Originally Posted By dresswhites maybe it is just me, but it seems christmas is coming to the park slower than in years past. i seem to recall last year at this time, and almost all the decorations, including the tree were up. this visit, new orleans and small world mall were the only places decorated. main street had a few, critter country and frontierland didn't have any. also they weren't doing the small world projections. maybe i am wrong, maybe most the decorations are put up later. i just seem to recall that they were up at this time last year. by the way what was up, small world and new orleans look spetacular.
Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains Last year it kicked off over Veterens Day - this year it starts on the 16th.
Originally Posted By RaiderMouse Probably because they take Halloween so serious now Christmas prep is pushed back
Originally Posted By Darkbeer Yes, Disney has officially pushed back the start of the Christmas season a week. Mutiple reasons why. As mentioned earlier, HalloweenTime is now a major event, and many departments wanted a bigger break, the 2 main ones are Marketing and the staff that does the decorating. Another big one is the fact that more and more schools are not returning to clases until after Three Kings Day, which requires Disney to staff and offer increased entertainment for the first full week of January. So they basically pushed the Christmas budget back a week, so they can end a week later.
Originally Posted By bean There was also a few complains and criticism from guests a couple years ago that Disney was pushing the Christmas Holiday to early. Years back the Holiday was not really started till Thanksgiving weekend. During the Cynthia era Christmas was creeping closer and closer to the Halloween season. Meanwhile big Holidays like Halloween were being ignored. As Haloween gets bigger and bigger the Christmas Holiday will get closer to what it used to be. This allows for proper timing and seperation between Haloween and Christmas. The only offering tooverlap will be NBC overlay in the Haunted Mansion
Originally Posted By Darkbeer To be fair, this weekend did not have the capacity crowds that the last few Veteran's Day weekends have offered, which is good overall, it let's the holiday weekend folks have a "nicer" park, but without the Christmas stuff. (Except "iaswh", which opened this weekend in case the capacity crowds showed up and they needed the extra capacity), now in 2008, who knows if they can get the major refurb done in time, I have heard it might not be ready for Veteran's Day Weekend, which might not be as big of a deal, as the actual holiday will fall on Tuesday, and most folks will have to go to school/work on the Monday. And they can offer the extra week in January. It really seems like Disney made the right decision on moving everything back a week for the Christmas stuff.
Originally Posted By NJ AP We went the past couple of years after New Years Day. The first year was awesome ... it poured and we had the park to ourselves. Last year it was INSANE. The place was packed and the CMs were (very understandably) tired. Pushing things back a week to acknowledge that the kiddies are off the first week in January, too, is a great idea. Those decoration people work very hard. BTW, we thought it was pretty busy on Saturday, but noticed there were not the capacity crowds we were fearing. The filming just tied everything up on Main Street and threw off our routine. Even DCA was crowded in the afternoon.
Originally Posted By TinksBestFriend I agree with NJ AP assessment of Saturday. I seemed, because of the number of trams running in the morning Disneyland was expecting larger crowds. It was interesting watching the taping of the cast of HSM. Interesting but not exciting, at least to me. I did not know Josh Groban would be performing at 8:00 A.M. so I did not see him. Starting at about 11:30 it was Parade Time with Ryan Seacrest. Since it will be on ABC TV on Christmas I'll let you decide.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer Lisa an dI went to both Knott's and Disneyland today. Knott's was packed, with long lines everywhere. By the time we got to Disneyland (around 6:30 PM), the lines were very short. Photos are coming soon, but small world holiday was almost a walkon. A big difference from Veteran'd Day 2006. Disney made the right call, and didn't schedule a "Double" Whammy, being the holiday weekend and the start of the Christmas stuff on the same weekend.
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Another big one is the fact that more and more schools are not returning to clases until after Three Kings Day>> More properly known as the Feast of the Epiphany. Also known as the 12th day of Christmas. AFAIK, only in Latin culture is it referred to as Kings Day (Dia de Reyes), in honor of the Magi. From what I have read LA Hispanics have been a driving force in getting the local school districts to observe this Catholic holiday.
Originally Posted By BoyStory <-----was seriously wondering was "Three Kings Day" was...Thanks fkurucz
Originally Posted By dlkozy >>>"this Catholic holiday."<<<< Many Christian religions celebrate this holiday.
Originally Posted By BoyStory Hmmm, I'm a Christian (Protestant) and had never heard of it. Our kids don't return to school until Jan 7th- don't know if that has anything to do with TKD though.
Originally Posted By fkurucz The Feast of the Epiphany is celebrated by some Protestant denominations (Anglican comes to mind). In Spanish speaking countries it is a major holiday. In the old days, prior to Santa/Father Christmas being imported from the US and Europe, this was the day that children received their Christmas presents, and the Magi (The 3 Kings) would be the bearers of those gifts. While the scriptures are silent on the number of Magi who visited Jesus, tradition assumed that they were 3, because of the the 3 gifts of Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh. In later centuries the western tradition was expanded to give them names: Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar (eastern churches give them other names). The tradition expanded further by giving them racial identities: African, European and Arabic.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^And I should point out that in some LatAm countries the tradition of the kings has prevailed over Santa.
Originally Posted By smeeeko ^Three Kings Day is also celebrated in Germany. It's a holiday where a lot of the locals get a day off from work. I don't think it's just Catholic or just Latin American.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros It's also a big holiday in New Orleans. It's the kick off of the Mardi Gras season (yup, it's a whole season, not just a couple days). To celebrate, they have what's called a King Cake, which is like an oval shaped coffee cake topped with purple, green, and gold sugar frosting. Inside is a plastic baby, and the person who gets the piece with the baby in it has to throw the party the next year.
