Disneyland at Christmas/Holiday Season Superthread #4

[Gisele]

Peppermint Wonderland Ice Cream anyone?
Target has a limited quantity of said taste buds wonderment.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Peppermint Wonderland Ice Cream anyone? Target has a limited quantity of said taste buds wonderment.

Our Target was out long before Christmas But I may have to make a trip over there tomorrow just to be sure!

 

[Gisele]

Our Target was out long before Christmas But I may have to make a trip over there tomorrow just to be sure!

May the Wonderland wonderment force be with you.

 

[lucysmom]

I just had my last bowl of the peppermint delicacy tonight. Tomorrow is trash day and I had to finish it to get the carton out. Now I will have to wait a whole year to have that fun again. May 2014 gently steer us all to the next holiday season!

 

[funatdisney]

Ok I am set for my Holiday 2014 DLR trip!

I had to book today since the Villas at the Grand Californian book very fast during this week in December and I had the advantage of a 11 month booking. So I got up very early in this morning to book a DVC one bedroom villa.. Going December 21 to the 24th. I may change the dates at a later time, but only by a day (arrive one day early).

 

[KCmike]

Congrats Liza on the planned trip! Wish I could go back again.

Here's another pic from the 2013 Christmas trip we took.


Carthay at Night by KC MikeD, on Flickr

 

[Sherry E]

That's great news, Liza!


Lovely photo (as always), Mike! Although I have been slowly falling out of holiday mode so I can have time to build back up to an eagerness for the holiday season to start, looking at your photo almost makes me wish I were back on Buena Vista Street right now, listening to retro Christmas songs and tapping my feet to the Bell Ringers' set!

​

If everyone has noticed that the thread has been quiet, it has been due to a semi-deliberate move on my part to keep it quiet for just a little while. Since it was bumped again, I decided to post but I had planned on staying quiet for a bit longer.

We're already 8 pages in, and until any actual news or interesting rumors about the 2014 holiday season come in that we can ponder, or until any planning-related questions come in that we can help answer, if the thread starts to get too long this early in the year I fear that new people will be afraid to join in when we actually have some details to discuss, or when the Theme Week Countdown begins, etc.!

And, I need to be able to tweak some things on page 1 and time has not been on my side as of late!

​

But...in the interest of at least putting out the very minor bit of info about the 2014 DLR holiday season that we have to chew on right now, I will break it down for any lurkers or newcomers to this thread, who might be in the very early stages of planning a November or December trip.

What we (sort of) know so far:

1. Not officially confirmed or announced by Disney as of yet, but is pretty likely to happen. The Candlelight Processional/Ceremony is almost certainly going to be held on Saturday, December 6th and Sunday, December 7th. It is unlikely that the Ceremony will be extended to more than 2 nights (as it was in 2012), but anything is possible. Those 2 early December dates are pretty much a given, though; and


2. Not officially confirmed or announced by Disney as of yet, but a pretty safe guess based on previous years. Holidays at Disneyland Resort will officially begin somewhere between Friday, November 7th and Friday, November 14th, and will end on Monday, January 5, 2015. It is possible that certain things will be rolled out over the course of that November week with, perhaps, It's a Small World Holiday, the Christmas Fantasy Parade and Believe in Holiday Magic fireworks beginning on 11/7/14 and the official start of the season beginning on Monday, 11/10 or even Wednesday, 11/12. It is also possible that the ice rink in Downtown Disney, Winter Dreams and Viva Navidad in DCA might not begin until 11/14.

Whatever the case, it is unlikely that the season and seasonal entertainment will begin any earlier than 11/7 or any later than 11/14/14!

​

Just for kicks, here is a look at the historical, official (meaning published and announced in print) Disneyland Resort holiday season start and end dates, going back to 2003. Some things may have started before or ended after the dates put out by Disney/DLR, but these were what they publicized in their press materials for those years:

• Friday, November 7, 2003 (but some events did not begin until November 21) –- Sunday, January 4, 2004

• Friday, November 5, 2004 –- Sunday, January 2, 2005

• Friday, November 11, 2005 –- Monday, January 2, 2006 (For this season there was no Believe in Holiday Magic fireworks, as it was Disneyland's 50th anniversary/birthday and DLR chose to run RDCT all year!)

