Trip Report *COMPLETED* A Jolly Holiday with K & J

Hello and welcome to my very first trip report! I’ve been following along to many people’s trip reports over the past few months, and I’ve decided it’s time to come out of the shadows and write my own! I so enjoy reading trip reports on here - it helps me feel like I’m really there, and allows me to live vicariously through others while I’m pining away for my next Disney trip. I hope that I can give some of you the same joy that you have given me!

Let’s get down to the details...

Who: Katie (me)

And Jason (my husband)

We’re a couple of WDW APs, Georgia Peaches, and #ChildlessMillennials who just celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary.

This is our second trip to Disneyland - here we are on our first trip back in 2016.

When: Flying into San Diego on November 30th (more on that later), driving up to LA on December 1st, and checking into the Disneyland Hotel for five nights, 12/1-6.

Where: The Disneyland Hotel!!! We stayed across the street at the Tropicana Inn on our last trip - the hotel itself was fine. Clean rooms, pretty affordable, and a five-minute walk to either park. BUT we are SO SO excited to be staying onsite this time around!

Why: We love the Disney parks during the holiday season! We went to Disneyland the week after Thanksgiving 2016, and we’ve done WDW the last two Christmas seasons. We’d love to do Disneyland every other year, but it is SO. EXPENSIVE. to fly to California from Atlanta. It’s a 7-hour drive for us to get to WDW, and we have annual passes, so WDW is much more cost-effective for us.

I hope that you all enjoy following along!

 

[k8einwdw]

We’ll be there 4/21 through 4/25!

Awesome! We were originally checking in 4/25, but I booked our Marceline to MK tour for the 25th at 8am, so I’m going to work a half day on the 24th (J is off every Friday ) and we’re going to head down around lunchtime and check in that night. Still haven’t decided where we’re staying that night, whoops!

 

[k8einwdw]

Thursday December 5th, Part Three:
After our double dip on Haunted Mansion Holiday, we had some time to kill before our next FP, so we decided to hit up Jungle Cruise. I think I mentioned it earlier, but they were not running Jingle Cruise, which I though was strange, especially considering the fact that the skippers were still wearing their Santa hats. While we were waiting for our boat, the boat that was supposed to load us had to be taken out of service. The skipper was pressing the throttle all the way forward, and it was just inching along. It made us wonder if any guests had been on the boat when it stopped working, and how long it took them to complete the circle. I’m sure the skipper would have run out of jokes at some point! Our boat finally came, and our tour was underwater. I mean underway. This particular go round was a little awkward, because not many people laughed at the Skipper’s jokes. I think a lot of the guests didn’t speak English, so they must not have understood. I always feel so bad for the skippers when no one laughs.

After Jungle Cruise, we headed back to visit Indy again. We both love this ride! The people in line behind us must have been frequent visitors, because they knew where all of the hidden tricks are. There is a part in the queue where you are walking across a “bridge,” and if you push on one of the pieces of bamboo in just the right way, it makes a loud noise. When they did it, J jumped about four feet in the air - it was hysterical! If you’ve never seen the safety spiel on this ride, it’s really funny.

After we scanned in for our Indy FP, I started looking for another FP, and found one for Big Thunder for right away, so we headed there next! Like I’ve said earlier, Big Thunder is my favorite ride in MK, and I like it even better in DL! After our ride, I decided to pull out my “real” camera (I.e. not my phone) to get some pictures. It had been overcast (or pouring rain!) the whole trip up to this point, so I hadn’t taken any photos with the camera, only with the phone. On this day, we finally had beautiful blue skies, so it was perfect weather for taking pictures. First up, a photo shoot of my favorite ride. I took probably a dozen photos, but I’ll just share a few.

After we were done in Frontierland, we headed back to Toontown to get some photos (I’ve already shared those) and ride Roger Rabbit, since it had been down the other day. The posted wait times was 15 minutes, but it felt a lot longer than that! It is a fun ride though!

