Visiting Santa Claus on Thanksgiving

Marzz and I spent this Thanksgiving 2018 by ourselves and we broke up the day by spending the first half at Disney California Adventure park and the latter half divided between sitting at home and doing some early Black Friday shopping at local stores in Burbank.

We arrived at DCA around 10:30am and crowds seemed moderate at best. Thanksgiving historically is less crowded than the days around it so I always recommend going on this day if you have the opportunity. We still had, and still have, some tabs left from our Sip and Savor passes for the Festival of Holiday's, so we decided to snack. There are so many great looking treats and drinks that it is difficult to narrow it down to choose, but I feel we made some good choices. To see what we chose, check out our YouTube video here.

As we were finishing up one of our snacks from the Festival of Holiday's we remembered that Santa Claus was located in the Redwood Creek Trail for photos. Now I know it's early to be seeing Santa, but lets face it, Christmas started weeks ago by all accounts of shopping, decorations and I think generally most people have accepted this. Once we got in line for Santa, the cast member told us it would be about 30 minutes and that was fine by us. We were trying to kill some time before our late lunch/early dinner reservations that were at 14:50 at Lamplight Lounge.

I enjoy the Redwood Creek Trail area and feel that it is under rated. I think there are lots of great activities for kids and I like the feeling of being in the forest and often times it's quite peaceful in that area. So waiting in line was not a problem.

We were entertained by Chip and Dale who came by and were very playful with some of the guests around us and Chip even participated in a selfie with me. They stayed and played with guests for at least 10 minutes, which is quite a long time and they did not seem to have their own "handler" with them, although there was a cast member overseeing the queue for Santa Claus so perhaps they felt safe by his presence.

There is a "nice list" book for guests to sign while waiting in the queue. I understand the idea and I'm sure the children get a kick out of that, but I do think it's fundamentally flawed, in that, you don't get to choose yourself to be on the "nice list", that's for someone else to decide, in this case, Santa Claus; but I digress. I have heard of Build-a-Bear stores also doing this and I suspect it will pop up at other retailers as well. I'll be honest, I hope it is short-lived.

Nearing our turn, the cast member at the front of the queue was full of energy and happy to interact with us and the other guests. To me it is always great to see that because I think that's one of the elements that really makes going to Disneyland fun. Having worked there myself, I also understand that it is a job, so even though the guests will also expect great service (and for Disney prices they always will expect that and probably should), as humans, we should understand that sometimes, people just have a bad day and sometimes that bad day happens while you're at work. Back to our story, if she was having a bad day, no one would ever guess it. One thing we noticed that because we do not have any children, sometimes cast members will change their demeanor with us, which is fine, we understand; however this cast member seemed to just keep truckin' along and it didn't seem to matter all who she was talking to just as long as she was talking to someone.

As we approached Santa, I had set my gimble on the ground and used the mini tripod to hold it up and film our interaction with him. I wasn't sure if the cast members were going to allow it, although I couldn't think of why they wouldn't but still it had crossed my mind. It was no issue at all, in fact I don't think anyone even made a comment about it.

Santa was a delight. Very friendly and had that kind personality that you'd expect from Santa Claus. He took no issue that we did not have any children either and proceeded to interact with us for a moment and posed for a couple of pictures. Even as we were leaving he was still talking with Marzz, making it a great meet and greet and we left feeling good.

Kudos to all of the cast members who were working that area when we visited. They were all great and definitely contributed to our experience. As mentioned before, I know it's not always easy and at the end of the day, it is a job, but on this day, all of the cast members here were exceptional, so thank you to them.

Santa will continue to be at the Redwood Creek Trail throughout the holiday's, so if you're planning on visiting the parks be sure to check it out. See Disneyland's official site for more information.