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

[Sherry E]

Well, I spent the last couple of days combing through all kinds of blogs and news pieces to gather links which will be added to assorted posts on Page 1 of this thread. I must have collected 1000 links (not really 1000, but a LOT - it felt like 1000).... Disney Parks Blog entries. DIS Unplugged blogs and podcasts. Disneyland News press releases. Even some stuff from the Disney Food Blog (which is not an official Disney site but it always has a lot of good blogs on food/treats)! All sorts of holiday-related stuff, covering a lot of different categories. It will probably take me 10 years just to get them added to page 1 and categorized correctly! (No, it won't really take that long at all but it feels like it will!) There is lots and lots and lots of info to be had!



So here is today's burst-of-color-thread bump!

Buena Vista Street - November 2012

Cars Land - Sarge's Surplus Hut's Christmas tree, day and night - November 2012

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And here are some replies...

Hi Sherry,
I'm working on my guys trying to get them bought in to a December trip to DL this year! Hoping the schedules all work out.

TK

TK -

So the "California or Bust" photo is appropriate for your situation!

I hope you're able to make it work too! You did say that it seems that your Disney holiday trips seem to alternate - WDW one year, DLR the next, WDW again, etc. So if you all stick to the pattern, it's definitely time for DLR!

It's going to be very, very interesting to see how DLR handles the holiday season this year, so you can't even really know exactly what's in store for your trip! Last year was exciting because of the new Cars Land/Buena Vista Street decorations and the Candlelight Ceremony/Processional in DL. This year is a big question mark!

I wonder how drastically Team Disney Anaheim will change things for this 2013 season - like will they move the CP over to DCA and start a Christmas party in DL (that holds the fireworks, parade and snow hostage) in the same year? Or will they perhaps take my advice (not that they have read my advice) and start the Christmas party in California Adventure for its first year, eventually moving it to DL in future years? Will they move the CP at all? Or...will there even be a party at all this year?

I thought it was interesting that the Lunar New Year festivities were being moved to DCA this year, and out of DL. Also, there are some gospel choirs performing in DCA, on one of the Hollywood Land stages. That is very telling - it shows that Disney is trying to get people accustomed to the idea of certain events taking place in DCA now, whereas they would have been held in DL in the past. So I definitely think that something holiday-ish will be held in DCA this year, whether it's the CP or a party or some brand new event.

I just wanted to thank Sherry for all the great Christmas pics...I loved them. I'm in the process of 12 weeks of physio to correct the curve in my spine, and shoulder/neck injuries (fully paid by the insurance agency). Recovering one day at a time, and really looking forward to my Nov trip. tskbaskets, hope that you convince your family to go to DL, if you can get your schedules to align properly. The crash may prevent me from going on some of the wilder rides, but we'll see how it goes, once I recover. I'm a recovering ride chicken, who prior to the crash was determined to do all the rides I avoided in the past. So we'll see how that goes.

Thank you, Trish, for the kind words! I'm glad you liked the pictures.

Keep that November trip on your mind to help get through the recovery process a little better! And if you can't go on the wilder rides at DLR, then you'll just take even more pictures to make up for it!

 

[Sherry E]

Woo hoo! I'm almost done with the massive overhaul of Page 1 (posts #1 - 9) of this thread. As you can see by scrolling down that page, I have been a busy little bee! I don't have too much more to do - just odds and ends like adding in some extra thumbnails here and there, writing a couple of intros, removing a couple of things, etc. The bulk of it is done, but I will not be satisfied until it is complete!

 

[tksbaskets]

Thank you for all your efforts Sherry. I really enjoy this thread.

 

[Sherry E]

Thank you for all your efforts Sherry. I really enjoy this thread.

And thank you, TK, for not only being a faithful and active participant in this thread and in the Halloween thread, but also one of the only people who has stuck with me in my TR's through the last few years (while others have come and gone or only popped in intermittently to speak up)!

