Okay, I am bumping this because I just saw amamax2 posting on the DIS today - and she has been MIA for a while - and she can answer Sherri's questions about how to score the candy canes!!
Thank - you! my daughter will be 14 when we go and she LOVES to take pictures of everything!
So she will definily be doing a photo shoot with the Christmas tree at PPH! We have friends who stayed at the PPH in February and they were upgraded to a park view and the pictures were amazing! This summer we have many plans so hopefully that will have it speed up!
Sherry E --- All of your pictures are so beautiful! and thank - you for the information, it should hopefully be a magical vacation!
Cali_Traveler - I totally forgot to thank you a while back for the nice compliment on my photos.
Thank you! With all the trouble I experienced on Photobucket trying to collect all of the IMG codes to be able to post the pictures here, I felt it was worthwhile because I wanted to show a couple of shots of each aspect of the season (minus a couple of things), and I think we need a lot more photos in this thread - the photos are the things that seem to keep people tuning in (or at least, that's how it worked last year in the previous Christmas thread)!
Your daughter will have lots and lots to take photos of when you get to DLR for the holidays. The photo-taking possibilities seem to be endless! It is a picture-taker's paradise! All the different interesting colors, textures, themes and designs to the holiday decor make it a very good season to be a shutterbug!
You mentioned your friends being upgraded to a PPH park view - I was upgraded to a park view at the PPH this past December - and I couldn't get enough of that view! I watched the sunrise from the window. I looked out over DCA and could see the DCA Christmas tree. I listened to the screams of terror from Mickey's Fun Wheel and California Screamin'. I watched the backside of Word of Color from my room. I had a great view of the Grand Californian across the street. I could see the Tower of Terror, Grizzly Peak, It was such an unexpected treat. I'd never been given a free upgrade before for any of my onsite stays. And from what I've heard about the park views that some people get now, when they told me that's what I was getting I was expecting mostly a 'city' view or a parking lot view, with maybe a tiny portion of DCA off to the side. But I was wrong! I loved my view so much, because it allowed for some good pictures and it really made me feel like I was staying in the middle of the magic.
The PPH Christmas tree definitely looks soooooooo much better in person. The glowing blue-green lights don't seem to translate as well in photos, but they are very, very eye-catching in person. The PPH tree is so much prettier than the trees (any of them) at the
Disneyland Hotel. I only wish that there were some sofas or comfortable chairs to sit in around the tree to enjoy it, but, alas, there are none. It's just a lobby and that's it.
I am so hoping to drag SherryE to Surf's Up sometime soon and would love to have you join us! After doing 4 character meals in one trip at Christmas we are really debating the character meal line-up for our Halloween trip. Due to SherryE's unflagging support we really want to give Goofy's one more chance even though Goofy's Ballroom was a bust for us...he was out of his Kitchen and we did dinner so this time we want to do breakfast in the kitchen, We will not miss Surf's Up that was magical and the hours of character lines we saved due to Minnie & friends is hard to pass up too, We are even considering doing Ariel's since it turns out Colton was so cute with the princesses and that might not last too much longer (plus then we can say we did them all). We have determined that we will not make a PS for Storyteller's character meal however we will try either lunch or dinner off the menu there as we love the atmosphere in this restaurant. We have also decided due to Colton's new love of Splash! and Song of the South that should we walk by Storyteller's in the AM (our Hotel choice makes a walk through GCH an everyday thing) and see that one or more Brer characters are there we will stop to see if they can squeeze us in.. Wish the Brer characters were the "always there" characters there instead of Chip & Dale as they can be seen at multiple character meals as well as in the parks those chipmunks are really overworked!
Sherri - Eventually I will get to Surf's Up. It would be great fun to eat there with you and Liza!
I will probably end up there before I ever hit Minnie & Friends. It's possible, though not likely, that my friends from Idaho and I will end up at Surf's Up in a few weeks when we hit DTD. I suggested Surf's Up because I thought they might want their young son to meet Mickey first, before any other characters.
