The Holiday Tour At Disneyland
Yesterday was our last trip to Disneyland of the year and we really did make it count this time. We did something different, and that was to stay after dark to be able to see all the holiday lighting, as well as some other things on my to-do list. It was a long haul yesterday, as we didn't leave the park until around 8:40 pm, and we got there around 10 am, but the extra soreness was so worth it. The very first thing I wanted to do was get on the Haunted Mansion Holiday because it was our last chance to ride it. The wait said 40, but it only took 17 minutes to get into the building. It was great timing.
After that, I was mindful of the time the whole time because there were certain things I wanted to do at certain times. I don't normally plan our day out to that extent, but yesterday was different. However, there was some time before all of that, so I thought we'd check out the wait for Indy. It did say 55 minutes, but for god knows reason why we got in that queue anyway. It was moving along and I didn't see any Lightning Lanes until then the line stopped moving. The ride broke down. Seeing as I had things I wanted to accomplish, I figured we'd wait about five minutes to see if it went back up, and if not, we'd exit. But then they put the music back on, which I thought might be a good sign, so we waited longer. We waited for maybe around fifteen minutes and luckily the ride was up and running again. All in we waited maybe a half hour? And this time I got to see the lightning special effect that wasn't working before.
Then, it was time for lunch. Our lunch was going to be at the Jolly Holiday because there were some specific items I wanted to try. I had my mom order the toasted ham and pineapple sandwich and I got the chicken and bacon corn chowder, and we shared. Both were yummy. I approved. Then I wanted to head over to DCA to do a couple things over there, but I didn't want to linger because most of what I wanted to do was at Disneyland. The first thing we did was go into the animation building. There's a section in there that's closing permanently and I wanted to see it one last time before it's gone. That is the Beast's Library. It had been a long time since we went in there. In that room they have books with a personality quiz you can take to see what Disney character you are. I did it first and got Mulan, and then my mom got Alice. I'm pretty sure the very first time I did that test I got Belle though. I wonder if it's random. Anyway, sad to see that one go, but it was fun. The other thing we did was go on Mater because of course he does the Jingle Jamboree with the funny songs.
We headed back to Disneyland after that because I wanted to see something else that's going away forever soon. That is The Tale of the Lion King show at the Fantasyland theater. I really liked this show. The performers aren't dressed up like lions or other animals, but it's distinctly African with a lot of dancing and singing. I enjoyed the way it was done. I hope there will be another show coming to that theater once it's gone though. After the show, we were going to go get dessert. I heard they had what was called a sticky toffee pudding jar at the River Belle Terrace. At least, that's what the holiday foodie guide said. We got a table, looked at the menu, and found out from the waiter that it's not a dessert, but basically sticky toffee pudding on a pancake with some bacon and sausage. What? The foodie guide neglected to mention that. So, I looked at the guide again for another alternative, but none of the holiday treats really appealed to me, but we ultimately decided to go back to the Jolly Holiday to pick out a dessert there. I got a chocolate croissant, which was good, but would have been even better if it was warmed up. My mom got this pumpkin muffin with frosting. It sounded like she would have rather ordered something else. The Christmas Fantasy Parade was going on while we were eating. We only caught glimpses of it both times it ran. I would have liked to have just stood somewhere and watched it, but we had other things to do.
We kind of loitered around Main Street after dessert, looking in shops until about ten minutes before 5 to watch them light the Christmas tree. It was the longest ten minutes of waiting, but it was pretty. Then I asked my mom if she wanted to take a stroll around the park. Now that the lights were on, I wanted to visit each land to check them out. It's actually surprisingly dark at Disneyland in spite of all the lights. We looped through Tomorrowland and over to It's A Small World, which wasn't lit yet, so we went into Toontown and came back out and the lights were on. It's A Small World all lit up is my favorite. We crossed through Fantasyland and into Galaxy's Edge. I thought we hadn't seen it at night, but I forgot that we had been there at night the very first time we rode Rise of the Resistance. Speaking of which, when we passed by there, there seemed to be no line, but I wasn't entirely sure. I was worried about there not being enough time because I wanted to get some dinner before seeing the castle lighting event at 7:30, which is called Wintertime Enchantment. My mom asked me the time. It was 5:35 and my mom said that's plenty of time. OK. We went back to Rise and the attraction was literally a walk on. It only took us 4 minutes to get to the Rey room. A new record! That was awesome!
We decided to get dinner at the Plaza Inn because we kept smelling that fried chicken and I was in the mood. We shared the fried chicken meal and there was still time before the castle lighting. We started heading towards the Star Trader in Tomorrowland when I noticed that Star Tours was only a ten minute wait. It was not even that. It was also a walk on. We saw a couple scenes we hadn't seen in a while. The one from The Force Awakens and the other from The Rise of Skywalker, so that was nice. We spent a little time in the Star Trader before then hanging around the castle for about fifteen minutes before the show started. I saw it on YouTube before on Fresh Baked's channel, but it's so magical to see in person. Plus they spray snow during the show, which adds to the magic. The castle is so beautiful during the holidays.
The last couple of things we did was first pick up a Wish poster from the Disneyana store (special for Magic Key holders) and then take a tour around DCA to look at the lights there. We had a brief stop to watch Peter Quill getting the crowd to dance with him. That was kind of fun to watch. My feet and legs were mostly fine until we took that final tour around DCA. That was a killer, but worth it. This whole visit was worth staying later after dark. It's a different vibe at night. The parks were busy, yet manageable. It did get very chaotic during the parade times though. I didn't expect we would ride as much rides as we did because I was mostly focused on the shows and entertainment this time. It was a great final day at Disneyland to close off this year.
