Trip Report Back to Disneyland & Ringin' in 2016!

This is my second trip report that I've done, I wrote my last one for a surprise trip I gave to my husband in November 2015. I had a lot of fun sharing our trip I decided to share another.
Hope you enjoy it!

Backstory:

My husband and I went to Disneyland in July/August 2015 for 9 days and were planning a two week trip to WDW in 2015, we worked out that the cheapest option for passes was getting the Premier Pass that covered both parks. While in Disneyland in the summer we decided that since we had never seen Disneyland decorated for Christmas we would make our pass even "cheaper" and go to Disneyland after Christmas.

We are from northern Wisconsin and normally fly out of Minneapolis, but since it was Christmastime we had family obligations and had to visit my husband's family in Chicago. So we had a round-about way to get to Los Angeles....we flew from Minneapolis to Chicago spent some time with the in-laws, then flew to LA from Chicago, then when we left LA it was back to Minneapolis and then home. Oh and while we were gone our kitchen was getting redone so we had to clean out our whole kitchen (that made Christmas dinner a challenge), but that was fun to come back to.

As for the travelers, it is just my husband and myself. We are two peas in a pod!

On to the report!. Our travel dates were December 29, 2015 to January 2, 2016.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Day One: December 29, 2015

After spending days, and days, and days (okay it was only 2 1/2 days) with the in-laws we made it to the airport. On the 28th there was a big ice storm in Chicago that cancelled almost every flight. I was freaking out! It let up and my sister-in-law was able to take us to a hotel by O'Hare since our flight was supposed to leave at 7 am on the 29th. So we woke up early and according to Virgin airlines our flight was still on time. However, when we got to the airport it was delayed 2 hours because the crew had been delayed getting in and needed a mandatory time for rest. It was a little annoying but it was only 2 hours (ended up being 2 1/2) and it could have been worse our flight could have been cancelled. Security did take a long time though, but it worked out.

Here is hubby waiting to check in at the Virgin ticket counter in Chicago.

We finally landed in Los Angeles, it was cheaper to fly in there than into SNA. Hubby didn't want to drive around LA this time, we didn't want to pay for parking at our hotel either. So I found a car service that worked out about the same price as renting a car. The car service was great, the driver was friendly and still offered us our stop at In-n-Out Burger but we declined since we were two hours late we just wanted to get to Disneyland. So about 35 minutes later (very little traffic) we checked into our hotel: Best Western Stovall's Inn. We have stayed here before. It is a little further to walk (about 5 more minutes) than some hotels on Harbor but it is cheaper and we like how clean this hotel is, the pool area (although we didn't use it this trip), and the staff of the hotel. When we checked in our room wasn't ready but we dilly dallied a while, rearranging some stuff in our luggage that our room was done and we were able to take our stuff there and then head out.

Anyway, let's get to the good stuff. Since we hadn't eaten any lunch yet we walked right on over to Trader Sam's at the Disneyland Hotel. I love this lounge and it was fun to see it decorated for Christmas.

The only spot we could get was at the bar, which was fine by us.

Our Red Nosed Zebra drink, tasty but small. I could have drank a few more.

The volcano "snowed".

Chinese Long beans and wings!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

After leaving Trader Sam's, with some reluctance on my part as I could really sit at the lounge for a long time, we headed over to Disneyland. We were prepared for large crowds and we were right it was crowded the whole time we were there. But we had spent 9 days there a couple months ago so our main goal was the special holiday stuff and Season of the Force.

We stopped by the lobby at the Disneyland Hotel. There was a cool retro area set up for Santa.

Olaf had a skating rink at Downtown Disney, but it wasn't open.

Entrance of Disneyland!

First stop: Tomorrowland for Season of the Force! We went to Launch Bay only to leave a few minutes later when alarms went off and we had to be evacuated.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

So since a lot of lines were long we made our way to the Rivers of America and got on the Columbia.

Scenes from the River:

Me on the Columbia

Then we rode the train from New Orleans Square, and I noticed the Jack Skellington décor at the French Market.

Hubby decided he was cold and wanted a long sleeve tee-shirt. He didn't listen to me or the weather forecast that it was supposed to be in the 60's and getting to low 50's at night, so he didn't pack a lot of warm stuff. So we went to the Emporium. Since I didn't really want to buy stuff I looked around and enjoyed the theming of the store.

And I checked out the tree. There will be more pictures of it later, but I liked this on the tree.

Then we decided to do it's a small world and watch Paint the Night while standing in line.

 

[Kiwiduck]

I love your shot of the barber and the little boy. Ive never noticed it or even seen a picture of it before!

 

[JenniferS]

After leaving Trader Sam's, with some reluctance on my part as I could really sit at the lounge for a long time, we headed over to Disneyland. We were prepared for large crowds and we were right it was crowded the whole time we were there. But we had spent 9 days there a couple months ago so our main goal was the special holiday stuff and Season of the Force.

We stopped by the lobby at the Disneyland Hotel. There was a cool retro area set up for Santa.
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Olaf had a skating rink at Downtown Disney, but it wasn't open.
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Entrance of Disneyland!
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First stop: Tomorrowland for Season of the Force! We went to Launch Bay only to leave a few minutes later when alarms went off and we had to be evacuated.
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@Eric1955 - did you have a hand in decorating Santa's retro workshop?

Great pics and narrative so far @ajrwdwgirl. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Cesar R M]

After leaving Trader Sam's, with some reluctance on my part as I could really sit at the lounge for a long time, we headed over to Disneyland. We were prepared for large crowds and we were right it was crowded the whole time we were there. But we had spent 9 days there a couple months ago so our main goal was the special holiday stuff and Season of the Force.