• Friday, November 10, 2006 –- Wednesday, January 3, 2007

• Friday, November 16, 2007 -- Sunday, January 6, 2008

• Friday, November 21, 2008 –- Sunday, January 4, 2009

• Friday, November 13, 2009 –- Sunday, January 3, 2010

• Friday, November 12, 2010 –- Sunday, January 2, 2011

• Monday, November 14, 2011 –- Sunday, January 8, 2012

• Monday, November 12, 2012 –- Sunday, January 6, 2013

• Tuesday, November 12, 2013 –- Monday, January 6, 2014

*Notice that the 2006 season officially ended on a Wednesday in January 2007!!

*Notice that the season had a much later "official" start date in 2008.

*Also notice that the season switched to start days other than Fridays in 2011!

*And...notice that the season has not begun on Veterans Day (11/11) in almost 9 years (since 2005), nor has it begun before Veterans Day since 2006! This jibes with what I've been told in the past by CMs, which is that DLR tries to avoid starting the season on Veterans Day if they can help it. That's what makes me wonder if DLR will begin the season on Monday, 11/10 this year, or if they will wait until Wednesday, 11/12, or Friday, 11/14 to begin it.

​

Oh, and...I may or may not have spied two lonely straggler cartons of Peppermint Wonderland ice cream (Grand, of course, and not that ridiculous Slow Churned nonsense!) hiding behind some new limited edition "bakery flavor" of ice cream on the freezer shelf at Ralphs yesterday. In January!?!

(For those who are unfamiliar with it, Dreyer's [or Edy's] delicious peppermint ice cream is usually served in DL's and DCA's ice cream shops every holiday season, but this past season was a little weird and scattered as to where the ice cream was being sold in the parks, when it was or wasn't available, if it was ever going to return to DLR or not, etc. DLR blamed Dreyer's for not sending the right-sized tub of the peppermint treat. Dreyer's said that every shop at DLR has the option to get the ice cream if they want it. It was very confusing and mysterious. So, in the event that it does not come back to DLR this coming November, look for Dreyer's or Edy's Peppermint Wonderland in a grocery store freezer section near you -- it starts appearing in some states as early as September!)

Anyway, I can neither confirm nor deny the rumor that I may or may not have taken those two straggler cartons of Peppermint Wonderland ice cream home. But...if the rumor were to be true that I took them home, it would be because Dreyer's cannot be trusted to put the ice cream in my stores again in September, and they certainly cannot be trusted to put it in the ice cream shops at Disneyland Resort in November!

But again...I can neither confirm nor deny that I snapped up the last 2 Peppermint Wonderland cartons...

I will, however, confirm that I was examining the reduced price items in the back of the store, many of which are drastically marked down holiday items, and the one item that there seemed to be a lot of -- no one was buying it -- was an egg nog-flavored tea! I can't recall if it was a Bigelow tea or Tetley, or some other brand, but it wasn't very popular.

I also noticed that there had been a gingerbread flavor of M&M's, which had somehow totally escaped me all season long! I didn't get the bag in the reduced bin because it looked mangled, but I wondered if the gingerbread M&M's had been any good!

 

[Gisele]

Good unofficial score on the Peppermint Wonderland Sherry
The other day at Target there were two containers left. I bought one more, left that last one so as to make some ones day. If there is only one left tomorrow, it's mine.
I am starting to become a P W ice cream horder, for now I have 5 glorious cartons in the freezer.

 

[Sherry E]

Good unofficial score on the Peppermint Wonderland Sherry
The other day at Target there were two containers left. I bought one more, left that last one so as to make some ones day. If there is only one left tomorrow, it's mine.
I am starting to become a P W ice cream horder, for now I have 5 glorious cartons in the freezer.

What's the old saying? Desperate times call for desperate measures? That's about what it has come down to with this elusive ice cream. You have to hoard it! We can't be certain when or where it will appear, or for how long, so it's basically a "get it while the gettin' is good" sort of situation.

In the past my stores have run out of it and not gotten anymore in. This time around the ice cream has popped up at unexpected times, but I only seem to see a few cartons at a time. Heck, I even saw a non-Dreyer's brand of peppermint ice cream in abundance at Ralphs yesterday, when they are normally all out of anything peppermint-flavored before the New Year!

