Completed 4/24 - I Don't Think We Got Enough Treats or Candy... - Sept 2021 Disneyland/Universal Trip Report

[Araminta18]

Hello Disneyland folks!

I just returned (well, I guess "just" returned is a bit of a stretch...it's been a little more than a month) from my first Disneyland trip as an adult, and my first California Adventure trip ever, so I wanted to write a trip report to relive it and share the fun!

I'm just gonna jump right into it with all the details:
who: me and my husband Trevor
when: Sunday September 12th through Tuesday September 21st (Disneyland from Sept 12th-Sept 19th; Universal Studios Hollywood Sept 19th-Sept 21st)
where: Fairfield Inn Anaheim; Sheraton Universal

Introductions:
So I'm Tiffany, I'll be your ghost host for this trip report. I'm 34, and while I'm a librarian by education, I currently do federal records management, since records management is where the pay is, and I gotta pay for Disney! Favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty, but I also love Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel. Favorite ride: I can never pick just one -- Haunted Mansion, Rise of the Resistance, Tower of Terror/Mission Breakout...I can't pick! But I also love the food and the theming -- the music and all the attention to detail just makes me happy.

My husband, Trevor. He's 35. He loves Star Wars, but has grown to love Disney--his favorite characters are Boba Fett, Vader and Stormtroopers, and on the non-Star Wars side, Grumpy. His favorite rides used to be Haunted Mansion and Star Tours--he doesn't really like coasters or thrill rides, but I did get him to try Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain and I don't know that he'd call them favorites, but he definitely likes them. I think the only rides he won't ride at Disney are Everest and Rockin Roller Coaster and most of the time Tower of Terror. And I don't mind riding solo, and he doesn't have any problem entertaining himself, so it works out really well. Though stay tuned to see how he tackled (or didn't...) Incredicoaster and Mission Breakout. But he also loves Rise of the Resistance and Jungle Cruise and Kilimanjaro Safaris. Again, have to wait and see how he feels about some of the rides only on the West coast!

So...what can you expect from this trip report? A lot (A LOT) of pictures for each day (like literally, probably gonna have to break each day into 3 or 4 posts to get around the picture limit), including terrible selfies. Lots of pictures of our meals (I think I actually managed to take pictures of all of the food, before eating it, which is a definite win), and probably way too much detail. If you want a taste of how my trip reports go, you can check out my old ones (for Disneyworld) in my signature.

ANYWAYS. This trip was originally planned for September 2020, but obviously COVID made that a no-go, so when they announced Oogie Boogie Bash tickets, I decided to revive the trip. That's all documented on my pre-trip report, if you're interested in the machinations of my mind and planning: PTR -- Oogie Boogie Parties, Disneyland, and Universal, Oh my! - Sept 2021 Pre-trip Report!

As the day to leave approached, I was getting more and more excited. I won some Jungle Cruise Swag from Disney Movie Rewards on instagram, which was exciting and definitely came in handy for the trip:

Then, the day before the trip, it was finally time to pack, and so of course I had to plan out all our outfits and my ears and everything...

So with that all planned out, we were ready to get up at zero dark thirty Sunday morning to head out on our big adventure!

 

[Araminta18]

Table of Contents

Travel Day! - Sunday September 12, 2021 (part 1)
Experiencing DCA for the first time! - Sunday, September 12th, 2021 (part 2)
Oogie Boogie Bash! - Sunday, September 12th, 2021 (part 3)
Trick or Treat Trails! - Sunday, September 12th, 2021 (part 4)

Rope Drop or Bust! - Monday, September 13, 2021 (part 1)
How Many Rides Can We Do Before Lunch? - Monday, September 13, 2021 (part 2)
Web Slingers, Here We Come! - Monday, September 13, 2021 (part 3)
Quasi-VIP Halloween Screams! - Monday, September 13, 2021 (part 4)

Ropedropping DCA! - Tuesday, September 14, 2021 (part 1)
How Many Avengers Shows Can We See in One Morning? - Tuesday, Sept 14, 2021 (part 2)
Backstage in a Galaxy Far Far Away... - Tuesday, Sept 14, 2021 (part 3)
Zero to Hero - Tuesday, Sept 14 2021 (part 4)
Trick or Treat! - Tuesday, Sept 14 2021 (part 5)

Disneyland Crime and Fantasyland Ride Marathon - Wednesday, September 15, 2021 (part 1)
How Long Until We Can Become Part of the Resistance? - Wednesday, September 15, 2021 (part 2)
Dinner and Shopping and Rides, oh my! - Wednesday, September 15, 2021 (part 3)

Disneyland Rope Drop and Snacks! - Thursday, September 16, 2021 (part 1)
Churros and Lamplight Lounge! - Thursday, September 16, 2022 (part 2)
Oogie Boogie Bash - Third Time's the Charm - Thursday, September 16, 2021 (part 3)
Oogie Boogie Bash Must-Dos - September 16, 2021 (part 4)

Last Rope Drop - September 17, 2021 (part 1)
Lamplight Lounge Redux: Could Brunch Redeem It? - Friday, September 17, 2021 - part 2
The Worst Snack We Ate at Disneyland - Friday, September 17, 2021 (part 3)
Last Minute Must-Dos! - Friday, September 17, 2021 (part 4)
Will the Corn Dog Redeem Itself? - Friday, September 17, 2021 (part 5)

Birthday Brunch! - Saturday, September 18 2021 (part 1)
Eating Away the Afternoon - Saturday, September 18, 2021 (part 2)
Napa Rose Chef's Counter Birthday Dinner! - Friday, September 18 2021 (part 3)

Universal Here We Come! - Sunday, September 19 2021 (part 1)
Best Show Ever (and a Disappointing Treat) - Sunday, September 19, 2021 (part 2)
We've Had First Dinner Yes, But What About Second Dinner? - Sunday, September 19 2021 (part 3)

Universal Rope Drop! - Monday, September 20, 2021 (part 1)
Best Character Meet Ever! - Monday, September 20, 2021 (part 2)
Last Moments at Universal -Monday, September 20, 2021 (part 3)

One More Ride (and I don't mean the plane!) - Tuesday, September 22, 2021

Treat Haul, Merch Haul...Wrap Up Post!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Can't wait to see all the pictures!

 

[noodle73]

Following!

Love your tshirts! Especially the I love you, I know ones and the Graveyard Jamboree.

 

[Araminta18]

Travel Day!
Sunday, September 12th, 2021 (part 1)​

Our flight to Disneyland was scheduled to take off at 6am. We live about half an hour away, so I wanted to be on the road no later than 4:00 -- I figured we'd get there around 4:30am and that should be plenty of time to clear security and such at that hour. But since we were flying out of and then back to separate airports, we couldn't drive and leave our car at the airport, and I was getting increasingly wary of getting an uber/lyft in a timely manner at 4:30am on a Sunday. So Trevor had the brilliant brain wave that we could rent a car on Saturday and return it to the airport Sunday morning, and when I checked prices, I found us an car for $55, which is actually cheaper than an uber would have been (or at least, comparable ), so that's what we did.

