SPEAKER_02: 0:03

Please stand clear of the doors. For favor, mantenganse a list with us with us. Please stand clear of the doors.

SPEAKER_00: 0:23

Hello everyone, I'm Alicia.

SPEAKER_02: 0:25

And I'm Nathan.

SPEAKER_00: 0:26

Welcome to episode 202 of Adventures and Mouscapades.

SPEAKER_02: 0:30

This week. Oh, you go ahead. What? This week we are trying to recover from having some of the biggest donuts we've ever had. Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 0:41

I mean, those things were huge.

SPEAKER_02: 0:42

Yes. There's a place in uh a town near where we live called Legendary Donuts. And they're they're legendary, like humongous. Yes. Um and delicious. Yes, very delicious. Yes, exactly. Uh half a donut was lunch. Anyhow, yeah. So let's record a podcast on a sugar high, shall we?

SPEAKER_00: 1:07

All right.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08

Let's do it. What are we talking about today?

SPEAKER_00: 1:10

We were talking about holiday season at Disney.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13

Ooh, I like holiday season at Disney.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16

The Christmas time, winter time, December time holidays.

SPEAKER_02: 1:20

Sounds like a plan. So we're going to cover both Disneyland and Disney World, basically taking a US centric view of things. Obviously, there's stuff going on in Paris and all the other spots. Uh, your your other you have other resources on the interwebs available uh for you to learn about all those. But we're just gonna kind of cover the U.S. domestic parks here.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44

Yep, yep, yep. We'll start with Disneyland Park.

SPEAKER_02: 1:48

All right, let's do it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:49

As with pretty much any holiday or season, there are new outfits for Mickey, Minnie, and their friends.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58

Excellent.

SPEAKER_00: 1:59

Are these new this year or just these are new this year? They are gold and red and green colors that shimmer with a holiday spin on their 70th celebration fit. So they're not only tying in the Christmassy holiday colors, they're also meshing it with the 70th anniversary costumes that they have.

SPEAKER_02: 2:20

All right. That sounds that sounds magical. Yeah. Other things that are magical, Sleeping Beauty Castle is all done up in icicle lights, wreaths, and garlands. Each evening during wintertime enchantment at Sleeping Beauty's Winter Castle. Oh my god, naming. The patented Disney snow or snope will fall, and a nice show of 80,000 lights comes to life with music. Can we do that to our house?

SPEAKER_00: 2:52

Um if we can find the resources. That's a lot of lights.

SPEAKER_02: 2:57

It is a lot of lights. We might need to upgrade our uh our electrical subsystem here. Oh, wow. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 3:04

This is just your your typical lights and projection show.

SPEAKER_02: 3:08

Yeah. Although music. Interestingly, I'm pretty sure our house is bigger than the castle in Disney.

SPEAKER_00: 3:14

Oh. I don't know. We'll have to we'll have to see if we can find the dimensions on Sleeping Beauty Castle.

SPEAKER_02: 3:20

Shots fired. I will give it like our house is not 67 feet tall, so it has us on height. But I'm I'm I'm pretty sure our house is uh rather comparable.

SPEAKER_00: 3:32

Alrighty. Not the other castle.

SPEAKER_02: 3:37

No, no, no, no, no. And I'm not saying like our house is the size of a castle. No. This is more just saying, like, hey, the castle in in California is is small. S-M-O-L small.

SPEAKER_00: 3:48

Small. And of course, there is a firework spectacular for the season. It is called believe dot dot dot in holiday magic. So there it's gonna be the yeah, I don't know what the dot dot dot is. I oh okay. Believe in holiday magic. Maybe just do that.

SPEAKER_02: 4:05

Yeah, just like that would be fine. You don't need to is this the uh like latest iteration in the believe series of I don't know. I I don't I don't think so. Anyhow.

SPEAKER_00: 4:17

There's gonna be flurries or snope. What would you call flurries with snope?

SPEAKER_02: 4:23

Um slurry, snur.

SPEAKER_00: 4:27

It'd still be flurries. It'd just be snope flurries. Yeah. There you go. Okay, flurries, yep. Flurries flurries along Main Street, USA, near it's a small world holiday, and along the rivers of America. The show itself is 15 minutes long, and it is currently scheduled at 9 30 p.m. every night starting on November 14th.

