It’s been what, about a month and a half since my last Disney trip? Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Obviously it is time for another one! I do realize I have a problem, but what a problem to have! :) Plus since Jana got married this year, it is much easier to plan a long weekend in the states, rather than a trip to Europe. And Disneyland is just about the same distance for us to fly (a little shorter for me). There was also the little matter of it being Halloween and so we could dress up for Mickey’s Halloween Party!
We met at the hotel Thursday night and ventured over to Downtown Disney for dinner. Not much was open so we ended up at the ESPN Zone before heading to bed.
Friday morning we were ready to go! First up was breakfast at La Brea Bakery. We discovered this place last time and boy, is their food yummy! I already knew what I wanted. A big plate of pancakes, heaped high with strawberries & bananas. Oh so yummy! I also had a cappuccino, my first coffee drink in probably two weeks. It was also quite delicious. Mmm, coffee – I have missed you so! And then it was off to California Adventures where the gate attendant immediately recognized us (Good Morning Princess). That’s right, I am a Princess! :) California Screamin’ is to Jana as Tower of Terror is to me. They just do not go together. Jana wanted to give it another try so try we did. And failed, miserably. But at least she tried it again! It probably didn’t help we had just eaten breakfast. Once again, one of the highlights (for me anyway) was the Aladdin show, where the Genie even had updated jokes! We finished up the day at California Adventures and headed back to the hotel to change into our costumes for Mickey’s Halloween Party!
I was Snow White (sans hair as black as ebony) and Jana was Cinderella. I had gotten some “Really Red” lipstick, and it lived up to the hype! I have never worn that red of lipstick. Walking back towards the park, you could hear the little girls pointing us out. “Mommy, Snow White!” “Look, it’s Cinderella & Snow White”. We decided to have dinner in Downtown Disney before going to the park (hindsight – should have gone in and gotten pictures taken in front of the castle prior to dinner. Oh well. Next time!). Seriously, I felt a little like a celebrity with all the little girls looking at us with wide eyes. They didn’t see a fat girl. They just saw a princess. It did a lot for my self esteem! Dinner seemed to take forever but finally the bill was settled and it was time to for the Halloween Party!
It was dark by this time and even though we searched high and low there were no PhotoPass photographers to be seen in the vicinity of the castle. And trust me, we looked many times. Oh well. We got to Fantasyland at a good time and basically didn’t wait in any lines (except for Alice in Wonderland). The candy lines were ridiculous so we probably didn’t get as much candy as we could have since we would only wait in the lines with very few people. We watched the parade (in hopes of a headless horseman like at DisneyWorld, but he was not there) and rode more rides and finally decided to call it a night. Haunted Mansion was probably the highlight – it was redecorated for The Nightmare Before Christmas and so much fun!! While overall Mickey’s Halloween Party was fun, I would have loved a few more PhotoPass photographers and I would have loved a few less people since it was super crowded.
First on the agenda Saturday morning (even before breakfast!) was obtaining a fastpass for World of Color, the new light show at California Adventures. Success! We had a quick breakfast before heading across to Disneyland. We met up with Jana’s cousin and her three kids for lunch at Rainforest Cafe. It was my first visit to Rainforest. That restaurant is a sensory overload! Lunch was fun! Jana’s cousin has her hands full with three boys! :) But they were super cute kids and did really well. We said goodbye and rode the monorail back to the park.
At one point there was a lot of official people standing around so you knew something was going on. Or at least I suspected something was going on. And there was! Mandy Moore & Zach Levi were there (voices for the new Rapunzel movie) doing an interview. We weren’t close enough to hear what they were saying, but watched them from the carousel.
Before we knew it, it was getting close to time to head back over to California Adventures for World of Color. We knew we wanted corn dogs for dinner. They had turned that area of California Adventures into a dance club, or so it seemed. Club music was playing and lights were flashing – it was a promotion for the new Tron movie. We ate our corn dogs (with no french fries –what is up with that?) and then walked over to get our spot for World of Color. I don’t have adjectives enough to describe World of Color – it was AMAZING!! Probably my favorite thing we did this trip.
After the show we still had time so it was back to Disneyland (love those park hopper tickets!). It was almost time for the park to close so we knew we had to prioritize. We decided on Haunted Mansion (we had a fastpass) and It’s a Small World. We rode Small World and then walked over to Haunted Mansion to use our fast pass. But Haunted Mansion was closed so they gave us a super cool fast pass, the only catch being we only had 15 minutes to use it. I turned to leave but then Jana reminded me we could use it on Space Mountain since we hadn’t yet been on that! Yes! So we took the super cool fast pass and hightailed it over to Space Mountain. And then it was time to leave. Too bad it wasn't extra magic hours because we could have gone for another hour or so... We did a little shopping before walking back to the hotel.
Last days are always so sad. We didn’t have a lot of time Sunday morning, but we did have time for breakfast at La Brea! This time I had a croissant sandwich. But no cappuccino, since their machine was broken. But Haunted Mansion wasn’t broken so we were able to ride on that as well as Mr. Toad before doing a little shopping and just like that it was time to say goodbye.
Until next time!
