Disneyland in December: Day 5 (posted 2/5) About This Page:

[Politzania]

As you may have seen in the planning forum - DH and I are flying out to California this weekend to spend time with family and to visit Disneyland during its 50th Anniversary.
We've been twice before, for 1 day in 1999 and in 2003 for four days. This time we'll have 5 days in the DLR - whee!

Our basic plan:

Saturday Dec 10 -
* Pack & nap... Puppy already "on vacation" with my parents.
* Leave for Indy 3ish - pick up tix from ATA desk
* Hopefully get good seats on Southwest - flight 7:15p-9:05p (12:05 our time).
* Pick up car & drive to relatives' house

Sunday Dec 11 & Mon Dec 12
* visit with family. No idea what, if anything, they have planned. Possibly going out on DH's uncle's boat.

Tuesday Dec 12:
* Get up fairly early & fight traffic (???) from LaCanada to Anaheim. Hopefully arrive at hotel & get checked in/luggage dropoff by mid-morning.
* Look around Disneyland.
* Block Party Bash - 5:15 DCA
* Possibly go visit outlet stores
* Check out DL at night - fireworks 7:45

Wednesday Dec 14:
* Breakfast at River Belle Terrace?
* Aladdin at DCA - either 12:35 or 2:05 show
* Holiday Time at Disneyland tour: 4:00 (City Hall Desk by 3:45) - includes reserved seating for 6:30 Christmas Parade

Thursday Dec 15
* Early Entry: Fantasyland & Toontown
* Blue Bayou 12:00 (arrive 11:30 & ask for riverside seating)
* Parade of Dreams 4:00
* DL Fireworks 7:45 (maybe)

Friday 16 Dec:
* May take it a bit easy today - visit outlet stores if we didn't on Tuesday.
* DCA - Electric Light Parade 8:45
* DL - Fantasmic! 10:30 showing, if not too crowded
* DL open til midnight

Saturday, Dec 17
* Early Entry: Fantasyland & Toontown (maybe!)
* Probably crowded at park - take it easy.
* Catch showing of Fantasmic! if we missed it/too crowded Fri night.

Sunday Dec 18
* SLEEP IN (Park pass expired)
* Goofy's Kitchen at 10:40
* Leave for airport around 12:30 or 1
* Drop car off & get checked in
* Flight: 4:30p - 11:35p
* Drive home [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Any special hints or tips are appreciated!

[Tink and co.]

Have a fantastic time! The 10:30 showing of Fantasmic! is usually easy to just walk up and grab a seat or stand spot. I'll never go to the early one again! And you'll want to see the fireworks as many times as you can...they're that awesome. We watched two times on our recent trip from the hub right in front of the Plaza Inn, and it was a spectacular spot. Also, tried town square (down by the train station) and near Small World, and those spots were okay, but watch at least once from the hub, it's worth the wait! We had our best trip ever just last week, I want to go back right now! So, come home and tell us all about yours!

[Colexis Mom]

Have a great time [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] Can't wait to hear all about it [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[DawnDenise]

Looks like you have some great plans!! Can't wait to hear all about it as we are going in February! Have fun!!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img]

[snoozy]

Have a wonderful time. Give us a nice long TR when you get back with lots of details.

[Moosin88]

Cant wait to hear all about it we are leaving on the 29th of this month

[Politzania]

The flight on Sat was fairly uneventful - tho the termnal was quite busy due to them diverting flights from Chicago (which CLOSED about 45 min before we left!) to Indy.... planes kept landing at our gate!

Sunday, DH's aunt & uncle took us over to Newport Beach and Balboa Island... beautiful homes, if awfully close together & close to the street! Lots of lovely holiday decorations too! We had Balboa Bars.... a close second to Mickey bars! We passed right by DL on the way there & back - caught quick glimpses of ToT & Matterhorn... just a few more days!

Monday - a cousin drove us around Hollywood Boulevard - stopped & visited El Capitan, Grauman's & bits of the Walk of Fame, including Uncle Walt's star.

ETA: It was interesting to see the actual buildings (Crossroads of the World, Max Factor etc) that the Studios' "Main Street" is based on!


