Disneyland at Christmas/Holiday Season Superthread #3!- HOLIDAYS BEGIN 11/12/13!!

[tksbaskets]

So very excited to be saying that we will be going to Disneyland for Christmas 2013. Looks like December 22 - 27 at the PPH (we just can't give up that view of CA and WOC), although we may consider the DLH if we can figure out how to secure a view of the park. Anyhow, I'm just excited to be back on the holiday thread. I missed it.

We have been home for a week now and are already planning our trip for December! We were at DL from 12/14 to the 26th. It looks like our next trip will be 12/5 to 12/10 as a girls only trip (DL has had enough of Disneyland for the next few years after 10 days there). I'm excited!

This is GREAT! You can report back to those of us who will living vicariously through this DIS thread!

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

We too are just back from DL...we were at the DLH from Dec 23-29 and I just got off the phone with the Disney Travel Company and booked our trip for December 8-14, 2013 at Paradise Pier. While we had fun at Christmas, we want to get another trip in to DL before our Premier Passports expire. Got a great AP rate for Paradise Pier for a standard room for our dates....I can't wait to begin the planning again!!!!!!!

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

I posted these pictures on the thread I started about our DLH Room Decorating Package and Christmas Tree for 2012. I finally figured out how to post pictures so thought I would add them to this thread in case someone is thinking about doing this for Christmas 2013. The price for all my decorations with tax and delivery fees was just over $700. I got the following: Mickey's Favorite Things - Holiday Room decoarting package ($350), Mickey's Christmas Tree Cheer - 2012 ($200), Santa's Gift Bag for Adults ($90) and Christmas ChEARS to you ($50)

Here is what we got....

This was what we saw when we got to our door

Here are the snowflakes on the carpet that we saw when we entered the room

Here is the Christmas Tree (on top of the box they give you to ship it home) and park of the room decorating package on the bed.

The room decorating package items on on the left bed and the presents/gifts I ordered are on the right bed (love the lighted headboard - it was on when we entered the room)

Here is the Santa Mickey Cookie dish, cookies, and Christmas storybook

Also there were six lighted lumieres (sp?) around the room that gave just the right amount of light when we entered. You can see one of the lights on the floor near the tree box.

I felt that what I got was worth the money I spent. I know it's not for everyone, but it made our Christmas trip that much more special.

 

[larina]

This is GREAT! You can report back to those of us who will living vicariously through this DIS thread!

That will be my pleasure. I plan on taking lots of pics, of our room, any surprises, and the holiday fun in general. I really feel so blessed to have the opportunity. Nothing like Christmas at the Happiest, I mean Merriest, Place on Earth!!!!

Mickey&JoshNut, thanks for posting those pics. We are trying to think of ways to make our Christmas 2013 trip extra special (I only have my kids every other Christmas now) and were just talking about in-room surprises like these. I'm going to show her so we can figure out what we want. I will skip the ornaments, since we have at least 30 Disney ornaments already, lol.

 

[tksbaskets]

Thank you Mickey&JoshNut for posting the pictures from your in-room decorating. I've wondered for the price what you would get. It all looked high quality.


larina - I'll look forward to hearing about your holiday adventures!

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Thank you Mickey&JoshNut for posting the pictures from your in-room decorating. I've wondered for the price what you would get. It all looked high quality.

With the exception of the cookies, snowflakes and lumieres, everything was available for purchase in the parks...I was really surprised and pleased that it wasn't "cheap" for the price we paid.

 

[cgh]

Is the week before Christmas as crazy busy as the week after? DS has a December 23 birthday and I was thinking it might be fun to go to Disney maybe December 18-24, then head home. I was hoping it wouldn't be as busy as later one.

Am I kidding myself?

 

[Pesky]

Is the week before Christmas as crazy busy as the week after? DS has a December 23 birthday and I was thinking it might be fun to go to Disney maybe December 18-24, then head home. I was hoping it wouldn't be as busy as later one.

Am I kidding myself?

I'm planning on hitting the parks the 16th-19th. My understanding is that week is when it starts to ramp up in terms of crowd level for the holidays as people are doing exactly what we are thinking -- heading out a bit earlier to try and beat the crowds (ironic, right?)! I am willing to bet that the weekend days of the 21st and 22nd might be pretty bad.

