The TCD Gang Jump Starts Christmas: An Early November Fort Trip Report

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Wow, the Christmas parade has changed since we last saw it!  Great update!

[Helmsey......Todd 134]

Great pics of the Christmas parade! Thanks for sharing.

[shoreline99 137]

Great update!

 

I meant to ask, what is your opinion of the new decorations and lighting on Main Street now that they no longer have the overhead strands (assumed to have been taken out because of the tall parade floats in the festival of fantasy parade)?

[Memphis 105]

I have to wonder what those horses think.  They spend their off time in the very tranquil FW and then come to the madness of the MK for part of their work life.  They must think humans are a strange lot. 

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Great update and pix.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

"He's probably going to wreck it, too".

Lol!

 

Very good, Brandy.

 

You get a gold star for actually reading, and not just looking at the pictures.

 

There's some funny stuff in there, folks.  Slow down and read it.

 

Wow, the Christmas parade has changed since we last saw it!  Great update!

 

In my opinion, the parades are the best part of the Halloween and Christmas parties.  They are loaded with fun and different things to see.  And, it's nice to pull up a seat on the curb on Main Street and just watch it all go by.

 

Great pics of the Christmas parade! Thanks for sharing.

 

Glad you liked the parade photos.  I have a few more.

 

Great update!

 

I meant to ask, what is your opinion of the new decorations and lighting on Main Street now that they no longer have the overhead strands (assumed to have been taken out because of the tall parade floats in the festival of fantasy parade)?

 

The new wreaths are nice, but I really liked the lighted garland decorations that are now gone.

 

You are correct that the garland strung across Main Street had to go because of the height of the Festival of Fantasy floats.

 

So, in my opinion, the old decorations were better.

 

I have to wonder what those horses think.  They spend their off time in the very tranquil FW and then come to the madness of the MK for part of their work life.  They must think humans are a strange lot. 

 

I never thought about what the horses think.  You're right- what a huge difference there is between the tranquil Fort and the crazy MK.  Poor things.

 

Great update and pix.

 

Glad you liked.

 

There's more on the way.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Let's finish up with the Christmas parade photos.

 

We left off with Cinderella's coach pulled by the Fort Wilderness ponies.

 

We were on Prince Charming's side:

 

 

Two more royal pooper-scoopers:

 

 

Some fancy dancers.  They sure do have a lot of performers in this parade:

 

 

If you've ever seen a parade at the MK, you'll recognize this next float.  It's nice, but it's been around forever.  They load all the princesses on it. For Christmas, they slap on some garland and ornaments, and they're good to go:

 

 

There's Ariel and Eric:

 

 

And the Fairy God Mother.  I wonder how she feels about getting booted from the Castle Lighting ceremony by those Frozen sisters?:

 

 

This clown in the small car was annoying.  She looked for kids who were asleep in strollers along Main Street, and pulled up in front of them and laid on the horn:

 

 

We had a sleeping kid a few people down from us, and we were lucky that the clown stopped right in front of us to blast the horn.  I don't think anyone appreciated that.  Especially not the parents of the sleeping kid:

 

 

They have everything in this parade:

 

 

This float didn't have any characters on it.  I think it was supposed to be a music box:

 

 

Next came a bunch of elves and the Toy Story characters:

 

 

You can see Jessie here.  Woody and Bullseye were on that float too:

 

 

I love the Toy Soldiers:

 

 

It seems like there were more of them than ever this year:

 

 

When the dancing reindeer show up, you know that the Big Guy can't be far behind:

 

 

Sure enough, the Big Guy was next.  And he also was the end of the parade:

 

 

You can see the time on the clock in that last photo.  You can also see that there is a huge crowd following Santa.  They are all on their way out.  But, it's only 11:07 pm.  And the party doesn't end until midnight.

 

No way were we leaving now.

 

We headed up Main Street, fighting our way through the crowd that was leaving.

 

You'll hear about how we finished up the Christmas party in the next update.

 

Since we have some room for some more photos, I'll use this space to show you some interesting things about the floats in the parade.

 

First, that Olaf float.  This one:

 

 

They used that float in the Frozen processional they had at Hollywood Studios over the summer. The strange thing there is that the float was always empty.  Like this:

 

 

And this:

 

 

Which was always strange.

 

Why have an empty house roll down the street?

 

The Twins heard a rumor that Olaf was supposed to be in the summer parade. But, there was some issue with the costume.  Now that we see the Olaf costume, I don't understand why they didn't have it ready to use in the summer parade.

