Remember, everyone, you have just over 9 hours left to post your photos for this week's theme (Holiday Characters-PhotoPass-Santa), and get them in by tonight, 11:59 p.m. P.S.T.!!!!
Tomorrow morning -- Mon., 7/28/14 -- I will be posting the new theme (which will be a surprise!), and that will be what we focus on for the week!
For literally about one minute a while ago, it rained. And then it stopped!
So much for a nice summer shower.
When will this madness called "summer" be over?
(Wait! Is that the rumbling of distant thunder that I hear? Or is it the neighbors making noise, as usual?)
I have to thank
tksbaskets for the bounty of wonderful PhotoPass/Santa/Character photos! I love the "Never before published" photos! We got the exclusive! It looks like you all had an amazing trip in December, judging by the smiles on everyone's faces. I can't wait to see the rest of your contributions as these Theme Weeks roll on!
And
PHXscuba -- I'm glad you got your photos in just in time! (And you have an entry into the random draw!)
I do love that Snow Car! I feel like he needs a little snow friend, on the other side of the billboard. I also really enjoy the Jack and Sally photo, as it kind of looks as though they are merrily skipping along, without a care in the world!
It was particularly clear this past week (you reminded me when you said you could see Catalina from Huntington Beach). It seemed that as soon as my Catalina Express boat set sail and we hit the open water, I could see Catalina. Normally there is all sorts of fog in the way and the island doesn't appear for a while, but not on this trip. Of course, the sun was especially harsh that day so it probably burnt off any cloud cover early on too.
Yeah I arrive the 17th well 18th because the 17th we've a lovely 17 hour travelling day!
Cool because I prob won't be good at the code word game.. it takes a while for my brain to cop these things lol!
I've loads of Paris and WDW pics I can share though
I'm hoping the hotels aer done as well by the time we got their and really hope they have the Frozen ice rink and all that again as well.
petals --
I look forward to seeing your WDW and Paris holiday photos when we get to the Holiday Cornucopia Theme Week!
Wow -- 17 hours of travel/flight time before you get to California?
I don't think I would be able to stay awake for at least 3 days after all of that travel.
I would be utterly shocked if the Olaf/
Frozen ice rink didn't make a return to Downtown Disney this year. In 2012 there was an ice rink, but it had the lackluster
Secret of the Wings theme to it (which no one really cared about!
). Also, the large Christmas tree in DTD was removed to make way for that 2012 rink, and there was a pitiful attempt at a "Christmas Village," which consisted of 2 or 3 kiosks.
In 2013, the Olaf/
Frozen-hosted ice rink opened in DTD, even before anyone knew what a huge hit
Frozen would be, and there was a cute little "Winter Village" nearby (plus, more decorations in the DTD shops and restaurants, from what I recall seeing in previous years). And...the large Christmas tree returned!
Now that we all know what an enormous hit
Frozen has become, I think the Olaf ice rink is guaranteed to be back in 2014, as is the Winter Village. I don't see how it could
not be brought back.
My feeling is that the hotels will be decorated early again this year -- "early" meaning earlier than they used to be (which was right around Thanksgiving). Last year I suspect they were decorated ahead of schedule because Thanksgiving was so late in November. This year it will be another late Thanksgiving, so I
think we will probably hear about the trees and other hotel décor going up around 11/18 or so, if we can use last year as an indicator. I can't see a reason why last year the hotels would have been decorated early, and this year they would not be. I don't think they will be decorated on the first official day of the holiday season (whether it's 11/12 or 11/14), but I think they will be decorated within the week after that. I could be totally wrong, but that is my suspicion!
Hi Sherry!
I really enjoyed reading your Catalina trip report.
My birthday was 2 weeks ago, but I did not have the chance to take advantage of the Catalina offer. :-(
A friend treated DH and I to a Vegas weekend to experienced my first live prize fight. We sat two seats over from Evander Holyfield which was pretty cool!!
I was not aware of the Sprinkles offer, but it is kinda tough for me to get out to the West Side during their regular business hours. I have a 40 dollar gift card that my SIL gave me a year ago for cupcakes and have yet to use it. I really which the Cupcake ATM accepted gift cards.
Ysell
Vintage Mousketeer --
Thank you for reading about my Catalina goings-on! I posted a highlight reel of photos from this past Monday on the last page of the Catalina thread!
Vegas is not a bad way to spend a birthday either! It sounds like you had a great time at the fight. Did you talk to Evander?
Keep watch over the Catalina Express website to see if they extend the free birthday boat ride offer again next year. They've been extending it since 2011, so if they do it again you might be able to finally take advantage of it.
The Sprinkles locations are limited, though I think there is one in Newport Beach, one in Glendale, and one in Downtown L.A. (on Figueroa). Do you live/work anywhere near one of those places, if you can't get to Beverly Hills? Don't let that $40 gift certificate go to waste!
I love the
idea of the cupcake ATM and the ice cream ATM (though I wonder how fresh the cupcakes would be and how non-melted the ice cream would be
) -- but there are still not enough locations of those ATMs to make it worthwhile for a lot of people. There should be Sprinkles ATMs in other places
besides/in addition to the actual cupcake stores. Frankly, I am shocked that there are two Sprinkles locations within maybe 10 minutes of each other in this area -- one in Beverly Hills and one at The Grove.
Well it looks like we are dropping our holiday trip and making it a Halloween trip. I'm a little sad but it makes more sense and at least we still get to go. We are already going to be in San Diego for fall break so we would just add on a Halloween party plus a one day ticket before we head over to the beach.
Its going to save us several hundred dollars on tickets, gas and hotel and hubby won't miss any additional work like he would if we went in November. Kids won't miss school. Going on a Nov weekend like we planned they would miss 2 days.
Only bummer is not getting to see Christmas decorations. But we love Halloween time as we've been there at least 3 or 4 years during that time and we've done 4 Halloween parties as well.
So I'm heading over to the Halloween thread to read up a little and see the photos over there. Thanks for all the trip advice here!
kkmcan --
I'm sorry to hear that the holiday trip is being cancelled, but at least you already know what to expect for Halloween Time and have enjoyed it before. It sounds like, for all intents and purposes, a Halloween Time trip will work out much better for you this time around. Hopefully a DLR holiday trip will be in your future at some point.
I'll see you over in the Halloween Time Superthread -- and, of course, you're still welcome to follow this thread too, even though your plan was dropped!
), but to address Jamie's question....
I am glad to hear they did eventually add one, but I don't understand why they don't roll them out all together. Do you happen to know when in the season they offered the Merry Christmas one?
