California Christmas December 2017 - Day 6

Day 6 Notes –

• -          DCA - Monsters inc, Soarin, donut - We tried to start the day by going to Disneyland, but the lines were crazy and we found that California Adventure opened early and we hadn't used our Magic Morning yet so we went in to DCA early.  It is so nice to go into these 2 parks early.  The lines are non-existent.  We went to Monsters Inc first.  It was literally a walk on.  There was no one in line.  We were the only people going on the ride.  It was great.  We went and rode Soarin' after that and there was some line.  It took about 30 minutes, but that was shorter than during the day.  After Soarin', Lisa had seen specialty donuts on a blog that she wanted to find.  We found it at the smoothie stop.  This was the BEST donut I have ever had.  It was a Yule Log cronut.  I had always wanted to try a cronut because I love croissants, and this was a cronut, with praline filling and dark chocolate icing.  It was amazing!
• -          DL - After the donut, we headed across to Disneyland because the Magic Morning was over and we planned on spending the last day in Disneyland.  There were still quite a few things to see there that we hadn't done before.  We were also able to get a FastPass for Space Mountain before the park opened since we were able to go into DCA early.  That was a cool perk.
• -          Space Mountain - Since Ellie had done most of the other big rides that she was able to do this trip, she wanted to try Space Mountain.  I tried to explain it to her to prep and she was ready to go.  We took off and she was a little quiet.  The Disneyland Space Mountain is really dark so she was really quiet.  She was very calm and quiet the entire ride.  At the end, I asked her how it was and she said, "that was too much".  She said she liked it, but it was too much.  It was cute.  No meltdown, no crying, just "too much".
• -          Tinker Bell - After Space Mountain, we walked by Pixie Hollow and stopped in to see Tinker Bell.  It was a really cute area.  Kind of like Honey I Shrunk the Kids at MGM Studios.  Tinker Bell was really good with Ellie too.  She took her hand and walked around showing her stuff.
• -          Alice - We walked by Alice and saw the Mad Hatter walking around.  We tried to find Alice walking around, but couldn't find her.  She wasn't out that day.  We decided to ride Alice one more time.  It is such a cute ride and Ellie loves it.
• -          Haunted Mansion - we got a FastPass to ride Haunted Mansion one more time.  I loved this ride.  I had to do it one more time.  It was great.
• -          Train - I wanted to ride the train and we decided to hop on in New Orleans Square.  We left the stroller and just rode the train all the way around.  It was fun and there is a lot to see on the train. 
• -          Corn dogs - Lisa really wanted corn dogs for lunch so we stopped at the Little Red Wagon for lunch. It was delicious as usual.
• -          Mickey and the magical map - Another item on my list was to see Mickey and the Magical Map show.  We got there a little early so I went to the concession stand to get a drink.  They had a really good frozen lemonade drink.  It was a really cute show with some of the newer characters.  We all enjoyed it and it was nice to sit down for a little while.
• -          Looked for Alice and Aurora, rode Alice - We decided to look for Aurora and/or Alice.  We found the spot where Aurora would be, but she never showed up.  Lisa went to ask if she would be there, but found she would not be there.  Lisa did run into Peter Pan and Captain Hook in the Christmas store while asking about Aurora.  She said it was really funny.
• -          Princesses - Since we couldn't find the characters walking around the park, we decided to go to Fantasy Faire to see the princesses.  Ellie was so excited.  She didn't realize where we were until we went in to see the Princesses and she loved it.  She got to see Snow White, Ariel and Cinderella.  We was most excited to see Snow White.  She really liked seeing Cinderella too.  When she saw Ariel she said, "I already saw you".  It was kind of finny.  She was really cute and more comfortable with the Princesses than last year.
• -      Tiki room with Dole Whips - We decided to finally get a Dole Whip in the park.  We waited a little while, but not too long.  The Tiki room was starting and they let us take the Dole Whip in with us so we went it to watch.  I liked it better than the Florida version.  Everything worked and it wasn't 1000 degrees inside.  We all enjoyed it.  It isn't Lisa's favorite, but it was nice to sit down and relax a little.
• -          Monorail to Downtown Disney - Another item on my list was the Monorail.  We got on and rode to Downtown Disney.  It was fun, different from the Florida version.  Much smaller and faster.  Cool to see the resort area from a different view.  
• -          Shopping - We did some shopping in the Downtown Disney area and walked back to the park.  We had left the stroller in Tomorrowland so we walked back to Main Street and Lisa and Ellie head to dinner at Blue Bayou and I went to get the stroller.  It was a little extra to walk, but it was better that I went by myself.
• -          Blue Bayou - We had planned on doing the Fantasmic dining package to eat at Blue Bayou and get reserved seating for Fantasmic.  We met our friends there for dinner.  They were nice enough to put two tables together for us even though they told us they couldn't when we made the reservation.  Dinner was delicious.  We enjoyed it.  The atmosphere was cool, the food was good and the company was great.  The kids even did a good job eating.  The desserts were really cute, themed to Fantasmic.
• -          Fantasmic and Fireworks - After dinner we went to our seats for Fantasmic.  They gave us seat cushions to sit on which ended up be a good thing.  Our seating area was on cobblestone front center.  Great spot, but not super comfortable without the cushion.  We waited a little while, but it was a good thing we got there early because the area filled in by show start.  The show was great.  We loved it.  It was a mixture of fireworks, characters and World of Color screens with a giant dragon.  It was really cool.  I think I still like the regular World of Color the best, but this is a close second.  Ellie was really cute.  She sat on my lap during the show and was watching it.  She got a little scared when the villains came out so she closed her eyes.  The thing was, she fell asleep when she closed her eyes and her head fell back on me.  I didn't wake her, but out of the blue she woke up when the princesses showed up and then with the riverboat came out she was super excited.  She got to see Aurora and Alice on boat.  She kept saying, "I saw them.  We didn't think we would see them, but we did!!".  It was really cute.  After Fantasmic, we stayed in our spots and watched the fireworks.  They showed the images from the castle on the water screens so we could see the same show with the fireworks.  It was good, but not great.  Always fun to see fireworks though.  After the fireworks, they did the gingerbread "snow" on the Rivers of America.  It was a nice ending.
• -      Didn't want to leave - After the show, we got Ellie setup in the stroller and we headed to Tomorrowland.  We wanted to get the light saber churros.  They were fun and delicious.  After that, Ellie fell asleep and we walked through the park, stalling and looking at everything.  We didn't want to leave.  We made it to Main Street and I wanted to walk in to see Mr Lincoln.  We didn't watch the show, but we did see the exhibit about Walt and the beginning of Disneyland.  It was a fitting ending to our trip because we got to see the bench that Walt was sitting on while watching his daughters ride the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round.  They had the actual bench in the exhibit.  It was really cool to see and brought the trip full circle.