Given the weird situation with the ice cream at DLR this past season, and the fact that it popped up at Blue Bayou and at the BBQ but not at the usual ice cream shops where it was expected to be, who knows if Peppermint Wonderland will return to DLR this year at all?

Oh! I almost forgot to mention that I also saw one lone carton of Dreyer's pumpkin ice cream at the same time I may or may not have snapped up the 2 peppermint cartons! I thought the pumpkin ice cream was gone after October (though it really should be sold through November)? Where did that lone carton come from?

 

[Gisele]

Maybe that last carton was a return. Lol
I wonder how the non Dryers peppermint ice cream tastes? Or would that be heresy?

 

[mvf-m11c]

Nice to hear that you will be going back to the DLR during the holiday season Liza. I already made my reservations to go back to the DLR on November 14th to 16th, 2014 at BWAI. It is nice to go back during the first weekend of the holiday season at the DLR after going during busy trips in November during Thanksgiving break and December during Christmas break last year.

A pic from last year at DCA.

 

[knewton64]

......I have left most of my Christmas decoration UP in my home ALL YEAR LONG - (they are Snoopy themed in deference to my 2 yr old 4 legged 'daughter' named Ladybug) -

as a way to keep me always in the Holiday spirit since.........



** I WILL BE DL BOUND IN DECEMBER **
IN 343 MORE DAYS BUT HEY.....WHOSE COUNTIN'??



On January 2nd, I will be zip-lining out on Catalina Island.........
(Hmmm.....ok Sherry.....looks like we r havin fun bumpin' n to each other as I am also enjoying readin' your Catalina Island Thread as well) -

Celebrating my birthday @ DL; which is December 30th.......
Celebrating me paying WAY AHEAD on my home mortgage (got 5 yrs left to pay on a 30 yr)
Celebrating my 104 pound WEIGHT LOSS!!
(hey.....who knew banannas can dance??)


and celebrating life in general.



Never been to WOC -
Never seen Carsland.........

Never been to Cathay Circle.....
Never been to Blue Bayou...........
taking all the tours........
Psstt!!! I will even visit 'that other park' on Jan 1st.

SO in short, luv this thread was its a wonderful way to gather information -
I may jump in from time to time on this thread and ask a few ?'s as I have never been looking forward to this.






T.T.F.N.
&
Cheers Y'all







"MY VERY 1ST TRIP 2 WDW / DISNEY WONDER" 01-07-09 to 01-15-09 (w/pics & video)
www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2062857
MY ADVENTURES by Disney "Spirit of America" Sept 2009 trip report ...
www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2201584 - Cached
and -

 

[mom2rtk]

Oh, and...I may or may not have spied two lonely straggler cartons of Peppermint Wonderland ice cream (Grand, of course, and not that ridiculous Slow Churned nonsense!) hiding behind some new limited edition "bakery flavor" of ice cream on the freezer shelf at Ralphs yesterday. In January!?!



Anyway, I can neither confirm nor deny the rumor that I may or may not have taken those two straggler cartons of Peppermint Wonderland ice cream home. But...if the rumor were to be true that I took them home, it would be because Dreyer's cannot be trusted to put the ice cream in my stores again in September, and they certainly cannot be trusted to put it in the ice cream shops at Disneyland Resort in November!

Good for you Sherry!

 

[tksbaskets]

Ok I am set for my Holiday 2014 DLR trip!

I had to book today since the Villas at the Grand Californian book very fast during this week in December and I had the advantage of a 11 month booking. So I got up very early in this morning to book a DVC one bedroom villa.. Going December 21 to the 24th. I may change the dates at a later time, but only by a day (arrive one day early).

Very sweet! I'll be booking a the 7 month mark...we'll be going early next year as our annual passes will expire 12/14/14. I think going during my birthday week in November sounds good. We'll see.

Sherry I love that you may or may not have spied and snatched up some precious Peppermint ice cream.

knewton64 Congratulations on many accounts! Holy cow you are inspiring. You will LOVE Carsland. Who wouldn't??

