Spook's Disneyland Adventure *trip report COMPLETE*

Long day yesterday! We arrived at Disneyland park shortly after 8am and stayed until midnight. Park was packed but we expected that. Rode Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Storybook canal boats, Mr Toads wild ride, and Haunted Mansion. Here's our thoughts on those rides
1. Space mountain is quite a bit different. Loved having music but I think I still prefer the Disney World version.
2. You get WAY more wet on splash mountain here. I got the front and got soaked. Took my jeans forever to dry lol.
3. Haunted mansion was really cool with the Nightmare before Christmas overlay. I'm not a fan of the movie but it was cool to see.
4. Mr Toad isn't as wild as I remembered lol. But it's a classic for me and I wish they still had it in the World.

The fireworks were awesome. It was weird watching from Main Street but barely seeing the castle lol. The grand finale would have been better if the smoke from the fireworks didn't block them.

Today we got up for some early morning shopping. I heard a shipment of rose gold jerseys/shirts might show up so we headed for World of Disney early. Good thing because they were there! Now we are heading for brunch at Goofy's Kitchen.

Happy new year

Yeah space mountain was nice and smooth in comparison. I don't really get Mr Toad either lol but we rode it a lot as kids. Love it!

It's over. Flying home tomorrow

We are home! Since I did a very poor job of keeping up with a live report, I'll just start from the beginning lol.

Departure Day

Since we live about 4 hours away from the airport, we headed down to Toronto to stay overnight at a hotel near the airport (Crowne Plaza). My brother had won 2 round trips on the airport shuttle that goes from here to Toronto and was able to trade them for 4 one way trips. Unfortunately that meant we couldn't all travel together. Two of us had to take the 7am shuttle and the other two the 12pm shuttle. Guess who had to take the 7am The shuttle made 3 stops along the way to pick up more passengers. There was some kind of glitch and the shuttle got overbooked. Erik and I were the only ones going to a hotel (everyone else was going straight to the airport) so we asked to get off and take a limo that they were providing. I was so excited until we saw that the "limo" was just a regular boring SUV. Oh well. We got to the hotel in no time.

We arrived around 11am and thankfully our room was ready! I was worried we would have to sit around the lobby for hours We ordered pizza for lunch then took a nap until my brother and sister in law arrived. We walked over to Jack Astor's for dinner then went to bed early since we had to get up early to catch the shuttle to the airport.

Day 1

Caught the 6am shuttle to the airport. The lines at security and customs weren't too long which was nice. Once we got to our gate, we got a couple things for breakfast at Freshii. I know airport food is expensive but this place was ridiculous. Service was awful too. We got a couple things at Starbucks too ( their prices were a bit more reasonable). I wish there was a Tim Hortons in Terminal 3. That's about the ONLY good thing when you fly Air Canada

Our flight was supposed to leave at 9:35am but we ended up sitting on the plane until about 10:30am. Once we landed, everything seemed to go very smooth! It was a short walk to baggage claim and all our luggage came out quick. We had booked the non stop ride on Super Shuttle. I got an email to check in when we had collected our bags. Turns out the pick up was right outside the door in the terminal we were in We checked in and my phone showed a map and the driver so we could watch him as he arrived. It was pretty cool. We were soon loaded up and on our way to the Disneyland Hotel!

The drive was about 45 minutes. We checked in and our rooms were ready so we went and checked them out. I loved the headboards! They lit up with fireworks and played music. I'm pretty sure I turned them on every night We were also happy to see that we had a fridge in the room. After we got settled, my brother and sister in law headed for the pool while we headed for Downtown Disney.

We headed to Walmart later on to pick up some groceries for lunches and snacks. Too bad there was no Publix. That place is my favourite! Once we unpacked our snacks, we had dinner at the hotel then relaxed a bit.