California Christmas December 2017 - Day 5

Day 5 Notes –

• -          Toad - For several days, Ellie wanted to ride Mr. Toad.  We had watched the movie before our trip and she really enjoyed it.  We tried to ride the night before, but they closed the ride for fireworks.  I hadn't been on Toad since it was closed at Walt Disney World.  This was quite the experience.  It was very jerky, looked like paper cutouts of the characters and then you go to hell at the end.  Very strange.  Ellie liked it.
• -          Snow White - We rode Snow White after and it was fun.  Ellie likes it, but says its a little scary for her.  She doesn't like the Queen.
• -          Carousel - We rode the carousel because Lisa and Ellie love carousels.
• -          Sleeping Beauty Walk-through - We did the castle walk-through.  It is a cool telling of the story.  Sleeping Beauty is Lisa's favorite and Ellie loves all princesses so this was a good one.
• -          Peter Pan - After the castle, Peter Pan was right next to it and the wait showed 45 minutes from the end of the line.  The people in line didn't go all the way to the end of the physical line so we decided to give it a shot.  We knew we were gonna have to wait to ride it at some point so this was it.  We ended up only waiting about 25 minutes.  Pretty good for Peter Pan.
• -          Galactic Grill - After that we got hungry and Lisa and I had wanted to try the breakfast burrito at the Galactic Grill.  It was delicious.  Lisa and I both got it.  We would go back again for it.  We also got Ellie a Power Pack and she really enjoyed it too.  
• -          Buzz - After breakfast we rode Buzz while we waited for our Star Tours FastPass.  There was a short line.  I won again.  Lisa was closer and Ellie was getting better.
• -          Star Wars - We had a FastPass for Star Tours, but Lisa couldn't go.  Ellie wanted to try it.  I was really surprised.  We got in line and she was very excited.  She liked the 3D glasses and then we were off.  Ellie liked it a lot and did a good job with it.
• -          Radiator Springs - After Star Tours, we had decided to meet our friends at California Adventure for lunch.  We were able to get a FastPass for Radiator Springs Racers before lunch so Lisa went to the Cove Bar to meet our friends and Ellie and I rode Radiator Springs Racers.  It was a lot of fun.  Ellie enjoyed it again.
• -          Cove Bar - Our last trip we really wanted to try the lobster nachos at the Cove Bar, but we couldn't get in.  We decided to eat there for lunch this day.  The lobster nachos were good, but not amazing.  It was a good setting and the kids got a pizza to split.
• -          Toy Story - After lunch we had a FastPass for Toy Story.  I came in 3rd this time.  Darn.
• -          Ariel - We rode Ariel again.  As you can tell, this was our go to ride because there was never a line.
• -          Redwood Creek Challenge - I wanted to see what this was all about and I thought the kids would want to see Santa.  The line for Santa was crazy, so we skipped it.  They did get to go down a slide that let them take Christmas presents from the top to the bottom.  They enjoyed that a lot.
• -          Ice cream / treats in Carsland - Next we wanted to get an ice cream treat and Lisa remembered that she wanted the peppermint chocolate shake at Flo's V8 Cafe.  I wanted the pumpkin spice churro, which was at the Cozy Cone.  We all got something different.  Ellie got an ice cream cone from the Cozy Cone.  It was a good stop.  Ellie had ice cream all over her face.  
• -          Christmas Parade - After our treat, we went back to Disneyland to see the Christmas parade.  We had a better spot this time.  Everyone enjoyed it.
• -          Small World - We rode Small World again.  Love it.
• -          Big thunder - Ellie and I rode Big Thunder Mountain with our friends.  She told them that she was going to laugh and scream a lot.  She was loved it again, and did laugh and scream.  It was cute.
• -          Train - Next we rode the train.  We went to New Orleans Square and rode it around to Fantasyland.  We were a mess because we carried all of our stuff and the strollers.
• -          Tea cups - After the train, we rode the tea cups at night, which is fun.
• -          Plaza inn - We had trouble finding a spot to eat because they were all busy.  We tried to make a reservation and they were all full.  We ended up at the Plaza Inn.  There was a long line, but we made it in.  I got the fried chicken and it was awesome.  Probably the best fried chicken I've had.  Ellie got pasta and Lisa had a salad.
• -          Ellie nap - ‘I’m not gonna close my eyes’; 5 min later, asleep - After dinner, we started walking around to find something to do, and Ellie told us she was going to lay down in the stroller, but not close her eyes.  No more than 5 minutes later, she was asleep.  We went and sat/rested at the Galactic Grill.  We tried to see fireworks, but they were cancelled again.  

California Christmas December 2017 - Day 4

Day 4 Notes –

• -          Jolly Holiday - This trip was much easier for breakfast because Ellie went along with our  On the Go breakfast.  I got a croissant and Lisa got a breakfast sandwich.  
• -          Haunted Mansion - We started with the Haunted Mansion again.  I loved this ride.
• -          Pooh - We then went and walked to Critter Country and rode Pooh.  This is a fun dark ride.  Ellie enjoyed it.
• -          Candy - I had been craving a Tigger Tail since our last trip, so we had to stop at Pooh's Corner and get candy.  I got a Tigger Tail, Lisa got a Mickey rice krispy treat with gingerbread icing and Ellie got a chocolate covered marshmallow with candy canes.  Lisa's was good, but mine was the winner.  Ellie loved mine and is still talking about it.
• -          Jack and Sally - Lisa found that there was a Jack and Sally meet and greet in New Orleans Square.  We found that they were going to be there shortly after we were done with Pooh so we headed that way.  There is a Nightmare Before Christmas shop close to the Blue Bayou and the meet and greet is next to it.  When we got there it was just Jack (get it? "Just Jack!").  There was a cast member that told us that Sally would be there soon.  We got in line and after a couple of minutes, Jack left and walked across the street.  He went into a different building.  We kind of thought he was gone.  Then after a couple minutes, he came back out of that building with Sally.  It was cute.  They both with the the meet and greet spot and when it was our turn Ellie couldn't contain herself.  She was so excited.  She did great.  They came down to her level and talked to her for quite a while.  Jack tried to hold her hand and she didn't have it.  I think she really liked seeing Sally and dealt with Jack being there.  It was really cute.
• -          Sally doll - The day before we had seen a Sally plush doll outside of the Haunted Mansion.  We had told Ellie on the trip that we wouldn't buy anything on the spot, but we would look and then decide later.  We all decided she was gonna get the Sally doll.  When we got off the ride, she was gone.  They were out.  We went to the store and thankfully they had a couple of them.  We bought her one and she got to take it with her when she saw Jack and Sally.  Sally talked to her about it too.  She had that doll with her the entire trip and still sleeps with her at home.
• -          Pirates - After meeting Jack and Sally, we had a FastPass for Big Thunder Mountain, but had a little extra time.  There was no line for Pirates and Ellie said she wanted to ride it.  Ok.  So we did.  It was fun.  At the end, Ellie said she wasn't so sure about it.
• -          Big thunder - After Pirates, Ellie and I had FastPasses for Big Thunder.  Lisa couldn't go so she watched us.  Ellie was very excited and I tried to talk to her about it so she would be prepared.  Never once was she scared.  We got on and she was a little nervous in the cave with the bats, but then it took off.  She LOVED it.  She laughed, giggled and screamed the entire way.  When it was over, she wouldn't get off.  She wanted to go again.  I had to drag her off.  We found Mama and Ellie told her all about it.  It was really cute.  She did great on her first roller coaster.
• -          Indiana Jones / Moana - After that, I got a FastPass to do Indiana Jones, which I went on by myself.  It is a great ride.  Lisa and Ellie went to meet Moana, because it was close.  We all had fun.
• -          Jungle Cruise - There was only a 5 min wait for the Jungle Cruise so we did that next.  I was looking forward to it because it was closed on our last trip.  There is a lot of history with the original Jungle Cruise and they didn't disappoint.  
• -      Candy Canes - Before our trip, I had seen on a Guy Fieri Disney Christmas TV show that Disneyland makes candy canes for the holidays.  They are a prized possession out there as well.  Lisa and I wanted to try and get them, but we heard the lines were crazy.  You had to stand in line to get a wristband and then come back later in the day to pick up the candy cane and you could only get 1 per person.  When we were walking into the park, we were on the side of Main Street where the Candy Palace is and noticed two Cast Members out front with no one around them.  We asked what they were doing and they asked if we wanted wristbands to get candy canes.  We said SURE.  That was crazy.  Our pickup time was around lunch time, so we headed back to get them after the Jungle Cruise.  When we got there, they were making the candy canes.  It was very interesting.  We watched for quite a while.  There was a cast member outside talking about the process as they were made.  When we were done, we went in to the Candy Palace, and with no line picked up and bought our 2 candy canes.  It was awesome.  (Spoiler, we ate one Christmas Day.  It was unlike any candy cane.  Almost sponge with holes in it from the air pockets.  Very good though.)
