BEDIO: Halloween Time at Disneyland!

Hello everyone and happy Tuesday!

As of right now, we are one full week into October, isn’t that crazy? 😱

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend and his family went to Disneyland for his dad’s birthday. Nick was only there for two days, when they were three day passes, so we went to Disneyland this past Friday, to not only use up his last day, but also so I can experience Halloween at Disneyland. Nick got to see it when he went last time since Disneyland set it all up early, but it was my first time seeing everything. We did the Disney Max Pass again this trip, and we got all our fast passes through that, except for Haunted Mansion, as we got the physical fast pass.

Another reason this is crazy is because before this year, it had been about six years since I last went to Disneyland, and now I’ve gone twice this year… who would have thought?

Anyways, since we were going to Disneyland Friday, Nick and I drove up Thursday evening, to avoid making the long drive both Friday morning and Friday night. After getting dinner and checking into our hotel, we headed over to Downtown Disney for a couple of hours. We went to the Lego Store, the Pin Trading kiosk, World of Disney and then Starbucks. I ended up getting a few more pins (including a Halloween pin and Nightmare Before Christmas pin), and a Halloween Mickey Mouse hat, which helped a lot with keeping my face protected from the sun the next day. Plus, it was cute and lights up, so I had to get it 😂 During this trip, I also started trading pins for the first time, and got a few of cute new pins to add to my collection!

Then, Friday came and it was time for…

Disneyland!

As you enter, there’s the giant row of Disney pumpkin heads over the ticket check in area, (as you can see in the picture at the beginning of the post), and then when you enter Main Street, there’s the giant pumpkin head of Mickey. Main Street was all decked out for Halloween, with mini Mickey pumpkin heads on the lamp posts, and orange, white and black Halloween flags hanging from the buildings.

We headed straight for Haunted Mansion first, which was cool as it is Nightmare Before Christmas themed. The outside of the mansion had some awesome decorations added to the yard, including a statue of Jack, the Pumpkin King. However, the dining room scene in the ride is my favorite part, as not only is it a fun scene to watch, but it also smells like yummy gingerbread!

After Haunted Mansion, we got fast passes for it so that we could ride it again later, then headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. Nothing new with Pirates, nor with Indiana Jones, which we rode next. The excitement with Indiana Jones was that it had broken down, so we waited about 20 minutes until it was up and running again.

When we finished with Indiana Jones, Nick and I were hungry (mostly me), so we took the Disney Train from New Orleans Square over to Tomorrow Land for lunch. The Disney train was cool, as I had never ridden it before, and it was nice not having to fight through the crowds to get from one side of the park to the other.

Snapchat-579820081 — Our meal from Alien Pizza Planet

Finally, we arrived in Tomorrow Land, and had lunch at Alien Pizza Planet. The food was pretty good, not my favorite of all time, but definitely helped satisfy my hunger. I personally liked all the posters of the Aliens from Toy Story, and the giant planets hanging from the ceiling above.

Nick and I decided after lunch, to head over to Fantasy Land and ride a few of the rides, since we didn’t spend much time over there in our previous trip. First, we rode Peter Pan’s Flight, which, though it was awesome how the ride was designed and everything, it was much shorter than I remembered. After waiting about 20 minutes in line, the ride itself was only two or three minutes. Granted, that’s something that could probably be said about a lot of theme park rides, but it seemed more apparent here for some reason.

Anyways, when we got off Peter Pan, we went right next door and rode Mr. Toad’s Wild Adventure. One part Nick and I both appreciate is how during the ending scene in Hell, the temperature of the room increases and becomes super hot, to make it seem like you’re really in Hell. It’s funny too, because it’s the last scene of the ride, so you pretty much go from Hell to re-entering Fantasy Land. At least, I thought it was funny.

Then after Mr. Toad’s Wild Adventure, we rode It’s a Small World, which is fun since I like to spot the Disney characters among the regular characters. I don’t remember if I mentioned this in my last post, but they added Disney characters to the ride, and they appear in the country their story originated from.

When we were done with It’s a Small World, we took the Disney Train from Toon Town to New Orleans Square, so that we could ride the train in its entirety. The most interesting part of the train is right after leaving Tomorrow Land, when we enter a scene of the Grand Canyon. I thought it was random, until we then “go back in time” and we see the Grand Canyon during the time of the dinosaurs. It’s a cool addition to the train ride, but also made the whole scene seem extremely random to me… I’m guessing we probably ride past a part of the Disney back lot that no one wants to the public to see… maybe? I honestly don’t know why it’s there 🤣 Either way, it was an interesting train ride, that’s for sure.

When we got to New Orleans Square, we went back and rode Haunted Mansion again, although the ride stopped a couple of times for about 5 minutes or so. It was kind of stressful, just because we had fast passes for Thunder Mountain that expired within the next 15 minutes, but everything worked out in the end.

We rushed over from Haunted Mansion to Thunder Mountain, which is as fun to ride as always, then went back to Tomorrow Land to ride Space Mountain. Then we went on the Matterhorn, because we managed to get fast passes for it at an earlier time than available, while we were waiting in line for Thunder Mountain. For Matterhorn, we ended up getting on the ride pretty quickly, as they needed a group of two to fill up the bobsled about to go, which was pretty convenient, if I do say so myself.

We had dinner after Matterhorn, at a place called the Galactic Grill in Tomorrow Land, which we were able to put in a mobile order through the Disneyland app. Nick and I finished eating, then went on Star Tours, where we got lucky with our fast pass, and were in line for not even fifteen minutes (it might not have even been that long) before getting on the ride.

Star Tours was fun; we did the tour that takes you through Star Wars Episode I, which although isn’t a popular movie, the pod racing scene was fun for me. We got off Star Tours, then headed over to Galaxy’s Edge, where I had the blue milk for the first time (it was delicious, in case you were wondering) and looked through the shops. Last time we were in Galaxy’s Edge, we didn’t look around at too many of the shops, mostly focusing on the Droid Depot and the Millenium Falcon ride. This time, we skipped the Millenium Falcon ride, since the stand by wait was 45 minutes and we didn’t think it was worth waiting for, because we rode it twice last time (due to technical error, you can read more about that here).

We spent about half an hour in Galaxy’s Edge this time, and as we were leaving, we saw the entrance to the new ride they are building over in the Resistance area of Galaxy’s Edge. They had a couple cast members watching the area, so we couldn’t get too close, but it’s next to the Galaxy’s Edge entrance by Critter Country.

As we left Galaxy’s Edge, Nick and I decided to ride the Winnie the Pooh ride (The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh). The ride was cute, and basically takes you through a few of the storylines from Winnie the Pooh, notably the rain episode, Pooh’s dream with the Heffalumps, and Pooh’s birthday party.

By this time, it was getting late, so we left Disneyland, and made a quick stop in Downtown Disney for a couple more pins and some food, before making the trip back home.

Overall, I loved seeing Main Street and Haunted Mansion all decked out for Halloween, even though most of the other rides in the park weren’t decked out as much (Galaxy’s Edge isn’t decked out at all, in case you were wondering). The entrance to California Adventure, though, is super awesome, especially at night! I included a picture at the end of the post for you guys to see.