After our spin around Toontown, we had another FP to make - this time, for Matterhorn! I mentioned earlier that this ride feels very similar to WDW’s Space Mountain, which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how much you like Space Mountain. When we had ridden Matterhorn on Tuesday, we were in the front two seats, so it was a pleasant ride. When we rode this particular time, we were in the back two seats, and it was a rough ride! We both felt like we needed a chiropractor after that. Note to selves - ask for the front next time!

After Matterhorn, it was just before noon, and we were both hungry! We decided to hit up the one place we wanted to eat on our 2016 trip, but hadn’t been able to - Plaza Inn! We had intentions of eating there last time since we had heard such great things about it, but when we went to eat there, it was a Friday night and the line was crazy long, and we decided we were too hungry to wait. This time, we were determined to eat there, no matter how long the line!

We walked up to find a pretty long line, which was a little concerning, but we found out that they don’t open for lunch until noon, so they hadn’t opened the doors yet. Once it was 12:00, the line moved pretty quickly, and we were able to get our food and had our pick of tables. It really is a beautiful restaurant on the inside (and outside)! I kept remarking to J about how pretty everything was. For our lunch, we split the fried chicken, as well as a raspberry Yule log. It was plenty of food for two people - you get three pieces of chicken and two sides. The chicken was absolutely worth the hype, and the Yule log was pretty tasty too!

After lunch, we sat for awhile to let our stomachs settle, because we had another FP to catch - this time, for Hyperspace Mountain! This is J’s second-favorite ride in DL (Indy is first), so we definitely needed to ride it again before we left. It was super fun, as always. It’ll be weird to go back next time and see regular Space Mountain, since we’ve gotten so used to the Hyperspace version at DL. After we got off, I *swore* I saw a guy that works for my one of company’s California offices. I’ve only met the guy once at a conference though, so I didn’t want to say anything, in case that wasn’t him. I need to shoot him an email to see if it was! How crazy would it be to randomly see a coworker on your vacation?

Up next: the Disneyland Christmas decor pictures I know you’ve all been waiting for!

 

[Tuvalu]

Beautiful blue sky!! Finally! (Rain at DLR? Been there, done that. Sadly every time I've gone!)

And Plaza Inn chicken IS worth the hype!

 

[k8einwdw]

Beautiful blue sky!! Finally! (Rain at DLR? Been there, done that. Sadly every time I've gone!)

And Plaza Inn chicken IS worth the hype!

Rain EVERY time you’ve gone? That’s supposed to be an anomaly in Southern California!

 

[Tuvalu]

Rain EVERY time you’ve gone? That’s supposed to be an anomaly in Southern California!

Lies.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I've only experienced 3 three times in Disneyland and it didn't last long. We don't even pack our ponchos anymore for DL but they are a staple for our WDW suitcase.

 

[k8einwdw]

I've only experienced 3 three times in Disneyland and it didn't last long. We don't even pack our ponchos anymore for DL but they are a staple for our WDW suitcase.

Oh yeah, our rain jackets are always in our backpack at WDW. We’ve always gotten pretty lucky with weather at WDW. It doesn’t rain most of our trips, and when it does, it’s normally over in an hour or two at most. We thought it was pretty crazy that the first time it rained on us all. day. long. was at Disneyland!

 

[k8einwdw]

Thursday December 5th, Part Four:
After our lunch, we decided to get some pictures of the Christmas decor on Main Street USA before heading out of the park. First stop?

I might love the Christmas overlay on Sleeping Beauty’s Castle more than the dreamlights on Cinderella Castle. I love the snow and the icicles. And the wreaths! While we were taking pictures, the Disneyland band walked up. We watched their entire performance. They did some Disney songs and some Christmas songs. My favorite was when they did the Nutcracker march. They were all dancing while they were playing!

After the show, we popped into the Emporium, because I had a gift card that I needed to spend! We budget for our meals and souvenirs for our trips by purchasing a $50 Disney gift card every week at the grocery store. Right before the trip, I’ll calculate what I think we’ll spend on food and combine some of the gift cards to make one dining gift card, and the rest we split for spending money. J had burned through his gift card by the second night, but I like to weigh all of my options before I spend mine. I ended up getting a super cute coffee mug, which I’ll share in a letter post. We also stopped in Candy Palace for some Hotel Snacks - I got a Gingerbread Minnie Rice Krispie Treat (Disney Rice Krispie Treats are my FAVE), and J got more Churro Toffee. On our way out of the park, I snapped some more pics of the Christmas decor.