 

Strange.

 

BTW- I bet Scrooge McDuck is not real happy that he got booted from the parade in favor of that stupid no-skulled snowman:

 

 

It turns out that Scrooge must have sold the house to Donald, as he and Daisy were on it last year:

 

 

Then there's this Kristoff float.  He got the whole thing to himself:

 

 

That is not his float either.

 

That float always belonged to the Chipmunks:

 

 

 

 

 

I was wrong about this float with Wreck it Ralph on it.  I thought it used to be Donald's.  But, I was mistaken:

 

 

It turns out it was Clarabelle Cow's:

 

 

Poor Clarabelle has now returned to obscurity.  And that guy with the freakishly big hands probably isn't giving the house back.

 

Maybe it's not interesting to you, but it's interesting to me how they continually re-use the floats.  Very smart on Disney's part.  And most guests probably don't even notice.

 

TCD

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

I am guessing that there might be another update today, because that one was rather short.  

 

And hopefully another update tomorrow.

 

So do I wait and hope that I am right, and then I can have two updates to read over the weekend?  there are plenty of other TR's to spend my time on while I wait.

 

Decisions, decisions!

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Your comparison of how they use the different floats in various parades is very interesting. 

 

What is also interesting to me is to see how the floats have changed over the years. 

 

They have certainly gotten larger and "grander" in many ways.  I went back to my old photos from my first trip to WDW for Christmas 1977 because I knew I had a picture of Santa's float in the Christmas parade that year.  Let's compare. 

 

Here is the current float for Santa:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is Santa's float from 1977:

 

 

 

Unfortunately you can't see the bottom of the float, but it's amazing how the sleigh just sits up there.  I actually find it kind of cool that they had Santa up so high like his sleigh was actually flying. 

 

Also note that I must have watched the parade in Frontierland.  You can see the HM and the Steamboat in the background. 

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

I love the family pictures in front of the castle! 

 

Servers who disappear SMB. 

 

That parade looks awesome. Any word on if it will show the week of Christmas for non-party guests? 

[The Troll 67]

Please remain calm. This thread is being hijacked by the Troll.

 

I have some Troll Rants to share.

 

1. The Toy Story Mania "ride" opened in 2008. Over the past six years, Mrs. Troll and I have been to DW dozens upon dozens of times but were never able to "ride" it because the standby line was always over two hours long and all the walk up fast passes for the entire day had been hogged up by 7AM. But thanks to the magic of the not-so-magical Magic Band, we were able to finally "ride" it. Let's be clear -- it is not a ride. It hardly even rates as an attraction. In fact, the queue qualifies as an attraction more than the actual "ride" does. The "ride" itself is a Wii-quality video game. A cheap shooting gallery video game. Very similar to ones on the Wii and the Super Nintendo from 1986. Why are people arranging vacation days around this atrocity?

2. WTF with the hightop tables on the porch? They don't even match. They look like crap purchased from the local Bass Pro shop. Since Day 1 of the Fort's opening, rocking chairs lined that porch. Now crappy bar tables that don't match and no one sits at. Fail.

 

3. The Mine Train ride. For real? I mean, for real? The Goofy Barnstormer rollercoaster that runs into a cave to show you one scene of faux animatronic dwarfs? Yes, faux. See, Disney is copying Universal in making these cheap, unconvincing "animatronics" where the faces are just computer monitors and the "face" is some cheesy animation running on a computer somewhere. High school kids could achieve the same effect. And the roller coaster sucks. Short, not thrilling in any way, cheap theming...fail. Take that Main Train and those hightop nonmatching bar tables and bury them in a landfill under cement, right next to the old ET cartridges.

 

4. Passholder discount con. "Sorry, sir, I know this is a Disney restaurant and all and that we advertise a discount to con you into buying season passes, but if you read the very, very fine print, it clearly states that the discount is only available in, oh, maybe three locations. And all those locations suck. Which is fitting, seeing that you, sir, are a sucker."

 

5. Inability to link passholder discount con to "magic" band. "Yes, sir, these Magic Bands contain RFID chips that allow us to track your movements anywhere on our property and then take unsolicited pictures and videos of you and email them to you to con you into buying them, but technological limitations prevent us from being able to record your passholder discount status on the band. Sorry. Would you like a free Duffy coloring book page on a stick?"

 

6. Himalaya treks. Who the hell would pay to do that?

 

OK, hijack over.

 

Oh, hi, Andrew.

[The Troll 67]

Double post. Sorry.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I am guessing that there might be another update today, because that one was rather short.  

