Two Holidays in One Trip? Oct-Nov 2012

[TigerlilyAJ]

I am looking for advice and experiences in my attempt to do both Halloween and Christmas in one trip to SoCal. We'd be coming 2500 miles from Canada, so this is really a once-in-a-lifetime trip, which is why it's so hard to choose just one holiday season. We have a kid with an Oct birthday and one with a Nov birthday, so plenty to celebrate as well.
My plan is NOT to do 15 days in the parks. I am a USC alumna, so I have people to see, old haunts to visit, beaches to introduce to the kids (and DH who has never been to California), and possibly even driving to Vegas or the Grand Canyon for a couple of days.
The plan would be to do Halloween as it ends, Oct 29-31, fitting in a MHP in there. Then, I could easily plan a week of non-DLR activities before returning to enjoy the park again, now at least partially done up for Christmas. My goal would be to stay long enough in SoCal that I could ride IASW all Christmas'ed up. So that means waiting for the official Christmas premiere, right, to be certain to get a chance? It sounds like some things get tested out and are available a bit before the official beginning of Christmas at Disneyland, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
In 2011, Christmas started the Monday the week before Thanksgiving Thursday. Since Thanksgiving 2012 is Nov 22, that would be Monday, Nov 12. Is that a valid guess? What is the park like that Sat-Sun before such an opening? Crowded? Lots of Christmas to be enjoyed?
I already checked the Christmas thread, and read through page after page after page of the November 2011 posts, but did not get a lot of people who traveled in that first half of November and posted about how much there was or was not to experience in terms of ride overlays, shows, treats, etc.

So
1) Has anyone tried to travel/stay overnight (so not a SoCal local who could just daytrip) to do both seasons in one trip?

2) What are those first two weeks of Nov like? Do the park's appearance and ride options improve after the first week of Nov, which I imagine as being very busy striking the Halloween stuff and getting a lot of Christmas done? Low crowds (+) balanced by ride closures (for holiday overlays), short park hours, and fewer entertainment (the big night shows, parades, fireworks) offerings (-)?

3) How bad is the First Look crush of locals/AP looky-loos when Christmas time begins? When in college, as a band member, I was in the park for the Rose Bowl/Boxing Week/Christmas Vacation madness once around Dec 28, so to me that is the high watermark for crowds, lines, bottlenecks, etc.

TIA for your input and thoughts!

AJ

 

[skiingfast]

So
1) Has anyone tried to travel/stay overnight (so not a SoCal local who could just daytrip) to do both seasons in one trip?

2) What are those first two weeks of Nov like? Do the park's appearance and ride options improve after the first week of Nov, which I imagine as being very busy striking the Halloween stuff and getting a lot of Christmas done? Low crowds (+) balanced by ride closures (for holiday overlays), short park hours, and fewer entertainment (the big night shows, parades, fireworks) offerings (-)?

3) How bad is the First Look crush of locals/AP looky-loos when Christmas time begins? When in college, as a band member, I was in the park for the Rose Bowl/Boxing Week/Christmas Vacation madness once around Dec 28, so to me that is the high watermark for crowds, lines, bottlenecks, etc.

TIA for your input and thoughts!

AJ

It's very possible, but may be tricky.

1. People have done this but tended to also be on once in a lifetime trips, and from overseas on a lengthy vacation.

2. It's very uncrowded, but a mild rehab period. I wouldn't worry about missing a few rides when you get so many more with minimal crowds. Keep in mind hours are short and entertainment limited. While there is more entertainment on the weekends that also means more crowds.

3. Some people call the first weekend of the Holidays very busy, it's just a weekend they are all busy, but appears extreme to multiday visitors who start midweek when almost nobody is there.


Two Notes.

4. You may be able to see all three firework shows, RDCT on the last weekend of October. HS at a Halloween party. Then BiHM when Christmas Starts, that is a superb accomplishment.

5. There is no gaurentee that the Holidays start on Monday the 11th, it may even be unlikely, and more likely they start on Friday the 16th of November. With a late Wednesday Halloween pushing back the Halloween Season, it may limit the time to switch the park over requireing a later Holiday Start.

Halloween leaves quickly and Holidays go up slowly. You will catch something at the least. The Castle get snow immediately, because the Christmas Parade is filmed in that intermediate period.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

It's very possible, but may be tricky.
Two Notes.

4. You may be able to see all three firework shows, RDCT on the last weekend of October. HS at a Halloween party. Then BiHM when Christmas Starts, that is a superb accomplishment.

5. There is no gaurentee that the Holidays start on Monday the 11th, it may even be unlikely, and more likely they start on Friday the 16th of November. With a late Wednesday Halloween pushing back the Halloween Season, it may limit the time to switch the park over requireing a later Holiday Start.

4) Now there's a New Year's resolution I'd like to try. ;-) Truly, I adore fireworks, so that is a tempting idea.

5) SIGH. I figured things like that were possible, and we won't know for months and months, right? Like, they don't even announce MHP dates until summer, if I recall. A three-week trip would be severely pushing it on many levels. We shall see.

TY!

 

[skiingfast]

4) Now there's a New Year's resolution I'd like to try. ;-) Truly, I adore fireworks, so that is a tempting idea.

5) SIGH. I figured things like that were possible, and we won't know for months and months, right? Like, they don't even announce MHP dates until summer, if I recall. A three-week trip would be severely pushing it on many levels. We shall see.

TY!