We stopped by the lobby at the Disneyland Hotel. There was a cool retro area set up for Santa.
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Olaf had a skating rink at Downtown Disney, but it wasn't open.
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Entrance of Disneyland!
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First stop: Tomorrowland for Season of the Force! We went to Launch Bay only to leave a few minutes later when alarms went off and we had to be evacuated.
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wait a sec.. alarms going out? what? fire alarm? (o_o))

 

[Figgy1]

THNX and of course following! You're pics of Trader Sam's makes me happy I'll be withing staggering distance of Tambu and Trader's at WDW for a few nights LOL

 

[King Racoon 77]

Following along

 

[MinnieM123]

@ajrwdwgirl , even though I wasn't tagged, hope you don't mind that I peeked in here to see your TR. Enjoying your commentary and pictures, and will be happy to follow along!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I love your shot of the barber and the little boy. Ive never noticed it or even seen a picture of it before!

Thanks! I had never noticed a lot of the little scenes in the Upper areas before either as I'm usually shopping. I saw a lot by actually looking around!

wait a sec.. alarms going out? what? fire alarm? (o_o))

Yeah, we were sitting watching the little movie and alarms started going off. It didn't sound like a normal fire alarm, my husband thought the alarm was an alert that Stormtroopers were coming out and he was excited. I then told him no, its the fire alarm we have to go, then an announcement came on informing us to evacuate. Hubby was disappointed.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

@Eric1955 - did you have a hand in decorating Santa's retro workshop?

Great pics and narrative so far @ajrwdwgirl. Thanks for the heads up.

No problem!

THNX and of course following! You're pics of Trader Sam's makes me happy I'll be withing staggering distance of Tambu and Trader's at WDW for a few nights LOL

As I've said, I love Trader Sam's, we were unable to try the one in WDW in November but I'm hoping to go in March on my solo trip. But it is definitely on the must do list for June.

Following along

Glad to have you along.

@ajrwdwgirl , even though I wasn't tagged, hope you don't mind that I peeked in here to see your TR. Enjoying your commentary and pictures, and will be happy to follow along!

I was just thinking about you today and I thought, geez I should have tagged Minnie. So I'm glad you will be following along!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Here are the rest of day one pictures.

I just loved how it's a small world was lit up. There was also a fun projection show every 15 minutes with a holiday theme. I will post some pictures of inside later. But let's just say my husband and I were both in awe of the holiday overlay. Every moment of the ride was simply delightful! I really like small world normally, especially Disneyland's version, and I like to ride multiple times. My husband has learned to appreciate it, but when we got off the holiday version he said he couldn't wait to ride it again. It ended up being our most frequently ridden attraction of the trip!

We are also huge fans of the Jungle Cruise and we enjoyed the Jingle Cruise in WDW, and thought that Disneyland's version of the Jingle Cruise was a little better. There were different props and jokes in both versions (I'll post some pictures of that ride later too!)

We liked that Big Thunder Ranch was lit up for Christmas too, we would be eating here soon!

Anyway, we had been up early that day and we wanted to get some decent sleep so after a chilly ride on Big Thunder Mountain we headed out. I'm also not a huge fan of Disneyland's new fireworks and we so it a lot this summer, so we never felt pressured to stay to watch them.

So we stopped at the World of Disney and did a little shopping. This was a cute little Christmas display. We were disappointed in what Disneyland had left for holiday merchandise, especially shirts. We knew we might not find a lot of shirts because it was after Christmas but I think the largest size we saw was medium. That was disappointing, I mean if all they have at the end of the season is smalls and mediums maybe they should order less of those and order some larger sizes. Anyway...

This was a display outside.

Then we walked through the Grand Californian every night as a short cut back to the Best Western and they had a fun gingerbread (real, unlike the fake gingerbread at the Disneyland Hotel) display.

This is the back side

Front side

And the Grand Californian tree

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Day Two: December 30th
Once we had a "filling" breakfast at our hotel, it actually wasn't that bad for a hotel breakfast. We headed to Disneyland and made it to the hub area at about 10 minutes before rope drop. We headed to Tomorrowland and got our fast pass for Hyperspace Mountain (it had a Star Wars over and was pretty rockin') and rode STar Tours, then hopped on the Matterhorn, and then to it's a small world. So lots of small world pictures ahead......

Because of the 60th anniversary the décor on Main Street was a little different this year. At least that is what I heard.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Sorry if my pictures are a tidge blurry, I don't always have the patience that I should before I let the camera focus. Something to work on...

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Okay just a few more of small world....did I say how impressed we were with this ride overlay?!?

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Okay, we moved on from small world and into Toontown. We weren't planning on doing anything in the land but I wanted to check out the Christmas decorations there. Some of the décor was pretty cool, I liked the town square tree.

I like the Goofy water area. The fountain speaks, and it usually squirts me in the nose as I'm drinking but it played nice this time.

The character houses! I don't know why I didn't get a closer picture of Goofy's house, his house had sports gear in the décor which is kind of tough to tell in my picture.

I kind of wanted to ride Roger Rabbit because I think it is cute, but hubby vetoed it because it spins. I could have ridden it alone but we did have a fast pass for Hyperspace Mountain to use.

 

[MinnieM123]

Your Small World pictures were great! I was surprised how good SW looked all lit up at night, on the outside of the attraction. It really gives you an appreciation for all the detail they put into the outside. (We're all familiar with the inside attraction, and it's always been one of my favorites, but I never really paid much attention to the outside.) I'm wondering if the Disneyland SW is more themed on the outside, than WDW. Since I've never been to Disneyland in California, I can't really compare the two yet.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

So we were on our way to Hyperspace Mountain and we had to go back through the small world area and I just happened to notice some fun decorations....

I thought the wreaths in the area were really cute.

Ice Cream!! Unfortunately the stand wasn't open.