Next time I get the DLRP 'virus'.......

[hildasmuriel]

............ somebody please talk me straight back out of it.

It's ten days until Christmas, it's 9 days until my husband's birthday, it's another 4 days until I finish work..... what on earth was I thinking of to book a holiday from Saturday until Tuesday???
How did I ever think I was going to get everything done in time? I have managed to buy presents for 31 people and write cards for more than 90 but I have barely started to wrap them.
To make me even more sure I'm making a HUGE mistake, there has been nothing but horror stories on here about how awful the Park is at the moment. The magical dinner I was looking forward to seems to be nothing more than another queue-fest while the Park is lacking in atmosphere, barely Christmassy and full of rude people.

Oh and the pound is worth about doodly-squat against the Euro.

Hooray. Happy bloody holidays.

 

[hollymattbenmilo]

I am sure you will have a wondeful time. everyone gets so busy around this time of year, but once your their you will enjoy the magic and time on holiday. It is fate that you booked it and I am sure you will have a magical time! yes it seems much busier then normal, but if you go expecting this, then I am sure you will enjoy it!

 

[DLPdaft]

............ somebody please talk me straight back out of it.

I don't think thats going to happen - do you ?

Come on now - you did it last year didn't you, and had a great time? I have to admit I don't really like the sound of all the queueing for characters at the Christmas Dinner - it would be better if it were possible, to have them coming round all the tables, but I guess thats maybe not practical at the venue.

And weekend season crowds/queues reports just make me ! But you've done that before too - I think you'll take it all in your stride, and end up being really glad you booked what you did

HO HO HO Merry Christmas

 

[Rachie B]

awww i am so sorry,don't let my post put you off!

Hopefully yours will be a much nicer trip,as will be quieter during the weekdays

now get wrapping those presents! ( says she who hasnt even finished buying let alone wrapping yet!! )

 

[daisybeetlebug]

I know how you feel!!
We have been super organised as we have 3 birthdays/partys in the next couple of weeks as well as the usual xmas pressies food etc etc to deal with so are ok on that front but I am getting worried too.
I always use this forum to get excited about forth coming Disney trips but am now really worrying we are all going to be dissapointed.

Were hoping the little ones can still enjoy it and we are going to try and make the best of it.
There isn't too much pressure on to do rides as we have been before on many occasions so the plan is to soak up the christmassy (or not so christmassy as it appears atmosphere!)

My kids don't normally try to get autographs in the parks anyway as there is normally pushing unless its a civil Queue for someone like Sully -so we won't get caught up in that hopefully.
The kids will be having a birthday tea at Cafe Mickey so hopefully they will get some good photo ops then plus we may pop in to the DLH for a 4 O clock catch the characters!
We are going to get up ridiculously early so we can have early breakfast and the kids can at least get on the rides at Fantasy land early on.
Looking forward to seeing mickey winterwonderland and Santa -will do those early to try and avoid big queues
Think we may end up giving the parade a miss sadly if the parks are going to be as horrendous as it sounds.

We were going to go to the Magical dinner originally but we decided to give it a miss in the fear that it would be as the recent poster on here described it.
Hopefully they got it on a bad night and you will have a better experience.

On a plus point -the weather forecasts so far are looking nice and crisp and sunny for the days we are there-at least we wont have to queue or get pushed about in the rain which I guess won't have helped a lot of peoples recent experiences.
I think the kids won't notice all these things and will still enjoy the magic

Hope your still is better than expected and the magic shines through

 

[joolz1910]

I'm sure you'll have a great time. Everything will fall into place and you'll make the most of your trip to DLRP. I thought that I was swamped until I remembered a friend of mine who is getting married straight after Christmas...in New Zealand! She's flying out at the weekend. I hope your trip is really magical!

 

[jillrobinson]

In some ways you're going forewarned and therefore forearmed.
You'll have realistic expectations of what you can achieve, make the most of EMH, then enjoy the shows and the Chrissy feeling. Don't know if there are any less decorations but I was impressed with the park last year and the Village Christmas Market looks lovely.
As for the rude people, I did get to the stage where I was glad to leave the park, but after a wind down cocktail in Cafe Mickey I was able to go back and brave the evening. BTW we found it got a lot quieter after Fantillusion, so perhaps do EMH, have an afternoon break and then plan on staying late.
Hope you have a lovely time.

