Planning a trip in early Jan. to see holiday lights

[Anal Annie]

So at some point not tooooo long ago I remember reading somewhere that they may not do the Osbourne Family Lights next year - has there been any more scoop floating to that rumor? We have never been down during the holidays while the lights are up and are thinking of planning a 5 or 6 night trip starting on the weekend right after New Years and leaving on the 1st or 2nd day of the marathon events… The point of the trip is to be able to see the park & resort lights and hopefully the Osbourne lights. Someone just told me that the hotel & park lights will probably start to come down by the 3rd which was the day I'd originally thought of coming so now I'm in a fluster. We have been down in Jan. over MLK weekend 2x and missed the lights - Just trying to confirm what I can now for planning ahead now for next year. Do we need to come on Jan. 2nd instead of the 3rd and how can I find out about the Osbourne Lights? TIA for any experience / advice!

 

[rwdavis2]

The earlier the better. In 2013 Osbourne lights were up through the night of the 6th (a Sunday). Other Christmas decorations were already down or starting to come down by then.

There's no way predict it.

 

[Robo]

1. The earlier the better.
2. In 2013 Osbourne lights were up through the night of the 6th (a Sunday).
3. Other Christmas decorations were already down or starting to come down by then.

4. There's no way predict it.

1. Yup.
2. Yes.
3. But, in 2014, they continued to do the "Frozen" Castle Lighting Ceremony (and the Dream Lights)
in MK on through Jan. 10. And, they left most of the rest of the decorations at the 4 parks up, as well.
(Not the Osborne Lights, however, as their last night was Jan. 4, 2015.)
4. You got that right, for sure!

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks, but this is getting to be a lot more complicated than I wanted it to be and these aren't the answers I was hoping to get. I wish somebody in the know could comment on if the Osbourne lights are history.

DS will be in his freshman year of college and will be home from Dec. 18th to around Jan. 23rd or something like that. Not sure yet if we will fly him home or drive to go get him (it's a 6 1/2 hr drive ea. way and it's in upstate NY so with the winter weather concerns we may just fly him). Since he's only home for about a week before Christmas I don't really want to try to cram in a quickie trip to FL that week. I just want to enjoy him being home for the holidays. He's our only child so I expect that I am going to be overwhelmed with him being home again. While there is still availability at SSR for all of Dec & Jan (our home DVC resort) I don't really have any desire to be there for NYE. Those crowds just look INSANE and it doesn't look FUN to me. Plus I would also like to wait for January because the DVC "season" changes and the points go down starting Jan. 1st and I'm trying to leave enough points in the Use Year pot to do another trip in the summer of 2016. My Dcousin and her family are going down on the 6th for 6 nights for the marathon so I would like to overlap with her for a day or two for once but I really only have enough points to go for 5 or 6 nights tops. I had figured the holiday crowds would thin out by Sun., 1/3 and then if we go on WEEK NIGHTS (Sun-Thurs) we use even fewer DVC points. BUT if we miss the lights because we wait for the 3rd I will be totally bummed out. If we go on the 1st and stay until the 7th we use more points than I would like because I am hoping to be able to book the new Poly DVC for summer and it's a points hog. Do you really think they might turn the lights off on Saturday 1/2 and not leave them on thru the weekend? Direct flights are also a lot higher to fly on Saturday vs Sunday… Sigh. I really didn't think there would be THIS MUCH to consider. Maybe we should just bag the whole idea.

 

[Robo]

Thanks, but this is getting to be a lot more complicated than I wanted it to be and these aren't the answers I was hoping to get.

I wish somebody in the know could comment on if the Osbourne lights are history.

That would be nice.

 

[Robo]

Do you really think they might turn the lights off on Saturday 1/2 and not leave them on thru the weekend?

Doubtful.
If they are up and running this coming Christmas, I'd expect them to be on through the New Years weekend, and maybe beyond.
The scheduled dates will likely appear sometime in the early Fall.

 

[Anal Annie]

Bump - any other thoughts out there??

 

[Anal Annie]

Gosh this board moves fast!! Bumping back to page 1 again...

 

[siskaren]

I don't think you're going to get any better thoughts than Robo's, unless someone who actually works for Disney were to respond, which I think is unlikely.