

Just an update based on a phone call I had today with Disney dining. The holiday price increase will take effect on Dec 10th. The prices I was quoted are (these are without tax & gratuity although she says Goofy's adds on a 15% gratuity and 8.75% tax whereas Minnies does not add on the preset gratuity and just adds tax - the gratuity is up to the customer's discretion):

Before Dec 10:
Minnies - $23.99 adult, 11.99 child
Goofys Brunch - $25.99 adult, 13.99 child
Goofys Dinner - $31.99 adult, 13.99 child

Dec 10 - ???:
Minnies - $27.99 adult, 13.99 child
Goofys Brunch - $29.99 adult, 15.99 child
Goofys Dinner - $35.99 adult, 15.99 child

Just FYI for those looking at these character meals.

 

[Sherry E]

Just an update based on a phone call I had today with Disney dining. The holiday price increase will take effect on Dec 10th. The prices I was quoted are (these are without tax & gratuity although she says Goofy's adds on a 15% gratuity and 8.75% tax whereas Minnies does not add on the preset gratuity and just adds tax - the gratuity is up to the customer's discretion):

Before Dec 10:
Minnies - $23.99 adult, 11.99 child
Goofys Brunch - $25.99 adult, 13.99 child
Goofys Dinner - $31.99 adult, 13.99 child

Dec 10 - ???:
Minnies - $27.99 adult, 13.99 child
Goofys Brunch - $29.99 adult, 15.99 child
Goofys Dinner - $35.99 adult, 15.99 child

Just FYI for those looking at these character meals.

We actually had a discussion about this back on Pages 137, 138 and 139 of this thread, or somewhere in there.

This is what I posted on page 139 - I wanted to break it down with the tax included (of course, this is only an example of two adults, no kids, for peak season breakfast; it doesn't include the off-peak breakdowns or the dinner) - I don't like showing the prices without the tip and tax included because people tend to think the prices are lower than they are, and there is a lot of confusion about Goofy's changes in prices between the on and off seasons, dinner and breakfast, etc.:

I just wanted to post this so everyone can see how it breaks down. I looked up my Goofy's breakfast receipt from last year (December 19th, to be exact), when the prices were peak rates. This is what the cost will be as of December 10 this year, and through the rest of the year.

This is based on 2 adults, no kids and, sadly, NO discounts of any kind.

2 Adult ADM Brunch - $59.98 ($29.99 x 2)

SUBTOTAL - $59.98
Gratuity - $9.00 (that's a 15% tip on the subtotal)
TAX - $6.04 (that's 8.75% tax on the Subtotal + gratuity)
AMOUNT DUE - $75.02 (that's $37.51 per adult x 2)

So if a voucher is costing $37.58 per adult, it will not save you any money.

But - I remembered one other thing to make the whole character meal pricing situation confusing (in addition to the pre- and post-tax/tip rates, on & off-peak seasons, and breakfast vs. dinner prices):

If you have a group of a certain number of people or larger (and I'm not sure what the number is, but it might be 5 people or more?), they will charge you 18% gratuity instead of 15%. We've never been charged 18% because we always have a small group, but other DIS'ers have been charged 18%.

15% tip is obviously for smaller parties - I'm thinking under 5 people.

AP discounts and things will bring the price down. You can also use a Disney Visa for the brunch at Goofy's, not dinner, and get a discount.

And the peak rates stay in effect until January.

 

[specialks]

I remembered seeing the info about Goofy's but I wanted to add the info about Minnies as well since I got those prices too. Also, eating at Goofys for dinner costs differently than brunch.

 

[lapdwife]

Just an update based on a phone call I had today with Disney dining. The holiday price increase will take effect on Dec 10th. The prices I was quoted are (these are without tax & gratuity although she says Goofy's adds on a 15% gratuity and 8.75% tax whereas Minnies does not add on the preset gratuity and just adds tax - the gratuity is up to the customer's discretion):

Before Dec 10:
Minnies - $23.99 adult, 11.99 child
Goofys Brunch - $25.99 adult, 13.99 child
Goofys Dinner - $31.99 adult, 13.99 child

Dec 10 - ???:
Minnies - $27.99 adult, 13.99 child
Goofys Brunch - $29.99 adult, 15.99 child
Goofys Dinner - $35.99 adult, 15.99 child

Just FYI for those looking at these character meals.

