Rain Rain Go Away: Disneyland and San Francisco December 2022

Well, if there is anything that there has been a lot of in the state of California during the month of December, it's rain.  Weather this month has been interfering with the holiday travel and activities of many a Californian, and we were no exception.  We went to Disneyland in the middle of the month and discovered before we left that there was no way were going to escape the rain.  Then later in the month, our friend visited from western Pennsylvania, and our promised day trip to San Francisco also promised to be awash in rainfall.

Anyway, this post is not about rain, but rather how we managed it and the experiences we managed to have despite the unpleasant weather in both places.

DISNEYLAND:

Well, we had been going to Disneyland in January over the last several years because this had worked out best for the kids' school schedules.  This year all the kids would be home and done with finals by mid December so my family suggested the possibility of going to the Happiest Place on Earth during the holiday season.  We had done this many times in the past, in the days of the now defunct "Fast Pass" system, and all I could think of was "crowded."  My requirement was that if we were going to go during this time, we were going during the week.  After much deliberation, we decided to try a three day single park ticket, which put us in the parks Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, December 11-13, with our reservations for Disneyland Park, California Adventure and back to Disneyland Park. Our hope was with the forecasted rain and the midweek reservations we would not need to buy Genie Plus.

Ok, well I guess we can talk about rain first.  Sunday at 7:15am, the time at which we departed from our hotel to walk to Disneyland park, the city of Anaheim was under a complete deluge.  We pulled out our rain ponchos and our portable umbrellas and made the 3/4 mile trek to the park entrance.  Without a doubt the rain was keeping the initial crowds away, but when the rain stopped at about 12 noon, a lot more people showed up.  The next day as well, we walked to the park in slightly less rainy conditions and endured rain at DCA until about 9 in the morning.

Now I can't say that an entire day (or two) in a constant downpour would be particularly fun, but days like this in southern California really are quite rare.  It is much more likely that the rain will be temporary.  There are a few items that are an absolute must when rain is expected and came in very handy:  a 5$ poncho from WalMart (ponchos in the park range from about 12-14 dollars), a portable umbrella (preferably a sturdy one and not the tiniest you can find), an extra pair of socks, and a rag towel.  The ponchos cover your bottom and will assist in not sitting in a puddle on a wet outdoor ride and actually keep you quite warm.  Most indoor rides require your ponchos to be removed while you ride (I guess they are trying to keep their indoor rides dry.)  The ponchos fold up and can be returned to your rented locker when the rain stops.  We kept ours with us for riding Splash Mountain in 48 degree weather both nights.  Not a great temperature to be soaking wet, or even mildly wet!

The weather can result in your nighttime shows being cancelled. Fireworks were cancelled "due to windy conditions in the upper atmosphere" (??) Sunday night (and Saturday night apparently) and World of Color was cancelled at DCA on Monday for the same reason (though that day fireworks did go on as scheduled at Disneyland Park).  The most infuriating thing is the way Disney manages to gather every person in the park to one crowded area and then tell them at the last second that the show is cancelled. 😡 Fantasmic show (finally back!) went on as scheduled and fireworks did show on Tuesday night.

Who's afraid of a little rain???

But this rain is serious!!

Well, what about those lessened weekday crowds?  Yeah, well forget that.  The only day that was a little less crowded was surprisingly Sunday at Disneyland Park.  California Adventure was beyond crowded on Monday.  This day was almost a complete disaster. On walking into DCA, nearly every ride was closed, and this lasted for most of the day, so people scrambled from place to place as any given ride would open until it broke again.  With nearly every Genie Plus ride down, the lines everywhere became much longer--causing waits where you never have waits, like for "the Little Mermaid," also which was closed for most of the day.  We were trying to avoid Genie Plus on this day so we waited in some long lines of one hour or more.  We were able to get on the Incredicoaster for the one hour it was open.  Though the line for Guardians of the Galaxy (which I don't ride) said 60 minutes,  I wound up waiting nearly two hours for the rest of my family to get off that ride..omg.  Anyway, the rides were breaking at Disneyland too.  We were on Indiana Jones when the ride stopped, the lights flipped on and there we sat for 15 minutes.  Closures all over the park on and off, but somehow at Disneyland park there are enough rides to buffer it out.  The best part about our terrible day at DCA was that we left early enough (9:15) to get home and get a decent night's sleep.

