I'm still giggling over the wide variety of Elf names -- some make perfect sense in my mind, as far as what I would expect elves to be called, and other names are just funny!
Don't forget, everyone -- we're still in "Holidays Gone By" theme week, which basically includes anything holiday-related that used to be at Disneyland Resort but is no longer there. I gave some additional examples in my theme intro post this past Monday, 10/13, but you could choose anything from the fresh gingerbread house in the 2013 version of Haunted Mansion Holiday, to Candy Cane Lane at the old version of the Disneyland Hotel, to old wreaths that used to hang on various facades, old trees (such as the "good" Toontown tree), etc. You could even choose photos of characters in holiday attire that they no longer wear. As long as it's something holiday-ish that is gone and not coming back in the same format, it will count as a theme entry!!
The final "regular" Theme Week starts in 3 days, on 10/20. Then, on 10/27 we'll start the rapid fire round with the first of 7 consecutive mini-daily themes that will roll out through 11/2/14. And on 11/3 we will begin our final Theme Week of the year with "Holiday Cornucopia," which will end on the evening of Sunday, 11/9.
On or after 11/3/14, when the final theme has gone up, the winner of the Code Word Challenge (who will not be one of our photo participants) will be chosen as soon as someone posts the correct, complete answer to the Challenge (and I will remind you what is needed once more before we get to 11/3, just to refresh the CWC participants' memories of the info they need to provide!).
On the morning of Monday, 11/10, after the final Theme Week has ended, the 2 winners from the group of photo contributors will be randomly chosen. I will literally toss all names of everyone who entered from week to week into a box, shake the box vigorously, shake it some more, shake it again, and then close my eyes while reaching my hand in to pull out the name of the first winner. Then I will probably give the box one more good shake, close my eyes again and reach my hand in to pull out the name of the second winner. That's how I did it last year, except there was only one photo participant winner last year.
Sherry, I booked a last minute trip to DLR, for Thanksgiving!! Yay! We are coming for the 3rd year in a row!!
So, Excited... Having dinner at Ariels Grotto, for the forst time, 4pm, on Thanksgiving..
Does anybody know the price of the dinner there?
--Lori
Lori --
That's awesome!
That was not even in the works for you a few weeks ago, was it? I remember you saying that you would not be going back this holiday season. What changed your mind?
I'm so glad that you'll be there for Thanksgiving again. The apple stuffing at Ariel's Grotto sounds delicious!
I just noticed the Jungle (Jingle?) Cruise will be closed for refurb while we are there on Nov 8, 9 & 10th.....interesting. I know the refurb info can change pretty quickly so I will be keeping my fingers crossed that it is up and running when we are there. I would love to go on the Jingle Cruise but would be happy just to do the regular Jungle Cruise too.
Misskitty3 --
Interesting, indeed -- especially since that's a holiday weekend! This is why I always hesitate to say something is starting (or not starting) before a certain point in the year. It seems that things are always evolving and changing. Also, even if something went a certain way one year, it doesn't mean that it will go that way the following year.
Last year, Jingle Cruise was open on Friday, 11/8, even though the holiday season did not officially begin until Tuesday, 11/12. However, there were more decorations appearing on the ride as the holiday season wore on. JC never had to be closed for an overlay, as the decorations were just kind of gradually worked into the ride over November and December. Some folks who went in November ended up missing out on the extra decorations and holiday touches that were added to the ride by December!
There really shouldn't be a reason to
close Jungle Cruise -- especially not for 3 days -- just for the sole purpose of adding in the fairly minimal, easy-to-install holiday touches that were present last year. I don't think it even takes 3 days to install the Ghost Galaxy overlay on Space Mountain. So it's possible that the ride needs a bit of extra maintenance, and that the Enhancement Team just decided to put
all of the decorations on the ride at once this time around, instead of sneaking them in here and there over the course of November and December.
I guess that nothing holiday-ish is really ever guaranteed to be available until the season officially starts (or after), even if it makes more sense to get things up and running before that date.
I'm guessing it is closed to add the Holiday overlay.
Here's a crowd prediction question for y'all. Our first day in the Parks is Sunday November 16. I just saw there is a Marathon that weekend, plus it is opening weekend for the Christmas stuff. I have an ADR planned for Ariel's Grotto that afternoon at 2pm. Do you think DL is going to be insane? We have ALWAYS started our trip in DL on Pirates (kinda our little tradition) and I was planning on doing that again, then heading over to DCA around 12:30-1:00 and spending the rest of the afternoon there after our lunch with the princesses. Do you think DL is going to be crazy that morning and maybe we should just plan on doing the whole day in DCA? My thought for DL was to do Pirates & Mansion first thing, then just concentrate on seeing characters to try and knock some characters out of the way early on (we have 5 FULL days in the parks, our first time with that much park-time!!)
egritz --
There has never been a marathon over the first official weekend of the holiday season, so it's uncharted territory in terms of crowds. We have no template to use for that specific scenario. All we know is that the marathon weekend is supposed to be from 11/14 - 11/16. You may have to deal with some extra crowds on 11/16 but they should begin to clear out after that. This is why I was not sure if the ice rink and Winter Village would be up in Downtown Disney until after 11/16 -- I thought that the rink and Village were going to interfere with the marathon activities.
I was saying the other day that I don't know why Disney is having yet another Avengers marathon on the first weekend of the holiday season in
2015 as well! They don't have a marathon on Halloween Time's opening weekend, or in the middle of Halloween Time. Why they would choose to have a marathon on the first official weekend of the holidays two years in a row is baffling to me, as it seems like a bad idea.
so when did the rain deer's stop coming to DL and why?
JadeDarkstar --
As soon as Santa's Reindeer Round-Up became the Jingle Jangle Jamboree -- which was in 2012 -- the reindeer disappeared. I don't think anyone knows exactly why they were not brought back, but I know that they were not friendly. No one could pet the reindeer, and many kids and parents were trying to do just that -- in spite of the fact that the Cast Members had put up various decorative barriers to prevent it. The reindeer are quite feisty. They would sometimes even charge at each other. So there may have been some safety concerns.
Another thing that I noticed was that the reindeer had very shallow breathing. Maybe they always breathe that way, wherever they are -- I have no idea -- but to me it seemed like they were not getting enough oxygen. It could be that our climate was a little too hard for them to adjust to as well.