SPEAKER_03: 4:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 4:49

And I went through, I looked through the calendars like, is it actually every night? Because I know Anaheim has some rules about when they can have fireworks and stuff. And I'm guessing just for the holiday season, they have some sort of agreement, have modified it. Because it is literally every night starting on November 14th.

SPEAKER_02: 5:08

Disney fireworks and and like agreements with the neighbors feels like you know, like the Darth Vader line, like, pray I don't alter the deal further. Like they were there first, but whatever. Right. Exactly. Like y'all cut down orange groves to build houses. Like, don't complain to us.

SPEAKER_00: 5:25

But well, they definitely wouldn't complain to us.

SPEAKER_02: 5:30

True, that's very true. Although, if you're an Anaheim neighbor of Disneyland and want to come on uh our podcast and discuss, I I'm welcome to have it to learn more. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 5:40

We would be happy to.

SPEAKER_02: 5:41

Sure. Moving on. The Fantasyland Theater hosts holiday fun with Santa and friends exclamation point. This is a great setup. There are crafts, you can sing along with holiday songs, there's story time where you can listen to a Christmas carol. Animated shorts are being played, the Dickens Yuletide band will play music, snacks are available, and a photo area exists with winter scenes to choose from.

SPEAKER_00: 6:13

There's a lot of stuff happening in the sun and theater.

SPEAKER_02: 6:16

Yeah. Yeah. So animated shorts, like not clothing. Not clothing. Okay, got it. Darn it.

SPEAKER_00: 6:24

I knew you were gonna go there. Along with fireworks, you have to have a parade. Of course. A parade. It's called a Christmas fantasy parade. This is your classic Disney Christmas time parade with lots of characters and princesses, those dancing gingerbread cookies, the marching toy soldiers, and those weird reindeer things. Um they're on two legs. It's just freaky. Sorry. I love the reindeer. They are okay. I think they're weird. Thusly, those weird reindeer thingies. Okay, they're called reindeer.

unknown: 7:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 7:03

Okay. Those weird reindeer. And of course, it ends with Santa.

SPEAKER_02: 7:11

Santa, Santa, ho ho ho.

SPEAKER_00: 7:13

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 7:13

This was for those of you who had kids uh of of our kids' generation and know of which that comes from. Thank you, Disney Jr.

SPEAKER_00: 7:21

That was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02: 7:24

Yeah, on Disney Jr. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 7:26

Well, yeah, but Disney Jr. has lots of other shows too.

SPEAKER_02: 7:28

But no, it's just Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It's not.

SPEAKER_00: 7:32

All right. Um, this parade is listed at 40 minutes long.

SPEAKER_02: 7:36

Whoa, whoa.

SPEAKER_00: 7:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 7:39

That's impressive.

SPEAKER_00: 7:42

I'll have to look. I'll have to double check that. That seems really long. I remember when I saw it online, I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_02: 7:52

Like for the performers? Or like if you're in a stationary spot and watching the parade go by. I could see it being 40 minutes long for the performers. I mean, you know, we've marched parades before. It takes some time to get from point A to point B.

SPEAKER_00: 8:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 8:10

Huh. Interesting. If it's a 40-minute parade as you're sitting there and watching it, that's a lot of parade units.

SPEAKER_00: 8:18

Yes. Well, I I'm fairly certain they've already recorded the parade that they're gonna air um on television. I don't know if it's the Disneyland one or if it's the Disney World one. But we'll maybe both. Yeah, maybe. Who knows?

SPEAKER_02: 8:34

Scenes from both parks, I'm I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:37

We'll have to talk to someone and see how long the parade was.

SPEAKER_02: 8:40

Indeed. If you've been in Disneyland and want to tell us how long the parade was, you know, get in touch. We're we're all ears. Actually, we're not all ears. That's a completely different social media um uh venture. That's that's that's a different company. Disney also offers a guided tour called the Disneyland Resort Home for the Holidays guided tour. I mean it's it's a little long, but it's like as written, right? Yes. Uh this is a$120 per person tour and lasts two hours. You'll learn about Disneyland holiday traditions, and the tour includes reserved viewing for a Christmas fantasy parade. So the parade has to be less than two hours long. Um no, no, no, like afterwards.

SPEAKER_00: 9:27

It's not during the tour.

