Halloween in Disneyland!

Eric and I have always wanted to experience Disneyland at Halloween time, and it did not disappoint!  We started early Friday morning with our flight to Long Beach.  My parents flew in from Hawaii and they were fast asleep in their hotel room after their red-eye when we got there.  We checked into our hotel and went straight to the park! The pumpkin decorations around Main Street were awesome - we absolutely loved it. There's nothing quite like walking into the park for the first time.

We went straight to Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy to get fast passes before riding the Matterhorn (our traditional first ride), and Pirates of the Caribbean.

After a few hours, my parents got to the park! We met them at the front gate, got some pictures, and then headed to lunch at Rancho del Zocalo. After lunch, my Mom and I rode Space Mountain while Eric and my Dad rode Astro Blasters. We also rode Haunted Mansion Holiday with my parents - their first time riding the Holiday Version. Eric and I love the Haunted Mansion during Halloween and Christmas - it's so great! It's like an entirely new ride. We snacked on butterscotch Mickey-shaped beignets, rode a few more rides, and headed to Main Street to watch the parade. While we waited for the parade we watched the World Series. We figured Walt would be pretty happy about watching baseball at Disneyland.  It was pretty intense and we got a few strange looks when the game ended (it was a close game!) Eric and my Dad cheered and I was upset because the Cubs lost that game.

Soundsational is one of my favorite parades at Disneyland. I told my Dad that I would probably sing along to the entire thing (is it bad I know almost all the music from the parade?), and he said he would sing along if he knew some of the songs too. We had a pretty sweet duet to "You Can Fly." I don't sing well, but I love to sing and I don't get embarrassed easily so it's not uncommon for me to sing along to many of the songs that play in Disneyland. Fortunately, Eric doesn't get embarrassed either.

Retro Mickey time

We got grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner from the Jolly Holiday bakery before watching the fireworks on Main Street.  After the fireworks, my Mom wanted to ride the Carousel because we rode that with my entire family, including my grandparents, when we went to Disneyland last March. I also love the carousel, so it was fun to ride it again. After the carousel, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel.

Eric and I got to the park early on Saturday and rode Radiator Springs Racers, the Roller Coaster, Soarin', and the Little Mermaid before my parents arrived. Once they got to the park, we ate lunch at Smokejumpers, and then my Mom and I rode the Tower of Terror. I love that ride and I'm pretty upset that it's closing. Who needs Guardians of the Galaxy? Super lame...

We then went to Cars Land and rode Luigi's with my parents - they hadn't been on this ride before and they loved it. I really like the way they re-did it. It's so fantastic. We also took my parents on Soarin' Around the World. This ride has been closed every time my parents have come, so they never even did the California version. My parents loved it, my Dad said that ride was worth the whole trip. Soarin' around the World is pretty incredible - it's one of Eric's and my favorites as well.  We also did Little Mermaid with my parents because my  Dad hasn't done it before. That ride is so great. We also went to Frozen at the Hyperion - this has become a tradition for Eric and me because they do such a great job. I can't wait to see Frozen on Broadway in a few years!

We rode the Roller Coaster with my Mom later in the evening twice. We showed my Mom how to "rock on" with her hands for the picture and told her to stick her tongue out. The first time, she struggled to execute, but Eric and I were totally rockin'.  The second time we went on, Eric and I decided to play a practical joke and NOT do rock-on.  My mom did better with the execution this time around and Eric and I did not. She was a little upset when she found out, but Eric, myself, and my Dad were laughing hysterically.

We watched World of Color that night and then on our way out of the park decided to ride the Grizzly River Run. My mom hates these types of rides because she usually gets wet, but she was a good sport because it was going to be our last ride. It was hilarious. That ride is so much fun in the dark. When we went down the first hill all four of us got soaked - in her best Debbie voice, my mom yelled "Blaaaaakeeeee" at my Dad as though it was his fault, and the rest of us laughed. We had a lot of fun on that ride, I think I was laughing the whole time.

My parents went home on Sunday, so Eric and I were left to our own devices in the park. We went to California Adventure first on Sunday and rode Midway Mania and I won!!! I never beat Eric on that ride, so I was REALLY excited. I even got the best score in our vehicle.  It might have been one of the highlights of my life...

We rode some more of our favorites and then it started to rain!! The rain let up long enough for us to get Cheese Dogs from Corn Dog Castle and then it started raining harder and we got soaked.  It was a super bummer.  It didn't rain too terribly long, so we waited it out and then headed over to Disneyland. Disneyland was really crowded so we spent a lot of time wandering around the park, shopping, and snacking on ice cream while waiting in some of the shorter lines.  We got dinner at the French Market where we got into the Halloween season with a coffin cake. It was delicious, although very sweet. We headed home early on Sunday because we knew Monday was going to be a long day in the park!