As I mentioned a few days ago, I hope you get to take that DLR holiday trip this year! It is time for you to return to DLR and see all of the new holiday fun in person!

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Just a side note (for grumbling purposes): Yesterday I was working on putting thumbnails in the post for Holiday Dining/Treats on page 1. I had to figure out what size I wanted them to be, and certain photos didn't look good when they were too small while others didn't look good in any small size.

I finally settled on the exact size of the photos I wanted to use, found the border I wanted to apply to them and selected which photos I was going to use. I got through resizing every single photo except the last one...and then, stupid Photobucket decided that it was time for me to suddenly switch to their new editor/layout.

So I was forced into this new editor in the middle of my resizing endeavors for the thumbnails and I had one photo left to go (for that specific post) and couldn't figure out what to do with the new editor. Some of the old features that I used are gone.

Plus - and this infuriates me - all of the photos in my albums (and, as you know, there are many!) are now out of sequence. I had them organized in order of the file names (i.e., IMG 497, IMG 498, IMG 596, IMG 700, etc) and now everything is totally out of order, with the first pictures of the sequence suddenly ending up in the middle of the albums - everything is askew. I am soooo mad at Photobucket for messing everything up. I just love paying for a Pro account only to have the features I use taken away!

I still have thumbnails to add to some of the other posts on page 1 but at least I got through the Dining/Treats section. I don't know how I'm going to find the other photos I want to use for thumbnails because Photobucket has left them all out of order and there appears to be no way to organize them by the file name as I did in the past. Also, it takes longer to view the entire albums now than it did before. What a pain.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.......

But...I will forge ahead and figure it all out. I've made such good progress on page 1 so far. I can't give up!

 

[larina]

Sherry, your work on this thread never ceases to amaze me! Thank you so much!

I just booked our suite at the Disneyland Hotel for December 22nd through the 27th and my mama and I are just giddy with excitement (we're the only ones home).

 

[Sherry E]

Sherry, your work on this thread never ceases to amaze me! Thank you so much!

I just booked our suite at the Disneyland Hotel for December 22nd through the 27th and my mama and I are just giddy with excitement (we're the only ones home).

larina -

You're very welcome - and thank you for the kind words. Also, thank you for coming back to join in the thread! I don't think we've seen you in the Superthread in a while (I've seen you on the board, of course, but not in this thread), probably not since your last holiday DLR trip, right?

I figured that now would be a good time to get page 1 of this thread into some semblance of order while we are kind of at a lull in the activity. I think that a lot of people are not yet planning their holiday trips, and there haven't been any big announcements about the 2013 season to inspire discussion yet (like announcements about a party or something along those lines), so it's a good time to get the thread fixed up. Fortunately, I've gotten the bulk of the fixing up done (despite one obstacle after another - darn you, Photobucket!) and just have little odds and ends left to do.


Anyway, how exciting that you're going to be at DLR - and staying onsite - over the Christmas holiday!
(That deserves all of the dancing smilies dancing at one time!) I'm very envious - that's on my Disneyland bucket list, to eventually actually be there over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

And did my eyes deceive me or did you say you're getting a suite at the DLH? Wow! That will be an awesome, amazing holiday spectacular of a trip. If this year's season is anything like this past 2012 season, I think everyone is in for a treat!

 

[letthembelittle]

Sherry, your hard work is very appreciated! We have a trip planned for early November so I am hoping that 'Disney Christmas' starts on the 11th so we can get a few rides on the Holiday IASW in. We were lucky enough to be at Disneyland in 2009 and 2010 around the same time and really enjoyed seeing the new decorations magically appear each day.

 

[larina]

Sherry, I think I checked in once last holiday season. I was lurking, but didn't say much.

You have done amazing work on the thread.

We are super excited about spending Christmas at DLR again and especially about staying at DLH We've stayed at PPH before, but this is our first stay at DLH. Now that my younger children are only with us every other Christmas, we really want to make them special. Looks like there will be 8 of us this time, so the suite almost becomes necessary (not at DLH of course, that is something we are very lucky to be able to do, and we will be paying for all year!) if we are going to be comfortable (we are a mixed group/family, including a now adult foster child) with our situation. We are sort of going all out to make it special.