SPEAKER_02: 9:29

Okay, that makes sense. That makes sense. The tour also includes holiday treats, lightning lane access for Haunted Mansion holiday, and a collect good collectible. You get a pin. Look, it's it's a collectible, it's a cheap, a cheap steak. A keepsake. It's probably a pin. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00: 9:53

It might be uh it might be a um an ornament.

SPEAKER_02: 9:56

Oh, it might be an ornament.

SPEAKER_00: 9:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 9:59

Yeah. It's also probably not a cheap steak.

SPEAKER_00: 10:02

No, keepsake, my dear. Oh a collectible keepsake.

SPEAKER_02: 10:07

My brain's already on vacation. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00: 10:12

Holiday overlays for Disneyland. There's not too many. It's just the it's a small world holiday and haunted mansion holiday.

SPEAKER_02: 10:20

Both are excellent. Yes. Let's go across the Esplanade, shall we, and explore the holiday offerings in Disney's California Adventure Park TM.

SPEAKER_00: 10:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 10:35

What's going on over there, Alicia?

SPEAKER_00: 10:36

California Adventure has the Disney Festival of the Holidays, which is like kind of like the Epcot festivals, but they have them over at DCA. This is food, entertainment, festival merch, all that good stuff. Foth. Foth.

SPEAKER_02: 10:52

Foth.

SPEAKER_00: 10:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 10:54

Festival of the Holidays. Foth.

SPEAKER_00: 10:56

Foth. Yep. There's festival food booths, and you can buy a sip and saver pass, which helps you save as long as you use use the whole thing up. Helps you save on um just getting a whole bunch of food.

SPEAKER_02: 11:11

Yeah. It's basically a a a little barcode ornament thing that's on one of those little uh uh expandable wrist strappy things that these are the lanyards.

SPEAKER_00: 11:20

The sip and saver passes are the lanyards. They're pretty big.

SPEAKER_02: 11:23

Got it. Okay. So it's not like Disney World because why do anything the same?

SPEAKER_00: 11:27

No, no, no, no. They're two totally separate entities. They just have the same boss.

SPEAKER_02: 11:32

Right. Mickey Mouse is a big thing.

SPEAKER_00: 11:36

They have a cavalcade, not a full parade, so it's a little bit shorter. It's called Mickey's Happy Holidays. And there's a whole bunch of other just random stuff around the park, too, that that ties into the festival of the holidays. There's Mirabelle's Gifts of the Season. It is a Fiesta de Navidad celebration. There's stories and songs and all sorts of stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 11:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 11:58

Near Carthay Circle, there is a musical Christmas with mariachi, Alegra de Disneyland, and Miguel. So that's more stories and songs with a mariachi band, which is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02: 12:11

That's cool.

SPEAKER_00: 12:11

Then there's also Disney Viva Navidad, which is a street party fiesta. It is on Saturdays and Sundays, hosted by the three caballeros, which is Jose Carioca, Panchito, and Donald Duck in their fiesta best. This sounds really cool. I would love to see this sometime.

SPEAKER_02: 12:29

That does sound amazing. It's a very uh uh Spanish Hispanic twist on the holidays going on over in California. Yeah, that's pretty exciting. That's pretty great.

SPEAKER_00: 12:38

And then on January 6th, they celebrate Three Kings Day, where the three wise men are honored at Paradise Gardens.

SPEAKER_01: 12:46

That's cool.

SPEAKER_00: 12:47

And Disney also just announced that Storytime with Deadpool holiday special is coming back. Nice. Yeah. There are a couple of holiday overlays as well. There's Luigi's Joy to the well, I don't know what I said. Luigi's Luigi's. Luigi's Joy to the Whirl and Mater's Jingle Jamboree.

SPEAKER_02: 13:08

Okay, that one. Joy to the Whirl.

SPEAKER_00: 13:11

Joy to the Whirl.

unknown: 13:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 13:14

I don't think I've ever been on Luigi's Rollicking Roadsters. I've been on the Mater one because I love the Mater one.

SPEAKER_02: 13:22

We haven't, have we? That's kind of like the the Daisy dance scene, right?

SPEAKER_00: 13:27

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we've tried to go, but it's always really long. The lines are always really long for that. Well, someday we will have to hit that.