The last day after the terrible day at DCA the minute the lines got bad, we bought the Genie plus for 25$ per person which is its cheapest price.  Last year we bought it for 20$.  On Sunday it had been 30$ per person. Disney will charge whatever they want and people will pay it, it seems.

A little bit back to the prices, gosh, everything is insane.  Every cocktail everywhere is over 17 dollars.  Dinner at Blue Bayou was just under $300 with just one beer a piece for three of us, Oga's Cantina (again three alcoholic drinks and two not and no snacks) was $80.  Dinner at Lamplight Lounge, which was more like bites than actual dinner (three drinks) was 215$.  Naples, a literal pasta and pizza place, $240.  A pitcher of beer was $50.  Naples and Lamplight Lounge, by the way, were FREEZING.  At Lamplight we were placed at a bar table with a gas fire, which we had to hover over to get warm.  At Naples we sat indoors, but the constant opening and closing of the door to the patio left us unable to take our jackets off.  Maybe take some of the revenue generated by the alcohol and put it into heat.  Anyway, back to cocktails.  The yummy cocktails at the PYM lab have also gone up at least a dollar since we were there one year ago.

Eighty dollars...

Oga's Cantina is a good break and really a fun experience!

It seems like I am complaining a lot, and true, the conditions were not fabulous-but we really had an amazing time.  Genie Plus on the third day really made the day tolerable with less standing in line.  The third day rest stops at both Blue Bayou at 4pm and Oga's Cantina at about 7 pm were also helpful.  I made a promise to my kids after the disastrous second day that I would be staying until the park closed and that I would not complain about being tired even once. I was true to my word.

So the big question is what is my verdict on the choice of ticket?  Well, after some deliberation, we did decide that the two day park hopper with a Genie Plus purchase on a weekday is probably the most bang for your buck.  California Adventure just has too few rides to keep you there full day, making the Genie Plus add on almost imperative to avoid every line being over an hour.  If you were going on a weekday not in high season, it might be reasonable to try to not purchase Genie Plus, but on pretty much every weekend, you are going to need it.  

Here is another picture of Disneyland!

See, the ponchos can come in handy for some cute pictures as well!

SAN FRANCISCO:

We live about one hour south of San Francisco.  We've recently joked that we only go to San Francisco for three things:  Ball Games, Weddings, and Funerals.  Actually the last time I did any form of sightseeing there was when I went with my husband to shop (if you can call that sightseeing) while our daughter did a one day job shadow.  That was 2018!  

Well, our friend came from Pennsylvania and we had promised to take him to San Francisco on December 27th, but alas, what was in our forecast again-RAIN.  Outdoor walking and shopping and cable car rides were just not going to work, so we opted for a free driving tour my daughter found on the web at crosbyreport.com.  She modified it slightly and started us in the middle of the tour so we missed out on a few areas-Mission Dolores Park, the Castro, Alamo Square, Haight-Ashbury.  We did get out when we wanted to but literally in two hours we saw..

The Sea Cliff neighborhood (I didn't even know this existed)

The Presidio (great views of the city from a turnout here)

Chrissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge (We also got out here and beheld majestic views of the Golden Gate Bridge.  This was especially neat in the rain as the fog horns were blowing from the bridge)

Palace of Fine Arts 

Fillmore Street

Union Square

Chinatown

The Fairmont Hotel/Nob Hill

North Beach

Coit Tower (we actually got out here and had a much needed bathroom break though we did not go up in the elevator)

Lombard Street (we actually drove down the crookedest-is that a word?- street in the world!)

