Photo Trip Report: Holidays at Disneyland Resort

[JimmyBo]

The Holidays are nearly upon us...even if some people still want to celebrate 365 days a year for Halloween (me included). This trip was nearly 2 years in the making as we had planned to go last September...in 2020...and we all know what kind of year that turned out to be. We planned on booking everything in March 2020. Thankfully we didn't tell the boys last year because that would have crushed their dreams. So, when Disneyland Resort finally decided to open back up, we carefully looked at our calendars and we were off on booking everything and we decided to celebrate the Holidays at the park...even if it was going to be a bit early in the season. 

The last time we went to the Resort as a family, my oldest (Jackson) was 4 and was still too short to ride some of the bigger stuff and my youngest (Griffin) was 1 and was barely walking. Now, they were older, taller, and ready to conquer everything they wanted to conquer. Key word being "THEY" and not what Mom and Dad wanted. We all had a blast and we are excited to share the trip with you all.

This report will be broken up into different parts...

Part 1 - Disneyland

Part 2 - Disney's California Adventure

Part 3 - Disneyland Resort Area

I hope you enjoy!

Part 1 - Disneyland

 

Every day when you stay at the Disneyland Resort Hotel needs to start with Disney Junior!

Christmas Card Photo! Now I don't need to send it to any of you through snail mail so I can save on postage. Thanks!

The tree on Main Street was up and rather large! The detail on all the ornaments is amazing!

Look! I can see the castle from here! Just past all the hanging garlands, people walking, trees growing, and a giant statue that's nearly as tall as it, but hey! It's there!!!

Keeping up with celebrating Halloween 365 days a year, they had a nice tribute to the Muppets Haunted Mansion in the Opera House.

They had some neat set pieces from the movie that is currently on Disney+. If you haven't seen it, you should watch it...it is Classic Muppets!

Of course all my boys wanted to do was watch it all day in the Opera House.

Taking a further stroll down Main Street, since we were in Disneyland on Mickey's birthday, we decided to watch some of his classic movies in the Theater!

There are Holiday things in all the shops and in all the windows along Main Street. This one is for all the rodent lovers out there!

Oh hey! Check it out! Mickey's Birthday Celebration Parade!

The Main Mouse himself. He's freakin old!!!! But not Jeff Johnson old...

All the characters came out to celebrate with Mickey. As they should...he pays their bills....

We chatted with Anna for ac couple minutes while their bus stopped by us. She was great!

Here's a question for anyone....when is Minnie Mouse's birthday? We always celebrate Mickey...what about his better half?

The parade was fun and a nice surprise at the park because they didn't advertise it was happening. We just kind of stumbled upon it.

Our little Baby Yoda is using the force to get the sword out of the stone........sadly....the face was not strong with that one.

And that's how close we got to the teacups. Which is a good thing because they probably couldn't handle how fast I would spin it!

Alice in Wonderland Selfie! We went on this ride ONLY 5 times. My boys loved it and I really enjoyed how they changed it up from the original with all the projections now.

Mr. Toad 4 years ago and now. Pretty close and Jackson is still a crazy driver!

After Mr. Toad, they wanted to drive real cars. So Autopia, here we come!

And I think Griffin hit nearly every side of the center rail that he could. I might sue him later for whiplash!

First of many pictures within this entire report of FOOD! This was some pink cherry coconut churro nastiness. Cassie loves coconut, I hate it, but she loved this treat.

And while we were still in Tomorrowland, the band decided to make the most out of the unused space. Again, that was a surprise and some nice atmosphere in this section of the park.

Now it's time to kill Emperor Zurg....I mean detain him...

Disneyland ride? Check. Blaster you can shoot? Check. See who gets the highest score? Check. This ride is like a vide game = best ride in the park forJackson. We only rode it about 6 times.

He got really good by the end of our vacation. The kid is insane in video games.

Fun fact...my boys love the video of Robb on the Matterhorn where he says, "Monster please...thank you...." that they wanted to reenact it. When the time came, they totally forgot to do it but they still said "Hey Harold!" every time we went by the Abominable Snowman.

It seems that Griffin just crashes every car he decides to get in. I guess we need to work on that for the next 10 years before he gets his license.

We told the boys that we would lock them in jail all day unless they rode Gadget's Go Coaster with us....think it worked?

Well it did. We made it on Gadget and I don't think anyone is as excited as me on this ride. Well, maybe the girl in the back is excited too.

Mickey did a quick change from his birthday outfit into his holiday outfit. Nice touch!