I just wanted to add to this...make those reservations NOW. I kept procrastinating and finally did it today. Luckily we did get what we wanted for Christmas (Storytellers) and Goofy's for my 6 year olds bday on the 11th. I did miss the boat on booking Thanksgiving dinner. But there was a long Ohhhhh when I asked what was available for Christmas. We ended up at Tortilla Jos once on Christmas day and YUCK!

 

[Sherry E]

I remembered seeing the info about Goofy's but I wanted to add the info about Minnies as well since I got those prices too. Also, eating at Goofys for dinner costs differently than brunch.

It's great to have the Minnie's info too! Thank you for posting it.

I like to show the Goofy's price with the tax and tip included (final total) so people get the full picture of what it will cost. There has been lots of confusion with people seeing or hearing one price and it's actually the pre-tax and pre-tip price. And I had that one example of one kind of meal (peak season breakfast, 2 adults, no discounts) from my receipt because we had discussed it so many pages ago, so it was handy to pull it up again.

Yep, Goofy's dinner prices are different. Goofy's off-peak breakfast is different than the peak season breakfast prices. The off-peak dinner is different from the peak season dinner. Occasionally, every few years, they raise the prices overall, so all the prices - peak and off-peak - go up. And the gratuity will differ depending on the number of people in one's party. For small groups, it's 15%. For large groups, it's 18%. Don't even get me started on the crazy hours of operation for Goofy's - some days it closes at noon, some days it closes at 1 p.m., some days it closes at 2 p.m. - again, this largely depends on the season. It's all very confusing.

The discussion that popped up back on page 137-139 was because a DIS'er wanted to know if a voucher from Last Minute Travel was going to save money on Goofy's (and it wouldn't, in the case of a peak season breakfast), and they also wondered when the peak rates went into effect. That was when I called Disney Dining. The good news is that the rates have not been raised since last year when I ate there during peak season.

 

[Sherry E]

I just wanted to add to this...make those reservations NOW. I kept procrastinating and finally did it today. Luckily we did get what we wanted for Christmas (Storytellers) and Goofy's for my 6 year olds bday on the 11th. I did miss the boat on booking Thanksgiving dinner. But there was a long Ohhhhh when I asked what was available for Christmas. We ended up at Tortilla Jos once on Christmas day and YUCK!

So they wouldn't accept walk-ups on the actual holidays? They accept walk-ups on every other day, but I guess they handle the actual days of Thanksgiving and Christmas differently, which would make sense.

Tortilla Jo's on Christmas? Hmmmmm....well, it's better than nothing, I guess! Maybe it will be okay.

 

[disneymom23]

Here at DL now. We got to the parks around noon. Not busy at all. We went to pick up space fp's at 12:30 and the return time was 1:50. Standby was 30 minutes. Indy had a 20 minute wait at 1:00. We walked on hmh and picked up fp's for later. It's our favorite ride this time of year.

Sherry- thought of you today. I got a gingerbread Mickey cookie and omg, they are half the size of previous years. That's ok though since the others were huge. Just kind of shocking to see it in the case. It was hard and dry. I'm hoping it was just a bad batch because I love them.

My DD got an amazing treat that I've never seen before. It was marshmallows dipped in caramel, chocolate, and rolled in crushed candy canes. Yum! She inhaled it but let me have a bite. She enjoyed it even more because she just got her braces off after 2 years. She hasn't been able to have caramel.

We're eating at cafe orleans tonight and then watching the fireworks.

Not looking forward to the rain tomorrow. We did switch our tour to Monday so at least I'm not stressing about that anymore. If the rain gets too unbearable, I may take my girls to see Harry potter, if we can get tix.

 

[KCmike]

 

[funatdisney]

Here are some pics for the Tree Quest and Wreath Quest that I took today at DL. I still have more, but I need to upload them on flickr.

