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

[damo]

We are going Nov. 18 -22 and staying at the DLH. There will be nine of us ranging in age from 12 months to 87 years and it will be a first visit for half. Thanks for this thread...it is very helpful and sure adds to the excitement!!!

 

[Aussie Princess]

We are coming Nov 11-20 my DS ( will be almost 2) first visit and its a joint birthday thing for me and my son my mum and sister will also be coming as well staying at HoJos

 

[tksbaskets]

We are going Nov. 18 -22 and staying at the DLH. There will be nine of us ranging in age from 12 months to 87 years and it will be a first visit for half. Thanks for this thread...it is very helpful and sure adds to the excitement!!!

We are coming Nov 11-20 my DS ( will be almost 2) first visit and its a joint birthday thing for me and my son my mum and sister will also be coming as well staying at HoJos

How wonderful for you both! We on this thread LOVE pictures and trip reports.....HINT....

 

[blue888]

Just booked Christmas for Disneyland!!! So excited!
I cannot wait to decide what to do!

 

[czmom]

For those of you whp have been during the holiday season, is that considered a peak season for character meal prices? We will be there December 1-7. Just wondering if that time has typically seen the higher prices.

 

[Sherry E]

For those of you whp have been during the holiday season, is that considered a peak season for character meal prices? We will be there December 1-7. Just wondering if that time has typically seen the higher prices.

czmom -

Yes...and no! (That cleared it up, didn't it?)

Yes, the holiday season is definitely peak season in general, and the prices for things like character meals and hotel rooms will reflect that.

However, I have found - and I usually go to DLR in either the first or second week of December, so my time frame would be relevant to when you are going - that the prices seem to stay at the 'off peak season rates' for about one week into December, give or take a few days. After that first week or so, the rates settle into peak season rates.

So I think that - barring any unexpected changes - you will see the slightly lower character meal rates for at least a few days of your trip, if not for the whole time.

In 2011 I was at DLR in early December (12/4 - 12/8 - that's the "Aunt Betty's Weepy, Wacky...." TR in my signature below) and went to Goofy's Kitchen twice during that time frame. The rates were still off-peak seasonal rates.

This past December 2012 I was at DLR a week later (that's the "Candlelight & Cannonballs" trip report - 12/9 - 12/12) and ate at Surf's Up on my last day. The rates were already at the higher level.

 

[ashnjam]

Hey Sherry E how were the crowds the week of 12/9-12/12 in your opinion?

 

[Sherry E]

Hey Sherry E how were the crowds the week of 12/9-12/12 in your opinion?

ashnjam -

Not too bad! At least I didn't think so. Of course, it's still a popular time to be in the parks - there's no getting around that - but it wasn't oppressively crowded like I have seen it at certain points during the holidays over the years.

One thing I observed is that Mondays seem to be delightful! Both 12/10/12 and 12/5/11 were Mondays and the crowds were noticeably, substantially lighter on each of those days, two years in a row.

One informal barometer I kind of use to assess the crowds for myself is Main Street. If there is plenty of walking room on Main Street and you can actually stop to look in windows without being trapped in crowds, it's not crowded! If you can go into Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor and either not see any line at all, or see only 2 people waiting in line, it's not crowded!

This year 12/9 will be on a Monday, so that will probably be a less crowded day. Tuesday will probably be busier. By the time you get to Thursday a lot of folks arriving for long weekends will be there.

All in all, I think it will be a good time to go! I would definitely go in that time frame again, if I couldn't make it there in the first week of December.

It's really when you hit mid-December that the crowds take a turn and begin to get bigger.

 

[rentayenta]

No holiday trip for us this year Sherry but I'll be following along as I love reading about everyone's adventures and seeing all of the holiday photos.

Joshua decided on a Disney cruise instead so he and I will be taking a 5 day Disney cruise next January for his bar mitzvah gift. I'm elated.

The kids and myself will be getting a little taste though during their spring break this year, just a day or two but it'll be great.

 

[Sherry E]

No holiday trip for us this year Sherry but I'll be following along as I love reading about everyone's adventures and seeing all of the holiday photos.

Joshua decided on a Disney cruise instead so he and I will be taking a 5 day Disney cruise next January for his bar mitzvah gift. I'm elated.

The kids and myself will be getting a little taste though during their spring break this year, just a day or two but it'll be great.

Hi, Jenny!

It's sad that you won't be able to do a holiday trip this year but the cruise sounds amazing, and the fact that you'll be at DLR for a day or two coming up very soon (looks like in 5 days?) is great because at least you'll finally be able to see Cars Land and Buena Vista Street for yourself, up close and personal, now that you've seen photos of it in other reports!