We really can't wait! We're planning out character dinners and all the fun stuff now!

 

[Sherry E]

Sherry, your hard work is very appreciated! We have a trip planned for early November so I am hoping that 'Disney Christmas' starts on the 11th so we can get a few rides on the Holiday IASW in. We were lucky enough to be at Disneyland in 2010 and 2011 around the same time and really enjoyed seeing the new decorations magically appear each day.

letthembelittle -

Hello there! Welcome. I haven't seen you around in a long while either (in the Superthread). I'm glad you came back to join us.

Thank you for the kind words! I'm happy that people enjoy the thread and enjoy participating in it, sharing photos, discussing the season and breaking news, etc. It's a fun - and informative - thread! We all must have been doing something right - the previous Superthread reached well over 300,000 views!

You will definitely get some sort of dose of the Christmas season when November 11th rolls around, and IASWH will probably be open a few days before the season begins. The question is, when will it begin and how much of the season merriment will be in full swing on 11/11?

This is a tricky year, date-wise, and hard to predict. Prior to 2011, the holiday season was always officially started on a Friday in November. All of a sudden Disney began doing the Monday start date thing. This year, Friday, 11/8 sounds like too early of an official start date to me...but, Mon, 11/11 is Veterans Day and I don't know if DLR has ever "officially" begun their holiday season on the actual holiday (even if most of the parks' decorations will be up)?? Maybe they have and I am blanking out on when it happened.

So that's why I am unsure of what they are doing this time around. Maybe DLR will surprise us and start the season on a totally different day, like a Tuesday. Or, they could start it on Fri., 11/15. They began the season on 11/14 in 2011, so it's not unrealistic to think that 11/15 could be the date this year.


If we haven't gotten word of the season dates from the Disney Parks Blog or other official Disney news source by July (like if they announce a party or major change in the Candlelight Ceremony venue), I think that the dates will pop up on travel agents' sites and leak out that way. Last year the travel agents got the season dates way, way before they were ever posted on the DLR website or announced by the Parks Blog.

I just wish that the 3 Disney hotels were also decorated and in the holiday spirit when the season begins. They don't get their decor until right around Thanksgiving weekend - except that this year it may be a little earlier than that - so the people visiting DLR for the holiday season in the first few weeks of November don't really get the full 100% holiday experience. I think that if the 2 parks are decorated and playing holiday music on 11/11 or 11/15 or whenever it ends up being, the hotels should be too! The whole Resort should be in full holiday mode!

Sherry, I think I checked in once last holiday season. I was lurking, but didn't say much.

You have done amazing work on the thread.

We are super excited about spending Christmas at DLR again and especially about staying at DLH We've stayed at PPH before, but this is our first stay at DLH. Now that my younger children are only with us every other Christmas, we really want to make them special. Looks like there will be 8 of us this time, so the suite almost becomes necessary (not at DLH of course, that is something we are very lucky to be able to do, and we will be paying for all year!) if we are going to be comfortable (we are a mixed group/family, including a now adult foster child) with our situation. We are sort of going all out to make it special.

We really can't wait! We're planning out character dinners and all the fun stuff now!

larina -

Thank you again for the nice comments. I really appreciate it a lot!

Yes, definitely, with the number of people that you will have in your group you would have to either get a suite or get 2 rooms wherever you stayed. Either way it's costly. But, it's a special occasion to have your whole group together, to have the younger kids there, and to be able to spend Christmas day with them at Disneyland. How can you not stay onsite? Plus, the DLH will be a lot of fun for the kids, I think. Heck, I would be staying onsite even without a big group like that!