SPEAKER_02: 13:35

Yeah. And and by the way, when I just say like the Daisy's dance scene, Alicia knows what I'm talking about. Everybody listening to this, to this may be like, what? Huh? That's uh the scene in Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway where um uh you end up into Daisy's uh dance studio and she teaches you to uh salsa.

SPEAKER_00: 13:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 13:59

Yep, okay. I sorry, I don't know why I did the voice. Moving on. Over at the hotels of the Disneyland Resort, Storyteller's Cafe at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa TM has breakfast and brunch with Daisy's holiday pajama party. That sounds exciting.

SPEAKER_00: 14:22

The next one is what I what I really want to go to someday, though.

SPEAKER_02: 14:25

Okay, so dinner is oh, Mickey's Christmas Carol Feast. Features Clarabelle, Mickey, Minnie, Scrooge, and Goofy as Marley. This is new this year. Yes. They released the costume like artist renderings. Some I think it was over the summer. Yeah. And we're all like, okay, because they're like all ghosts. There, they are the three ghosts from Christmas Carol. And, you know, very blue and kind of translucent-y like art, not blue, well, just smart, just goofy, yeah. Yes, but there's that color scheme on the rest of them, too. Yeah. Uh, anyhow, and and the pictures just came out within the last week or so of the actual character costumes, and they nailed it. They look so good. This I yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:16

The costume innovation has just over the past couple of years, it is just really, they've really upped their game.

SPEAKER_02: 15:23

Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you could count on air travel to actually happen, it might be worth going down there to see, but uh, you can't, so we won't.

SPEAKER_00: 15:31

Nope, not this year.

SPEAKER_02: 15:32

Yeah, no, no, no. No. Of course, we we can't leave out Goofy's Kitchen because of course Goofy's Kitchen also celebrates the holidays exclamation point at Disneyland Hotel. I'm guessing there's some costumes.

SPEAKER_00: 15:47

Yeah. New costumes. That's about it.

SPEAKER_02: 15:49

Sounds great.

SPEAKER_00: 15:50

I'm sure they'll have some special foods in the buffet and everything, too.

SPEAKER_02: 15:53

But sure, they're gonna have, you know, like red and green icing on the like the cookie pizza or something like that.

SPEAKER_00: 15:59

Yeah, exactly. Mm-hmm. Yeah, never mind. And at Downtown Disney District, you can do Chip and Dale's ornament trail. Uh, you can purchase an activity map and find corresponding ornaments on decorated trees throughout the downtown Disney district. It's like one of those little scavenger hunt things. If you do this, I would recommend getting the prize when you pick up the map. That way you don't have to go back.

SPEAKER_02: 16:27

Yes, 100%.

SPEAKER_00: 16:28

You're gonna finish it anyway. You already paid for the prize, just get it.

SPEAKER_02: 16:31

Right. It's just you're not buying the like the the piece of paper that you're keeping track of things on. You're you're buying the thing at the end. It it's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 16:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 16:45

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 16:46

That was that was Disneyland. That's California. Sounds great. They do not have any after hours parties. Um I would love to see them do something like they do uh for Halloween and have a Jollywood style party at California Adventure. Maybe, maybe once Jollywood does a little bit better, they'll they'll have that come over to to Disneyland too.

SPEAKER_02: 17:12

Yeah, this is year three of Jollywood. I haven't heard any. Oh, actually, as we're recording this, tonight's the first Jollywood. Yep. And last night was the first um Mickey's. Very merry. Very merry, thank you. I almost said not so scary holiday party again. That's that's not what it is. Very merry. Very, very cool. So yeah, I I'm interested to hear what the uh what the word is on the street on on how Jollywood goes this year. We went last year and had an absolute blast.

SPEAKER_03: 17:45

Oh, we loved it.

SPEAKER_02: 17:46

Uh uh there was uh a rough start to it, I'll say, the the year before, from what we've heard, although a lot of it got ironed out. Last year, from you know, it was our first year, we loved it. Everybody who had done both years said it was much better. So yeah, I'm I'm excited to see where that goes and hopefully it continues to take off. I do know tickets for that event, Jollywood nights, have not sold at the same rate as the uh the holiday party over in Magic Kingdom. Um, but who knows? We'll we'll see what happens. I think it would be great to have that in California.

SPEAKER_00: 18:21

We'll talk a little bit more about that when we get down to it.

SPEAKER_02: 18:23

Oh, so read the script?