Hey Bret, nice work! Getting two items in one shot. Very clever. I hope you stay dry tomorrow.

Liza

 

[lapdwife]

So they wouldn't accept walk-ups on the actual holidays? They accept walk-ups on every other day, but I guess they handle the actual days of Thanksgiving and Christmas differently, which would make sense.

Tortilla Jo's on Christmas? Hmmmmm....well, it's better than nothing, I guess! Maybe it will be okay.

No walk-ups on the holidays. If I had a do-over for that day, I'd have done corndogs on Main St rather than Tortilla Jo's! Hey, I guess there's an idea for Thanksgiving

 

[funatdisney]

Awesome shot, Mike. I just love the colors. It is so Christmas-y

 

[Sherry E]

Here at DL now. We got to the parks around noon. Not busy at all. We went to pick up space fp's at 12:30 and the return time was 1:50. Standby was 30 minutes. Indy had a 20 minute wait at 1:00. We walked on hmh and picked up fp's for later. It's our favorite ride this time of year.

Sherry- thought of you today. I got a gingerbread Mickey cookie and omg, they are half the size of previous years. That's ok though since the others were huge. Just kind of shocking to see it in the case. It was hard and dry. I'm hoping it was just a bad batch because I love them.

My DD got an amazing treat that I've never seen before. It was marshmallows dipped in caramel, chocolate, and rolled in crushed candy canes. Yum! She inhaled it but let me have a bite. She enjoyed it even more because she just got her braces off after 2 years. She hasn't been able to have caramel.

We're eating at cafe orleans tonight and then watching the fireworks.

Not looking forward to the rain tomorrow. We did switch our tour to Monday so at least I'm not stressing about that anymore. If the rain gets too unbearable, I may take my girls to see Harry potter, if we can get tix.

disneymom23 - Thank you thank you thank you for confirming what I was saying about the cookies having shrunk when I was at DLR last weekend!! I knew they were smaller and that I was not imagining it, but no one said anything on this thread since I remarked about it last Sunday, so I figured either I was going crazy OR no one had seen the cookies yet to be able to confirm or deny.

Yes, those cookies are substantially shorter AND what was a portly waistline is now much more slender. Also, the feet are a little pointier than they were.

See, I liked the old cookies - the soft, chewy ones. And I'd rather get a bigger cookie for the money. I liked the fact that they were huge that I could eat an arm here, eat a leg there, eat an ear later, etc. Sort of munch on them through the day. If they are charging the same price or more for those cookies - even though they have gotten smaller and are now hard cookies - that is really disappointing. The appeal of the old version of the cookies to me was the fact that they were hefty, portly gingerbread men, not these little ones they are trying to push off on us now.

It's the same thing that many brands have done - they have made their packages smaller, and yet the supermarkets charge the same exact price for them as they did when the sizes were bigger (i.e., orange juice, ice cream, etc.). That's totally unfair.

I didn't see the marshmallow treat, but it sounds delicious. I didn't delve fully into the treat hunting yet (that will be in December), but I was hoping that the peppermint pot cake would have made an early appearance, and it did not.

It's supposed to be raining pretty heavily all day tomorrow and into Sunday. While it will drive the crowds way down, I know what a pain it is when you are trying to take pictures and things. I hope it dries out for you a bit.

Have a great time!!

 

[ttig34]

No walk-ups on the holidays. If I had a do-over for that day, I'd have done corndogs on Main St rather than Tortilla Jo's! Hey, I guess there's an idea for Thanksgiving

Or could go to the Turkey Leg cart!

 

[PHXscuba]

DisneyMom23:
The idea of a dipped marshmallow rolled in candy canes is about to send me over the edge! I do dipped marshmallows for holiday but not with caramel (too much work) Adding that to my voluminous treat list for the trip in ... TWO WEEKS!!

Glad to hear the crowds aren't too big today ... DS14 is there at DL today and I warned him that arriving at 3 p.m. they might not get many rides in. I'm sure he'll still have fun.

Loving the photos and updates!

PHXscuba