And his trusty companion was there too. I honestly preferred these "walk up and take a picture, no waiting in line, no photo pass pay for picture" character encounters. I may be in the minority, but my boys didn't know any different so they thought this was normal.

Time to head off the planet and into another Galaxy Far Far Away....

Griffin's favorite color is green...this is now Griffin's favorite droid.

The Supreme Leader converted my boys to the First Order. They were so serious about it that when we did the Disney PLAY App Star Wars DataPad, we had to do everything for the First Order.

Yea re some Star Wars nerds in this family. So the fact that we got to go in the Millennium Falcon was so cool for everyone.

Engineer (literally  ) and the gunner are ready for lift off. We only crashed about 6 times from the pretty horrible pilots we had. Luckily, we went on again and the pilots knew what they were doing and we got a much smoother ride.

We were fortunate enough to get on Rise of the Resistance both days we were at the park. This ride is seriously so insane. I don't think my boys could comprehend everything that was going on because there is so much to experience.

But they were legit convinced that we were captured by the First Order and that we had to escape.

Snack time after Rise of the Resistance and talking about our favorite parts. Griffin still couldn't believe that we were captured.

And all I got from Star Wars Land was a Diet Coke Bomb.

We walked around and did some Datapad jobs and hacks that were on the Disney PLAY App. It was really enjoyable and we got to make droids move, speeders make noise and the X-Wing even had smoke coming out of it. It was a great experience and very immersive.

We even listened in on conversations between the First Order and the Resistance. It was insane!

I can't tell if Griffin is shocked that it's taking Jackson this long to finish his Popsicle or if he is excited to hack some more droids.

We got to chat with Rey for awhile. She was great and stayed in character through all the boy's questions.

Leaving Batuu, we said good-bye to our fellow First Order Stormtroopers! We shall see you again!

Our one and only ride on Splash Mountain. Can you guess which boy enjoyed it the most?

And we got completely drenched. Literally a wall of water came over the front and side of the boat. Fun times walking around with a wet butt the rest of the day.

On our way to experience the best Haunted Mansion ever, we saw the best Halloween characters ever! Jack and Sally!

Ready to ride in our Doom Buggies. Little did you know, I requested the Club 33 buggie and got it! (joking)

The Gingerbread House this year was AMAZING! 

Seriously, they should celebrate Halloween 365 days a year and keep this layover at Disneyland. 

The boys really did love the haunted Mansion Holiday and we rode it 5 times.

Time for more deliciousness food courtesy of the Tropical Hideaway! This is a great addition to the park since our last visit.

Mango-Raspberry Dole Whip for the WIN!!!! It might be better than the original. I may get some haters for that, but don't knock it until you try it!

The only ride in the park that always has the shortest line and doesn't get in trouble for child labor laws...the Canoes!

We made it over to Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer's Island. When we came last, this area was closed because they were building Star Wars Land so the River was empty.

Oh man, my boys had a blast exploring this island.

And I guess I could say that I had a blast too....

So many interactive things mixed in with trails, caves, climbing rocks and treasure!

Child Labor laws...nothing to see here

Griffin said that it actually smelled like dead people. How he knows what dead people smell like is beyond me but we definitely will be having a talk about that at some point.

CAVES!!! 

We found the Treasure! And Griffin was still trying to use the force (this time literal force) to pull the sword out.

Hey Captain Red...how's it going? We didn't steal any treasure from Pirate's Lair...I swear.

Time for the Holiday Parade. Fun fact ... as a kid, I grew up in Southern California and went to Disneyland every year during Christmas time with my family. The holiday parade is one thing I remember vividly as a kid and these freakin toy soldiers used to scare the crap out of me because they were so loud. Thank goodness they don't have the soldier with the cymbals.

Mrs. Claus leading the way...

Hey Mickey! Happy Birthday!

Hey Minnie! Happy Birthday!

These fat little snow people were so cute and their bellies would bounce around as they were walking...so funny.

I wonder why these two are here...it's not like it's a holiday with snow or anything...

Hi Elsa! Thanks for making it freezing today!

Where's Horace Horsecollar? Clarabelle needs her other half to come on these parades!

Fun fact - You cannot eat these Gingerbread men.

The dogs made a gingerbread doghouse! How cute!

Now it's time for the obligatory "Princess section of the parade". Sometimes I wish that the princesses were spread out more and not on just one float or one section of a parade. They deserve better.

Either way, they all are still very beautiful and magical.

My favorite princess!

Jessie was telling the toy solider to drive carefully because he almost literally ran her over. Good thinking Jessie!

To quote one of my favorite Christmas movies, "Yippee-Ki-Yay, Mother ...." oh wait, this is a family friendly theme park. Hi Woody!

Why is Buzz's float always higher than Woody's? Anyone know the answer? 

These reindeers were also in the parades I remembered as a kid. So many good feels about it.

And then there's the man responsible for us not celebrating Halloween 365 days a year...totally joking people. Here's SANTA!!!!

After parade snack and nothing would be better than a Mickey Ice Cream Bar!

Hey look, now we can see the castle! And a kid took our picture!

Inside the castle, we got to enjoy the Sleeping Beauty story. The boys loved the scenes that were created within the castle. It may not be a big castle, but they thought it was cool walking "inside" of it. 

Full Moon over the Matterhorn means good luck...good luck to everyone playing basketball at the top of the Matterhorn.

And when the sun goes down, that means nighttime, glowing, bubbling, insanely priced toys that break after one night. Great marketing Disney!

But even though the castle is not that big, it still is pretty at night for the holiday's for what it has.

Very pretty.

This was our Small World Experience. If you don't know what happened, then google "what happens when you mix water with electricity inside a building" and the first thing that pops up is a story about Small World.

A look back down Main Street at night.

One more look back at the castle.

Time to leave Disneyland and head back to our hotel for some fireworks viewing. 

The Paradise Pier Hotel offered fireworks viewing and had the music piped in so we can literally just go straight to our room after fireworks. It was nice and we didn't have to deal with the Main Street crowd and insanity.

They were a little far away, but it was still nice to see.

And this was the first time our boys have seen a fireworks show live, their eyes were so wide and they were just in awe of everything.

The fireworks weren't anything to write home about and to me, the show felt short, but it was still great to see fireworks.

With the music piped in, it really felt like a magical way to end the day .... until .....

Griffin busted out his nighttime, glowing, bubbling, insanely priced toys that break after one night machine (that none of us knew he brought) and pretended he was creating snow for everyone that was watching. It really was a magical way to end the first part of our vacation.

This part of the Photo Trip Report was brought to you by ....

The Disneyland cats. Because if they weren't there, then who knows how many rodents (other than Chip and Dale) would be roaming freely throughout the park.

Part 2 will be posted shortly.

 

 

 

 

[JimmyBo]

Part 2 - Disney's California Adventure

This park was the surprise hit of this vacation. My boys (and wife) enjoyed this park more than Disneyland. Avengers Campus is such a great upgrade at the park. My boys got to experience Bug's Land on our last visit when they were younger, but now that they are a little older (and love MARVEL) Avenger's Campus was the best land in the park. Even though they only rode Spider-Man, the whole atmosphere and shows and meeting characters is what they really loved. This park keeps getting better and better after every visit I have.

Time to eat our way around Disney's California Adventure! And also ride some rides and see some shows.

Hiya Walt...thanks for creating Mickey Mouse and coming to California. I'm sure your adventure was a lot different than the adventure we are about to have today.

We lost Griffin and Baby Yoda decided to join us at the park today.

First stop is always Cars Land. Fun Fact - Jackson's favorite movie for the longest time was Cars. He loved Lightning McQueen and everything about Cars. Now that he's older he's thankfully said that is not his favorite movie anymore but he still really enjoys Cars.

Tractor pull time!

Santa Mater came out to say hello and crack some pretty awful jokes.

Watch out! The tractor is going to run you over!

We shoved the kids on the Cars ride. They loved it! We only got to ride it once while we were there but that was the highlight of Cars Land.

Actually, the highlight of Cars Land was food...and specifically Churros!

Nothing can go wrong with early morning snack time. We will be snacking all day so why not start off with some delicious Churros from the Cozy Cones!

Buzz even thinks that our Churro choice was the right one. He is busy chilling in the Cozy Cone office.

On our way over to the boy's favorite ride in the entire park, we meet Dopey. 

And Oswald the Lucky Rabbit! My boys kept asking me who he was and then when we got home I showed them some cartoons of his. They think Mickey is better but I still think Oswald needs more love! Bring back EPIC MICKEY to the Nintendo Switch!!!

Soarin......all I can say is that this is my kid's (and my wife's) favorite ride in the park. Me....I hate it. I don't know why people love this ride. You get on a "Hang-glider" and see every part of the contraption you are about to get on, you see the giant movie screen in front of you and then you "fly". I just feel that the Imagineers could have done a better job at hiding the screen, hiding the parts to the hang-glider, etc. To me it just feels like going to a movie. My boys loved it so we rode it about 8 times and I got a power nap each time we rode. I might be in the minority, but I typically do not ride Soarin whenever I'm in the park.