 

[MyMuse]

I wanted to say a very big, grateful and magical thank you to Sherri and contributors to this thread.
I went the first week of the season and had a wonderful time thanks to my information from here. I have been crazy busy since I returned and haven't been able to come back on and see how everybody else was.

 

[ksromack]

Thank you, Sherry for the heads up on this thread! I'm just on page 2 and i'm really going to try to read the entire 250 pages of the superthread before this one

Right now I have to make 48 cupcakes for a co-worker's 60th birthday party tomorrow. Yes, I am a procrastinator

Anyway, I'm subscribed to this thread so I won't miss anything. I will be diligent in my reading here but also need to do my own WDW Dec 2012 trip report. I took about 2000 photos

 

[Leilanie94]

Thank you to Sherri and the many contributors to this awesome thread!

We are excited for our November 2013 trip.

 

[Sherry E]

I wanted to say a very big, grateful and magical thank you to Sherri and contributors to this thread.
I went the first week of the season and had a wonderful time thanks to my information from here. I have been crazy busy since I returned and haven't been able to come back on and see how everybody else was.

MyMuse -

You're very welcome - I'm glad to have been of help in any way. I'm so happy to hear that your very first holiday trip to Disneyland/California Adventure was a success and that you had a great time!

Thank you, Sherry for the heads up on this thread! I'm just on page 2 and i'm really going to try to read the entire 250 pages of the superthread before this one

Right now I have to make 48 cupcakes for a co-worker's 60th birthday party tomorrow. Yes, I am a procrastinator

Anyway, I'm subscribed to this thread so I won't miss anything. I will be diligent in my reading here but also need to do my own WDW Dec 2012 trip report. I took about 2000 photos

Kathy -

Welcome! I'm happy that you made it here to subscribe! Judging by the speed at which some threads move down the pages of this forum, I was assuming that this thread would be buried somewhere before you found it on your own (hence, the heads up)!

You sound like a girl after my own heart - procrastinating, and also taking tons of photos! That's me on both counts!

I'm going to post some photos here in the next day or two - just a highlight reel of sorts, for anyone new to the thread (or perhaps new to the DLR holiday season in general). Stay tuned!

I'm also going to get back to assembling Page 1 of this thread, since I left it half-done.

The previous Superthread is a good one to skim through when you have time - even if there is no time to actually read it all, maybe you can glance at the 2012 and 2011 Theme Week Countdowns in that thread and all of the photos that were contributed for them.

Thank you to Sherri and the many contributors to this awesome thread!

We are excited for our November 2013 trip.

Leilanie94 -

You're welcome! Will the November trip be your first time at DLR for the holiday season? I don't know what is in store as far as a Christmas party (I'm thinking we will probably get one for the first time ever), but even without a party the season will be amazing if it is anything like the 2012 season. Last year's holiday season was fabulous! California Adventure's makeover finally being done was a big contributor to that.

Anyway, stay tuned to Page 1 of this thread as I continue to organize it and add in more links and information that will be helpful!

 

[ksromack]

Due to HOJO's room special, it was too good to turn down, so I've locked down my dates to: Nov 24 to 29, staying at HOJO's. Thanks to everyone for their great info on Christmas time in Disneyland, especially our resident wizard of all things Disneyland at Christmas time Sherry! Can't wait to start planning my trip. Now I've just got to lock down cheap airfare in Apr/May and I'm good to go. Let the over planning begin!!

Trish

I saw in a later post that HoJo was 25% off....we are looking at HoJo as well (Dec 2-9) and I was wondering if there was a special code for this discount? Or has that discount expired? Did you go through Disney travel or directly with HoJo? I don't mind going through Disney travel as I can use my Disney Gift Cards to pay off that part of the trip

They do work for December. It is called HOJO Anaheim. I just booked a backup room there for 25% off.

Curious......

We have been home for a week now and are already planning our trip for December! We were at DL from 12/14 to the 26th. It looks like our next trip will be 12/5 to 12/10 as a girls only trip (DL has had enough of Disneyland for the next few years after 10 days there). I'm excited!

We're looking at the 2nd-10th It'll be my very first trip to DL!