We then took a quick trip up (and I do mean UP) Mulholland Drive & stopped at a scenic overlook - got some good pics of the Hollywood sign & overlooks of the city. Drove thru part of Griffith Park (the Festival of Lights) and headed back. They've been very gracious hosts & we've had a lovely time so far.

This morning.... we're waiting for traffic to clear so we can head on over to Anaheim... the Mouse awaits!

[Diz]

Oh, can't wait to hear about DL at Christmas! I'm envious!

Sounds like a great start to your trip! I love the way you were able to see the Hollywood sign and get pictures!

It really does sound like your hosts have been so gracious! Do they want to adopt a distant cousin?! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Politzania]

Weather: mid 60's & sunny.
Woke up earlier than we'd intended, tho we did get to bed at a decent time the night before. I guess it was a combination of stil being on Eastern time & excitement over going to DL today!

Got showered & dressed and packed up our stuff, the got on the computer to check e-mail and post the TR for our first 2 days. Uncle S had to go to work, so we just had time to say hi & thanks before he left. We took Aunt B to breakfast and had a nice time chatting before we left. We'd wanted to avoid the rush hour traffic, but as 9:30 approached, we finally couldn't wait any longer! Scott's aunt & uncle live up near Pasadena, so we figured we had at least a 45 min - 1 hour drive, depending on how busy the freeways were.

Turns out they weren't nearly as bad as we thought (of course, I wasn't the one driving!) There were a couple of slowdowns here & there, but before we knew it, were were taking the exit for Disneyland Drive. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

We arrived at the hotel about 10:20, checked in, but our room wasn't available yet. We just left our stuff in the car and walked thru Downtown Disney.... Scott wanted to arrive in the park thru Main Street for the first time. There were longer lines at security and the gates than I thought... we're used to arriving at Disney parks just before they open vs being fashionably late.

We got into the park about 10:40 - a horseless carriage was just about ready to make the drive down Main Street, so we boarded & had a nice little drive with Kevin. We'll make sure to take our time admiring the decorations on our next trip down MS. I saw the Evil Queen was holding an audience in the Snow White grotto, so I curtsied politely and got an autograph and picture... she was very in character and wished us a "rotten apple day".

Next stop - Toad! We had quite a short wait before making our amphibious tour of Merrie Olde England. We spotted the Sherlock Holmes shadow up in a window in one of the town scenes... [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] A brisk walk across Fantasyland to visit with Alice (with a slightly longer wait) then got in line for the Matterhorn by about 11:40. The single line outside split into 2 at the chalet; I had forgotten that you're sitting right down on the rollers in the bobsleds [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]!

We were off the mountain about noon and decided to check out Toontown. Roger Rabbit was down for the moment, so we looked around & took pix of the decorations, then went over to see Mickey's house. We got almost back to the screening room before the line backed up & since characters weren't terribly high on our list at the moment, we exited.

Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin had reopened, so we joined the standby queue & caught up to the line in the dip room. The spinning was a bit wilder than we remembered & were a bit disoriented once we got off the ride. Decided to try something a little calmer, so by 12:50 we were in line for the happiest holiday voyage that ever sailed. We saw the 1:00 clock show before going into the ride. The holiday overlay is really lovely... Scott got a couple of good pix of the larger decorations.... tho Flounder & Stitch were a bit blurry.

Next post: lunchtime in Tomorrowland, more rides and Block party Bash!

[snoozy]

What a wonderful time it sounds like you had. I can't wait to hear more.

[Politzania]

For lunch, we went over to Pizza Port in Tomorowland - Scott got a slice of pepperoni pizza and I had a generous helping of the chicken fusilli - yum! It was a little crowded in the food selection area, but we found a place to sit pretty easily.

While we waited for our Autopia FP's to be ready, we joined Buzz Lightyear in an Astro Blaster - the laser guns are IMHO a lot easier to use than the fixed-position ones at WDW - tho it takes a bit to get the hang of them & figure out how the targets work. I'm pretty sue I saw my score decrease a few times - not sure if that's because I hit something I shouldn't have, or if I can blame it on my at-home partner. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

About 2:30 we went over to Autopia - the regular line ended right where the FP line joins it, so we kept our passes for later. This ride is MUCH longer and more scenic than the WDW version... the billboards & signs along the way are quite punny as well.