We met up with some friends and decided to tackle the Bear Mountain the ride GRRR!!!!

Yeah....we got wet. I sat on the side and of course in the first rapids section a giant wave crashed into the boat and soaked my entire left side and my butt. The rest of the day with a wet butt was really fun.

The kids even got soaked and were shivering as we got off the ride. Good choice guys!

The Redwood Creek section had a fun Holiday makeover. The attractions inside were all themed to the holidays.

They had a fun seek-and-find challenge where you had to find all the presents, write down the letters on the presents on the paper, and then solve the riddle. When you solve it, you get a prize (a Walt Disney Trading Card)

I still don't know why these slides have a turn in them. I saw several kids hit the side and almost fall over the edge. Such a weird design.

My boys love climbing EVERYTHING so of course we had to do this 100 times.

They felt like real rock climbers.

Their rock climbing form is incredible!

One of the attractions themed to the Holidays. Griffin just saw a kid nearly fall off the zip-line, hence the look of fear in his eyes!

But he still did it and was going at super speed!

We saw Dale just chillin by the rapids ride. We love these lovable rodents!

Crazy water fall face! The walk around the other side of the rapids ride was a nice walk to get away from the crazy crowded area near GRRR! 

Without our boys even seeing what Goofy's Sky School was, we walked them right on the ride and shoved them in the cars. They sort of liked it but they felt like Goofy was a horrible teacher and didn't really know how to fly and that's why the cars were going too fast.

My first snack of the day. Rather tasty! The Beef Wellington Mickey.

Time to make our way to Pixar Pier. The boys have not been to this section since they re-themed everything to Pixar and they loved it!

We met with some other friends and had a blast showing all our emotions.

This emotion was seen a lot on our vacation...FEAR. But we got over it...sometimes...

We even saw some Pixar characters that you don't normally see around the parks.

But now it was time for an attraction, a shooting game, high score wins, going against parents which equals the BEST RIDE EVER!!!

Jackson was a champ at this ride too...just like Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.

His scores were insane throughout the entire trip!

We decided to let them play all the Pixar Games along the boardwalk. You basically pay for these little dolls.

Super serious in determining which star they wanted.

Even though this is from La Luna...they think it's the Luma's that follow Rosalina from Super Mario Galaxy.

Fun fact - Heimlich's Chew Chew Train at the no closed Bug's Land was Jackson and Griffin's favorite ride at the park on our last visit. They knew he loved Candy Corn so they were so excited to help this caterpillar become even more obese.

Now it's time for a horse race...without all the betting and whipping of horses.

Griffin won Bullseye!

This was a nice re-theme. The different animals and characters were fun to see.

Time for the best treat of the day...yellow colored ice cream. Why is it yellow? Well, who knows...

Pixar Pier sure was fun...but it's time to head to the best part of Disney's California Adventure...

...MORE FOOD!!!! Just kidding. But this thanksgiving stuffing Mac and cheese was quite delicious!

We saw Nick Wilde and my boys were actually quite bummed they couldn't buy a pawpsicle from him.

We randomly ran into the character cavalcade. It was fun seeing all these different characters that you don't normally see.

Best picture of Chip and Dale EVER!!!!! We might frame this and send to Elissa .... hahaha ....

Mr Incredible has got some serious thighs....I think he needs to stop eating all the snacks around Disney's California Adventure.

Oh...hi Jessie...why are you staring at us? We just wanted a picture.

Holiday Pluto! 

This is the best sourdough you can ever get. It was a pull-apart Christmas Tree. It was so good!

Time for some Holiday stuff. They had stations around where you could do arts and crafts of the different Holiday Celebrations.

We decided to decorate a Mickey Ornament and write a letter to Santa.

Yes ladies and Gentlemen...it is still here. And Jackson loved the interactive activities here. Too bad Anna and Elsa Meet and Greet destroyed the "Ursula's Grotto" portion of the workshop, but we still had fun.

It really feels like you are in a magicians workshop.

We drew our own piece of animation. It was pretty neat seeing something you drew come to life.

The boys had to try every bit of animation possible.

We made it to Beast's Library. Seems like he is happy right now.

But then Griffin sat in his chair ... and then ....

The entire room changed. Griffin was so convinced that he did this that he didn't want to sit in the chair again. So magical.