SPEAKER_00: 18:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 18:25

Okay, got it. Well, the holidays at Disney World for 2025 there in Florida run from November 14th through December 31st. Although that's not accurate because uh the parties have already started and it is the 8th as we sit here and recording.

SPEAKER_00: 18:43

So that's true. Well, the after hour stuff, the holiday, the other holiday stuff starts on the 14th.

SPEAKER_02: 18:51

The day ticket stuff that turns over. Okay, so that starts next week. Late next week. Yes. Cool. All right, well, or this week as this this episode comes out. Over at Magic Kingdom Park, we have a Cinderella castle show called Frozen Holiday Surprise. This is a nighttime show where Elsa transforms the castle into a shimmering, crystallized palace. That's awesome. That's fun.

SPEAKER_00: 19:17

Yeah. And the holiday overlay for Magic Kingdom Park is the jingle cruise.

SPEAKER_02: 19:24

Yeah, they do a really good job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 19:26

I wish they did this in Disneyland. I don't think they do.

SPEAKER_02: 19:29

No, I I don't know. Yeah, why not? That's interesting. All right, well, moving on.

SPEAKER_00: 19:37

Okay, moving on to Epcot. Epcot has the International Festival of the Holidays. It runs a little bit later. It's November 28th to December 30th. They actually wait. I foth. They actually wait for Thanksgiving to finish. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 19:54

I I love that you mostly ignored me there. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 19:59

You interrupted me. I was still talking.

SPEAKER_02: 20:01

I apologize.

SPEAKER_00: 20:03

Okay. The Festival of the Holidays has holiday storytellers all around the world showcase that share about festive traditions in their respective countries. I am going to butcher some pronunciations here and I apologize. At the Mexico Pavilion, they have Los Posados Celebration. Las Posadas. Sorry. I see. Right off the bat. They have the Las Posadas celebration. In the Norway pavilion, they have a mischievous magical barn santa.

SPEAKER_02: 20:33

Mischievous.

SPEAKER_00: 20:36

In the China pavilion, there is the Chinese lion dancer. The Italy pavilion has La Befana or beef beefana. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02: 20:48

Yep. Moving over to Japan, there is the Daruma storyteller show. I think the the drummers there that probably have a holiday twist on their show. Between the Morocco and France pavilions, there's a Hanukkah storyteller. It's France. Bon. Okay. And in the UK, nope, not gonna do it. In the UK pavilion, there's Father Christmas. And then over in Canada Pavilion, hey, there's the Canadian holiday voyagers.

SPEAKER_00: 21:30

Voyagers. Yep. Mm-hmm. I mean, look how it's spelled. Voyage yours. Geours. Okay. Over at Communi Core Plaza is the joyful, all caps, celebration of the season. This is a tribute to Christmas, and Kowanza has gospel music, RB, and holiday songs. We have heard a little bit of this before, and it's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_02: 21:58

Yeah, it was fantastic. Yeah. Absolutely fantastic. There are festival food booths, of course, all around the World Showcase area, and actually throughout the rest of the park, too, at least most of the rest of the park. These are, of course, called something different for this uh uh festival. They are the holiday kitchens. There's also a holiday cookie stroll because duh, of course there is. And then there's always a scavenger hunt. This one is Olaf's holiday tradition expedition scavenger hunt. Olaf is hiding around the world showcase in each pavilion, and it is up to you to find him.

SPEAKER_00: 22:37

Yep. And there is always the candlelight processional at the America Gardens Theater. This is a re retelling of the nativity story. It is three times an evening. It's usually told by a celebrity narrator, think Brendan Frazier, Bree Larson, Ralph Macchio, and a large choir with a 50-piece orchestra. There's also Herald trumpets and the voices of Liberty.

SPEAKER_02: 23:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 23:04

We have not seen this yet.

SPEAKER_02: 23:06

No, it's absolutely on our list. I um uh yeah, this is often the choir. There's uh usually like a high school choir that comes in to participate as part of the show. Um, so that's often uh a fantastic opportunity for for kids to get involved, but there's also a cast member choir that makes up kind of like the human Christmas tree kind of thing. And um just think, Alicia, when we retire and we get our part-time jobs on property, we can be in the cast member choir.

SPEAKER_00: 23:37

We could. That would be that'd be amazing.

