*thisclose*

[captain_slinky]

Alaska Airlines is having a pretty good sale right now, which got us looking at trips to Disneyland, which got my blood pumping. Between Crystal and I, we were able to put together a package that was right around $1,000 less than the "Magic Travel" specialists could get us for the exact same trip (the "Magic Travel" isn't a Travel Agent, they don't collect a fee or a percentage or anything, not sure how they work). So basically, Crystal and I are awesome at this stuff!

SO AWESOME, in fact, that we went a step further and researched the park at that time of year (May 8 to May 14) and decided against the trip. Space Mountain, Alice In Wonderland and Soarin' Over California will be *closed* for refurbishment (among other things) during that time :(

So here's where things get tricky in planning our next trip...

2014 is going to be a Year Of Refurbishments,with everything getting the old spit-n-polish in preparation for 2015 - Disneyland's 60th Birthday. No actual plans have been announced as far as I know, beyond a little bit of merchandise, but there were HUGE PLANS in place before DIsney World lost a lot of money on their Magic Wristband Thingees (a special bracelet that racks you through the parks and lets you charge stuff to your room, get your fast passes, take care of admission, etc). There's also the Tomorrowland movie which will be coming out this year which should spark some extended refurbishment of Tomorrowland, as well as the semi-long-range plans to update Tomorrowland in to a "Star Wars Land". 2014 and 2015 are going to be two solid years of big changes that will have an effect on crowd size and ride availability :/

So we look at our options.

At first glance, the most desirable time to visit would be Halloween - but we've already done that once AND Halloween falls on a Friday this year (Teens and young adults think it is their duty to get drunk in public whenever a Holiday falls on a weekend), which could mean large/unruly crowds. Also, Halloween night is usually the last night of fireworks till after they film the Christmas parade.

Second choice is the week that Russell and aurora77 went, which I *think* was the first week of December? I'm sure I'll see a comment soon reminding me of when it was :) Their field report was glowing, with extremely manageable crowd levels, all the Christmas stuff up and in full swing, plus it would be our chance to tick another Big Item off the Disney To-Do List - Go To The Park AT Christmastime :) Down sides to this could potentially be TONS of refurbishment and ride closures due to getting ready for the 60th Birthday. The period between Halloween and Christmas is an "Off Season" period, ripe for closing stuff down and getting it ready.

Third choice is to wait till they announce what's happening for the 60th Birthday. Rumors abound with stuff like the return of the Main Street Electrical Parade, a temporary return of Circlevision (complete with the original films), updates and changes to all the dark rides in Fantasyland, limited return performances of the Hula dinner show in Adventureland, a revival of the original Golden Horse Shoe Review show... of course all of this may never actually happen and Disney will just wait till the 75th Birthday before they do anything of note. And even if they *do* have this stuff happen for a limited time, it'll draw in crowds like crazy! Look what happened when they put up some tinsel and garland at The Jungle Cruise - wait times of up to 2 hours!

Comments

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

A friend told me a couple of nights ago that when they stayed at a Disney owned hotel in Orlando they bought an unadvertised meal plan. It was $20 per day and included 3 meals and 2 snacks at any Disney property. She said they ate at the Japanese steakhouse even and it was included in the $20. She didn't know if they still did it and at the time you had to inquire about it as it wasn't advertised in any way but she said they had more food than they could eat.

Have you heard of anything like this? We are taking a (secret to Caleb) trip to Disney World in March.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

It's called the "Disney Dining Plan", and in DIsney WORLD it's awesome (much more flexible, plus they have about a bazillion different restaurants spread across the whole resort)... in Disney LAND, for some reason, they put some very strict limitations on how and when you're allowed to use the vouchers (there's a very ill-defined line between "sit-down dining" and "casual dining"), plus there's no differentiation between an expensive "Snack" and a cheap one ($8 turkey leg costs you the same as a $4 Churro costs you the same as a $1.50 sucker).

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

Cool. Thanks for the info. I'll probably be calling on you vast Disney knowledge as the trip draws nearer.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

But of course! That's like my favorite thing in the world to do!!!

[aurora77]

We would have gone the first week of December, which has the lowest crowd ratings of that time period, except that it meant we would have been traveling on the weekend after Thanksgiving, so no cheap flights. That caveat applies this year, too. So we went the second week of December. The crowds were light overall, but the things that still took a long time were the Cars ride, Midway Mania, Jingle Cruise and It's a Small World. We wouldn't have done the Cars ride if it wasn't for Fastpass, and those go quick! Lots of little changes for Christmas, so I think it's worth going if they aren't doing a ton of work.

The Jingle Cruise wasn't terribly different. New music and old-timey radio bits while waiting. Some lights and decorations. A couple of different jokes. Updated boat names. I was hoping for a little more on the cruise, but the rest of the Christmas stuff made up for it. It's a Small World was lovely, though! And your family would adore the Haunted Mansion! Each area of the park has different decorations appropriate to it. Some great touches throughout.

The only major things closed for refurb were Big Thunder Mountain and Grizzly Rapids. The Storybookland stuff was closed the first few days we were there, but it opened on the last day and we got to ride the boats.

It seems that the Matterhorn, Midway Mania, and Indiana Jones kept having issues and were stopped pretty often, so I'd recommend hitting those up early so you can get them out of the way.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

There were a lot of complaints about the Jingle Cruise, about not being enough of a change to justify the huge lines and such... but folks have to remember that even the Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion overlay started out as just new music and a few tiny cosmetic changes :) I'm getting excited, this just might happen! Our only problem is that Christmas is always REALLY BUSY for us, personally...

[riotgrrl75.livejournal.com]

We went the day following thanksgiving for a week and it was great. All the Christmas stuff was in full swing, and we avoided having any days that were taken over by the Christmas party, which we didn't want to pay extra for. The crowds were manageable and we rode and did everything we wanted to do. Plus the park is so amazingly beautiful that time of year and both the haunted mansion and small world were in their glory! We had done Christmas day - New Years day at WDW a couple years before and it was complete chaos, which is what I expected when we did Disneyland. We bought are tickets for the flight way in advance and were able to get a pretty decent deal too. Good luck! We did a spur of the moment trip to WDW in October for the food and wine festival and it was amazing..I really loved the Magic bands.. they were so convenient and fun to use.. plus the bling was awesome!~

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Avoiding the Christmas Party / Candlelight Vigil nights at Christmas time are the trickiest part... it's looking more and more likely, though :)

[colloween.livejournal.com]

I would like to hire you to arrange our trip to WDW. It be BEYOND magic!!!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

My magic doesn't work on Disney World, otherwise I'd love to help :) Disney World is just too *big* and *controlled* to create any magic...