Disneyland at Christmas/Holiday Season Superthread #5

[mvf-m11c]

I want all of it too! But don't hold your breath on the garland. I think the PTN floats are too high to fit under it. I just can't imagine Christmas in DL without it though (we did Halloween last year so missed Christmas).

You were right that PtN parade floats were so high that DL didn't have any garlands above Main Street which was a disappointment last year during the holiday season. Hopefully the garlands above MS will be back this year.

Anyone know when the holiday parade taping is typically done in Disneyland?

The Christmas parade taping mostly happens in early November before the start of the Christmas season.. Last year I believe it was from November 6 - 8. I would guess that it might be sometime around Nov. 4 - 6 this year.

When do they take the Christmas decorations down? I would think it would be January 6th, because then it would be the weekend. We're planning a trip after Christmas and have never gone that late in the season. Getting pretty excited!!

The DLR takes down the decorations after the first weekend in January. Last year, the Christmas season ended on January 6th on a Wednesday. I would guess maybe after January 8th.

 

[Angel Ariel]

The Christmas parade taping mostly happens in early November before the start of the Christmas season.. Last year I believe it was from November 6 - 8. I would guess that it might be sometime around Nov. 4 - 6 this year.

Wasn't there something different with parade taping this past year? I thought they switched wdw and dlr this year, and wdw taped in early November and dlr taped in december

 

[mvf-m11c]

Wasn't there something different with parade taping this past year? I thought they switched wdw and dlr this year, and wdw taped in early November and dlr taped in december

I believe so that last year taping was different from last year from the previous years. I looked online and DLR and WDW moved its taping dates last year from DL in December and WDW in November. I don't know if they will do it again this year like they did last year. But from my experience of when the taping happens, the DLR does theirs in November.

 

[mom2rtk]

I believe so that last year taping was different from last year from the previous years. I looked online and DLR and WDW moved its taping dates last year from DL in December and WDW in November. I don't know if they will do it again this year like they did last year. But from my experience of when the taping happens, the DLR does theirs in November.

Hey Bret, when they did it previously in November at DLR, do you know which dates?

 

[mvf-m11c]

Hey Bret, when they did it previously in November at DLR, do you know which dates?

I have never attended a filming for all the years I have been going to the DLR. But from what I have read, in 2014 DLR had its taping on November 7-9. It will be interesting to see what dates the DLR will have it's taping. Will it be in November like every other year or in December like last year.

Here is a thread that I found about the Christmas taping last year which moved to December.

Christmas Day Parade taping at Disneyland

 

[Angel Ariel]

How much of a mess does the taping make the park?

 

[smartlabelprint]

How much of a mess does the taping make the park?

I never found it very obtrusive.

 

[ppony]

We are planning our very first trip to Disneyland during the Christmas season! We have been for Halloween and several spring trips, but this will be our first time experiencing Disney at Christmastime. I am beyond excited! We will also be purchasing APs for the first time on this trip.

I am trying to decide between two weeks, November 27th- December 2nd or December 4th-9th. Would one week be better than the other? They seem pretty similar crowd-wise, judging by the crowd calendars I checked. I'm not sure how accurate those are though.

Just chiming in that we're also planning our first DLR trip ever Dec. 3-7 this year as well ( all hail the SHORT trip for my aging bones ). We're WDW vets for over 20+ years (those trips are usually between 9 and 14 days), and LOVE Christmas decorations at the parks, so that's why when we decided to try DLR for a change, we went w/ Christmas of course. Already booked in a VGC studio. I love boning up on what's different about the 2 locales. I LOVE that there's a super long thread here describing the differences between DLR and WDW for the WDW vets.

 

[Diszona]

We are considering a trip during the first week of January to hopefully catch the last few days of Holiday Time. Are the crowds during that week more normal or is it still that crazy crowds that come during the week between Christmas and New Years? We can handle "crowded" we would just prefer to not go when it is "CROWDED!"

 

[mom2rtk]

Can someone remind me if Thunder Ranch was closed for the holiday season last year? I remember meeting Mickey and Minnie separately there in 2013 and 2014 but swapped to Halloween last year. I'm curious where Minnie and Minnie were meeting if it was closed.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Can someone remind me if Thunder Ranch was closed for the holiday season last year? I remember meeting Mickey and Minnie separately there in 2013 and 2014 but swapped to Halloween last year. I'm curious where Minnie and Minnie were meeting if it was closed.

It was closed. I don't know where Minnie was, but we met Mickey in Toontown..he wasn't in holiday gear though. We saw Minnie in holiday gear at the Plaza breakfast

 

[mom2rtk]

It was closed. I don't know where Minnie was, but we met Mickey in Toontown..he wasn't in holiday gear though. We saw Minnie in holiday gear at the Plaza breakfast

Thanks AA! I sure hope they appeared somewhere else in holiday wear. Minnie typically has been at Plaza Inn in her Christmas sweater but was elsewhere in a red/white holiday costume. Did none of the Fab 5 show up in holiday gear on Main Street? I know at Halloween they would be in Halloween costumes in the AM and 60th costumes in the afternoon.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Thanks AA! I sure hope they appeared somewhere else in holiday wear. Minnie typically has been at Plaza Inn in her Christmas sweater but was elsewhere in a red/white holiday costume. Did none of the Fab 5 show up in holiday gear on Main Street? I know at Halloween they would be in Halloween costumes in the AM and 60th costumes in the afternoon.