But I think Goofy's is where we ultimately settle....and this will be dinner, no less!
I've only done two dinners at Goofy's - one of which I can barely even remember - and they were years and years ago. I have a much harder time justifying an expensive $40+ dinner when I probably won't even be hungry enough to eat a lot at that time of day. Besides, from what I DO remember of my Goofy's dinners past, I just preferred the food at breakfast/brunch more than dinner. But...I said I would do the Goofy's dinner again so I have a current frame of reference for what it's like, and my friends seem to be leaning towards a dinner and not a breakfast. If they change their minds and revert to a breakfast mentality, then we could end up at Surf's Up!!
I still don't think your Goofy's dinner sounded like a total bust - Colton had great interaction with Goofy and you enjoyed the food! That's much more than other people get when they have a bad experience there (or at any character meal). It sounds like because of all the weirdness with Goofy's temporarily being in a different location and how they handled that, as well as the timing of the meal, it didn't turn out the way you'd hoped/expected. And it probably was not worth the big bucks that the dinner costs. But it wasn't a total bust. For me, a total bust would be bad food, no character interaction at all and rude servers. There were some positive aspects of your meal.
I have a long history with Goofy's, so my unflagging support comes from that. Since I started eating there when it was the only character meal at DLR, almost 20 years ago (as of next year, it will be 20 years of eating at Goofy's for me), I got in there early and established that I liked it early on. It's not hard to stick with a restaurant from there on out if you establish that you like it very early on. Don't we all have things that we like that we stick with for years and years, through the bad and the good?
Of course, I'm sure that in the near-20 years my friends and I been eating there, we have had some days where the food was
not as good or the service was not as good, and the character interaction was not as good. I can't remember them specifically, for the most part, because I've been there so much. But I hung in there - nothing was ever bad enough or 'off' enough to keep me from going back, and my friends all love Goofy's too so it was and is a no-brainer that we will eat there at least once on 99% of our DLR trips. In the past, before the prices got so high, we would eat there multiple times in one trip. That was also when there were tons of characters coming to the table every second, and I could barely get a bite of food (which annoyed me).
But these days, prices are so high that if we try something once and don't like it that much, it is much more disappointing than if we've had countless meals there and only a few have faltered. Does that make sense? In other words, an 'off' day or a bad meal will stick out much more if we've been to a restaurant 2 times or 5 times or 10 times than it will if we have been there 50 times.
Sometimes I think that giving something like a character meal a second shot is a good idea, and sometimes I think it's not worth it to try a character meal a second time because it's a LOT of money to spend just in the hopes that you will like it better than the first visit. But if you are hoping to come away from it with the same opinion or experience I have, that may not happen.
I have asked before, are there special menus at restaurants in and out of the parks on Christmas day? I will find an answer, a quest for me!
areweindisneyyet - This was also one of the ongoing questions in the last Christmas thread. Quite a few of our thread subscribers have visited the parks on actual holidays, but this is pretty much all we know about the Christmas menu (from 2010):
Holiday entrees and meals
While menu specifics were not yet available, look for special holiday-themed entrees at Plaza Inn, Rancho del Zocalo and Red Rocket's Pizza Port. Plaza Inn, Carnation, Blue Bayou, Cafe Orleans, Wine Country Trattoria, Storytellers Café, Steakhouse 55, and PCH Grill will all offer special holiday menus on Thanksgiving and Christmas days, and reservations are now being accepted. Call 714-781-DINE to book your reservation.
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mode!)
You would think the bigwigs wouldn't want the chance of a stampede from the gates to the candy shop & possible injuries.....its almost like asking for problems. Pushing, shoving, arguments on who was there first, etc. I understand it's a process to make them, but why not offer them daily....this might at least cut down on all the chaos on the few days they do them. Just my opinion!!!