Our holiday trip seems so long ago already. I may have to re-live it with a trip report soon. Been dealing with a life change for my 91 you MIL who just moved to a senior apartment after three months of the hospital and rehab. Going well so far.

 

[yupikgal]

Nice to hear that you will be going back to the DLR during the holiday season Liza. I already made my reservations to go back to the DLR on November 14th to 16th, 2014 at BWAI. It is nice to go back during the first weekend of the holiday season at the DLR after going during busy trips in November during Thanksgiving break and December during Christmas break last year.

A pic from last year at DCA.

How was Thanksgiving in Disneyland? How would you compare that time of year there as opposed to Christmas?

 

[NewbieMouse]

Nice to hear that you will be going back to the DLR during the holiday season Liza. I already made my reservations to go back to the DLR on November 14th to 16th, 2014 at BWAI. It is nice to go back during the first weekend of the holiday season at the DLR after going during busy trips in November during Thanksgiving break and December during Christmas break last year.

A pic from last year at DCA.

Where was that? I love this one - so retro.

 

[mvf-m11c]

How was Thanksgiving in Disneyland? How would you compare that time of year there as opposed to Christmas?

I actually didn't go on Thanksgiving day or week during the break I went during the weekend of Thanksgiving break on Nov. 22nd to 25th which is Thanksgiving break for schools and it was not as bad until Monday the 25th when the turnstiles to get into DL in the morning were quite long. Thanksgiving break crowds is nothing compared to Christmas break crowds from my experience. Christmas crowds is an easy 10/10 where the lines to get on the ride and wait times are on average 30+.

 

[Sherry E]

NewbieMouse --

The photo that Bret posted above is from Hollywood Land. It's part of a retro holiday window display on the side of the Off the Page store (I think it was Off the Page). I posted a picture of it, either on page 3 of this thread or towards the end of the previous Superthread, and was saying that I thought it was on the side of Off the Page, but you may have missed it if the thread was moving quickly.

By the way -- how was your trip to Europe last year? Did you go?



Welcome, yupikgal!

Good to see you in this thread! Thank you for joining us! Jamie was at DLR over Thanksgiving in 2013, as was Trish. Hopefully they can jump in and give some more Thanksgiving info for you!



Welcome, knewton64!

As tksbaskets stated, you are inspiring!

I'm glad you joined us, and feel free to jump in and ask any holiday trip-related questions you have as time marches on. We have a good group of holiday season visitors to DLR in this thread, and we can cover a lot of ground. I am trying to get the first page revised a wee bit (though the bulk of it is okay), but have not had time to do that.

I remember you asked me about Catalina a while back. I haven't even done a TR on my 2013 day trip yet -- I only got as far as posting a few highlight photos in the same thread where my 2012 TR is. I hope you enjoy your visit there!



TK, Janet & Gisele -- about the ice cream! I can neither confirm nor deny that I may or may not have snapped up those two lonely cartons (but if I did snap them up, I left the pumpkin carton on the shelf because I don't want that one!).

Gisele -- It can't hurt to try the other brand of peppermint (other brands are good too), but with Dreyer's nearby I may have had to get those while they were hot!

TK - So your AP expires on 12/14 and you're going to DLR in early 2015 (you said early next year)? Or are you going in November for your birthday in 2014? I'm so confused!

​

 

[NewbieMouse]

NewbieMouse --

The photo that Bret posted above is from Hollywood Land. It's part of a retro holiday window display on the side of the Off the Page store (I think it was Off the Page). I posted a picture of it, either on page 3 of this thread or towards the end of the previous Superthread, and was saying that I thought it was on the side of Off the Page, but you may have missed it if the thread was moving quickly.

By the way -- how was your trip to Europe last year? Did you go?

I totally missed that! Sometimes I go through the parks so quickly, the only time I see the little details is in all of the wonderful pictures you guys take. I will slow down next year!

We did go to Europe last summer and it was great, thank you for asking! We had a three-day stop at Disneyland Paris at the end. It was fun but really made me appreciate Anaheim. I posted some quick thoughts about it a while back on the DLP board. I know all parks are different, but I really have a soft spot for DLR We are planning a 5th annual DLR Xmas Trip again this year but I am agonizing over timing. The way DH's conference falls would have us at DLR Dec. 22-24 which is a little busy for my taste, so we may re-jig it to go to DLR first which would make it Dec. 8-10, which I think would be more enjoyable. Can't wait!