Day 2 New Year's Eve

Got up early today to get to the park early. We had no idea if Disneyland was as crazy New Year's Eve as Walt Disney World so we figured we better go early in case it filled to capacity. I've been to Disney World before on New Year's Eve so I knew what we could be dealing with We arrived shortly after 8am and it was already pretty busy. Our first ride was Indiana Jones. The ride itself seemed very similiar to Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom. We temporairly broke down near the end which made for a pretty anticlimatic ending. Overall, we found it an ok ride. We would go again ( we didn't this trip) but it's not a ride I would rush to.

Next up was Space Mountain. This is my favourite ride in Disney World. It was much different at Disneyland. First, you sit two together instead of single file. They play music, it's much smoother of a ride and there aren't really any sudden drops. Mostly just sharp, winding turns. While I still prefer the Disney World version, I really liked this one too!

Haunted Mansion currently has the Nightmare Before Christmas Holiday overlay. Although I am not a fan of the movie, I thought the overlay was really cool. They added way more stuff than I expected. Other than the added holiday stuff and the building itself, it looked to be pretty much the same as Disney Worlds version. Nothing wrong with that!

Splash Mountain was next. Again, the ride vehicle was different to the one in Florida. It was single seaters instead of double. Another difference? The soaking! I have been on Splash Mountain in Florida many times and have never gotten as soaked as I did here at Disneyland. Didn't help that I was in the front. Or that I had worn jeans that day I could barely walk after

After Splash, we went and found a spot in the sun to have lunch and dry off. We watched the Christmas parade from our spot then headed for Mr Toad's wild ride. This was the ride I was most excited for! I miss it at Disney World. We rode this with my dad many times when we were kids. We broke down right near the start and had to be evacuated off. They said it'd be back up in about 5-10 minutes so we could just come back through the wheelchair line. We did and made it all the way through this time.

Dinner was at Red Rockets pizza port. It was actually really good! We also rode the train and Storybookland canal boats. Snacked on popcorn and a jalapeno stuffed pretzel. It was very busy in the park but I don't think it ever filled to capacity. My brother and sister in law left in the afternoon and had no problem coming back for the 9pm fireworks. Erik and I skipped our last fastpass to find a spot to watch the midnight fireworks. We were crammed on Main Street USA but the fireworks were great. The grand finale was slightly less grand because it was partially blocked from the smoke of the other fireworks.

Overall, it was a long (8am-12:30am) and chaotic day but I had a good time. Erik enjoyed it too but said he'll never do it again

Day 3

Despite the late night, Erik and I got up early to go to the World of Disney for 8am. I was on a mission this trip to get the new rose gold jersey ( to match my ears ). We had heard a Cast Member tell a guest last night that a shipment had come in that day to the warehouse. However, he had no idea when they would get there. Could be that night, next morning, afternoon, two days. So we decided to go look first thing in the morning. I'm happy to report that there were 3 big racks of them and I got one

We headed back to the room for a bit then went for brunch at Goofy's Kitchen. This was the one place I really wanted to eat and the PB&J pizza is the main reason why. It did not disappoint! it was so good! Actually, the entire meal was great. Goofy's Kitchen seems to be the Disneyland version of Chef Mickey's. We met Chef Goofy before being seated and Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale came around to the tables. Lots of food options as well : mickey waffles, mickey pancakes, french toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, cereal, yogurt, salads, fruit, mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, hot dogs and more. Lots of desserts too like ice cream, mini pumpkin pie, apple crumble, ooey gooey chocolate cake, rootbeer cake, cheesecake bars, jello. It was crazy the amount of options.

After stuffing ourselves silly, we waddled back to the room for a much needed nap. We just made sandwiches in the room for dinner and then went back to Downtown Disney to walk around. I noticed there were still lots of rose gold jerseys.

