Halloween or Thanksgiving...help!

[Flitterific]

I went to DLR Christmas weekend last year and fell in love with the holidays DBF and I currently have PAPs that will expire in August but we did the GAD thing so we will be able to use that to upgrade to a PH. I had originally planned to use our GAD tickets on Thanksgiving weekend since those dates are not blocked out and I know all the Christmas decorations will be up already. However, DBF saw the Halloween superthread and told me to check it out as I may enjoy it more (baaaad idea because now I can't decide when to go!). If we were to go in October, it would probably be Oct 22-26 (HoJo currently has the AP/Entertainment Discount available for all those nights). Otherwise, we would go during Thanksgiving weekend (Nov 25-28). Short of convincing DBF to renew our PAPs so we can go both during Halloween and Thanksgiving/Christmastime , I will most likely have to pick one or the other. If you have to pick one time to go, when would you choose to go to and why?

 

[Sherry E]

I tell you - we have converted more people and made more believers out of people with the "Halloween at DL" thread and the "Disney at Christmas" thread. Both of those have worked their magic on people to inspire DLR holiday trips - whichever holiday it may be!

Well, you've already been to DLR during the holidays so you know how magical it is. You've experienced it. HalloweenTime is not as immersive and all-encompassing as Christmastime is at DLR. You could walk for long stretches of time in either park during HalloweenTime and not know what time of year it is. At Christmastime, it's not like that. You always know what time of year it is wherever you go! They don't even compare in terms of overall immersion. Christmastime will always be my favorite for those reasons, but I do love HalloweenTime too (it's my second favorite DLR holiday) and I want DLR to keep doing much more with it and really building it up. If it were even close to being as immersive and detailed as Christmastime, I might move it up to the number one spot on my list!

So I guess it depends on how much you guys love Halloween in general. If that's a favorite holiday for you, then you could look at it as, "Well, we've already seen DLR during the holiday season and know what it's like, so now we are going to try HalloweenTime for something different."

(But, obviously, the best idea would be to renew the AP and go during both seasons!)

 

[jory29]

Halloween brings up memories of a very, very crowded park, (second to third week, in October) as in gridlock, to me. Also, very long wait times. It was horrendous. Can others shed more light on what crowd levels are like for the varying seasons (Between Halloween and Christmas season.) ?

 

[grumpyskirtgirl]

We went last year @ halloween time (but the last week in September so we could get the decorations, but not the crowds) and loved it!! So much so that I am going with my mom this year.

I really liked the Halloween Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. And the cute little pumpkin heads all over just make me smile. Especially the carved ones in the petting zoo area.

 

[pixiewings71]

We had PAPs last year so we actually did both. Crowds were absolutely lower over Tgiving then over Halloween so if I had to chose just 1 I would go with Tgiving...and if you knew how much I LOVE Halloween you'd know how crazy it is for me to say that. LOL

 

[Flitterific]

I tell you - we have converted more people and made more believers out of people with the "Halloween at DL" thread and the "Disney at Christmas" thread. Both of those have worked their magic on people to inspire DLR holiday trips - whichever holiday it may be!

Well, you've already been to DLR during the holidays so you know how magical it is. You've experienced it. HalloweenTime is not as immersive and all-encompassing as Christmastime is at DLR. You could walk for long stretches of time in either park during HalloweenTime and not know what time of year it is. At Christmastime, it's not like that. You always know what time of year it is wherever you go! They don't even compare in terms of overall immersion. Christmastime will always be my favorite for those reasons, but I do love HalloweenTime too (it's my second favorite DLR holiday) and I want DLR to keep doing much more with it and really building it up. If it were even close to being as immersive and detailed as Christmastime, I might move it up to the number one spot on my list!

So I guess it depends on how much you guys love Halloween in general. If that's a favorite holiday for you, then you could look at it as, "Well, we've already seen DLR during the holiday season and know what it's like, so now we are going to try HalloweenTime for something different."

(But, obviously, the best idea would be to renew the AP and go during both seasons!)

Thanks for your reply, Sherry! From the pictures on the Halloween thread, it seems like a lot of places of decorated and Halloween themed (but of course, those are deceiving ). Neither DBF nor I are super crazy about Halloween but the pictures look like so much fun and I would love to meet all of the villains and special characters that can only be found during Halloween. However, I agree that the reason why I love Christmas at the Parks so much is because you can smell and see the holiday magic everywhere I shall continue to work on convincing DBF to renew APs for us so we can go both times

Halloween brings up memories of a very, very crowded park, (second to third week, in October) as in gridlock, to me. Also, very long wait times. It was horrendous. Can others shed more light on what crowd levels are like for the varying seasons (Between Halloween and Christmas season.) ?