SPEAKER_02: 23:39

That'd be pretty, pretty fantastic. I would love that. I would absolutely love that.

SPEAKER_00: 23:43

Although I bet the audition process for that is a little crazy. It's fine.

SPEAKER_02: 23:47

Like, you know, it's fine. We'll we'll go through it. It doesn't have to be every year, but absolutely like bucket list thing. I I want to do that. That'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 23:59

Yeah, bucket list. There we go. Yep. The holiday overlay for Epcot is Living with the Land, glittering greenhouses. Ooh. They got Christmas lights and all sorts of stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 24:10

I would one might say they're glittering.

SPEAKER_00: 24:12

Indeed.

SPEAKER_02: 24:13

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Over in Hollywood Studios, uh, the whole place is all decked out in vintage decor. For character dining, we have Minnie's Holiday Dine at Hollywood and Vine. Guys, come on. Um now that character experience is typically pretty fun. So if you do get an opportunity to go over there, please, please do avail yourself of it. And if there's a show going on in that center courtyard, uh often in the evenings, there's nobody right there by that uh by that restaurant. Yeah, just wander over. Um, you never know who you're gonna hang out with. I hung out with both Mickey and uh, I think it was Goofy. Um, and I was the only one there. It was pretty absolutely fantastic uh a couple years ago, or year ago or so, whenever it was. In the past, it was not today, it was before times. But it wasn't the before times like pandemic version. Moving on.

SPEAKER_03: 25:09

Indeed.

SPEAKER_02: 25:11

There's also Sunset Seasons greetings. This is a festive Yuletide projection show on the Hollywood Tower Hotel.

SPEAKER_00: 25:20

Tower of Terror, if you're nasty. I'm not over in Animal Kingdom. The Tree of Life Awakenings holiday edition is a short projection show and music after dark and approximately every 10 minutes until park closes. This is really cool. The projection technology has just gotten so much better over the years, and it it looks really cool on the Tree of Life.

SPEAKER_02: 25:46

Yes. And of course, you can't forget over at Animal Kingdom the Merry Menagerie. This is the absolute cutest set of puppets of Polar Friends you have ever seen. There's penguins and reindeer and foxes and polar bears and all sorts of stuff. I love them so much. Yes. If you haven't seen the Merry Menagerie at Animal Kingdom, if you're not gonna be there this year, that's fine. But like go look up a picture online of the Merry Menagerie. It's it's worth it. And they're so cute. It's just yeah, it's stinking cute. Over at Disney Springs, there is the Christmas tree stroll. This is all throughout Disney Springs. There are Christmas trees fully decorated and themed. You can pick up a map for the hunt. You match stickers to the location on the map and get a surprise when you found them all. And the surprise is all the stickers are in little circles.

unknown: 26:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 26:43

I don't know what the surprise is.

SPEAKER_02: 26:45

Alicia, we seem to have skipped something that's going on in Disney World during the holidays.

SPEAKER_00: 26:50

Oh, what's that?

SPEAKER_02: 26:52

Uh, there's the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. I mean, we mentioned it, but we don't have details. What are the deets this year?

SPEAKER_00: 27:01

There are separately ticketed events at both Magic Kingdom Park and Hollywood Studios. At Magic Kingdom Park, it is called Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. It is a five-hour event during select nights starting November 7th to December 21st. Tickets run from$169 a person to$229 a person, depending on how close you get to the holidays, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 27:28

Yep. This features cookies and hot chocolate and cider. Fantastic. Uh, various different spots all around the park. There is Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas time parade, absolutely a fantastic display there. You have Minnie's wonderful Christmas time fireworks show, quite a bang.

SPEAKER_00: 27:48

Yeah. There are different holiday ride overlays just for the party. So, like Space Mountain has an overlay just during the party. You don't see it during the rest of the um the rest of the day.

SPEAKER_02: 28:03

The park day.

SPEAKER_00: 28:03

The park day. Uh I believe the teacups have one as well. There's, yeah, they just there's just some extra stuff here and there.