So a little before 4am, we piled all our stuff into the rental car and headed off, enjoying the oh-too-rare event of no traffic in the DC area. We got to the rental car drop-off area at 4:20am, and even though the website said it was a 24 hour dropoff, there was no one there. So we left the car and the keys and waited for the shuttle, which didn't come for another 20 minutes. Which is not a long time but feels like a long time when you're standing there waiting. But we got to the terminal at 4:48 am (yes, occasionally I do take detailed notes ).

Escalator selfie! This was on our way down to security. There was a bit of a line, but we were all through by 5:12am.

At that point we were starting to get hungry ('cause who is hungry at 3:30am!), so we went to the bagel place that had a slightly smaller line than the greasy diner/McDonald's knockoff place and got bagels.

I know you care, but I had to get into the habit of taking pics of all the food or I'd forget when we were at Disney and eating all the snacks that people do care (a little bit) about seeing!. Also toasted bagel + cream cheese is really yummy. The timing actually got a bit messy -- we got the food after a bit of a wait, and then while I was putting the cream cheese on the bagel and Trevor was running to the bathroom they started boarding (5:36 am). We were flying Southwest and we'd gotten the A boarding group, so we definitely didn't want to miss that! So poor Trevor didn't get to eat until we were safely boarded and on the plane; I was less patient and was scarfing it down while standing in line waiting to board.

We got lucky and ended up with an empty middle seat between us -- definitely bodes well!

The flight was pretty uneventful, and we landed a little bit early in Denver. We were flying into Orange County/John Wayne airport, so no direct flight on Southwest from DC, sadly. We had about a ninety minute layover in Denver. Actually, when we got off the plane we saw that a plane to Orange County airport was actually boarding right then (I guess it didn't let me book it 'cause the timing would have been too close) so we asked the gate agent if we could switch to that one ('cause I'm all about getting to the vacation destination earlier), but she said no. Bummer. But hey, never hurts to ask!

We got some Jamba Juice and found a semi-hidden upper level place with not too many people to sit and relax and drink our drinks. It was pretty pleasant, actually.

The second flight was uneventful -- boarded and got the last two exit row seats, but they were one in front of the other, instead of next to each other. Still not too bad.

We took off on time and landed 20 minutes early, but there was still a plane at our gate (rude of them, right? ). When we finally got off, I was surprised at how small the airport is -- it was a super short walk to baggage claim. Which was really nice actually -- we had our luggage in hand at 11:05. WOOT! We walked outside and grabbed a taxi since it was right there and we (let's be honest, me -- I don't know if it's come through yet, but I'm the planner and Trevor is the go-with-the-flow one, so in things like this I care and he doesn't have an opinion ) didn't want to wait for an uber to show up, and the price was comparable --$45 flat rate from Orange County airport to Disneyland. We were in the cab at 11:08 am.

We were so excited to be there -- gorgeous weather, blue sky....we were just psyching ourselves up the whole cab ride. Though I did love seeing the decorations/artwork on the side of the highway.

The drive took us around by DCA and we got our first glimpse of what was formerly the Tower of Terror. So cool! Also a bit weird to see it so close -- I'm used to DisneyWorld where you can't drive that close to any of the park landmarks.

We arrived at our hotel (Fairfield Inn Anaheim) at 11:25 am. WOOT! We were finally there! We had a Trader Sam's reservation booked for 3:20 pm (cause I didn't want to jinx it by booking an earlier reservation, in case that tempted the universe to be like "haha! canceled flights and delays for you!". So we checked in, hoping that our room would be ready already so we could drop our stuff, take a nap, you know, just hang out. Otherwise, our plan was to head over to Downtown Disney and check it out for a bit before Trader Sam's.

But luck was with us--our room was ready -- score! We were in room 831 -- so not the top floor, but the second from the top, and then we were our room faced north, so we could see Disneyland from the door/window.

Not a bad room! We'd originally booked a king bed room, but about a week before I'd gotten a call from the hotel giving us a "complimentary" upgrade to a queen bed park-themed room. I was actually a bit bummed -- we could have used the extra space in a king room (without a second bed), and as you can see, the theming is just the wallpaper, and the wallpaper is Cinderella Castle and the Ear-ful Tower which no longer exists. But it was nice being so high up (we never had any troubles with waiting for the elevator or anything). As far as sound, we could hear people as they walked along outside the room, but we didn't ever hear anything from the people in the other rooms (if there were any?). The a/c was a bit loud and rattly, but it definitely worked, so no complaints. Overall we were pleased with it, esp since we got it for about $160 a night. Not too shabby!

So we unpacked a little bit and then flopped down on the bed for a nap. We'd been up since 3:30am, and even though it was 11:30am in CA, it was 2:30 pm for us and we were sleeeeeepy with that early wake-up call. So a nap was definitely a good idea.

However, while logically a nap was a good idea, our bodies were too hyped up on adrenaline and excitement to really fall asleep. So we kind of dozed in an out for an hour or so til we called and decided to just head over to Downtown Disney and maybe try to get in to Trader Sam's early or something. We got ready (into our costumes for Oogie Boogie Bash, since we were doing that tonight), and started walking over.

5 minutes later, we were here:

YAY! I couldn't believe we were finally there. (This was 2:03 pm, for those keeping track!) I'd been to Disneyland (but not DCA) 3 times before when I was a kid, but for one day each time and I have only vague recollections of those trips, and Trevor had never been there before ever, so this was basically our first trip.

At 2 in the afternoon on a Sunday there wasn't really any lines at security, so only a few seconds later we got to see the Halloween decorations in the esplanade.

Oogie Boogie! He talks and taunts you, which is hilarious. So had to commemorate our first view.

Also, it's still so weird to me that the two parks are right across from each other and just like..right there. So weird since I'm only used to DisneyWorld. I did love this little compass in the middle.

We kept walking though, on to Downtown Disney, on our way to Trader Sam's. It was really crowded, with lots of people huddling in the shade. I guess that's what happens on a Sunday when Oogie Boogie Bash is that night but the mix-in doesn't start for another 45 minutes or so -- everyone hanging out in Downtown Disney waiting for it to be 3 pm so they can go into DCA. We didn't really look into any stores, but I had to take a picture of Trevor in front of the Star Wars Outpost.

How cool is that speeder out front? I love how committed Disney is to theming, even just merch locations and such.

We kept meandering on over through to the Disneyland Hotel and finally found our destination -- Trader Sam's!

It was about 2:20pm, and we had a reservation at 3:20pm, so we figured we'd ask if they could seat us early, and if not, no worries, everything was brand new so we could wander and look around. They checked us in and said they'd text us when they were ready, but no promises on the table being ready earlier. So we headed over to the hotel to check out their gift shop. As luck would have it, they texted us back 10 minutes later saying the table was ready. Woot!

