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

[ksromack]

The final theme (which will be Monday, November 4th) -- Holiday Cornucopia -- will be the one in which you can post photos for any themes you missed, or any WDW holiday photos, or holiday photos from other international Disney trips, any non-Disney holiday trips or holiday get-togethers (like maybe favorite family holiday photos, in whatever location), etc.

Well, be prepared......because I took about 2000 photos last year at WDW. hahahahahahaha! Just kidding....well, not really, I DID take about 2000 photos but I'm going to have to save it all for the "other" game with the song.

 

[KCmike]

From the Grand Californian Hotel Gift Shop

 

[Sherry E]

Bret, figment_jii and Mike -- You all have another entry into the random draw for posting your food and/or merchandise photos!

czmom -- Thank you for posting the link to that blog with the BTMRR update. I know that a lot of our DLR holiday travelers will be very disappointed in that. Am I the only one who was bugged by the use of "Winter 2014" as the date? The reason I don't like that Erin used that term in her blog is that it makes it sound as if she means Winter that begins in 2014, such as December 2014. She says she means early next year, so that is technically Winter...and it will be 2014...but I think she would have been better off saying "early 2014," don't you?... because that's really the end of Winter that begins in 2013! I don't know. That phrase just bothered me!

Kathy -- Whether you play along with the code word/song challenge or post photos in the Holiday Cornucopia theme in November, I'm glad you're participating! I'm sure you have a lot of great WDW holiday photos.

I want to make my reservations mid-October for my December trip however without knowing what shows are going to be on which nights it's rather difficult to do. Any tips? I don't want to miss Fantasmic! or WOC. We are going for 5 nights (possibly longer) and will be going to Goofy's Kitchen, Trader Sams, Blue Bayou and Steakhouse 55 for dinners so it's a tight squeeze to fit everything in. Absolutely can't miss Fantasmic!

piratenightmares --

Did you look at the December schedule from 2012? Here is the link: http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneyland/park-hours.cfm?month=12&year=2012. That will give you an idea of when to expect Fantasmic and other night shows to be running -- although, disregard the Candlelight Ceremony reference for the first 20 nights of December as it will only be showing on 12/7 and 12/8 this year.

I'm a big fan of Goofy's Kitchen, and the Blue Bayou is a beautiful restaurant!

 

[Cheshirecatty]

Oh figment....the pic of your Figment plush with the Santa apple is too cute! I must have him!!!!

Sherry, you have just caused me to want to rush through Halloween and Thanksgiving to get to Holiday Time, darn it!

I recognized several things I purchased last year in your photos---can't wait to unpack them.

I love me a Mickey Gingerbread boy with chocolate dipped ears---YUM!

 

[Axlcat]

Seeing all these treats makes me glad we will be doing a lot of walking, even to the hotel and back. Lots of calories there.

 

[Mickeybell]

Christmas Mickey!


Nummy Gingerbread man with a few bites missing.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I am positive I have more, but I have a kid home sick with a flu like thing, so this will have to do These are the finished the products from my kids on the decorate your own cookie back in the Jingle Jangle Jamboree. Hope it counts!

 

[Sherry E]

Am I the only one here who is gleeful and delighted that it is now.....October?

The Fun Months begin!!! It seems like it was just yesterday that it was May...and then July...and then August. The time has just zipped by at warp speed.

Even though I love that Disney starts its Halloween festivities in mid-September, October just has soooo much more of that Halloween magic! It is now "officially" okay to put up decorations and buy those Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins (because I know that people hesitate to celebrate Halloween before October begins)!

We still can't seem to shake the 90-degree days here in L.A. They will disappear for a while and then come back again the next week. We're expecting another couple of 89-degree days this week, I think.

The Halloween TV shows have begun as well. I was busy watching the finale of my favorite series this past Sunday, but I DVR'd a brand new Halloween special on Travel Channel (Halloween Night Frights) that night. A bunch of the older Halloween shows aired on Travel earlier that day as well. And Halloween Wars begins on Food Network this coming Sunday.

The Hallmark Channel's 2-month long Countdown to Christmas begins in 32 days!!

In 6 weeks -- just 6 short weeks!!! -- the holiday season will officially begin at DLR, and even before Halloween comes around there will be snow on the Castle!!

It's no longer a matter of 'I can't wait for Fall to get here.' It's here, and the holiday season arrives next month!!!

​

Cheshirecatty --

You know, the interesting thing about those gingerbread cookies with ears is that -- while they are delicious -- they have never been as soft and fresh as the gingerbread zombie cookie I ate this year, on 9/13. I get the feeling that the gingerbread men with ears sit around for a couple of days (I don't know how often Disney gets its new supplies in stock), whereas the zombie cookie had probably just arrived in DL early that morning. I like the look of the cookie with mouse ears, for sure -- but there was no denying that the gingerbread zombie was yummier!