SPEAKER_02: 28:09

Yeah. And generally there are lighter crowds than uh on a given day, and lots of holiday cheer and fun going on. And then as Alicia mentioned over at Hollywood Studios, there is Disney's Jollywood Nights. Again, we did mention a little bit about this earlier. We absolutely loved this event last year. Also, the same as the Christmas party. This is a separately ticketed event on select nights from November 8th until December 22nd. These run from$159 to$199. Here, Hollywood Glam meets holiday cheer. We have Disney's holidays in Hollywood at the Theater of the Stars. This is hosted by Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. There's an appearance by Tiana, Bell, Minnie, and Mickey, and they are accompanied by singers and dancers and live jazz musicians, and this show is a banger.

SPEAKER_00: 29:07

It is awesome. We were pleasantly surprised with the live musicians.

SPEAKER_02: 29:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 29:13

Um, yeah, it was just great music, good dancing, good content. You got to see the Muppets. It was fun.

SPEAKER_02: 29:19

It was fantastic. We also have what's this? What's oh, sorry. This is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas sing along. I see, I well, I knew I could see because it's just written right there. I just wanted to play on the question mark.

SPEAKER_03: 29:34

Oh.

SPEAKER_02: 29:36

Moving on, there's lots of characters all around the park with fantastic opportunities to meet some rare characters. A lot of nostalgic characters. Yes. We got to see uh Santa Duffy last year. That was quite a good time, yes, for sure. Uh Phineas and Ferber there. There's a there's a bunch of other uh characters all around.

SPEAKER_00: 29:59

Blue and King. Louie from Tailspin.

SPEAKER_02: 30:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 30:02

Chip and Dale from Rescue Rangers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 30:04

Good stuff. If if you are the child of the, you know, if you're uh an elder Gen Xer or no, uh uh young Gen Xer, we'll say. I don't even know. Um your childhood afternoons uh cartoon characters that are all here. I mean, Phineas and Ferb doesn't fit into that because they're our kids. Um in uh I'm gonna stop now. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 30:28

You can hear music at the Tip Top Club, which is over by Hollywood Tower Hotel. This is really neat. It's just a little small, small uh, I don't know if it was a trio or that was a four-piece with a singer. And a singer uh doing some nice swing holiday music and they had dancers, ghost ghostly dancers.

SPEAKER_02: 30:48

Yes, indeed. And they have a bar over there too. They do. Yes. Uh there's also an ice skating show over by the uh the theater there in the center of the park called Glisten. And at least last year, that rink was way too small. Yep. I don't know what they're doing this year. We'll be interested to see. Uh this I would skip this one. It's just me.

SPEAKER_00: 31:14

We didn't see it though. We did hear it.

SPEAKER_02: 31:17

We we saw of it before we went on socials, and it was you know what, kids might like this. That's true. That's very true. That's true.

SPEAKER_00: 31:28

The nighttime spectacular is jingle bell, jingle bam. It has projections and fireworks, lasers, and music, and it's um along the the Chinese theater Mickey Minnie's Runaway Rayaway.

SPEAKER_02: 31:42

Yep, all all those things. It is not there are fireworks. It is not of the same scale that they do at Magic Kingdom.

SPEAKER_00: 31:52

It's like fountains.

SPEAKER_02: 31:53

Yeah, there's there's some some pops, but that it's not don't expect that you're getting a Magic Kingdom like a Epcot show. Yeah. Yeah. Or an Epcot show, exactly. Yeah. No, this this is it's cute, but it's it it's yeah. Anyway, we loved set set expectations, I guess is what you want to say. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 32:12

We loved Jollywood nights. We had so much fun there. This is one we would definitely do again. We've done Mickey's Very Merry multiple times. Yeah. Um it's it's nice, like if if you want to get on rides and stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 32:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 32:25

Because it is a lighter crowd. But I think Jollywood is kind of more our speed, more our vibes. You still get a crap ton of characters, and we didn't get to go to all of them, too. Like there's a whole Pixar area. This year they have introduced Chewbacca celebrating his life day.

SPEAKER_02: 32:43

Love it.

SPEAKER_00: 32:44

Uh, which is very nice.

SPEAKER_02: 32:45

I I I would probably go to the very Merry Christmas party occasionally in like every few years, just to enjoy and have that kind of like nostalgia hit and get that classic, you know, Disney slap in the face. I would make Jollywood nights an annual thing, like date night would be absolutely fantastic. And feel free to dress up. Not everybody will, but a bunch of people will.

SPEAKER_00: 33:14

Yeah, glittery glitzy glam.

SPEAKER_02: 33:15

Get glammed up, put on a fedora and a nice shirt and vest, and just in in, yeah, do it. It's fine.