So Trader Sam's and us at DisneyWorld have a bit of a history -- we've kept trying to get in and only made it one time, when it was like 45 min before they closed and so basically last call, so we didn't get to see many of the effects or anything. Also we were super tired (you can read about that in my other trip report here). So when Disneyland announced they were doing reservations for Trader Sam's, I was super excited, especially when I managed to score one for our arrival day.

We were seated at the bar, on the far right side (if you're facing the bar), kind of behind a pillar, actually.

Trevor took this picture -- I'm to his left, which is where the pillar is.

We loved looking around at all the decorations and easter eggs -- there's so much detail there!

It took a bit for our waiter to realize we were there, but that's ok, we were enjoying looking around and looking at the menu (QR codes ). We don't drink, so I got the Skipper Sipper (Tropical Juices, Agave Nectar, Falernum, Mint and fresh Lime Juice topped with Soda Water) and Trevor got the Schweitzer Falls (Tropical Juices and Sam's Gorilla Grog topped with Sprite).

These were both pretty good, pretty similar citrus taste profiles, actually. Fun little swizzle sticks and garnishes though.

As far as food (since we were pretty hungry by this point, having eaten only a bagel with cream cheese and a jamba juice), we got the Tune Poke Bowl (Sushi Rice, Togarashi Aïoli, Crispy Onions, Smashed Avocado, Sliced Cucumber, Masago Fish Roe, and Crab Salad, served with Ahi Tuna)

and the Panko-crusted Long Beans served with Togarashi Aïoli

These were both really good actually. With the lighting we couldn't really see too well what the different ingredients were in the bowl so we just mixed it together and dug in, and it was delicious. But the fried green beans were the standout. That aioli really took them to the next level. We practically inhaled these. Highly recommend.

While we were there, a couple people ordered the drinks that trigger effects, so we took some videos: Uh Oa Drink Effect and Krakatoa Punch Drink Effect Pretty nifty!

They do have about an hour limit, or at least that's what the CM who seated us said. No one said anything to us about leaving ,but we kept an eye on the time and were ready to head out anyways after an hour. Cause it was OOGIE BOOGIE TIME! Or at least, mix-in time.

We were gonna go back to the front entrance of DCA, but I'd been watching the vlogs and reading reviews here on the dis about long long lines and I didn't want to waste a minute of our time so I figured hey, why not go in through the Grand Californian entrance? So we went back through Downtown Disney, entered the Grand Californian, and walked through the stunning lobby on our way to the DCA entrance. We got a quick glimpse of the Oogie Boogie sculpture there in the lobby.

What do they do with it after Halloween? I wonder if you could actually eat it. Or would want to eat it, really, I guess.

Pretty soon we were at the entrance to DCA and I was right -- no line to speak of, so we waltzed right in and got our Oogie Boogie wristbands and trick or treat bags.

See, no line! That umbrella off to the right is where you get the wristband and trick or treat bag. I will say the ease of this entrance did make me a little sad that we weren't staying at the Grand Californian as we'd originally planned (we'd rented points for our Sept 2020 trip that got canceled due to COVID). But I couldn't stomach the price without the early entry benefit, so oh well. It was super convenient to use right now though!

So it was 3:56pm and we had just entered DCA for the very first time. What to do! We didn't really have a plan, per se -- I'm so used to fastpasses at Disneyworld and planning my day around them, it was a bit disorienting to not have them to structure our time. So we walked on through and ended up in front of Pixar Pier. It's so pretty!

We even saw a photopass photographer right there, so of course we had to take some pictures.

Didn't turn out too bad! Also yes, we definitely took the easy button route for our costumes -- t-shirts made to look like Prince Philip and Princess Aurora. Another "also", I'm not used to having my hair down in photos at Disney -- Florida is always too hot for that! Kind of nice to be able to wear it down (at least for little bits of time) in Disneyland.

And that's my picture limit! So, what do you think we'll do for our first ride? Any predictions? Tune in next time to see!

Next up: Our first ride at DCA and enjoying DCA pre-Oogie Boogie Bash

 

[Araminta18]

Can't wait to see all the pictures!

I hope you like them!

Following!

Love your tshirts! Especially the I love you, I know ones and the Graveyard Jamboree.

Thank you! The Graveyard Jamboree is also one of my favorites -- fun fact: it's a child XL but it kind of fits Trevor and we both like Haunted Mansion so he was like it works! I'm wearing it!

 

[Araminta18]

Experiencing DCA for the first time!
Sunday, September 12th, 2021 (part 2) ​

We finished taking pictures there next to Pixar Pier, and then wandered over the bridge and into that area. It's so cute! I love the theming - those billboards themed/based on the Pixar movies are adorable.

We didn't really have a set plan, but the Incredicoaster was looming. It was posted at 35 minutes, but we'd subscribed to Touring Plans and they were predicting only 10/15 minutes actual wait, so I was thinking we might as well hop in line (side note: one thing I did miss about being at Disneyland versus the much more familiar Disneyworld is that I wasn't able to guestimate wait times just based on queue length! In Disneyworld, I can make a guess about how accurate the posted wait time was just based on the queue length, but without that familiarity, I felt a bit lost at Disneyland. Oh well -- now I know, for next trip!). The other thing that was kind of pointing to us riding it now is that Trevor is not a roller coaster fan -- he doesn't do heights or anything like that. Slinky Dog is like his limit. But he'd watched some ride throughs and was interested in trying it, but didn't want to do it right after eating or anything. So now was a good time.

So we hopped in line. The line was backed up to those zig-zag ramps with the signs about each Incredibles character, but we only ended up waiting about 13 minutes (per the Touring Plans lines app ), which was definitely a good thing 'cause Trevor was getting really nervous! But when we got up there, he decided to go for it.

And we both really liked it! I think Trevor closed his eyes for a lot of it, but afterwards he was saying that the theming and the storyline of the coaster really helped distract him from focusing on the "oh my goodness we're going up so high!" panic of it, and then the fact that most of the hills have those covers over them so you can't really see the heights all that much. So he liked it.

Whew! A great first ride.

We needed a much calmer ride after that, so we decided to ride the Pixar Pal Around, and the line for the swinging gondolas was shorter so we went for that side (I did leave the decision up to Trevor; he was ok with the swinging). I don't remember the posted wait (probably 25 minutes?) but we only waited 15 min. It was really funny watching the CMs try to load the ride and to prompt the people in line for the swinging gondolas to go to both sides to load on -- most people were just going to the right and there was a huge gap on the left, and then when they prompted us to use both sides, people were still confused. LOL oh well!

We really liked the Pixar Pal-Around -- the views really are absolutely gorgeous. I would prefer seatbelts on the swinging gondolas, 'cause I was definitely holding on to the sides of the gondola so I didn't slide around (or didn't feel like I was going to slide off), but it was a nice break. Trevor filmed part of it: Riding the Swinging Gondola!