 

And hopefully another update tomorrow.

 

So do I wait and hope that I am right, and then I can have two updates to read over the weekend?  there are plenty of other TR's to spend my time on while I wait.

 

Decisions, decisions!

 

To help you plan, I am going to try to post another update today.  It looks good that will happen.

 

And, the good Lord willing, there will be another tomorrow.  Then there should be updates on Monday and Tuesday next week, and this one will be done.

 

I need to get it finished because I've got things to do over Thanksgiving, followed by something else the following weekend.

 

 

Your comparison of how they use the different floats in various parades is very interesting. 

 

What is also interesting to me is to see how the floats have changed over the years. 

 

They have certainly gotten larger and "grander" in many ways.  I went back to my old photos from my first trip to WDW for Christmas 1977 because I knew I had a picture of Santa's float in the Christmas parade that year.  Let's compare. 

 

Here is the current float for Santa:

 

 

And here is Santa's float from 1977:

 

 

 

Unfortunately you can't see the bottom of the float, but it's amazing how the sleigh just sits up there.  I actually find it kind of cool that they had Santa up so high like his sleigh was actually flying. 

 

Also note that I must have watched the parade in Frontierland.  You can see the HM and the Steamboat in the background. 

 

 

Thanks for sharing that photo.  I agree- very strange how that sleigh is just perched up there like that. 

 

And the view of Haunted Mansion is interesting. I think there are trees blocking that view now.

 

I love the family pictures in front of the castle! 

 

Servers who disappear SMB. 

 

That parade looks awesome. Any word on if it will show the week of Christmas for non-party guests? 

 

Our good friend, Devores, reported on another thread that there was a rumor circulating that the Christmas parade would only be performed during the Christmas parties this year, and that only the FOF parade would be performed.

 

He admitted that it was only a rumor, but he thought it was going to play out.

 

However, the official MK calendar still shows that the Christmas parade will be performed during regular MK hours from 12/20 through 12/31.  Here's a link to the calendar:  http://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_december.pdfhttp://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_december.pdf

 

And, here's a screen shot I took, which shows the dates of 12/21 through 12/27, and that the calendar was last updated on 11/13:

 

 

At this point, it looks like the Christmas parade is going to be performed twice per day during regular park hours beginning 12/20/14.

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

The Christmas parade just doesn't look right without the garland!

[Helmsey......Todd 134]

 

 

They used that float in the Frozen processional they had at Hollywood Studios over the summer. The strange thing there is that the float was always empty.  Like this:

 

 

And this:

 

 

Which was always strange.

 

Why have an empty house roll down the street?

 

 

Maybe he started out on the float and found out that instead of a happy snowman he would in fact be a puddle "in summer"?

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Love the comparison photos.

The Fort ponies make the whole parade.

They can recycle floats and add little changes to them to use them in new parades, but they don't have enough brains to fix a piece of canvas. WTF?!

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Our good friend, Devores, reported on another thread that there was a rumor circulating that the Christmas parade would only be performed during the Christmas parties this year, and that only the FOF parade would be performed.

 

He admitted that it was only a rumor, but he thought it was going to play out.

 

However, the official MK calendar still shows that the Christmas parade will be performed during regular MK hours from 12/20 through 12/31.  Here's a link to the calendar:  http://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_december.pdfhttp://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/ParkHours/WDWTravelAgent_december.pdf

 

And, here's a screen shot I took, which shows the dates of 12/21 through 12/27, and that the calendar was last updated on 11/13:

 

 

At this point, it looks like the Christmas parade is going to be performed twice per day during regular park hours beginning 12/20/14.

 

TCD

 

So no FOF parade that week?  That's not cool. 

[alexwyattmommy 181]

Love the comparison photos.

The Fort ponies make the whole parade.

They can recycle floats and add little changes to them to use them in new parades, but they don't have enough brains to fix a piece of canvas. WTF?!

Amen!

 

 

The parade photos are good, the commentary funny and woohoo The Troll.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

WHOA!
 
The Troll!
 
Great to see a post from you, Norm.
 
Does this mean a Troll visit is about to occur?  Seems like around Thanksgiving is Troll time at the Fort.
 