Hopefully you can do a holiday trip in 2014.

And yes, of course, please don't abandon us here in the Superthread just because you can't visit for the holidays. You are always welcome to join in the fun, post photos (especially when we get to the Theme Week Countdown in August) and answer questions or give advice, suggestions, etc.!!

By the way, I finally added the link to your November 2011 TR in the TR section on Page 1, quite a while back!

​

Speaking of which...some of you may have noticed that I have been quietly working on the first 7-9 posts on Page 1 of this thread for a while, adding links, breaking things up into different categories, inserting small photos, etc.

First, I gathered up all of the links to blogs, etc. That was an undertaking in and of itself. When I finally got them added where I needed them to be and saved them, much of the punctuation vanished!!!

In other words, what could have started out to look like this (and I am just making up an example):

"It's Turkey Time - Thanksgiving Day Fun!!!"​

...would end up looking like this:

"its Turkey time thanksgiving Day Fun "​

Unfortunately, this disappearing punctuation, etc., happened in many, many of the link titles that I posted. So now I have to go back and fix all of the commas, hyphens, colons, apostrophes, exclamation marks and other things that went awry.



Next...I was trying to insert the thumbnail/small photos in several posts on Page 1 - and I did, which you will see if you scan down that page. But it took some doing. Photobucket's website has been haywire for the last few weeks and is doing all kinds of things to make my life difficult.

So, the other evening, when I was trying to resize some photos to make them small for one of the info posts on Page 1, I edited them and saved them and they looked fine...until I tried to insert them in the posts here in the thread. The photos were not only NOT small, they were GIGANTIC. Huge. Larger than any photo I have ever posted in my life!

I struggled and struggled and finally found a way to get my photos to a small size, but I am paranoid that the photos I have already posted on Page 1 - and the ones I posted a couple of pages back - will not stay at the size they should be and will suddenly become enormous!

 

[czmom]

czmom -

Yes...and no! (That cleared it up, didn't it?)

Yes, the holiday season is definitely peak season in general, and the prices for things like character meals and hotel rooms will reflect that.

However, I have found - and I usually go to DLR in either the first or second week of December, so my time frame would be relevant to when you are going - that the prices seem to stay at the 'off peak season rates' for about one week into December, give or take a few days. After that first week or so, the rates settle into peak season rates.

So I think that - barring any unexpected changes - you will see the slightly lower character meal rates for at least a few days of your trip, if not for the whole time.

In 2011 I was at DLR in early December (12/4 - 12/8 - that's the "Aunt Betty's Weepy, Wacky...." TR in my signature below) and went to Goofy's Kitchen twice during that time frame. The rates were still off-peak seasonal rates.

This past December 2012 I was at DLR a week later (that's the "Candlelight & Cannonballs" trip report - 12/9 - 12/12) and ate at Surf's Up on my last day. The rates were already at the higher level.

Thank you! Hoping we can make it without the higher prices.

 

[blue888]

I am terrible without the search function. Any ideas on special things to make it more holiday like. We will be there right at Christmas time 22-28th and I'd love to make it special for my 4 and 2 year old. We are staying off site across the street.

 

[rentayenta]

Thanks Sherry. Next week I'll be visiting Disneyland for the day due to the generosity of a friend who I'm meeting at Club 33 for lunch to celebrate my 44th birthday. It'll truly be a one dayer. I'm so excited. I'll tell all about it in my pre cruise trip report (link below). It's a bucket list item for me.

The kids' spring break is during the first week of April this year. We're planning on two days between the Tuesday-Friday that week. I'm having all sorts of issues deciding on one DCA only day, a 2 day hopper, 2 day one park/day tickets, or sucking it up and getting 3 day hoppers. Im sure I'm making me it far more complicated than it needs to be but not staying in the area throws me off.

Thanks for adding my trip report. Thank you also for taking such good care of us and our Disney holiday fix.

 

[tksbaskets]

Sherry - the index is looking just great Thank you for all your efforts.

I'm bummed (as you probably are too) that you won't be going on a holiday trip this year. I know you'll still be making quite merry on this thread!

We are hoping to make a trip to DL this year. We'll have to see what the school calendar brings.

 

[BELLEDOZER]

Sherry the index looks amazing!! I know how much hard work you put into it, and really appreciate all that you are doing for this thread. Have a great day!!