Hmm...does anyone know if Halloween is more crowded than Christmas weekend? DBF and I were there Dec 24-27 last year and we were stuck in gridlock on Main Street on more than one occasion

We went last year @ halloween time (but the last week in September so we could get the decorations, but not the crowds) and loved it!! So much so that I am going with my mom this year.

I really liked the Halloween Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain. And the cute little pumpkin heads all over just make me smile. Especially the carved ones in the petting zoo area.

Thanks for your reply, grumpyskirtgirl! Do you know if the HMH overlay for Halloween and Christmas the same or are they different? I saw a few pictures of what it looks like from the outside and they looked pretty similar. Either way, I love the HMH during Christmastime Unfortunately, I think it will be much more crowded if we were to go toward the end of October compared to the crowds that you experienced in September.

We had PAPs last year so we actually did both. Crowds were absolutely lower over Tgiving then over Halloween so if I had to chose just 1 I would go with Tgiving...and if you knew how much I LOVE Halloween you'd know how crazy it is for me to say that. LOL

Thanks for replying, pixiewings! Much lower crowds over Thanksgiving, huh? Was that only true for Thanksgiving day or the whole weekend? I think the parks closed a little earlier on Tday, correct? And do you only pick Thanksgiving because the crowds were lighter or because the Christmas decor is better?

Anyone else want to put in their thoughts? TIA!

 

[jennilouwho]

I was there Mon-Fri of Thanksgiving week. Monday and Tuesday were awful. Wednesday was a beach day for us. Thursday and Friday were great, crowds eased up big time! I heard on here that Saturday was a Ghost Town. Park was open until midnight on Thanksgiving and that whole weekend.

 

[Flitterific]

I was there Mon-Fri of Thanksgiving week. Monday and Tuesday were awful. Wednesday was a beach day for us. Thursday and Friday were great, crowds eased up big time! I heard on here that Saturday was a Ghost Town. Park was open until midnight on Thanksgiving and that whole weekend.

Wow...Thanksgiving weekend sounds like a great time to go, crowd-wise. Thanks, jennilouwho!

 

[pixiewings71]

Thanks for your reply, Sherry! From the pictures on the Halloween thread, it seems like a lot of places of decorated and Halloween themed (but of course, those are deceiving ). Neither DBF nor I are super crazy about Halloween but the pictures look like so much fun and I would love to meet all of the villains and special characters that can only be found during Halloween. However, I agree that the reason why I love Christmas at the Parks so much is because you can smell and see the holiday magic everywhere I shall continue to work on convincing DBF to renew APs for us so we can go both times



Hmm...does anyone know if Halloween is more crowded than Christmas weekend? DBF and I were there Dec 24-27 last year and we were stuck in gridlock on Main Street on more than one occasion



Thanks for your reply, grumpyskirtgirl! Do you know if the HMH overlay for Halloween and Christmas the same or are they different? I saw a few pictures of what it looks like from the outside and they looked pretty similar. Either way, I love the HMH during Christmastime Unfortunately, I think it will be much more crowded if we were to go toward the end of October compared to the crowds that you experienced in September.



Thanks for replying, pixiewings! Much lower crowds over Thanksgiving, huh? Was that only true for Thanksgiving day or the whole weekend? I think the parks closed a little earlier on Tday, correct? And do you only pick Thanksgiving because the crowds were lighter or because the Christmas decor is better?

Anyone else want to put in their thoughts? TIA!

the HMH layover is the same from Halloween thru Christmas, there is no difference in them during that time. So if you go either holiday season you'll get the same overlay.

Yes, the crowds were MUCH lower over Tgiving, IIRC we went Oct 9th weekend (ToT party that night) we drove down to Anaheim Thursday night and came home Sunday, it was really busy that weekend. In comparison Tgiving was a cake walk, really low crowds, lots of walk ons and low wait times. We drove down Wednesday night after work, we went to the parks Thurs-Mon and we left Monday afternoon to drive home. it was just so much less crowded that weekend. We loved it!! I don't remember what time the parks closed but if it was earlier it was at 11 instead of 12. I do know we were there late!!

 

[Flitterific]

the HMH layover is the same from Halloween thru Christmas, there is no difference in them during that time. So if you go either holiday season you'll get the same overlay.

Yes, the crowds were MUCH lower over Tgiving, IIRC we went Oct 9th weekend (ToT party that night) we drove down to Anaheim Thursday night and came home Sunday, it was really busy that weekend. In comparison Tgiving was a cake walk, really low crowds, lots of walk ons and low wait times. We drove down Wednesday night after work, we went to the parks Thurs-Mon and we left Monday afternoon to drive home. it was just so much less crowded that weekend. We loved it!! I don't remember what time the parks closed but if it was earlier it was at 11 instead of 12. I do know we were there late!!

Thanks, pixiewings! That was really helpful so I will keep that information in mind