 

[k8einwdw]

Thursday December 5th, Part Five
It was a special someone’s birthday that day...

You can really feel Walt’s handprints on this park, and it was so special to be there on his birthday. I always stop to visit him on my way out of Disneyland, and this time I wished him a Happy Birthday.

After that, we headed out of the park for our afternoon break. I stopped to snap a couple pics in Downtown Disney on our way to the hotel...

I love this fountain! The neon trees were a little odd though...

I was more than a little jealous of the Mickey monorail. Our monorails are SO OLD!!!

There is one part in Downtown Disney where we think they’re piping in a delicious smell. It’s near Ralph Brennan’s (beignets), but also close to a funnel cake stand. We spent the whole trip trying to figure out where the smell was coming from. It was intoxicating! Anywho, headed up to the room for our break, and J started packing (smart), while I took a nap.

Next up: Our last few hours in the parks

 

[amjt660]

Great report- really enjoying it
I love your HM pics - so clear and focussed compared to my iPhone pics

I *believe* this was a table-service restaurant the last time we were at Disneyland, but it is now counter service. I

I think Flos has always been a quick serve

I love when everyone has fun with the photo. I’m the one on the left in the mint green rain jacket.

Not sure about everyone having fun?

At this point, the rain really picked up. It was practically coming down sideways, so we needed to seek shelter, fast. We decided to escape from the rain Unda Da Sea...

Only at Disney can you go under the sea to avoid getting wet in the rain!!!!


If you’ve never seen the safety spiel on this ride, it’s really funny.

And don’t you just love the “excellence of this invention”

Max

 

[k8einwdw]

Great report- really enjoying it
I love your HM pics - so clear and focussed compared to my iPhone pics

Thank you! We stopped and started a few times, which definitely made it easier to take pics on the ride!

Not sure about everyone having fun?

Ha, good eye!

 

[k8einwdw]

That feeling when you renew your annual pass...there may have been some tears involved. I’ll never tell. We didn’t know if we’d be able to make it work this year since they jacked up the price for out-of-state AP Holders TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT. We renewed mine, but not J’s, since I’ll be back before him for a quick 24 hours after getting off a Disney Cruise next month. We’re buying J a 4-Day Park Hopper for our April trip, and we’ll upgrade it to an AP while we’re there, so we’ll have different renewal months going forward. Kids, don’t buy two annual passes right before Christmas...you’ll feel that pain every year! As much as we enjoyed our time in Disneyland, I’ve been feeling very homesick for WDW lately. I can’t wait to be back!

 

[k8einwdw]

Thursday December 5th, Part Six:
We left the room around 3:30, because I wanted to be able to grab some more pictures before it started getting dark at 4:45. Our first stop? DCA! We didn’t ride anything, just walked around enjoying the atmosphere, taking pictures and soaking up our last moments in this park.

I love DCA’s Christmas tree. It reminds me of Hollywood Studios with all of the vintage ornaments. I love the red car trolley ornament too!

Showing off my matching ears and spirit jersey.

I loved this Santa too! It reminds me of “Christmas Vacation.”

I did a little photo shoot with my new favorite ride in DCA. Seriously going to miss this one!

Next up: More DCA pics

 

[k8einwdw]

Thursday December 5th, Part Seven:

We headed back to Cars Land to get some pics of the holiday decor...

Maybe our next trip to Disneyland will be at Halloween - the Halloween decor in Cars Land looks super cute, and their Halloween party looks amazing!

After Cars Land, we headed back to Pixar Pier...

And then around to Grizzly Peak. I love these bears!

And that wrapped up our time in DCA. I like this park, but I feel like it might be my least favorite out of the US parks (I’ve never been to any of the international parks, so I can’t speak to those). As much as I love GOTG and Cars Land, DCA just feels like a random assortment of stuff - not really California-themed as much as it was intended to be. Although Hollywood Studios isn’t really a studio anymore, so maybe those two are neck and neck.