They probably did, but we didn't come across them. I'll see if I still have our times guides (at least 1 of them)

 

[Mamato4boys]

Does anyone know if Pooh and friends were available for a Meet and Greet anywhere last holiday season? I saw that they moved Santa to their typical spot, but never came across anything saying whether or not Pooh was still available. We are going to be at DLR November 14-18 this year and will be bummed if my little Pooh bear doesn't get to meet the real Pooh. Thanks!

 

[Angel Ariel]

Does anyone know if Pooh and friends were available for a Meet and Greet anywhere last holiday season? I saw that they moved Santa to their typical spot, but never came across anything saying whether or not Pooh was still available. We are going to be at DLR November 14-18 this year and will be bummed if my little Pooh bear doesn't get to meet the real Pooh. Thanks!

Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore were at the Minnie and Friends breakfast last November. Not sure about in the park. The breakfast is the best character breakfast we've ever been to, so I'd highly recommend it if you can go.

 

[Mamato4boys]

Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore were at the Minnie and Friends breakfast last November. Not sure about in the park. The breakfast is the best character breakfast we've ever been to, so I'd highly recommend it if you can go.

Thanks for the response! Ooh, decisions, decisions. We were planning on one character meal.. Mickey's Surfs Up, because we really want to see Stitch. But if this is the only way to see Pooh... hmmm... well, hopefully someone chimes in with another way to see him or we might just have to miss out on Stitch (one character meal is already a stretch for our budget... especially since the oldest 2 are already considered adults).

 

[mom2rtk]

Thanks for the response! Ooh, decisions, decisions. We were planning on one character meal.. Mickey's Surfs Up, because we really want to see Stitch. But if this is the only way to see Pooh... hmmm... well, hopefully someone chimes in with another way to see him or we might just have to miss out on Stitch (one character meal is already a stretch for our budget... especially since the oldest 2 are already considered adults).

We have done all the character meals at DLR. Plaza Inn is probably our favorite, just because of the number of characters and the charming setting inside Disneyland.

A big consideration is how your days are structured and whether you want to possibly give up some park time for your meal. Surf's Up is in a resort, so you could do it on a day you aren't going into the parks, perhaps on departure day. Plaza Inn requires park admission. You can get in a little before the park opens, but I think it would be hard to see all the characters before the park actually opens. Since we have stayed onsite and had access to early entry at a park every day, doing PI early hasn't worked for us. We have scheduled later in the morning so we can enjoy the early park hours for a bit before stopping for breakfast.

 

[Angel Ariel]

You can get in a little before the park opens, but I think it would be hard to see all the characters before the park actually opens

I don't know if it was just a ridiculously slow day ot what, but our ADR was 8:10 with a 9am open. We were a little late because of a ticket snafu, probably checked in at 820 (helps to have the tickets with right names...). we saw all 10 characters (some more than once) and left around 930a. It would have been a little shorter, but Eeyore missed our table the first time he came around, and we waited until we saw him. we probably waited 15 mins or so to see him. So we weren't done before the park opened, but we didn't leave too long after park opening. Lines were still pretty short when we got out. The restaurant was practically empty for the first 20 or so mins we were there, so I think that helped.

 

[mom2rtk]

I don't know if it was just a ridiculously slow day ot what, but our ADR was 8:10 with a 9am open. We were a little late because of a ticket snafu, probably checked in at 820 (helps to have the tickets with right names...). we saw all 10 characters (some more than once) and left around 930a. It would have been a little shorter, but Eeyore missed our table the first time he came around, and we waited until we saw him. we probably waited 15 mins or so to see him. So we weren't done before the park opened, but we didn't leave too long after park opening. Lines were still pretty short when we got out. The restaurant was practically empty for the first 20 or so mins we were there, so I think that helped.

I can see where having the restaurant not very full would be a huge help in meeting all the characters quickly. When it starts to fill up, it can be trickier. They don't seem to be very good at rounding all the tables meticulously like they do at the character meals at WDW. You can see a character out that never even makes it to your section. That said, the character attendants have been really helpful when we asked about missing someone.

Going early seems to be a good remedy for that. If we stay offsite sometime and don't have early entry every day, we would absolutely do that. But if we invest in being onsite we make the most of early entry. If DL wasn't open early the day you were there, DCA was. And that's where we would have been.

 

[Angel Ariel]

I can see where having the restaurant not very full would be a huge help in meeting all the characters quickly. When it starts to fill up, it can be trickier. They don't seem to be very good at rounding all the tables meticulously like they do at the character meals at WDW. You can see a character out that never even makes it to your section. That said, the character attendants have been really helpful when we asked about missing someone.

Going early seems to be a good remedy for that. If we stay offsite sometime and don't have early entry every day, we would absolutely do that. But if we invest in being onsite we make the most of early entry. If DL wasn't open early the day you were there, DCA was. And that's where we would have been.

We don't stay onsite, so we don't have access to DCA early open, or we would have been there too I want to do a prepark opening adr this year too. and hopefully no ticket snafus and we will actually enter the park when we are supposed to (and maybe get some pics down main street this time).

I agree, we found the character attendants helpful when we wanted to see Eeyore.

I'm not sure why the restaurant was so empty that morning...possibly due to it being a rundisney weekend last year. It was Sat morning,so the 10K would have been that morning. maybe a lot of people were taking time to recover before entering the parks for the day.