Trick or Treat, smell my feet.....

Well, today was the day for one of the most anticipated parts of the tour – the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in Disneyland Park – well, for me anyway.

Even back when it wasn’t ‘popular’ to celebrate Halloween in Australia, I was celebrating it  - with gusto.  So getting to do REAL trick or treating ( or better,  the Disney version) was going to be a hoot of the highest magnitude.

So at the risk of this turning into the cyber version of Nanna's slide night, I’m going to tell you all about it. J

I started the day in DCA park just to do a little shopping in Carsland and take a few more photos, but in what seemed like 30 seconds, it was time to head back over to Disneyland for our pre-lunch meet up. 

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Disney park if I didn’t have a few exciting detours along the way.  On returning to DL it was immediately obvious that the whole Halloween thing was ramping up.  There were more and different decorations around now that signaled a great night was currently in the making.

On my way down Main Street, I moved out of the way of a fire engine full to overflowing with characters, and then a few moments later, down the street marches Mickey in his Bandleader gear with the quintessential marching band moving in unison behind him.  I stopped, I grinned, I photographed…  Love a good photo opp.

 Outside of the Pirates ride we gathered, and then filed into the Blue Bayou restaurant ( another bucket list restaurant I can tick)  and into the dimly lit, wonderful atmosphere of a Disneyfied Southern Experience.  Paper lanterns provided just enough light to identify what was on the menu but not enough to ruin the fun of all the glowing drinks on offer.  With long strings of purple flowers dripping their way down the two storied ‘ Gone with the Wind’ style manor we now sat ‘outside’ of, it would be easy to imagine a gator at your feet and fireflies around your head.

Cajun food is a favourite of mine so after a wonderfully hot and spicy gumbo style ‘soup’ thick with rice and a myriad of other ingredients we could neither see or identify anyway, the majority of us ordered the Monte Cristo Sandwich that this eatery is famous for, although, it turned out to be a bit overly ‘bready’ for my tastes.  But a must-try just the same. 

But it was the Desserts that really had our heads turning.  Only a couple of the group ordered, but when the rest of us saw the absolutely gorgeous collectable Donald Duck cup that the Chocolate/Pumpkin mousse was served in, it was ordered unanimously around the table.  And given that my arch enemy of the vegetable world is Pumpkin, this was no small sacrifice for the love of a Disney Souvenir on my part. 

We split up to while away a few hours in the parks before the party was to begin, so I headed back to the Haunted Mansion first, knowing that the lines would extend into the next week later on at night.  If only I could have bottled the smell of the fresh gingerbread tower in that ride specifically for the holidays, I’d be a happy girl.  I’m of German heritage and therefore have a life-long love affair with gingerbread.

 Then it was onto the train around to Toontown.  I love this part of the park – its like stepping into a comic book – the colours and shapes are simple and bold and it instantly transports me back to being 7 or 8 with those comic books in hand.  So I climbed Donald's Boat, and shopped in all the shops, and rode the Roger Rabbit ride, and wandered and photographed, and then miracle of miracles, there was almost no line to meet and greet with Mickey so without hesitation, in I went, snapping photos at almost every step, and before I knew it, I was getting hugs from the Mouse himself.  

If nothing else wonderful happened today, that would suffice.

But lucky for me, the day held so many more surprises. 

On my way out of the park, I did the Castle walk-through for the very first time.  Those of you that know me well, know I’m not a huge fan of the Princess juggernaut but this was fun and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this simple attraction.

As I exited the gates it was with no small amount of excitement I pondered that I was going to be one of the lucky (ticketed) ones allowed back in after dark and the amount of people already pouring through the turnstiles in amazing costumes gave the excitement level an extra kick.  We were going to be part of something great fun – I could feel it in my bones.

With much giggling and laughing we assembled out the front of the resort for photos… 6 nuns of the Disney Diocese, a witch, a cat woman, a saloon girl, a devil, Zelda and I believe a mad hatter and side kick. 

I will never forget walking back to the park in costume, surrounded by hundreds ( if not thousands) of other costumed Halloween enthusiasts, being stamped, and handed a candy bag with Wreck-it-Ralph on the side and let loose into this wonderland of candy.  And frankly, I want to do it all again.

The degree of ingenuity of costuming was mind blowing. I saw so few people in regular clothing that they actually stood out amongst the partiers.  And with specially produced candy hunting maps in our eager little hands, we wandered as a group for a while – literally not knowing where to head first, like the kids we felt like. 

There were giant ghostly Mickey Mouses with varying degrees of frightful expressions at every turn.  There were spider webs and Halloween messages projected onto buildings, wall and massive sections of floor in unexpected places.  But the thing that I will remember the most is the trick or treating.

The lines were, and I don’t say this lightly, PHENOMENAL.  But if anyone knows how to move crowds around its Disney, and it really took very little time to reach the next candy station and get the next handful of bounty… or raisins… or carrot sticks… but honestly, I just got to the point of shaking my head if they so much as reached for the carrots or apples… that’s not what I’m here for and I think its best not to pretend otherwise.

And no one wanted to upset a nun.

The evening just disappeared before our candy-seeking eyes, and somehow I managed to watch both showings of the exclusive Halloween parade, which granted, is short and sweet and very difficult to photograph given that everything moved, all the time, in the dark. 

Somehow we managed to squeeze in a quick burger for dinner, but in doing so, ended up at the WAY WAY back of the fireworks viewing areas, and honestly, I needed to be another 3 feet taller to get any kind of view.  So note to self, next time, get a spot a bit closer, a bit earlier.