• -          Lunch - Disneyland Hotel / Tangaroa Terrace - For lunch I we wanted to try and let Ellie nap so we walked to the Disneyland Hotel and ate at Tangaroa Terrace.  It was yummy and a nice, cool, quiet spot to get away.  After lunch, we walked around and saw Pluto walking around and saw the giant castle gingerbread house.  It was crazy.  We tried to get a Dole Whip, but their machine was not working.  We realized at this point, we had not had a Dole Whip yet on the trip.
• -          Hotel - Nap / Pool - After lunch, we decided to go back to the hotel to rest and drop off the candy canes.  We didn't want them broken.  Lisa wanted to rest and take a nap.  Ellie and I decided to go to the pool/water park at the hotel.  It was fun.  We had a good time together.  It was not super hot and the water was pretty cold.  Other than that, we had a good time.
• -          DL - Small World lights / Ellie nap - After our hotel break, we headed back to Disneyland.  There was a bunch of Christmas nighttime stuff we wanted to see.  On the way back, Ellie fell asleep on our way.  We went to see the lights at Small World turn on.  It was anti-climactic.  There was no show, they just flipped a switch.  Still great display though.
• -          Castle lights - Then we went to see the castle lights turned on.  This was more of a show, but still not great.  We had a good spot on the walkway to the Snow White grotto.
• -          Snow on Rivers of America - After that we walked to New Orleans Square to see the "snow" on the Rivers of America.  It was the same gingerbread smelling bubbles like the "snow" on Main Street.  A nice feature, but don't need to go out of your way.
• -          Bagel twist/Gumbo/chowder/pasta/beignets - Dinner was a hodge-podge this night.  There was a stand by the princess meet and greet that always smelled like buttery, garlicky escargot.  So we stopped and they had bagel twists, but nothing that resembled the smell.  We got one that was an everything and cheese bagel twist.  It was ok.  We then decided to go get gumbo in New Orlean Square at the Royal Street Veranda.  We got in line and when we were 3-4 people ahead to order our food, Ellie woke up.  
• -          Ellie woke up from nap,’I didn’t close my eyes’ - When she went to sleep she had told us that she was just going to rest, but not close her eyes.  When she woke up, she told us both that she didn't close her eyes.  It was really funny and cute.  She had been asleep for probably 2 hours.  We got our food and went to the French Market to sit down and eat.  Ellie wanted pasta so I got her a kids meal with pasta from the French Market.  It was a good spot.  Ellie liked her food.  Lisa said her gumbo was ok, and I got clam chowder that was good.
• -          Picture at castle - We walked back toward the castle because New Orleans Square was packed.  We got in front of the castle and took a couple family pictures with the lights on.
• -          Rode Alice - We went in to Fantasyland to ride a couple rides and started with Alice.  Ellie loved this ride.  She always asked to ride it.
• -          Rides closed due to fireworks - After Alice, they started closing the rides in Fantasyland to prepare for fireworks.  Because of this, the rides we wanted to ride were closed and the other rides just got busier.  We decided to go to California Adventure.  We didn't have much faith that fireworks would happen either (#foreshadowing).
• -          DCA - GotG/Bugs Land/Coco/Fireworks - I got a FastPass for Guardians of the Galaxy so I went there and Lisa and Ellie went in to Bugs Land.  They ended up going to see the Coco preview, which was in the Bug's Life show theater.  Guardians was awesome!  They did a great job updating it from Tower of Terror to Guardians.  The music was great.  There was comedy and still a fun thrill ride.  After that, we found each other and started to walk to Monsters Inc when we heard a BOOM!  Yep, the fireworks were starting and we were at the wrong park.  Of course the one night they do fireworks, we were in the wrong park.  We rushed to the front and stopped in the esplanade to watch the fireworks.  They were a good display.  Not the same though without being in the park.  After that, we went back to the hotel and crashed.

Haunted Mansion Holiday....again!

Meeting Jack and Sally.  So excited!

Candy and a Roller Coaster

Adventureland - Moana and the Jungle Cruise

Getting and watching candy canes

Lunch and hotel break

Nighttime at Disneyland

California Christmas December 2017 - Day 3

Day 3 Notes –

• -          Found our friends in security - We were gonna meet them at the restaurant for breakfast, but got to security at the same time.
• -          Ariel’s ride - We had a little extra time before breakfast at Ariel's Grotto so we all rode the Ariel dark ride before.
• -          Ariel’s Grotto – Ariel, Belle, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Tiana - We had breakfast at Ariel's Grotto mainly to see the Princesses.  This was a great experience from the perspective of Ellie and the Princesses, but the food was just ok and the restaurant could use an update.  Ellie loved it though.
• -          Carsland – Mater’s, Luigi’s, Radiator Springs Racers (with Ellie, first big ride) - We got a FastPass to ride Radiator Springs Racers and before it we walked through Carsland.  We rode Mater's and Luigi's before hand and they were fun.  We didn't do Mater's last time and only Lisa and Ellie did Luigi's last time.  Ellie and I rode Radiator Springs Racers with our friends and she did great.  She loved it.  Our friends daughter was ok until we went outside and car speeds up and goes over some bumps.  At that point she started bawling.  Ellie tried to consul her, but was unsuccessful.
• -          Soarin’ - After Carsland, we got a FastPass for Soarin'.  Lisa and I love it.  This was Ellie's first time and she was just ok with it.
• -          Lunch – Wine Country - We had lunch at Wine Country Trattoria and got the World of Color package.  We did this last time with Carthay Circle, but didn't want to spend that much this year.  The Trattoria was good, but not great.  Ellie destroyed her plain pasta with "sprinkle cheese".  I had Alfredo and Lisa had Lasagna.  
• -          Carousel - The girls wanted to ride the carousel so we did.
• -          Mickey’s Wheel - Our friends wanted to ride the Fun Wheel, which we hadn't done before.  It was fun, but not great for people who are not a fan of heights (Me).  There are some good views of the park from there.
• -          Elena - We stumbled upon an Elena parade / street party.  The kids enjoyed this show.
• -          Meet Elena and Donald – Listen to Latin music (Gloria Estefan) - After the parade there was a meet and greet with Elena and Donald.  The kids wanted to see that.  I got a break and got to sit down and watch the strollers.
• -          Feliz Navidad parade with Donald, Mickey and Minnie - After the meet, there was a Donald Duck Feliz Navidad street party.  It was cute and fun for the kids.  Ellie took after her dad and found an opening to sneak her way to the front to watch the show.
• -          Ariel’s - After the street party, we rode Ariel's again because it was on the path.
• -          Carousel - We had a FastPass for Toy Story so we walked back to Paradise Pier again and rode the Carousel again before our FastPass
• -          Toy Story - We all rode Toy Story.  I won.
• -          Shops and find place to relax – Starbucks - At this point, we had run pretty hard for 2 days and Lisa was beat.  We were looking for a place to sit and couldn't find a good spot.  We ended up at the Starbucks at the front of the park.
• -          Lisa rest; Ellie and Zack Monsters - We left Lisa at the Starbucks to take a break.  Ellie and I went to ride Monsters Inc.  We love that ride.  We walked around a little while too to give Lisa some extra time.
• -          Walk to waiting spot for World of Color - After our break, we went to check on our reserved spot for World of Color.  We were about an hour early and that was the right time.  The Trattoria reserved area is in front of the Carthay Circle area.  It was still a good spot, but I liked the Carthay Circle area better.
• -          Get peppermint hot chocolate, warm bourbon cider, and gingerbread man cookie - While Lisa and Ellie held our spot and I went to get her peppermint hot chocolate from Ghirardelli.  Then I went to find the item I had looked forward to:  Warm Bourbon Cider.  I got it and a gingerbread cookie.  They were delicious.  We had our beverages before World of Color.
• -          World of Color – Ellie asleep - World of Color started and it was the Holiday version.  We LOVED the regular version of World of Color last time, but the Holiday version didn't stack up.  It was good, but not as good.  Ellie fell asleep while we were waiting and we couldn't wake her up.  She was down for the night.  After the show, we went back to the hotel and crashed.

Meeting Ariel

Meeting Princesses!

So happy and excited to meet the Princesses

Carsland

DCA in the Afternoon

The Fun Wheel before World of Color

Warm Bourbon Apple Cider and a Gingerbread Cookie before World of Colo

California Christmas December 2017 - Day 2

Since this trip was all at Disneyland, I'm gonna change up my blog format a little.  Instead of the blow-by-blow itinerary, I kept track of what we did each day in my Notes app on my iPhone.  I'm going to include it, with pictures and notes so that it doesn't seem redundant.  Hope you enjoy!

Day 2 Notes:

• -          Short walk to park from hotel - Our hotel was on Harbor across the street from the entrance to Disneyland.  It was a 6-8 minute walk.  We got really spoiled with the walk.  It was actually closer to walk to our hotel from the parks than to the Disneyland Hotel from the parks.
• -          Alice and Tea Cups - We didn't get to ride the Alice in Wonderland dark ride on our last trip, so that was at the top of our list.  Ellie has watched the movie a couple times and is really into Alice right now.  She loved the ride.  We rode the tea cups after that and walked right on because it was at park opening on a week day.
• -          Donuts - Lisa had started following several Disney parks food instagram feeds and found seasonal donuts at the parks that she wanted to try.  At Disneyland, we found a cake donut topped with fruitty pebbles and a peppermint chocolate long john.  They were delicious.  (Peppermint and chocolate became a theme for this trip)
• -          Haunted Mansion - Our last trip we were late enough to see the Haunted Mansion after it reopened from removing the holiday overlay.  Since Halloween, Ellie has loved Jack and Sally.  She watches that movie more than others and loves the two characters.  Because of this, we were really looking forward to seeing the Haunted Mansion with the Nightmare Before Christmas holiday overlay.  It did not disappoint.  I kept telling Lisa, I couldn't believe how much they changed it.  It was a completely different ride.  I LOVED it.  The Haunted Mansion has become my favorite ride over the past few years and this was even better.  It was great.  The detail was incredible and even the music in the graveyard scene was a blend of Nightmare Before Christmas with Grim Grinning Ghosts.  It was great.
• -          Friends - When planning our trip, we found out that some friends from home were going to be at Disneyland the same week.  We planned on doing things with them a couple days, but we bumped into them in front of Splash Mountain after the Haunted Mansion.
• -          Small World - We decided to ride Small World Holiday to try out the MaxPass FastPass system.  This is the BEST addition to the parks.  It was so easy to use and we could get a FastPass for almost any ride anytime we were ready.  It was great.  The ride was great too.  It was the middle of the day, so the lights weren't on, but the holiday overlay inside is great.  Lisa really likes this ride, especially at Christmas.
• -          Lunch – Red Rose Tavern - We met up with our friends in the park and ate at the Red Rose Tavern.  It was pretty good.  Lisa got a salad, which she said was good.  I got the Pot Roast Poutine, which was good and we got a Grey Stuff cupcake which was delicious.  
• -          Dumbo - After lunch we all went and rode Dumbo.  It was sunny and there isn't much shade, so it was hot waiting in line.  There was 7 of us, so I ended up in my own Dumbo.  It was fun.
• -          Pinocchio - After Dumbo we rode Pinocchio, which is a bit creepy.  We hadn't seen the movie in a long time before our last trip, but we did see it before this one.  It does follow the movie, but is still creepy (like the movie).
• -          Small World (some of parade) - At lunch we got another FastPass for Small World and rode with our friends this time.  On the way, the 1:30 Holiday parade was starting, and it originated next to Small World.  We got to watch some of it in line with no one in front of us.
• -          Got churros (peppermint chocolate) - We split up from our friends and went on our own to try and get Ellie to sleep and we wanted to shop a little.  Ellie didn't sleep, but we did get churros.  Lisa got a Peppermint Hot Chocolate churros.  It was good.
• -          On our own, went through shops on main street - We had a FastPass for Buzz, so to spend some time before that we walked through the shops on Main Street.  We tried to exchange an Ariel bubble wand from a previous trip and we were unsuccessful (long story).
• -          Buzz - Met our friends at Buzz and rode together.  It was fun.  Ellie is getting better at it.
• -          Parade - Found a spot on the hub to watch the parade.  It ran twice a day through the holidays.  It was a cute holiday/Christmas parade.  We didn't pick the best spot though.  We were on the east side of the hub looking into the western 3:00 sun setting.  It was fine by the end of the parade.
• -          Left the park and went to downtown Disney (Ellie fell asleep) - We decided to leave the park after the parade to go to Downtown Disney.  Ellie fell asleep in the stroller in the esplanade.
• -          Went through shops, ate at Whitewater Snacks in GC - We went through some of the shops, especially the Wonderground Gallery.  This has become our favorite.  We have bought art there the past two trips.  It is easier to shop with Ellie sleeping too.  We went into the Grand Californian hotel to see their gingerbread house, which was huge and awesome.  I wanted to eat at Whitewater Snacks because I heard they had good nachos (and I love nachos).  We found the restaurant.  It was a nice quite spot away from everything.  Ellie slept through dinner.  I got nachos and Lisa got quesadillas.  They were good, but not great.
• -          Entered DCA through GC, woke Ellie up to ride Ariel, got ice cream, walk to DL to watch fireworks - Something I wanted to try was going into California Adventure through the Grand Californian hotel.  That was pretty slick.  The entrance is close to Whitewater Snacks so it was easy to get there.  We woke Ellie up and rode Ariel.  She likes that ride.  Then she wanted ice cream so we ended up at Clarabelle's and got ice cream.  She wanted chocolate with sprinkles.  We got what she wanted and then Lisa and I got mint chocolate chip.  She liked ours better and ate most of it.
• -          Fireworks cancelled, watched “snow” on Main Street - We went back to Disneyland to watch the fireworks, but they cancelled it due to wind (this became a theme through the week).  We did see "snow" on Main Street.
• -          Nuggets at McDonald’s - Ellie was hungry (because she missed dinner) so we stopped at McDonald's and got her nuggets.  Then back to the hotel.

Disneyland just after opening

Alice and Tea Cups (oh, and donuts!)

Haunted Mansion Holiday

Small World Holiday

Afternoon Fun

This girl loves her suckers

Night Time Fun

California Christmas December 2017 - Flight and LA Zoo

In previous posts I’ve talked about our long first days.  This one did not let us down.  Our day started at 5:20am CST.  We got up and got everything packed in the car.  Lisa’s mom was nice enough to give us a ride to the airport so we didn’t have to pay for parking.  We were talking to Ellie about what she was going to do and what/who she was going to see on our trip.  She said she was going to see princesses and told Grandma, “I’ll say Hi to the princesses for you”.  It was really cute.  We got to the airport and checked our bags at the skycap.  We then ventured our way to the TSA Precheck line.  This is the greatest thing ever.  KCI has separated it from the standard security area and it is even easier and faster now.  We got coffees at Starbucks and Ellie got an orange juice.  I’ve never seen this girl drink orange in her life and she drank a whole bottle of Naked OJ.  We got on the planes with mostly no problem.  I had the stroller and car seat to check at the gate and didn’t realize we had to get them tagged before they were checked. Before we took off, we were getting settled and noticed Ellie put her backpack under the seat and told her good job.  She said,'that girl told me to put my bad down there', referring to the flight attendant on the intercom reciting the rules of the plane.  It was really cute.

The flight was fine.  Nothing significant.  It was almost 4 hours and that was a long time to keep Ellie occupied.  She really did pretty good.  She got tired at one point and tried to lay down.  That didn’t work very well.  She is a little to big to stretch out between us.  We tried everything to keep her occupied and she really did pretty good (and I’m typing this the day of, so it couldn’t be too bad).  There were some frustrations, but we all powered through.

We made it to LAX, which was different from our last trip flying through John Wayne.  This was new for us.  We had both been to LAX, but it had been a long time.  It was ok.  Nothing great.  We didn’t have any problems, it just wasn’t very exciting.  After we found the luggage, we found out that we had to take a shuttle to the rental car office.  This was probably comical.  Ok, so it is me, Lisa and Ellie.  We have two big suitcases, a medium suitcase, each of us have a backpack, Lisa is pushing Ellie in the stroller and I had the car seat (which was in a huge backpack) strapped to my back.  We really couldn’t have handled much more luggage.  Getting across the street to the median where we got on the shuttle, we had to look ridiculous.

We got to the Alamo office and checked in.  No problems there.  We made our way over to the mid-sized vehicles area and they were all gone.  So I asked someone which car we should take and she said which ever one we wanted.  We picked a Nissan Altima, which is a full-size.  This was a newer model of Lisa’s car.  It was fun to drive and fun to compare with her car.  It had enough room for all of our stuff and us, which was a miracle.

