Chapter 133
This Is (Almost) Halloween

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(Originally posted January 13, 2014)

We were excited when we made it back home, and we were so gung-ho to get back to Disneyland that we ended up going to the parks on Sunday night. We actually didn’t go to experience the parks at all, but rather to check out what Halloween decorations had sprung up in our 10-day absence.

Parking at Downtown Disney, we took the Monorail into Disneyland (it was SO crowded this evening that I think we had to wait for at least three Monorails before we made it in).

We rode to the Tomorrowland station and immediately started walking toward the park exit. It was late, and we weren’t planning to stay long at all, but we wanted to go into two stores on Main Street that we had read were decorated already. First was the Fortuosity Shop, which had been done over with a creepy/cool raven motif.

Next we headed into Disney Clothiers, Ltd.

Not only did that store have plenty of Halloween décor, but it also seemed to have the most merchandise for the holiday.

We always love pumpkin Duffy.

As ridiculous as it probably seems to have gotten so excited about these little additions that had shown up, we were SO pumped for Halloweentime at Disneyland! We couldn’t get enough of the theming that was slowly being rolled out. We exited the park and went back to Downtown Disney to look in the stores there. We’re always tempted by these delicious-looking gummi candy corns.

In Marceline’s, they had also put up several decorations.

Tracy and I decided to finally get the Cheshire Cake Pop we’d had our eyes on a few weeks earlier.

It was delicious, though a little small for the price…

After eating, we headed into Fossil, where Tracy looked around to try to find a new wallet. She thought she’d made a decision several times, but kept changing her mind at the last moment. In the end, we left empty-handed and went home.

August 26-31, 2013

We visited the parks in earnest on Tuesday for the first time since being out of town. It took an eternity (literally more than a half-hour) to get from the line of cars at Mickey and Friends up to the booth with the parking attendant. For reasons I can’t begin to comprehend, they only had two cast members working in spite of the fact that it was obviously still a busy summer day. We weren’t feeling too much Disney magic as we finally made it to a parking spot and rode the tram in.

I needed to get a new GAC since my last one had expired, so we headed to City Hall. While there, we also commented on the parking and the Guest Relations cast members told us we weren’t the only ones who’d complained about the issue. Apparently they had already worked to fix the problem.

Oddly, it actually wasn’t very crowded at all this evening—Main Street felt empty in comparison to recent visits. As we walked past the Market House, we saw that they had put up the Starbucks insignias in the window. It was slated to open in about a month.

We started our visit with a ride aboard Star Tours. It had been a long time since we’d last ridden this attraction, and we got a fun combination of Tattooine and the Death Star. Next, we headed back to Space Mountain. Tracy made the mistake of looking over the side of the vehicle when we got to the top of the lift hill, and it gave her a little bit of vertigo that took a while to go away. Luckily, she still smiled very prettily for the photo.

I wanted to go see Captain EO because I’d never done it before and it was rumored to close in a couple days, but Tracy was adamantly against going on that attraction and I didn’t want to force her when she was still feeling a little dizzy from Space Mountain. Instead, we decided to hop over to DCA to get a drink at Starbucks. I think I took these pictures at a store on the way out of Disneyland, but I honestly have no clue which one.

There was no line at Fiddler, Fifer, and Practical Café (when does that ever happen?) and Tracy and I ordered a Cotton Candy Frappuccino. We drank it outside on Buena Vista Street and enjoyed the very pleasant weather. After our drink was gone, we decided to ride Soarin’. It was the first time we’d done that attraction in months, and we loved experiencing the sights and smells—it felt like a real “welcome home” party at Disneyland.

After riding, we decided to be done for the night, so we rode the tram back and headed home. En route, I looked up where all the places in Soarin’ are in California. I’d love to visit all of them someday because the film makes them look so beautiful!

We closed out the month of August pretty uneventfully. We went to check out the South Coast Plaza mall in Costa Mesa one night and realized we felt very out of place because it seemed to only feature the MOST expensive stores in existence (think Burberry, Bloomingdales, Tiffany & Co., etc). One upside, however, was that the mall also had this sign.

Din Tai Fung was the place we had gone in L.A. with Tracy’s brother to get soup dumplings when we first moved here. We were very excited at the prospect of it coming to Costa Mesa because that’s a much shorter drive for us!

Overview of August 2013

Random Photo of the Month

This prop was available for purchase at the Expo silent auction. Can you even imagine what you would do with it after you bought it? I’m picturing someone putting it in their yard and immediately being labeled as “that weird house on the block.”

Total Days This Month Spent Visiting Disneyland Parks
9

Total Days Spent at Disneyland Since First Getting Our Passes
74

Favorite Disney Snack
Disneyland Popcorn (It’s something of a sleeper when it comes to contention for the best snacks, but the popcorn is just always so good!)

Favorite Disney Meal
Broccoli Cheddar Baked Potato from Harbour Galley (The menu item is gone now, so we can’t get it again, but we really enjoyed this potato—especially after asking them to sprinkle bacon bits on top)

Total Disney Legends Seen In Person
9 (Richard Sherman, Angela Lansbury, Alan Menken, Marty Sklar, Rolly Crump, Alice Davis, Bob Gurr, Bill Farmer, Tony Baxter—All but Angela Lansbury, who we’d seen in a show in NYC a few years ago, were at the Expo. Pretty good turnout if you ask me)

Favorite Guilty-Pleasure TV Show
Melissa and Joey (Once again, I went on the hunt for a new Netflix show to watch in my breaks during the day, and once again I chose an ABC Family original. This show definitely served its purpose for me in that it’s light and fun entertainment that doesn’t take too much concentration when I sit down to watch an episode between articles. Of course, it only took a couple weeks to get caught up—isn’t that always the case?—so I was back on the hunt for another good series pretty quickly)

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