zeitzeuge
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2008
- Messages
- 1,887
We arrived late Thursday night an was at the gates at 7:30am Friday morning. The crowd was exceptionally lively. People were dressed in their finest Disney Holiday hats. Which by the way, we had to buy a new set each day according to my partner. While sitting at DCA wearing our fur trimmed mickey ears, our disney hoodies and our lanyards full of christmas pins, we had a couple people walk over to us and ask us if they could take our picture.
Yes, they noticed the big Disneydorks in us as well.
We spent the early part of the morning since it was a smaller crowd, visiting Sleeping Beauty's Castle and then over to see It's a Small World Holiday, Toon Town, New Orleans Square, Haunted Mansion. Sleeping Beauty's Castle is absolutely beautiful and the special effects are done really well. It totally respects the original concept and stays very true to it. By late that afternoon, lines were pretty long but it doesn't take long to get through it. IASW for the holidays was great. I've never seen this before either, so it was a huge treat for the both of us. The refurb of the outside makes it look brand new and the inside has been updated with LED lights making it so much brighter and more colorful. The lighting of the outside, along with the light show that happens on the fascade is pretty cool. We got to watch this each night. Lines were SO Long, but it still only took about 30 minutes to get on.
We spent the rest of the afternoon riding our favorites. Storybook, Casey's Train, Pirates and of course Haunted Mansion. The Holiday set up for the Mansion was also the first time either one of us had seen it as well. The decorations on the outside caused us to take about 100 photo's! We couldn't get enough of this ride. We rode it a total of 8 times in those 3 days. Pirates we rode about 6 times.
We spent a short amount of time each day at California Adventure. The place isn't decorated as much as DLR and a few things are closed or being refurbished. The lake has been drained so photo ops over there aren't the best. The whole park just seemed kind of dead to me or not as exciting. I hope all the refurbs and upgrades they're doing to the park over the next 4 years helps.
There wasn't much that we didn't ride at DLR except for a couple of the Fantasyland dark rides. Once every couple years for these rides is enough for me.
The park decorations are beautiful. New Orleans Square had to be my favorite place. Even Toon Town had some great decorations. The Castle had an upgrade for the lighting and the lighting of the castle which happens each night was breathtaking. The LED Light show starts at the castle, travels to the surrounding trees, the HUB, then the garland on Mainstreet, all the way down to the main tree at the beginning of Mainstreet. Seeing everything turn from colored lights to white LED was beautiful. Don't get me started about standing there while it snowed. I swear I got teary eyed each and every time, whether it was on mainstreet, new orleans square or over by It's A Small World.
Every day we got to watch the Christmas Parade, which honestly is just 'ok', the lighting of the castle, Fantasmic, holiday fireworks and one night we got to watch the candle light procession through DLR, where they had the Living Christmas Tree and the Christmas Story narrated by John Stamos at the entrance. He's just as yummy in person. Crowds for these nights were crazy! No room to move.
Late nights at the park are my favorite. We found ourselves just walking around and around, looking at the lights, sitting and staring at the castle. I have to say, Holidays in the park are quire romantic.
Sunday night around 11pm, we wandered over to Sleeping Beauty's wishing well, holding hands and threw a coin in the well for good luck. While we sat there staring at the castle, we talked about sharing the rest of our lives with one another and how much we love and care for each other. Then we exchanged rings.
Needless to say, I was a blubbering mess by this point.
I have to say that it was the perfect ending to a magical weekend.
We also bought clothing, hats, pins, candy, ornaments. Our pocketbooks will be hurting for a little while.
I'll be posting a link to pictures once I sort through the 750 we took. I need to take it down to about 200 for viewing. We also took a bunch of quick videos which I'm going to try and piece together for a video montage of sorts.
Stay tuned.
Yes, they noticed the big Disneydorks in us as well.
We spent the early part of the morning since it was a smaller crowd, visiting Sleeping Beauty's Castle and then over to see It's a Small World Holiday, Toon Town, New Orleans Square, Haunted Mansion. Sleeping Beauty's Castle is absolutely beautiful and the special effects are done really well. It totally respects the original concept and stays very true to it. By late that afternoon, lines were pretty long but it doesn't take long to get through it. IASW for the holidays was great. I've never seen this before either, so it was a huge treat for the both of us. The refurb of the outside makes it look brand new and the inside has been updated with LED lights making it so much brighter and more colorful. The lighting of the outside, along with the light show that happens on the fascade is pretty cool. We got to watch this each night. Lines were SO Long, but it still only took about 30 minutes to get on.
We spent the rest of the afternoon riding our favorites. Storybook, Casey's Train, Pirates and of course Haunted Mansion. The Holiday set up for the Mansion was also the first time either one of us had seen it as well. The decorations on the outside caused us to take about 100 photo's! We couldn't get enough of this ride. We rode it a total of 8 times in those 3 days. Pirates we rode about 6 times.
We spent a short amount of time each day at California Adventure. The place isn't decorated as much as DLR and a few things are closed or being refurbished. The lake has been drained so photo ops over there aren't the best. The whole park just seemed kind of dead to me or not as exciting. I hope all the refurbs and upgrades they're doing to the park over the next 4 years helps.
There wasn't much that we didn't ride at DLR except for a couple of the Fantasyland dark rides. Once every couple years for these rides is enough for me.
The park decorations are beautiful. New Orleans Square had to be my favorite place. Even Toon Town had some great decorations. The Castle had an upgrade for the lighting and the lighting of the castle which happens each night was breathtaking. The LED Light show starts at the castle, travels to the surrounding trees, the HUB, then the garland on Mainstreet, all the way down to the main tree at the beginning of Mainstreet. Seeing everything turn from colored lights to white LED was beautiful. Don't get me started about standing there while it snowed. I swear I got teary eyed each and every time, whether it was on mainstreet, new orleans square or over by It's A Small World.
Every day we got to watch the Christmas Parade, which honestly is just 'ok', the lighting of the castle, Fantasmic, holiday fireworks and one night we got to watch the candle light procession through DLR, where they had the Living Christmas Tree and the Christmas Story narrated by John Stamos at the entrance. He's just as yummy in person. Crowds for these nights were crazy! No room to move.
Late nights at the park are my favorite. We found ourselves just walking around and around, looking at the lights, sitting and staring at the castle. I have to say, Holidays in the park are quire romantic.
Sunday night around 11pm, we wandered over to Sleeping Beauty's wishing well, holding hands and threw a coin in the well for good luck. While we sat there staring at the castle, we talked about sharing the rest of our lives with one another and how much we love and care for each other. Then we exchanged rings.
Needless to say, I was a blubbering mess by this point.
I have to say that it was the perfect ending to a magical weekend.
We also bought clothing, hats, pins, candy, ornaments. Our pocketbooks will be hurting for a little while.
I'll be posting a link to pictures once I sort through the 750 we took. I need to take it down to about 200 for viewing. We also took a bunch of quick videos which I'm going to try and piece together for a video montage of sorts.
Stay tuned.
Congratulations on your engagement!
Just kidding. 