The other interesting thing is that there are different versions of the gingerbread cookies with ears (I'm not talking about the cookie made of shortbread or regular sugar dough, but the actual gingerbread) -- some of them have regular, chocolate-dipped ears; some have had red chocolate-dipped ears; some have had white chocolate with red & green sprinkles-dipped ears. Sometimes there is only one version available in a given year, and sometimes you might find one version of the cookie in one shop while another version is sold in a different shop.

And then there is the gingerbread cookie with no ears at all (shown in Mickeybell's photo above).

Sometimes the people who do the holiday tour will get a different version of the cookie than what is sold in any of the candy or bake shops around DLR.




Axlcat --

You mentioned doing a lot of walking. I remember that there was a thread on this board a long, long time ago, in which people were reporting on how many miles they had walked around DLR in a single day. Some folks take pedometers to keep track. If I recall correctly, I think the range (some folks did more walking than others) was anywhere from 9 - 13 miles per day!!! Even at the low end of that, walking 9 miles in one day is much more than what most people do!

A friend had a pedometer with her on one of our trips and at the end of the day she logged 12 miles. I think the amount of exertion and 'exercise' involved can be deceiving because we're not always on the go in the parks. There is a lot of stop & go involved in Disneyland trips, as we know, so it doesn't seem like it is a repetitious workout.

I think I remember that one person calculated the distance from the Disneyland Hotel to the entrance of either park to be 1/2 of a mile. It doesn't seem like it's that long of a walk to me, but when you think about walking a full mile to get to and from the Disneyland Hotel it is astounding!




Mickeybell & Jamie -- You each earned another entry into the draw!

Jamie -- Yes those pictures count -- they are treats!

 

[Cheshirecatty]

Thank you Sherry,

I remember that you had posted about how the Zombie Cookie was the better gingerbread, and I was really hoping they would still be available when we are at the Park this coming weekend/next week.

Do you know if they were just for the "Villains' Event", or if they were a "Limited Time Magic" offering, or are available at the Halloween Parties?

I'd love to know if you or anyone else has info. on them!

 

[Sherry E]

Thank you Sherry,

I remember that you had posted about how the Zombie Cookie was the better gingerbread, and I was really hoping they would still be available when we are at the Park this coming weekend/next week.

Do you know if they were just for the "Villains' Event", or if they were a "Limited Time Magic" offering, or are available at the Halloween Parties?

I'd love to know if you or anyone else has info. on them!

Cheshirecatty --

PHXscuba mentioned in the Halloween Superthread that she ate one of the zombie cookies (she found it in New Orleans Square, which is where I found it as well), and she was at DLR on 9/20, as I recall. So the cookies were at least still being sold then. (She also said that they were soft, so they must have been fresh and not just left there from when I saw them!)

I think that one other person mentioned in the Halloween thread that they ate a cookie, and he/she went to DLR after PHXscuba went there.

So...the zombie (Spooky Kooky) cookies were labeled as Limited Time Magic when I first saw them, but who even knows what that means? Limited to the Halloween Time season only? Limited to Halloween Time and the Holiday season, because Haunted Mansion Holiday extends through both?

And I suppose I have to ask this in the Halloween thread but I wonder if anyone has seen the gingerbread men with mouse ears since Halloween Time began, because they were not in any of the shops I looked in on 9/13. I wondered if they were maybe being kept as more of a holiday season-specific thing while the zombie cookies are out for Halloween Time??

 

[tksbaskets]

Sherry I love that it's October!! Can't wait to see the Toy Story Halloween special. I'd better get cranking on my itinarary for our December trip!

2009
What trip to DL would be complete without some popcorn in a souvinere tub? Not one of mine...

I spent a wonderful afternoon wandering DTD and watched these castmembers make the decorated apples. Not that I want to eat one mind you.

My precious....

2011/2012Brings back memories of my men folk rebelling as the line was a tad long. They stopped complaining after they tasted it.

Worth the price of the Holiday Tour! Well this and the primo parade seats.

Guess I don't take merchandise shots!

TK

 

[Sherry E]

TK --

Did you see that deej posted here last week?

I'm sooooo glad you just posted pictures of two different versions of the gingerbread cookie with mouse ears, as it perfectly illustrates what I was just explaining to Cheshirecatty in my post from earlier this afternoon!

You've got another entry into the random draw.

