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AliCat
08-16-2006, 08:23 PM
Hi all, I just had to change our Christmastime Disney trip due to my kids school changing their Christmas break from last year. I'm so lucky that we were still able to get the DLH w/concierge that I had previously reserved. The CM who helped me was great as they weren't sure we could get the last night there in the same room w/concierge. We didn't really want to check out on Christmas day, so now we have that extra night and all is well. We've never actually stayed on Christmas before, we've always gone that week before and checked out as late as Christmas Eve, but this will be a first for us to spend Christmas at Disneyland. Any tips or suggestions from those who have done it? Thanks in advance!

DisneyDustin22
08-16-2006, 09:28 PM
Try not to let the crowds really bother you. Christmas at DL is surreal. Probably one of if not the best time you will ever have there. The Christmas decorations, music, parade, everything just brings a whole new level of magic to the resort.

AliCat
08-17-2006, 04:52 PM
Hi, thanks for your thoughts. We have been going at Christmas for the past few years, just right before the big day. We love all the decorations, it really puts us in the holiday mood. We have just never stayed through Christmas and hope that we can make our room at the hotel as "Christmassy" as possible. The crowds don't bother us too much, it really wasn't bad last year. We were there from the 17th through the 21st, so maybe the big crowds came later...

rentayenta
08-17-2006, 07:23 PM
We spent December 19-26, 2004 at the DLR and it was amazing. Make sure you order a Christmas Tree and stockings from Vacation Planning. They are cute but $$$. We had the bell-desk hold the kids' gifts from Santa and then bring them up on Christmas Eve after they went to sleep- it was so cool! The park didn't get crowded until Christmas Day, up until then it was perfect. Holiday cheer in the air and not too many people.


Have a very merry holiday!

GrumpyUTboi
08-17-2006, 08:40 PM
Hated it! I did not listen to people like Rent that said it would be busy. In 4 hours we got to ride Splash Mountain and POTC. It was wall to wall people, the park was closed by 10-10:30, and the magic of Christmas was lost in the sea of people. I WILL never go to DL near Christmas ever again.

People will say hear that we needed to get caught up in the moment, you cant with so many people crammed into the park. No place to sit to take a break, the lines for food were 30-40 min, then once you got the food there was no place to sit and on and on. I will take my kids out of school for a couple of days for the end of OCT slash the forst week of Nov. There are enough Christmas decorations up the first week of Nov to satisfy anyone.

I cant tell you what the parade was like since we could not see it. If we wanted to see the parade we would have had to stake out our spot 2 hrs before hand.

As you can tell it was not a good experience and when we left all I could think about it how we spent 5k on a not so fun experience. Let me take that back, we grew to love DCA. There were hardly any crowds there.

Malcon10t
08-17-2006, 09:22 PM
We spend Christmas to New Years at Disneyland each year. Our experience is vastly different than Grumpy. We LOVE the park during that week. The park generally has ticket sales halted, and will on occasion have gate closures between noon and 3. We didn't experience any last year. We found a place to sit on a bench on main street for the parade 20 mins before the parade on Christmas Eve began (to my daughter's dismay, she hates waiting on a parade.) We (party of 8) didn't have issues with seating at Hungry Bear or at Pizza Port. Don't remember where else we ate off hand. The mood was great. Rides weren't bad, DCA was a breeze, and DL was normal waits as the summer.

I equate Christmas crowds with summer crowds, the big difference is no heat, which leads to better moods overall to me.

I think if you go knowing it will be busy it will be fun.

pisces
08-18-2006, 08:27 AM
I'm excited about being there on the exact day of...

These past two years, I've always arrived one or two days after....which still makes a lot of fun that week.

But this year, I get to spend all day Christmas Eve, and all day Christmas at the Park!