No Xmas Tree at the Magic Kingdom?????

[DisneyExplorer]

I think Disney was very sensible with this decision. Obviously, cost cutting measures across the board need to be made due to the current economic situation. Assembling a Christmas tree twice is highly unnecessary spending of money. Once is fine, and November is too early for Christmas anyhow. Not having the Christmas tree up until after the parade filming is not going to ruin your experience at the Magic Kingdom whereas closing one of your favorite attractions, restaurants, etc because of staff cuts could. Instead of spending this money on the Christmas tree, the funds, what's left of them after the cuts anyhow, might be able to go towards general upkeep throughout the entire year.

 

[tiggerlover55]

I for one am disappointed that there was not a tree up until this week. I live down here, but I feel like the people who paid for the Christmas parties, should have a tree. They could have put the tree up by the castle and leave it there. I understand they are cutting costs, but come on, there should be a Christmas tree for those people that are paying for the extra hours. But hey, that just my opinion! =)

 

[Figment1986]

do we know if the tree has finally gone up now that the taping is over?

 

[NemoRocks78]

The tree is up and so are the decorations that go across the street - looks great.

 

[smooky]

I beg to differ....

I really don't see what Walmart has to do with any of this. As we've already heard, there haven't been any cuts to the holiday decor, they're just waiting till after the Parade to set up the tree...makes sense... all companies try to cut nonproductive costs such...having to set up a christmas tree twice is not only non-productive but it's also stupid...

There have been SEVERAL cuts in holiday decor just since last year, not to mention cuts from prior years.

This year alone....
Hollywood Studios....
1) No garland across the main street (Hollywood Ave I think it's called)
2) Osborne Lights...area to left of San Fran street mockup...all lights are gone this year.

All Star Music
1) No wreaths in food court

Pop Century
1) No wreaths in food court
2) No lighted Christmas Garland around top of drink station islands. They had a great silvery lighted and decorated garland in every year prior.

Epcot
1) Holiday stage used for tree lighting ceremony gone this year, as well as the tree lighting ceremony done by Disney characters and carolers.
2) Perhaps this was missing last year as well, but no garland at the entrance to Epcot this year for sure. Will have to double check to see if the Studios has theirs up when we visit next week.

I'm sure I missed others, but I will look again next week to verify. If anyone else has noticed something missing this year that was up in prior years, I would be curious to hear about it too.


And from prior years....
Grand Floridian.....the tree shrunk dramatically recently from years past. It is sooooo much smaller than the prior tree from about 3 years ago.

Contemporary.....they used to do the red and green lights to replace the white ones on peoples balconies on the main building that the monorail goes through.

Hollywood Studios....Happy New Year sign no longer on New York Street. Santa Hat on Earful tower gone for years. Mistletoe at Crossroads where New York Street met the San Fran street is gone.


We will be out at WDW again next week and visiting the parks and many of the hotels, so it will be interesting to see what else is missing. I'm sure we won't get to visit everyplace. While I realize they still put up alot of decorations, its folks that go regularly that miss them when they skimp. We will be staying at Pop, and when we were there 2 weeks ago, I missed the decorations in the food court. Made it feel like any other time of the year. Oh, and don't get me started on Easter.....LOL

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

^Just a couple things here:

- DHS has no garland across Hollywood Blvd. to accomodate Block Party Bash. The garland would not allow the floats (which are quite tall) to pass underneath, therefore it was removed and simpler decorations placed along the side of the street.

- IMHO, the lights to the left of San Fran - not a huge loss there. I always thought they looked disjointed from the rest of the display. :shrug:

- I don't know what garland you're referring to at Epcot, but there most certainly was garland hanging across the turnstiles and on the columns in front of the ticket windows. Now, whether these have been cutback, I don't know, but there most certainly are decoratons at the entrance (at least there were on 11/29).

- In regards to the resorts, I can't comment, but I'll take your word for it, and with the loss of the stage at the Epcot Christmas tree (again, not a huge loss, IMHO, and I actually kinda like it without the stage), there probably have been cutbacks in decoratons.

 

[krankenstein]

Edit: hpyhnt1000 beat me to it.

There have been SEVERAL cuts in holiday decor just since last year, not to mention cuts from prior years.

This year alone....
Hollywood Studios....
1) No garland across the main street (Hollywood Ave I think it's called)

They had to remove this garland b/c of BPB because the floats wouldn't have been able to go underneath it. They did add the new decorations to the light poles which I liked a lot better than the garland. :wave:


BTW, they used have the trees on the light poles down Hollywood Blvd.

 

[Disneyson 1]

Now- I know that the "holiday season" has somewat ended, but did this new tree do the LED show that happened at Disneyland? Or is this one of those "Declining by Degeneres" things? (Yes, that was a lame attempt at Energy humor)