Up next: we hop across the esplanade for our last few hours in Disneyland

 

[k8einwdw]

Thursday December 5th, Part Eight:

After we were done bidding farewell to DCA, we hopped across the esplanade to Disneyland to wrap up our time in the parks.

It was a beautiful, clear, cool evening. I snapped this picture of the castle, which is one of my favorites of the trip.

We didn’t have any plans for the night, aside from watching the Christmas parade and eating dinner. We just wanted to soak up enough Disneyland magic to last us until our next trip. We were ready for a snack, so we grabbed a Santa’s Cookies and Milk Churro - a churro rolled in cookie butter sugar and served with a sweet milk dipping sauce. It was $6.25, and I wish we had gotten two! It was SO good! After we grabbed our churro, we walked around for a while to find our spot for the parade. We happened upon a great spot on the pathway between Tomorrowland/Main Street and Small World, near Pixie Hollow.

We had a little over an hour to wait for the parade to begin. We passed the time eating our delicious churro and talking about the trip. Soon enough, it was time for the parade! Disneyland’s Christmas parade is called A Christmas Fantasy. There are many of the same elements as Once Upon a Christmastime at MK, which you’ll see. I don’t know if I prefer one over the other. A Christmas Fantasy’s theme song is a *little* less repetitive than “Once Upon a Christmastime at Christmas...” But I’ve always watched Once Upon a Christmastime on Main Street with the snoap falling down, which makes it extra magical. I’ll call it a toss-up. They’re both fantastic parades. Enough talking...let’s get to the parade pictures!

One of my favorite things that Once Upon a Christmastime doesn’t have - these cute snow people!

Next up: more parade photos!

 

[k8einwdw]

Thursday December 5th, Part Nine:

More parade pics!

SANTAAAA!!! I know him!!!

And that’s it! I love this parade, and the song is stuck in my head as I type this. There is just something extra magical about a Disney Christmas parade.

Up next: Now it’s time to say goodbye...

 

[k8einwdw]

Thursday December 5th, Part Ten: The One with All the Tears

After enjoying the parade, J and I were both ready for dinner. We enjoyed Bengal Barbecue last time we were in DL, so we decided to head back there. There was a loooooong line to order. We noticed that the parks had been significantly more crowded Thursday night than they had been all week. We had a group of about four teenagers in front of us, and when we were almost to the front of the line, a bunch (five or six) of their friends walked up. They acted like they were going to jump the line and join their friends in front of us, but thankfully one of the girls told them not to cut in front of everyone else in line. She must have seen my nervous look - I didn’t want to have to use my bossy big sister voice on a bunch of teenagers.

For dinner, we got the Banyan Beef, Bengal Beef, Chieftain Chicken, and Pork Belly skewers (we split one of each), and two Tiger Tail breadsticks. All of that, plus a bottled water for me and a fountain drink for J was around $35. Dinner was really tasty! Definitely one of the best quick service spots in Disneyland. While we were eating, we discussed what we wanted to do for the rest of the night. I had originally wanted to stay late enough to see the fireworks, but we needed to leave early in the morning, and I hadn’t started packing yet. We decided to stroll around the park for a little while and do some shopping before we headed back to the room.

We meandered around Adventureland, Frontierland, and New Orleans Square, taking in the atmosphere and stopping in some of the shops along the way. We had our eyes on a Haunted Mansion Doombuggy ornament that had originally come out in stores for Halloween. We had dragged our feet on purchasing it, and then when we decided to go get it, it was sold out at our Disney store. We had seen it in the Haunted Mansion gift shop earlier in the trip, and when we went in Thursday night to get it, it was nowhere to be found. We always do that to ourselves - if we don’t buy something right away, it sells out before we can buy it. After our ornament disappointment, we decided to head back to Fantasyland. We had only ridden Small World Holiday once on this trip, and I wanted to see what the wait time looked like. It was over an hour, so we decided to pass, and get some pictures instead.