Fisherman's Wharf 

Pier 39

The Ferry Building 

Oracle Park

Anyway, this is a nice way to see the whole city even if its not a rainy day.  We did finally park and get out at Fisherman's Wharf where we enjoyed the Happy Hour menu at the Chowder Hut, smack dab in the middle of the wharf area.  We enjoyed Fish and Chips, Fish Sliders and beer.  There were a few fire pits in the round restaurant, but we were not lucky enough to score one of these.  After eating, it was actually getting dark, and we headed to Pier 39 to see a few seals and browse a few stores.

This area I gotta say is not what it used to be.  When I was in college we used to whip over the Bay Bridge on a Friday or Saturday night and stroll the wharf and the pier and get something to eat or maybe pop by Ghirardelli Square.   Just not that appealing anymore.  A lot of the shops were boarded up and vacant.  A lot of the famous restaurants were we used to eat before sorority formals or on special occasions, places like Neptune's Palace and Rainforest Cafe are gone. Even the crab stands at the wharf are half of what they used to be.  The worst was the demise of the beautifully classic A. Sabella's, which is now an Applebee's.  Not sure when all these changes occurred... too bad, but then again if I had frequented them with more regularity, maybe they'd still be open!

Ok, well that's enough on this long post.  I'm going to Vegas again and seeing a new show and will visit some new bars and restaurants.  Also planning to see the new Diana exhibit.  Ok, now for a few pictures!

The Presidio turn out had a beautiful view

A new way of seeing the Golden Gate Bridge

Our crew at the Chowder Hut

Our trek down Lombard Street

Is the Magic Back? Disneyland January 14-17 2022

On March 14, 2020 Disneyland Park did the unprecedented by closing its doors to the public in the wake of the COVID 19 pandemic.  They did not open again until over a year later, on April 30, 2021, with a laundry list of restrictions, limitations, and changes which have continued to evolve since.  We missed our January 2021 yearly weekend in Disneyland, so we were eager to get on the band wagon for January of 2022.  While visiting the parks, it was evident that we were not the only Disney fans eager to return to the promised land.  Though not the worst I had ever seen on a weekend, the parks were full and the lines were a challenge.  It almost was the old Disneyland as we knew it, or was it???

GENIE PLUS

When Disneyland reopened in the spring, it eliminated its over 20 year old Fast Pass system and for many months had no other option for riders but to queue in the stand by lines.  Slowly Disney advertising stared to reveal its plans for its new improved and rebranded "Lightning Lane" system under the new name Genie Plus, and on December 8, 2021 or thereabouts, the long awaited plan was launched. Now, to spell out the intricacies of this whole new system would probably require its own blog post, but if I had to describe it in as few words as possible...

Genie Plus is the old free Fast Pass system but now you pay for it.

Genie Plus is available for purchase the minute you walk in the park and is available to all ticket holders at any time of the day you should decide to add it.  It costs 20 dollars per person per day and purchase is an easy transaction from your phone.  Once purchased, you can choose your first "lightning lane" (that's the new name of the FP line) reservation from your phone which shows you all the times that are available for the rides within the system.  There are 12 rides at Disneyland Park and 7 that are on the system, so by no means is it every ride. You may only reserve each ride once per day. Many reservations are in the next minutes but others you have to wait a bit longer for.  If you can't make your reservation time, you can cancel it and book a different one.  For the most part, you can only hold one reservation at a time, so you do have to work the system a bit, to catch your favorites before they run out for the day (which they can, just like Fast Pass could) but not have to wait 5 hours for your next reservation.  When it is time for your reservation, you just scan your paper ticket or your phone at the lightning lane kiosk and off you go to your shortened wait time.

