Don't forget, everyone --
Sherry, I agree with you whole-heartedly, on everything you've said about staying on site.
And "Yes", I did read your reply(Thank you so much!), and my afternoon will involve hunting down those reports and perusing them--I am anticipating much chuckling
!
Cheshirecatty --
Yes, please do come and find my TRs! I would be most honored to have your readership! My whole TR thread has the most views of any other TR thread in the Disneyland TR section, you know (though
Bret/mvf-m11c is a close second, deservedly so) -- close to 360,000 views and counting. Come see how I lured everyone in to my evil TR web!
Muahahahahahahahahaha!!!
The link to the Catalina TR (in a separate thread) is in my signature below. All of my DLR trip reports (Halloween and holiday season, as well as many vintage pictures from the '70s and '80s) are in the same thread, but I included the links to the pages on which several of them begin (and a reference to the exact Post #) in the Trip Report section on Page 1 of this Superthread (where you will also find links to many other TRs from many other DIS'ers). I would skip my 2008 and 2009 TRs, as those aren't all that interesting. I think the 2010, 2011 and 2012 (mis)adventures will be amusing for you to read, though!
I have to add on a sort of wrap-up to my TR thread, as I reached the page limit on it and I need to give it some closure/finality before I begin a brand new TR thread. But I've been so busy and haven't done it, and I also wanted to give people a bit of a break from my TRs for a while. They were probably sick of me, and I didn't want to wear out my welcome. It's better to leave them wondering where I am than to leave them wondering how to get rid of me.
About staying onsite -- you know, I just got a PIN code from Disney Destinations the other day, and it is good for a 2-night stay all the way up to the end of September. I think it's something like a 20% discount? The discount was higher for weeknight stays, but lower for weekends. So far, no discount extended beyond that -- but it is still more than what was offered last year for that time frame. I think that all of the new things in DCA in 2012 caused Disney to not want to offer up any good discounts, but now they are back to offering them again.
In any case, anyone who has stayed onsite and loved it knows that there is a certain extra magic in the air. Somehow an onsite stay completes the whole experience, or fills in the gaps. Some folks seem to be able to easily transition from off-property stays to onsite, and then back to offsite again. Others get bitten by the bug and have to make every stay an onsite stay.
You are so kind and helpful! I deliberated back and forth so many times about dates and if I should add a day or not... Turns out the Hojo just released more of the Super Family Rates so I have bumped it back one week to Nov 17 check in and departing Nov 22 (5 nights).
I did this for 2 main reasons:
1. I just didn't want to deal with the Veteran's day crowds and the Holiday season not being in full swing yet.
2. I looked up the historical hours for the park, and it appeared that it goes from 10am-8pm hours in the original week we had planned (11/10-11/15). Then the hours for the following week go to 8am-Midnight. Now we will have more park time
I think the only concern now would be how crowded it will be. I'm hoping the timing is good being the week before Thanksgiving, but still getting all the park hours. We shall see...dun, dun, dunnnnn.....
I think the main things on our agenda will be to mostly just "soak it all in". We have never been during Christmas and I am way excited to just see it all. I will make WOC and F! priorities as well as the fireworks and the parade. Other than that we will just shop, do some rides, and wing it! The decorating cookies sounds fun, so maybe I will have to look into that. Santa is very hit and miss with my boys, so we will just play that one by ear. We live in Utah, so I don't think ice skating will be a big priority (we see plenty of ice here at home).
Thanks again for the help!
tamiandryan -
Thank you for the kind words. I try to be kind, but I also adore Disneyland at Christmas time and have accumulated a lot of info, opinions and analyses of it in my head -- so it's not hard to share it all and be helpful!
Yes, I suppose the small ice rink in Downtown Disney (if it makes a grand return this year) will not be too impressive to people who see snow and ice all the time! I suppose it doesn't help matters any that the ice rink is supposed to evoke a sort of wintry feel to enhance the seasonal mode, even if it is 80 or 90 degrees outside!
