JediMasterNerd has his first entry into the random draw for the $25 Disney gift card!
pudinhd and
Liza/funatdisney have each earned another entry into the random draw.
pudinhd -- Yes, that picture counts!
...FYI, my local Target had a good deal on Love Actually DVDs -- $10 or $15 for a blu-ray combo pack. I might pick it up for DH for Christmas as it is HIS favorite Christmas movie and we don't have it.
Pesky --
I think it's rare to hear of
Love Actually being a man's favorite Christmas movie! I thought that only women admitted to liking it! In any case, your husband has good taste because it is a great movie -- for the holidays and for Valentine's Day! Great ensemble cast in that film, too.
Next time I am in the freezer aisle I will do a little stomping in your honor
I was in Safeway/Vons yesterday and noticed they had full-fat and slow churned pumpkin, but only slow-churned peppermint!
If I were you, I'd write a letter to Dreyer's and ask why they aren't shipping the good stuff your way. I did that once for Ben and Jerry's (asking where I could find a flavor) and they sent me some nice coupons.
PHXscuba
PHX --
If I hadn't gotten my hands on the 3 cartons at the store last night I would have written Dreyer's...although I wrote them last year about the same thing and they never responded.
You may be on to something when you say that the store employees could be responsible for hiding the Dreyer's Grand peppermint ice cream or taking it for themselves. Someone is definitely getting into the stash out here. I couldn't even count how many of the Slow Churned cartons were on the shelf, but they were in abundance while the straggler Grand cartons were hiding behind all kinds of other cartons.
Thanks Sherry. I must have missed it when you where talking about the crowds for CP. I try to pop in everyday but some days silly other stuff getting in the way of my Disney trip dreaming!
I will just go in knowing its going to be crowded. And if its not as bad then it will just be a bonus!
Mickeybell --
No problem! I know what you mean -- every so often life interferes and gets in the way of Disney fun!
I think that's the best attitude -- expect the absolute worst crowd scenario so that if you run into abnormally large crowds you won't be terribly shocked. And if the crowds turn out to be better than what you imagine then it will be a relief! I think that it's worse when folks go into the parks thinking that the crowds will be minimal and they find out otherwise. It's better to just expect that crowds will be really heavy and then be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't turn out that way.
I'm still reading through all of this thread, but I wanted to give a hello to all and a shout-out of thanks to Sherry for all of this invaluable information! Also, to all the photographers, thanks for sharing your photos of holidays past - it's all getting me so excited! I've never been to DLR, this will be my first time. I'm visiting family in LA for Thanksgiving, we are planning to go for one day only. It will be a jam-packed day, but I'm sure I'll come back for more visits! We are most likely going one day the week following Thanksgiving, hoping to avoid the bigger crowds.
I'm sure I'll be posting more as we get closer - hard to believe Thanksgiving is already less than 6 weeks away!
dreamseeker9 -
Hello and welcome! Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you joined in, and I'm glad the information and photos in this thread are helping in some way.
I think that going to DLR for one day during the week after Thanksgiving will be a great idea. I would bet that Monday, December 2nd will be really good in terms of slightly lighter crowds. Lots of people have returned to work and school after that holiday break, and it's still too early for the major Christmas breaks.
Guess what I also found today at Safeway?!!!!
Jamie --
Whee!!
Were your Grand Peppermint Wonderland cartons tucked behind the Slow Churned cartons or cartons of other flavors like mine were?
Janet --
I was ready to start pushing people out of the way to get to the cartons if it had come down to it! Desperate times call for desperate measures!
I feel the same way! I also dont like peppermint ice cream, but found myself craving some after this story.
Sherry thanks for the giggles, your story was fabulous!
planningjollyholiday --
Thank you! I am generally a goofball, so my stories are often silly and (hopefully) amusing. Don't think of it so much as a story about peppermint ice cream if you don't like peppermint ice cream, but more a story about whatever flavor of whatever product you love being impossible to find and possibly discontinued...and then you catch a glimpse of it hidden behind other products on the shelf and have to have it before it disappears forever! That's something we can probably all relate to in that we'd likely be grabbing up the last few packages of it before it vanished!
Very funny read, Sherry. I was envisioning the whole thing. Congrats on your score.
Kim --
Thank you!
I am so excited! The hours for my trip have started appearing on the DLR website today
We are 6 weeks away now- yay!!!
Tomorrow will be the day I have been waiting for. The weekday hours will start to pop up. And I am hoping and praying for a 9 AM opening. With the first week of December also being the week after Thanksgiving this year, it was hard to predict just by looking at previous years.
Sherry- I hope you have already enjoyed some of that peppermint ice cream
So glad you found it and loved your story!
czmom --
I think I mentioned this a while back but I wouldn't think of that first week of December so much as being the week after Thanksgiving as I would just think of it as being the first week of December. I don't think Thanksgiving is going to have anything to do with the opening time for the week after. I think you'll get the 9 AM opening time. When I did the first week of December in 2011, I know that at least Tuesday had a 9 AM opening, so I'm sure that other days did too.
