Chapter 159
Pre-Birthday

After the zoo festivities, we went home only briefly and had a quick dinner before driving over to Disneyland. I got in line for Guest Relations because my DAS pass was expired, and Tracy went over to Starbucks while I waited. She sent me this picture of these adorable cupcakes (I love the little Mickey ear chocolates on top).

The line at City Hall tonight was so long that she came back with our drink before I’d even moved more than a few feet. This was our first time trying the Chocolate Chai at Starbucks, and we were quite impressed.

After finally getting to the front of this never-ending line, we got a time for Alice in Wonderland without realizing that all the dark rides would be closed already in preparation for fireworks. It took until we got back to Fantasyland to realize our blunder (womp, womp).

We thought about waiting for Casey Jr. instead, but since there was only one train running, that short standby line would actually equate to a long wait as well. Giving up on Fantasyland for now, we went to the nearest Guest Relations booth and got a time for Space Mountain instead.

Next, we headed back to the hub and staked out a spot for Remember… Dreams Come True. As I’ve mentioned before, this is easily my favorite fireworks show, and it was only back for a relatively limited time between the end of Magical and the beginning of the Christmas fireworks. Since we would so rarely stay late enough to catch the show (and since they only do fireworks on the weekends during the off-season), we knew this might be one of our only chances to see it.

It’s funny that they had already put the “snow” on top of the castle in preparation for the upcoming holidays.

I like how some Mickey balloons had snuck into this photo.

As you can see, the crowd levels were pretty intense for a random Saturday at the end of October.

Our spot ended up being good, and we had a nice view of an excellent show. After the fireworks were over, we started to make our way through the crowds toward Astro Orbiter.

Having ridden that, we worked our way to the back of Tomorrowland to try our luck against the ghost on Space Mountain. As we walked through the Fastpass line, we noticed as a few ne’er-do-wells thought they had figured out a way to sneak past the cast member and onto the ramp. As we made our way down into the building, though, the same cast member appeared seemingly out of nowhere and grabbed the line-jumpers. I have no idea how he knew who to scold or how he seemed to be in two places at the same time, but we were impressed.

We were tired and ready to leave after this attraction, so we walked toward the front of the park.

As we waited for the tram, some idiot who got on the tram ahead of us ended up almost getting in a rumble with another family because he was trying to sit with a stroller on his lap in a regular row—and was obviously taking up way more space than one person ever should. When the other guests asked him to wait for the next tram instead, he started yelling and making a huge scene, and all the rest of the people in line and on the tram started booing him. It was actually quite the day for comeuppances.

Finally, we made it to the car and headed home. It had really been a pretty exciting evening in Disneyland—especially considering we’d barely been there for more than a couple hours.

At least “our” cat was waiting at home to look adorable for the rest of the night.

Sunday, we drove over to the resort at around 3pm and faced really long lines at the entrance to Mickey and Friends (never a good sign). Starting in Disneyland, it was clear that this was going to be another busy day.

It was one of the last chances we’d have to really appreciate the Halloween decorations in the daylight, however, so we planned to make the most of it.

I love all the pumpkins in the windows and atop the Main Street buildings.

After our picture with the giant pumpkin didn’t turn out great at the Halloween Party, we decided to try again when it was light outside. The results were definitely a little better.

You’ll notice that I was wearing my Happy Birthday button because this was actually the day before I’d turn 26.

After getting a time for the Haunted Mansion, we wandered down Main Street and toward Frontierland.

I feel like it should never come as a surprise to you all at this point that our first stop was Big Thunder Ranch.

Pancho was in the pen in back, but he was not in a good mood today. He even almost nipped at me while I tried to pet his neck.

Giving up on the animals for now, we headed into the Jamboree to try to meet Mickey and Minnie in their Halloween garb, but they were just finishing up their set and going away. Instead, we checked out a few of the latest pumpkins.

These were the few pictures we could get of the mouse duo as they made their way backstage.

The whole Ranch area just wasn’t working out for us this afternoon, so we decided to venture elsewhere. First, we asked someone to take our picture in the little photo op.

We walked along Big Thunder Trail until we reached New Orleans Square, and Tracy was entranced by the smell of the popcorn cart. We decided to get some because we’d been eyeing the new Hatbox Ghost bucket anyway, and this seemed like as good a time as any.