I did however, get some beautiful shots of the castle later on so I was happy with that.

In our park wide quest for more candy, we managed to do a hilarious turn on the tea cups, costumes and all, and let me tell you, holding on a habit and holding on for dear life do not necessarily work well together…

Many candy distribution points later, Myself and the cat woman, called it a night and lugged our bulging candy bags back to the resort to revel in the knowledge we’d conquered the whole ‘candy-thing’ and I collapsed happily into a sugar filled sleep in preparation of our last few days.

Fire Engine full of Character.

Toon Town from on top of Donald's Boat.

let the parade begin...

The Halloween overlay on Its a Small World.

Spooky Sleeping Beauty's Castle. 

Ghosts, pumpkin lights, projections and candy  ...bags of Halloween fun

Thank You :)

Voting for the Expedia Blogger Search is now closed, and I just want to say a big thank you to those who took the time to vote for me.

I love sharing my memories of my trip to the USA I was fortunate enough to take this year.  Traveling for me, is not just about seeing and doing, but absorbing the feeling of the place, and then preserving that memory the best way I can.  Thanks for being part of that experience.  :)

Lisa xx

A Ghost of a chance...

Today was a day where we were either going on a ghost tour or to a ghost town… given that I am a bit sensitive to actually bumping into the real thing, I chose to go Wild Wild West at Knotts Berry Farm.

Having already eaten the famous chicken dinner that started the growth of this park, other than it being a ghost town theme and there were roller coasters, I didn’t really have much idea of what this park was about.  (Despite Sandie having given us all reams of info to study up on before we left… but me being one of those ‘discover it as you go’ kinds of people, I chose to just glance through the pages and takes my chances on the ground. )

Although, I was soon to learn, being on the ground is the LAST thing that you are meant to be doing in this particular park.  Actually, apart from a tiny handful of rides, ALL of them are coasters of varying degree of skidmark possibilities.

One of them in fact, is classified amongst the scariest in the world – and you guessed it, nope, that one wasn’t for me.

Walking into the park, the immersion into the wild wild west is actually pretty good – if you disregard their fake spider webs all over the place for Halloween.  We 4 hapless adrenalin junkies soon felt a little like we’d been in that DeLorean back to the future and were just a few spur jingles away from a gunfight at dawn.

I’m thinking though, that by the time we hit this park, I was well on my way to being roller coaster-ed out because I only went on half a dozen of them, and only one of the truly terrifying ones.   Which I was hoarse by the end of.

None the less, the other girls picked up my slack, with both Sandie and Jacq going on the freaky ‘straight up and straight down’ one that took all day for them to muster up the stuff to go on ( I will admit right here, I never even considered it). 

By brunch we’d ridden the pony express – both the lurchy roller coaster version that almost crushed your vertebrae when it stopped on a dime and the one with real ponies that was hot and squishy ( and we thank you lord for the invention of the motor vehicle and air con) , and were sitting in a diner with all its shiny chrome chairs and seats with puffy red vinyl upholstery ordering a 60’s style burgers and malts and all of us lusting after the chips with cheese and bacon melted on top that only one of us had the foresight to order.

Putting a quarter into the little push button juke box right there on our table was a treat, until we realised that we weren’t doing it right and nothing ever played.  I remember almost identical ones in the little takeaway shops in Melbourne back in the 80’s – but those ones worked, and I DID order the chips back then.

Then it was on to the Galloping Goose, a train/bus thingy that is a darn-tootin’ authentic ve-hicle once used in the outback a bit like a train.  Again, felt a lot like a scene in Back to the Future, but was a fun bit of nostalgia with a token outlaw holding up the train briefly for the hell of it.   We did see another ‘gun fight’ down the main street later on too. 

After a bit of shopping in the blissful air conditioning, and a drink in the saloon – as you do – it was back into the coasters for another round. 

As we left the park mid afternoon we got our first glimpse of Snoopy, who is the mascot for this park, and after photos and hugs it was back to the hotel for a break before dinner with another dressed up doag – Goofy.

So our gathering of travellers headed over to the Disneyland Hotel where we had tickets to dine at Goofy’s kitchen and what a hoot that was. 

As a group, we all crammed into the photo-op spot and got a few shots with the Goofster himself, which oddly, was the only time we saw him, so one can only assume he was busy in the kitchen .

The food was buffet style with a heavy leaning towards ‘family foods’ but was delish just the same, given that I have the palate of a 10 year old ( I’ve been told) and we spent the evening going backwards and forwards trying a gazillion taste sensations with intermittent visits from the likes of Alice in Wonderland, Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Chip and possibly more that I’m forgetting. 

Our server was a hoot and made the night a great fun experience, but I’m sure he was wondering what he struck with 14 Aussies and one lone American to handle. 

We rolled out of Goofy’s Kitchen lamenting the fact that we simply could NOT fit in every single dessert offering and scattered into the wonderland of shops that is Downtown Disney. 

Most of us shopped fairly late and then it was back to the hotel for some much needed shut eye before another HUGE day on the morrow.  

One of the many modes of transport scattered around the park

You just KNOW you're not in Disneyland when there is a gun and knife shop with REAL guns and knives for sale. 

for just a fiver you can stand in this contraption and be blown dry after the 'get you soaked' ride it is positioned conveniently beside

The Galloping Goose um... train? pulling into the station

on board the Galloping Goose - with one missing taking the photo

the dodgy diner juke box... looked good though :)

Another vehicle that took my attention

This folks, is what this park is all about, with 3 of the wildest right there in the shot