Thank you!! Strangely, I am not in the mood to eat any ice cream now so I have not tapped into the peppermint stash in the freezer!
I just wanted to get it out of the store and into my freezer before someone else grabbed it. I had a feeling that my store would not be getting any more of the good stuff in stock and that I'd better get it right on the spot.
I'm a few pages behind but I did notice that when I clicked on the link above the times were not listed. As far as I can gather, last year the tours were at 12:30 and 3:15? I'm sure I have that wrong because it says to allow 3 hours for the tour. I also checked out last years schedule and it appears that the Christmas Fantasy parade was twice a day on some days but on many weekdays it was only at 4pm. I'm trying to reconcile seeing parade pictures at night with the fact that the parade was at 4pm (early Dec).....can anyone tell me for sure what times the Holiday Tour takes place and what times the parade takes place? I did check out all of last year's schedules and they just don't add up. I'm a planner and I know we don't NEED reservations for many of our meals but I still like filling out a spreadsheet because I'm geeky like that.
Kathy --
I am guessing that last year the parade schedule was out of whack because of the 20-night Candlelight Ceremony in December (which took place 2 times each night). That won't be the case this year so the parade should go back to twice each day.
Yes, I, too, have read about allotting 3 hours for each tour. That includes the whole thing, from beginning to end (including the parade). So the actual guided tour segment will end and you'll watch the parade. Meanwhile, the guided part of the tour will begin for the second tour group and they will see the second parade.
Yay! Crazy that I'm so excited by the happy ending to the saga of the Peppermint Wonderland ice cream!
beckykarstetter -
Thank you! At least I can shut up about the ice cream now that I have a stash in the freezer! I was going to be angry if my store didn't even try to get in any of the full-fat ice cream, but seeing that there were only a few cartons left I'd guess that many other people got into it before I saw it.
Any one heard of cm holiday parties this year? Didn't see it on the holiday schedule, but someone in another thread said they were the mon and tues after CP.
amylew --
Thank you for mentioning that this came up in another thread, so I was able to go over and post in it. Unless there are new developments on the CM party front for this year (and that is always possible), I don't think the party is happening anymore. I remember discussion of this on some other board (maybe MiceChat; maybe another one) quite a while back, and people were lamenting the loss of the CM party because the CMs work hard and deserve it. I think they still have "special nights" in the parks here and there, but I think that the official CM holiday parties -- as they were held in their former version -- are no longer happening.
In the past, the CM parties started out on the Monday and Tuesday after the Candlelight Ceremony, and then they moved to one week later in December in their last couple of years.
Again, I have heard nothing about any parties being held this year so I don't know if that is old information being tossed around or if someone has heard something new.
It's been years since I've done the Holiday tour, but I'll be able to make our reservations for this year in the next week or so, so I can report back then. Every time we've gone, both Thanksgiving week and the first two weeks in Dec, the parade has been twice a day - I want to say 3:30 & 6:30 or around there. I think I posted early on that the last castle lighting was around 8 and I know that was pretty soon after we say the parade. If I am correct, those parade times would correspond with the tour times you have seen (12:30 tour ending w/ the 3:30 parade and the 3:15 tour ending with the 6:30 parade). The 6:30 parade is when it's dark.
ETA: I posted parade pictures in the dark and mine were from the 6:30 parade, Thanksgiving week.
Jamie --
Last year's 2-shows-each-night of the CP threw off the parade schedule. One CP was at 5:30-ish or 5:45, and then there was a later show. So I think that the days in which the parade was only held once were due to that. That is my guess, in any case.
Ditto - we arrive the day after CP and my plan is to view the fireworks on Tuesday night, but if the weather forecast is questionable we'll try to catch it on Monday. If I do not get to see the fireworks I will probably cry. I really don't want to have to push fireworks to Wednesday or Thursday...too much risk in not seeing them due to weather!
egritz --
While it's possible that the weather will be questionable in December, chances are that it won't be. I'm sure that you will get to see the fireworks!
First off, thank you to Sherry for all the time and hard work, I look forward to reading this thread everyday!!! 
Thank you to everyone else for posting all the wonderful information and the amazing pictures.
We leave in 20 days!!!!!!!
We will be in the parks Monday, November 11-Thursday, November 14th. Any chance that they will be selling any Christmas Merchandise other than the ornaments? Or does the merchandise usually come after Thanksgiving?
jonahsmommy --
Welcome, and thank you for the kind words -- and for joining in! I'm so glad the thread has been helpful and enjoyable to you and to others.
There will definitely be holiday merchandise waiting for you when you take your trip. I was in the parks on 11/12 last year and I saw a lot of merchandise. The problem is that Disney puts out the first wave of holiday merchandise too early -- even before the season actually begins! -- and some of it sells out early in the season. Then there is another wave of merchandise (sometimes with new items) that comes out closer to Thanksgiving, for the December crowds.
Did you happen to see all of the photos that were posted during our recent Treats & Treasures Theme Week? There were a lot of merchandise photos!
. Especially at Christmas :Santa:
