This year the kids had a list of things they REALLY wanted to accomplish at Disneyland.
The first thing on that list was getting a coveted Disneyland candy cane from the Candy Palace on Main Street, U.S.A..
For some background, here's a short video explaining how the candy canes are made:
Disneyland candy canes are a hot ticket item.
There are only 3 batches of hand pulled canes made per day, yielding about 45 canes per batch.
What that means is that if you want one of these beauties, you have to get to the park pre-opening to be one of the first to jump in a line at the Candy Palace to then receive a wristband that allows you to have one candy cane.
(You can always buy the same candy canes at the counter, but they aren't "fresh")
Quite the process, but the kids were OBSESSED with getting them.
That meant that we were up early that next day.
We shoved down breakfast (free bfast buffet at our hotel!) and walked over to the Esplanade to wait.
As you can see, the lines were already back to the monorail trestles.
Huzbend: "$12.99 candy canes?!?! They probably just taste like a normal candy cane. Grumble. Grumble. BAH-HUMBUG!!"
Mikey: "But, Dad, they're DISNEY candy canes!"
I am a planner.
An OCD Disney planner.
I know everything there is to know about what we're doing that day and if I don't, I know where to find it.
Everyone else, I guess, doesn't plan.
The reason the lines were so long to get in was because everyone thought Disneyland opened at 8am that day.
So, odds were that they didn't even know about the whole candy cane thing.
Bonus for us.
Official opening was 9am, but they always open the gates about 30 minutes prior to allow people onto Main Street for shopping and to get in line for "rope drop" at the Hub.
We race-walked (no running!) ourselves up to the Candy Palace and were one of the first people to get our wristbands with an added bonus that we could get our candy canes RIGHT THEN!
The kids were super excited!
Some confusion occurred when the cast member cut off one of Katie's hospital bracelets instead of the candy cane bracelet. But, that was quickly worked out and we were handed our spoils.
VICTORY!!!
Not ones to be patient when faced with a foot long stick of sugar, they had to open them right then and there.
The things were HUGE.
And tasty.
Huzbend was right. They were not much different than your average, every day candy cane.
I would say they were just a bit fresher and not so processed tasting.
Katie was in sugar-high heaven.
Those candy canes lasted all day.
Katie got hers down to a quarter, but I don't think Mikey made it past the half way mark.
We ended up bringing them home. Like, back to our house at the end of vacation, home.
As we were getting up to jump in the pool of people waiting for rope drop, a special someone appeared - Mary Poppins, in her beautiful Jolly Holiday dress.
The kids said a very polite hello introducing themselves as Katherine and Michael.
They wanted to be proper. You know Mary Poppins is all about proper.
We also took the candy canes away so they wouldn't get her all sticky.
Practically perfect in every way.
Candy canes back in hand, we waited for rope drop.
Our first stop was Haunted Mansion Holiday.
From Halloween-time through New Years, the Haunted Mansion plays host to Jack Skellington and his friends of 'Nightmare Before Christmas' fame.
The detail is phenomenal.
Each year a giant, themed, REAL gingerbread house is created for the ballroom scene.
Check out this link to learn more about 2017's house.
I didn't get a picture of it. Sorry.
I didn't get a picture of it. Sorry.
Singing snow pumpkins.
You gotta see it to believe it.
Unlike Disney World, Disneyland has been using paper Fastpasses for a long, long time.
They debuted a system over the summer that allows you to pick up Fastpasses via an app for an extra $10 per person/per day so you no longer had to run from one Fastpass machine to the next.
Not only that, but you got free Photopass photo downloads for the entire day.
You better believe we bought into that!
What a difference it made.
As soon as we were in line for one Fastpass ride, we were able to make another Fastpass selection.
I don't think we waited more than 10 minutes at any ride, all day.
We used the service our entire vacation.
After exiting Haunted Mansion, we realized that no one, and I mean no one, was over in Critter Country - home of Splash Mountain.
And so, that was our next ride.
There was no wait whatsoever.
