We just booked a secret, surprise trip for our three kids Nov 16-20. I'm super excited. Christmas is our FAVORITE time to be in the parks. For a few years, we went every year during the holidays (once to WDW, and twice to DL), and twice a year to DL. But, we had a baby in 2014, and this will be our first trip since January 2014, and our first holiday trip since 2012!
I was super excited to see some of the extra special stuff for the 60th, and the Christmas stuff at the same time, but I have to be honest, this thread makes me a little nervous that many of our favorites will be MIA. I know we'll have a great time, regardless, but we LOVED the JJJ area, and will definitely miss it if it's gone. Any word on ride or attraction closures during that time? We had considered gifting the trip for Christmas, and going the last week of January, but the long list of ride closures made me less than enthusiastic about that time. Any idea how early refurbs are usually announced? We tend to be last minute trip bookers (like a few days to two weeks before we leave), so I'm not used to having so much lead time, and so much about our trip unknown!
And this El Nino business has me a little concerned too. We're not ones to fear a little rain, but we're definitely not looking for a total washout, either! We will do 4 or 5 day hoppers, though, so hopefully they will be quick moving storms, and not wash out any of the freeways we need to take back home!
Hello, and welcome (I say welcome because I don't think you've posted in the thread before?)!
! certainly cannot blame you for loving the holiday season in the parks. I've never been to WDW at all, but I want to make sure that if and when I finally go, it's during the holiday season. Even though everything is so spread out over there, I have to see all of those hotels and the themed decorations, as well as Epcot and Animal Kingdom.
First, about the weather -- even though I don't think the El Nino pattern that is forming will dissipate too much, it could weaken a little bit. Or, it could be delayed. While I have experienced some El Nino-related rain in November in the past, the typical pattern seems to be that we start to get soaked with the rain in December, if not January. Then it stops. Then it starts up again. Then, once the rain really gets going, it is super heavy and doesn't let up for days or weeks at a time -- it's just one storm on top of another storm on top of another one. I don't expect that kind of non-stop rain to kick in until probably January, or maybe February (this is assuming that the El Nino conditions don't fizzle out before then).
So, although I am no meteorologist, my guess is that you will miss the bulk of the really messy, relentless rain. I don't think it will be too bad in November.
As for ride closures or refurbs, I know that Disney tries to have very little down or closed during the holiday season, as that is such a popular time. However, if it can't be avoided and something has to be refurbed, they try to at least get it running by Thanksgiving weekend. Sometimes news of refurbs comes out months in advance, and sometimes 6 weeks out. Sometimes even less than that. Right now there is a 2-week POTC refurb that is happening right after Halloween Time begins, which is inconvenient. But it's better to do the refurb then rather than wait until the holidays have begun.
I do tend to wonder if the Storybook Land Canal boats will be open -- usually they get teeny tiny Christmas decorations every year, but those decorations are never in place when the holiday season starts, for some odd reason. Sometimes they're not even in place until Thanksgiving.
I also wonder what -- out of all of the holiday season merriment --will make an appearance this year, and what will be conveniently 'left out.' Seeing how Disney is handling Halloween Time this year -- and not having a Halloween Carnival -- I don't really trust them with the holidays!
I mean, I know that they treat the holiday season as a very special time, much more so than Halloween Time. But if they are willing to eliminate the Halloween Carnival from an already thin collection of Halloween Time activities, then what will they do for the holidays (which have a lot more things to see and do)?
The JJJ thing could go one of 3 ways -- 1) either that whole area will be closed and lacking in any and all décor this year; OR 2) the whole JJJ will be back, and nothing will be missing at all; OR 3) the actual Festival Arena part of the area (where the games and crafts were, and the stage) will be closed, BUT the little area surrounding the log cabin (where Santa is supposed to be this year) -- which is the area that used to be called the Reindeer Roundup -- will be decorated.
At least the Christmas Parade is back in some way this year. Removing both the holiday fireworks and the Christmas Parade, as well as World of Color - Winter Dreams, would have been too much to take away. That said, I don't really know if anything brand new is going to be added in for the season either. I keep getting the feeling that Disney will slowly strip certain elements away, only to then reintroduce them as part of a hard ticket Christmas party in the next year or two! They are getting away with hiking up the Halloween party ticket prices, without adding in any new party exclusives (in fact, they took away a party exclusive), and the Halloween Carnival is likely gone too. So they know that can keep removing things from the regular line-up of activities and from the party and people will still buy tickets.
At the end of the day, though, even though I suspect that some things will be missing from this year's Holiday season (probably more than we even know about), I know that Disney does treat that time of year as a very big deal, especially when they know that it's so popular, so I think they will leave in enough "Christmas" that it still feels Christmasy... but they won't let anyone forget or overlook the fact that it's the 60th anniversary either!
I also went to London and Belgium this year.