After the gondola, we just kept working our way around the Pixar Pier and riding each ride as we came to it. So next up, the swings! I love swings, so I'm always up for a ride. There was a bit of a wait -- this was our view:

But that was just having to wait through 2 cycles -- the current cycle to finish and then everyone in front of us got on and we were like the third people to get on the next cycle. So not bad -- only a 6 minute wait (I was timing all the waits for Touring Plans ). It was posted 10 mins, I think. This was basically the same swing ride that we've ridden at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, just with the Mickey theme. Which I am 100% ok with. I love swings.

I also really liked how close the Incredi-coaster came too; that was neat to see it zooming around.

Swings were great though. Love it!

Then off we were to the next ride: the Golden Zephyr! We waited 3 minutes -- it was essentially a walk on.

Also good thing it was a walk-on 'cause this was kind of a super boring ride. And I was expecting to like it a lot! But the cars are so big that you don't really get that "we're flying!" feeling. Oh well.

That put us kind of at the end of the pier (the other smaller rides had longer lines than we were willing to do right then), so we ended up following the path around by Villains Grove/Redwood Challenge Trail, getting a glimpse of these super neat villains posters!

They should sell prints of these -- I really love the Evil Queen one especially.

The next ride we ran into was the Grizzly River Run and the line was very long. And it didn't look to be moving hardly at all. I think it was posted at like 60 minutes? But it looked even longer than that (though as I pointed out, I have no familiarity to really judge wait time from line length). But I asked about single rider and luckily it was open!

I didn't realize Disneyland does these single rider paper passes -- kind of cool. There were like 2 people in front of us, and so we only waited about 3 or 4 minutes.

I was kind of hoping Trevor and I could ride together, but true to form for single rider we got split up. We both had fun though, and we got a little bit wet -- pleasantly cooling us down. Trevor video'ed part of his ride: Trevor riding Grizzly River Run

We got off the ride and it was about 5:45pm. The party was starting at 6, but again -- no real plan. Also, our first time in DCA so we were still taking it all in! We kept walking around that path towards the front of the park/Carthay Circle area. Found our first treat trail getting prepped for the party - Trevor was very excited, as you can tell.

We really loved the flight/airplane theming of this area. Trevor wants a plane now.

Back up near Carthay, we found Anna and Elsa out meeting!

I appreciate what Disney is doing by just having the characters out on these platforms and no lines or anything, but it can be kind of chaotic and hard to get through, depending on how popular the characters are. Still really fun to see them though!

We also got our first glimpse of the Headless Horseman statue! That thing is awesome.

By that point we were a bit hungry and decided to go get one of the specialty churros that was on our snack list: Chocolate-Marshmallow Churro – Classic churro rolled in crushed chocolate cookies and “mummified” in marshmallow icing “bandages”

This was our first Disneyland churro, and while it was good, I really don't get the churro hype. It was super sweet, and we enjoyed it, but like...it was a churro with marshmallow sauce? Nothing crazy special. *shrugs* Maybe the plain churros are amazing, but again, while this was good, it wasn't like amazing like the churro hype train says.

We continued down Hollywood Boulevard and found the Falcon and Winter Soldier photo op!

From there though, we decided it was time to head over to Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout -- we were hoping that the lines would get shorter since the party had officially started. But as we headed over there, we found the Mad Hatter treat trail and there was no real line, so I figured we might as well do the treat trail.

I was impressed that there were so many candy stops in the trail! I think this one had like 7 or 8? Of course a couple of those were like fruit/carrots or popcorn, and one was Halloween stick-on tattoos, but we still got a good amount of candy. Good thing we'd brought a small backpack for Trevor to wear to store our candy, so we could keep refilling the treat bags Mickey gave us. This was our haul from the one treat trail:

Also, having characters in the treat trail was AMAZING. I really loved it. The storybook backdrop was super fun.

Also the Mad Hatter was great! So very much in character, and just so fun. I really really love having the characters in the treat trails.

From there we went to Mission Breakout, and it was a walkon! It must have gone down earlier and just re-opened or something, but we walked right on and into the library. SWEET! Trevor was a bit nervous -- he's ridden Tower of Terror in Disneyworld a few times, but he doesn't really love it. But he's a huge Marvel/Guardians of the Galaxy fan, so he wanted to ride it at least once. And with the party time being limited, we were stoked that it was a walkon.

We got to be in the front row! We loved it -- Trevor found it less scary than the Tower of Terror since it doesn't open up to look into the park at the height. Though I will say it was a bit weird having the first ride be Monsters After Dark -- we had no idea what the real/normal storyline is . But we really really enjoyed it.

I also thought this Assistant of the Month wall was hilarious. Always good to recognize good employees

We got off the ride and continued into Avengers Campus. And who did we see right off the bat? Thor!

We immediately hopped in line to meet him, cause who doesn't want to meet Thor. But the CMs informed us that Thor would be leaving soon and another superhero would be coming out, but they couldn't say which one. We decided to wait around anyways, and about 10 minutes later we were meeting Captain Marvel!

So fun -- I love how they have the characters just out for you to meet. We met Captain Marvel at like 6:40 pm, so it was still light out and a lot of the treat trail lines were pretty long, so we were still just wandering and taking it all in. We found an Avengers vehicle, so of course we had to take a picture.

Trevor, so suave. So very much coveting that car for himself.

AND picture limit. There you are. Well, like I said, it was about 6:45, still light out, and some pretty long-ish lines for many of the characters (I'm looking at you Agatha, right there in Avengers Campus). So where were we heading next?

CLIFFHANGER! You'll have to tune in to my next post to find out.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Loving the pictures and the descriptions! I wonder if you tried Web Slingers or another treat trail next!

 

[Araminta18]

Oogie Boogie Bash!
Sunday, September 12th, 2021 (part 3)​

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving (if you celebrate)! It was just me and Trevor for Thanksgiving, and we continued our tradition: we make the bread service from the restaurant Sanaa at Animal Kingdom Lodge in DisneyWorld. Well, not quite the whole thing -- we don't like one of the dips so we just do the other 8 (cucumber raita, coriander chutney, mango chutney, tamarind chutney, tomato date jam, red pepper hummus, jalapeno lime pickle, red chili sambal). Definitely better than turkey, in my opinion!

Anyways, back to the trip report! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We left off in Avengers Campus--where were we heading? To Cars Land! I figured it was time. We entered the side way, from Avengers Campus. Which in hindsight wasn't necessarily my best move, since we didn't get the full reveal, but was still pretty awesome. I loved these signs on the transition.

And look! The flowers are tail lights!

As we walked in, we saw Cruz Ramirez in her pirate outfit out meeting and greeting! So of course, we had to get a picture.

Guys, I was really blown away by Cars Land. The theming is perfect! So many small details that just make it awesome. I really loved it. Also, the Halloween decorations, made from cars stuff, were a great touch. We had to get a picture with the car dressed up for the Day of the Dead.