Monday was easily our best day in Disneyland of the trip. We got to the park when it opened and made it on Space Mountain at the rope drop. This was Eric's first time riding Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy. We prefer the regular Space Mountain, but this one was still pretty cool. We got a fast pass and then spent the morning riding all our favorites like the Haunted Mansion Holiday, The Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, Astro Blasters, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Big Thunder Mountain. We stopped rides at noon with lunch at the Plaza Inn - it's our favorite place to eat in Disneyland! The fried chicken is amazing.  Side note - Eric told me to look scared in all the pictures on Space Mountain. Apparently to me, scared = jazz hands.

After lunch, we changed into our Halloween costumes to get ready for the party! When we decided to go to Disneyland at Halloween time we got tickets to the Halloween party and decided to dress up. We don't usually dress up for Halloween so it was hard to decide on a costume. We first decided on Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. However, we quickly learned that those costumes would be both very expensive and difficult to pull off (and it was VERY overdone in Disneyland), so it didn't work out. I turned to Pinterest and found Donald Duck and Daisy Duck costumes that I fell in love with. Fortunately, Eric was on board. We bought most of the components of our costumes on Amazon and then my Mom helped sew the embellishments on Eric's costume and she made my bow. She's super talented and the costumes turned out awesome. We got so many compliments! I just love there is a place where a grown woman can wear a tutu and a giant bow and it's completely OK!

We got pictures at the front gate, the pumpkin, and the castle and then we went back to Town Square to get pictures with characters in costumes. We were most excited to get pictures with Donald Duck. He was really funny - he and Eric both kissed my cheeks. It was awesome. It was fun to see the characters in costume. We didn't have time to get a picture with Goofy, but he was dressed as a skeleton and it was hilarious.

Around 3:30 we headed to Toontown to get ready for the Pre-Party, which started at 5:00. It was nice to sit and relax while they got Toontown ready. Around 4:45 they let everyone in and Eric and I headed trick-or-treating at Mickey and Minnie's houses. We didn't really care about the candy, but we really wanted to see how treat trails worked. Basically, they have a trail with around 10 candy stations and you go on the trail and each station gives you candy. We only did the one-treat trail, but had tons of candy!

After trick-or-treating, we got in line to meet Mickey and Minnie. They rotated every 30 minutes, so we got our picture with Minnie dressed as candy corn. Our next stop was Daisy Duck and we got to her with about 2 minutes to spare before she rotated out. It was really fun to meet Daisy dressed up as well. She thought Eric was so handsome. Turns out she is right.

After meeting Daisy the party was about to start so we headed to New Orleans Square. The line to meet Jack and Sally was really long, so we decided to meet Captain Hook, Peter Pan, and Wendy. They were very interactive and really fun. Peter Pan was my favorite when I was little, so it was fun to meet him. We then headed to Main Street to meet the Villans. We met Cruella DeVille and she was hilarious. I asked how  she was doing and she told me she was "miserable." She was acting as her fun character. Unfortunately, we didn't get to meet any other villans because the lines were really long and it was time to grab a spot for the parade. The ambiance on Main Street was awesome. There were projections on all the buildings on Main Street and they were blasting Halloween Music like "This is Halloween," "Pink Elephants on Parade," and the Disneyland Halloween song - this was a really good song that I hadn't heard before.

I enjoyed the ambiance while Eric got a corndog for him and a sandwich for me. Before the parade started the Headless Horseman rode down Main Street which was really cool to see. After that, the Frightfully Fun Parade began. I really liked this parade - it was just the right amount of spooky. It had Jack & Sally, the Haunted Mansion Characters, and Villans. There were some villains that I had never seen in the park such as Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas and Hades from Hercules. After the parade, we stood on Main Street and watched the Halloween Screams fireworks. It was exceptional. They had zero on a zipline before the show and really cool projections. They had really great music - my favorite was "This is Halloween" from Nightmare Before Christmas.

After the fireworks, we headed back to the Rivers of America to see the Cadaver Dans. The river was fogged over and had purple and green lights on it. The Cadaver Dans came out on a raft dressed in creepy costumes and makeup and sang Halloween songs. It was awesome. After that, we headed to Main Street to meet Mickey and Minnie at the pumpkin. We got there just as the second parade was about to start, so Mickey and Minnie left the pumpkin while we waited in line and got to watch the parade again at the start of the parade route. When the Headless Horseman came out, there was a ton of fog and all you could see was his pumpkin lit up - it was really spooky. The parade was just as good the second time around. After the parade, Mickey and Minnie came back out and we got our picture with them just after the park closed for the evening. We headed out with the Halloween Music still blasting on Main Street. It was such a fun party!

Tuesday morning the park opened later than usual. We headed to California Adventure first and rode Radiator Springs Racers, Soarin' Around the World, Tower of Terror, and the Roller Coaster before heading over to Disneyland. At Disneyland, we rode the Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, and Pirates before it was time to go. It was a super bummer. Before we left, we bought some cute Disneyland tee shirts and a Jesse hat for Skylee Dallas. She loves Jesse.

It was really sad to leave the park - we love being in Disneyland and this trip was one of the best yet. It was so fun to be there with my parents, and Halloween had an extra special ambiance. Also - wearing costumes was too much fun. We can't wait for our next trip in just a few weeks for the Christmas holidays!!