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

[Elk Grove Chris]

Sorry about all the lost files. I have resisted moving to the new Photobucket site but fear I must do it soon.

Do you have an external drive? It makes backing up very simple at home. You can essentially set up the external drive as if it was another hard drive on your computer and it will back up files almost instantaneously depending on computer/drive speed. I have had my computer crash twice in the last year, just rebuilt it again two days ago. I had all of my files back on the computer from the external drive in a few hours. You can pick up a 2 terabyte external drive for around $150.

 

[BELLEDOZER]

I'm really feel bad for you Sherry, losing all your important emails. DH beat up his laptop one too many times recently out of frustration, and had to have a computer savy friend re configure the hard drive on his laptop. If he hadn't had the external hard drive, it would have been alot worse than it was. While he lost some data, with the external hard drive, it made things easier to restore. He has since got me one for my laptop. Here's hoping that you have better luck with it and Photobucket.

 

[Autty40]

I am so glad I found this thread! I am booking our trip this week for Nov 18-21. It will my DDs first trip and she will be celebrating her 2nd birthday! It will be mine and my husband's first time during Christmastime and I am sooo excited! I'm only on page 2 of this thread and can't wait to read more! Any advice on something special to do for our daughter that she'd enjoy but not too expensive since she wont really remember this trip? We plan on going every year for her birthday after this year! Thanks for all the great tips and pictures!

 

[Aussie Princess]

I am so glad I found this thread! I am booking our trip this week for Nov 18-21. It will my DDs first trip and she will be celebrating her 2nd birthday! It will be mine and my husband's first time during Christmastime and I am sooo excited! I'm only on page 2 of this thread and can't wait to read more! Any advice on something special to do for our daughter that she'd enjoy but not too expensive since she wont really remember this trip? We plan on going every year for her birthday after this year! Thanks for all the great tips and pictures!

We are doing the same thing for my DS his 2nd bday is 23rd and my birthday is 24th but we will be there 11-20 but both birthdays will be celebrated while we are there.

We are planning on doing Minnie and friends maybe the princesses lunch at Ariel's grotto would be good for your DD

 

[Autty40]

We are doing the same thing for my DS his 2nd bday is 23rd and my birthday is 24th but we will be there 11-20 but both birthdays will be celebrated while we are there.

We are planning on doing Minnie and friends maybe the princesses lunch at Ariel's grotto would be good for your DD

We are planning on doing Ariel's Grotto because its included in our Costco package. I know she'll like that. I'm excited for that since I hear all the princesses spend time at each table.

 

[Phoenixrising]

BELLEDOZER is no more
her name riddled with Cyberbullets
from a deadly sniper laying on the floor

Her email hacked by an unseen foe
creating CHAOS as they go

So rising from the ashes of a email
that is no more

Can I still come and chat with you all
as before??

Yes, it's me Trish, and what a pain it's been
to start all over again with a new user name
and email account.

Hope I'll still be welcome to come and chat.

 

[larina]

Hello, welcome back, as the new you!

 

[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

Dates have changed....going 12/24 to 1/3. Got to add another day because I had more vacation time then I thought....went to turn in my request off and found I could take another day off so I choose to leave a day early

 

[Phoenixrising]

Does anyone know of a good safe place to put pics online??? The hacker got control of my Webshots account and I'm completely locked out of it. I've attempted to contacted Webshots multiple times over the past couple of days to deal with this, and they've done nothing GGGRRRRR!! I guess it was the hackers parting shot after I figured out a way to delete the infected email account yesterday. I've emailed Webshots to close the account, but from the way they've ignored me, I don't hold out much hope of it happening. So any suggestions would be welcome, as I've lost all the pics I've posted online, they've been stolen by an unseen foe.

 

[Sherry E]

Elk Grove Chris -

No, I don't have an external hard drive but $150 is not a bad investment for something that will back up thousands of files. When my PC had its major crash 2 years ago, all of my files were wiped out. Then, using a recovery program, many of the files (though not all of them) were recovered along with a bunch of junk files...but the file names were all scrambled and unrecognizable. So what was originally called, for example, "Disneyland - December 14, 2010 - Golden Gate Bridge - 2A" was called (after the file recovery) "SssFft445793&-hjJki"! Seeing as I had thousands of documents, it was like looking through a needle in a haystack to locate a photo because of the messed up file names and junk files that were recovered along with the stuff I needed.

Thankfully, I had most of the lost photos sorted or organized in a couple of different places online so they were not totally lost forever, but I lost a lot of my clients' documents that I was saving for them for ongoing reference and projects.

After the major crash, I saved some things in my Yahoo mail as an extra back-up (as I mentioned before, I have found that it is a good idea to back up certain things in as many places as possible), in addition to saving to various flash drives or thumb drives or elsewhere, but then the Yahoo mail was wiped out over a week ago!

Darn that technology - we can't live with it and cannot live without it. We cannot rely on it or trust it, and yet we have to rely on it and trust it!