Your December trip will be here before you know it. It seems like it wasn't that long ago that you booked it, but at the time you booked it December seemed so far away. Now, the clock is literally ticking and you don't have much time left before it's time to head to Anaheim!

You mentioned the men folk liking the Peppermint Stick Ice cream.

Here's an interesting bit of info: recently PHXscuba spotted the new Dreyer's Peppermint Wonderland ice cream in her store in Arizona (it would be called Edy's in certain other states, like probably where you live, TK). She posted a photo of what it looks like in this thread. The carton did not say "Slow Churned" (which means half the fat, which means half the flavor), so we were/are to assume it is the full-fat kind.

Since that time (sometimes last week), I looked on the Dreyer's Facebook page. Dreyer's told one person who posted a comment that the only Peppermint flavor out this year is Slow Churned/half-fat!!!!!!!!!! In another post they said that there is no Grand flavor of peppermint this year, but that the Pumpkin ice cream has a full-fat/Grand variety as well as Slow Churned. They also posted a picture of Peppermint Wonderland...AND I THINK IT SAID SLOW CHURNED ON THE CARTON (unless I imagined it)!!!!!

This was very alarming to me. It makes me wonder if Dreyer's sneakily released cartons of ice cream to certain states without Slow Churned printed on them, so that the people will think the ice cream is full fat? Or, another possibility is that Dreyer's got confused on Facebook and didn't realize that Peppermint Wonderland has both full-fat and Slow Churned varieties?

Either way, the one that I just saw in my local CVS was...Slow Churned! I don't want that kind! I want the real stuff, the stuff that has flavor! Why would they release a carton without Slow Churned printed on it in Arizona, but not here in L.A.??

And...which variety will Disneyland have? Will DLR carry the full fat Wonderland flavor...or the inferior Slow Churned?

 

[piratenightmares]

Did you look at the December schedule from 2012? Here is the link: http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneyland/park-hours.cfm?month=12&year=2012. That will give you an idea of when to expect Fantasmic and other night shows to be running -- although, disregard the Candlelight Ceremony reference for the first 20 nights of December as it will only be showing on 12/7 and 12/8 this year.

I'm a big fan of Goofy's Kitchen, and the Blue Bayou is a beautiful restaurant!

I did look there, yes. Thank you. I will assume Fantasmic! is on for Fridays unless I hear otherwise. I appreciate the reply.

 

[Sherry E]

I did look there, yes. Thank you. I will assume Fantasmic! is on for Fridays unless I hear otherwise. I appreciate the reply.

piratenightmares --

Fantasmic will definitely happen on Fridays and weekends unless weather prevents it from happening. It will start even earlier in the week than that at some point in December. I recall F! beginning on a Thursday night in the first week of December 2 years ago.

If there had been a hard ticket Christmas party this year, that would have likely impacted the F! schedule because I am guessing that one of the party nights would be a Friday. Thankfully, there won't be a party in 2013 to hold a bunch of other entertainment hostage. Next year...I'm not so sure.

 

[PHXscuba]

TK --

Did you see that deej posted here last week?

I'm sooooo glad you just posted pictures of two different versions of the gingerbread cookie with mouse ears, as it perfectly illustrates what I was just explaining to Cheshirecatty in my post from earlier this afternoon!

You've got another entry into the random draw.

Your December trip will be here before you know it. It seems like it wasn't that long ago that you booked it, but at the time you booked it December seemed so far away. Now, the clock is literally ticking and you don't have much time left before it's time to head to Anaheim!

You mentioned the men folk liking the Peppermint Stick Ice cream.

Here's an interesting bit of info: recently PHXscuba spotted the new Dreyer's Peppermint Wonderland ice cream in her store in Arizona (it would be called Edy's in certain other states, like probably where you live, TK). She posted a photo of what it looks like in this thread. The carton did not say "Slow Churned" (which means half the fat, which means half the flavor), so we were/are to assume it is the full-fat kind.

Since that time (sometimes last week), I looked on the Dreyer's Facebook page. Dreyer's told one person who posted a comment that the only Peppermint flavor out this year is Slow Churned/half-fat!!!!!!!!!! In another post they said that there is no Grand flavor of peppermint this year, but that the Pumpkin ice cream has a full-fat/Grand variety as well as Slow Churned. They also posted a picture of Peppermint Wonderland...AND I THINK IT SAID SLOW CHURNED ON THE CARTON (unless I imagined it)!!!!!

This was very alarming to me. It makes me wonder if Dreyer's sneakily released cartons of ice cream to certain states without Slow Churned printed on them, so that the people will think the ice cream is full fat? Or, another possibility is that Dreyer's got confused on Facebook and didn't realize that Peppermint Wonderland has both full-fat and Slow Churned varieties?