Just beautiful. After this, we made our way to Main Street. I had my eye on a purple sweatshirt (like the below) so we checked out the Emporium. Remember what I said earlier about waiting to buy something? Gone in my size. No worries, we’ll check World of Disney on the way back to the hotel

At this point, it was time for the part of the trip that I dreaded most - saying goodbye to Disneyland. I always drag my feet when it’s time to leave, because I want to spend every second I can in the Disney Magic. I know this drives J crazy, but he knows it’s important to me, so he doesn’t make a fuss. We slowly made our way toward the exit, savoring the sights and sounds along the way. It was at this point that the tears started flowing (for me, J rarely cries).

I stood at the end of Main Street for a while to get one last look at the castle. Then, we stopped by to see Walt on the way out. I thanked him for all of the Magic and wonderful memories.

We made our way out of the park, and stood at the entrance for a while. More tears.It is so much harder for me to leave DL than it is WDW. WDW is absolutely my “home,” and I hate leaving, but I know every time we pull out of the purple gates and see the “See You Real Soon” sign, that it’s true. I almost always have at least one trip planned when we leave WDW. When we leave Disneyland, we truly don’t know when we’ll be back, since it’s so far away and so much more expensive to travel there. Maybe 2021? Maybe 2022? Only time will tell.

Whew, that’s enough crying.

Next up: Downtown Disney shopping
View attachment 441453

 

[k8einwdw]

Thursday December 5th, Part Eleven:

After J pried me away from DL, we headed to World of Disney to look for my sweatshirt. Again, no luck. I considered buying a different sweatshirt - I like the Rose Gold and Arendelle Aqua ones - or maybe an Arendelle Aqua Spirit Jersey, but I decided to save that money on my gift card, and try to find it online (spoiler alert - it’s gone online too). We did buy a couple ornaments for our Disney tree, which I’ll share in a later post.

We decided to stop in Marceline’s Confectionery to get some snacks to take home and eat on the plane. We grabbed one container of the Mickey-shaped cheese crackers (similar to Goldfish, but better), and two bags of the Goofy’s Sour Character Gummies - I grab these two items at the end of every trip, because I like taking them to work to help me not feel so sad to be there. We also got some of the new Stitch spicy mango gummies - these were good, but you can definitely only eat one or two at a time. I also got a gingerbread Mickey and a churro toffee from the case, and J got two churro toffees. I don’t know what that brings our Churro Toffee total to, but it’s a lot. We love the stuff! I’ve pinned some copycat recipes on Pinterest, and I even invented a Churro Toffee Mocha at Starbucks - Grande White Chocolate Mocha, minus two pumps white mocha, add one pump Cinnamon Dolce, and one pump Toffee Nut. Delicious!

With our snacks in hand, it was time to head back to the room. We stopped in our hotel gift shop to look for my sweatshirt - luck. Once in our room, I started packing, and had to re-arrange a few times to make everything fit. Whoops...maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t get that sweatshirt!

Even though we left the park pretty early, we had done a lot of walking that day. Over our four days in the parks, we had walked a little over 102,000 steps and 42 miles! The parks are significantly smaller than WDW, but it’s not much less waking.

Once packing was done, we could relax and wait for the fireworks. I enjoyed my Minnie Gingerbread Rice Krispie Treat during the show.

“Does your heart hold the magic of the holidays? Is it filled with warm memories just waiting to be discovered again? Well, now is the time to open up your heart, believe in that magic, and remember those treasured moments. They’re still there, deep within you, waiting to touch you once more. So come along, as the magic of the season leads the way...”

After the fireworks were over, we went to bed, since we had an early morning the next day.

Up next: Travel home, final thoughts, and souvenirs

 

[ELeigh]

I grab these two items at the end of every trip, because I like taking them to work to help me not feel so sad to be there.

I do this as well by bringing something Disney to work on my first day back after a trip whether it is a treat or a new pen or mug so that I can think of my trip while dealing with the inevitable backlog of work.

 

[k8einwdw]

I do this as well by bringing something Disney to work on my first day back after a trip whether it is a treat or a new pen or mug so that I can think of my trip while dealing with the inevitable backlog of work.

It’s so nice to have a little piece of Disney at work to help cope with the post-Disney blues!