Trish -

I thought that Webshots had stopped hosting images or done something that made thousands of users angry towards the end of last year, didn't they? Or maybe I'm mistaken. I recall fellow DIS'er Mariezp having to remove all of her stuff from Webshots and all of her links in threads becoming invalid or broken. She was in search of a new site to use and she thought she was going to go with SmugMug.

Honestly, I would not recommend Photobucket to anyone at the present time. If you read the comments on the Photobucket Facebook page (under any of their posts) or in the Support section of the Photobucket site, you will see that there are thousands of people angry over the current site because it is incomplete and full of bugs. They took away a lot of features without warning, and people are not pleased. They are currently forcing everyone into this new version of their site and it is messed up.

Until Photobucket re-implements some of the features they removed and gets the bugs worked out soon I would not refer anyone to them! Maybe in a few months they will be functioning a little better, but right now I would advise anyone who is not already a Photobucket member to steer clear. If I had a new batch of hundreds or thousands of photos that needed to be uploaded today, I would not load them to Photobucket and I have a paid account with them. I would either hold the photos and wait a couple of months to see what they do, or I would find another image hosting site.

Try SmugMug (DIS'er brookelizabeth uses this site and likes it), Image Shack (you can choose the size of the photos before uploading) or Flickr - in fact, DIS'er mvf-m11c (Bret) takes thousands of photos for each of his trip reports and he is a faithful Flickr member. He loves it. So if he can load thousands of photos to Flickr on a regular basis, I assume that it is a decent site.

 

[Phoenixrising]

I didn't load alot of pics into my Webshots account, so I'm not losing a great deal of pics that I can post online. For some reason I've never felt comfortable duplicating my pics on line, so in the end it was good thing that I didn't upload more pics than what I did. I will check into the pic uploading websites you mentioned over the next few months, then set a new account up once I find a website that's a good fit for me. I still intend to honor the promise I made to you about a trip report for Knott's Berry Farm, heavily loaded with pics after my Nov trip to the mouse. So at some point I'm going to set up another account that I can upload pics into. Have too many things on the go right now, and won't think about doing it until I've finished dealing with the Cyberattack, and all the problems it's caused. I've asked Webshots to shut down the account I have with them, so it's a start. Have a great day Sherry!

Trish

 

[ashnjam]

What's up with the snow on Main Street? Is it only on certain nights? Does it only snow on Main Street? I've seen a couple pictures on here but not much info..would really like to experience this on our trip in December. Thanks.

 

[DTDkettleCORNfan]

What's up with the snow on Main Street? Is it only on certain nights? Does it only snow on Main Street? I've seen a couple pictures on here but not much info..would really like to experience this on our trip in December. Thanks.

In the past, they have done it after the holiday fireworks every night during the holiday season. It might snow after the castle lighting ceremony (can't remember its exact name) that happens earlier in the evening as well. When it snows on Main Street after the fireworks, it also snows in front of Its A Small World and along the river near Pirates (those locations are will be marked on your park map). However....if they do a ticketed Christmas party this year, the snow & holiday fireworks might be only during the party. If so, it would be worth getting tickets to see the fireworks. Hope you have a great December trip!

 

[Sherry E]

What's up with the snow on Main Street? Is it only on certain nights? Does it only snow on Main Street? I've seen a couple pictures on here but not much info..would really like to experience this on our trip in December. Thanks.

ashnjam -

The snow falls every single night, all throughout the holiday season, unless it's raining or something like that. It snows on Main Street, back by It's a Small World Holiday and over in the New Orleans Square/Rivers of America area. In the Main Street location there is a bit of a gingerbread scent that fills the air when the snow falls - I'm not sure if that smell fills the air in the other locations too.

The snow is very light, and it's made up of tiny bubbles - some folks compare the consistency of the "snow" to detergent bubbles!

However, this year we still don't know if there will be a Christmas party for the first time ever (or if that plan will be delayed). If there is a party, that will likely affect the snowfall schedule (which is one reason why I wish Disney would begin the party in California Adventure instead of Disneyland).

ETA: DTDkettleCORNfan was replying while I was typing! Lol.

 

[DTDkettleCORNfan]

ashnjam -

The snow falls every single night, all throughout the holiday season, unless it's raining or something like that. It snows on Main Street, back by It's a Small World Holiday and over in the New Orleans Square/Rivers of America area. In the Main Street location there is a bit of a gingerbread scent that fills the air when the snow falls - I'm not sure if that smell fills the air in the other locations too.

The snow is very light, and it's made up of tiny bubbles - some folks compare the consistency of the "snow" to detergent bubbles!

However, this year we still don't know if there will be a Christmas party for the first time ever (or if that plan will be delayed). If there is a party, that will likely affect the snowfall schedule (which is one reason why I wish Disney would begin the party in California Adventure instead of Disneyland).

ETA: DTDkettleCORNfan was replying while I was typing! Lol.

Ooooooo....Sherry - I've never noticed the gingerbread scent. I'll have to pay better attention next time!

 

[Sherry E]

Ooooooo....Sherry - I've never noticed the gingerbread scent. I'll have to pay better attention next time!

