Chapter 164
Final Haunts

October 29-31, 2013

Even though we’d already been to Disneyland a whole lot over the last few days, we decided to go to the parks on Tuesday because the 29th was the last evening without a Halloween Party scheduled—meaning it would be our last opportunity to see the Halloween decorations this year before they started to come down.

We tried to pay special attention to Town Square and Main Street, because these were two major areas that would change significantly when all the pumpkins started to go away.

We hadn’t eaten dinner yet, so we walked over to Adventureland and waited at Bengal Barbecue. We’d discovered at this point that the Banyan Beef skewers were our favorites, so we ordered two of those and one Tiger Tail to split.

These are always delicious. The meal itself certainly isn’t a good value when you compare the prices to the amount of food you get, but sometimes we’re just in the mood for a skewer!

Tracy laughed at me for taking a picture of our water cup, but I realized that I couldn’t remember if I’d ever taken one of the special Halloween cups that would be disappearing in a few days.

We walked over to New Orleans Square after dinner, where the first Christmas decorations of the year had appeared. As we would later find out, they actually keep most of these up all the way through Mardi Gras in February.

I always love New Orleans Square, but there was something about seeing it decked out for the holidays that made me extra happy.

It’s really nuts when you consider the schedule Disney has to follow to stay on top of the changing holidays. I’m sure it’s all timed out like clockwork.

Since we were back in New Orleans Square anyway, we looked to see if Jack and Sally happened to be out doing meet-and-greets, but I guess they had already gone in for the day.

As soon as we left New Orleans Square, we were once again surrounded by Halloween—including the Ray Bradbury Halloween Tree.

We’d gotten a DAS time for Space Mountain because this would be our last chance to ride Ghost Galaxy for the year. Honestly, we were ready for the attraction to go back to normal. The ghost is fun and all, but I really miss the music from the regular version of the attraction while it’s gone.

We got one more time for the night—a quick ride on Indiana Jones. After we got off, I realized I’d done the unthinkable and left my fanny pack in the “ingenious pouch” for protecting “earthly possessions.” Luckily, I caught my error right away and was able to alert a cast member while our vehicle was still taking its first trip around the attraction without us. They scoured each vehicle in a routine that I’m sure they have to go through dozens of times each day, and the fanny pack was rescued after about five minutes. PHEW.

After all that trauma, we decided to go home. We took one last look at the giant Town Square pumpkin as we exited the park.

And then we officially left Halloween Time 2013 behind us.

I also tried to get a few pictures of the decorations along the tram route, but they turned out terribly. Darn trams, always moving and never stopping for photo ops.

The last two days of October weren’t too eventful for us. We took some pictures of the cat (because what else is new?).

And on Halloween itself, we continued the tradition that spans back about a decade at this point—going to Chipotle for our “Boo-ritos.” I still miss the days when the Halloween burritos were free if you covered yourself in a little aluminum foil, but paying a few bucks when you go in any costume isn’t too bad of a deal.

Tracy donned her raccoon hat and ears from 2012.

And I whipped out the Disneyland Cat costume one more time.

I don’t know if I ever posted a picture of our Halloween lights alongside our pumpkin, so here’s one for good measure.

Overview of October 2013

Random Photo of the Month

We were at the Westfield mall near our condo on Halloween night (after visiting Chipotle), when we just happened to notice this random sign on the escalator. One of these things is not like the others. And I’ll give you a hint… it’s the “no alligators” sign…

Total Days This Month Spent Visiting Disneyland Parks
13

Total Days Spent at Disneyland Since First Getting Our Passes
95

Favorite Disney Snack
Spider Cake Pop (This just brought the concept of cake pops to a whole new level by introducing extra chocolate and gummy-worm legs)

Favorite Disney Meal
Gay Days Chicken and Waffle Sandwich (We’re always fans of chicken and waffles, and it was interesting seeing Disney take another stab at introducing this dish to one of their menus)

Number of Pumpkins We Saw
The number is so high that it’s beyond comprehension.

Favorite Guilty-Pleasure TV Show
Orange Is the New Black (Another TV show that I didn’t exactly feel guilty watching, we discovered the first season of this Netflix original around October of last year and we were instantly hooked. We did a better job of spreading out the binge-watching than usual and only let ourselves watch one episode per night. Except when we got to the last three of the season and just had to keep watching till the end. We also really enjoyed season two this past summer)

Continued in Next Post