Aww I could have picked one up for you! Unless you want the Walt Disney World one lol. If you don't find it when you go, I'll keep my eyes peeled at Princess

Day 4

Today was another long day. We spent about 12 hours (straight!) in California Adventure. It's very similar to Hollywood Studios. We made our way over to Carsland and rode Luigi's Rollickin Roadsters, Mater's Junkyard Jamboree and of course, Radiator Springs. Our car won We actually did pretty much everything. The Little Mermaid, Bakery tour (bought Mickey sour dough bread at the end. It was really good!), Goofy's sky school (thought this was like Primeval Whirl, boy was I wrong! It was terrifying! It was way higher than I thought and I thought for sure we were going over the edge), Guardians of the Galaxy, Heimlich's Chew Chew train (had the whole train to ourselves!), Jumpin Jellyfish, Monsters Inc, Red Car Trolley, Soarin, and Toy Story Mania. We also watched the Frozen show at the Hyperion Theatre. It was very well done! I'm still blown away with the Let it Go dress change.

For dinner we finally tried the popular corn dogs. They were delicious! We really need them in Florida.

It was a long but super fun day! Pretty typical for a Disney vacation I guess

Day 5

My Brother and Sister in law had a Hollywood tour today so Erik and I were on our own. So we went to Disneyland Park. We took the monorail there and were dropped off in Tomorrowland. First stop was the Matterhorn. I was so looking forward to this ride and to be honest, I was a little disappointed. I was expecting Space Mountain and Expedition Everest type thrills. Not even close. I found it was actually pretty slow. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the ride. But it just wasn't as thrilling as I was expecting.

Next we covered most of Fantasyland. Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, Pinocchio, Casey Jr Train, Small World (Disneyland wins here), Roger Rabbit's cartoon spin, Gadgets coaster, Chip and Dale's treehouse, and Toontown. I miss Toontown. It's so cute! We rode the Mark Twain riverboat before lunch and the Columbia Ship after lunch.

Lunch was at Cafe Orleans. It was SO good! We shared the pommes frites (parmesan fries), monte cristo sandwich and mickey beignets. I loved everything! Glad we shared too as it was a lot of food. After lunch we went back to the room for a nap.

We returned to the park later that evening for our Thunder Mountain fastpass. That ride is always better in the dark. This version seems a bit longer and has an added scene with cannons. After the ride, we found ourselves a good spot near Small World for the fireworks. About 15 minutes before the show, they announced they could be cancelled due to unfavourable winds. 9:30 came and so did the fireworks! Sadly, they didn't last very long. They cancelled them. We were bummed out but completely understood. There have been enough fires down there, definatly don't need to be starting more.

We decided to head over to Frontierland to watch Fantasmic. Not a fan of the "seating" arrangements here. It's just like watching fireworks. You're surrounded by people standing and it's hard to see. The show itself was great. Some parts were different than Florida's version. I really liked the Pirates scene and was SO happy to see Tangled get some love.

After the show, there was still an hour before the park closed so we headed for Buzz then Autopia ( aka go karts). The go karts aren't nearly as smelly here We took the monorail back and got to sit up front with the driver! It was very cool and she was very friendly.

Day 6 Part 1- Disneyland

Disneyland had an extra magic hour today at 7 am so we got up early and headed over. The security line was the busiest we've seen it yet! We got to Peter Pan by 7:30 and it was already a 60 minute wait. Our other plans were to ride Pirates and check out Tarzan's treehouse. We realized Adventureland didn't open until 8 so we decided to just wait out Peter Pan. It ended up being about 50 minutes.

We headed to pirates to check out the differences there. It's longer and has two drops. Next we headed back down Main Street USA to check in for our Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour. I loved this tour! I really liked how when you entered the different lands, they played the audio of Walt himself introducing it. We rode Alice in Wonderland, Pirates and watched Great Moments with Mr Lincoln. Lunch was provided by the Jolly Holiday Cafe and it was very good. I love the house chips! And that Matterhorn macaroon! I wish I had one (or right now. Our tour group was split up at lunch with half going to lunch and the other half going into Walt's apartment and then switching. We had lunch first then went up to the apartment. That was the highlight of the trip! So amazing to be in a place where Walt himself was and spent a lot of time.

