Holiday lights up thru marathon weekend?

[jazzyannie]

Are the holiday lights still up at Disney World during marathon weekend... Jan 7-9? My family and I will be arriving on January 5th!!! Cant wait!!!!

 

[rubato]

I think they come down Jan 3rd, if i remember correctly.

 

[disneygirlinnj]

I'm REALLY hoping they are. Last year they stayed up until at least the 12th. Then I remember mid-vacation they all started coming down. CM's were commenting that they've never seen them up this long but that it was possibly just for the races. Running down Main St with all of the lights on was amazing.

I believe two years ago they were already down. I wasn't there but I vaguely remember everyone last year saying how they were glad they kept them up this time.

 

[FireDancer]

I think the unseasonable cold last year delayed Disney taking down the lights. In 2006 I arrived the Wednesday before marathon weekend and the tree was still up at POP. The following morning it was down and I didn't see anything in the parks.

I would assume there will be no Christmas stuff up and be pleasantly surprised if it is as opposed to the other way around.

 

[RENThead09]

I remember the big crane last year by the castle that I believe was used for taking down the Christmas lights, but that didnt start until Monday after the race.

 

[cewait]

The answer to the Christmas lights is it depends but most will be down.

Removing decorations is obviously a multi day project. Osborne lights will be off after Jan 3, so Jan 4 is the start of the removal process for all seasonal decorations. Most likely resort decorations will be down by Thursday of the marathon, but not all. Also, park trees will probably be gone but lighting like the dancing lighting in Epcot at the World Showcase end will most likely be up and operating even during the marathon. Note the 2005/2006 schedule had the lights up until Jan 8.



I though the crane last year was for a refurbishment project. Never though about the lighting.


Just in case you wanted to know with next year's dates of 7 and 8 we will once again have Christmas up on Marathon weekend!

 

[pyrxtc]

This past year the lights and trees where up until at least Monday. Christmas backgrounds in all of our pictures.

 

[BrianD]

Christmas music was playing in the parks throughout our trip last year, and we were there through Wednesday after Marathon Weekend. Honestly, I kept thinking, "enough already". By the time New Years hits, I'm pretty much Christmas-ed out. And actually, some of the decorations had come down, but not all. It's like they started to take it all down, and then just stopped.

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmastime at Disney, but not in mid-January.

It was different in 2009 though, and I actually loved it. Marathon Weekend was timed just right in between Holiday decorations and the next celebrations. So there weren't banners everywhere telling you to celebrate this or that. And to see Main Street just as it was meant to be, with the the bare lightpoles and all, was very cool.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

Christmas music was playing in the parks throughout our trip last year, and we were there through Wednesday after Marathon Weekend. Honestly, I kept thinking, "enough already". By the time New Years hits, I'm pretty much Christmas-ed out. And actually, some of the decorations had come down, but not all. It's like they started to take it all down, and then just stopped.

We were also there until the Wednesday after the marathon and I remember walking through Epcot on January 13th, listening to "We Three Kings" and thinking, 'you've got to be kidding me!' I did enjoy seeing them for the first few days, and it was awesome running through Epcot in the early morning during the marathon with all the decorations up... but I was so done by Wednesday.

I agree with PPs that I think the delay in taking the decorations down was because of the cold weather.