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View Full Version : Any word on this year's Candlelight Processional? Dates/Celeb?



deltachiborn
08-15-2006, 03:13 PM
We're beginning to form our plans for about 3 families to come down the week following Thanksgiving, and we're wondering whether we should push it back an extra week for the Candlelight Processional, which depends on which celeb is reading. Our first time for the CP was Mary Hart, and we didn't bother to stay and watch. Last year's reading by Dick van Dyke, however, touched even this heartless agnostic. So, if anyone has any info, it would be greatly appreciated, since the sooner we finalize plans, the sooner (and usually cheaper) we can book stuff. Thanks, everyone!

kiwifuz
08-15-2006, 10:11 PM
Doesn't seem that anyone knows yet. There's another thread around from recently that you might want to look for. I think there have been replies in the last few days. Last year I don't remember official word from Disney coming out more than 3 weeks or so before CP.

stan4d_steph
08-16-2006, 07:10 AM
Generally, the Candlelight Processional is the first Saturday and Sunday in December. That would mean it falls on Dec. 4-5 this year.

Nothing has been officially announced, however. No news on who might be the celebrity reader(s).

LOYL2DZNY
08-17-2006, 08:24 AM
Generally, the Candlelight Processional is the first Saturday and Sunday in December. That would mean it falls on Dec. 4-5 this year.

Nothing has been officially announced, however. No news on who might be the celebrity reader(s).

Do you mean, the 2nd & 3rd?
I'm trying to plan our trip and I was thinking about that weekend, but do you think it will be crowded because of it?

annieb727
08-17-2006, 09:42 AM
Do you mean, the 2nd & 3rd?
I'm trying to plan our trip and I was thinking about that weekend, but do you think it will be crowded because of it?

If the candlelight processional is that weekend (2nd & 3rd) it will be VERY VERY crowded. traditionally it's the first weekend in December, but who really knows for sure :rolleyes:

WITron
08-17-2006, 01:50 PM
I was trying to find out the information last year to plan our trip around it and nothing oficial came until shortly before. That is one thing I do not like about Disneyland. They have already announced the dates and speakers for Disneyworld why can't Disneyland do the same? And if they know they are planing it on the first weekend of December announce the date at least so that people wanting to see the show or avoid it can plan accordingly.

kiwifuz
08-17-2006, 03:48 PM
Yeah but on the other hand there are discussions on here about how the October park schedule isn't out yet. Let's be serious, you know that they have to have the info by now.

I went through this last year trying to plan for attending the CP. It was a pain, but eventually it worked itself out. If I remember correctly the rumors about who the narrator was & the dates came out well before the dining package info. At least that might be of a little help....

pisces
08-17-2006, 07:36 PM
I was trying to find out the information last year to plan our trip around it and nothing oficial came until shortly before. That is one thing I do not like about Disneyland. They have already announced the dates and speakers for Disneyworld why can't Disneyland do the same? And if they know they are planing it on the first weekend of December announce the date at least so that people wanting to see the show or avoid it can plan accordingly.

Because they're scrambling.....

The phone lines don't even open, till I think two weeks before....which means you have to spend your Thanksgiving week calling and calling trying to get a first-come-first-served reservation.

Too inconvenient for me.

kiwifuz
08-17-2006, 08:11 PM
Yeah WITron, if you go back a few pages to the thread started by Mommyto2boys about this, or search for last year's thread, you can see when the reservations opened up. I want to say 1 week before Thanksgiving maybe?... That's about it though. Before that they seemed to not have anything together when it came to getting the word out and dining organized.


Okay edit this. It was 11/9 that dinner PS opened up. http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=47803&highlight=%22candlelight+processional%22 that's last year's thread. 5th page shows when people started being able to get set up for dinner.

stan4d_steph
08-18-2006, 08:11 AM
Do you mean, the 2nd & 3rd?
I'm trying to plan our trip and I was thinking about that weekend, but do you think it will be crowded because of it?Oops, yes. Thanks for the correction.