Trish

 

[aidensmom31]

I am so glad this thread is already started. I need something to hold me over till our trip. We are going 12/25 to 1/3 this year. My son and I have gone each year for the last 2 during the holiday season and love it. We decided to extend out visit this time and enjoy it even while it is busy. Instead of a bunch of gifts we are going to get a few and then go make a bunch of memories

 

[tksbaskets]

I am so glad this thread is already started. I need something to hold me over till our trip. We are going 12/25 to 1/3 this year. My son and I have gone each year for the last 2 during the holiday season and love it. We decided to extend out visit this time and enjoy it even while it is busy. Instead of a bunch of gifts we are going to get a few and then go make a bunch of memories

Sounds like a great plan! For the past few years our Disney vacation has been our Christmas gift to ourselves and our sons. They certainly don't complain I've put boarding passess and park ticket vouchers in stockings before if we are home on Christmas.

Enjoy!!

 

[larina]

Yes, the trip is the big holiday gift. My kids certainly didn't come away asking what they got for Christmas, lol. I think they would pick one day at DL over just about any other gift they could get, at least for now.

 

[Sherry E]

I apologize for being MIA from this thread for the last couple of days. You can imagine my great joy and utter delight in discovering that 11 years of e-mail stored in my e-mail account had been wiped out overnight. I've spent the last couple of days trying to deal with that madness and also backing up things like crazy. The recent Photobucket nightmare due to their switch to their horrible new site has had me backing up photos every which way but loose, in every possible place I have photos stored online, for the last couple of weeks.

And this e-mail disaster had me combing through files and various forms of storage media to see if I had any of the crucial things saved. I finally got the e-mail back/restored in response to my first request to restore - however, I think that the second request I put in to restore (when I thought that the first attempt didn't work) will negate what I was able to recover from the first restoration!

So, essentially, I am backing up, backing up, backing up, backing up - everything I have stored online (which was originally supposed to be a back-up for my computer) is now being backed up on a flash drive.

I have discovered that between a massive PC crash I suffered a couple of years ago, losing over a decade of e-mail in the blink of an eye this past weekend, and my primary image hosting site wreaking all kinds of havoc with my photos...I can not back up often enough!

Even if you have your photos and important data stored in 5 or 6 online places and you think it's overkill, find a 7th and 8th place and store even more stuff! You can not be too careful or too safe these days.

​

I am terrible without the search function. Any ideas on special things to make it more holiday like. We will be there right at Christmas time 22-28th and I'd love to make it special for my 4 and 2 year old. We are staying off site across the street.

blue888 -

I don't know if you've had a chance to scroll through this thread or the previous Superthread, but one thing that has been talked about is the "Christmas Eve Goodnight" - which involves characters coming out in their pajamas and waving goodnight to the guests, as well as wishing them a merry Christmas, on Christmas Eve.

However - it was reported to us earlier in this thread that there was no Christmas Eve Goodnight in 2012. Inexplicably, it didn't happen - and I don't think anyone knows if it will be back this year. IF it is going on this year on 12/24, I would suggest that you make sure to catch that - I think your kids would love it.

Otherwise, in this post you can find out more information about the Holiday Tour (complete with reviews from other DIS'ers such as tksbaskets, areweindisneyyet and DizNee Luver. That might be a fun thing to do during the trip. You can also read about the Jingle Jangle Jamboree, in which you can decorate cookies and meet characters wearing seasonal garb.

As of yet, no one is certain when or if a ticketed Christmas party will occur. We are assuming it will begin this year but if so, we have no clue how far into December it would extend. So if a party does, indeed, begin this year you may have the option of that.

Also, the Candlelight Processional/Ceremony that took place last year extended through 12/20. This year, we don't know if it will go further than that date but if you like Christmas music it is a great thing to do.

In this post you will find out more information about what's happening at Downtown Disney (such as the ice rink, which may or may not be back this year) and at the 3 Disney hotels. Personally, I think that even if you don't stay onsite, visiting the hotels is a fun thing to do. The Grand Californian is particularly wonderful and cozy, and offers an overall festive environment during the holidays.

Be sure to visit Santa at any of his 5 photo spots (including the 3 hotels) - see info here.


And if you decide to leave Disneyland Resort for a while, here is a post about other holiday things to do.


Don't miss out on any of the special treats or possible Christmas Eve/Day food! Here is a link to a podcast/call-in show that I did with the Unplugged Podcast team on December 6, 2012. Nancy of the Unplugged crew gives some detailed info about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dining.

Also, there is more info on special holiday goodies & treats in this post.


All of that info should give you a good start, and hopefully some ideas of other things to do to make the trip as Christmasy as possible. But that's just the tip of the iceberg - I'm sure someone else will have some suggestions that I've overlooked!

