Thanks!
Thanksgiving week(-end) at
Disneyland was indeed magical! (And we had a much better time than our very disappointing trip before Halloween.) We arrived Wednesday morning at 7, before the parks officially open, were able to check into the Disneyland Hotel and got a room right away; dropped off our bags, found something unintentionally left by mousekeeping in our room; brought it to front desk's attention, for which they were profusely sorry, and offered us 3 Multiple Experiences Fast Passes on each of our tickets. We headed to Disneyland Park without having lost too much of the morning and rode a good number of attractions before it started getting crowded and too hot.
It was in the 90s on Wednesday and Thursday, and in the mid-80s on Friday and Saturday! In late November! Hardly the kind of weather to make me feel like the holidays are here. We’ve been doing Thanksgiving at Disneyland for years now, and it’s almost always warm in late November, but last week was especially hot! The crowds last week felt a bit heavier than last year, especially as it got later in the day. So we came fully prepared to take advantage of one of the Disneyland Hotel’s best features – it’s pool! We spent every afternoon at the pool and my daughter wanted to ride the slide over and over – she was so happy!
We also took full advantage of Extra Magic Hour each morning. Our usual strategy is to open up the parks anyway because we can get so much done (without having to pay extra for MaxPass) in those first 2-3 hours before the rest of the crowds really start rolling in. With EMH, we were able to check off every ride on our daughter’s wish list every day. Our daughter passed 40” recently so that’s opened up a lot of “new” rides for her. (We were sad there’s no Jingle Cruise this year.) Then we’d come back at night when the crowds are watching nighttime shows and otherwise thinning out to enjoy some attractions at night (Main Street with the lights, garlands and Christmas tree, Haunted Mansion and Small World holiday overlays all look fantastic at night, and Sleeping Beauty Castle lit up with snow and holiday decorations is really magical!).
We enjoyed a lunch at Café Orleans (really sad to see the menu changed, but at least the pomme frites, gumbo and beignets were still available). Another lunch on the lanai outside Trader Sam’s. Takeout of a slice of the 24-layer chocolate cake from Steakhouse 55. And tastings at the Festival of Holidays food booths.
We also enjoyed the annual Thanksgiving Family Dinner in the Grand Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel. We met Minnie at her Thanksgiving table, Santa in his lounge in the hotel lobby, Chip and Dale, Pocahontas and Meeko. We ate too much. We danced to a live band. We’ve been doing this dinner for 8 years now! Some years have been real misses, but I feel like Disney is really taking feedback seriously and this dinner has been fantastic (and increasingly expensive) these last two years.
We did the Blue Bayou Fantasmic dining package on Friday night. New Orleans Square was packed so we’re glad we didn’t have to worry about finding seating for the show. The ribeye and rack of lamb, which we ordered, were cooked to perfection; but we were a little sad our Sorcerer Mickey dessert didn’t have the sorcerer’s hat but had a dragon instead. Our viewing spot was straight in front of Tom Sawyer’s Island, and we had a great view of the show and the fireworks afterwards.
Thank you to everyone in this community who helped make this trip possible! We visit Disneyland for Thanksgiving every year, but using credit card points I was able to book our stay at the Disneyland Hotel, which would have been cost prohibitive otherwise. It also freed up money for other paid experiences like the Thankgiving and Blue Bayou Fantasmic Dinners (paid for with Disney Gift Card deals, of course). Yes, it’s not the best use of UR points, but I think we all agree that the best use of points is what’s best for you. And what a difference staying on site made for this trip! We usually stay offsite for our quick trips, which is fine because we tend to stay in the parks longer to maximize our park time when we have just a day or two. But the parking and trams, or the walking along Harbor, then the long bag check lines at Mickey & Friends or the east gate really eat into our time. It’s nice to spread out our plans on a longer trip and just having to walk through Downtown Disney to and from the hotel. The bag check near Earl of Sandwich was never too long, even when trying to get to EMH; and Downtown Disney wasn’t too crowded. And with the weather being as hot as it was, I was so glad we could cool off and wind down in the Disneyland Hotel’s pools every day.
My wife, who is still very skeptical of credit card bonuses, casually hinted we should do this again next year. As in, stay at the Disneyland Hotel for Thanksgiving! Our stay was about 123k UR points, which is a good amount; but I figure we’ve racked up about 200k UR from spend in the last year so it’s doable (as long as certain sites and apps keep coding the way they do lol).
One condition – no more road trips! Apparently we’re flying next year. Being from the Bay Area, we’ve always driven to Disneyland because it’s about a 7 hour drive, give or take. We like the convenience of having our car with us; we come and go as we please and don’t worry about baggage. It used to be real fun trying to get to Anaheim as fast as we can, safely, because we knew Disneyland was waiting for us. Those few extra hours just made our travel day a long day. I have to admit it’s not so fun anymore because we have a kid in tow who needs to take potty breaks, sit down to eat, run around, etc., so our less than 7 hours trips are more like 8 or 9 these days. And on holiday weekends like Thanksgiving, traffic and accidents have a way of making a long drive even longer. So I think I have marching orders for our Disneyland trips next year, and I think I have a tacit agreement to go for the Southwest CP!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
