Chapter 143
It’s a Ghooooooost

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(Originally posted February 27, 2014)

We were about to leave the Jamboree when we saw skeleton Goofy emerging from backstage. He was very excited to see us.

We grabbed him quickly so we could pose.

Now we really were done with the Jamboree for now, so we made our way back toward the Ranch, taking note of the pumpkin ticket taker as we left.

We’re big fans of all the ways they redo this photo spot for the different holidays, and we liked the black cat who had been installed (though we noticed that the backdrop hadn’t been put in yet). He was screaming at me, so I decided to scream right back at him.

We were ready for dinner, and we knew exactly what we wanted to try. Making our way back to New Orleans Square, we went into French Market for the first time.

They were featuring a special Muffaletta for Halloween, and we NEEDED to get it because of our undying love for olive tapenade. It was also served with homemade potato chips and grapes.

This was definitely one of the best meals we’d had at Disneyland in recent memory! Of course, like so many yummy Disneyland foods, it was only available for a limited time…

After eating, it was getting chilly, so we headed back to Toy Story to get our sweatshirts from the car. As we waited in line for the bus, the girl waiting in front of us paused for a second, turned to the side and vomited all over the sidewalk. We barely missed the stream! The worst thing, though, was that her parents just kept walking and then scolded her for hanging back in the line. It was one of the more bizarre things that we’d ever witnessed at Disneyland (which is saying something).

We headed back into the park after grabbing our sweatshirts.

First, we hurried back to New Orleans Square to take another spin on Haunted Mansion Holiday.

The ride kept stopping for long periods of time, so we were glad this hadn’t been our first time on it since I always feel like you get taken out of the story when the vehicle stops moving. If there was one positive thing about all the stops, it’s that our longest one was at the top of the hill “falling” out of the attic. We were paused for so long that I was able to get a good picture of the graveyard from up above.

Now that it had already been a little while since dinner, we were ready for dessert (of course!). We made our way back to the Mint Julep Bar and got to the front of the line when the cast member informed us that they were currently OUT of pumpkin beignets!! They would have more tomorrow, but we were out of luck tonight… So we decided to skip the beignets entirely. Instead, we went over to Rancho del Zocalo and tried out the Pumpkin Flan.

This was… meh. Neither of us particularly loved it, mostly because it tasted much more strongly of orange than it did of pumpkin. It was fine, but we wouldn’t be getting it again.

As we left Rancho, we saw the Halloween Tree for the first time. Unfortunately, they had JUST removed the famous “Sharpie Pumpkin” before we arrived, so we didn’t get to see him in all his glory.

We still had about an hour to kill until it was time for Ghost Galaxy, so we rode Pirates and the Jungle Cruise while we waited. Finally, we headed over to Tomorrowland.

Now, when we first rode Ghost Galaxy in 2011, it was also the first time we’d ever ridden Disneyland’s Space Mountain. Obviously, when compared to the WDW version, it was worlds better and we totally loved it. The problem now, however, is that we know how awesome the usual version is, so we didn’t love the overlay quite as much this time around. Not that we particularly DISLIKED it either—I do still think some of the projections are pretty cool—but we found ourselves missing the total darkness and ESPECIALLY the soundtrack of the standard ride. Luckily, we knew that the overlay would only be around for a little while, so we still made the most of it and had a good time.

Our ride completed, it was time to head out and go home. Our first day back at Disneyland after all the flooding nonsense had been just what we needed, and we LOVED having Halloween Time in full swing.

September 23-28, 2013

The next day, we had to go to Target for something or other, and we liked these turkey hats they had in the dollar section. I think Tracy looks pretty darn good.

We also noticed that there was a big, creepy spider who kept making extremely intricate webs around our complex in late September. It’s hard to ever capture that sort of thing with a camera, but here is one of the pictures I was able to get.

On Wednesday, we headed back to Disneyland with a few specific destinations in mind. First off, the new Starbucks had opened at the Market House, so we had to go check that out.

I know there are always going to be people who hate having Starbucks in the parks, but we always like being able to grab a drink when we are there. When you compare it to the days of Nescafe, it’s important to remember that Starbucks is a HUGE step up. They certainly learned from the fact that the DCA location is always mobbed and made a GIANT area to queue up and order.