We too are just back from DL...we were at the DLH from Dec 23-29 and I just got off the phone with the Disney Travel Company and booked our trip for December 8-14, 2013 at Paradise Pier. While we had fun at Christmas, we want to get another trip in to DL before our Premier Passports expire. Got a great AP rate for Paradise Pier for a standard room for our dates....I can't wait to begin the planning again!!!!!!!

We spent 9 days at Port Orleans Riverside Dec 2012 so hubby and I have a December Disney bug now! Not looking for an antidote

 

[ksromack]

Nice to see the 3rd Christmas Superthread up and the 2nd one that you started Sherry. I remember a couple of years ago when you started the 2nd Christmas Superthread when I was in WDW during the Holiday season.

For a start with pictures for the new Superthread, here are pictures of "Believe...In Holiday Magic" fireworks from my trip last month.

So I'm going to need a little background here
Did you use a tripod to get these shots? What camera/lens are you using? These pictures are fabulous!

 

[mvf-m11c]

So I'm going to need a little background here
Did you use a tripod to get these shots? What camera/lens are you using? These pictures are fabulous!

Yes, I used a tripod during "Believe...In Holiday Magic" fireworks. You can bring tripods in the park as long as they aren't professional tripods. I used a Nikon D5100 with a 35mm Nikkor f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens for those pictures.

Thank you.

 

[BELLEDOZER]

HOJO's is having various one day room sales this month. It's on Facebook, but one of the members posted the knowledge of the discounts on this board, and I was able to take advantage of it. Watch HOJO's Facebook site for discounts and special one day promo's. Dis members get a 15% DIScount, but the extra 10% is always helpful, when planning on a tight budget. I booked directly through their website, if this helps. I've done this many times, and haven't had any problems.

 

[Sherry E]

I'm posting this for Kathy, and for anyone else out there who may be lurking or who has just recently joined in!

If you don't think you'll have time to go through the Christmas Superthread that preceded this one (it had to be closed because it hit the 250-page limit), which had well over 300,000 views (!!!), you may enjoy looking at our popular Theme Week Countdowns from 2011 and 2012! The Countdowns are a wonderful showcase for photos of the specific holiday highlights around Disneyland Resort that may be easily overlooked or unknown (such as, perhaps, the various types of Christmas trees around DLR), and we have had some amazing contributions from our DIS'ers.

We will be doing Theme Week Countdowns (we count down to the official start date of the Disneyland holiday season in November) again this year, but not until August. For the past 2 years I have begun the countdowns on the last Monday in August. This year I think I'll start at least 2 weeks earlier than that, if not 3 weeks, and I will probably end the countdown just a few days earlier than I normally do - instead of on the actual start date of the season.

Anyway, thus far our Theme Week Countdowns have included 12 weekly themes and 6 daily themes. I do plan to add in some categories this year. Some themes may even 'graduate' from daily mini-themes to weekly themes! Some themes may end up being packaged together into a 2-for-1 theme! I never announce which themes I am going to be putting up each week so that it will be a surprise for everyone, and I changed the order around last year from the sequence I followed in 2011.

If you'd like to check out the Theme Week Countdowns from 2011 and 2012, here are the links with directions as to where the Countdowns begin and end in the previous Christmas/Holiday Season Superthread:



2011 Theme Week Countdown

Countdown starts (August 29, 2011) on Page 72, Post #1073

Countdown ends on Page 128, Post #1918


2012 Theme Week Countdown

Countdown starts (August 27, 2012) on Page 180, Post #2691

Countdown ends on Page 227, Post #3405

​

 

[scrapbunny]

Finally have a minute to thank Sherry and all the other great people on these boards for helping make our January trip wonderful. We ended up going to see the floats for the Rose Parade on the 31st/1st and then getting into Anaheim around 4 am on the 1st. We were in DL by 9am and enjoyed 6 days taking it easy. We really enjoyed the Three Kings Day activities: lots of character interactions, good food, free crafts and face painting and not really that many people compared to the crowds in the rest of the park.
Not DL but if you are going to be in the area I highly recommend seeing the Rose Parade floats in the staging area. The floats start parking at 8pm which is when the streets start closing, and the floats must all be parked by 2am. We ate dinner, found a pretty close parking spot at one end and started walking the staging street. All the floats have at least a few people at them and they all would talk with us about their floats, some even giving out flowers Of course we loved the Cars Land float It was huge and we got to talk to the tech guy as he was setting up all the wiring for the music

We were mainly going during this time because we all had the time off and did notice that things started coming down during this last week of the season and of course Santa was long gone at this time. This didn't make a difference to my family but thought it worth mentioning so you know that not everything is going on the whole season.
Thanks again Sherry for all the advise and posts. We had a great time and are now planning our April trip

 

[Sherry E]

scrapbunny -

You're welcome! And thank you so much for your post! I'm happy to have been of help in some small way.