MHP dates will probably be out in June or July. They will probably let APHs a first chance at tickets and one of us will post the dates on the DIS.

Of course it will be much later when we know when the Holiday Season will start.

As far as the parties, I was a little surprised they didn't do more this year. This year again they were very popular so it's possible they will have more perweek or stretch the length of time they are over. Also it will be interesting with Halloween day being on a Wednesday if they will do a party the night before also, as commonly the parties have been on Tuesdays. I'm wondering if they would do thier last party not on Halloween as usual, but the Friday in November after. We will just have to wait and see what DLR's plan is.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

Thanks, skiingfast. All good notes. I would love to see more MHPs offered to reduce crowding. Esp for Oct 2012, where the 30th, a night they always have a party anyway, is also a Tuesday, a night with its own party. Maybe that week they could add a Monday party on the 29th. A girl can dream.

Another thought I had is that although I don't see us spending a lot of time in the parks every day we're in Orange County, I would like to have as many options as possible. As an American-Canadian, I've heard of Canucks getting 8-day parkhoppers from Flight Centre before their trip, instead of having to wait to get to the park and add on. What's the the maximum number of days you can add on to a 6-day parkhopper? Could I get 10 days? 14 days? Since it seems to be only $5 per person, per day for each day past six, I would *love* being able to go explore the beaches all day and then maybe come back to pop into the park for fireworks or WOC or a parade.
What's the longest number of DLR days you've ever seen someone do in a single trip?
AJ

 

[skiingfast]

Usual to do 6 at most. Days can be added on for $5 each over the gate price ofa 6 day. International guest have the option to purchase 14 day tickets strait away and some do. That's a lot of DL, if you really want to consider going so many days, one person may want to get an AP for room or at least dining and merchandise discounts.

I think you might try travelcentre or travelcenter. I think that's the Canuck site for those long tickets over 6 days.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

"...one person may want to get an AP for room or at least dining and merchandise discounts."

You are just full of good thoughts. I'll have to price out the difference, which I believe will be more than $100 more for that one person's AP, but it is possible that it could be worthwhile, depending on what discounts I took advantage of. Will have to find threads for and about APs now.
I went to Flight Centre earlier today to get the agent to price out their 6+-day parkhoppers, but the wholesaler has not gotten back to her, so she has not gotten back to me yet.

AJ

 

[DLR29]

Nothing special to add here because skiingfast got it pretty much covered, but I wanted to stop by and say FIGHT ON! I'm a USC student right now, so always fun to talk to alums.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

Thanks for the 'SC shout-out! I look forward to being surrounded by Trojans again. I haven't seen any since February 2010 at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto randomly had a father-son duo of alums the same day we were there getting the baby a passport.

So at $380, one AP seems worthwhile. The highest level is not worth it at $500 unless we stay at a DLR hotel for an AP-only rate they aren't offering to the general public. And a DLR hotel just can't be done for that length of stay. ;-)

AJ

 

[skiingfast]

So at $380, one AP seems worthwhile. The highest level is not worth it at $500 unless we stay at a DLR hotel for an AP-only rate they aren't offering to the general public. And a DLR hotel just can't be done for that length of stay. ;-)

AJ

As you get close think harder about this. The extra 10% on souvenires may help. The extra 5% on food will probably make the greatest difference.

The difference you will need to make up is going to approximately(though prices will likely change before your visit), $250 to premium, or $130 to Delux. If you stay offsite $15 a day paking is free with the delux, or $100 extra on the delux price.

It also adds a discount to Halloween Party tickets if you do that.

Hotel savings may help for onsite, though this is rare. Also a few offsite hotels have AP rates.

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

Oh, I know. You have to remember that if we do the giant "Two Holidays" tour, I would want a lot more than a 6-day PH. So, for example, I could buy a 6-day PH for $251 at the DL site today, but I would want to add a ginormous eight days to it at the ticket counter, adding $40 to the price (if it's still $5 per person, per extra day past six), so it's really a $291 ticket. So it's only $89 more for an AP.
With that long of a trip, even staying at a Good Neighbor hotel, we could *easily* spend $900 at places in DLR, getting a 10% discount, and thus paying for the one AP. I have meals planned already at places that APs get a discount at, including some DTD places that my Disney Visa does not offer discounts at. Also, my Disney Visa requires you to buy $50+ of the right kinds of merchandise at one time, in one place to get the 10% off, where the AP has more freedom, no minimum purchase to get the 10%. So it has appeal on a lot of levels to get a small discount on things I planned to buy (including lots of merch for people back home in Ontario) even before considering the AP.
If Christmas at DL starts so late (like Fri, Nov 16) that we really cannot stretch to do a three-week trip, then a shorter trip would make an AP less attractive.

AJ

 

[TigerlilyAJ]

I just got some quotes from my local Flight Centre office. The good news is that they can offer a good price on an 8-day PH. Three adults, two children for $1202. [Compare to adult 6-day PH for $251 currently at DLR's site, plus $10 for two added days, or ($261 x 3 = $783) + ($241 x 2 = $482) = $1265]
The less good news is that they can't add anything more on to those PHs. So I would still have to add days at the gate. But I can live with that, esp when they beat other sellers' prices.
So once again, it looks like Canadians have to definitely check with FC before thinking about buying tickets elsewhere. The quotes on the rest of the trip are less amazing, but it's nice to get a sort of "maximum, full price" kind of number in my head for a budget.

AJ