We caught the Disneyland Railroad at the Tomorrowland station about 3:05 and rode around to the New Orleans Square station. Got in the standby line for Haunted Mansion Holiday about 3:15 ... this attraction & the Autopia line were the longest ones we'd been in so far today. I'm afraid lines are going to get longer & longer the closer we get to the weekend! We'd seen a slightly different version of this show back in 2003... we're both big fans of Nightmare before Christmas and really enjoy this overlay. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any HMH merchandise, just Nightmare items in the Bat en Rouge store; the CM's told us that the items didn't sell very well the previous years & that this was officially the last year for the overlay. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Around 3:45 we crossed back over to Tomorrowland to take the monorail back to the hotel, so we could get our stuff up to the room & unpacked before going over to DCA to see the Block Party Bash parade. We got to our room about 4:40 - the monorail had to pause for a bit just before the Downtown Disney stop, as the other monorail hadn't cleared the station. Our room was in the Sierra tower, 9th floor, overlooking the pool ... no resort view. Oh well!

Headed over to California Adventure and found a spot to watch the parade from; right by the entrance to the Winery. At 5:00 the Green Army Men made a pre-parade stop to pump up the crowd, with the parade starting at 5:15. We ended up at the second stop of the Block Party Bash, with the Monsters Inc float almost right in front of us! We danced, jumped & sceamed just like we were supposed to - had a fun time!

We decided to make an early night of it, as we still had grocery shopping to do and also wanted to go to the Disney outlet store. That was our first stop - and we got some great deals! 2 fleece tops, 2 t-shirts, 2 outfits for our niece & nephew plus a polo shirt for Scott for the retail price of the two fleece shirts!

Next up - dinner. We were both pretty hungry and not feeling adventurous, so we opted for McDonalds. They still have the chicken fajita wraps out here - they haven't been on the menu in Indiana for a couple of years! Our last stop was the grocery store.... fruit, cereal, milk & snacks. We saw the fireworks on the way back to the resort - no tough task, as they're probably visible everywhere in the Anaheim area! We're going to try to see them from the Hub area at least once this trip - wish us luck!

We were pooped out by the time we got to the room - took enough time to copy the pictures to the laptop & wind down a bit, then off to bed by about 9:00.

Attraction count: 11 (including Monorail to hotel)
Mileage: 3.75 miles/9086 steps

[snoozy]

I can't wait to go, it sounds like you are having a great time, more please.

[Politzania]

Our second day started early, nearly an hour before our wakeup call... yep, still on Eastern time! Had breakfast in the room & were ready to go by about 8:10. It was about 50 degrees & sunny, with a high of 68, so I wore a long-sleeve Tshirt & fleece jacket.

Got thru the security area and the ticket gates by 8:40. Main Street was open, so we perused the museum portion of the Disneyland Story exhibit until about 8:55. Apparently, they dropped the rope a little early, as people were already in the park. Off to Adventureland and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. We caught up to the fast-moving line in the movie room & were on the ride in less than 5 min. Unfortunately, we didn't make it back to see Indy again the rest of the trip... I'd much rather have this attraction at WDW than Dinosaur!

Over to New Orleans Square, where PoTC was a walk-on, as was Haunted Mansion Holiday. We continued around to Critter Country and went for a ride with Pooh through his Many Adventures. It's very similar to the WDW version, with the main difference being the 6-seat "beehicles" (a beehive turned sideways) vs the honeypots.

About 10:15 we felt like getting a smackerel of something, so took a look at Pooh's Hunny Spot and got a chocolate Mickey pretzel and a GIANT rice krispie treat that could have fed a family of four! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

We then hiked around the Rivers of America to check out the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness! The wait was a bit longer than the 5 minutes on the sign, but not much. Again, the ride is slightly different from the WDW version... the DL ride seems a bit longer .. but they're both a lot of fun!

Took a quick walk through Big Thunder Ranch - Santa's hangout this year - and saw Chip and Pluto in their holiday best, along with the 8 not-so-tiny reindeer. Apparently, they're not terribly friendly, so the fence was blocked off with a variety of gifts and winter themed items ... it mostly just looked like decoration, but also served to separate the critters from the people!