We were wandering around, taking it all in, and we realized that Radiator Springs Racers had the single rider line open, so we decided to go for it. Everyone has said such good things about Radiator Springs Racers, so we were definitely excited to ride it. And there was practically no wait in the single rider line - we were on the ride in two minutes. The regular line wasn't very long either -- we probably could have just waited and ridden together, but oh well.

See? we're in the single rider line, but there's no one around us in either the single rider line or the regular line. Also, how cute is this theming! Love it.

We ended up kind of riding together anyways -- in the same car at least!

I don't remember if our car won, but we had a great ride. So much better than Test Track! So fun with all the animatronics and such. The gal next to me in the car was very excited for me to have my first ride - she was livestreaming the whole time. Also, the guy next to Trevor in the back had a keyblade from Kingdom Hearts!

As we got off the ride, we noticed the super fun pre-historic Cars cave drawings --

look! They're little tractors! Love it.

We got off the ride at about 7, so we decided to ride Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters. But first, look at the adorable statue of the Model-T with his traffic cone witch's hat!

And the traffic cones as teeth! Seriously, love these decorations.

Luigi's was listed as 5 minutes -- we ended up waiting 8 min. Which really wasn't bad.

Happy Haul-o-Ween! Seriously just loving all the theming. And the ride was cute and fun too.

At this point, it was about 7:15 and we were getting a bit hungry, and so we figured we'd mobile order from Flo's V8 cafe, and then take the food over and eat it while watching the parade. But it got a little bit messy, cause the soonest time they had was 7:45pm, and since the parade kicked off at 7:45 pm, that was a bit of a problem. Oh well. We placed the order.

It was basically dark by then, and we met up with Mater in his vampire costume!

Also, look at these fun Halloween movie posters!

Hocus Spokus is my favorite.

This whole time I'd been trying to move up our mobile order time but despite it offering me sooner times, it never let me confirm the new time and so I was never able to move it up. So we decided to send Trevor on ahead to grab a spot on the parade route, and then I'd get the food and meet up with him. It actually worked out pretty well, though I do not recommend walking from CarsLand over to basically in front of Corn Dog Castle carrying two cups of water with no lids and a cardboard try of chicken. It was not my favorite thing, but I didn't spill too much water and none of the chicken, so calling that a win. And both my hands were full so I couldn't actually call Trevor and ask where he was, so I was just walking along the parade route hoping I'd find him, and I did!! The timing worked out actually - I found him literally one minute before the Headless Horseman came by, so calling that a win!

But before I talk about the parade -- the food! We got one of the Oogie Boogie Bash exclusive treats from Flo's, the loaded Buffalo Chicken fries. This was.....not good. The buffalo chicken sauce was just super vinegary and I did not like it at all, and there wasn't enough ranch. The fries were ok, where they weren't too covered in sauce. Trevor liked them better than I did, but neither of us really liked it. Sadly, a bust for us.

But the parade wasn't a bust! We had a front row seat (yay for the parade route being so long) near the beginning of the parade (as soon as the parade ended for us, we were planning to race over to Villain's Grove hopefully before the line gets long from people done with the parade -- stay tuned to see how that worked out), and we definitely decided to just sit down and relax and enjoy it. I thought it was great that it starts with Ichabod Crane running from the Headless Horseman -- DisneyWorld just has the horseman. This was cooler.

Or if you prefer, the video we took of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman

Then the parade! There was a bit of a wait between the horseman and the parade, but *shrugs* oh well. We didn't take any pictures of the parade, but Trevor did take a video
Video of the Frightfully Fun Parade

Now, we really love the DisneyWorld Boo-to-You Parade -- the song is an earworm and we just love the gravediggers and the ghost dancers and the whole thing (video here from 2018, in case you're interested: Boo to You Parade). So we weren't sure what we'd think about this parade, but we really liked it! The "It's Halloween-lo-ween Everybody!" song is just as much of an earworm as "Boo to You", and I loved the whole Haunted Mansion sequence, almost better than the DisneyWorld version. Highly recommend.

So we were on the side of the parade closest to Paradise Pier, expecting that when the parade ended we'd just cut across the street and over to Villain's Grove (like heading into Grizzly River Run the back way). That did NOT WORK AT ALL. We cut across the street, but they had CMs blocking the way to Villain's Grove, telling us we had to follow the parade route. I still don't know why this is a thing, but man it was SUPER super frustrating. We just wanted to go to Villain's Grove, not walk with the parade all the way to Carthay Circle, in a crowd of people trying to do the same thing we were and just as confused as we were about why we couldn't all just cut through to Villain's Grove. But eventually we made it. The line was pretty long at that point -- they'd put out tape on the ground to direct the line. It went from the Redwood Challenge trail all the way down the fence to Soarin' and then that's where the line (as directed by the tape) wound back around and back up and then back down and so on. We were a bit far back on the first switchback --

See the glowing green treat trail sign? That's where the line wrapped around to head towards Villain's Grove. This was 8:26pm. I was a bit worried the wait would be super long and we'd waste a bunch of time, but it moved at a pretty decent pace, actually.

Lookit the cute bear with his Halloween mickey bucket! The light on the Mickey changes colors.

As we got closer we got to see some of the lights on the trees and start to hear some of the music and atmospherics.

Then finally, at 8:47 pm, we were entering Villain's Grove. So 21 minutes -- not tooooooo bad, even though 20 minutes during a party is still proportionally a long amount of time to spend in line.

And then once we entered I basically forgot about the wait 'cause Villain's Grove is AMAZING. Like seriously, amazing guys. The lighting, the sound effects, the music, the scents...it was just Disney doing what they do best. It starts with walking through candelabras and the stained glass of a cathedral -- Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame was the villain it was evoking.

Then, it was Maleficent, with vines that grow over the rocks.

Then we headed into the Cheshire Cat area with the swirly lights.

Then into a grove overgrown with white roses that turned red -- the Queen of Hearts was chanting and it SMELLED like roses!

Most of the villains had this image of them created out of lights that slowly formed, held the shape for a few seconds, and then dissolved. It was super cool.

We then headed over to the Scar area, which featured the shadows of the hyenas marching (kind of like just in the movie) and then over to Dr Facilier from The Princess and the Frog

Then into the Evil Queen from Snow White, which was a thunderstorm.

Then we headed towards the light of dawn.

At the end there's a map, of sorts, of each area.

I'm not the best writer, just a lot of hyperbole of how amazing it was, but it was really really neat. We didn't video the whole thing but I stitched together some of the clips we took. I'm sure there are much better videos on youtube, but this one is mine. Villain's Grove clips

We got done with Villain's Grove right at 9:00 pm, so two more hours in our party. Where to next?!

 

[Araminta18]

Loving the pictures and the descriptions! I wonder if you tried Web Slingers or another treat trail next!

Oh good! I'm glad you're enjoying it! And nope, neither a treat trail nor Web slingers next....

 

[Martenique]

Thank you for the detailed writeup! I'm loving your commentary and the pictures!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

What great timing for the parade + food! Bummer about the buffalo chicken being a bust, but at least the parade and Villain's Grove were successful!