Here's the catch though, and it's a biggee. The highest demand rides, namely Rise of the Resistance in Disneyland and both Webslingers and Radiator Springs Racers in DCA are not included on the Genie plus upcharge.  In order to ride these rides with a Lightning Lane you have to pay another additional fee which apparently fluctuates by demand.  When we were there the upcharge for the DCA rides was 15$, for Rise, 20$.  It is possible to pay to ride these rides with a lightning lane WITHOUT purchasing Genie Plus for all the other rides.

Who's confused?

Is Genie Plus worth it??

Well, there is no doubt that Genie Plus is a financial commitment.  Disneyland is already over $150 per adult per day with a Park Hopper ticket so you can see 20 additional dollars as just too much or not that big a deal.  On Saturday in the Disneyland park, we decided to watch how things were going. We rode three rides before at about 9:30 am as we stood in a long line for Dumbo, we caved and bought the Genie Plus add on as the lines throughout the park were inching to 45 minutes and beyond.  On Sunday, when we were hopping, we had always intended to purchase Genie plus and did as soon as we entered the park.

Yep, despite the $200 kick in the pants, for us this weekend it was worth it.  At no time did I feel like we wasted our money.

We did not purchase the extra lightning lanes for the excluded rides.  To compensate for this though we literally were at the Disneyland gates at 7:30am (8 am park opening) and all the way to the Adventureland rope by 7:40am Saturday morning and at the same spots respectively the following morning at DCA.  We waited about 18 minutes for Rise and maybe 25 for Webslingers.  Unfortunately, after Webslingers on Sunday we had to wait 60 minutes for Radiator Springs Racers, the longest line the entire weekend.  At no time later in the days did the standby cues become less than 90 minutes for these rides throughout the weekend.  If you were not purchasing the Lightning Lane for these rides, it was the rope drop run or nothing.  We did not get on any of these rides a second time.

COVID Restrictions

Did I get this far in this post without mentioning our old friend, COVID 19?  Well, here it is, high time to mention it.

OK-really the limitations are few, but it is worth it to be aware of them.

Once you buy your ticket you have to make a park reservation, in others words, you must declare which park you will visit (or start in, if you have a Park Hopper) on each day.  If you are park hopping, you cannot change parks until 1pm.  Though I wanted to buy tickets closer to the date, I did not feel comfortable doing this less than 30 days in advance. 

There are no character meet and greets.  No hugging Cinderella.  They just wave from about 10 feet away.  I just read that this is what is happening similarly at character dining venues, such as Goofy's Kitchen.

See Mickey from afar...

Masks are required indoors, period.  And they are pretty strict about it. It wasn't warm, but if it had been, I don't think I would have liked it.  The mask requirement also messes up most of your ride photo opportunities, like on Space Mountain.

You see what I mean about the 

messed up photo opportunities?

No night shows like Fantasmic and World of Color, but somehow the quirky Mickey's Mix Magic (which my kids say is like Disney Rave) is still shown nightly, with fireworks on select nights. Parades if you can call them that are really abbreviated.

Not sure if they are limiting capacity in restaurants, but some places are impossible to get.  After they cancelled my 2pm reservation at the coveted Oga's Cantina which I got up at 4 am to make, I was able to get 10pm, which actually was a fun way to end the day.

There is no plexiglass, no social distancing, no empty seats on rides, no wiping and rewiping, no vaccine requirements.  Thank God for all of this.

WHAT'S NEW?

Well, thank goodness there is more that is new than just an expensive FastPass system! There are four rides that are either new or have been renovated.

Snow White's Scary Adventures (est.1955 on opening day) has undergone a renovation and has a new name, "Snow White's Enchanted Wish." And guess what?  As the name suggests, the ride isn't scary anymore!  The new ride has a lot of technological advance, not to mention a nice colorful facelift.  The witch is still there, I mean, she is kinda vital to the story, but the lightning and the terrifying forest are replaced by bright gems and lively music.  The story makes more sense now, it doesn't just go from the witch to and they lived happily ever after.  All in all, nice changes.