I guess only crazy (not from California) people ride Splash before 11am when it's about 45 degrees.
It was quite warm in the sun.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Since we were over there, we rode The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
There was no line there either.
Then Huzbend did the unthinkable. He ate a giant peanut butter cookie at, like, 10:30am.
Shocking.
Shocking, not just because it was peanut butter (he disinfected himself after eating it to protect the kids), but because it was Huzbend eating a cookie at 10:30 AM.
I think we may have ridden Big Thunder Mountain around this time and were heading over to Tomorrowland for a date with Space Mountain.
We stopped for a quick picture with Cranie the Crane who was busy building Star Wars Land.
Mikey had a map and a candy cane.
He loves maps.
And candy.
We stopped for a quick Castle photo shoot.
Aurora's (the princess formerly known as Briar Rose) owl is giving us the stink eye in the photo below.
We had a few minutes to spare before our Space Mountain return time, so we had a quick sit down for a candy cane break
Last years version, Star-Wars themed Hyperspace Mountain, was so much better than the original.
Sigh.
Oh well.
But, this version still kicks Disney World's butt.
Every time!
Now, this I find unbelievable.
Not only had we accomplished riding all 4 Disneyland mountains prior to 11am (YAY MAXPASS!!!), we were able to sign Mikey up to participate in Jedi Training.
I was sure that it would be booked up.
We lucked out.
Here he is getting his robe.
"I've got a bad feeling about this......"
Of course, he smiles for the Disney photographers.
And, guess what????
At the very last minute, we were able to convince Katie to join in.
She took the last spot available for the 11:30 show.
Tween Jedi Katie.
We left the kids in the more than capable Jedi Masters' hands and found ourselves a front row seat for the show.
Not only had they set aside seats for parents, they also has Photopass photographers taking pictures. These pictures turned out a whole heck of a lot better than my photos ever could.
The padawan's marched down and proceeded to train a little with their light sabers.
He's supposed to be practicing the "Ready" stance.
In his words, he was, "Already ready".
The "I'm Too Cool for the Ready Stance Stance".
After some training, they had to use the Force to raise a Jedi temple for the padawan's next trial, facing down their fears.
Katie made it look easy to raise the entire stage.
She's an old Force-using pro, I guess.
The padawans raised the temple.
But, OH NO, guess who came out?????
BAD GUYS!!!
Now came the coolest part of the whole thing.
Each kid got to fight a bad guy for like 15 seconds.
Mikey was one of the first to go.
NOW, he does the ready stance.
He was up against Kylo Ren.
I love this picture, by the way.
I love Mikey's "I'm gonna kick your butt" stare down.
No fear.
I gotta tell ya, Kylo is intimidating.
Mikey did kick some butt.
He walloped on Kylo Ren.
So proud.
Sniffle.
For the record, Huzbend did cry tears of nerdy joy for both his children.
Kylo Ren: "You are brave to challenge me"
(Yeah. He actually said that.)
DUCK!
Katie got to take her turn on the stage.
Here is Katie's version of the "Ready" stance.
Kylo came on FAST setting Katie back on her heels!
But she recovered, striking a hard blow.
Okay.
Here's where Katie lucked out.
There was an uneven number of kids.
So, in order not to have the last little kid be all alone up on stage fighting, she got to go AGAIN.
This time her opponent was Darth Vader.
Vader: "Join me. It is the only way."
Katie: "Dude. You are the only thing standing between me and the rest of my giant candy cane....RAHHHHHH!!!"
The padawan's were able to conquer their fears and they all used the Force to push Darth and Kylo back inside the temple.
But, one of the trainers was afraid of Kylo, so she had to fight him one on one.
Everyone faced their fears and were victorious.
Internal Monologue Mikey: "Man. If they just let me get another crack at that lame-o Kylo Ren, I'd take his head off! WHAM! BAM! SKA-DOOSH! I'm the best Jedi they've ever SEEN!"
