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Once Beloved Disney Tour Now Called “A Total Rip-Off”

Disneyland Holiday Tour

Visiting the Disneyland Resort during the holiday season is a truly enchanting experience. Not only are there decorations found in every corner of Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure, and the Downtown Disney District, but there is also an incredible fireworks show called Believe! In Holiday Magic at Disneyland Park. If you head over to Disney California Adventure, you can indulge in some festive foods at the Festival of Holidays and end your day watching World of Color: Season of Light.

There are also a couple of fun holiday attraction overlays — “it’s a small world” Holiday and Haunted Mansion Holiday — both at Disneyland Park.

Disneyland Christmas

Credit: Disney

If Guests want to do something extra special, sometimes they sign up for a guided tour around Disneyland, a tour that is made special for the holidays. However, one Guest recently went on the tour — after having done it in years past — and wouldn’t recommend it, due to all the changes. The Guest shared his disappointing holiday time experience on Reddit:

We’ve taken the tour in the past and had such a great time! The best part was we got to ride Haunted Mansion Holiday without a wait and got to sit in reserved chairs by It’s a Small World for the Christmas parade and enjoy hot cocoa in a take home mug and a Mickey Gingerbread cookie. That’s all gone now. Instead we get to listen to the same stories from a decade ago, stand in a crappy location, and get a disposable cup of cocoa with a gingerbread loaf (no Mickey in sight). And no Haunted Mansion. We got to ride IASW instead which has had a wait time the last couple days of about 5-20 min. Apparently you have to book the $6000 guide to get the chairs now. So thanks Disney for removing any value from the tour.

I could have sat for two hours and held seats instead of paying the $110+tax per person.

Note: yes, I have already written to Customer service and am going to go to city hall to complain. I know I won’t get a dime back, but this is terrible and I wanted to warn others.

it's a small world holiday

Credit: Disney

Many people who commented on the post agreed with the Redditor — saying that they had either taken that tour or another Disneyland Resort tour recently and had noticed that Disney was, yet again, charging more while giving less.

Had this exact same experience earlier this month. Had previously taken the same tour pre-pandemic and expected it to be somewhat similar. I brought my mom and she has a bad knee. I told her we’d have reserved seating for the parade (like last time) and we ended up having to stand the whole time (this after the 2 hr walking portion of the tour). We did see reserved seating, but apparently it was for dining packages? Would have gone that route had we known. There were lots of older folks on the tour that were also expecting seating for the parade. It does say ‘tour liable to change’, but was disappointed in the quality for $$$.

Haunted Mansion Holiday

Credit: Disney

Disney’s fine print always says that the Disneyland Resort tours are subject to change, but typically that means that riding attractions or seeing nighttime spectaculars will be based on things like the weather or potential ride breakdowns. It is possible, now that Bob Iger is back at the helm, things could change for the better, but that remains to be seen.

About Krysten Swensen

A born and bred New England girl living the Disney life in Southern California. I love to read, to watch The Golden Girls, and love everything to do with Disney and Universal. I also love to share daily doses of Disney on my Disney Instagram @BrazzleDazzleDisney!