2012-11-30

Mickey Mousing Around For Thanksgiving – Part 1

So, let's just jump into it, shall we?  Wednesday morning the alarm went off @ 2:30 am, the cab arrived at 4:00 am, and by 6:30 am, Cora, The Daughter, and I were on a plane heading for LAX and Disneyland to meet up with most of her family for Thanksgiving.

Jealous yet?

The flight went smoothly, there was no real issue with holiday travel crowds at all.  Now, the Super Shuttle people getting us to our hotel seemed like they were making it up as they went along, but eventually a van zipped at 70 mph to our hotel, where it turned out that our hotel room was ready early!

Disneyland_01_01

And we were in the Disneyland park by lunchtime.  The castle was decorated for the winter, but the weather was far from wintery.

Disneyland_01_04

In fact, it felt a lot like Halloween around the Haunted Mansion.  Since "A Nightmare Before Christmas" is The Daughter's favorite movie, we made many, many, many passes through its haunted halls.

Disneyland_01_02

We tracked down a couple of cute kids from Cora's family, and got them to pose with Jack Skellington.

Disneyland_01_03

And we got nice little video of Jack chatting with the family.

We hung out with the family the rest of the day, riding rides and hearing about their cruise the week before.  The Daughter was so psyched to see them all, but she REALLY missed Boy-Cousin and Grandma the most.

Disneyland_01_05

As night rolled in, the lights came on, and our get up and go, got up and went.  So, we trudged back across the street to the hotel and passed out.


Notes:

  • This is my third "Disney" visit and my third Disney park.  First was Euro (now Paris), then came Disney World, and now Disneyland.  World is my favorite park, but this was my favorite trip.
  • This was The Daughter's third Disney visit, all to Disneyland.  She has never seen the Haunted Mansion in its traditional form.  Always decked out for Nightmare Before Christmas.  And she likes it that way.
  • We met up with Cora's mom, sister, brother-in-law, their three kids, her brother and his girlfriend.  We were scattered across various hotels.
  • I saw far more Jack Skellington T-shirts than Mickey Mouse T-shirts.  I think Disney is seriously going to need to consider making a permanent Nightmare attraction, probably in California Adventure, maybe by the Tower of Terror.

7 comments:

SkylersDad said...

Looks like a great trip! I always enjoy looking at you and Cora's pics.

So. Cal. Gal said...

I haven't been to Disneyland since 1998...pretty sad for a native So. Californian. lol!

Scope said...

Skydad - Thanks. Most of these are my shots. Wait until Cora unleashes her pics. (Actually, she just uploaded like 350 of them to FB, so I guess you don't really have to wait if you don't want to.) So much better. Well, except that these have her in them, and most of hers have me, so not better in that respect...

So Cal Gal - You should find a "dead time" like, some random day in January or something and take your guy. And hit both DL & Cal Adv. Might as well see both while you are at it. (And maybe check out one of the motels near by, too. *wink*)

Cora said...

I can't believe Disneyland doesn't have a year-round Jack Skellington attraction too. Nightmare's popularity just gets bigger and bigger every year. Maybe it's only a matter of time.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Cora on this one. Maybe they've found that just having Jack Skellington for a short period draws crowds in the off season?

Padded Cell Princess said...

I do love Disneyland and I don't even remember how many times I've been as I had friends that went every year and I used to go with them. Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted House is the best and I did get to see it like that once.
For some reason, you haven't been showing up in my blog roll. Thankfully you popped up today but heavens am I behind! I thought you had been busy and away! So don't mind me wandering around your blog a lot today, reading what's been going on that I've missed :)

So. Cal. Gal said...

Scope, I might just do that. *wink*