We made it.  We are in California, with all of our stuff and ready to see the sites.  The only thing on the agenda was to go to Griffith Park and the LA Zoo.  I had planned a driving route to take a more touristy journey than the boring highway path.  There was one problem, I didn’t know where I was starting.  I knew I had to find the 405 and take it north.  Well, I went the wrong way and wasted some time.  We got back on track and found I-405, which happened to be where Randy’s Donut shop was.  I remembered that it was in Iron Man 2.  Pretty crazy and cool to see.  We went north and the first thing we saw, other than typical weekend LA traffic, was smoke.  The wildfires had died down some, but what we saw looked like smoke coming from a volcano.  It was crazy.  We drove north and got off on Wilshire.  This was pretty cool because we drove through Westwood and then through Beverly Hills.  Oh, and Ellie fell asleep 10 minutes into the drive.  We continued all the way passed Rodeo drive and then took a detour.  My goal was to go to Sunset and then Hollywood.  Somehow, we missed a turn, but found Fairfax and got back on track.  On the plus side, we saw The Grove and that was not planned.  We made it back to Hollywood Blvd and took it to try and see the Chinese Theater.  I said “try” because the road was closed and we couldn’t drive by it.  Oh well.  We then made our way up to Universal Studios, but couldn’t see it from where we were either.  We did see Warner Bros studios and then we were able to find Providence Hospital and the Disney Studios.  This was really cool.  We were even able to see the Seven Dwarfs building from the road because the leaves were off the trees.  We then needed to get back to Griffith Park.  We found Forrest Lawn drive again and drove by the cemetery and on to the LA Zoo.

We enjoy going to zoos, as does Ellie.  I thought this would be a good event for the day and it worked out.  We got there sometime between 12:30pm and 1:00pm and they closed at 5:00.  This was plenty of time.  We really enjoyed this zoo.  After going to San Diego on our last trip, this zoo is much more compact and the enclosures are easier to view the animals.  The highlights of the zoo were:  Ellie and Lisa feeding giraffes, seeing a Markor pick a fight with a tree that was wrapped in chain link fencing, the koala was active climbing through eucalyptus branches, a Komodo dragon that was HUGE, and Ellie loved seeing the flamingos and zebra.  It was a fun zoo to see and I would do it again.

After the zoo, I wanted to see the Griffith Park merry go round.  This is the place where Walt Disney came up with the idea for Disneyland.  It was just a little south of the zoo in Griffith Park and not too hard to find.  It was pretty busy, but we decided to stop and check it out.  As we walked down, the large crowd moved on to see something else and left it pretty empty.  We got tickets to ride and hopped on.  It was much older and worn than any merry go round that I’ve been on.  It also went really fast and the ride was for a long time.  We all really enjoyed it.  They had the organ set to play Christmas music, which was a nice touch.

Next we needed to go check into the hotel and drop off the rental car.  It took around an hour to get to the hotel from Griffith Park.  It wasn’t a bad drive, some traffic, but not too bad.  There was a really pretty sunset too.  The hotel was pretty easy to get to and we got checked in.  They had a bell service that helped us up to our room.  So far, we love this hotel.  It has a water park that Ellie really wants to go to.  The lobby and buildings are very nice and the room is awesome.  We have a separate room for Ellie that has a bunk bed and our room has a king bed.  On top of that, our room looks out at Disneyland and is about a 6-8 minute walk to the parks.  It is awesome.  And the room is enormous.  There is plenty of room for us and our stuff.

Our day was getting close to the end, but we needed to eat dinner and return the rental car.  We wanted to go to Downtown Disney so Ellie and Lisa loaded up the stroller and they were going to meet me over there after I dropped off the rental car, which was also at Downtown Disney.  Let's cover something really quick, Disney needs to redesign their setup of the Alamo rental car at Downtown Disney.  The address on Google maps showed it was by the Grand Californian.  I drove by a couple times because I couldn't find it.  I decided to go into the Grand Californian and ask.  They said the drop off is at a parking lot in the self parking of the Grand's parking lot across the street.  I drove over their and asked the attendant.  He instructed me where to park and said the key drop off was in the office in Downtown Disney.  I found it on the side of the AMC Theaters.  That was confusing.

Lisa decided to get pizza at Napolini.  We waited a little while and went to the candy shop and new princess shop to wait.  We waited about 30 minutes.  It wasn't too bad of a wait.  The restaurant was cool and really good food.  A girl stopped by that made balloon animals.  Ellie really liked it and it was a cute touch.  She made her a unicorn.  We had some type of mushroom pizza, which was yummy and Ellie destroyed her pasta.  It was a good start to our trip.

After dinner, we walked back to our hotel and crashed.  Even Ellie went to bed pretty easily.