 

[Sherry E]

I totally missed that! Sometimes I go through the parks so quickly, the only time I see the little details is in all of the wonderful pictures you guys take. I will slow down next year!

We did go to Europe last summer and it was great, thank you for asking! We had a three-day stop at Disneyland Paris at the end. It was fun but really made me appreciate Anaheim. I posted some quick thoughts about it a while back on the DLP board. I know all parks are different, but I really have a soft spot for DLR We are planning a 5th annual DLR Xmas Trip again this year but I am agonizing over timing. The way DH's conference falls would have us at DLR Dec. 22-24 which is a little busy for my taste, so we may re-jig it to go to DLR first which would make it Dec. 8-10, which I think would be more enjoyable. Can't wait!

NewbieMouse --

I could be confusing the details of your 2013 European trip with another DIS'er's 2013 European trip in my mind, but weren't you supposed to be driving through Germany for part of the time? (Mariezp is the other DIS'er who was supposed to be going to Europe and planning a trip to DLP, and it just dawned on me that I have been out of touch with her for a while, and never found out if her trip actually happened! I'll have to check in!) I think I remember you saying that you were going to visit a few (maybe 3 or 4?) different countries, and that you were trying to get in the trip to DLP too.

So you enjoyed DLP while you were there, but DLR still wins out in the end? Were there any special details or interesting things that you liked about DLP that DLR doesn't have?

When we did our final theme week of the 2013 Theme Week Countdown in the previous Superthread, DIS'er Orbitron posted some awesome photos of DLP during the holiday season, with a blanket of snow on the ground! I have to admit that the genuine Parisian snow looked quite lovely, although cold, in contrast to the fake snow we have at DLR!

I can't believe it's going to be your 5th DLR holiday trip -- already! I remember when you were planning the first trip (that was the one that was a couple of days before Christmas, wasn't it?). It's hard to comprehend that time is flying by so fast that your 5th trip is now in the works! Where is the time going?

I tend to agree that the 12/8-12/10 dates would be less crazy than the 12/22-12/24 dates, simply because some people would still be at work and school in the earlier part of the month and not out on Christmas break just yet. I was there in that same basic time frame in early December 2013, and while I definitely thought it seemed busier than in previous years during that same week, I didn't find it to be too daunting on a consistent basis. Other folks have said on this board (not necessarily in this thread, though) that they thought it was too crowded all the time in early December 2013. I think one person even described it as wall-to-wall people, or "packed" every day. I would encounter heavier crowds in certain spots on certain days, and then I'd find other areas where crowds were minimal. Some spots were downright quiet! The POTC line was 10 minutes when I got in it, so I couldn't complain. If I had encountered annoyingly large crowds everywhere I went on every single day I would have a totally different outlook on it, but that was not the case for me.

It is always very interesting to see what happens when people visit DLR for the first time during the holidays. Some of them become hooked and fall in love with it, and it becomes a tradition (which is what happened in your case!), and others kind of have their fill of all things "DLR-holiday season" on the first trip and don't have a need to return.

It's hard to catch all of the little nuances and details around DLR when you are constantly on the move, trying to get things done. Even if you're not rushing around and are taking everything in at a leisurely pace it is still hard to see everything! There are always little surprises and little gems to be discovered. To me it seemed like everywhere I went in DLR last year I was finding things that I had not previously seen. Some of them may have been new for 2013, while some were probably there in previous years and I just hadn't discovered them until that point.

I could be wrong but I think that the retro holiday TV window display in Hollywood Land was brand new in 2013. Most of the other decorations in Hollywood Land were brand new last year, including all of the garland on the various facades, the Santa/reindeer display and the Christmas trees in front of the Hyperion. Hollywood had been sorely lacking in holiday merriment for several years, as you probably remember, because ElecTRONica took over the area and then Buena Vista Street was being built.

Imagine my delight when I saw the decorations in Hollywood last year! In fact, that retro TV display was something I don't think I noticed in November (when I first saw the other Hollywood decor) -- I just overlooked it because I wasn't expecting it to be there! -- but then I saw it in December.