Coincidentally, I had been planning to add a link or two to info about the Rose Parade floats in my post on Page 1 regarding other holiday-related things to do in SoCal, so I was happy to see that you posted some info about your experience! You read my mind!

Also, I'm glad that you posted the comment about how not all of the holiday things are up through the whole season (like Santa, for example), until it ends. I have been saying this in different ways for as long as I can remember because I pay a lot of attention to when certain things start appearing for the holidays, and when they disappear. I'm glad to see that someone else is discovering the same thing! It is also a fact that not all of the holiday things are in effect when the season official begins as well!

Even when the official end of the holiday season is a week into January, that doesn't necessarily mean that everything will be going on until that time - the hotels will not be decorated quite that long, for instance. The hotels kind of operate on their own separate schedule, and are not really consistent with the parks. The hotels don't get their decorations when the season begins, either!

I knew Santa was gone from all of the hotels by Christmas. In Disneyland he had been spotted at the old Reindeer Round-Up in his 'street clothes' (green plaid) after Christmas, but once the Round-Up became the Jingle Jangle Jamboree I think that changed. And it wouldn't make sense to have Santa at Elias & Company past Christmas if he is gone from all of the other places. (Of course, I am only referring to his 5 specific photo spots and not his appearance in the Christmas Fantasy Parade.)

The Dickens Carolers disappear within a couple of days after Christmas too.

I also think that as soon as New Year's Day is over, Disneyland sort of quietly, sneakily begins to take some things down here and there (and maybe they also stop selling a few of the holiday-specific food items) over the course of the week, but it may be so 'under the radar' and gradual that no one really notices if a wreath is suddenly missing from that spot or a tree is gone from a shop or whatever.

Bret/mvf-m11c was at DLR just over a week ago and he noticed that the giant Christmas lights in A Bug's Land were still there, but that the giant ornaments were gone.

It's a Small World Holiday (and most of the decorations around it) seems to always stay up until just past mid-January.

Of course, the majority of the decorations in New Orleans Square (with the exception of the Christmas-specific things like trees) stay up way past Christmas, into the Mardi Gras celebrations, and then come down in March.

Many people don't care if they miss out on certain things that are not as big of a deal, but I am one who is a stickler for getting the "full holiday experience" if I am going to visit DLR for the holiday season. That means that I want the entire Resort to be in the swing of things. I don't want to think that I missed out on seeing/buying/eating certain things because I went two weeks too early or one week too late. I want the full array of holiday fun, decorations, merriment, music, food and merchandise (there are even some merchandise items that don't hit the shelves at DLR until early December) all throughout both parks, all 3 hotels and Downtown Disney- but preferably not at a time when the crowds are the worst.

So, to go at a time when I am certain everything is up and running and available, but the crowds are not at their peak, leaves me with a narrow window of time in which to take my trips - basically late November - mid-December! And that's why my trips almost always fall within in that window!

 

[BELLEDOZER]

The reason I picked the dates I did, was to avoid missing some of the Christmas parties we go to in Nov (although I will be missing one). It seems like the Christmas parties start earlier and earlier and for us start Mid Nov. Problem is that we belong to too many different vintage vehicle groups that all have their various parties around the same time. I have realistic goals about going the dates I'm going down for, and wanted to see the parks completely outfitted for the Christmas season. However it didn't dawn on me that my last day in the parks was going to be on Thanksgiving and flying home Black Friday. I thought I was more up on the USA holidays than I am. Time to get a e book on USA holidays and read it. Either way the photographer in me is drooling over the thought of going solo this time of year, and I know I'm going to be taking way too many pics than I plan on.