Fun fact - the boys found out which character they were most like and of course, they each got their favorite characters. That's pretty impressive (and scary) Disney!

We are ready to tackle Avenger's Campus. But first, we had to meet our 2nd favorite version of Captain America.

I honestly have no idea what this is but the boys knew who they were and started calling them by their "other" names. I guess it's a fun show on Disney+.

We ran into the Guardians of the Galaxy dance-off while on our way to Avenger's Campus. The boys loved how much the characters interacted with them.

But now it's time for Avengers Campus!

And the first thing you are supposed to do there is eat a pretzel bigger than your face!

This sure was a fun slide. Who knew there was a playground at Avengers Campus...

We got to meet a ton of characters!

Fun fact - Ant-Man was the first Marvel movie my boys watched. He was their favorite Super Hero until....

....Sider-Man. Now we need to see what Spider-Man can do.

HOLY CRAP! He just flew through the air!!!

This reaction to Spider-Man flying through the air is priceless. Way to go Disney Imagineers! My boys truly believed that Spider-Man was flying.

After his show, the boys met their favorite Super Hero.

Now it's time to check out what Peter Parker is up to.

I called Tom Holland and told him he needed to stay Spider-man forever.

Time to help Spider-man destroy the Spider-bots.

We are ready for some web slinging action.

After our 6th time riding it, we finally figured it out and which spiders to hit and how to get a high score. We got 7th highest of the hour! My boys were so excited!

Spider-man congratulated us as we walked out. Thanks Spider-man!

Now it's time to check out Doctor Strange! He just appeared out of no where!

My boys were taking this seriously. We had to summon an Avenger.

And then Thor appeared. He was great. He thought he was part of the audience and sat right next to the people in the front. Then when Doctor Strange told him to go to Pym's Kitchen, he actually just walked off and went to Pym's. It was great and shows how much these characters are a part of this whole Avenger's Campus experience.

Captain America was keeping an eye on Loki when we left Doctor Strange.

We were there for a demonstration from the lady's with vibranium spears.

The Dora Milaje were very impressive.

Their skill with the spears was pretty insane!

Night is starting to fall upon us so that only means one thing....

...time to take off in the Quinn-Jet and fly to Radiator Springs for some awesome sights.

Some awesome sights of food that is!!! No seriously, some awesome sights of ....

....Radiator Springs! Nighttime is the best time to visit.

A salute to all nations...but mostly Radiator Springs.

Time for a paint job.

Luigi's was a fun ride and all the songs were themed around the holidays.

You get to ride in these cute little "cousins" of Luigi. They all look like Guido.

Griffin and I are not too sure was is about to happen.

Time for some more food....actually I think my stomach is pretty full from the day...

....so let's go eat some more!

Cherry Chocolate Churro! Okay, thanks!

Cars Land was great! Nighttime is the best.

And we got to say Good-Bye to Lightning McQueen.

On our way out, we saw Santa flying over Buena Vista Street!

We had to say goodbye to the characters one last time.

And of course, our favorite princesses too.

Good night Disney's California Adventure Park. Thanks for such a magical experience.

This part of the report was brought to you by .... 

The remaining portion of the sourdough pull apart Christmas Tree. Enjoy!

Part 3 will be posted shortly.

 

[JimmyBo]

Part 3 - Disneyland Resort Area

If you've made it this far, then Hello! This next part of the report will focus on the Resorts and Downtown Disney section. We were there during changes from Halloween to Christmas so it was kind of entertaining seeing pumpkins along Downtown Disney one day and then Christmas trees the next. It seems like by the time we left, everything was ready for the Holiday season.

We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel. While it wasn't our first choice, it was still a fun experience to stay "on property" at a Disney Resort. The cast members really are the best and they made sure we had a great time.

Our first day there, we were greeted by Surfer Goofy. 

Then overnight, Goofy left and went to catch some waves and never returned, so they placed a Christmas tree in the main lobby.

The only unfortunate thing about Paradise Pier is that they didn't offer any food service. We knew this going in so we brought our own breakfast but it was still a bit of a bummer to not be able to eat at the hotel.

The standard store inside the hotel offered everything a Disney nerd could imagine.

And while Cassie and I geeked out over Disney merchandise, the boys found a table and started coloring.

But then we lost them while we were still shopping but realized they went to watch the best Mickey cartoons on the planet in this little room.

We weren't even at the parks yet and Griffin wanted to relax on the large chairs.

The "standard" view from our room wasn't bad. We got to see the pool and people going down the water slide.

