|
Page Last Updated: 12/19/08 |
Disneyland December 2008 - Day 1
|
|
|
What We Did Drove From Sacramento to Disneyland Checked Into the Candy Cane Inn Made it over To Disneyland for the Christmas Fantasy Parade Had an early dinner at the Carnation Cafe Took a ride on the monorail to Downtown Disney Got the beneigts from Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen Went back to Disneyland to see the Christmas Fireworks show and see it snow on main street
Highlights Christmas Parade Fireworks, lighting of the castle and seeing it "snow"
Lowlights Long Drive Got very cold sitting on bench waiting for the fireworks to begin Wanted to do a round trip on the monorail but they made us get off in Downtown Disney
|
Pictures from the trip down Pyramid Lake, Magic Mountain, and arriving at Disneyland and the Candy Cane Inn
Scenes from A Christmas Fantasy Parade After our long drive, we got into Disneyland at 3:15. The Christmas Fantasy Parade was about to start at 3:30 so we got a pretty choice viewing spot on the Main Street Railroad platform. Disney people did a fantastic job of keeping people off the stairs (for safety reasons) and out of our viewing site.
Dinner Then Out Into the Park Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we made our way over to the Carnation Cafe on Main Street to see if we could get in. No problem at all as eating outside when the weather is cold isn't all that appealing and while my Beef Melt sandwich sandwich wasn't quite up to par with the chicken club sandwich I had in November, the baked potato soup more than made up for it. It was delicious. Lisa did have the chicken club and enjoyed it but passed on her salad as the greens didn't look all that fresh and she enjoyed her chicken noodle soup. Because of the cold, I ordered a hot mocha which tasted pretty good for the first couple sips but quickly began to upset my stomach. I think its a premix formula rather that a mocha like you would order from Starbucks. Still all in all, with two visits, the Carnation Cafe is our favorite place to eat in Disneyland outside of the costly Blue Bayou..... We made our way up to Tomorrowland and thought we would get on Buzz but the wait was 25 minutes. We have gotten spoiled with short wait lines so we continued on and made our way to the Monorail for a ride around the park and a survey of the parks. Little did we know they would make us get off in Downtown trips as all the trips were one way at that time of day. Word to the wise, before you get on, ask if they are allowing round trip rides or one way trips. It all depends on the time of day.... Nemo subs from the Monorail platform and Monorail Red coming in....
Downtown Disney Though we hadn't planned on being there, a visit to Downtown Disney was on the agenda so we took a walk around and of course made our way into the World of Disney Store. We also went into the companion Disney Vault store for high-end Disney purchases. Don't go in there unless your bank account is extremely large. Lisa looked at a nice little purse - it was $266.00. For dessert we also could check off having some beneigts from Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen off our list - delicious doughy goodness. We're still learning the ins and outs of our new camera so the pictures probably don't do justice to how nice it looked decked out for the holidays....
Castle Lighting, Fireworks, and Making it Snow There weren't any fireworks going off when we were in Disneyland back in November (in fact, the park was closing at 8:00) so we made it a point to stay for the big shoot off this time. And while the Christmas fireworks spectacular was impressive because it involved the Christmas lighting the castle and yes, making it snow on Main Street (and beyond), I kinda thought that the fireworks show created for the 50th anniversary celebration (with the Julie Andrews narration) was better. Sitting on that bench for more than an hour waiting for the fireworks to start got pretty cold. We ended up buying mittens after the show ended....
|
|