Either way, the one that I just saw in my local CVS was...Slow Churned! I don't want that kind! I want the real stuff, the stuff that has flavor! Why would they release a carton without Slow Churned printed on it in Arizona, but not here in L.A.??

And...which variety will Disneyland have? Will DLR carry the full fat Wonderland flavor...or the inferior Slow Churned?

As a conisseur (sp?) of peppermint ice cream, I can tell you that the version I am currently eating is definitely full-fat -- I've had both. And I just checked the carton -- no "reduced fat" anywhere on it and it definitely says Grand. It has 7g of fat. So I'm guessing the Dreyer's FB page is the equivalent of calling Disneyland and getting an uninformed CM ... or the Parks Blog.

PHXscuba

 

[czmom]

piratenightmares --

Fantasmic will definitely happen on Fridays and weekends unless weather prevents it from happening. It will start even earlier in the week than that at some point in December. I recall F! beginning on a Thursday night in the first week of December 2 years ago.

Hmmmm....if it was on a Thursday the first week of December this year, that would help with my planning. Unfortunately, with 2 small kids and a vertically challenged mom, we will be camping out for a spot up front early. But I wonder if Thursday would be less crowded than Friday??

Also, Sherry- not sure if you saw in another post, but the signs posted on BTMRR now say EARLY 2014. Thought of you!

 

[Pesky]

I'm so bummed at BTMRR news but I guess that gives me more time to enjoy all these delicious treats I keep seeing! Seriously making me so excited. Going to start making some reservations soon including a surprise of the F! dessert package. YAY!

 

[jacs1234]

And here I was thinking that I wouldn't have to buy many souvenirs this trip, but looking through these pics I'm saying to myself, "oh, I want that, and that, and that's cute and I need that". lol

 

[Sherry E]

As a conisseur (sp?) of peppermint ice cream, I can tell you that the version I am currently eating is definitely full-fat -- I've had both. And I just checked the carton -- no "reduced fat" anywhere on it and it definitely says Grand. It has 7g of fat. So I'm guessing the Dreyer's FB page is the equivalent of calling Disneyland and getting an uninformed CM ... or the Parks Blog.

PHXscuba

PHX --

I remember that last year, your store had the carton without Slow Churned mentioned on it. My stores -- every single store I checked -- only seemed to have Slow Churned, and it was not the good kind. I know my peppermint ice cream and that was not the good stuff!

This year, your carton doesn't say Slow Churned...but my CVS store only has Slow Churned (I saw it).

Plus, I just called my closest Ralphs in the last few minutes and asked them to check what they have (because I haven't looked there myself yet). They only have Slow Churned Peppermint, but they have the full fat and Slow Churned Pumpkin (which is exactly what happened last year). They put me on hold to go check the ice cream aisle just to be sure!

So I'm not sure why you get different packages in your area from what I get here in L.A., but it seems to be the second year in a row it is happening.

Hmmmm....if it was on a Thursday the first week of December this year, that would help with my planning. Unfortunately, with 2 small kids and a vertically challenged mom, we will be camping out for a spot up front early. But I wonder if Thursday would be less crowded than Friday??

Also, Sherry- not sure if you saw in another post, but the signs posted on BTMRR now say EARLY 2014. Thought of you!

czmom --

I didn't see it, but good! Early 2014 sounds much better. "Winter 2014" is a bit misleading, and I can't be the only one who thought that. It was a poor choice of wording on the part of the Parks Blog, in my opinion.

Thursday may be slightly less crowded than a Friday.

I'm so bummed at BTMRR news but I guess that gives me more time to enjoy all these delicious treats I keep seeing! Seriously making me so excited. Going to start making some reservations soon including a surprise of the F! dessert package. YAY!

Pesky --

A lot of the treats are delicious! If the zombie gingerbread cookie is available through the holiday season and not just exclusive to Halloween Time, I suggest getting that as it is extra yummy. It still doesn't look like a zombie to me -- it's more like a roughly drawn skeleton -- but it is tasty!

And here I was thinking that I wouldn't have to buy many souvenirs this trip, but looking through these pics I'm saying to myself, "oh, I want that, and that, and that's cute and I need that". lol

jacs1234 --

There are so many cute and clever things to buy in the parks. It's hard to resist. Stay tuned -- I've only covered December 2012 so far. I still have to get to November 2012 and beyond.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I now want to go to the store to look for Peppermint ice cream! I want the real thing or nothing. DH bought a generic (not Dreyers) one year, and while the thought was very sweet, it was not the same!