Internal Monologue Katie: "I wonder if I can have a Mickey Ice Cream bar for lunch? Mmmmm, ice creeeeeaaammmmm. Poor Darth. He can't even eat ice cream with that mask on."
Cue the inspirational Star Wars music to play the padawan's off stage.
Mikey told us he wished he could've fought more.
He IS an expert at fake sword fighting since he and Katie practice at home all the time.
The day sure was beautiful.
Sunny, blue skies.
Nice and warm too. About 70 degrees.
We ate lunch outside at a Mexican food quick service joint - Rancho de Zocalo.
I had a burrito, Katie and Huzbend had street tacos.
Everyone was happy with their food, except Mikey.
No cheese and bean burrito for him!
"Disgusting!" he cried.
So, I spent a half hour - 30 LOOONG MINUTES - in line buying him a burger from the Galatic Grill in Tomorrowland.
Ugh.
What a painful half hour that was.
But, at the end of it, Mikey had semi-good-food in his tummy and was ready to roll.
Another goal the kids had for this day was to visit Mickey's Toontown.
In the two times we'd been to Disneyland, we never made it to Toontown.
After riding Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, we wandered around enjoying the gags.
The kids seemed to gain super powers from all of the sugar they had consumed.
Just look at them bending the steel bars!
There are all sorts of nifty little things in Toontown.
Doorbells to ring.
Buttons to push.
Ropes to pull.
You name it.
There was even a gag where you can try to open the door to the Power Company and seemingly get electrocuted.
Katie did this and 3 kids almost fell down the stairs running away.
Hilarious.
You can visit Donald's Boat, The Miss Daisy, if you'd like.
Toontown is mostly for little kids.
Lots of things for them to climb on and explore.
You can also visit Mickey and Minnie's house, but we didn't do that.
The kids went off and rode Gadget's Go Coaster BY THEMSELVES.
They waited 20 minutes for a 2 minute ride.
But, hey, Huzbend and I got to just sit and enjoy the California winter sunshine for that 20 minutes, so it was all good.
Next up was It's a Small World Holiday.
Yep, it's all decorated for the holidays.
Another thing on the kids "Must Do" list was to see It's a Small World at night,
which we accomplished on a different day.
You can't tell, but there are millions of lights on that façade back there.
And in all the bushes and topiaries.
"Really?" asks Katie.
Yes, really.
Inside, the music incorporated Jingle Bells into the Small World tune.
All the scenes have been holiday-plussed and the dolls have holiday costumes.
It's phenomenal.
I mean, if you like that sorta thing.
Like me.
Hmmmm. See who's on the list?
Naughty or Nice?
You make the call.
Katie had a good time finding all the Disney character dolls that have snuck their way into the ride.
It really is a sight to see.
So pretty.
No. He's not asleep.
Although, I think Huzbend was.
Upon exiting the ride, we realized that the 3:30 "Christmas Fantasy" parade was on it's way up to us.
So we parked it to wait.
Accompanied by some frozen treats.
Katie = Mickey Ice Cream Bar
Mikey = Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich
Always need extra napkins.
Time for the parade.
It's cute and very Christmas-y.
You'd be surprised to hear, it's not one of my favorites.
But, the kids really like it.
Hello, Donald!
This is the best part of the parade.
Cuddles.
Something happened and the parades forward motion actually stopped.
These snowpeople and guys on roller-skis were in front of us for, like 15 to 20 minutes.
Doing the same routine to the same song.
Not a smile faltered.
Although, one guy said while whisking by on his skis, "Haven't I seen you someplace before? You ALL look REALLY familiar!"
Just when we thought we would all go insane, snowpeople included, the parade began to move once more.
Claribelle, Pluto and Goofy rolled on by in their mobile gingerbread kitchen.
The princesses went by, then toys from Toy Story and the parade ended, as all holiday parades end, with Santa and some dancing reindeer.
It was time to head out of Dodge and get ourselves some fancy dinner.
We had reservations at the Napa Rose at the Grand Californian.
We're talking super fancy.
