Chapter 173
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
We rode Toy Story Mania after leaving Cars Land—sneaking in just as the park was about to close. After the ride, we thought about sticking around the edge of Paradise Bay to catch part of World of Color. Then we found out that the show hadn’t switched over to Winter Dreams quite yet, so we decided against it.
Instead, we headed back to Buena Vista Street and got a few more pictures of the Christmas tree.
I love the decorations in this area of the park. They’re subtle, but fun.
Since the park was technically just about closed, there was no wait to meet Santa Claus. So we figured we might as well go and have a chat with the jolly fellow.
I don’t even think we really had any gifts in mind to ask him for!
On the way out, we snagged one of the very popular attraction poster calendars that sold out just a few weeks later. We’ve had it up all year and have been gradually framing the posters from months past and putting them up in my home office.
Leaving the park, we headed back home. On the drive, Dumbo actually passed 100,000 miles, and I got a picture of the odometer.
We also snuggled with “our” cat when we got home.
We took a couple days off from the parks, but we knew we needed to head over when the workweek ended. Unfortunately, Tracy wasn’t feeling very well, so we weren’t sure if we’d make it on Friday evening. In the end, she rallied, and we started to head over a little late.
We parked and went to Disneyland, where we saw Minnie in her holiday garb and waited to meet her.
Next, we promptly waited in line to get a gingerbread latte at the Market House (I think the holiday drinks might have just been released). While there, we admired all the new decorations.
We also got a return time for the Haunted Mansion before walking back toward Fantasyland.
There was a stage set up in front of the castle because The View was filming in Disneyland this week.
We walked all the way back to “it’s a small world.” Though we weren’t planning to ride, we staked out a spot in front of the attraction for the upcoming fireworks.
Unfortunately, about 15 minutes after the show was supposed to start, the cast members began taking down the ropes and murmuring about the fireworks being canceled. Tracy and I sprang into action because the official announcement hadn’t been made quite yet. We were able to get in line for Small World before the mobs had realized they should give up on fireworks, and we made it to the front of the queue after just a few minutes.
As we got ready to board our boat, we looked back, and the line stretched back into Fantasyland already.
This was just our second time riding the attraction with its holiday overlay, so we were still noticing a few details for the first time.
I LOVE this touch as you sail past Ariel—she’s left several dead fish for Santa.
I just can’t get enough of the White Room. So pretty!
We decided to take a selfie.
Coming out of the ride building, we found ourselves back among all the pretty lights.
What a great attraction this is.
We walked through Big Thunder Trail toward the west side of the park. Since our last trip back there, they had installed the Christmas sleigh, so we posed.
I thought all the trees behind it were fun. The LED lights were so bright.
It was our Haunted Mansion DAS time, and this was actually the first time we’d gone on this attraction since we’d gotten back from our trip to CO. There were several new Jack faces revealed on the gingerbread house because it had been a few weeks.
Once our ride was complete, we made our way back to the hub and took some pictures of the castle. Now that the parade taping had wrapped, all the icicles were in place and lit up. They were so pretty!
By this point, it had actually gotten pretty late (remember, we didn’t get to the parks until almost 9:00pm). We had a very busy weekend ahead of us, so we decided to head home.
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