The same cannot be said for the Jungle Cruise which quite frankly now is just annoying.  Disney just needs to leave well enough alone.  The changes to the Jungle Cruise echo the lame attempts of Disney to make Pirates of the Caribbean a politically sensitive ride.  In this case, they took the headhunters/indigenous people out and replaced them with a bunch of chimps.  I swear the ride is all monkeys now.  Apparently there is some new back story-but under that mask the guide wore I couldn't hear a gosh darned thing.  All in all, lame changes.

The Rise of the Resistance opened about a week after we were in Disneyland in 2020.  This ride is a completely immersive Star Wars experience which has your rebel transport sucked by a tractor beam onto an Imperial cruiser.  All the characters are there-Rey, Poe, Finn.  It's a good time.  The only problems with this ride are its distance from the main hub and the wait times.  I would have loved to ride it again, but it was not to be.

Me and the stormtroopers on

Rise of the Resistance

Webslingers at DCA which opened in July 2021 however is pretty lame and not worth it. Read all the Google reviews on this one and it will just about sum things up.  Radiator Springs Racers is so creative and fun.  This ride just left me frustrated.  It's like a bad arcade game that leaves you with sore arms.  I was against the wall and it was nerve wracking how much worse I did than my family in the center chairs. 

If you have to run to one, maybe this is one you run to because the Cars ride is so much better, you don't mind waiting longer.

IS THE MAGIC BACK?

Disneyland is always magic.  The magic can be annoying, but it's there.

And now for some pictures!!

Finally a mask free picture

Oga's Cantina is a hot reservation

I didn't write about PYM's Test Lab,

but it is a MUST stop!

Trying to recreate "Honey Fusion" at home.

A Disneyland Christmas in November, November 20-23, 2016

I think this is the fifth year straight we have gone to Disneyland during the Christmas season, which in terms of Disney, stretches from about Veteran's Day to New Years Day.  Every year I gather a wealth of information and plan to write about it, and year after year passes and it all just gets too busy and I fail.
It's been about 6 weeks since I posted.
I know I touched on it before but here were the circumstances.  This was the continuation of our trip with my mother in law and my sister in law and her family which started in Las Vegas a few days before.  We left Vegas on Sunday morning at 645 am to arrive back in San Jose at about 8:30 am.  We dumped out our bags and repacked and were on the road to Anaheim by 10 or so.  We were joined there by the rest of the family that had driven from Vegas and one brother in law that flew in from West Virginia.  The other brother in law in San Diego was preparing for hosting Thanksgiving and never made it, so our bunch was 10.
So what's so great about going to Disneyland during the holidays?

CROWDS:

Well there is no doubt we have seen some mighty wicked crowds during this time.  This time we .

wound up there the Monday of Thanksgiving week, and I would be hard pressed to say that this was not the busiest we had seen Disneyland, given when we usually go.  The stand by line for Haunted Mansion in the middle of the afternoon was 120 minutes and there was actually a line to get back in with your fast pass.  On this day we actually had to watch the line at the Monorail to make sure we made it to our dinner reservation at the Disneyland Hotel on time!  Tuesday was about 30-40 % better if I had to take a stab at it.  Last year we went the WEEKEND before Thanksgiving which coincidentally turned out to be the same weekend the "Season of the Force" opened in Tomorrowland, and that was about as crowded as Tuesday this year.  Most of the years we have gone we wound up going the weekend before the weekend before Thanksgiving. Once we went on a rainy first weekend of December, and this was by far the best.
So should the crowd factor keep you away from Disney during the holidays?  Well, I'd say not really. A savvy Disneylander can manage to have a full day and hit most of the major rides.  We rode everything except for Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, and Alice in Wonderland and rode Matterhorn and Haunted Mansion twice on Monday.  There are doubtless some tricks.  The first is to take advantage of the very early and very late hours.  If the park opens at 8, you are through security and at those turnstiles at 740 or earlier.  Put someone in charge of "running" for past passes, and let this person hold all the tickets.  The minute the park opens, this person runs for the first set of FastPasses while the rest of the family get in the busiest NON-FASTPASS ride available.  I suggest Peter Pan but we always seems to go to Dumbo, more out of tradition than anything, then to Peter Pan second.  The instant you are allowed to get another FastPass, the runner needs to go get the next set.  Usually you cannot obtain a second FastPass until your window opens on the one you are holding, but this is not universal, so you have to watch carefully when you are allowed (this info will be on your ticket) and

