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

[blue888]

Good update Sherry


I feel like I am getting ready for our trip now!! Everything is booked. Dining reservations done. Bring on Christmas!

 

[mrsw94]

1. To my absolute horror and dismay, the famous Dreyer's Peppermint Ice Cream will not be available at DLR at all for this entire holiday season! Not this month, not next month, not at all. Dreyer's is at fault, as they would not send DLR the carton sizes needed in the peppermint flavor. The CM who told me this (at Clarabelle's in DCA) said that I should write a "strongly worded letter" to Dreyer's (as he did) to complain. He said that people have been coming in looking for that ice cream flavor and all they have is the peppermint-encrusted cone! So...if you see that Peppermint Wonderland ice cream at your store and you have not yet gotten it, get it because you will not be able to get it at DLR this year;



8. There is, however, once again a mini-gingerbread replica of the Cozy Cone property located in the Cozy Cone office. The cutest thing is that it is a mini version of the decorated-for-the-holidays version of the Cozy Cone -- so in other words you will see the full-sized Cozy Cone Christmas cone tree in front of the Cozy Cone, but on the mini-model in the office you will see a mini-Christmas cone tree! Sooooooo clever and cute! The whole gingerbread replica was moved a little closer to the window to make it easier to see the details and to get photos;


14. There is a lot of Olaf this year -- Olaf in Fantasyland; Olaf at the ice rink in DTD; Olaf in Winter Dreams...

Thanks for posting Sherry! Now I'm KICKING myself I didn't buy the ice cream when it was on sale! Fingers crossed it is next week!!!

Can't wait to see the Carsland stuff. I think it's what I'm most excited for!!

Should we see frozen before we go? Our kids are 5 & 11, I know it's also in WOC, so I'm wondering if we should try to see it before we leave?

 

[HeddyRuth]

Going dec 11-15. So excited. Thank you for all the wonderful information. Trying to keep this a surprise for the kids and it has been tough. We didn't get a vacation package through Disney but have pieced together our vacation and are staying at GC.

Does anyone know of any other character calls available for purchase we might use to surprise our girls to let them know where we are going?

 

[tksbaskets]

Thank you for the updates Sherry!

 

[momtothreeinfinity]

Does anyone know of any other character calls available for purchase we might use to surprise our girls to let them know where we are going?

If you Google "Disney Enchanted Call" you find the page to place/pay for your own call. You can create your own - Cheers.

 

[HeddyRuth]

If you Google "Disney Enchanted Call" you find the page to place/pay for your own call. You can create your own - Cheers.

Thanks!

 

[PHXscuba]

Major BOO to Dreyers for not giving Disneyland their peppermint. After the whole not-finding-it-in-stores debacle for many, are they trying to sabotage one of their best flavors completely? I can just see some anti-peppermint guy high up in the company ...

I am glad to hear the Christmas Village in DTD is much nicer. The photos I had seen of the rink looked much more festive already. I hadn't planned to spend much time in DTD, but maybe we'll walk one way to the hotels to see the decorations, and take the monorail back instead of both ways.

PHXscuba

 

[pudinhd]

pudinhd --

I fully intend to watch "A Very Merry Mix-Up," although I will have to juggle the second half of it with "The Walking Dead," which makes for an interesting evening. Let me know what you think of "Snow Bride." It's totally predictable and silly, but I found it very entertaining.

I love the "25 Days of Christmas" too! That is the channel where they often show "The 12 Dates of Christmas"! That is one of the few channels available in the Disney hotel rooms, so when I come back to the room for a break I will flip on ABC Family! Last year I saw "Holiday in Handcuffs" while in my PPH room!

Also, ABC Family shows all of the great old Rankin-Bass clay puppet shows, like 'Year Without Santa Claus," "Jack Frost" and "Rudolph's Shiny New Year"!! I love those! (I'm such a dork, I know it! I can't help it!)

I just watched "Snow Bride" and "A Very Merry Mix-Up." I wasn't a big fan of the Mix-Up movie, but I really enjoyed the Bride!! I thought it was super cute, even if predictable, and I found myself smiling throughout!

I have "12 Men of Christmas" recorded, but I have seen it before and love it! I am also looking forward to seeing "The Mistle-Tones" again!

Of course, I can't leave out "The Santa Clause" trilogy or "A Very Brady Christmas" (a guilty pleasure!).

 

[CassieScraps]

I haven't seen this posted and I keep checking the calendar online and haven't seen an update, so I thought I'd share what I learned today.

Both parks open at 8am these days. DL closes at midnight and CA closes at 11pm. I learned this when making my dining reservations for the week.

I am so excited that the days are long! I expect it to be crowded so 4 days of 16 hours *might* give us enough time to do it ALL!

I'm getting so excited about Christmas as Disneyland!

 

[momtothreeinfinity]

Thanks Cassie for posting those hours. Good to know, I've been checking the web calendar too and it seems that they haven't added any days after Dec 18th...