After that, I was mindful of the time the whole time because there were certain things I wanted to do at certain times. I don't normally plan our day out to that extent, but yesterday was different. However, there was some time before all of that, so I thought we'd check out the wait for Indy. It did say 55 minutes, but for god knows reason why we got in that queue anyway. It was moving along and I didn't see any Lightning Lanes until then the line stopped moving. The ride broke down. Seeing as I had things I wanted to accomplish, I figured we'd wait about five minutes to see if it went back up, and if not, we'd exit. But then they put the music back on, which I thought might be a good sign, so we waited longer. We waited for maybe around fifteen minutes and luckily the ride was up and running again. All in we waited maybe a half hour? And this time I got to see the lightning special effect that wasn't working before.
Then, it was time for lunch. Our lunch was going to be at the Jolly Holiday because there were some specific items I wanted to try. I had my mom order the toasted ham and pineapple sandwich and I got the chicken and bacon corn chowder, and we shared. Both were yummy. I approved. Then I wanted to head over to DCA to do a couple things over there, but I didn't want to linger because most of what I wanted to do was at Disneyland. The first thing we did was go into the animation building. There's a section in there that's closing permanently and I wanted to see it one last time before it's gone. That is the Beast's Library. It had been a long time since we went in there. In that room they have books with a personality quiz you can take to see what Disney character you are. I did it first and got Mulan, and then my mom got Alice. I'm pretty sure the very first time I did that test I got Belle though. I wonder if it's random. Anyway, sad to see that one go, but it was fun. The other thing we did was go on Mater because of course he does the Jingle Jamboree with the funny songs.
We headed back to Disneyland after that because I wanted to see something else that's going away forever soon. That is The Tale of the Lion King show at the Fantasyland theater. I really liked this show. The performers aren't dressed up like lions or other animals, but it's distinctly African with a lot of dancing and singing. I enjoyed the way it was done. I hope there will be another show coming to that theater once it's gone though. After the show, we were going to go get dessert. I heard they had what was called a sticky toffee pudding jar at the River Belle Terrace. At least, that's what the holiday foodie guide said. We got a table, looked at the menu, and found out from the waiter that it's not a dessert, but basically sticky toffee pudding on a pancake with some bacon and sausage. What? The foodie guide neglected to mention that. So, I looked at the guide again for another alternative, but none of the holiday treats really appealed to me, but we ultimately decided to go back to the Jolly Holiday to pick out a dessert there. I got a chocolate croissant, which was good, but would have been even better if it was warmed up. My mom got this pumpkin muffin with frosting. It sounded like she would have rather ordered something else. The Christmas Fantasy Parade was going on while we were eating. We only caught glimpses of it both times it ran. I would have liked to have just stood somewhere and watched it, but we had other things to do.
We kind of loitered around Main Street after dessert, looking in shops until about ten minutes before 5 to watch them light the Christmas tree. It was the longest ten minutes of waiting, but it was pretty. Then I asked my mom if she wanted to take a stroll around the park. Now that the lights were on, I wanted to visit each land to check them out. It's actually surprisingly dark at Disneyland in spite of all the lights. We looped through Tomorrowland and over to It's A Small World, which wasn't lit yet, so we went into Toontown and came back out and the lights were on. It's A Small World all lit up is my favorite. We crossed through Fantasyland and into Galaxy's Edge. I thought we hadn't seen it at night, but I forgot that we had been there at night the very first time we rode Rise of the Resistance. Speaking of which, when we passed by there, there seemed to be no line, but I wasn't entirely sure. I was worried about there not being enough time because I wanted to get some dinner before seeing the castle lighting event at 7:30, which is called Wintertime Enchantment. My mom asked me the time. It was 5:35 and my mom said that's plenty of time. OK. We went back to Rise and the attraction was literally a walk on. It only took us 4 minutes to get to the Rey room. A new record! That was awesome!
We decided to get dinner at the Plaza Inn because we kept smelling that fried chicken and I was in the mood. We shared the fried chicken meal and there was still time before the castle lighting. We started heading towards the Star Trader in Tomorrowland when I noticed that Star Tours was only a ten minute wait. It was not even that. It was also a walk on. We saw a couple scenes we hadn't seen in a while. The one from The Force Awakens and the other from The Rise of Skywalker, so that was nice. We spent a little time in the Star Trader before then hanging around the castle for about fifteen minutes before the show started. I saw it on YouTube before on Fresh Baked's channel, but it's so magical to see in person. Plus they spray snow during the show, which adds to the magic. The castle is so beautiful during the holidays.
The last couple of things we did was first pick up a Wish poster from the Disneyana store (special for Magic Key holders) and then take a tour around DCA to look at the lights there. We had a brief stop to watch Peter Quill getting the crowd to dance with him. That was kind of fun to watch. My feet and legs were mostly fine until we took that final tour around DCA. That was a killer, but worth it. This whole visit was worth staying later after dark. It's a different vibe at night. The parks were busy, yet manageable. It did get very chaotic during the parade times though. I didn't expect we would ride as much rides as we did because I was mostly focused on the shows and entertainment this time. It was a great final day at Disneyland to close off this year.