My responses to your excellent ranting:
 

1. The Toy Story Mania "ride" opened in 2008. Over the past six years, Mrs. Troll and I have been to DW dozens upon dozens of times but were never able to "ride" it because the standby line was always over two hours long and all the walk up fast passes for the entire day had been hogged up by 7AM. But thanks to the magic of the not-so-magical Magic Band, we were able to finally "ride" it. Let's be clear -- it is not a ride. It hardly even rates as an attraction. In fact, the queue qualifies as an attraction more than the actual "ride" does. The "ride" itself is a Wii-quality video game. A cheap shooting gallery video game. Very similar to ones on the Wii and the Super Nintendo from 1986. Why are people arranging vacation days around this atrocity?

You made some valid points there. When you take away the hype, the Toy Story ride isn't anything special. But, for some reason, it's addicting. I think a big reason for its ridiculous popularity is that there really isn't much else to do in Hollywood Studios. I understand that it's not anywhere near as crazy popular in Disneyland.
 

2. WTF with the hightop tables on the porch? They don't even match. They look like crap purchased from the local Bass Pro shop. Since Day 1 of the Fort's opening, rocking chairs lined that porch. Now crappy bar tables that don't match and no one sits at. Fail.

I agree with you 100% here. I'd love to hear an explanation for why they did this. Have I ever shared my opinions about the Fort managers with you?

 

3. The Mine Train ride. For real? I mean, for real? The Goofy Barnstormer rollercoaster that runs into a cave to show you one scene of faux animatronic dwarfs? Yes, faux. See, Disney is copying Universal in making these cheap, unconvincing "animatronics" where the faces are just computer monitors and the "face" is some cheesy animation running on a computer somewhere. High school kids could achieve the same effect. And the roller coaster sucks. Short, not thrilling in any way, cheap theming...fail. Take that Main Train and those hightop nonmatching bar tables and bury them in a landfill under cement, right next to the old ET cartridges.

LOL.

That Mine Train description is pretty accurate. It could have and should have been so much more. But, now that the dust has settled, I like it. We never ride the Goofy Roller Coaster anymore. If I can ride the Mine Train with a FP+, so there's no wait, I enjoy it.

 

4. Passholder discount con. "Sorry, sir, I know this is a Disney restaurant and all and that we advertise a discount to con you into buying season passes, but if you read the very, very fine print, it clearly states that the discount is only available in, oh, maybe three locations. And all those locations suck. Which is fitting, seeing that you, sir, are a sucker."

Yup. You're right about that. There's not much value to the so-called AP discounts.

 

5. Inability to link passholder discount con to "magic" band. "Yes, sir, these Magic Bands contain RFID chips that allow us to track your movements anywhere on our property and then take unsolicited pictures and videos of you and email them to you to con you into buying them, but technological limitations prevent us from being able to record your passholder discount status on the band. Sorry. Would you like a free Duffy coloring book page on a stick?"

Right again! To get the AP discount, you need your special discount card plus a photo ID. So what's the MagicBand for?

 

6. Himalaya treks. Who the hell would pay to do that?

What's the Himalaya Trek? Never heard of it.

TCD

[dvccamper 32]

The clown in the car (who looks like a man to me) is either A) not a parent, or B just plain stupid.

So is there a person in that Olaf? From a picture it's hard to tell if it's a costume or an animatronic.

[The Troll 67]

Leslie and I are on the tail end of a Fort trip right now. On our first night here, we looped the loops and saw the TCD setup in the 100 loop. I looked forward to seeing you, but evidently you guys bugged out the next day. Darn.

 

Believe it or not, I actually prefer the Barnstormer over the piece of jit Mine Train. I appreciate its simple austere theming. It is what it is. Simple and clever. The Mine Train, on the other hand, is a con. Like pro wrestling. They're trying to trick us into believing it's something that it's not. I mean, seriously. It's a ripoff. I feel the same way about the entire Fantasyland "upgrade." It's an escalator to nowhere. Everything there with the exception of the live action Gaston sucks. Empty and hollow.

 

Last night we were at MK and as we passed Rapunzel's "tower" and this smart little girl who looked to be about eight said, "That's it?! That's not what I had pictured."

 

Exactly. Get the bulldozer and wrecking ball. Start over.

 

Have you noticed now that there are pretty much just three things at the parks -- rides, junk shops, and restaurants? That's it. Nothing else. If you're in the park and you have two hours to kill until your next Fast Pass, you can browse a junk shop for the same merchandise they sell at the Orlando Walmart or you can eat something. Or you can stand in line for 2+ hours for a three minute "experience" like Toy Story.

 

We were at the circus tent junk shop, killing time, and holy cow! You should have seen the Frozen Feeding Frenzy^TM! There were hands just appearing from left and right of everything I set eyes on, frantically ripping stuffed Olafs and baby Elsa dolls off the shelves! It was like what happens at the grocery stores in Miami as a category five hurricane is baring down.