Thanks Sherry. Next week I'll be visiting Disneyland for the day due to the generosity of a friend who I'm meeting at Club 33 for lunch to celebrate my 44th birthday. It'll truly be a one dayer. I'm so excited. I'll tell all about it in my pre cruise trip report (link below). It's a bucket list item for me.

The kids' spring break is during the first week of April this year. We're planning on two days between the Tuesday-Friday that week. I'm having all sorts of issues deciding on one DCA only day, a 2 day hopper, 2 day one park/day tickets, or sucking it up and getting 3 day hoppers. Im sure I'm making me it far more complicated than it needs to be but not staying in the area throws me off.

Thanks for adding my trip report. Thank you also for taking such good care of us and our Disney holiday fix.

Jenny -

You're very welcome! It took me long enough to finally add the link to your TR in that section, although I had thought about putting it there 100 times!

Early happy birthday to you! Have a wonderful time at Club 33 - what an amazingly generous friend!

Your dilemma about the hoppers vs. one day/one park tickets reminds me of when you were trying to decide how many days you were going to be at DLR in November 2011 - 3 or 4.

I think that having the option to park hop is never a bad idea, really, unless it is just not cost effective in any way. Even though DCA is more fully-fleshed out now and you have more things to see and do in that park, it's possible that you still may want to wander over to DL after a while. But it won't be a disaster if you go with the one park per day option.

Sherry - the index is looking just great Thank you for all your efforts.

I'm bummed (as you probably are too) that you won't be going on a holiday trip this year. I know you'll still be making quite merry on this thread!

We are hoping to make a trip to DL this year. We'll have to see what the school calendar brings.

TK -

Thank you kindly, my friend! Efforts they are, indeed, but it's all worthwhile in the end.

Did you mean that Jenny/rentayenta is not doing the holiday trip this year? I'm not skipping the holidays. Heck no! Even if I only got there for one day during the season I would still go, but I always try to aim for a multi-night stay. You know how I love my PPH tree!

The way I see it, last year was significant because it was the first year of the 'new' DCA and its decorations. I wasn't about to miss that momentous occasion! This year will be noteworthy as well, because whatever Disney decided that they didn't like about the CL or BVS decor in 2012 will be gone this year, and they will add in more decor in any spots where they feel it is needed. Also, I am curious to see how the CP is handled this year, and if it will remain in Town Square or be forced over to the Hyperion.

In any case, I can't miss any of that! I have to see how this year compares to last year!

Sherry the index looks amazing!! I know how much hard work you put into it, and really appreciate all that you are doing for this thread. Have a great day!!

Trish

Thank you, Trish!

It is a lot of work, but it all comes together over time and hopefully is a valuable tool for first-time holiday visitors in the long run. Between the vanishing punctuation and the problems with Photobucket it has not been an easy road, but it's getting there!

I am so glad this thread is already started. I need something to hold me over till our trip. We are going 12/25 to 1/3 this year. My son and I have gone each year for the last 2 during the holiday season and love it. We decided to extend out visit this time and enjoy it even while it is busy. Instead of a bunch of gifts we are going to get a few and then go make a bunch of memories

aidensmom31 -

You can always come to this thread at any time of year for a fix! All of the Superthreads on any subject are ongoing and year-round and have no set start or end date because they are meant to be accessible any time for information and discussion. The only time we have to end a Superthread is when it hits the page limit (250 pages), in which case we pack up and move to the next thread.

It's the actual "Who's going in [fill in the month]" check-in/meet threads that are temporary. The Superthreads are like the Energizer Bunny - they keep going and going and going!

Yes, the trip is the big holiday gift. My kids certainly didn't come away asking what they got for Christmas, lol. I think they would pick one day at DL over just about any other gift they could get, at least for now.

larina -

They sound like kids after my own heart! I would pick one day at DLR (especially during the holiday season) over most other gift ideas too, I suspect.

I think that, as expensive as going to Disneyland for the holidays is, it 'pays off' in so many ways. What we all get from our trips is unmatched, unparalleled and truly special. It's not like giving up a full-fledged Christmas experience to visit somewhere that is only halfway in the spirit of the season, and you feel like you're missing out.

Quite the contrary. In fact, if anything, DLR does the holidays bigger and better than most places and satisfies all the senses, delighting us with treats, sounds, wonderful music, aromas, colors, lights, beautiful trees, themed decorations, fun merchandise, etc.

 

[tksbaskets]

Sherry - whew! I thought you weren't going to DL at Christmas time this year. Thank goodness I can't read very well. The thread wouldn't be the same without your annual trip to see the decorations!