again, the instant you are allowed, send the runner.  Effective use of the FastPass system may require some traversing of the park, but I think it's worth it.  We will usually use our time waiting for our next FP window to wait in lines at non-FP rides, which this time were at worst about 40 minutes (Jungle Cruise).
A couple more tricks for time saving:  1) watch the fireworks from BEHIND the castle.  OKAY-it's not quite the same--it's not the classic Disney picture of the castle with the fireworks behind, but it's nearly as beautiful behind Small World.  2)  Watch the later night parade, as a lot of people leave after the fireworks.  In both of these cases, you save a lot of ride time as you can literally run up to your spot just before show time.
I could also give you some advice about knowing which direction the parade is heading and planning your spot stake out accordingly but you have heard enough from me about managing time.
NOW this all being said--these tips do not apply in Walt Disney World, where the FP system is completely different.

SO WHAT'S SO SPECIAL?

RIDES:
There are three rides that are decorated specially for the holidays.  For this reason the wait times at these rides are generally longer than they would normally be.
IT'S A SMALL WORLD changes to a display of children worldwide celebrating Christmas.

 Though I noticed that none of the costumes on the children change (that would be a lot of costumes, as there are about 300 characters), each child holds or wears something additional, a gift, and ornament, a garland, a hair ornament, that makes that child Christmasey.  In addition, festive banners in native languages, trees, stars, fireworks and other detailed decor transform the surroundings to a Christmas wonderland.  The final salon, which as always shows the children united in song, is particularly festive all dressed in winter white. And for all you scrooges who hate this ride for the obvious reasons, the kids take a break from singing "It's a Small World," to sing us "Jingle Bells" in native languages, a refreshing change.
Also particularly beautiful are the red and gold lights that illuminate the ride at nightfall.
The Jungle Cruise becomes the "JINGLE CRUISE."  The ride runs its same course and includes its usual litany of puns which are now geared to the holidays.  Lots of decor changes suggest the natives are decorating a totem pole, the hippopotamus has eaten a fruitcake and that the jungle animals are "playing with" Santa's reindeer. It's a hoot.  The puns make me laugh out loud.  I am the only one laughing.  Everyone must think I'm a complete idiot.  "When getting out watch your step and watch your head, but if you miss your step and hit your head then watch your language..."

Perhaps my favorite is the HAUNTED MANSION HOLIDAY.  Apparent this ride gets decorated into a "Nightmare Before Christmas" theme for Halloween in October and stays the same throughout the Christmas season.  Jack Skellington and some of the other characters make an appearance throughout the ride, including in the complete holiday revamp of the preshow in the stretching room. Lots of decor crossing the line between Christmas and scary, like a wreath with big sharp teeth and a cemetery covered in a blanket of snow. I find it to be mostly colorful and clever rather than scary. I actually prefer this version of the ride to the original.

PARADES AND SHOWS:

The two specifically Christmas shows at Disneyland are the "A Christmas Fantasy Parade" twice daily and the nightly "Believe...in Holiday Magic" Fireworks Spectacular".  Disney's California Adventure has the "World of Color--Season of Light" twice nightly.  We have seen the first two so many times we have nearly memorized them.  World of Color we have never seen.  Quite frankly, the night shows at Disneyland park are so fabulous that we can't bear to tear ourselves away and make the trek over to DCA to sit there in a crowd, all the while missing a change to see the Paint the Night parade one more time.  More on that later.