WITron
08-18-2006, 02:29 PM
When I was looking for info, I just wanted to know the dates. We were coming halfway across the country and using a timeshare, so we needed to get the dates reserved a year before going.

rosie
08-18-2006, 02:39 PM
If the candlelight processional is that weekend (2nd & 3rd) it will be VERY VERY crowded. traditionally it's the first weekend in December, but who really knows for sure :rolleyes:

Does this mean it'll be crowded the whole week following? I understand this is when the Cast Parties usually occur..but does that mean the park is more crowded too? i am planning my trip for Dec. 4th thru the 9th. I will not be there for the weekend.
I appreciate the heads up....

annieb727
08-18-2006, 03:26 PM
Does this mean it'll be crowded the whole week following? I understand this is when the Cast Parties usually occur..but does that mean the park is more crowded too? i am planning my trip for Dec. 4th thru the 9th. I will not be there for the weekend.
I appreciate the heads up....

from what I understand that week is generally quite slow (though I may be wrong). from what people have said, the 6pm closings for cast parties don't bother them much because they can get so much done during the day with so few people around.

tlovesdis
08-18-2006, 04:01 PM
from what I understand that week is generally quite slow (though I may be wrong). from what people have said, the 6pm closings for cast parties don't bother them much because they can get so much done during the day with so few people around.

I don't think it's slow! Two years ago we were there during the CP and a few days after. On the days Disneyland closed at 6, the park was packed. The worse part thought was after 6 when everyone decided to hit DTD! The stores were jam packed and the wait times at the restraunts were like 2 hours! We tried to go to House of Blues, Rainforest, and ESPN and all had ridiculous wait times. We ended up going back to the hotel to have room service.

It was also raining the whole time we were there. The CP was cancelled on that Saturday due to rain!

December is not like it used to be! We went in December of 2003 and it was dead! We loved it! Now it is almost as bad as summer!!!

annieb727
08-18-2006, 04:12 PM
I don't think it's slow! Two years ago we were there during the CP and a few days after. On the days Disneyland closed at 6, the park was packed. The worse part thought was after 6 when everyone decided to hit DTD! The stores were jam packed and the wait times at the restraunts were like 2 hours! We tried to go to House of Blues, Rainforest, and ESPN and all had ridiculous wait times. We ended up going back to the hotel to have room service.

It was also raining the whole time we were there. The CP was cancelled on that Saturday due to rain!

December is not like it used to be! We went in December of 2003 and it was dead! We loved it! Now it is almost as bad as summer!!!


ok...guess i was wrong - i stand corrected

Opus1guy
08-19-2006, 12:09 PM
That is one thing I do not like about Disneyland. They have already announced the dates and speakers for Disneyworld why can't Disneyland do the same?

I think this has to do with the history and tradition of Disneyland's Town Square Candlelight vs. Walt Disney World's.

At Disneyland...Town Square Candlelights have always been almost an unpublished/unadvertised event that was never meant to draw more business like most heavily promoted events do.

At Walt Disney World, this is a regular scheduled major entertainment event with far-in-advance bookings that span performance dates over many weeks, and is heavily advertised.

At Disneyland...they've always been known to pay nothing or next to nothing (scale) for their Town Square Guest Speakers. At Disneyland...it's usually always been more of an "invite" than a "hire." What happens is they usually invite the "big name" who they want and that person (if interested) usually give a conditional agreement to appear. What this means if that they will appear if no other better big buck offers come up and they remain available. They usually agree to finally give their firm commitment one way or the other X number of weeks prior to Candlelight. And it's usually not that far in advance.

Walt Disney World "contracts" and pays their speakers as any other sort of "talent" performance agreement.

Therefore, Disneyland usually has a back-up "short list" of possible speakers that they know they can get at short notice. Very often they have to fall back on this backup list, as their first choice becomes unavailable near the last moment. You can often tell if they had to fall back on the backup list by the "stature" of the person that ends up showing up. ;)

Because of this special nature of Disneyland's Town Square Candlelights...they don't usually advertise far in advance who the Guest Speaker is, because they don't know for sure if they will make it. And they don't want folks to be making their plans just because who the Guest Speaker is...because it's very possible that that Guest Speaker might not show up.

SeansMom
08-19-2006, 02:04 PM
Because of this special nature of Disneyland's Town Square Candlelights...they don't usually advertise far in advance who the Guest Speaker is, because they don't know for sure if they will make it. And they don't want folks to be making their plans just because who the Guest Speaker is...because it's very possible that that Guest Speaker might not show up.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing that :).

WITron
08-22-2006, 01:03 AM
It still would have been nice to know when. I really didn't care who the narator was. I just wanted my family to experience it and it made it hard to do that not knowing exactly when it was going to be.