Holiday observations

[Peggy Sue]

Hi,

We arrived at BWV last Thursday ... An annual event for us to check out all the holiday events at Disney and enjoy a relaxing DVC stay.

We have noted several things missing this year ... the street garland in the MK and the Studios was not up ... and we noted the tree at the MK hadn't been put up yet. I know they typically put the tree near the rose garden until after the parade taping (which I understand is now complete) but the tree Sunday night at MVMCP was no were to be seen.

We have also noted that the transportation is very slow .. boats don't run that frequently during the busy periods (getting people to/from the Osborne lights) LONG lines form at both the BWV and the Studios. We took the walking path.

Just seeing a lot of little things missing this year. Miss the lights of winter at Epcot too.

Anyone else encoutered missing things that have normally been here in the past?

Although there are crowds here, I do believe it feels less croweded than when we've been here in the past during this time period. I'm assuming the cut backs are due to the reduced crowds.

Peggy Sue

 

[twinklebug]

Hi Peggy,

The street garland and town square tree will be put up after Disney has completed their filming of the Christmas parade. They had a ton of rain last weekend when they had planned to do the filming. I missed the decorations too.

What I did notice this year was more issues with the lights on the big trees than there were last year. MGM's tree out front had huge blocks of lights out and the EPCOT tree mimicked ours at home with one large cross section blown out.

We saw a Disney electrician running about the osborne lights attempting to fix a variety of things - one of the two "angel carousels" was out and it made me wonder if Disney laid off a few too many electricians.

We had a wonderful visit despite the weather and a few bulbs blown out. Nobody can do up Christmas like Disney.

 

[bwvBound]

We arrived last Wednesday and leave tomorrow. My group has been asking all week, "Did we come too early this year? When will Disney put up their decorations?" Yes, we also miss the Lights of Winter at Epcot and noticed the patches of missing lights on the trees.

Me'thinks I've done too much Disney lately and need to back off for a few years. (I really wished I had been home this week to see the snow ...)

 

[tgropp]

We were at WDW during the Thanksgiving week and the boat transportation was slow. We waited at the Boardwalk for about 10 minutes and a boat finally came to take us to the Studios, only thing though was that it was full and only about 25 people got on. We waited another 5 minutes and since the weather was so nice we decided to walk over. Well we walked over to the studios and there was never a boat that passed us or one coming that we saw before entering the park. I was glad that we walked and I am sure that it can not be like that all the time or there would be a riot.

 

[BCV513]

We were at WDW last Wednesday through Sunday. I was SO disappointed in the decorations (or lack thereof)! No garland on Main Street, no Christmas Tree in MK. I've been there for parade taping before, and the tree has always been up, just in a different spot. They usually move it after taping. So this must have been a cutback. Epcot only had the Christmas tree, nothing else. The Studios had huge sections of the tree not lit and both angel carousels at Osborne lights were out. Many times looking around it was impossible to tell it was Christmas. I definitely noticed a difference this year, and I heard a lot of other people saying the same thing. The Wilderness Lodge looked great though!

 

[twinklebug]

The Wilderness Lodge looked great though!

Agreed! IMHO, it was well worth the airfare to experience the villas & main lodge.

 

[Coach81]

I've read from DVC Mike (and actually seen them with his wonderful pictures) that the decorations are now up all over the world. Perfect timing as we will be arriving in 10 days

 

[dburg30]

Last year and this year they havent put up the big tree in MK til after the parade taping. It sounds like with that all messed up rain, I'm sure that has something to do with the MK being finished up.

 

[thepops]

Due to the rain and winds, they were still filming the parade all day Sunday, so that pushed them back. They had to cancel all of the filming on Friday due to the rain.

 

[puntagordabob]

We are hoping that in 2010, WDW works to restore the "WOW Factor" for the Christmas Holidays.... Simply comparing 2008 to 2009 really makes you go "What Happened? What went wrong?"

 

[mac_tlc]

We were there from Dec, 3rd through Dec 9th. The parade taping was Saturday 12/5. The Main Street garland and MK tree were put up overnight Monday 12/7. We were at MK on Monday for a while --- no garland - no tree. We were there Tuesday for MVMCP and the garland and the tree were up.

We did not notice any issues at the Osborne lights on either the 5th or 6th.

We definitely missd the Lights of Winter at EPCOT. It loses a lot of "WOW".

 

[Tony-NJ]

We just returned last night. We haven't been since 1998 for Christmas - we noticed a lot less decorations - though everything that was decorated was very nicely done. We didn't notice any lights out on the Studios tree - we were there twice. The taping of teh parade was all messed up because of the nasty weather - the Grand Floridian on Friday was a disaster because they decided to do some taping there. It was a mess.

We didn't notice any delays in the transportation we did drive more this trip than in the past though.

I will NEVER go again during the taping weekend - ot was way too crowded. We will also not do MVMCP again - it was way over crowded. Nothing like it was back in 1998. We did enjoy Mickey's Christmas Parade and the Holiday wishes.

The tree and garland were not up on 12/6 but were up on the 9th.

Overall a nice vacation - fell in love with OKW again!

 

[Sammie]

We were there the week after Thanksgiving, the garland on Main Street was up and then down for the parade taping.

The tree however was not up all week prior to the taping. I guess they decided not to put it up and then have to take it down and simply waited until the tapings were over.

And I agree about MVMCP it was very crowded.

 

[Sandisw]

We were at WDW last Wednesday through Sunday. I was SO disappointed in the decorations (or lack thereof)! No garland on Main Street, no Christmas Tree in MK. I've been there for parade taping before, and the tree has always been up, just in a different spot. They usually move it after taping. So this must have been a cutback. Epcot only had the Christmas tree, nothing else. The Studios had huge sections of the tree not lit and both angel carousels at Osborne lights were out. Many times looking around it was impossible to tell it was Christmas. I definitely noticed a difference this year, and I heard a lot of other people saying the same thing. The Wilderness Lodge looked great though!

The garland on Main Street was back up by Monday. It was down for the filiming of the parade, which happened on Sunday, December 6th (which was rescheduled from Saturday,the 5th).

We missed the lights at Epcot and felt that the park really did not have the same Christmassy feel as the other parks.