 

[NashvilleTrio]

More please!!

 

[NashvilleTrio]

So we were on the side of the parade closest to Paradise Pier, expecting that when the parade ended we'd just cut across the street and over to Villain's Grove (like heading into Grizzly River Run the back way). That did NOT WORK AT ALL. We cut across the street, but they had CMs blocking the way to Villain's Grove, telling us we had to follow the parade route. I still don't know why this is a thing, but man it was SUPER super frustrating. We just wanted to go to Villain's Grove, not walk with the parade all the way to Carthay Circle, in a crowd of people trying to do the same thing we were and just as confused as we were about why we couldn't all just cut through to Villain's Grove.

We've been in this type of situation before, both at Calif. Adventure and WDW. And yes, it is super frustrating! I'm sure they have good and logical reasons for it but it doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Araminta18]

Trick or Treat Trails!
Sunday, September 12th, 2021 (part 4)​

We finished Villain's Grove, we had two hours left in the party -- the world was our oyster! Where to?

Trick or Treat trails! We figured the lines would have died down by then, and let's be real, we were right there by the Evil Queen treat trail, so off we went! I do love how there are lots of candy spots in each treat trail. But honestly the best part was the Evil Queen. Obviously.

I love the setting, with her cauldron and the large recipe page behind her. And they gave out apple slices in that treat trail! Brilliant! We took a video: the Evil Queen Treat Trail

We then headed back towards Carthay Circle, but there was no line for the next treat trail we passed, so we of course did that one. Maleficent!

This one is also pretty neat, though I'll be honest it's set up in such a way that it kind of overwhelms the character. The set is so big! Whereas like, the Evil Queen one is big but the focus is still the character. Still pretty neat though. And of course, we got lots of candy. We took a video, obviously: Maleficent Treat Trail

There were essentially no lines for either of the two treat trails, so we figured it was time to hit all the treat trails and get candy and meet all the characters. Next up, Oogie Boogie!

See? Practically no line! Which was pretty sweet. My one complaint here was that the lights were a bit too bright? or something? Maybe it needed more people? I dunno. All the graphics on all the screens were cool, but Oogie Boogie seemed a bit small and it needed moodier lighting or something.

I realize all this criticism makes it sound like I didn't like it, but I did! It was super neat and great decoration. It's just it was so good that the little bit off stuck out a bit more. Something like that. The voice was pretty awesome though. We took a video so you can hear for yourself: Oogie Boogie Treat Trail

From there, we wandered across the street to the Cruella treat trail, which was EPIC!!! This was hands-down my favorite treat trail. The music was awesome, Cruella was great, and they had displays of the costumes from the movie up, as if Cruella was exhibiting the dresses. There was even a red carpet for the part of the trail that went right in front of the stage where she was, so you could walk the red carpet. AWESOME.

Also I love this coat/cape thing so much. I could never ever wear it but I LOVE it. Video here: Cruella Treat Trail

As you may be able to tell, we were kind of working our way around the park hitting all the treat trails. So we were walking towards Avengers Campus (Agatha here we come!) we found this awesome Wandavision set for a photo shoot. They have a stand where you can prop your phone up and it takes a picture of you in the black and white living room. Pretty neat!

Next up, Agatha! And no line again. LOVE IT.

Having her in the sanctum was super cool. This gal was hilarious! She was very interactive and talking with everyone, and was just really quick and funny. We hung out in there for a few minutes just watching her interact with people. It was really funny. This was actually the one trail we didn't take a video at, cause we were too busy just watching.

After hanging out there for a bit we kept moving, heading out through the front of Avengers Campus. We passed the awesome Spiderman mural Miles Morales did, so we had to take a picture.

It's super cool! And a nice touch/call-out to the Spiderman Into the Spiderverse movie (which was awesome by the way).

This was 9:45, so we'd hit 5 treat trails in 45 minutes. SWEET! We wanted to make sure we hit Sid at least before the end of the night, and I was getting pretty hungry and figured I'd try Disneyland's famous corn dogs by getting a corn dog at the Corn Dog Castle, which admittedly is DCA and not Disneyland but they're all part of the Disneyland resort so it counts, right? That was the plan.

Look at how pretty Avengers Campus is all lit up!

And then we saw a photopass photographer taking pictures with the Avenger's Campus sign, so of course we jumped in line, esp since there were only 3 or 4 groups ahead of us! It would only take what 5 minutes, right?

WRONG.

So. This is gonna sound bad. And I don't mean it to sound bad. But this photographer was taking literally 7 or 8 minutes with each and every group. Which sounds lovely. Except there was a line. And 7 to 8 minutes per group means that a line of 3 people is 25 minutes! I am all for photopass photographers taking time with people, but not when there's a line, especially during a party. We stuck it out, cause we wanted pictures there at night with it all lit up, but several groups got in line after us and then bailed. We probably should have bailed too, especially because the pictures didn't even turn out that well! Like, they were cool, but not worth the wait. Most were off-center or out of focus .

Some fun magic shots though Fun side note: we took a couple more pictures with magic shots in Avengers campus and every single time they gave me the Dr Strange effect, and so we eventually had to track down a photographer and ask specifically for Trevor to get the Dr Strange shields! We ended up with like 5 of me with that shot and only the 1 of Trevor.

Anyways! So we had gotten in line at 9:45, and we finished with the pictures at 10:15pm. Not our finest party time - but made me glad we had 2 more parties coming up!!

We headed over to Pixar Pier to see Sid, and on the way we passed Ian and Barley from Onward. They had a pretty good line so we passed, but it was still fun to see.

Sid didn't really have any line either, which was awesome! We got lots of candy, and had a really fun interaction with Sid revolving around whether or not Trevor was a prince ('cause of our costumes - I was Sleeping Beauty and Trevor was Prince Philip), which I filmed of course. Meeting Sid from Toy Story

Sid's trail was right by the Corn Dog Castle, so we swung by and picked up our mobile order for the corn dog. I was hungry, and quite excited cause a. I like corn dogs and b. I'd heard so much about how good Disneyland corn dogs were so I couldn't wait to try it!

I feel like I'm being super negative, but guys, this just was not good. Not at all. It was burned, and there was too much batter for the amount of hot dog. And it was super greasy. I really wanted to like it, but I just didn't. Oh well.

At this point it was about 10:30pm, and we figured we'd head up to the front of DCA and do the Dr Facilier Treat Trail - the last treat trail with a character. On our way, we ran right into the end of the second parade. This one was much less frustrating, since we weren't trying to cut over to Villain's Grove and we didn't mind following the parade up to Carthay Circle. It actually worked out really well -- we followed the parade up to Carthay Circle and went over to the Headless Horseman statue cause we wanted to take pictures in front of it with the lighting and effects going, and then it turned out that we were first in line for the photopass photographer at the statue! They left while the parade was going, and then came back when the parade was over, and we were first in line. Sweeeeeeeeeet.

Love it.