It is a fairly new thing. If I recall - and anyone please correct me if I'm wrong - I think the gingerbread aroma just started wafting through the air during the snow in the last couple of years. I want to say that 2011 was the first holiday season for it, but I could be mistaken. I know that I read about the aroma before actually smelling it, but where I read about it escapes me. I did not smell it in December 2010.

At one point I happened to catch a little bit of the aroma as I was walking to or from somewhere via Main Street and I thought, "Oh wow! That's the smell I read about!" Again, I'm not sure if the gingerbread wafts through the air in NOS and back by IASWH too.

Also, it doesn't smell exactly like gingerbread - it was more like a slightly askew gingerbread aroma - but I guess that's what it's supposed to be!

 

[NokOnHarts]

In the past, they have done it after the holiday fireworks every night during the holiday season. It might snow after the castle lighting ceremony (can't remember its exact name) that happens earlier in the evening as well. When it snows on Main Street after the fireworks, it also snows in front of Its A Small World and along the river near Pirates (those locations are will be marked on your park map). However....if they do a ticketed Christmas party this year, the snow & holiday fireworks might be only during the party. If so, it would be worth getting tickets to see the fireworks. Hope you have a great December trip!

I know this is all guessing at this point but if they DO the party this year, based off how they do the Halloween parties - would guests see ANY fireworks or parades during the week without going to the party? Would you guess the Soudsational parade and Dreams Come True Fireworks would still play on non-party nights?

 

[Sherry E]

There was a rumor at one point (maybe it was an Al Lutz rumor??) that the proposed plan for a Christmas party would be to begin it in November and run it on certain nights of the week (just like the Halloween parties), all the way up until/through the week before Christmas. The party would supposedly feature the holiday fireworks, holiday parade and probably the snow. Maybe even the Winter Castle Enchantment lighting.

Then, in Christmas week, New Year's week and the remainder of the holiday season, the general public would be able to see the holiday fireworks, parade, etc. as part of general admission.

I have no clue what would happen on non-party weeknights in, say, mid-November. Normally the holiday fireworks run on weeknights in November. But if a Christmas party were to happen in Disneyland on a Friday night and one other week night and hold the holiday events hostage, then presumably they would run regular/non-holiday fireworks and regular parades on Saturdays and Sundays. A non-holiday parade would probably run during the week too, but I don't know about regular fireworks.

It's anyone's guess what will happen. You see, in the case of Halloween Time, even though Halloween Time is more popular now that it used to be and the parties all sell out, that time of the year is still considered - by Disney's standards - to be a slower, more off-peak season. So they don't run regular fireworks on weeknights unless it's a party night or Columbus Day. With the holiday season it's a bit different, as that is peak season. So they may try to run regular fireworks every night if they stick the holiday fireworks into a party package.

At this point, though, it's too soon to tell what's going to happen.

 

[vbmom40]

Thank you for posting pictures. Do you have any idea if the Electric night time parade still exists at Disneyland during Christmas? Hope you can help.

There was a rumor at one point (maybe it was an Al Lutz rumor??) that the proposed plan for a Christmas party would be to begin it in November and run it on certain nights of the week (just like the Halloween parties), all the way up until/through the week before Christmas. The party would supposedly feature the holiday fireworks, holiday parade and probably the snow. Maybe even the Winter Castle Enchantment lighting.

Then, in Christmas week, New Year's week and the remainder of the holiday season, the general public would be able to see the holiday fireworks, parade, etc. as part of general admission.

I have no clue what would happen on non-party weeknights in, say, mid-November. Normally the holiday fireworks run on weeknights in November. But if a Christmas party were to happen in Disneyland on a Friday night and one other week night and hold the holiday events hostage, then presumably they would run regular/non-holiday fireworks and regular parades on Saturdays and Sundays. A non-holiday parade would probably run during the week too, but I don't know about regular fireworks.

It's anyone's guess what will happen. You see, in the case of Halloween Time, even though Halloween Time is more popular now that it used to be and the parties all sell out, that time of the year is still considered - by Disney's standards - to be a slower, more off-peak season. So they don't run regular fireworks on weeknights unless it's a party night or Columbus Day. With the holiday season it's a bit different, as that is peak season. So they may try to run regular fireworks every night if they stick the holiday fireworks into a party package.

At this point, though, it's too soon to tell what's going to happen.

 

[zoeandjacks]

OK--so it looks like I belong here in this thread. My son's 7th birthday is November 30, and having just gotten back from his first trip ever this past week, he is requesting to spend his birthday at DLR. Fine by me!!!! But I have just realized that is Thanksgiving weekend. Oh no!!! My original plan was to arrive Friday 11/29 and stay through Tuesday 12/3. Is it going to be insane crowded? I don't want insane crowded, I wanted first week of December not crowded. Should I change to arrive Sunday night and have our 3-4 days in the park be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday? Or arrive Saturday night, on his birthday, and do Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in the park? Or would I be okay with my original plan, arrive Friday, and yes Saturday and Sunday will be busy, but we will still have Monday and Tuesday that will be less crowded? His actual birthday is the Saturday. What to do???