It was about 11 when we decided to catch the 12:30 presentation of the Aladdin show over at DCA - we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get to our 4:00 Holiday Time at Disneyland tour. We browsed a bit thru Main Street on our way out of the park, then stopped by Award Wieners about 11:20 on Hollywood Blvd in DCA for lunch before the show. We both tried the Italian sausage combo – it tasted good, but just kinda sat in my stomach for a little while after ... probably because I ate it too quickly. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/shameonyou.gif[/img]

We got in line for the show about 11:50 – the orchestra section was still open, but Scott remembered that you couldn’t see the flying carpet section very well from down on the floor, so we chose the mezzanine area. We noticed that Disney added the El Capitan theater to their backdrop of Hollywood Blvd… since we’d just visited the real thing a few days before, it caught our attention!

Next up - our Holiday tour and fireworks from the Hub!

[Politzania]

The Aladdin show was wonderful as always – Genie adding in the current events stuff as he always does… finally being free: “Now I know how Martha Stewart feels!” After the show, we stopped in the Disney Animation building to talk with our favorite turtle. We timed our arrival well, as we only had a few minutes to wait before entering the “people tank”. There are actual seats here, compared to the carpet-covered benches at The Living Seas, so it’s a bit more comfortable for the older folks. Crush was his usual awesome self and sang the Turtle Birthday song to a couple of little (and big) dudes and dudettes.

About 2:10 we visited the Muppet Labs – since they’re redoing the courtyard area in front of the soon-to-be-open Monsters Inc attraction, you have to go in thru a storefront on Hollywood Blvd … it’s marked, but still a bit tough to find, which probably explained the nearly-empty theater. You also miss most of the queue, with the various contraptions Muppet Labs has been working on. I meant to ask if Monsters Inc – Mike and Sully to the Rescue! was having any soft openings, but once we heard that the cast member opening wasn’t until mid January, we figured there wouldn’t be any. Oh well – just another reason to come back & visit! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

We looked thru A Bug’s Land for a little bit, but didn’t go on any of the rides, then moved along the Pacific Wharf to take the factory tours. Scott had gotten a birthday button from the hotel (Ok, so his birthday is really in November, but this trip was partly to *celebrate* his birthday… [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] ) so he got a stack of corn tortillas from the good folks at the Mission factory… we brought most of them home! We’d forgotten that Colin Mocherie [sp?] was one of the video hosts at the Boudin Bakery tour... so that made it a bit more entertaining.

It was about 2:30 and as warm and sunny as the day was going to get, so we thought we’d brave the Grizzly River Rapids. The locker system they have is quite convenient – free if you come back for your stuff in an hour or less, then a dollar or so for each additional time period, I think. We stowed our belt packs, the camera and my fleece jacket – just in case I got soaked, I wanted to have something dry to put on! Either they ramp things back on this attraction in the winter or we just got lucky – noone got particularly soaked on our raft. We still decided to go back to the room & change clothes – mostly to put on another layer, since we were planning to see the fireworks after our tour & it was forecast to get a bit chilly once the sun went down.

We cut through the Grand Californian hotel on our way back to our room… the lobby is gorgeous, and the theming is very nice; tho, for us, it was hard to justify the extra $$$ that could buy us another day in the parks instead! The same philosophy applies at WDW – we’d rather stay at Pop Century or Port Orleans French Quarter and have an extra day or two to play… tho we’ll make it to the Contemporary someday!

We got back to the room about 3:15 – a quick change of clothes and we were on our way. We both wore our personalized Christmas sweatshirts from 2004 at WDW, as well as our Disney Santa hats – I was Mickey and Scott was Tigger! We picked up our tour tickets and got checked in at the Guided Tour office by 3:45 – we didn’t intend to cut it so close, but the main gates were a lot busier than we’d expected! Scott went in search of a quick snack, but didn’t see anywhere without a huge line in front of it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/pout.gif[/img]

The Holiday Time and Disneyland is so popular that they had to split us into two groups that evening. David was our tour guide – he’d been working at Disney for about 6 months, and had been an annual passholder for some time before then, so he was quite familiar with the park and its history. He said he usually does the kids’ tours, so he was very good at keeping track of everyone as we walked all over the park! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

We started with Main Street (of course!) - stopping to talk about the tree in Town square – a 60 foot Douglas fir that they fireproof the heck out of beforehand! In the early days, one did catch fire just after they finished putting it up – to the cast members’ credit, they had a new tree in, decorated and put back up the next day! We also made a stop at the doctor’s office (Dr. Silverstein, maybe?) to see the mezuzah and menorah in the window.