I totally know what you mean about paying for the trip all year. Staying onsite almost requires that these days. The discounts are much less impressive and the rates somehow keep a-climbin'! I'm not always in the position to do it this way, but sometimes I have paid in increments leading up to the trip, or have put little bits of money aside here and there. Staying onsite is so much a part of my holiday trips to DLR now that I can't imagine not doing it and staying elsewhere. It's fairly addictive to stay onsite, but I know I feel much, much better and much more at ease when I have the entire thing paid for in advance, way before ever arriving at the hotel. I don't like to pay off the rest when I check in, or after I check out or whatever. I like to have the entire hotel stay covered and out of the way beforehand, if it is at all possible to swing it.

I also know what you mean about planning out meals and things now. That's all part of the fun! After one holiday season has ended and I have gotten my fill of Hallmark channel holiday movies, holiday music, Christmas TV specials and seasonal goodies, I usually need about a month without anything Christmasy happening. Then, by February, I am already thinking ahead to what the possibilities are for the next holiday excursion and looking forward to the season! Time will fly by, after all.

 

[Luisa]

Hi Sherry, I'd also like to thank you for all your hard work! It's got me so excited to return to Disneyland in November - I've just today booked my flight to the US. I arrive in San Francisco on the 16th and will head down to DL on the 21st before heading home on the 24th. Hopefully Christmas will be in full swing in the parks by then!

 

[BELLEDOZER]

I admit I did something this morning that I would normally never ever do....change my reservation to a different hotel. I've changed from HOJO's to BWPPI. I've just had too many problems with the ressie at HOJO's, and decided to book BWPPI instead. I've cancelled my room at HOJO's, a king in building 1. Sherry you've done an amazing job with the thread despite the problems you've had setting it up. It looks amazing!!

 

[Pesky]

alrighty, we are locked and loaded into the VGC for our stay (wooohooo!) so will be using this as our bible. Thanks, Sherry!

 

[tksbaskets]

alrighty, we are locked and loaded into the VGC for our stay (wooohooo!) so will be using this as our bible. Thanks, Sherry!

Sounds like fun!

 

[tksbaskets]

I admit I did something this morning that I would normally never ever do....change my reservation to a different hotel. I've changed from HOJO's to BWPPI. I've just had too many problems with the ressie at HOJO's, and decided to book BWPPI instead. I've cancelled my room at HOJO's, a king in building 1. Sherry you've done an amazing job with the thread despite the problems you've had setting it up. It looks amazing!!

Bret stays at the BWPPI and has posted some really nice pictures of the rooms there. I would be happy to stay there. Usually a good idea to go with your gut feeling especially if you've already had issues.

 

[lucysmom]

Sherry, what would be the advantage of having a Christmas party versus the way the holidays were handled this year? I so want to go back next Christmas, but I was thinking that a Christmas party means buying another ticket to do what we did this year for the price of a hopper pass. Plus, that would make getting the holiday tour with the Christmas parade more difficult to arrange if it had to be coordinated with a party date. Can you tell me how it would work? I'm beginning to think that a party would just be a way for Disney to charge us for what we were already being given.

 

[mom2rtk]

Sherry, what would be the advantage of having a Christmas party versus the way the holidays were handled this year? I so want to go back next Christmas, but I was thinking that a Christmas party means buying another ticket to do what we did this year for the price of a hopper pass. Plus, that would make getting the holiday tour with the Christmas parade more difficult to arrange if it had to be coordinated with a party date. Can you tell me how it would work? I'm beginning to think that a party would just be a way for Disney to charge us for what we were already being given.

I'm watching closely to see what happens with a possible Christmas party as we contemplate heading west instead of east his December. We have done WDW at Christmas many times, and have enjoyed MVMCP. But I can't help but think that folks at DLR really are just going to feel like it's an excuse to charge for what you had been getting for free.

There are 2 reasons I'm cautiously optimistic about the addition of a party.

1) To "sell" this idea to folks that have been getting things for free, I think they're going to really have to go all out the first year or two. Maybe a lot of really rare characters?