So fancy that I'm surprised they let us in the building.
Especially with the orange sweatshirt.
According to Huzbend, this was the best salad that he has ever had.
The bread was delicious.
The kids tried to behave themselves.
They did a pretty good job.
I spent most of the dinner worried they would spill their drinks.
They had a gluten free/nut free bread service that Katie and Mikey had to share and quickly devoured.
I got some fancy shmancy cocktail that actually tasted really good.
Dinner was yummy.
I wouldn't say stupendous though.
Huzbend had duck, I had filet mignon, Katie had filet of beef and Mikey had corn pasta.
Everyone ate, except Mikey.
His pasta sauce was too spicy.
He finished the bread instead.
Dessert was really good.
Mikey picked crème brulee.
Yes.
This is crème brulee.
Katie picked caramel ice cream.
It was too caramel-y/fancy for her taste.
She didn't like it.
This is Huzbends pick.
I couldn't even tell you what it was.
And here's mine.
I think I got some sort of bread pudding?
I don't know.
I remember it was super good though.
After stuffing ourselves, we decided to hoof it back to Disneyland.
We accomplished another first, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.
An amalgamation of Lincolns speeches performed by an audio-animatronic figure.
It's very patriotic and just a tad bit robot creepy.
After our visit with the 16th president, it was time to head to the future.
We fought our way through the crowds to Buzz Lightyear.
I was handily beat by Huzbend yet again.
Every TIME!
One day.
One day his reign will come to an end.
By this time, everyone was parking it somewhere in view of the castle.
"Believe in Holiday Magic" fireworks were coming up.
We did the same.
We found a great place right at end of Main Street.
And, like everyone else, we sat down in the middle of Main Street to wait.
And eat more candy cane, of course.
To say there were a lot of people there would be an understatement.
It was UBER crowded.
Here is a shot of the crowd in front of us.
And the crowd behind us.
This firework show is different in that there is no Disney music played.
It's all holiday music.
Projections are shown on the castle and the shops up and down Main Street coordinated with the music.
Mikey couldn't see.
So, I boosted him up.
Katie couldn't see either.
Huzbend tried to hold her up, but she's gettin' so darn big.
The best part of the holiday fireworks are right at the end, after the finale.
They play this really beautiful version of "White Christmas".
The lights are still dimmed. The castle holiday lights are on and the castle itself is highlighted with white spotlights that shine up into the sky.
The holiday lights up and down Main Street are on as well as the giant Christmas tree. Snowflake projections are shown on the walls of the shops.
And then the "snoap" begins to fall.
(snoap - soap bubble snow)
A hush falls over the crowd. The quiet is punctuated by some ooooos and aaaaahhhhs.
A literal sea of people stand there looking up at the faux snow falling.
And they smile.
If I had to pick one perfect moment to replay again and again, it would be THAT moment.
Standing there with the family.
Smiling and listening to the music as the "snoap" falls down Main Street.
It's almost as if you forget that there are 50 to 60,000 other people there with you.
Until, that is, the "snoap" stops falling.
And you turn to leave the park with those same 50 to 60,000 other people.
Holy crap.
Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle out to the Esplanade.
The crowd thins just a bit and you walk out to Harbor Blvd. to walk along the road to your hotel.
There's a really not-well-thought-out Guest Drop-Off/Pick-Up area right there next to the entrance on Harbor.
People just waiting in running cars for other people. People sitting waiting for their rides.
Then you walk back to your hotel along the sidewalk.
No matter what time we left the parks, there was always a pan handler standing on the side of the sidewalk with a 3-4 year old kid with him. Sometimes the kid was asleep in his arms, other times he would walk around the adult in circles.
And, there was a homeless dude who was wearing a headband, shorty shorts and rainbow knee socks pushing a shopping cart. Sometimes I saw him in the morning too.
Don't get me wrong, the walk could've been much worse.
It really wasn't that bad.
It was just a long walk at the end of a long series of days.
Sigh.
Real life stinks sometimes.