 

[Mickeybell]

Thank you Sherry!!!! I got my gift card. Love the card and the cute Lighting McQueen gift card! We are going to definitely buy something special with it! Thank you again!!!!!!!!!

 

[TinkLoverSam]

Sherry

We unfortunately don't have the Hallmark channel in Canada (or not in Calgary at least) but I have found a few of the Hallmark Christmas movies on Lifetime and Showcase so I have set them up to record (much to DH's chagrin)!

I have seen The Christmas Heart and a few others posted so far and have a bunch more coming up including Trading Christmas the description of which got me very excited for the Hallmark movies in the first place!

 

[Sherry E]

Yesterday (or, rather, Friday night) I posted my recap/observations of this year's holiday celebration (so far, a few days into it).

Today, after waking up with a headache and waiting for that to pass, I went through the laborious process of first getting all of my pictures from yesterday at DLR loaded to my computer, and then backed up on a flash drive, and then uploaded to Photobucket. And then I went through them one by one and pulled any IMG codes for the photos I wanted to share here, and organized them by category (treats, merchandise, general decor, etc.). This whole photo extravaganza took all day, basically. I took just under 700 photos in about 6-1/2 hours (I seem to average about 700 photos on any single day trip anywhere, whether it's a short day trip or a long day trip).

In the midst of all of this photo mayhem I managed to catch most of tonight's new Hallmark movie, "The Christmas Ornament," which was not as good as "Snow Bride" but was better than some others.

So...because I am sick of looking at my pictures for today (I've seen enough of them at this moment), I cannot bear to post more than one set right now. The rest -- now that I have them organized into categories -- will come tomorrow.

I will start out and leave you with a set of photos from the Winter Village in Downtown Disney...

There are several of these wreaths lining the perimeter of ESPN Zone, on the side that is adjacent to the Winter Village. You will notice the basketball ornaments...

The Downtown Disney tree is back in all of its glory...

This sign directs you to the ice rink, which was not open on Friday, 11/15 (there were men working on the rink underneath a big tarp of some kind)...

The omnipresent Olaf keeps watch over the soon-to-be-ready rink...

At the chalet hosted by Ghirardelli...

More Winter Village-ness...

Even the inside of some of the chalets are decorated...

​

Okay, so tomorrow I'll be back with photos of holiday goodies/treats and merchandise! I've got it all organized so I just have to copy and paste here in the thread! And then we'll get to a bit of general decor (which I'll save for last).

 

[tdashgirl]

Your photos prove it - the village looks SO much nicer Good job Disney.

Love the basketballs on the ESPNZone wreath!

 

[the_princess]

These pictures are amazing, thank you for putting them up... I can't wait to see this for myself. What are the opening hours for the winter village?

 

[Luisa]

Sherry, thankyou so much for making the time to put those pictures up! I've just woken up from my first night in San Francisco (flew in from Australia yesterday) and just cannot wait until Thursday when I head to Disneyland - your pictures have made me even more excited! The first store I went to after dropping off my bags was the Disney store, it's been nearly 3 years since I was last in SFC but I knew exactly where it was and headed straight there for some instant Disney Christmas. Today is my designated shopping day so no doubt I'll head back there as they had some great ornaments, then I'll head to the Disney Family Museum on one of my other days.

I've only bought my p&s on this trip as it's so short but I find I take a lot more photos with it rather than the dslr as it's so easy to grab out of my purse and snap away - watch out next years theme weeks!

 

[momtothreeinfinity]

Sherry - thanks for taking the time to go through your pics and posting. I'm an avid photographer too and know the energy required to do what you did. Great photos and such helpful information is contained in them. I've been a long time lurker on the board and your photos are always great

 

[A Small World]

Wow the Winter Village looks so much better than last year.

Unfortunately we don't have a trip planned to DL this Christmas so had avoided this thread this year but Im glad I decided to have a look. I'll be looking regularly now to see more photos.

We are from UK and are fortunate to have been for the last 2 yrs in early December but this year are just having a few days in DLP instead - Im looking forward to that though as Ive not been for several years (Ive been to DL 3 times since I last went there). However Im avoiding looking at any pics from there until Ive been so I can enjoy all the Christmas stuff first hand.

 

[Arizona Rita]

Sheri, hope your feeling better!
Did they have the Winter Village last year? We were there for Halloween last year.We leave on Friday and will be there till Monday.
So Excited!!
Our schedules were so busy last year we didnt get a real vacation and so even DH is ready to go!(He prefers DCL!)
As always, your photos are beautiful!

 

[mrsw94]

At the chalet hosted by Ghirardelli...

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Thanks for sharing all those Sherry! Can't wait for our trip! 3 weeks and 6 days!!

So at first I saw the Ghiradelli bag prices and wase like, and then I looked at the Ghiradelli site, and $20 is the regular price for a 50 count! Guess I'll stick to getting my chocolate at Target!