Moving into Frontierland, David commented on how the decorations were both time and area-appropriate – more holly and pine on the pioneer side of the area, and a Southwestern influence as you moved toward Big Thunder Mountain. David also talked a little bit about the Posadas as part of the Hispanic holiday tradition.

We then explored New Orleans Square – one of the most colorfully decorated areas of the park! David talked a bit about Papa Noel – the Cajun incarnation of Santa Claus – as well as pointing out how each balcony area is decorated a little differently, to reflect the personality of the people who live there, including the “ladies of ill repute” and the voodoo priestess. He then took us back to the Court of Angels – a little cul de sac area. It’s usually pretty quiet, since it’s a dead end & also a cast member onstage entrance. It was decorated all in white, silver and gold. David said a lot of families will come earlier in the season to have their family Christmas card photo taken here. We then got fast-passed onto Haunted Mansion Holiday, after David talked a bit about how Jack and Sally wanted to “liven up” the holidays for the 999 happy haunts of the mansion.

After HMH, we walked through Big Thunder Ranch and talked about how Santa Claus’ image has developed over the last 2 centuries, with a mention of Clement C. Moore’s poem and the Coca-Cola company. Mr. Claus was busy getting ready for the parade, but we did see (and smell :yuk: ) the reindeer again. David talked us into singing “Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer”, and then we walked over to Fantasyland for our trip through it’s a small world holiday. We got on thru the handicap line and had a boat to ourselves, tho David didn’t really talk much during the ride itself. We exited the attraction just in time to see the 15-min clock chime and see the new video projections on the face of the attraction. They show clips from some Disney holiday films & a kaleidoscope of colors… I hope they keep this as a part of the holiday overlay!

We then took a quick peek at Toontown & talked about how each building is decorated to match its theme, then got seated for the parade. Our reserved seating was across from IASWH, in 3 rows of folding chairs. Soon after we got seated, the CM’s brought us our hot cocoa – the mugs were blue, where nearly everywhere else you could buy them they were red. We wondered if this were last year’s stock. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] We also got a snowflake krispie treat that was as big as the one I’d had earlier! We also recieved a lovely commemorative pin, as well as the tour tag, which doubles as an ornament. The parade was similar to the WDW Christmas parade – with various characters on interactive floats. Santa and his reindeer (no flappy tongues on these guys!) brought up the rear. All in all, I’d definitely recommend the Holiday Time at Disneyland tour.

After the parade was over, we debated on whether to stay in that area to watch the fireworks or to head over to the hub. Scott doesn’t do well in crowds, but was willing to brave them in order to see the projections on the castle. We’d seen video of the fireworks already and knew that the castle was really the heart of the show. We staked out a spot over by Tomorrowland and the Plaza Inn by 7:15 – the fireworks were scheduled for about 7:45.
The fireworks show was just incredible! IMHO, this edges out Wishes & gives Fantasmic! a run for its money! Definitely, definitely, definitely see them from the hub area at least once! However, be prepared for MASSIVE crowds on the way out. Even on a weekday night, it took us a good 20-25 min to shuffle our way from the hub area to the front of the park. We tried to get over to the Monorail first, but were told the area was closed off for a private party. Hrmph. We finally got back to the hotel about 8:30 & were very hungry by that time. Luckily, Croc’s Bits & Bites was close by … We had to be satisfied with burgers or chicken tenders, but by that time of the day, we didn’t really care! We got settled in and ready for bed by about 10:00. Early entry tomorrow – so we requested a wake-up call for around 6:45.

Attraction count: 12
Mileage: 3.8 miles/9153 steps

[snoozy]

Another great update [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]