The cookie decorating and crafts take place at the Jingle Jangle Jamboree, which is back in the Big Thunder Ranch area. There you will find a petting zoo area, as well as candy cane-flavored cotton candy, Billy Hill and the Holiday Hillbillies, some Country Bear appearances (such as Big Al), Santa Goofy, Santa, lots of rustic decor and other characters in seasonal attire. There is also a little cabin (which is where Santa used to be set up, before they moved him outside) with extra reindeer-themed decorations inside.
I think that your dates will be okay, crowd-wise, as long as Disney doesn't suddenly throw in some extra element to the mix, like a party or whatever. The crowds may begin to pick up a bit by your last day, but I can't see why that week would be particularly insane. There are always a lot of people in the parks for the holiday season, but it won't be Thanksgiving week just yet, so I don't think the crowds will pick up substantially until after you leave. I could be wrong -- things can always change -- but I think it will be okay.
I never thought to use my HM Nightmare Before Christmas pics in the DL Christmas countdown
. So I've uploaded some of my better ones to use when the Nightmare Before Christmas theme comes around. Now I need to figure out how to upload them into the thread when the time comes. The neat thing is I've got pics of the HM gingerbread houses from 2010 & 2011, so it should be interesting comparing the 2. Have a great day everyone!
Trish
Trish --
Yes, indeed! The HMH photos count for the holiday season too and can easily work into that theme when it rolls around. So if you submit photos, then you will be entered into the gift card contest through the photo-posting route. If you don't submit any photos you can always enter the other way, for the non-photo people (with the code words, etc.).
Actually, the photo-posting is good because that is a
guaranteed entry into the random draw, whereas the people who follow the non-photo code word/song part of the contest are mainly going to have to rely on speed (to be the first person to submit the correct list of words and themes at the end of the Countdown in November) to win the other gift card!!
Either way, I am making you all work for the chance to win the gift cards!
Muahahahahahahaha!!
Thanks so much everyone!! So, so helpful. The last 3 trips we've stayed at the DLH and I've loved it, my main reason for staying onsite is because I love the fully immersive Disney experience. I like not having to walk across Harbour to go to my hotel, in fact the last few times I haven't left the resort area at all! I'm considering PPH this time because I find the walk a bit better, walking through DTD seems so long to me. And I'd love to watch WOC from the room (even if it is the back side) I've yet to actually see the show in the park, it's hard when you've got a little person and a stroller to contend with (it was actually easier when I could just strap him to my back and wear him around the park!)
I think you're all correct and I'll probably regret not staying onsite, and EMH is a huge draw for us (my son is an early riser, 6:30 am most days so we never miss an early day but usually head back to the hotel around 1-2pm for a nap!)
Oh and a bonus of booking online is I can make "payments" until a month before, which is great since I tend to like paying with cash.
I'm super excited! Thanks again everyone. I think this will be the first trip when every ride will or should be open and my son (4 in September) is already 43" tall so there isn't much we'll be missing out on.
Hurray for Holiday Time!
p.s. I've been watching holiday films too, I saw something mentioned in an earlier post.
jasy --
You're welcome!
Gotta love the holiday movies in the middle of summer! I can't even count the number of times "Elf" has aired on cable this year, and I try to watch it every time I see that it's on -- or I at least leave it on in the background.
You know, when you make a "room only" reservation at one of the DLR hotels over the phone, you can pay it off or make changes to it even beyond that 30-day time frame, without penalty. In fact, you can cancel a reservation all the way up to 5 days prior to arrival without any penalty. The online reservations seem to work differently for some packages and things, and once you get past that 30-day point there are certain limitations or fees or restrictions or whatever.
But I agree about paying it off ahead of time -- I can't always do it this way, but whenever I have been able to pay the entire hotel bill off in advance, I do it. I like to have that burden out of the way. Another good thing is that paying the entire hotel bill in advance will often prevent the hotel from requiring a card to be used upon check-in for the "incidentals" hold. I hate having them block $50+ on my card for services I am never going to use (such as outbound calls) and then waiting for the hold to expire several days later, but they do it when I check in if I have not paid off the entire bill ahead of time. When I paid it all ahead of time, there was no incidentals hold at check-in!