 

Damn, people...it was just a movie! And it wasn't even all that good.

 

And why the hell do all the little girls want to be Elsa? Elsa was a mean, cold, ice princess -- literally. She created evil snow monsters to kill her sister. And she froze up her hometown because she was jealous of her sister for landing a handsome prince boyfriend.

 

"Let it go! Freeze your countrymen to death! Starve your asses off!"

 

Check this out:

"It's time to see what I can do

To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me,
I'm free!"

 

- Elsa, Evil Ice Princess

 

I did not make this up. These are the actual lyrics from that song. From a Disney movie. That made billions.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

The Christmas parade just doesn't look right without the garland!

 

I agree.  I really miss the garland.

 

I hear that they still have it at Disneyland.

 

Which has got me to thinking.

 

Maybe he started out on the float and found out that instead of a happy snowman he would in fact be a puddle "in summer"?

 

LOL.

 

They should have had a puddle of water and a pile of sticks on the float at DHS.

 

They can recycle floats and add little changes to them to use them in new parades, but they don't have enough brains to fix a piece of canvas. WTF?!

 

The folks in charge of the parade are not the same IM's who work at the Fort.

 

So no FOF parade that week?  That's not cool.

 

That's what it looks like to me.  No FOF from 12/20 through 12/31.  The fact that FOF is a new parade is what made me believe the rumor Devores reported. 

 

At the least, they ought to have one performance of each parade every day.  But, that would probably cost them too much in payroll, so forget that.

 

The parade photos are good, the commentary funny and woohoo The Troll.

 

Yeah!  This thread is picking up.

 

The clown in the car (who looks like a man to me) is either A) not a parent, or B just plain stupid.

So is there a person in that Olaf? From a picture it's hard to tell if it's a costume or an animatronic.

 

True about the clown.  I was surprised by it.  No one thought it was funny.

 

Is there a person in the Olaf?  My kids would kill me for saying this, but yes there is.  They have to maintain "character integrity," so if you asked them, they would say no-it's Olaf. 

 

But, yes, there is a person in there.  He or she is about the same height as Mickey Mouse, so they probably have plenty of CM's who can hop in there.  It's the same one who walks around the stage for the new castle lighting ceremony.

 

Leslie and I are on the tail end of a Fort trip right now. On our first night here, we looped the loops and saw the TCD setup in the 100 loop. I looked forward to seeing you, but evidently you guys bugged out the next day. Darn.

Well, darn.

You are having a nice long visit, though.

You certainly have enjoyed a wide range of weather.

 

And why the hell do all the little girls want to be Elsa? Elsa was a mean, cold, ice princess -- literally. She created evil snow monsters to kill her sister. And she froze up her hometown because she was jealous of her sister for landing a handsome prince boyfriend.

 

"Let it go! Freeze your countrymen to death! Starve your asses off!"

 

Check this out:

"It's time to see what I can do

To test the limits and break through

No right, no wrong, no rules for me,

I'm free!"

 

- Elsa, Evil Ice Princess

 

I did not make this up. These are the actual lyrics from that song. From a Disney movie. That made billions.

I'm with you here.

I've only seen Frozen once. My take away from it was that Elsa was the bad guy. I, too, am surprised that little girls prefer Elsa dresses to Anna.

My daughters have since explained to me how Elsa was simply misunderstood. OK. The world has gone crazy.

TCD

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

My daughter was Anna for Halloween and will be wearing her dress again at the BBB, during our upcoming trip.

Her best friend ay school was Elsa and so was her cousin that she went trick or treating with.

She prefers Anna.

[Seals 111]

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the thought process of most little girls who prefer Elsa dresses only goes as far as "she has the light blue sparkly dress."   Leave the personality analysis to the grownups, and Trolls.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

My daughter was Anna for Halloween and will be wearing her dress again at the BB. During our upcoming trip.

Her best friend ay school was Elsa and so was her cousin that she went trick or treating with.

She prefers Anna.

 

Your daughter is a smart young lady.

 

Anna rules.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the thought process of most little girls who prefer Elsa dresses only goes as far as "she has the light blue sparkly dress."   Leave the personality analysis to the grownups, and Trolls.

 

I would guess that you're probably right about that.  The Elsa dress is very sparkly.

 

LOL at taking a swipe at the Troll.

 

It's fun when he comes out to play.

 

TCD