Day 6 Part 2- DQ Expo Begins

This was our first time attending a DQ Expo. It was such a blast! We started off with a general session that included a keynote by the Disney Institute which I really enjoyed. Afterwards the expo hall opened. Wow. Just wow. There were a ton of exhibitors and better yet, a ton of FOOD! We had actually been wondering if there would be food available and we were not disappointed. Obviously most was DQ food but nothing wrong with that! We're talking hot dogs, burgers, fries, onion rings, chicken fingers, pulled pork, deep fried cheese curds ( my fave!), ice cream, and ( tonight only) and open bar! We don't really drink but it was pretty cool. Vendors were giving away free stuff everywhere you looked.

One of the things I was most looking forward to at the Expo was the Taste of DQ. This was a sample area that served up different new products that DQ is coming out with. All three nights have different items. Tonight they had grilled cheese dippers (served with a queso cheese dip. We enjoyed them), snickerdoodle cookie dough blizzard (SO good), peanut butter cookie dough blizzard ( meh, nothing special about it. I make it all the time at home lol) and baklawa blizzard (not bad. I don't see it being a big seller though).

Tonight also featured the Iron tip competition which was a cake decorating contest. Sadly, I am no where close to their league. They cakes were stunning. There were 5 competitors, 3 from the US, one from Canada and an International. Unfortunatly, the International participant wasn't able to attend due to passport or visa issues.

We did not

Yep

Day 7

Today was a full day at the Expo. We had a complimentary breakfast buffet at the resort. It was really good. There was an assortment of pastries and muffins, fruit, cereal, yogurt, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and french toast as well as juice and coffee. After breakfast we headed over to the convention centre for the first Franchisee Enrichment session. There were four sessions to choose from and they repeated in the afternoon so you could pick two (they all ran at the same time so you couldn't do all four). Our first one was the Be An Employer of Choice. We started off by dancing to get wake us up . This session was about how to become a place where people want to work (hence the title lol). They talked a lot about Millenials and Gen Z since those generations are the majority of staff in our stores. They went on a lot about how we need to engage our employees because they want to be involved and have responsibilty I'm not sure where they've found those employees but they sure don't exist here! They never gave examples or ideas on how to engage employees so we didn't get much out of this session.

Next was another general session. This one started out with a magician which was pretty cool. They also played a round of DQ Family Fued (Grill Team vs Chill Team). I enjoyed that. They also talked the state of the DQ business, The future of the brand, fan experience and Children's Miracle Network (CMN). So parts were a bit boring but most was pretty interesting.

After the general session, the Expo hall was open again! By far this was the best part of everything lol. We again ate way too much! It was a lot of the same foods with a few exceptions (not that I'm complaining). Today's taste of DQ featured the bacon gouda burger (really good), watermelon lemonade sparkler ( watermelon and lemon with soda water, also really good), Reese's Outrageous blizzard (reese's pieces, reese peanut butter cups, peanut butter and caramel. Delicious! However we had basically the same Blizzard last year. Only difference is that it didn't have caramel and was called Reese Extreme), Skor (aka Heath for my American friends lol) caramel brownie Blizzard (very good) and a Royal Green Tea with Black sesame Blizzard It was disgusting. The ice cream and green tea weren't too bad but the black sesame filling was horrible. Can't see that being a big seller, if it even makes it into stores.

Tonight there was a silent auction and a live auction plus a dinner in support of CMN. We didn't bid on anything although I was tempted to bid on the Oreos for a year Dinner started with a ceaser salad, then chicken, rice and veggies. Dessert was some sort of apple thing. It was good but it would have been better if the apples were warm. The dinner was actually held at our hotel so we had a quick walk back to our room.

Day 8

Breakfast was served again today. It was pretty much the same with pastries, fruit, cereal, yogurt and eggs but this time we had sausage instead of bacon, fried potatoes instead of hash browns and riccota cheese blintz's instead of french toast. I wasn't sure what the cheese blintz but I tried one anyway and it was really good! It was actually sweet which I didn't expect.