2) If they contiue to only offer up to a 5 day ticket, this would be my way to have park access on a day or 2 extra (I'm hoping the tickets would be enough less than a single day pass to make this a good thing). I could see having a rest day, then heading into the party for just the evening on those days.

I'm

 

[BELLEDOZER]

I've got a question for those of you who do travel to the mouse. I've had major problems with buying my hopper passes at Disney.com in the past, and it's turned into a major mess at times. For some reason it hates my CC even though it's a good company and a major CC. My question is if for some reason I have problems again attempting to get ticket on line (looking for 5 day hoppers), does it cost more to get them at the parks, or if I can even get a 5 day hopper pass at the parks?? Or do you know a reputable website other than Disney.com that I can order my tickets?? I would appreciate the imput, as this has been a royal PITA (pain in the *ss) in the past. Thanks for the help. After I booked HOJO's I had a bad feeling about the ressie, guess I should have followed my instincts and booked BWPPI in the first place and saved the problems. Am really looking forward to staying there. Booked my air on a seat sale, so I'm good to go. I have nothing against HOJO's, some of the problems I had were not directly connected to the hotel, and will still recommend them to my friends. Have a great day!

Trish

 

[Sherry E]

Hello and happy Saturday, everyone!

I had planned on popping in here sometime today to reply to some posts and add more things/thumbnails to page 1 (I have been yelling at Photobucket for the last few days for their horrible new site and the loss of several features that I regularly use, making every task much more difficult and time consuming), but I saw lucysmom's question and I wanted to answer it while the answer was fresh in my mind, because I've put a lot of thought into how DLR would handle a party in the past and it's an interesting holiday subtopic to discuss in the thread!

Sherry, what would be the advantage of having a Christmas party versus the way the holidays were handled this year? I so want to go back next Christmas, but I was thinking that a Christmas party means buying another ticket to do what we did this year for the price of a hopper pass. Plus, that would make getting the holiday tour with the Christmas parade more difficult to arrange if it had to be coordinated with a party date. Can you tell me how it would work? I'm beginning to think that a party would just be a way for Disney to charge us for what we were already being given.

lucysmom -

About a possible party...to start with, I think we all know that a Christmas party is inevitable. It's just a matter of when it will happen, and possibly where. Will Team Disney Anaheim decide to start the party this year or wait until, perhaps, 2014? And will TDA definitely hold the party in Disneyland, or could they possibly hold it in California Adventure to begin with, and then see how it goes in that park?

I look at it the same way you are looking at it. What would be the advantages? In my mind, I see a party in Disneyland park as a nuisance, because it would suddenly take things that had been available as part of regular admission for years (the Christmas Fantasy Parade, the Believe in Holiday Magic fireworks, the snow falling on Main Street, possibly the Enchantment Lighting of the Winter castle, etc.) and making everyone pay extra to see them.

The Halloween party at DLR offers the Halloween Screams fireworks as an exclusive. So folks may wonder, what would be different about the Believe in Holiday Magic fireworks being made a party exclusive?

The difference is quite simply that the Halloween Screams fireworks were only available to the general public with regular admission for one year - 2009 - before being made party exclusives. It's not as if they had been a longstanding tradition for years. They were still a novelty to most people. And the little character "costume cavalcade" at the Halloween party was never a part of regular admission so that was something new that people could see.

TDA suddenly made the Villains and Halloween costume-wearing characters more limited and exclusive last year, when they pushed all of the costumed characters back to the Halloween Carnival/Jamboree area and out of Town Square, and they did this silly Conjure Up a Villain thing, where you could only meet one Villain at a time. BUT, of course, if you bought a party ticket you would meet all sorts of Villains and costume-wearing characters. By limiting the access to these characters and Villains in the daytime, they made the Halloween party more appealing and integral to the Halloween Time experience.

So, as I see it, if TDA decides to have a party in Disneyland this year, they will be taking things that are long-established and that thousands and thousand and thousands of people have already seen and making us pay extra to experience them...which could backfire.