Then we headed over to Dr Facilier's treat trail (it was 10:45 pm) and we had great timing, 'cause they were all like "get rid of all the candy! take handfuls!". We ran through several times.

Such a great villain - this guy was great. Though I was admittedly a bit distracted by the "take all the candy!" We had brought a small foldable backpack that we broke out to store more candy, vs in the little bags they give you, and we had gotten the backpack totally stuffed. Brilliant!

But the nirvana couldn't last forever -- they ran out not 5 min later at 10:50. Which was ok, we'd gotten our fill of candy. It did strike me as a bit odd that they ran out before the party ended -- the parties I've been to at Disneyworld, they make a point to keep refilling right up to the party end time, and not ending early.

Anyways, we headed back out to the front of Carthay Circle and it turned out there were characters out! Right after the second parade, I remembered that I'd wanted to see Hades and Meg and so I'd asked a CM if they'd be coming back out and the CM was like "nope, no more characters tonight". But there were characters after all! It was Cinderella and the stepsisters and the wicked stepmother, not Hades and Meg, but it was still fun. The stepsisters are HILARIOUS. They asked if Trevor had any brothers, since he was already taken.

You'll notices the stepsisters are making the same grimaces in both photos - that's their picture faces.

After that, the party was essentially over. We took one last look around, enjoying the projections on Carthay Circle (which are awesome by the way). Video of Carthay Circle Projections

And then we headed out. The party was over. I will say, I'm used to a huge crush of people exiting the park at the end of parties at DisneyWorld -- it was kind of nice here that the park wasn't SO crowded as we all moved towards the exit.

We had to take another picture in the esplanade -- we took one at the beginning of the day, so we had to take one at the end of the night!

And then it was back to the hotel. WHICH WAS AWESOME, by the way -- being able to walk back to our hotel in only 5 minutes or so. Though at that point my feet were hurting pretty bad -- Disney days are rough on the feet, yo. Worth it though.

Once back at the hotel we had to take a pic of our candy haul. IT WAS IMMENSE.

Hand for scale in the second picture -- and keep in mind the pile is not evenly spread out. Also notice the weird healthy/non candy stuff - applesauce, grapes, popcorn, graham crackers...I won't complain though, I ate the applesauces and grapes on our walks to the part every morning - pre-breakfast! Now, neither Trevor nor I like nuts in our candy, so our plan was to eat the candy we like and then give out the candy with nuts as Halloween candy (peanut butter M&Ms, snickers, etc). So we sorted our candy into the two groups -- it took us 15 minutes. I know, we're nerds.

So yea, that was our first Disneyland day! It was a bit long (3am wakeup call, woof), and some minor hiccups, but overall, very smooth, and very fun. We were exhausted and ready to fall into bed - but happy exhaustion. The next day, Disneyland! (Also yes, this was indeed the final post for this day...it only took 4 posts! LOL)

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 25,617 steps (11.5 miles)
Ride count: 8 (Incredi-coaster, Pixar Pal-around Swinging Gondolas, the swings, Golden Zephyr, Grizzly River Run (single rider), Monsters After Dark, Radiator Springs Racers (single rider), Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters)

 

[Araminta18]

Thank you for the detailed writeup! I'm loving your commentary and the pictures!

Yay! I'm glad you're enjoying it Thank you for reading!

What great timing for the parade + food! Bummer about the buffalo chicken being a bust, but at least the parade and Villain's Grove were successful!

Right?! It worked out super well. Yep! Definitely more pluses than minuses

More please!!

just posted!

We've been in this type of situation before, both at Calif. Adventure and WDW. And yes, it is super frustrating! I'm sure they have good and logical reasons for it but it doesn't make sense to me.

right? I really don't understand it, not at all. I wonder what the reason is.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Awesome way the treat trails worked out! I am amazed you two made it the whole party after being up at 3am - that is some Disney dedication. Another food bummer with the corndog though - hopefully the food scene will look up during your Disneyland day coming next!

 

[Araminta18]

Awesome way the treat trails worked out! I am amazed you two made it the whole party after being up at 3am - that is some Disney dedication. Another food bummer with the corndog though - hopefully the food scene will look up during your Disneyland day coming next!

it was amazing! We got so lucky with the no lines. As far as making it through the whole day, adrenaline

 

[Araminta18]

Rope Drop or Bust!
Monday, September 13, 2021 (part 1)​

Despite our late night, we were up at 6 am, getting ready for rope drop. Who can sleep in at Disney? Not me. Normally I wanna sleep in as late as possible, but not at Disney (and especially not at a crowded Disneyland with no fastpasses ).

I already broke into our trick or treat goodies -- grapes and apples for breakfast!

I wasn't sure exactly when we should arrive in order to be in a good position, but I figured with the parks opening at 8, being there a solid hour ahead of time should be ok. So we left our room at 6:52am. View from the room picture!

Look at that gorgeous Matterhorn over there.

Now obviously I know what you're thinking -- why are we walking over there right before 7 am when Rise boarding groups drop?! Well, I really wanted to be in line early, and while we were DEFINITELY going for Rise, I had a couple of East coast friends back home logged into my account who were also going to be trying to get us Rise boarding groups, so I figured I could swing it. It actually worked out really well -- we hit the line of people waiting for security just before 7 am. So 8 minutes from our room on the 8th floor down to the security line outside the esplanade. Not too bad!

Those white tents are the head of the line. I was a bit surprised at how many people were there that early on a Monday morning in the middle of September, but *shrugs*.

Anyways, back to Rise boarding groups. So Trevor and I both had our phones up and so we were ready to go right at 7, as well as our friends back home. And it paid off, cause one of our friends got us BOARDING GROUP 1! We seriously have the best luck with Rise boarding groups, though I think having someone who is fast on the button and not there on Disney wifi or cell reception in a crowded place is really the key, as long as you trust them to log in to your Disney account. But yay! We were super psyched, and that just amped our adrenaline up.

We waited 15 minutes until they opened the security checkpoints. It felt like a long wait, mostly 'cause of the anticipation. We did get to see them testing the monorail though.

Monorail!

We got through security pretty quickly once they opened them up, and headed over to Disneyland to wait for the turnstiles to open up. The line we picked only had one couple in front of us, but then they left and we got to be head of the line. Sweet!

Also look at those adorable pumpkins looking like the fab five! Well, fab three in this photo

We got to see the Disneyland Railroad go by as they were getting ready to open up and let us in: Disneyland Railroad before openingDisneyland Railroad before opening

At 7:26 they opened the gates and scanned our tickets, but then they held us for another couple minutes before doing the countdown and letting us through. I took a video of the countdown to opening too: Disneyland Opening Countdown If you listen hard you can hear Trevor confirming our game plan ("to the right, right?").

We were pretty near the head of the rope drop crowd, so as we walked into the hub and saw the giant pumpkin with a photographer and practically no line, we had to stop and get a picture. We were heading for Tomorrowland and Space Mountain, so I figured 30 seconds of a delay wouldn't be too bad.

Not our best picture - it was definitely early!

