Woman in the Middle

Up above the ticket gates at the entrance to the park giant “pumpkin” characters greet guests as they enter the park.   

We thoroughly enjoyed Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland. But, before I go into the details, I just want to point out some things to anyone who is thinking of going and has stumbled across this blog post.

1. We live an hour from Disneyland and have gone many, many times. If we miss something, we know we will go again.

2. We have a Disney credit card that rewards us with Disney “dollars” so it doesn’t cost us anything to go.

3. If this is your first time going to Disneyland, I suggest you go during normal business hours.

Mickey’s Halloween Party at Disneyland is held Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays this year. We missed getting a ticket to one of the Friday nights, so we decided on Monday. Lucky for us, the weather decided to cool down and the predicted rain fell somewhere other than Anaheim. Our tickets, which were $69 per person (as opposed to the regular price of $99 a person for a normal day), allowed us to go into the park up to three hours early, giving us a total of eight hours at Disneyland, more than enough for my tired feet!. Each ticket also came with free parking. That three-hour “overlap” period is the busiest of the day because all the day time folk were still there and all the Halloween party folk were arriving early.

We took advantage of the early entrance by getting a late lunch/early dinner at Big Thunder Ranch. Unfortunately this restaurant will be going away in January when they close off that area to create the new Star Wars land. Since it is our favorite place to eat at Disneyland, we took advantage of one last opportunity to enjoy the ribs, chicken, beans, coleslaw, and cornbread. Yum, yum!

Normally, Disneyland only lets children under the age of nine wear costumes. The exception is the Halloween party. Anyone can wear a costume, with some rules, which I recommend you look up and read if you are planning on going. Youngest Daughter thought we should wear themed costumes. We came up with “California’s Four Seasons.” What are those? Instead of spring, summer, fall, and winter, here in California we have smog, fire, flood, and earthquake seasons! We went for simple and comfortable, with an emphasis on headware.

Disneyland was decked out in lots of Halloween decorations. Once the sun set and it was dark, and Disneyland is darker than you might think at night, many of the buildings such as Cinderella’s Castle, It’s a Small World, and all the shops on Main Street, had fun, moving Halloween pictures projected on them. We enjoyed just looking at those when we walked around. Below is Its a Small World decked out in Halloween projections. My photo looks a lot better when it is bigger.  Hope you can get a sense of what it looked like.

There were Halloween themed goodies you could buy such as the “Day of the Dead” decorated caramel apple that Youngest Daughter bought to bring home. It was $9.99, but it easily feeds three to four people and was absolutely delicious! It was coated in caramel and then dipped in white chocolate.

A highlight for many people are the trick or treat trails where you can get candy and/or snacks. I didn’t understand quite how these worked until I actually went through the trails.   There were nine of them set up all over the park.  I actually saw some people waiting in line a half hour before they opened. You do not have to do that. There is plenty of candy and once they open the lines go really fast, even if they look dauntingly long.

They give you at least three pieces of candy per cart and each trail has between three and seven candy carts. So, just one trail nets you a lot of candy. We went to five or six trails and between the four of us we had in the neighborhood of 500 – 600 pieces of candy. Really. I am not kidding. The next day we divided it up into a small stash for each one of us, a bag to hand out to the trick or treaters on Halloween night, and I still have a ton to donate to a local Halloween party our Parks District is having.  On top of that, each cart has healthy snacks. These included apple slices, carrots, several types of goldfish crackers, chocolate or yogurt covered craisens, and Pirate’s Booty. They automatically give you candy, but if you ask they will also give you a healthy snack, too. Oh, the candy is all name brand and mostly chocolate, although there were some Skittles and Star Bursts scattered in.  Here is our haul, snacks included.

Disneyland has a Starbucks now, because Starbucks are everywhere, right? We could help ourselves and we stopped by the shop, which is located on Main Street.  The girls got coffee drinks and I got a delicious brownie, which I shared with everyone.  Even better, there was a table by the window and the Electric Parade was going down Main Street. Starbucks and a parade, what more could we ask?

Later that night was the fire works show. We chose to watch it from a spot in Fantasyland, over by Its a Small World. You can’t see what is going on by  Cinderella’s Castle from there but it isn’t as crowded. We had a great view of all the fireworks that were being shot into the sky and could here all the voices and spooky music. Disneyland does an amazing fireworks show!

Some people go the Mickey’s Halloween Party every year. I don’t plan on going every year, but I will definitely go again. It was fun to see the park dressed up differently, to enjoy the fun party atmosphere, and to see all the people dressed up in costume. The candy was a happy added bonus.

I mentioned in a previous post that we went to Disneyland recently. Not the Mother’s Day trip, but the one before that. Unfortunately it was spring break and the Happiest Place on Earth was filled with a whole bunch of other people who had the same idea as we did. Spring break is not the best time to go but it is the only time we had available. But Disneyland is reasonably close by for us so it is never our once in a life time trip. If the line is too long we can go on that ride another time.

The line for the Jungle Cruise said it was only a 30 minute wait so we decided to give it a go. Well, the wait wasn’t too bad but the line – Oh my! It snaked up a set of stairs and all over a second story that I didn’t even realize was there, before going back down the stairs, snaking around some more, before we finally got on a boat.  I don’t remember ever being upstairs at the Jungle Cruise before and so decided to make lemonade out of lemons and took pictures of all the new things I saw, as well as a few of Adventureland from above.