In my opinion, the only successful way to pull off a party in DL would be to add in something completely new - a brand new Christmas parade, brand new holiday fireworks, etc. Something completely different. They may do what they did for Halloween and remove any Winter sweater-wearing characters from Town Square and make them less accessible in the daytime, but more accessible during a Christmas party.

I think that running the Candlelight Ceremony/Processional for 20 nights last year was supposed to be a test to see how the crowds responded to it and how popular it was for so many nights, so that if they moved it elsewhere this year or made it part of a party people would pay extra to see it (like with dinner packages and what not).

I don't think that the CP will actually be part of a party. Even though it is beautiful and I loved it, it is really too religious of a ceremony to stick into the middle of a paid party. And yet, holding the CP for so many nights in Disneyland would be next to impossible if they were going to hold a paid party too.

So...one option is that TDA could move the CP to California Adventure (which will change the whole mood and tone of it, I feel, and I will not be pleased) and have the paid Christmas party in Disneyland, holding all of our established nighttime holiday entertainment hostage.

OR, TDA could do what I have thought they should do all along and start the Christmas party in DCA, running an all-holiday World of Color (not just the Prep & Landing intro) as the ticket-selling point, as well as the long-rumored holiday makeover of Toy Story Midway Mania. That way, they could still hold the CP in Disneyland and not interfere with the 50+ year tradition of the Town Square setting, AND they could keep the holiday fireworks, holiday parade and snow as part of the regular seasonal entertainment offerings.

People will assume that a hard ticket party will decrease crowds, but as we have witnessed with the Halloween parties (especially in 2012), the parties had substantial crowds. All of the Halloween party nights sold out - even the nights that would not have ordinarily sold out - and Disney sold more tickets for each night than they had in previous years, if I am not mistaken.

So an advantage to a party could be low crowds - IF that's what actually happened. Instead, the crowds will not be that low and the entertainment could be what has already been there for years.

I am guessing that the holiday tour and the party could be offered as a special package, as was the case with the Halloween party and the Happiest Haunts tour (it was called the "Ultimate" package or some such thing). Otherwise, if the parade were made as a party exclusive I'm not sure what they would put in its place in the tour. I've wondered how that would be handled.

What could also be a scenario is that the season starts in November, as usual, with just regular parades and regular fireworks (not holiday stuff); the party begins in late November with the holiday parade and fireworks as party exclusives; and then in the week of Christmas the party could end and the holiday fireworks, snow and parade suddenly become available to the general public for the remainder of the season (all of 2 weeks or so).

I still think they should start the party in DCA, and it would much be less controversial and less of an interruption in the long-established seasonal events.

 

[lucysmom]

Thanks for your insight, Sherry. I hope the Disney planners listen to you. I would like a party at CA. They could do special things that have not been done before. But, I will feel taken advantage of if they make me pay extra for what DL offered for the price of a general admission ticket.

I just loved the holiday trip we took this year. When I start to feel overwhelmed at school, I take a mental vacation and remember my holiday trip from this past Christmas. I don't even go to the WDW boards anymore. I just keep trying to recreate the magic from my visit to DL.

Frankly, our last WDW trip during the summer of 2012 was so disappointing. It was more crowded than I have ever seen, and I have been going since the summer of 1972! We were at WDW for 9 nights and never once got on Soaring! Disney's quest for more and more money has diminished the experience. WDW seems to have lost the magic. When we visited DL in December, we found the magic again! I would hate to have it soiled by a bad taste in my mouth for the Disney corporation. Walt was a businessman, but Disney was more that business to him. Frankly, when I heard that they were sending the DL head honcho to WDW and the WDW chief to DL, I became nervous that they would ruin DL now. Maybe they will bring the magic back to WDW.

Anyway, I love your Christmas thread. I appreciate the work you have put into it. It brings me back to the holiday magic that I am trying to carry with me all year. Thank you.

 

[cmwade77]

I think that making Christmas a paid party would e a dumb idea, unless like was mentioned it is something entirely new at DCA.