A Christmas Fantasy Parade runs twice daily, and has been doing so since 1994!.  It runs from Small World down to Main Street at 1:30 and then back again at 4:15.  It's a sweet parade.  Disney characters are featured on floats depicting different Christmas scenes.  Woody rides a rocking horse, the princesses attend a candlelight Christmas ball, and Minnie and Mickey manage Santa's mailroom with Chip and Dale.  In addition to all this is the usual Disney parade magic--shiny toy soldiers, men "skiing" on roller skates, dancing snowmen, all accompanied by a catchy tune that I think even my husband can hum on cue by now.  It is a little funny to watch this parade in the middle of November.  I kid you not, I watched this parade in 80 degree whether once, during which I wondered if Elsa would finally thaw.
The Believe...in Holiday Magic fireworks show runs once a night at 930.  This is another show we have seen about ten times, but it never seems to lose its charm.  The show is a medley of Christmas

The gorgeous castle after fireworks

and holiday type songs of course accompanied by the choreographed fireworks show.  The simulated snowfall on Main Street (it's soap bubbles I figured out) after the finale makes this event particular magical.  People sit and wait in front of the castle for hours but we always slip under the rope about 20 minutes before the show.  No big.  Show still enjoyed.  Why waste all that time?  One thing I should mention is that they do tend to warn several times that due to high winds the show might be cancelled.  They did this both nights this year and also in the past, but I do not remember the fireworks ever being cancelled.
Closer to Christmas..I do remember this happening the year we went in December..Disney arranges special holiday events. One year there was a candlelight procession down Main Street.  100's of carolers processed in rows of 10 or so, shoulder to shoulder, wearing choir robes and holding candles, while singing traditional CHRISTMAS (notice the caps) carols.  It was stirring.  Five years later I can't think about it without getting a little misty.

Not exactly Christmas, actually not Christmas at all, but I have to take a little time to talk about the "Paint the Night" parade.  The Paint the Night parade began in Hong Kong in 2014 and debuted in Disneyland in May of 2015 as part of Disneyland's 60th anniversary celebration.  Apparently its last regular run was in September of this year, but it ran twice nightly while we were there.  I have heard that there is no plan for the parade to run at all past January 8, 2017, and that Paint the Night will be replaced by the Main Street Electrical Parade.  Learning this is a huge disappointment.  This parade is SO FUN!  It is almost impossible to NOT get up and dance and sing along.  The two years we were able to see it we watched it both nights at 10:30 pm.  This parade is a literal party of lights and music and everyone's invited:  Jessie, King Triton, Slinky dog, Lightning McQueen, Belle, Buzz Lightyear and of course Mickey Mouse.  I would say if you haven't seen it go now cuz it doesn't look like it's gonna be around much longer!  Boo-hoo!

DECOR:

Really a huge part of the excitement of this time at Disneyland is just the huge amount of detail that Disney puts into the conversion of Disneyland and DCA into a Christmas wonderland.  Everywhere you turn are garlands, bows, wreaths, lights, bells, snowflakes, decorated trees, and just about anything else you can imagine that would make you think of the holidays.  No eave, lamppost, or storefront goes ungarnished.  Particularly fun are the whimsical car themed Christmas decorations of Cars Land in DCA, in which tire wreaths hang from garlands of oil filters, orange cones are strung with lights and a huge tree is adorned with hubcaps.  It's super clever and just about the only entire land in themed decoration.

There are PLENTY of family Christmas photo opportunities all over and plenty of photographers willing to take pictures of your family, even with your own cameras.  The last two years, our Christmas photos were taken in Disneyland by Disney photographers.  The Disney Photopass system makes in easy to download images and use them with whatever photo service you desire!

Well after five years I finally got this post done!  I hope you enjoyed reading it!  And now for some pictures!

Last year's Christmas card picture at DCA

This year's picture at Disneyland

Our niece Hannah had never been to Disneyland :)

The cousins waiting for the Matterhorn