SPEAKER_00: 33:23

If you if you have younger kids, they're gonna enjoy the uh very merry Christmas party a little more. That that is more geared towards them. It does have like the Disney Junior dance thing. Although I think Jollywood does too over in the toy store. I don't know. They're changing the park around. So they do have yeah, they do have a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02: 33:42

The nation's courtyard doesn't exist anymore.

SPEAKER_00: 33:44

No, that's true. Uh last year we didn't get over there, but they had sadness dancing in her Christmas holiday sweater or scarf.

SPEAKER_02: 33:57

One of the great regrets of my life.

SPEAKER_00: 34:00

We'll just have to go again. Okay. Not this year. Not this year.

SPEAKER_02: 34:05

No. Our our dance card is full. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00: 34:08

Or non-dance card, if you will. Well, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 34:13

Anyhow, that's kind of wraps up for California. That wraps up for Florida. Is there anything else you want to talk about?

SPEAKER_00: 34:20

Um there's nothing specific, but Disney Cruise Line has their Christmas time cruises. What are they called? Uh it's a very merry time.

SPEAKER_02: 34:34

Very merry time, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 34:35

That's very merry time cruises. Not every cruise is a merry time cruise. There's specific dates, and you can find those on their websites for the different ships. Um, there's usually a gingerbread house makes the ship smell so good. Uh really big tree decorations, and I know Mrs.

SPEAKER_02: 34:56

Claus is typically there doing stories. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 35:00

And Santa Claus shows up and yeah, some good stuff like that. Yeah. Um Alani has some stuff as well that all their characters have holiday outfits on.

SPEAKER_02: 35:12

You've got gingerbread houses at most of the resorts in Florida. Although not the Grand Floridian this year, because they're still going through their refurb. Although that bar did just open, I think.

SPEAKER_00: 35:23

Yep, it did.

SPEAKER_02: 35:24

So strike that one off of your list for at least this year if you're just going around to do uh uh gingerbread houses. But yeah, there's there's lots of other holiday touches all across the uh the Disney universe of stuff to go do and spend money on.

SPEAKER_00: 35:40

And the decor is just phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02: 35:43

Yes, it's a great job.

SPEAKER_00: 35:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 35:46

Yep. Yeah, Christmas is not going to be Disnified this year.

SPEAKER_01: 35:51

That's okay.

SPEAKER_02: 35:52

Next year, yes. This year, no.

SPEAKER_01: 35:55

It's okay. It's okay.

SPEAKER_02: 35:57

Yeah, I'm getting a new knee for Christmas. So because we haven't done enough to ourselves this year. Um yeah. Also in recognizing that uh I I need a new knee anyway, or an upgrade of my existing uh partial replacement to a full replacement, because the rest of my knee, evidently you're supposed to have like cartilage or something like that in there. I don't know why. Supposed to. Yeah, supposed to. Um, so yeah, so that's happening mid-December, and then I'll uh enjoy the holidays from the couch uh under uh under ice. It'll be a real chill time.

SPEAKER_00: 36:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 36:30

Um anyhow. Yeah. Well, yeah, hopefully this is a helpful review of what's going on for the holidays for for you. If you're planning to be in the parks, if you were thinking about going to the parks and maybe we pushed you over the edge, you're welcome. Uh enjoy. Uh have one for us and uh say hi to Mickey for us.

SPEAKER_00: 36:53

Please remember we are not affiliated with Disney or their subsidiaries. These are personal opinions and suggestions that are based on our own experiences. We do recommend working with a travel agent or contacting Disney directly to plan your perfect vacation.

SPEAKER_02: 37:07

If you do have any questions or suggestions, or perhaps you'd like to be interviewed on our show to share your Disney experiences, please don't hesitate. Reach out to us, send us an email at podcast at our mousecapades.com.

SPEAKER_00: 37:22

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SPEAKER_02: 37:29

And please leave us a present under the tree this year by simply giving us a rating and a review in your podcast app. That absolutely helps people find us.

SPEAKER_00: 37:39

Of course, do not hesitate to share us with your friends and fellow Disney lovers of all ages.

SPEAKER_02: 37:45

Thanks for listening. We'll be in your ears next week.

SPEAKER_01: 37:49

Thank you for flying Star Tours. Bye bye.