All the things we saw were supposed to be part of a jungle outpost for a group of explorers. THat will explain some of the things you are about to see.

How could I have missed the laundry flapping in the breeze before? Disney is always about the details!

One of the “rooms” we could peer into as we traveled our long and winding path to the boat included medical supplies. Again, the attention to detail was so fun to observe.

More “medical supplies.”

Looking down on a portion of Adventureland from up above the Jungle Cruise.

This animatronic bird was hanging out in the rafters, looking around.

So that was out little jaunt above the Jungle Cruise and Adventureland.

The whole family went off to Downtown Disney on Saturday evening. I guess we hadn’t had enough Mickey Mouse in our lives and since Downtown Disney is free and Disneyland costs $87, it is certainly the place to go for a dose of Disney Magic without the hefty price tag!

Parking for Downtown Dis\ney is free for the first three hours. You can get an additional two free hours of parking with validation from “participating stores.” We have been there many times so three hours is more than enough for us to do a circuit of the shops. If you plan on eating there and looking at the shops, too, then you may need more time. Each additional hour costs $6.00.

I fully admit that my family enjoys window shopping, so Downtown Disney is perfect for us. We like to poke around in the shops, admire the merchandise,and soak up the Disney atmosphere. The girls and I like to go through the huge Disney store to see what they have managed to put Mickey on now. Hubby, bless him, tolerates our oohs and aahs. If you like pin trading then the Disney store is perfect because there are always at least a few employees wearing a lanyard full of pins and, again, you don’t have to pay to get into the park to enjoy that activity.

Another fun store (which my Hubby enjoys much more) is the LEGO store. They had a whole area set up outside the store with tables and LEGO which was being enjoyed by a number of families. They also have added two huge displays constructed of LEGO to the outside of the store and one inside the store, all with a Disney theme, of course! I will be posting photos of those on another day.

There are often entertainers scattered though out Downtown Disney. On the Saturday night we were there there was a band playing music and quite a few couples were swing dancing and even more people were gathered around enjoying the music. There was also a guitarist and a violist. Like all things having to do with Disney, these are not your typical buskers, but really amazing musicians, hand-picked I am sure to play in Downtown Disney. An entertainment schedule is available on the Downtown Disney Website.   http://disneyland.disney.go.com/downtown-disney/

Since it was Saturday night there was more entertainment but there were also more people, LOTS of people. If you prefer a less crowded experience I suggest you go earlier int he day or on a weekday.

My only complaint about Downtown Disney, ever since it opened, is that it is lacking in casual, won’t cost an arm and a leg dining places. We usually go on the spur of the moment and we do not like to pay a huge amount for dinner for the four of us.  They are finally trying to remedy that. A new restaurant called the Earl of Sandwich is ging in even as I type. Several pf the existing restaurants have expanded their outside (and more casual) dining areas. Or you can do what we often do which is eat before we arrive.

So, we were once again filled up with the magic of Disney. For Hubby and me the magic was even more magical because it didn’t cost a dime!

The whole family played hooky yesterday and went to Disneyland. My brother went along too. It was great! The predictions of rain helped keep the crowd down. We got on virtually every ride we wanted to and had become so jaded by the short lines that when we saw that Alice in Wonderland had a 30 minute wait time we all agreed “No Way!”  Here are some Disneyland bits and pieces:

The chocolate cake you can purchase in the Golden Horseshoe Saloon is to die for! Yum! Cake, a layer of chocolate mousse, and topped with a chocolate ganache! It has whipped cream and a strawberry on the side. I don’t go to Disneyland for the food but this was lovely!

OK, I know I just said that I don’t go to Disneyland for the food, but one thing we do try to get when we are there is the Dole Whip, located at the entrance to the Enchanted Tiki Room. Several years ago we were in Hawaii and visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation. There you can get a yummy pineapple treat called Dole Whip. It is like a pineapple soft serve ice cream. As we ate it we mourned that we wouldn’t be able to have it again until we managed to get back to Hawaii. Imagine our surprise and delight when, on the next trip to Disneyland. we found out that Dole Whip is available there! While the price of a day at Disneyland is approaching the cost of a Hawaiian vacation, at least it is a little closer to home!

After the holiday themed fireworks, certain places in the park experience a fake snowfall. I realize that any of you reading this where real snow falls will be laughing your socks off over this but bear in mind we rarely get snow here in southern California! Anyway,  we decided to watch the fireworks from a snow fall area. Sure enough, after the fire works the lights came back up and the “snow” began to fall. Made up of small bits of foam, I would have told you before I experienced it that the fake snow would be hokey. Well, I was wrong. It was truly magical! Really, it was the reaction of everyone around us that was magical. It was right out of a TV Christmas movie with small children reaching out to grab the “flakes” in delight, parents beaming at their delighted children, young couples snuggling and kissing….. Leave it up to Disney to make fake snow so wonderful!

I made a tiny, half-hearted attempt to get my girls to go on “It’s a Small World” but they said “NO!” I knew they would. You see, last time we went to Disneyland I did manage to talk them into going on that ride. Then, just before we exited a small glitch occurred and we were stuck for 10 minutes, not moving but getting to listen to that song over and over again. You know, the Small World song doesn’t have many lines to it. Believe me, we know.