When I first stayed at the PPH long, long ago, there was no short cut through the GCH as we know it today. So we followed the signs on the PPH property to get to Disneyland (this was even before DCA had opened). When I returned to the PPH years later, my friend and I instinctively did the same thing we had done back in December 2000 -- we followed the signs on the PPH property to get to the parks, and it seemed like we were walking to New York. It just seemed too far. My friend didn't even want to go back into the parks after a mid-day break because she dreaded the walk.
We then stayed at the GCH, and we were lucky enough to get a room close to the elevators and the walk was a breeze! It took almost no time to get to and from the parks.
Shortly thereafter I joined the DIS and it wasn't long before I learned of the short cut from the PPH, through the GCH lobby. I got lost and took a wrong turn in the GCH on my first solo attempt at the short cut, but eventually I got the hang of it. I thought it would seem like a long walk to get from PPH to DTD or wherever, but now I have taken that path so many times and am totally used to it. I think I have actually grown to love it, and I look forward to the walk! I enjoy crossing Disneyland Drive (it's better than crossing Harbor!) to get to the GCH. I enjoy walking past the PCH Grill and occasionally seeing the characters at Surf's Up plastered against the window as they peer out at passersby on the sidewalk!
I love cutting through the glorious GCH lobby -- especially during the holidays, when I know I might catch a glimpse of Santa or carolers. True, to get to DL one still has to walk through a bit of Downtown Disney, but not as much of it as staying at the DLH could require.
I completely agree about the immersive aspect of staying onsite. I know that many WDW veterans are disappointed when they get to DLR because they don't feel that the hotels are immersive enough, and they don't feel as removed from reality at DLR as they do at WDW. Never having been to WDW myself, I cannot make that comparison. All I know is what I am used to, which is DLR...and I know that I feel immersed and in the "Disney bubble" when I stay onsite. For me, it makes the whole trip more special. It's definitely not for everyone and there are plenty of people who happily stay offsite.
Also, I think the DLR hotel rates are ridiculously high (unnecessarily so), which is hard to get past and even harder to accommodate at times. But, in the end, it is always worth it for me. I never regret staying onsite, but I now I might regret
not staying onsite during a holiday visit or something. I think I could swing an off-property stay at some other time of the year -- like if I were to go in the spring or something. The holiday season, for me, really lends itself to immersing myself in the full Disney holiday bubble...which includes walking through a music-filled DTD at night, until I turn into the GCH and see people gathered 'round the tree, ultimately ending my night as I walk into the PPH to see my favorite warm. glowy blue-green Christmas tree standing proudly in the lobby. It's an overall experience for me that I just wouldn't get at a property on Harbor.
You're welcome,
Mike!
I'll be curious to hear how the surprise reveal goes (when it gets to that time)!
I got the Jack Skellington as Sandy Claus and Knick Knack Ear Hat ornaments. And a few others. too. I can't wait for them to arrive!
Liza --
What did you ever end up doing with your Santa Mickey Nutcracker? Did you stash him away or display him somewhere? I have a feeling that this year we will see another Nutcracker or two added to that collection in the gift shops at DLR. There are quite a few possibilities for themes. That, to me, looks like a collection they will keep adding cute pieces to, just to trap people into buying them.
I don't even want to look at the Jack Skellington ear hat ornament! "Danger, Will Robinson!" Those ear hat ornaments are dangerous because they are so clever and creative. When I saw the stash that was available last year I kept staring at them, trying to convince myself that I needed 3 ear hat ornaments for $50 instead of the 2 black t-shirts I ended up buying with the Disney gift card I had. Luckily, I went with the t-shirts instead but I know that those ear hat ornaments will be calling out to me like a sweet siren's song whenever I set foot on DLR property and I must ignore the call!!!
Some family of mine will be heading into DL on our last day (like the day we are flying out) and wanted to see us. I told them we were flying home so we would only have an hour or wouldnt be there when they got there (they are driving since it doesnt take them that long) and they offered to pay for me to change the flight and fly out the next day 
eek
I want to do something to thank them because it does allow us quite a bit of extra hours in the park, gotta think of something 
Hmmm... I have to think ahead about important matters such as peppermint ice cream
!