I did like this Nightmare Before Christmas magic shot though.

After the pics, we booked it up the hub and over to Tomorrowland. I'm purposefully excluding our reaction to the castle...we're DisneyWorld vets, draw your own conclusions. Nah, just teasing. It's a super cute castle. Just gotta get used to the size differential.

Anyways, over to Tomorrowland! The delay didn't cost us hardly anything -- it was pretty sparse over there.

We were basically at the rope, at 7:35 am. Now, this is gonna sound creepy but all will be explained semi-shortly: the bald gentleman to the right? He pops up again in a day or so...Foreshadowing!

We hung out at the rope, hoping they might let us in a bit early. They did not! Another difference from DisneyWorld, which seems to be a bit more loose about opening times. They held us at the rope until 8am exactly. By then it had gotten quite crowded --this first pic is time-stamped 7:52am and the next is 7:56 am.

And with that many people, obviously we're all excited and anxious. Some idiot started doing his own countdown a few minutes ahead of time, and got a good amount of people in the crowd to join in too, which was SUPER dangerous and scary, since we weren't actually being let in and if the crowd, especially those in the back who can't see that this is all just some idiot and not the CMs, started pushing forward...no good. And he did it like two or three times, though on the third time he tried to start another countdown a bunch of us yelled at him and told him to stop. Good grief how dumb do you have to be.

Anyways, at 8 am exactly they let us go, though with instructions not to run (to no one's surprise the idiot who'd started the fake countdowns took off sprinting. *sigh*). We were speedwalking and ended up in the first 20 or 30 people in line for Space Mountain. Sweet! Also, that queue is ridiculously long and involved. But SO COOL.

You can see the CM leading the line there at the bottom of the ramp -- not too many people ahead of us! Though we did have just enough time to snap a selfie before we boarded - our first Disneyland ride!

We got on at 8:07 (I told you that queue takes a long time to walk ) and the next picture I have is stamped 8:13 am, so not too bad at all.

Not our best picture, but we definitely had a great ride. I really liked it -- it was different but still familiar, and I loved the side by side seats as opposed to Disneyworld's one seat per row configuration. Definitely a good start to our morning.

From there, our plan was to keep knocking out headliners. Over to the Matterhorn we went! We got there at 8:17 am. They were only running one side at that time of the morning, but since we didn't wait we were ok with that. It was the left side, if you're looking at the Matterhorn head on, which I think is the Tomorrowland side. I honestly don't remember a ton about this ride other than it was SUPER jerky. Fun, but jerky. We didn't get too wet though, which was definitely a plus!

End of ride selfie

We were off the ride by 8:25am, and so it was time to book it over to Adventureland and to our next headliner -- Indiana Jones! It was kind of fun walking through essentially an empty hub. There were not many people there at all - I guess all the early birds were on rides! Luckily, they weren't on Indiana Jones -- we had another very short wait. We didn't actually run into a line til we were on the steps to go up and over the track, so about a 7 or 8 min wait from the time we entered the queue but 4 min of that was actually walking the queue, 'cause it's freaking LONG.

Line selfie! We LOVED this ride. We're big Indy fans anyways, and it was just really fun to ride and go on an adventure with Indy.

We were off the ride at 8:42 (so that's 3 headliners in 42 minutes... ) Our next stop was Haunted Mansion Holiday! But on the way, we saw this tragic sight (and that is not sarcasm):

That's Tarzan's Treehouse behind scrim, an unannounced closure that had only started a few days before. Now, I really really really like Tarzan. And I really wanted to walk through the treehouse. The last time I was in Disneyland, I was a teenager with a youth group. We were set free on the park in groups of four, and were under strict orders to stay together in that group of 4. Now, Disney had just converted the treehouse from Swiss Family Robinson over to Tarzan, and I really wanted to walk through it. But the girls I were with didn't want to, and wouldn't do it, so we just wandered and then rode the railroad instead. And since I didn't ever get to go through it, I really wanted to do it on this trip. So I was pretty disappointed to see it behind scrim, especially since it was unannounced (otherwise I literally would have planned around it - no joke) and is still closed with no end date in sight. I really hope they're not getting rid of it.

Anyways. That disappointment aside, over to Haunted Mansion Holiday. Trevor and I are huge Haunted Mansion fans, though not huge fans of Nightmare Before Christmas, so we figured this overlay would be interesting. As we approached, the line was posted at like 45 minutes, but we ended up waiting 12 min (yes, I timed it -thanks Touring Plans Lines app!). We did enjoy that 12 minutes of checking out the queue and all the decorations. They do a super neat job.

Trevor took a video so you can hear the fun queue music too: Haunted Mansion Holiday Queue

I was really excited to see the new May - December portrait - glad they left that in and didn't theme it or replace it with the overlay. Pics a bit blurry but you get the gist

So, our verdict: it was cute, and fun, but really we would have preferred to see the original/normal Haunted Mansion. I liked the soundtrack and the gingerbread house was amazing, but otherwise I think I like the regular version better. Oh well. You know we didn't end up falling in love with this version 'cause I think we only ended up riding it once or twice, when usually Haunted Mansion is a ride we'll do over and over and over. Though actually, thinking about it more, the lack of re-rides was probably more a function of the lack of fastpasses and the (surprising to us) big crowds.

ANYWAYS. Haunted Mansion done, it was about 9:05 am. Lines were starting to pick up a bit and we were starting to get hungry. Our plan was to eat breakfast at the Red Rose Taverne, 'cause we mostly wanted to see the decor and such, so we figured breakfast was probably about the same anywhere so might as well eat it here. So we started walking back towards Fantasyland but saw that Pirates was posting a 5 minute wait, so we hopped in line. Of course, right after we hopped in line it went down, so pbbbbbbb. That was a bust. We left and went over to Red Rose Taverne for breakfast.

They were only letting you do mobile order, which works for me! I like it way better. We got the Halloween Grey Stuff (another treat on our list!) and the breakfast platter -- we always split quick service meals 'cause they're usually huge and we can save stomach space for trash treats.

The breakfast platter was surprisingly good for what it was -- just eggs and bacon and home fries and a croissant, but it was yummy. Definitely recommend.

The grey stuff was also really good! I love raspberries, and would have loved even more than just the one in there. It was pretty sweet, but the fruit helped cut that a bit, which is partially why I would have liked even more raspberries with it. But still delicious.

So the food was great - definitely made up for our food misses yesterday!-- but I really loved just how it was decorated. Most people were eating outside (I don't think they realized you could eat inside) so we felt almost safer inside than outside with the crowds eating with masks off. And the decorations/decor were just so cute. I loved the stained glass especially.

And there's that picture limit. But not a bad morning so far - 4 headliners and a yummy breakfast, and the park had only been open for like 75 minutes.

Tune in next time to see where we go next! Is it time to ride Rise of the Resistance?

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

So glad breakfast was a hit! Especially after the food misses in DCA. Seems crazy how quickly the park fills up! I also love your outfits for the day