 

[A Small World]

Im sure it will be fine - youve been enough times to know all the tricks - EMH, quick dash to BTM (for your daughter of course), fast passes, atmosphere sucking (thats what your daughter called it isnt it)

we found it really busy when we went mid Nov especially the saturday but still did loads and enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere

 

[hildasmuriel]

I'm just being a great big sulk, aren't I? I'm trying to keep up the jolly-hockey-sticks attitude for my daughter, who is sooooooo excited but it is hard.

I am hoping that once I get there I will enjoy atmosphere sucking and, let's face it, by then it will be too late to worry about all the things that aren't yet done for Christmas.

Thanks for the cheer-up, dissers.

 

[britchic4]

I'm feeling kind of the same way, and quite relieved we didn't get to book the Mickey dinner - at least we know we'll have a good time at Auberge. We haven't told the children yet and don't plan to until the last minute, but we will impress upon them that we won't be able to do many rides, particularly on the Sunday.

 

[Cyrano]

In some ways you're going forewarned and therefore forearmed.
You'll have realistic expectations of what you can achieve, make the most of EMH, then enjoy the shows and the Chrissy feeling. Don't know if there are any less decorations but I was impressed with the park last year and the Village Christmas Market looks lovely.
As for the rude people, I did get to the stage where I was glad to leave the park, but after a wind down cocktail in Cafe Mickey I was able to go back and brave the evening. BTW we found it got a lot quieter after Fantillusion, so perhaps do EMH, have an afternoon break and then plan on staying late.
Hope you have a lovely time.

Ditto

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

I thought i was bad with worrying about my January trip.

I'm sure once your get there, your be in such a great Disney spirit you would of forgot what you was worrying about all along.

 

[mummyal]

I have to admit that while I'm still excited about our trip, my excitement levels have gone down a bit in the past day or so. But as Jill has said, forewarned & forearmed !! I have decided that we're going to spend Thurs & Fri in the main park (to 'suck' up the atmosphere lol), and then do the Studios on Saturday where it'll hopefully be slightly quieter than the Park. Then perhaps watch a couple of shows again on Sunday in the Park.

 

[scampbunny]

well, i enjoyed our trip!!!!
ok, we werent there on a weekend, but we loved it, and so did sil & her dh too - we all found it magical, and also felt it was relaxed, and there were only 2/3 rude ppl from the whole of the triip....

pls dont let it spoil, we knew before we went that emh was the important bit for the rides, and then any rides in the day wud be a bonus, and i wud still go back tomorro if i cud (was gonna go in emas suitcase lol)

be happy, and i will wish for sum snow for u xxxxxxxxxxx

 

[cap'njack.]

I feel really bad now. I didn't mean to make it sound like we had a terrible time.

Part of the problem was that our October trip was so amazing that it was, looking back on it, going to be very difficult to top that trip.

Yes the park was rammed on the Saturday but it was quiet on the Thursday evening, Friday was quiet all day and Sunday was better than Saturday.

EMH was quiet every day until 9.30ish and then on Saturday the park was dead from 7pm onwards. We even had a whole stretch of Fantasyland to ourselves during the Fantillusion parade.

We had a good time but I found that Christmas isn't up to the same standards as I was thinking it would be. The decorations that are there are lovely but the aren't the same quantity as they were for Halloween. I was expecting snowmen everywhere, tinsel, trees, snow etc to be littering the whole of Main Street and the whole of another land and maybe decorations throughout the other three lands. it just looked a little sparse. Belle's Village is lovely, the Christmas Market in the Village was amazing too. Apparently they have really cut back on Christmas over the past 9 years whereas Halloween gets bigger and better every year.

 

[dooledoo]

Last year we went over the Xmas week and this year we are doing the same, so it can't be that bad.

I remember last year as being busy and certainly very busy Boxing Day onwards, but I now know to arrive early and finish at lunch time and do something else for the afternoon and then come back when its dark to enjoy the lights and atmosphere.

It is very pretty and atmospheric and unfortunatley there are rude, ignorant people there but, the way I'm going to tackle it is slowly. We want to enjoy Christmas at the Parks and I've decided the rides and parades will come second to that. That doesn't mean we won't end up queuing for them or trying to do them all, but if it is manic we will chill out.

Sometimes I feel like I get sucked up in the manic feel of the place and this year I will try not to!!! I can't remember walking around slowly enjoying the theming, I always seemed to be rushing from one ride to the next. I hope I don't this year, but once I get there - who knows?