Holiday Time tour this year?? Tour diring the day and what parade?

[Mercenary]

So i am looking at booking this soon but there is a ton of conflicting information out there.

So for the Halloween tour there was no parade viewing right? But they are saying the holiday tour has parade viewing but which one? The tour times are so early ot leads me to think it is the daytime "holiday, parade, but the disney reps say they think it is PTN? Currently tours are at 10 and 1245 thanksgiving week. So the huge downside to those times is, you can not experience haunted mansion or small world when it is dark and see it all lit up... That is a major negative for me.

Anyone have thoughts on that or have inside info on what parade and how it will all work?

Thanks all!

 

[kristinLC]

Currently tours are at 10 and 1245 thanksgiving week.

And the Christmas parade times that week are listed as 1pm and 3:15pm. That's 3 hours between the start of the first tour and the parade, but only 2.5 hours between the start of the second tour and the second parade. So is the first tour longer or does it just spend more time waiting for the parade to start? Will be following this as I'm interested in booking that week as well!

 

[Mercenary]

Thanks for pointing out there are 2 parades I have no doubt now that the tour times for moved up to accommodate the to holiday parades. And that the reserved viewing is for the holiday parade not the paint the night. I guess I'm struggling with it now with the idea of booking it and not being able to enjoy the attractions and the night time parade. At night when they are in full splendor and effect. Any thoughts, comments, suggestions. We did it a few years back and it truly was special to be able to walk on small world at night with the lights on and do Haunted Mansion the to top it off with that final parade and snacks with the lit up small world behind it. Seems like a big drop off.

 

[Metalliman98]

Thanks for pointing out there are 2 parades I have no doubt now that the tour times for moved up to accommodate the to holiday parades. And that the reserved viewing is for the holiday parade not the paint the night. I guess I'm struggling with it now with the idea of booking it and not being able to enjoy the attractions and the night time parade. At night when they are in full splendor and effect. Any thoughts, comments, suggestions. We did it a few years back and it truly was special to be able to walk on small world at night with the lights on and do Haunted Mansion the to top it off with that final parade and snacks with the lit up small world behind it. Seems like a big drop off.

Is it? the actual attractions themselves (IASWH and HMH) are the same inside whether it's day or night; the actual ride experience is the same. You can walk by both rides at night time and see them lit up or see the theming. To me it doesn't make much difference, from the standpoint of those rides, whether you go on them in the day or night.

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

My family went on the holiday tour back in 2009. It was interesting information and I'm very glad we did it, but the best part for me was the "insider" information the guide gave us as we were doing the tour. We won't be doing it again this year because we are a family of four and what the entire family would get out of the tour does not seem worth the price. If it was just myself (or maybe DH and myself), I would be much more likely to do the tour again. I don't think my DD 12 or DD 9 would appreciate the narration enough to make paying for them worthwhile, though. They just want to get to the next attraction!

Doing the tour just to get on a couple of rides and a spot for the parade makes the value questionable to me. If the tour includes HMH and iasmh (as it did in 2009), both options should have Fastpass and could be done any time. (Does iaswh have FP? I seem to recall it has in the past, but maybe I'm misremembering. Sherry will know!!!) The Christmas parade will be shown twice and is an old enough parade that I wouldn't think you would need to line up hours early to get a decent spot (also, if it rains like it did on our tour six years ago, the parade would be cancelled anyway).

What makes the parade well worth the price is if you are interested in learning more about Disney history, hearing interesting Disney-related Christmas stories and trivia, getting a cool collector's special holiday edition pin, eating a scrumptious gingerbread Mickey, and having the opportunity to ask a knowledgeable cast member tons of questions. The rides and parade seating are just bonuses.