Today was a shorter day at the Expo with one general session and then Expo hall being open one last time. Today's session was about reinvestment, marketing, and the marketing calandars. By now you would think we'd be tired of the food but nope! Pigged out again Taste of DQ featured honey hot glazed chicken strips (with Frank's Red Hot Sauce. They were good but too spicy for me), summer berry cheesecake Blizzard ( mixed berry with blueberry, blackberry and raspberry I think. It was VERY good), Jurassic Chomp Blizzard (it's for the new Jurassic World movie. It's chocolate covered peanut butter chunks and again, very good), firework Oreo Blizzard (pop rocks and Oreo, good) and finally a Starkiss bar Blizzard. We don't have Star Kiss bars in Canada so we won' be getting this one. It's cherry misty mixed with ice cream, and a full Star Kiss bar on top. It was good but the bar seems like over kill. It's too much! They should make a smaller size bar for it.

After the Expo we headed back to do some laundry before dinner. Tonight was the big dinner gala! Dinner was served in the same hall as last night but it was decorated much fancier. We had a garden salad, steak, mashed potatoes, vegetables and some really rich chocolate dessert. After dinner we were escorted to California Adventure park where we had our own block party in the Backlot area! It was awesome! There was a band playing, desserts, open bar, the monsters inc ride was open, characters where there for pictures ( They rotated out every half an hour though. For Princesses you met Cinderella, Aurora or Belle, Buzz or Woody with Jessie, Chip and Dale or Pluto and Goofy, and Mickey and Minnie or Donald and Daisy). You were also welcome to walk around the rest of the park if you wanted (it was still open). At 9:30 at the Hyperion Theatre we had a concert from Chicago. My mom was so jealous about this! Next was my favourite part! We had our very own private showing of World of Colour! First time seeing the show and it was amazing. At the end they even projected the DQ logo! It was very cool.

I was actually sad that the Expo was now over. I had a great time! But at least we still had one more Disney day!

Day 9

Last day We got up early and arrived at Disneyland shortly after it opened. It actually wasn't busy at all! We managed to ride Space Mountain, Buzz, Haunted Mansion, tea cups, Jungle Cruise, Mr Toad, Tiki Room, meet Mickey, snack on beignets and check out the Grand Californian all before 1:00 We then headed back for a mid day break and to start packing.

We managed to cram everything in our suitcases except the Expo banner I got (they had banners on the light posts on the way into the convention centre so I asked for one). It was too long so Erik will just have to bring it as a carry on. We then headed back to Disneyland. We rode the Matterhorn again but this time after dark. I wanted to see if it seemed faster (like Big Thunder). It did. But also seemed way more bumpy. It really bounced us around lol. Erik had been eyeing up the spicy pickles earlier so he decided to get one before it was too late. We watched the Tangled show which I really enjoyed. They really need more Tangled in the parks. Dinner was at the Plaza. Man that fried chicken is GOOD! Huge portions though. But I guess that's typical Disney.

Sadly that ended our adventure to Disneyland We stopped in Downtown Disney so I could get one last chocolate covered peanut butter sandwich and they had none I was so bummed out! They need to bring those to Disney World. We picked up a couple Wetzel's Pretzels for lunch tomorrow and cereal for breakfast. Super Shuttle was picking us up at 9:50am.

Day 10

Departure day.We got up and had breakfast then finished packing and headed out. We got to the airport and checked in. Security was fairly busy but not horrible. Due to snow the night before in Toronto, our plane was delayed. Not good since we had flight to catch in Toronto too. We were supposed to land at 9pm and our other flight was at 11:30pm. We ended up landing around 10pm which meant we still stood a chance at making our other flight. That is until they announced another plane was in our gate for some reason. So we sat. Then they announced the other plane would be towed away. So we sat some more. Then they announced that they couldn't find the tow driver! Still sitting. By the time we got off the plane, through customs and got our luggage (my bag took forever) it was almost 11:30. No flight for us. Especially since we flew West Jet and our flight from Toronto was Air Canada so it wasn't a connecting flight and it was in the other terminal.

We had to stay the night in Toronto. Morning flights home were already booked up so my Dad left at 5am to pick us up and drive us home. It sucked but it wasn't the end of the world.

I miss Disney already!