Looks like baby Yoda is ready to check out Downtown Disney District.

Plenty of photo ops throughout Downtown Disney.

Everywhere there is holiday magic in Downtown Disney.

And being the Star Wars nerds that we are, we had to check out the former Rainforest Cafe...

They had some great merchandise throughout the store.

Also, plenty of photo ops outside the store as well.

And if you know anything about our family...you know that we LOVE LEGO. We regularly submit our LEGO creations to be displayed in our local LEGO store every month. We love LEGO and the boys were excited to check out the 2nd largest LEGO store in the US.

They had some really impressive builds out front and inside.

So many things to choose from! What should we get?!?!?!?

The LEGO Mario interactive sets are a hit in this family. Sadly, I think we have nearly every set and it's still set up in Jackson's room for them to play with every day.

That is an impressive LEGO wall. They still didn't have roller coaster pieces which is s bummer because I've been making my own LEGO roller coasters but the pieces are so hard to find. 

Darth Vader was making sure that every one was staying in line and not stealing anything.

Another impressive large build on the inside.

Griffin was so excited to see the Millennium Falcon!

Pumpkins one day....

...trees the next day. It was really weird seeing both holidays at Downtown Disney.

One of our favorite things we get as a souvenir from any theme park are pressed pennies. By the time we ended this trip, we were able to collect every Disney pressed penny onsite from this visit and our last visit. Way better than stuffed animals that deteriorate over time.

Time to head over to the Grand Californian to see what they have for the holidays.

It's a must to sit by the fire at this hotel.

The Gingerbread house in the lobby was impressive. As soon as we walked in the lobby, it smelled like cookies and gingerbread...it was great.

If you want to make your own giant gingerbread house, here are the instructions! Good Luck! I'll stick with graham crackers and icing.

Making our way to the end of Downtown Disney, we were able to relax by the fountain. This was just a nice calming area away from the hustle and bustle of the theme parks and all the restaurants at Downtown Disney.

We had to make sure we stopped by there every day.

This place was insane! So many people looking for every holiday thing they could grab! Maybe stick with online shopping!

Now it's time for us to head to the Disneyland Hotel and have dinner with a certain dog...

Griffin was practicing his driving while we waited to be seated. It didn't help any as he still was horrible on the Autopia.

Goofy's Kitchen! Time to fill our stomachs here so we don't pay for food at the parks (yeah...that didn't work out...)

Every character we get to see has a job in the kitchen. Pluto has the hardest job...anyone know what it is?

The food was delicious. We were a little bummed on the allergy friendly options. When we booked it, we were told that we could order certain items from a menu and that they would deliver it to us. That did not happen so Jackson just ate chicken tenders and grapes.

The characters walked around every so often and we all got to get up and dance. they didn't stop and hug anyone for pictures but it was still nice to see them walk around.

We got to see Dale (and Chip too at a later time)...

We got to see Minnie. And she was so excited to see us too!

And we got to see Pluto. Next one was only Goofy himself.

Here's Goofy....oh wait...that's not the real Goofy, that's just a silly person dressed as Goofy.

There's Goofy! In all his awesomeness!

And he even got our waiter to dance with him!

Goofy's Kitchen was a great experience. We recommend any character dining that you can get, get the reservation. Our boys never had a character dining experience before, so they thought this was how it was supposed to be and they were so excited to see all the characters up close.

Goofy's Kitchen was GREAT!

One more tree at the Disney's Downtown District that we had to see before our vacation was over.

Our boys had a blast and had a great vacation.

Thanks for reading about our family's adventures through Disneyland Resort during the Holiday season.

This entire report was brought to you by...

Pressed Pennies! This is every pressed penny we have collected at the Disneyland Resort area from our multiple trips we have done. We are safe to say that we collected them all!

 

[bert425]

GREAT pics. . and looks like y'all all had a fantastic time.

Thanks for sharing. . it made me so happy to scroll thru these pics!

[cfc]

Great trip report, Jimmy! When I was there with my brother and Mom a few weeks earlier, it was pretty odd seeing Halloween being taken down and Christmas being put in. Mom also loved Rise of the Resistance.

[Nrthwnd]

Great trip report, Jimmy! And those souvenir penny holders your boys have ........ serious.

I am (ha ha) "im-pressed." 

[Taylor Finn]

Loved reading this report. So much detail and loads of pictures. Glad you guys had a great time!

[SharkTums]

Just getting caught up and this is such a great report! Love all the family pix and the comparisons from four years ago! Glad you had so much fun!!!